Lunation of Fate

“I consider b*tts*x as a special kind of love making.” He stared into space and smiled sweetly as he reminisce one of his s*xual exploits in the distant past.

Maxill then glanced at Juste. Juste’s eye twitched and he had goosebumps.

Maxill then expressed annoyance towards Juste. His almond eyes turned into slits and his lips were widened but had no curves.

“Idiot. Just so you know fellhound, you’re not my type. Hmph!” He made it clear to Juste that he had zero interest in him.

He then glanced at Chastine. Chastine became confused at Maxill’s stare.

“Ahahaha! That’s why I like you, Chas. You’re amusing to watch.” Maxill also clarified something to Chastine, “don’t count on it, Chas. Like I said, I prefer a man for a lover.”

He was referring to liking her for her quirks and personality.

Chastine still couldn’t believe that Maxill prefers guys. Her pride was somewhat shattered because all this time she was being played at instead of her dominating the scheming.

She didn’t know if she would be sorry to Maxill or be sorry for herself. All she let out was a smile in disbelief.

“Both of you can have each other any time you want, I won’t hinder your escapades. Oh, young love.” Maxill hummed as he sauntered merrily on the trail.

But even though Maxill told the unadulterated truth to their faces, they still denied their feelings for each other.

They were conniving at Maxill’s back, whispering to each other.

“He doesn’t know anything, Juste. Duh, as if he can literally read our minds.” She was convincing her crush otherwise.

His nose wrinkled. “D*mn straight!” Juste thought it was a clever pun, but Chastine didn’t laugh at all.

Chastine was just staring at him, amused at the fact that she saw a never-before-seen cute expression of his face.

Juste noticed her gaze. What he didn’t notice was a thick raised root blocking his legs.

“Ah!” He stumbled forward and fell to the ground.

“I told you to heads up.” Maxill turned back to look at Juste’s embarrassing position.

Maxill was about to further shame the fellhound, but Maxill saw his mom’s diary instead.

“Heeey, what’s this?” Maxill picked up the notebook and flipped a few pages.

“Hmm, interesting…” It was written in a sort of ancient language.

“Hey!” Juste tried to grab it from Maxill. Maxill just raised the book higher so he wouldn’t reach it.

“Roots of…roots of… is it red? Ah, red root!” Maxill wasn’t sure if he was reading the passage the right way.

Chastine was surprised at Maxill’s intellect. “You know how to read it?”

“Hmm, not entirely. But I think I caught the gist of the sentence.” Maxill was rubbing his chin between his fingers.

“Juste, I think we need Maxill for this quest.”

Juste then prostested, “No. He’ll use it for vampire-kind.”

“Juste…” Chastine was saddened.

Maxill was offended. “Excuse me, like you, I happen to also hate my kind. I even like to use whatever this is against them.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Maxill then mumbled under his breathe, pertaining to his fellow bloodhunts, “bunch of evil imbeciles…”

Chastine didn’t want to let this good opportunity come to pass. And with the blood pact Maxill and her made to each other, she was about to use it for the sake of their quest.

“Maxill, I think it’s time I use another one of my chances.”

“What? What chances?” Juste grew curious.

“Oh?” Maxill was half-surprised. He paused for a while and said. “Alright, young lady, I’ll help you two out as long as you keep your side of the bargain.”

“Deal.” Chastine had a determined look on her face as she believes this all could work out between the three of them.

“Juste, please? Give him a chance?”

Juste had greatly objected before, but because of Chastine’s helpless gaze and pitiful look, he couldn’t say no to her. He just sighed and his answer was faint, “do what you want.”

“Thank you, Juste. I’ll make sure we find this one for you.”

Chastine smiled from ear to ear and she hugged Juste. Juste also tenderly smiled, but she wasn’t able to see it as her chin was hooked on the back of his shoulder.

After an hour or so, Maxill recited to them of the whole stanza of the cure:

“Roots of red, drool of flesh, tall as pillar,

Stem of brown, crown of thorns, revealed on pyre,

Leaves of green, thick of water, at one’s behest

Petals of white, rise of giants, at peaceful rest

Seed of black, depths of earth, one in all.”

“It’s called the Remedium,” Juste answered Maxill. “It was said to turn a fellhound into an untainted witborn.”

Juste was waiting for him to laugh at the absurdity of such cure, but Maxill was taking it as seriously as Chastine.

“So these are the ingredients for the concoction. How fascinating.” Maxill’s eyes were wide in awe.

But he mused that there were hundreds of possible plants that would fit such ambiguous descriptions.

“There are probably dozens of plant species that would fit each description. We should narrow down our hunt.”

Chastine thought hard about how she could help solve their current problem.

She then thought about one guidebook that one of her past masters used to look for a healing herb. She concluded in her mind that they should use this for their quest.

“The Herb Codex!” she commented out of surprise as she recalled the book’s title. “We can use it to narrow down our ingredient search.”

“Hmm…The Herb Codex… I think I heard of such book… nice one, Chas!”

“Alright, how and where do we find the codex?” Juste was getting pumped up about their search for his cure.

“Where are we at right now?” she asked the young fellhound.

“From what I’ve sensed, we’re getting near a human city.” Juste had used his spatial senses, sharp sense of hearing, and his strong sense of smell.

“Yeah, I heard that too.” Maxill agreed to Juste as he was hearing the sound of steam engines, about a mile or two away from them.

“Then our first official stop in finding the Remedium is in that city! Let’s go!” Chastine had proudly declared it to her 3-member team.

They were all livened up and enthusiastic about their search as they walk their way inside Makina City.

But it wasn’t an open city. It’s a city in which fellhounds and bloodhunts aren’t welcomed…