Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 166- Creatures of the Ash Desert

[Keeno POV]

The next few days were interesting. As we walked, I kept feeling the presence of flames, but there was none to see in any direction, the only indication of any being the smoke constantly billowing on the horizon. I figured that meant it was either somewhere far underground, or some of the ash itself was still burning. I did try to reach out with my Authority, but the feeling was too vague to see if I was actually effective.

On a different note, there had been no real change with Geri and Freki.  They remained in their egg-like state with practically no change, though the pulsing light inside them seemed to get stronger when I fed them a tiny bit of Divinity. It seemed nurturing them to maturity would take a lot longer than I thought.

As for the rest of the group, Margaret and her knights were right at home and completely unhindered by the environment. It took some getting used to, but eventually I got the hang of walking on the ash though anything more than a light sprint would need some work. Mostima also seems at home here, making me remember that this was her home country. Pram and Freya, on the other hand, were having a hard time adjusting, Pram more so than Freya. She was pretty much forced to sit in one of the shaded wagons in her lightest clothes and even then she was only holding on thanks to her Life Magic and water provided by one of the knights.

I’d chosen one of my more flowy wardrobes for this part of our journey because the suns felt really nice here when combined with the heat the ground produced. I’d also come to learn that this desert of ash was much more alive than I’d thought. There were weird cactus things that were super fast when they noticed something moving near them.  Seeing them tickled some kind of vague memory of my past life, but nothing concrete enough to give context.

Another form of life in this desert of ash were the foxes that reminded me of fennec foxes, but their ears were even bigger and cuter than the ones I knew of. Similar to other foxes we’ve seen they treated me with reverie, which was adorable due to their ears twitching.  It was the only time in the last few days Pram was able to show her face for an extended period of time.

Yesterday, I saw a small group that seemed to be adventurers doing their best to capture some of those cactus things only to end up failing spectacularly and getting absolutely pummeled by needles. Despite their size, the little things packed a punch and sent several of the ones attacking them flying while burying the other half headfirst in the ash.  By the time the adventurers recovered, all the cactus things had run far away. It made me curious, and I asked Margaret about them. She said that they were a pest and had no real value, though a few eccentrics seemed to love the cactus juice inside them.  Margaret said that we could try some the next time any were close as they were extremely weak to physical ranged attacks, but practically immune to magic, excluding Wind and Death magic.

Today we had encountered yet another interesting creature of the desert and it was currently being a pain in the ass. It was a scorpion the size of a large wagon with five stinger-ended tails and three pairs of chitinous wings. Two main pincers and eight segmented legs. It could spit poison out of each of its tails and each had its own effect, the most annoying being the one that melted most things it touched.  Its exoskeleton was resistant to many of our attacked and it was especially resistant to fire and solar magic.

“Keeno!  The best way to kill these things is to cut off the tip of the acid tail and melts its armor!” (Margaret)

Just after shouting that, Margaret rolled out of the way as a jet of purple goop was shot at her. The scorpion raised one of its pincers and tried to cut Margaret off, but the pincer was slammed into the ground by Mostima’s gravity magic. She twirled her second stave around as the other one was occupied in holding down the scorpion and a spike tossed everything by the pinned pincer into the air.

“They’ve gotten even harder than I remember. But they tear easily still.” (Mostima)

The scorpion regained itself while in the air and its wings began to flap at incredible speed, making a sound like millions of flies grouped up.  Mostima tried pointing her gravity stave at it again, but it zipped around avoiding her while spraying poisons and acid from all its tails at once.

“Freya, Mostima!” (Keeno)

I ran up the spike of earth Mostima created earlier, slicing the top off while Freya followed a second after. Once she reached me, I made a final foothold for her, who was wreathed in flames, and launched her skyward.  Her weight was reduced further than Mostima and she shot toward the scorpion like a meteor of blue and orange.  The monster didn’t even have time to react before Freya’s swords cut the acid spewing tail’s bulb like a pair of shears, causing the acid to fall all over the thing’s back and wings. It crashed to the ground in a giant plume of ash and caused it to shake like an earthquake was happening. Freya, on the other hand, landed gracefully on the thing’s head, stabbing one of her swords into its head, and tossing her hair over her shoulder like it was just a casual gesture.

The thing went into death throes, its tails swinging wildly but ultimately not managing much but spraying poison in every direction.  Looking down in disdain at this, Freya grabbed the hilt of the sword sticking out of its head and the sword began to burn. The scorpion let out an ear grating shriek as it finally fell limp, smoke trailing out of its eye parts, joints, and any wounds we’d managed to inflict it with.

“Good work. Those things are always a pain to deal with, having someone with gravity magic works wonders. And Freya, good job with finishing it off like that. Any longer and it would have hit the wagons with its acid.” (Margret)

The two nodded in acceptance of the compliment before heading over to Pram’s wagon to get healed of the small acid burns they’d gotten.

“Anything worthwhile we can harvest from this thing?” (Keeno)

“It’s kind of small, in all honestly. Must have only molted three or four times. As for an answer to your question, their claws are a delicacy. The one Mostima ripped off we can preserve for later, but we should eat the one Freya, cooked before it attracts more.” (Margaret)

Sure enough when I turned back to the scorpion, three of the knights were busy ripping the still attached pincer from the body.  They managed it several minutes later and a bit of steam wafted up from the stump. The smell hit me a second later.

“…Smells like seafood.” (Keeno)

{Do you like seafood?}

“Love it.” (Keeno)

{Noted.}

Margaret walked up to the smoking claw and cut out a small chunk of meat from the stump before walking back and handing it to me.

“Try it.” (Margaret)

I tossed the small piece of meat into my mouth and chewed slowly. It was a bit rubbery at first, but after a few seconds the texture changed and a flavor that reminded me a lot of crab flooded my mouth.

“Thish ish rearry good.” (Keeno)

“Like I said, delicacy.  And the bigger they are, the more delicious.  I’ve had the chance to try some meat from one about the size of a mid sized house and it ruined any other meat for almost a month.” (Margaret)

I nodded my head at her statement, but I couldn’t help the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I’d rated something even better than this before.

{Eh?  Oi!  Bad fox!}

“Fufufufufu.  He’s busy and it’s just stealing a few scorpions. No one will miss them.” (???)

{Rules are rules!}

“Rules are meant to be broken!  Now, I’ll see you two later for the feast. $&/;$= will be so pleased.” (???)

“Ama, who was that?” (Keeno)

{*Sigh*Don’t worry about it. They are a friend, but it’s best you don’t try to meet her here until you unseal yourself completely.}

“Oki.” (Keeno)

I turned my attention back to everyone down here and saw Margaret was back at the cooked claw. She and a few other knights were busy doing their best to peel away the meat exoskeleton to get at the meat. I decided I should help out and joined them. It took several hours to do, but we finally finished and moved on. That night we all had a feast of meat. Even Pram was able to survive in the ever hot outside to partake in the bountiful meat party.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: FUFUFUFUFFUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Atmos: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Tamamo: Luna, don’t do that again.

Luna: Ok.  Now, let’s add some of this, a dash of that, a pinch of this…oh, and a bit of this………fufufufufu.  And it’s done. BEHOLD!!!!  A dish of two worlds!

Atmos: DIBS ON FIRST BITE!! *noms*

Luna: *looks on with anticipation*

Tamamo: *exasperated, but also looks on in anticipation*

Atmos: …The scorpion meat by itself is endeed quite delicious. Not as good as wyvern, mind you, but a hearty second place. The wyvern meat here, on the other hand, is as delicious as always. As for trying them at the same time, the flavors fight one another in an interesting clash of savory and tender, but the sauce you glazed them with, once it soaked into them, made the flavors mix into a perfect harmony that enhanced both meats to a further pinnacle of flavor that can bring even the most picky of food critics and gourmands to their knees with tears in their eyes.

Luna: …

Tamamo: Since Atmos approves, I’ll try it next.

Luna: *nervously sweats*

Tamamo: Perfection.

Luna: Hmm. Let me see then. *Walks up and kissed Tamamo, tasting the meal she just made on her lips as their tongues clash in a wet kiss*

Atmos: I should have seen this coming. *Steals plate and vanishes to share the new meal with Grey*

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