FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

“It’s too cold,” I complained with my first words as I woke up from my rest. In front of me are a white wolf and a tiger, both of them being weirdly creepy as they smiled at me. I backed away from them immediately as I looked around my surroundings, trying to remember what I was doing. I was in someone’s room by the looks of it at least, but I don’t remember what I was doing before I was sleeping. Though actually, I don’t really remember anything at all, not my identity, family, or memories, but it didn’t feel like it was amnesia. It was more of a feeling that I have none to begin with, like I was a hollow shell or an empty puppet.

“Hey, how are you feeling,” the white wolf asked while I gathered my thoughts, “do you remember us by any chance?” I shook my head as I wondered about the two older people in front of me. “It didn’t work,” the wolf quietly whispered to the tiger with a worried expression, “what should we do?”

“Nothing,” the tiger answered as he looked directly at me, “I’m sure you have multiple questions for us, but you’ll get your answers shortly.” He smiled tenderly, wrapping his hands on top of mine as I felt them gripping hard. “You’re probably going to face the worst migraine in your life soon, but after that, you’ll get your answers. We’re going to be here to make sure you’re ok in the end, so trust us for now.” I didn't understand what he meant, but as I was ready to ask, I felt a prick in the back of my head.

Immediately my head was in immense pain, as if my head was covered in needles and slowly getting crushed under a giant’s foot. My eyes closed immediately in response as I felt my body shaking and a strong surge of electricity coursing through me. While the pain continued for what felt like eons, a flood of memories invaded my thoughts and became ingrained into my identity. My life flashed before my eyes, remembering the day I was born as memories of my fathers reveal themselves and merge with the current knowledge of the world. The pain would fade once my memories caught up to right before I woke up the first time.

When I opened my eyes again, I recognized the two people that were sitting in front of me, my fathers, Simon and Adel. Simon, the white wolf that was a hybrid of an angel and a devil, and Adel, a tiger turned into a Demon King out of his will. “So that’s who you guys are,” I let out as I placed a hand to the side of my head, “you two are my fathers, sorry that I couldn’t remember that till now.” The two happily smiled at me as they embraced me in a warm hug. Awkward as a part of me felt, I smiled back, hugging back to the start of my new life.

After a while, they let me go so I can get a good look of myself, and washed up my face a bit as well. When I flicked the lights on, I was greeted with a view of my entire body, a body I’m still not used to seeing. My entire body is a tiger’s, orange and black stripes scattered around me, nothing unusual or special. The odd part of my body was me sprouting a pair of big, white wings on the back of my body. If I focused really hard, I could make them go away or make them pop back almost instantly. I spent a couple minutes after that mastering it and not messing around with them.

As soon as I left my bathroom, I was greeted with my fathers’ love as they spoiled me with a lot of food, which I was fine with, since it felt like I hadn't eaten in years. It seemed that they cooked a lot of food while I was asleep, seeing that the kitchen in the room was a huge mess. While we were eating, they were mostly gushing and doting on me. It was sort of cute and awkward, but something about it felt off to me. A part of me was still confused about the whole situation, but I had the feeling that I shouldn’t ask about it.

Based on what information I was given, I’m a 20 year old tiger named Jack Heart, the only son of the Demon King. It’s near the end of the year, with the latest yearly catastrophe prevented by my fathers, but my memories of that are a bit more hazy compared to the past years. If I were to guess, I became a part of their life this year, but how it happened was still locked away from my mind. Whatever the reason was, I’m going to have a lot on my shoulder for a while.

After that day, my fathers kept bringing me along to their errands, letting me be familiar with the area and the people that I’ll probably see often. We didn’t go anywhere near some of the areas filled with monsters, but it’s mostly because of my lack of combat skills. They did promise me that they’ll eventually teach me, and they did keep their promise.

On a lovely, random morning, I was woken up by the white wolf, Simon, who seemed more excited than usual. My door was still locked when I looked past him, but I guess that’s one of his tricks. I was still a bit groggy, but I heard him tell me to get ready and to meet him at the colosseum floor soon before deciding to disappear in an instant. After a quick nap to recover from my rude awakening, I freshened myself up before I headed out to the colosseum. I got lost and spent probably an hour wandering around the tower, until someone came to my aid. My fathers didn’t look pleased waiting for me.

When I arrived at the colosseum, I saw Simon fiddled around with some playing cards as he sat on the floor, with Adel leaning against a wall beside him. Simon was wearing a white parka with black fluffy fur with black shirt with white stars underneath, some blue jeans, and his newspaper cap. Adel was wearing his usual large, heavy, dark blue coat that covered his body. When they both saw me, Adel let out, “took you a while, I was about to go grab you myself.” I apologized for making them wait as I explained that I was lost. “I see,” Adel noted as he crossed his arms, “Simon, if we do something like this again, let me handle it. I don’t want to make you wait here for a long time.”

“Yeah, but it’s fine,” the white wolf answered as he got up, “now that you’re here, we can start our lesson.” Turning his cap into a top hat, the white magically pulled out a silver bracelet. “Here,” Simon said with a smile, “we spent a lot to get this, but you’ll need to put this on. Every adventurer would need something like this to survive out there.” After grabbing the bracelet, I put it on my left wrist before I was bombarded with a mental HUD in front of my eyes. “Take some time to get adjusted to it,” Simon said, “you’ll be using it often in your daily life. Though we paid a lot on yours so it came with a lot of features like a full monsterpedia and the world map installed.” There sure was a lot of info to digest, but I got the gist of it as I organized mine the way I want it.

“Now that you’re done,” Adel spoke out, “you’ll be needing a weapon to fight. We don’t know what you want, so here, pick one of these.” The tiger reached inside of his coat before tossing three weapons to the ground in front of me, a spear, an ax, and a sword. “If you don’t like using any of them, we’ll go to the weaponsmith when we’re done. For now, Simon here will teach you the basics so at least you’ll get some experience.” I grabbed the sword immediately with my left hand as I kicked the others aside, startling the two as I did some heavy practice swings. “Y-You’re pretty eager with that,” Adel noted as he put away the kicked weapons back in his coat, “I’m guessing you’re going with it?” I nodded before the tiger handed me the sheath for my new sword, tying it to the right side of my hip.

“Well it’s good you chose the sword,” Simon excitedly exclaimed, “means I could teach you some of my techniques later.” With his hat still in hand, he pulled out his own sword from the small accessory, a fancy scabbard with multiple runes evenly placed on the blade, shining a bright purple color. “And Adel’s too,” he continued as he looked towards him, “he taught me most of my bladework when I was young, so you’ll probably learn more from him than me.”

“We should head to the arena soon,” Adel mentioned as he walked past us, “it should already be set up by now.” He looked directly at me, his eyes examining my body before he continued. “You should get some more warm clothes too. It’s already winter, so bundle up more so you don’t get sick.” I reluctantly nodded my head as I had on a black mesh tank top and red gym shorts. “We’ll give you money later so you could buy some, you’ll definitely need combat clothes so you won’t ruin a good shirt.”

When we entered the arena, the whole, whole area didn’t feel like it was an actual room, but an entire building instead. It was a coliseum, with the sun beaming down on us as sand covered the entire floor. The air felt a bit moist as a huge, translucent dome covered our sky before briefly camouflaging with the endless sea of blue and white.

When I looked towards my fathers, Simon was wearing entirely different clothes. He was wearing a fancy, black, medieval tailcoat that fitted well with his black top hat and a purple ascot wrapped around his neck. His sword and scabbard hangs onto the left side of his gray faux leather jeans. “Surprised,” Simon asked as he adjusted his ascot, “got this tailored back when I became Adel’s knight. Though I had made some adjustments to it ever since, it's perfect to wear for the winter.”

“I’m surprised you still have that, considering you got it torn apart during one of our scuffles,” Adel spoke out, followed by Simon immediately blushing and shushing him, “but I’m glad you got them fixed at least. It looks good on you.” Simon quickly dragged me to the center of the arena as I could see him going a bit pink. Letting him calm down a minute, I walked across from him and let him recollect his thoughts.

“Alright let’s start practicing with your swings first,” Simon happily said as he pranced in front of me with his sword like a puppy playing fetch. He seemed unusually happy and optimistic to teach something dangerous like this. Probably excitedly happy to teach his son something new for once. …Let me change that. “Once we’ve done enough we can start on the basics. So just swing at me when-“ I swung at him with all my might, forcing him to quickly block in fear before pushing my sword away and backing away from me.

“Be serious dad,” I responded as I glared down at him, “I’m not going to learn if you’re going to mess around.” I pointed my basic sword at him before continuing, “so stop fooling around and act like an instructor.”

“Adel,” Simon cried loudly as he turned towards the tiger, tears in his eyes, “our son is scary. Why’d he get that from you?”

“Well we are teaching him how to fight seriously,” Adel answered before glaring at his lover, ”and what do you mean by that, dear?”

“You got the barrier up right,” Simon asked, avoiding the question, “I don’t want to hurt my boy.”

“As always,” Adel answered, “just fight already. He’ll figure it out I’m sure.”

“If you say so,” Simon reluctantly replied, “let’s begin then. Come at me with all your might Jack.” I immediately charged at him swinging and our swords clashed with each other. It felt oddly familiar as I attacked and defended against my father, eventually my HUD started displaying more information as a spellbook became available for me to use.

I didn’t get a good look at that function at the time, but from what I gathered, my magic seems to take away energy from me when I cast it. Was good to know what I could use, but shame that I couldn’t play with it immediately. It didn’t stop me from thinking about flinging a spell or two at Simon’s face though. Especially when he started doing his disappearing act to start putting me on the edge.

After a couple more swings, we eventually ended our session and went out to get some food. “You really were ruthless out there Jack,” Simon complimented as we strolled down the halls, “Despite that angelic look of yours, you’re more of a demon, like Adel.” I happily took it as another compliment as I saw Adel glowered at him with a sulking look. “You know I love you sweetie,” Simon assured the scary tiger as his hand reached the back of his head, “you’re still a gentle kitty when you’re not fighting.” The kitty began purring as Simon happily began petting Adel, stopping us in our tracks.

“S-Stop it Simon,” Adel eventually whimpered, “not in front of Jack.” He shook off his wolf husband as he put up his hoodie again. “Now let’s go, we did plan on meeting up with the professor, we don’t want to keep him waiting.” He started speed walking down the hall, with Simon and I catching up with him until we reached the cafe floor.

With the tiger as our guide, we approached a secluded, occupied table of two, a white rat wearing a black bomber jacket and gray sweatpants and a green parrot wearing a dark green puffer jacket, denim jeans, and a pair of round glasses. The rat was eating a sandwich in one hand as he wrote down something in a notebook. The avian was happily eating some tomato soup, crushing in some salted crackers once and a while. They both noticed we were coming as the green parrot greeted, “good afternoon you two, how’s parenthood treating you?”

“Good,” Adel answered as we grabbed some chairs and sat with them, “if we decided to get another kid, we definitely need to do things differently.”

“That’s how it goes from what I heard,” the bird replied, “you spend a lot on the first kid, then you guys make it cheaper for the next one.” He looked directly at me with his emerald eyes and my bracelet, letting out a chuckle. “So how much money did you spend on that little thing,” the parrot asked as he adjusted his glasses, “bet it has all those new, expensive features.” My fathers looked away immediately, with Adel quietly murmuring an answer.

“But how’s the machine going professor,” Simon asked the rat, avoiding the question again, “did you guys figure out what’s wrong with it?”

“Not at all,” the rat answered back, “and we can’t test it a lot because it’ll become an ethical issue.” He looked directly at me, his light green eyes exploring my body, before introducing himself. “Just in case you need a refresher, my name’s Zeki Geno, a scientist mostly exploring the field of biotechnology.”

“If you want to know what that is, you can look it up in that lovely dictionary that HUD of yours has,” the parrot commented while I was in the process of doing so. I still don’t understand what it is, but I saw something about food, so it’s cool to me. “As for me,” the green parrot continued as my focus was on him, “Vern Forrest is my name, an inventor of many machines and gadgets you could be using in the future.”

“His tools are pretty good,” Adel commented, “they saved my ass multiple times when I was young and reckless. Though I’m guessing you were pretty busy lately? I haven’t seen you make anything new lately.”

“That’s because he's been working with me lately,” Zeki answered before the bird could speak, “thought I’d get an experienced engineer’s insight to help fine tune my machines.”

From there, they started talking about some other things while my gaze wandered around. I was able to slip away from them, so I could grab some food without my fathers gaze on me. Though when I did get to the line in front of the counter, someone came out behind and greeted me. As I turned around, I was greeted with a black wolf around my age, wearing blue jeans and a simple red cardigan sweater with a white shirt underneath.

“Hey there,” the wolf politely greeted with a smile, “do you happen to have any money? I don’t have any with me at the moment.” I frowned immediately as I turned away from him. “Hey I’ll repay you,” the stranger promised, “I’m an amnesiac and I need the help I can get. Just at least give me at least some money for food.”

“Go bother someone else that cares,” I replied, “I don’t, so leave me alone.” I ignored him, despite his soft whines, and continued pondering what I was going to order. He was pretty persistent, he still stood next to me, whimpering and crying while my will slowly died seeing his puppy eyes. “Fine,” I reluctantly gave in, the wolf brightened up, “but you’re getting whatever I get for you.”

“That’s fine with me,” he happily, innocently replied, “I’m just happy I got something to eat after starving for four whole days.” I couldn’t help, but get us a hearty, pricey meal after hearing that. At least he was none the wiser, as we got our food. Just in case he was lying though, I offered to eat with him as we moved to a different, secluded table. Once we sat down, the canine wolfed down his food like a ravaged beast.

“So what’s your name,” the hungry puppy asked as he took a break of eating, “I forgot to ask you while we were waiting.”

“Jack Hearts,” I answered as I stared at the mess the wolf made of his tray, “a prince of Demons, is what I remember anyway.” Sparkles immediately flooded the wolf’s silver eyes as a smile formed on his face.

“Oh my,” he commented with glee, “I didn’t know I’d be meeting royalty today. I must be really lucky today!” I rolled my eyes as I started eating my food, until the pup let out another gasp. “I must’ve been so rude,” he admitted panically, “I’m really sorry that you had to spend money on some lowlife like me.” His face changed immediately to something akin to pondering as I stuffed my mouth with some food. “Oh wait, I guess it’s not bad for you,” he annoyingly commented, “royal people don’t have to worry about money, right? Though I guess it means I’ll have to repay you with something expensive.”

“You can start by telling me your name,” I curtly let out, “or at least something to call you anyway, if you don’t remember it.”

“Ah yeah, I did forget to introduce myself,” the wolf commented as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, “though I don’t really have a name yet, you can just call me Null since I don’t remember anything about my past.”

“Good, nice to meet you Null,” I happily replied before returning to my curt tone, “now shut up, I can’t eat with the noise you're making.” The pup gave me a sad, weak ‘oh’ before we continued eating. We sat there and ate for a couple silent minutes before I started feeling awful. “I’m sorry,” I apologized to Null, “I was being harsh, if you want, we can talk. Just make sure you eat your food before it goes cold.” He perked up immediately before he started both wolfing down his food and hounding me with questions about myself. Don’t know if it’s because of his excitable personality or I’m answering for myself for once, but it felt nice hanging out with someone around the same age as me.

At one point my fathers texted me, asking where I went. I answered back, telling them I met someone and I’m just hanging out with them. “Is it a new friend,” Simon texted with a smiley face. I looked directly at the happy puppy, who was enjoying the last bites of his meal. I left my dad on read, as the two of us finished up our meal and headed out of the cafe.

I didn’t know where he was going, but I decided to head to my room. Null tagged along with me throughout the journey. I only decided it was enough when we got to the floor where my room was. “Why are you following me,” I asked the black wolf, “I’m heading back to my room.”

“Same here,” he happily answered, “my room is on this floor as well.” He went in front of me, prancing towards the hallway as it stopped at a room right next to mine. “The owner of the tower gave me the keys to this room and offered to let me stay until I regained my memories.” He looked at me, holding a room key in my hand, realizing that mine was next to his. “Guess we’re going to be neighbors then,” he continued happily, “so have a good night neighborino, I’ll see you tomorrow!” As quick as he can be, he entered his room, leaving me alone in my shock. Well, at least my life was going to be interesting, whether I liked it or not.

Knock Knock Knock

That was the first thing I heard a week later, the sound of my door being bombarded became my new morning alarm. It wasn’t from my fathers’ antics nor their friends, so I had a great guess on who it was. Wanting to stop the noise, I approached the door with a groan and swung it open. What stood in front of me was the same black wolf with silver eyes, standing in front of me. The same one that I’ve been seeing almost everyday whenever I leave my room.

“Good morning neighborino,” Null shouted at me as if he was cheering me. I could see the impact marks he left on my sturdy door as his fists seemed to remain unharmed. I closed the door on his face, turned around, and headed to bed to get back my beauty sleep.

Knock Knock Knock

I instead immediately turned around and opened the door again to see the smiling wolf. “Good morning buddy,” Null happily greeted me again, this time with more energy than I wanted to deal with.

“We are not buddies,” I answered in a monotonous tone before I slammed my poor door on his face again, hoping it would drive him away. Instead of heading back to bed, I stood by the door, waiting to see if he gave up.

Knock Knock Knock

He didn’t. “You’re right I’m sorry,” Null replied, his ears and tail momentarily drooping before springing up with more energy, “we’re besties!” I could feel his exuberant energy and my murderous energy clashed against each other. I gave up my rage to his persistent nature as his energy overwhelmed me.

“What do you want,” I asked, “I don’t know about you, but it’s way too early for me.”

“But it’s already noon,” he pointed out, forcing a growl out of me, “but anyway, I was wondering if you want to come do some training with me,” he revealed as I finally noticed a spear on his back. “A friend of mine gave me a spear, so I wanted to try using it. So wanna be my training partner?”

“Sure,” I answered as a thought sprung to mind, “let me just wash up real quick and we’ll be on our way.” This time gently closing the door, I did as I promised and got ready for today. I gave my face a wash in the restroom, while my reflection happily stared at me with my purple eyes. I was about to head out with my casual outfit, before remembering the outfit and sword I got from using my parents’ money and chose to go fetch them.

Quickly, I put on my black field jacket as it was adorned with red zippers and gray colored pockets. Below my black t-shirt was some black jeans I purchased randomly, but I quickly attached my new iron scabbard on the left side of my hip. With just a quick check of a light press on the trigger switch at the handle and sweeping my fingers against it, making sure I’m not putting my entire hand on it. I could feel heat coming off of the scabbard, telling me the sword is still working as intended. With that done, I put on my black fingerless gloves and headed outside to meet my opponent.

To my own surprise or obliviousness, Null was dressed to fight as well. He was wearing a black overcoat with blue rims that draped over his dark blue shirt and black jeans. Floating above his left shoulder was a shoulder pad sprouting a blue digital wing. He was leaning over against the rails that overlooks the whole tower, watching down on the daily lives of the people below. He looked a bit down as he exuded a solemn air around him, very different from the peppy, annoying pup I’ve known for a week.

“Something on your mind,” I quietly asked, silently walking next to him. He jumped when he saw me, immediately making an irritating smile as soon as he saw my face.

“Just some fun, intrusive thoughts,” he answered happily as he excitedly looked down, “from up here, people down there looked like ants and I was just thinking what would it be like if I suddenly grew giant. You think I’d be a scary, ruthless, rampaging monster?”

“Nah,” I answered back, “you’re too kind to be a monster, but you’re also not clumsy to accidentally be a menace.” I saw a genuine smile formed on his face and I felt myself doing the same.

“Thanks Jack.” The wolf immediately backed off the rails, grabbing my hand in the process. “Let’s get going then, the earlier we start, the more time we get to hang out.” He was pretty quick when he was setting up the colosseum, he did try to teach me how to do it, but I pretended I wasn’t paying attention. We got to our positions, but he immediately went up to me to most likely give me some words of encouragement that I didn’t want.

I swung at him immediately as he talked, just like I did to Simon, but he didn’t panic as I was hoping to expect. Instead, he used the rod of his spear to clash with my blade as our eyes immediately met each other. “You really are eager about this aren’t you, Bestie,” Null commented as both of us equally tried to overpower each other. “I’d say you’re actually trying to kill me, but you wouldn’t want to do that to your best friend, right?”

“You’re ready to kill too,” I barked back, ignoring his question, “your eyes look fiercer and sharper than I thought.” I quickly navigated my spellbook, silently mouthing it as I got ready to hurl a spell at the wolf’s face.

“Well I had to if I have to fight for real,” he replied as I quickly noticed his silver eyes glowing, “but it sure does make sparring fun, so thanks for going all out.” I immediately backed away after deflecting his spear away, aiming my sword at him and shot a fireball out of the tip with my magic. It was a direct hit as I watched the ball of fire exploding when it made contact with the wolf and created smoke. With the black smoke blocking his vision, I charged in immediately and swung my sword at him again, not realizing how much of a dumb fool I am.

I instead got stabbed in the shoulder in midair by his spear, the smoke soon dissipating to reveal Null using his left hand to hold the spear and in the right hand is a small ball of fire that was probably absorbed. “That’s pretty reckless of you Bestie,” he noted as I struggled to push myself off, “your Eyes aren’t glowing, so that’s good for me.” I was a bit too occupied to question what he meant, knowing that he’s at a big advantage. He lowered his spear to get me in arm’s length before pressing the small ball of fire to my chest. “This round is mine Bestie, let’s go for another.” I was blasted away towards the wall as I quickly crumpled to the floor, eating the sandy floor beneath me. With a quick heal by the systems of the arena, I angrily got back up to my feet as I saw both the timer resetting and Null smugly smiling at me. “Take this advice from one fighter to another, don’t go all out so quickly Bestie.”

I quickly prepared my spells I was going to cast as I raised my sword again. “Shut up, you just caught me off guard,” I defended, my sword pointing at the wolf, “at least I know what you’re capable of now. I thought this was your first time fighting.”

“My bad, I’ve trained with a friend of mine multiple times,” the wolf apologized, “I just want to get used to the new spear I got.” He clapped his hands twice, turning the timer off. “How about this, let me put you on the same level as me. Knowledge wise anyway, I’m already a bit more experienced compared to you.” I definitely did not want to learn anything, but then I remembered what he said while I was stabbed and lowered my sword.

“Sure,” I begrudgingly answered, “so tell me that thing with your eyes. Why were they glowing? I haven’t seen anything like that when I was here.”

“Oh that,” Null answered with glee, “that’s my eye power, Eyes, as people call it these days. Everyone has one and they vary in what power they give you based on the color.”

“So what’s yours and how does it work?” So I can exploit it and beat you up.

“Mines? My power allows me to alter the properties of any magic, so sling a spell my way and I can do some fun stuff with it, like storing it into a little marble and making it so that the spell becomes very dangerous.”

“Can you demonstrate it for me,” I asked while my spellbook was in my face, “I didn’t get a good look since you were covered in smoke.”

He put away his spear as he opened his arms up with a smile before saying, “Sure, just cast a spell my way, I can take care of it.” I chose to use a new spell as I pointed a finger gun at Null, feeling a surge of electricity swelling up to me before a spark shot out towards the wolf.

His silver Eyes glowed as he swung his right hand at it, catching the sparks in the process. Definitely doing it for theatrics, he placed the closed hand close to his heart before outreaching his arm and slowly opening it up his hand to reveal a marble of energy. “Catch,” Null shouted as he tossed the marble at me, almost missing the tiny thing, “now throw it. You’ll see how different the spell is now.” I did as he instructed and tossed it at the side of the arena, seeing a series of strong lightning bolts striking the spot the marble landed.

“So can you help me with mine then,” I asked with a hint of jealousy, “I don’t know what mine is.”

“I would love to,” he happily exclaimed, “but sadly I don't know much about the types of Eyes other than mine and my friend. You have your UI thing right? It should tell you somewhere.” Thanks to his reminder, I navigated through some menus and still found nothing. It says my eyes are colored purple gray, but there was no title or name that was associated with it. “Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out one day,” Null comforted when he saw me frown, “do you still want to fight? I can go easy on you if you want.”

“Don’t worry about me Null,” I answered as I raised my sword, “we’re going to keep fighting and I want you to go all out on me.” The wolf smiled at me, snapping his fingers as our countdown started to tick down.

“Do your best then, Bestie,” he replied as he took up his spear again, “With enough work, I’m sure you can beat me. I’ll be rooting for you.” Once the countdown reached zero, he quickly lunged at me with my response being dodging to the side and slashed at him. I didn’t want my magic to be caught the third time, so I noted how Null used it the second time. I wasn’t aiming at his body, but his right arm, trying not to cut off the wolf’s arm, but to temporarily cripple it. When we looked at each other again, he was grinning from ear to ear. The bastard probably knew I would slash at it, but my attack wasn’t enough to get through his shields and pierce his arms. “Good idea Jack, but not strong enough,” Null egged me on as he prepared for my next move.

I rushed at him, swinging my sword wildly as he blocked them with the base of his spear. I was too enamored with beating him up that he knocked me off balance and kicked me down to stab me. I narrowly rolled out of the way and got myself back up to fight again as our weapons clashed. Our fight from there was just us exchanging blows to each other, no magic being spilled and no Eyes activating, an exhilarating fight of brawn between men.

We were sprawled on the ground after our bout, with Null being the winner once again. I wanted to be mad at him, but that won’t help me beat him. “How’d you get so strong,” I unconsciously asked and went silent once I realized what I said.

“Well I already told you,” the wolf answered back, “I practiced with a friend of mine.” I asked him who he’s referring to and he spoke, “it’s some random guy that I met in the tower. I can introduce you to him tomorrow if you want.” I agreed to it before we started relaxing on the sand, with the wolf talking whatever thoughts that came to his mind as I just nod whenever he asked something.

By the time I knew it, I was dragged around the tower by Null because he wanted to thank me for getting beat up by him or something. We went to one of the shops, a hobby shop, and browsed around doing some window shopping, well I was anyway, Null was scouring through every aisle trying to find something specific. “Jack,” the wolf yelled as his voice echoed across the store, “come over here! I want your opinion.” Not wanting to get more attention, I hurriedly walked over to him to see what he wanted, only to see him holding onto a small package.

It was a pin set of some random cartoon characters that were from a new show. It was some random popular hero show that started airing recently, the special effects they had were pretty cool even though they just used actual magic. “You want a set,” I asked as I looked at the other packages that contained only one of them, “you could just get one of your favorites instead.” There were sparkles in the wolf’s eyes as he shoved it in front of my face.

“True, but I love them all, so I might as well buy it,” he answered happily, “I could also give you one of the pins as a gift too. Oh wait, did you watch the show by any chance?”

“No,” I immediately replied looking away, “but I wouldn’t mind if you give me one, specifically Blue Whiskey.” From the corner of my eye, I saw the wolf smirking at me as heat rushed over to my face. “I just know the name because I saw the character before and I thought he was pretty cool. He’s a lone wolf kind of character that cares for his friends and I think that’s pretty cool.” His smug face continued smiling as an urge to punch him and run away came to mind.

“Whatever you say Bestie,” the wolf taunted, “well that’s fine with me, I’ll go buy it then and don’t worry, I have money now.” He ran off to the cashier to quickly buy it as I just walked out to get myself calmed down. When he left the store, he tore open the package viciously before handing me the pin of a blue wolf wearing cowboy attire and putting the rest of the set in his pockets. “Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get some food because I’m starving,” he exclaimed as he grabbed my hand, “there’s this cafe I know that opened up in the tower recently and I want to try out their food.” Without letting me respond, he dragged me with him to a new area.

He dragged me up the floors until we hit the 100th floor, one of the many floors that were meant to house shops and entertainment. There weren’t many of them on the floor, probably because it’s pretty high up, but the cafe had a modern minimalistic design. When we entered through a pair of black and white doors, we were greeted with a bengal cat standing behind the black and white counter. Other than wearing a black and white suit, he has a blue bandana with a gold streak running across it while on his left arm was a fanged bracelet. He seemed to be a bit older compared to Null and I, but he seemed pretty gentle.

“Friend,” Null happily shouted while pointing at the startled cat, “that’s the friend was talking about! Hi Tye!” The cat awkwardly waved at him as Null joyfully dragged me towards the counter, luckily there weren’t any customers for me to worry about.

“Hey Null,” Tye replied, quickly calming down as we approached him, “I didn’t expect to see you here today, but how’s the spear I gave you?”

“It’s good,” Null answered with a smile, “it was pretty lighter than the last one I used and it’s long enough for me. I even stabbed my great friend over there with such ease.” I held my head down as he said that. “His name is Jack by the way, he bought me food last week and we became Besties after that.” When the two looked straight at me, I let out a nervous smile when I saw Null’s sparkling eyes as I walked towards them.

“You already told me about him though Null,” the bengal cat responded as he patted the happy puppy, “but it’s nice to meet you in person Jack, the name’s Tye Graves, a retired explorer, now barista. Null’s first friend you could say.”

“Jack Heart, the prince of demons,” I replied back with my intro, getting no reaction from the cat but a smile towards a new friend. I smiled back as Null and I ordered our drinks and food, with me unsurprisingly paying for all of it. The cat got to work, taking out some premade dough and tossing it in an oven. “So, how did you two meet,” I asked as I watched the cat moving around behind the counter.

“Nothing really outstanding really,” the cat replied as he blended some ingredients together in a blender, “I just found him wandering aimlessly around the tower, trying to get anyone’s attention. No one really helped him from what I saw, so I just made my way to him and acted as a guide for them.” I looked over at Null, who was enthralled at the bread rising and falling in the oven as it emitted a sweet scent. “I’m happy he has a friend at least,” Tye chimed as my focus went back to him, “I was pretty worried that Null wouldn’t get any, considering that a lot of people thought he was some random beggar that wandered in the Tower.”

“So how much have you found out about him?”

“Nothing too interesting, he prefers to fight with a spear, he has his own room key, watches too many shows in his room, and his Eyes are unique.” I furrowed my brow as I heard that last part as I egged him to explain more about it. “Well Eyes are categorized by their colors usually, with some rarer than others. Silver-colored Eyes are considered the rarest, usually because those types have powers that’s insanely powerful. Null’s Eyes are a new variant that hasn’t been discovered, so a name hasn’t been given yet.” I recalled Null’s demonstration earlier and how mine wasn’t given a name either, then got incredibly jealous of him.

“So you’re telling me Null got lucky with his Eyes, got it,” I responded as I glared at the oblivious, happy puppy, “I don’t have mines yet, so do you have any advice on how to activate it?”

“Sadly all I can say is that it’s up to you to figure that out. Everyone awakens theirs differently, whether it’s stress related or just reaching a specific age.” Got it, got to put myself into a stressful situation. “Please don’t put yourself in danger,” Tye noted as he read my thoughts, “the last thing I want to hear is Null crying over losing a friend.”

I thought about the depressing aura Null had earlier during the day and let out a sigh. “I’ll try not to,” I quietly replied as I looked over at the puppy, “as much as I find him a bit annoying, I think I'd get irritated if I heard he was upset.” I felt a part of me flare up in embarrassment as I admitted, “don’t tell him I said this, but he’s the first friend I made here, but he’s also my first rival too.” The cat let out a soft chuckle while the heat rushed to my face before he served me my cold drink.

“Your secret is safe with me,” he answered, “and, if you want, I could give you some pointers. I’ve seen my fair share of techniques that I could probably teach you.” I nodded my head as I saw an abrupt notification about his contact info being added to my list of contacts. Immediately, he sent me a document that gave a basic background at what the Eyes generally do based on its color. I looked at the cat’s face, noticing his bracelet shimmering as he stared at me with his green eyes and a smile.

“Hey Tye,” I asked him, opening the document while staring at his eyes, “what’s your Eyes?” Green Eyes, they give the people the ability to defend others or are attuned to the element of earth. He didn’t seem to be a mage, so I assume he’s some sort of defender role or something.

“Mines the Survivor’s Eyes,” he answered, “it’s nothing really special, I just perceive traps and stuff more easily. If I’m in any danger, I’ll find a way to slip out of it, even if I get put behind bars or something.” I was going to ask what he meant by that, but we were disrupted by Null coming at us.

“Tye, the food is burning” he exclaimed, we looked over to where the stove was to see some smoke emitting out of it. We, mostly Tye, took care of the problem as quickly as we could while ensuring the food wasn’t as charred. Instead of baking another, Tye gave me and Null our charred and very cooked sandwich. “Hey Tye,” the pup let out as he taps the food brick on the counter, “how do we eat this? It’s like a rock.” I didn’t care about eating anymore, I wanted a refund instead.

“Use your Eyes Null,” he answered while cleaning the stove, “you can tell Jack to launch a spell at you. Be creative, your Eyes let you do a lot of things after all.” I didn’t understand what he meant, but that got Null riled up immediately. He turned immediately and looked at me with his cute, puppy dog eyes.

“You heard him, launch a spell,” he requested, “I know what to do now. Put your sandwich next to mine and I’ll fix it for you too.” He distanced themselves from me, ready to catch whatever spell I was forced to cast. I just casted a basic spell, but Null grabbed, changed its properties while transforming it into a marble. He simply placed the marble on the sandwich, activating it, putting the two in some sort of bubble before I witnessed time going backwards in it, the burnt parts fading away as it turned into a toasty delight. After it was done, he gave me my sandwich and ate his as he stared at me with his glowing, silver eyes. I felt a bit of my blood boil, but I calmed myself down before I began eating my sandwich with the pup. It was pretty relaxing being with Null and Tye, a moment I wouldn’t mind being in forever.

Some days later, after I eventually got away from my doting fathers, I decided to hit up at the cafe to ask Tye for some lessons. Unsurprisingly, Null was there too, drinking a milkshake this time around with a side of a croissant sandwich that is filled with avocados, tomatoes, and slices of ham. “You’re here,” the puppy exclaimed, his tail rapidly wagging, “I was just thinking about you actually!” He still doesn’t know that I tried to come the same time he comes there, but regardless I went towards the counter and ordered some lunch.

“Hey, when are you free Tye,” I quietly asked the cat as I paid for my food, “I was wondering if you can teach me some moves.” Without a moment’s notice, he served my usual order as if he prepped it ahead of time, a simple, lightly-toasted submarine sandwich with some ham, onions, lettuce, and a mix of mayo and pesto.

“Well considering no one comes here except you guys, I’m free now,” Tye answered, “just wait for Null to finish his food and I’ll get changed.” I stared at Null, watching him eat as Tye started cleaning up the place. Null stared back at me as soon as he saw me and just ate slowly with confusion painted on his face. I looked away eventually, hearing the pup speed up as soon as our eyes were off each other. He decided to come along as soon as he noticed Tye and I were leaving, the cat leading me and Null out the Tower.

“Do you have any expedition experiences Jack,” Tye asked as we casually strolled out the Tower, “because I believe you’ll learn more when your life is in actual peril.” I shook my head, recalling most of my time so far had been wandering around the Tower and doing some sparring matches with Null. “Alright, then we’ll go somewhere that isn’t difficult for you then,” Tye commented as he casually adjusted his bracelet, “I probably shouldn’t ruin my work clothes, so let me just get out of these real quick.” Before I questioned what he meant, his clothes changed in an instant, digitalizing itself into existence as his work clothes disappeared.

Instead of his suit, he was wearing a dark green vest, his back draped in a black cloak. His hands were covered by black gloves adorned with gold colors and different bands and bracelets decorated his right arm. On his hips was a utility belt that carried survival tools while ensuring his brown tactical pants were snuggled around his waist as it covered the top of his black boots. His weapon wasn’t seen anywhere on his body, but his blue bandana and fanged bracelet was still on him. When I looked over at Null, I noticed he already changed into his usual battle attire he wore whenever we spar each other.

“Alright, let’s get going,” the cat declares, leading the charge, “the earlier we go, the better. Some of the easier monsters tend to show up during the day, except for a few exceptions.”

“Hey, so what’s your weapon,” I asked the cat, examining him to see if there was a hint of a weapon, “I don’t see one on you, so do you summon it or something?”

“In a way, but it’s a bit complicated to explain,” Tye answered, still walking, “it’s better that I show you once we’re in combat. Speaking of, since it’s your first time in the field, we’ll be needing a leader.” I have an idea what he meant by that, but I let him continue. “Since you’re a prince, you should do that, but just so you can have the idea, I’ll lead the group for a bit. When you feel comfortable, I’ll let you take it so you can get some experience. I don’t know what your future will be like, but I assume you’ll have your own merry band to take care of.” It definitely sounded like a hassle to do, but it is something I’ll have to be responsible for in the future, so I begrudgingly obliged.

We walked for a long while until we arrived at a forest. Based on the map, it was the forest near a developing city called Kolok. I heard stuff about the town, mostly it being involved with last year’s events and some notable people from there. When we entered, I realized how overwhelming the HUD became as I was immediately bombarded with information about the whole area, including what monsters are located, what materials could be gathered, and the weather. I closed everything down that I deemed useless immediately, leaving me only a mini-map, spellbook, and my party’s status for me to glance at.

When we encountered our first monster, it was clear to me that I was the weaker one in the group. It was just some pack of wolf-like monsters that attacked us, but as soon as our encounter started, Tye decided to handle it himself, mostly to demonstrate his weapon. The cat walked in front of us as both his fanged bracelet and his bandana glowed a bright red as he held out his hand. Multitudes of transparent faces surround Tye, some of them I recognized while I was wandering around the Tower. He stopped on the face of a male, blue tarantula wearing dark blue cycling glasses, a label naming him Nervalo. He tapped on the digital illusion before summoning four digital arms behind him alongside each hand having a unique color of fingerless gloves.

“Leave this to me,” he said before his 6 arms snapped in unison, unleashing a barrage of elemental spears in midair, tied to each hand by a magic thread of silk. All his hands quickly move together, skewing the monsters with the spears while weaving an icon that resembles a skull and bones. Once done, the silk quickly turned purple as what I presume was venom, took over and flowed into the blood of the skewered monsters. I witnessed some of them uncomfortably jolt their bodies around in pain as some slowly turned purple. The magic breaks, dropping them, some of them still alive, but not much. The remaining injured monsters ran away immediately as the gloves and the digital arms disappeared. “Good, still relatively weak if some of them died by a simple toxin that quickly,” he noted, “this place should be perfect for you to practice Jack.”

He noticed that I was staring at his bracelet, smiling before deciding to give an explanation. “The weapons I wield are those of people that I have met in my life,” he revealed as he adjusted his bracelet. “My bracelet creates a perfect digital replica of those weapons while my bandana gives me the skills and magic needed to use them. The caveat to it is that I need to have seen the person use them multiple times before I can learn it and they’re in my contact list.” I looked over at the corpses, watching as the bodies slowly dissolved in front of me as I felt a bit nauseous from both the bloody scent and gorey scene.

“Maybe I should’ve used a different weapon, this friend’s skills are a bit too graphic for someone that’s just starting out,” he noted as he turned me away before handing me to the pup. “Null, make sure he won’t get sick, let him barf if needed. I’ll thoroughly clean this up real quick.” I admit, I did let out some stuff while Null comforted me, I couldn’t bear the stench of whatever toxins Tye used. I hear the same digital illusion Tye used, followed by the sound of water.

“You can look now,” Null assured me, patting me on the back, “first time seeing a dead body?” I hated how casual he said that, but I sighed and nodded my head. When I looked back, the bodies and blood already disappeared as I saw Tye scrolling through his digital lists of faces.

“You’ll get used to it,” the feline declared, “well you have to anyway. We’re part of the Tower, so we will have to kill if needed.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that, I was going to ask, but I heard a click of a picture. Looking at Tye again, I got to see his chosen weapon, a white, bulky digital camera that seemed to be decorated with stickers. “This weapon should be fine,” the cat exclaimed as a photo of the old scene printed itself out, “only until you get used to the scent of blood and death. Guess that also means we should avoid any bandits just in case, unless you think you’re actually prepared to take a life.” I was about to refute that, but then realized I might not be as bloodthirsty as I thought I was if I got sick from a monster’s corpse.

“We could always knock them out,” Null pointed out, trying to save me from that early fate, “though that’s going to be extremely hard since Jack and I use sharp weapons.” My confidence faded as fast as it rose, maybe I wasn’t meant to be a fighter in the end. “But hey it’s fine Jack, it’s a good thing you don’t have to kill someone yet, that’s a really huge burden to take after all,” the pup tried again, “not only you’re forced to see the life drain from their eyes, you’d have to face the guilt of all the families you inadvertently ruined by your hands.” He said with an oblivious smile, not realizing that he made me feel even more worse.

“Not to say it’s a good or bad thing,” Tye chimed in, “sometimes you’ll have to do it, whether it’s for self defense or for a just cause. Just remember that our weapons are still tools.” I don’t think I was ready to shoulder that feeling. “For now, don’t worry about any bandits, I’ll make it so we don’t have to encounter any of them. Focus on killing monsters so you can get used to being on the field then we’ll head back to rest.”

We did just that, defend ourselves against monster attacks as we ventured through the forest. Despite Null and Tye protecting me and doing most of the work, I eventually did kill a beast. It was sloppy, messy, and probably incredibly painful for them, but the job was done. When that fight was over, I looked at my blade and my hands, both of them covered in a gross, bloody, red liquid. The metallic smell of it disgustingly lingered in my nose as I cleaned them away, using a cleaned, white rag that Null gave me beforehand. The two of them decided we took a break, just to make sure I was doing alright and I appreciated them doing it, even though I knew I was dragging them down.

We continued strolling through the forest, with Tye gathering materials on the way while Null and I watched. He read my mind that I wanted to help, so he taught me to forage herbs and different types of flora. He promised me he’ll send a copy of a helpful guide on finding edible plants, but told me to pick up what I could find and he’ll appraise it for me later. I was obsessed about picking everything useful off the ground, that I got separated from Tye and got lost. Null was with me at least, he was watching over me, until he also realized we were lost.

Null, who was more experienced than me, decided we should wander around aimlessly and make as much noise as we could. In a forest infested with monsters that prey on unsuspecting adventurers, what could possibly go wrong? My idea wasn’t really better either, so I just went with it and wandered around with Null, shouting for Tye. It was, as expected, not helpful in our situation at all as it did cause some beasts to attack us, causing either Null to protect us or both of us running away. I think we got lost for like an hour or two, but it felt long enough for me to start thinking about snacking on some of the random colorful puffy mushrooms I foraged. Without any warning as I followed behind Null, the wolf immediately pinned me to the ground as a spiked tentacle appeared right where I stood before.

I froze in place, realizing how close to death I was, how close I was to choke on my own blood, skewered by the green sharp ligament. I watched Null quickly rise up, his spear in hand as he bravely ran towards the danger. I was too busy thinking about what could’ve happened to me to get up, but then I heard the annoying nickname in my ear.

“Hey Bestie,” Null shouted as I heard flesh audibly tore apart, “I need some help here! If you want to live, you need to fight!” I angrily got myself up as I readied my sword and faced the beast. A giant plant that was shaped as a pitcher while adorning 8 flailing spiked tentacles, with one chopped off by a savage wolf. Null was smacked away from the plant, but I caught him in my arms before letting him stand while we watched the chopped tentacle miraculously grow back. “Thanks Jack,” he happily thanked as he prepared his weapon again, “oh also, since your HUD thingy has a complete bestiary, I think it’s time you be the leader, you have more knowledge on what the beast’s weaknesses are after all. You don’t need to think of something amazing right now, just follow your gut and tell me what to do.” He smiled at me, somehow making me smile back as something was burning inside me.

I didn’t think of using the bestiary that way, but it made sense when Null pointed that out. I pulled up my bestiary as it automatically scanned what Null and I were facing as I got a brief list of information, mostly weaknesses and anything important to note. The plant was weak to fire, that was obvious, but it advised throwing flames inside the pitcher to fatally wound it. “Null, can you convert my magic real quick,” I asked while I conjured up a little flame with my right, open hand, “I just need something real strong and something small that I can pocket.” I did expect him to go with it, but I wouldn’t have thought he would grab my hand with his. It was weirdly nice and comforting.

“Of course Jack,” he calmly replied as I felt the tiny flame fade away, “you want me to protect you while you charge in?” I nodded my head as I felt the marble pressed up on my palm. “Alright, let’s go then. You focus on your charge and I’ll give you the protection you need.” I quickly pocket the marble away as I took a deep breath while Null readied his spear. We both ran towards our monster, with me taking the lead.

The first tentacle that tried to stop me and Null got slashed off as I swung my blade across. Null leapt over me as he pinned two of them to the ground while I leapt after to protect him from another. I think both of us had the same idea as I swung around Null’s spear, twisting and digging into it as I launched myself in the air towards the plant, casting some wind for Null to catch. I swiftly landed on one of the green tendrils as I ran towards the pitcher while Null tossed his converted magic to cleanly slice any of them coming close to me. On my descent down, I sliced through any stragglers that he missed. Once I got close enough, I took out the marble while I leapt high above the opening of the pitcher and tossed it in the plant filled with digestion fluids and bones.

I was immediately launched away as the magic activated instantly, creating a large explosion of colorful flames that burnt the gigantic plant instantly. A lot of the liquid was launched, even though it felt a bit disgusting when it landed on my body, it was a lot better than being coated in blood. Though it was Null’s idea, the smoke that came out of it became a very noticeable smoke signal for Tye, who quickly got to us as I painfully landed my back against a tree. He came to check up on me as he gave Null a potion and told him to give it to me while he takes care of dousing the fire we made.

“How was that,” I asked as Null quickly approached me.

“You did a great job Jack,” Null complimented as he handed me an opened potion, “I should’ve toned down that explosion, but it did work out well in the end. Are you alright with killing things yet?”

“Not at all,” I chuckled, “that’s just a plant after all, they don’t scream when they’re chopped up.” We both quietly listened only to hear Tye panickingly spraying water as the fires of Null’s destruction crackled. “See? No screaming.”

“Fair enough, we’ll have to try again another time, once you’re healed up. Though maybe we should stick around with Tye.” We continued watching Tye put out the fire, not helping him at all as we just sat together, relaxing. Once he was done, we made a swift exit from the forest, heading straight to the Tower so I could get my wounds examined.

The doctor that was seeing me in the medical bay ensured that I was perfectly fine, just some scrapes and bruises. Thought there was going to be more, but I guess the potion I took already healed me up a lot. I was told that my dads will have to be informed about the examination, knocking out the secrecy I was trying to uphold from them. I’m totally going to get an earful of worries from them later, not like they haven’t done that before. After getting some ointments and such, I made my way back to my room, walked to my comfy bed, and promptly flopped on it face-first.

I was pretty exhausted, even ready to just sleep like that immediately, but the heavy, familiar knock at my door forced me up. It was no surprise who it was as the canine decided to push his way in my room. “So how are you feeling Jack,” he asked as he happily looked around my personal space, “mentally I mean. You’re obviously fine physically, though probably a bit exhausted.”

“I’m not,” I lied as I felt a bit of my body crying for rest, “but I’m doing alright, I think.”

“You sure? You’re not upset about not being able to get over killing monsters?” He looked at me with his silver Eyes, I didn’t bother to make eye contact with him, feeling like they could pierce me entirely.

“I-I’m not that upset about it, I just need to get used to it, that’s all.” He was still staring at me with worried concern. I sat down on my bed, to rest my body a bit as I forced out an awkward sigh. “I just didn’t expect how different it felt when I’m fighting for my life, not to mention I have to protect you and Tye as well.” I noticed Null was about to point something out, but he shut himself up and went to sit beside me.

“Yeah, that’s how I felt when I first went out there, though it was just me and Tye. You should’ve seen me, I was panicking and slipping up a lot when I encountered my first monster. I was totally a mess.” He let out a laugh at himself as he patted my shoulder.

“So how’d you get over that feeling?” He paused, thinking of an answer that’d probably comforted me.

“I gave myself a reason to fight, to keep living so I can protect my friends,” he simply answered as he looked at me, “it’s something simple, but with someone that doesn’t have any memories, any friend I have is important to me.” He reached over, his right hand resting on top of mine as he softly smiled at me. “That includes you Jack, you’re really important to me. I’d even say you’re number one on my importance list.” I felt my face immediately heat up as I looked away, hearing Null gleefully chuckling as his hand never let go of mine. “Well however you feel about me, I’m just happy to be with you and I hope you consider me as your friend too.” He lifted his hand out as he got off the bed, ready to leave me with complicated emotions.

“I-I do,” I softly let out as I unconsciously grabbed onto his hand with my head towards the ground, “you’re my friend too.” I looked up at Null, his face slightly flushed with me suddenly grabbing his hand, in turn, making my face heat up as I let go as well. “T-Thanks for coming to check up on me Null. If you want, you wanna go out and train with me?”

“Of course! I’ll see if I can get Tye to come with us too, if not him, maybe someone else!” He got over that quickly as he excitedly, adorably swayed his body like a puppy. “I want to help you grow as much as you can, so when you become a strong king in the future, I could proudly be your loyal knight. Maybe even captain, if you have me.”

“Maybe focus on getting your memories first,” I replied as I felt some pressure weighing on me, “but sure, you’ll be my first thought when I need a knight.” He happily cheered as he immediately hugged me tightly then let go before trotting his way to the door.

“Alrighty, I won’t bother you anymore than I could Jack, get as much rest as you can so you get healed up.” He playfully stuck out his tongue as he opened the door. “Have a good night, I’ll see you around like usual!” Before I could even reply, he promptly exited and slammed the door behind him. I made sure the door was locked before falling back on my bed, reflecting on today and what I could do before I see Null this weekend. I didn’t do that in the end and thought about Null even more, biting into a pillow as my head became clouded with a variety of thoughts ranging from confusion to happiness.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night.

I woke up, sweat dripping, heart’s beating, and my entire body heating up. It was only three days since my first expedition and all those three nights, I’ve been dreaming about Null every time. Today felt very different as I felt my heart starting to flare up, yet my entire body wasn’t feeling cold nor was there any sign of me being sick. I went back to the cafe after washing my face, hoping Null was there as usual.

He wasn’t, it was only Tye, who was putting up some board games in the corner of the establishment. Looked like they were recently bought too, noting the nearby trash can filled with wrapping. He noticed my presence as he waved me over. “Morning Jack, you want the usual?”

“Where’s Null,” I immediately asked, looking around to not see the pup.

“Oh he already came by earlier, ordered some food and went off to wander around.” I immediately frown, angry towards myself for being late. It’s practically impossible to find him even if I try to look for him with the many floors the tower has. “Something troubling you?”

“Yeah, I was hoping I would talk to him.”

“About what?”

“Stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Anything to get these hot feelings out of me.” I immediately saw the cat smile at me, making me heat up a bit in embarrassment as I quickly sat at the counter. He casually walked over to the counter as he started making drinks. “I haven't ordered anything yet.”

“Consider this one on the house,” Tye replied as he got a shaker as he made his concoction. He added in some vanilla ice cream, milk, strawberries, and chocolate chips before mashing and stirring them evenly with a spoon. After some time, he closed the lid on the shaker before shaking it around for a bit. He pours out the contents into a glass cup, sprinkling it with some extra chocolate chips and whip cream before serving it to me. “There, a good milkshake to ease your burning heart.”

I looked at it, not wanting to drink it, but did so out of consideration for Tye. It was pretty sweet and it was a bit too rich, but it cooled me down and all my thoughts about Null subsided. Before I even knew it, I had already drunk the rest of the shake, leaving only some bits of chocolates and strawberries left behind.

“Feeling better,” he asked, I nodded my head in response, “good, now talk to me.” I looked around, making sure no one else is here, then remembering how empty this place usually is anyway. I let out a sigh as I confessed to my other only friend.

“I’ve been getting these weird, hot feelings towards Null. Ever since we came back from our first expedition three days ago, I’ve been getting these weird dreams about him. And everytime I wake up, I just want to see him again and hold his hand.” Tye patted my head as I tried to suppress those feelings again before continuing. “I don’t understand, I’ve read that I’ve been lovestruck, but shouldn’t I find a princess or something to fall for instead of my best friend? It's always like that in my memories, the stories of kings and queens that rule.”

“Oh kid, you shouldn’t really rely on those memories,” Tye replied as he put my usual order in an oven, “you should rely on what your body is telling you, not what some random stories tell you. Now about these feelings of yours, can you tell me what you desire?”

“Why?”

“Well letting things out helps and from what I can tell, there’s a part of you that wants to open up.” I couldn’t deny that, but I guess it’s alright since Null isn’t here.

“I just want to be with him, no matter what problems we face or what we’ll have to go through. I want to be by his side, fighting and protecting him as we bond over our time together. Then after all the work, we chill here, drinking and snacking away as we talk to you, hopefully with us splitting the cost instead of me paying for it.” Tye kept staring at me, trying to egg me on to say anything else, but I couldn’t think of anything else. “I want him to be mine and I want to be his. I want to protect his smile, so I can see it everyday.” He let me catch my breath as I felt the heat in my body fading away.

“There you go, feel any better,” the cat warmly replied as I nodded my head in response. “That was really cute of you Jack, but it sounds like you caught yourself a crush.” I felt my face flush a bit, something starting to burn up in me. “If you need any advice, I’m always here for you, I’ll even give you a free drink too,” Tye continued as he patted my head with a smile. “So what were you two talking about that made that feeling show up anyway?”

“I asked him his reason to fight, and he wanted to fight for his friends. It was simple and it made me think about why I want to be here a lot. Of course, I thought of Null immediately and couldn’t sleep because of it, but talking to you now, I think I feel a lot better.” He patted my head before letting me eat my sandwich.

“That’s good at least, that’ll help you fight better I’m sure.”

“So what about you? What do you fight for?”

“Me? That’s a good question.” He paused for a bit, trying to think of his answer while I made sure nothing was in the oven. “Well I guess right now is to teach the newcomers how we live in the Tower, newcomers like you and Null. Though before I got scouted by the Tower, I’d probably say that I fought to protect my family.”

“Oh? Who were they?”

“It’s just my sister, she's currently traveling around the world with her friends. We mostly lived on the seas before we met with some members here at a port dock in the western continent.”

“So, you used to be a sailor?”

“Sort of, we were pirates, but that’s a story for another time.” I continued eating food as I just relaxed at the counter. “So any plans for today? Or are you going to sit here all day.”

“Well I don’t know anyone else here, so I’ll just sit here. You get bored standing here all day right? We can play some board games together.”

“Sure, but if any customers come, I’m taking care of them first.” Thus I spent a quarter of the day just hanging out with Tye as I watched out for any signs of Null coming back. Not a lot of people came by, as usual, but there were some interesting characters going through. Only one of them caught my interest the most, mostly because she interrupted my game with Tye.

Not to mention how she flew straight up from the bottom of the Tower and gracefully landed in front of the cafe’s entrance. She was a brown owl draped in a dark green scarf while wearing a gray waxed cotton jacket and a pair of black bush pants. Her orange Eyes shimmered under the light along with her emerald pendant. I immediately noted her modern repeating crossbow on her right hip and a quiver pouch hanging on her left side. As soon as she landed, she casually walked towards the counter, forcing Tye to stop our game for a bit to provide his service. A good time to contemplate on my strategy as the desire to hide his pieces grew.

“Welcome to Timeless Peace Cafe,” Tye greeted, making me awkwardly realize I didn’t know the name of the business. “What can I get you?”

“Let’s see…can I get a simple frappe to go? Oh and also a cookie as well?” I watched the two exchange in business, only tuning back to them just to listen to her name. “The name’s Robin.” Before I knew it, she made her way straight to me, sitting right next to me. “This place doesn’t get busy, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” I answered a bit nervously, “there’s also this other guy that comes here once and a while too. The name’s Jack by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Jack, maybe I’ll see you around in the future. With fewer patrons, I can get my cup of coffee quicker here. Sorry for interrupting you and your friend’s game, once I get my cup, I’ll let you two have fun.”

“You’re fine, it gives me some time to think of a way to get out of my current predicament.” She looked at the board as soon as I said that, noting how many pieces Tye took from me. “I’m just a beginner,” I immediately defended myself from her judging gaze.

“I can see that, you want some advice? I dabbled in a bit of that game before.” My eyes darted over to Tye, busy with making the owl’s order and nodded my head. I sort of understood what she was talking about, but she helped me know how to remember the movement of the pieces. Once Tye called her order, she grabbed her things and instead of leaving, she sat at a distance to watch the game.

Though it was pretty nerve-wracking to feel her gaze on me, I tried to stay calm and strategize. With some of her advice, I kept a close eye on what possible moves Tye could do and carefully maneuvered my pieces to try to outwit him. Though it was sadly an inevitable loss, with Robin’s little lesson, I was able to make it so my loss wasn’t as humiliating. I demanded a rematch immediately, ready to test my new knowledge, which Tye happily complied. I noticed that Robin still hadn’t left as she happily watched us while snacking on her cookie. Maybe it was due to my training with Null, but I’ve noticed something miniscule coming from her similar to Null’s magical marbles.

It was only brief, but I noticed a strange, unnatural glint from her Eyes as I played with Tye. As I waited for Tye to make his move, I discreetly examined Robin's Eyes from where she sat. There was something in her eyes, something small and clear that outlines her iris. The more I looked at it, I realized the small glass was colored slightly orange as the color behind it slowly became known to me. She’s wearing colored contact lenses, not for aesthetics, but to mask the true color of her Eyes.

At the moment, my focus shifted from the game as I wanted to know her true colors. I mentally pulled up the document Tye gave me, right as he finished his turn. I went back on focusing on the game for a moment, putting him in a somewhat difficult position to give me more time. I then asked Tye for more drinks, ordering something complicated enough for him to forget his turn. “That’s a tall, interesting order, why’d you want that,” he asked as I read the documents.

“I wanted to try something out. I’ve seen my dad make weird concoctions, so why not try something he’d do.” I wasn’t lying on that, I witnessed Adel adding various things to his coffee before. Soda, potions, mystery liquids, he mixed them all before, even though he tries to discreetly do so. But enough about that, I was more focused on Robin’s actions, checking to see if my assumptions were wrong.

The way she moved around had no slight, subtle rhythm or theatrical flair like those with orange Eyes, the Eyes of performances and entertainment. I discreetly looked around to see if she signed anything, only to notice she’s writing a note. I got up to stretch a bit, my keen eyes seeing what she wrote. …I couldn’t read her chicken scratches and it seemed to be a very short note, so she’s probably not a writer either. At least I can assume that her orange Eyes are fake, but I didn’t have enough time to find out.

“Your order’s ready Jack,” Tye suddenly yelled, knocking me out of my thoughts. I went over to see what concoction I decided to order, as Tye served it to me with a nervous smile. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have ordered the weirdest, probably deadliest concoction if I’m going to have to drink it.

What I ordered was a meat smoothie, where I asked for thinly sliced meats to be blended up with salt and honey. It was a visceral brown slop in a glass cup as an uncomfortable smell came from it. The presentation itself, despite Tye’s efforts, also represented how everyone would feel about it, depression. The melting whip cream I requested on top of it had a small handful of bacon sprinkles that had a poorly drawn sad face on it and the chocolate banana was pretty limp. “Did you taste test it by any chance, just for my safety,” I asked fearing for the safety of my stomach.

“Hell no, I don’t want to try whatever mess of a concoction you just asked me to make. Even if I taste it for poison, I can’t, my Eyes make me strongly resistant to it. Oh but if you do end up in the medical bay after this, you were never here, you were outside eating random, colorful mushrooms.”

“…Can I get a refund?”

“I would, but you haven’t paid for it and what you ordered isn’t on the menu.”

“It’s a secret menu item.”

“That you made up on the spot, where did you get the idea of a dessert meat smoothie anyway? We don’t even sell meat smoothies here.”

“Oh boys,” Robin happily interjected, causing me and Tye to look over to see the monstrous concoction is already in her hand. “If you two don’t want this, I’ll take this off your hands. And don’t worry about the money I left the money right beneath you two.” While Tye looked down and started counting the money, Robin casually emptied the entire contents of the glass into her mouth and swallowed it in no time. “Urgh that’s awfully foul, but I’ve had worse. Now that you two are done arguing, go back to your game, I want to see how it ends. If you don’t mind anyway.”

After making sure she paid the right amount, Tye and I continued our game. I was still thinking about her Eyes, but I’ll confront her about it some time. She willingly chose to save me from Tye’s, and mostly my own, making. I still lost in the end, but at least it gave her enough amusement for her to make her leave. Before I could ask anything, she left, leapt over the barrier and glided straight down. I was going to go after her, but someone I looked forward to seeing again was back.

“Jack,” Null happily cheered as he immediately hugged me on the side. I could feel my body heating up again as I saw him while he nudged his face against mine. “I’m so happy to see you!”

“Where were you,” I asked as I hugged him back, resisting the urge to pet him.

“I was wandering around! I’d wanna check what shops and amenities are available. So I can bring you and Tye with me!” He looked over at the shop to see Tye cleaning up as he soon suggested, “there’s a hot springs floor, you wanna check it out with me tomorrow? I’ve read it can help heal wounds faster. You’re still wounded, so hopefully it’ll help you get better faster.”

As much as I want to get quickly healed up, I’m not sure if I want to show off my body to strangers. “I-I’m not sure,” I answered, intimidated by the sparkles in his eyes, “is it just going to be us?”

“Well if Tye isn’t coming, yeah, but If you’re not comfortable with strangers, we can reserve one of the private springs if you want.” He was a bit genuine with his offer. “You don’t have to pay for it, I’ll do it this time. Consider it thanks for paying for all the things I wanted.” I couldn’t deny that offer at that point, so I agreed to it when I saw his genuine smile again. He let off an adorable cheer, before he went in the cafe, with me following.

We spent most of the day hanging out at the cafe, playing a lot of the board games that Tye recently added to the establishment. We played this one entirely luck-based game, for both the first and last time. The urge to strangle Null for his luck was strong, but I cooled down a bit when I saw him smiling. Throughout the rest of the day, I couldn’t help but notice that the pup kept staring at me sometimes, only to look away when our gaze met with each other. Though I do admit, I was doing the same thing too, wondering how he feels about me.

The next day, Null and I traveled down the Tower until we arrived on the 66th floor, the floor taken up by the establishment. Don’t know if I should have expected it, but Tye was nowhere to be found so I immediately texted him. His immediate response, well more like an excuse, was that the cafe was getting busy so he can’t join us today. I didn’t feel like giving him sass nor did I want to argue about it, so I told Null that he wasn’t able to come. He didn’t really mind it at all when I told him, he just continued being his jolly self as if he wanted this to happen. I could only sigh as I decided to search for some info about the place we’re going to.

From what I’ve gathered, the name of the hot springs that Null and I were going to is called the Alpple Springs, a spa located in the mountains northwest of Kolok and are known for their apples and hot springs. It seemed like the owner of the place made a deal that allowed the Tower to create a shortcut to the place. Glancing at the doors scattered around the floor, they’re all the Dimension Doors similar to the ones on the first floor, albeit it’s more decorative with a simple drawing of a puddle of water with steam coming out of it.

We hopped through it, getting blasted with the cold mountain breeze before seeing a big, old capybara wearing a heavy, open blue robe, revealing the many scars riddled all over his body. Despite the scars, he didn’t seem as menacing, probably why Null casually walked up to him and excitedly began conversing with him. I didn’t pay much attention to the two, I was staring out at one of the windows.

Outside, I could tell we’re located on a hill as I see a vast amount of trees and snow that covered the pathway from here. Amongst the trees are ones that bore fruit, specifically red apples that shimmer with a frosty overcoat. There were clearly still people that traversed the snowy landscape to get here, with multiple footprints left behind on the snow. In the distance, the top of one the mountains can be seen, with a gigantic, silver, draconic beast flying around it. Surprisingly, my HUD Item was able to scan it, whoever made it really worked hard on it if it scanned from such a distance.

“Hey Jack,” Null interrupted with his shout, “I booked us a private area! Let’s go!” I bookmarked the beast’s information before mentally closing my bestiary. I got up and saw Null excitedly carrying some towels, all of them having a cute capybara icon on one of the edges. After he waved off his new friend, we started walking, well he was skipping, but we made our way to our area. “He’s a really sweet guy, gave me a nice discount for our first visit.”

“That’s nice, is he a new friend too?”

“Yep, his name is Alfred and he loves nectarines.” We began talking about the guy, mostly Null telling me what he found out, but I was happy to see him smile. We eventually reached the place, with Null immediately pointing out an oriental door that had been plastered with digital, floating words that spelled out, “Jack and Null,” in front of it. “Oh yeah Jack, put this on,” Null suggested as he revealed a pair of blue wristbands, “they’re used so we can open this door and our private inn room!”

“Wait what,” I immediately asked as Null just casually slipped one on my wrist. “I thought you only bought a private bathing area for us.”

“That was the plan,” Null truthfully let out as he put his on, “but Alfred gave us such a nice discount that it’d be a waste not to get the best things for us. So, I thought it’d be nice to sleep outside of the Tower for once. We’re both so used to our small, transformative rooms, I think it’d be a neat idea if we go out more and experience everything, don’t you think?” I proceeded to nod my head as I saw his sweet smile, but I do agree with him. Maybe I should start exploring the world with him and worry about being a prince later.

Sliding the door open, Null and I were greeted with a small changing room, with a door that led to both the showers and the bathing area. There were some rules and what-to-dos posted on the wall, good for someone that’s new to this whole thing, someone like me. Null must’ve already gone ahead while I was reading because by the time I finished, he was already in the showers. I just waited for Null to be done, keenly hearing to make sure he entered the baths first as I waited in the changing room. With a quick wash as advised, I met the pup in the open bathing area where I was greeted with a lovely view.

Surrounded by numerous big rocks, the big, round pool of steaming water in the open snowy mountains, with a giant rock placed in the center that had a little wooden house on top of it. A beautiful view of the ocean accompanies the steam, snow falling, as the white trees were pruned and delicately trimmed to create a big frame in the shape of a heart. I glared at Null, who was sitting at the center rock, away from the lovely sights, but he was heavily distracted by a rubber ducky floating around the water. A part of me wants to splash in there and ruin the peace, but I didn’t want to ruin his adorable smile. I carefully placed the rental towel somewhere safe and went in. As soon as I stepped in, Null finally noticed my presence and his slight gaze immediately rushed me to sit down. “What’s wrong Jack,” the pup innocently asked, “was the cold air getting to you too? I dove in here immediately too because of how cold it is outside.”

“S-Sure,” I lied once again, then immediately got annoyed with that, “t-though I guess I’m just a bit nervous. At least it’s just us here.” It clicked for Null, catching me awkwardly staring as my eyes tried to look anywhere else, but he just looked at me with a bit of sympathy. “W-Why aren’t you nervous about this,” I shyly asked, “isn’t it embarrassing to show yourself in front of me, junk and all?”

“Not really,” he casually answered, “after all, we’re both here to just bathe and relax in this lovely place.” It looked like he wanted to do something, but he chose not to and continued talking. “As to why, I don’t know. Maybe because I don’t have emotions or maybe because I trust you a lot.” He shifted a bit, watching the rubber duck floating around as I saw his facade on his face again. “I’d say it’s the latter, it’s more lovely that way after all,” he continued as he let out a pained smile again.

Without much thought, I lunged forward, placing my hand against the rock he was behind as I softly pinned Null in the center of the springs. I towered over him, water trickling down my fur as I looked down, my eyes locked on his. I watched as I saw him immediately get nervous before I unconsciously replied with a glare, “what are you feeling now?” His face immediately flushed as his eyes swung down before quickly darting to the side. In turn I got flustered too as I realized what I just did and what he just saw. “S-Sorry,” I immediately cried in shame as I sank myself deep in the water in embarrassment.

“You’re fine; you’re fine,” Null barked back as he went over to make sure I wasn’t drowning. “I feel a lot better after that. Wait no; that’s not right.” I watched as gears started turning on the pup until he found what he’s going to say. “Even though that was really sudden back there, I'm really happy you care about me.” Seeing his smile again, I calmed down immediately while Null sat by the center rock again. I followed after, sitting right next to him as I cautiously stared at him while he looked at the rubber ducky again. We were like that for a couple minutes, enjoying the water before I heard Null’s voice.

“I’ve been thinking lately Jack.”

“W-What’s up Null?”

“What exactly are we to each other?”

Slowly, I started feeling my heart starting to beat. “We’re friends right?”

“Yeah, I know, …but what if we were a bit more than that, y’know?”

He grabbed onto my hand as I could hear my heart beating louder. “Are you suggesting-“

“Maybe, but I want to say this first,” he said as I heard a bit of worry in his voice, “I think I’m in love with you.”

Time felt like it stopped as I saw him facing me with a nervous smile. Heart and mind screaming at each other as my feelings from yesterday rushed back again, both wanting the same thing. My talk with Tye came back to me as I strongly followed my burning heart. I tightly gripped onto the brave wolf’s hand as I thought about what to say. “I-I think, I feel the same way too Null,” I softly let out with bated breath. We both looked directly at each other, surrounded by the heating waters as snow collectively fell down on us. “I want you by my side forever Null,” I confessed as I caressed his soft face with my left hand, staring deeply into his silver eyes.

“I want that too,” Null admitted as he brushed against my hand, “so what do we do now?” He was waiting for my answer, smiling back at me with tears of happiness in his eyes. In this situation, I don’t think words alone would have sufficed to convey my answer. So I brushed his tears away and let my instincts do the rest, surprising both of us.

I tugged Null close to me as I went in to kiss him, my body instinctively going for it. Our lips touched as we both realized what I’d done, both of our faces heating up. We separated quickly, both to gather our thoughts and give a good look at each other’s expressions. My body felt like I was burning as I threw myself onto him, pinning him against the big rock as he accepted my feelings. We gave each other one look at each other, before he lunged towards me, both of us making out on the spot as his lips touched mine. His arms wrapped around my waist as we pressed our bodies tightly together. I felt my primal instincts strongly ready to surface, bearing my fangs at my prey’s soft neck until I heard Null’s voice.

“Jack, y-your wings,” he spoke out, making me realize I got them out unconsciously.

“Oh yeah, I guess I haven’t shown you these before,” I replied, realizing this is his first time seeing them. “I don’t really put them on unless-“

“N-No,” he interrupted with immediate concern, “they’re on fire.” We both stared at each other blankly before I looked at the water’s reflection. My wings weren’t white as an Angel’s, they turned a charred black as the crimson flames on them rose. I wasn’t feeling any sort of pain out of them, but I sure was feeling something! I immediately flopped back in the water due to panic, hoping the flames would get doused. Only to get back up to see red fur overtaking my orange stripes and I immediately started panicking.

“C-Calm down Jack,” the pup tried to comfort me as I quickly hopped out, “I’m sure there’s some reason you’re like this.” I looked back at Null, hoping he knew something, only to see him let out a gasp immediately. “Your Eyes, they’re glowing,” he happily let out as I looked back at the water’s reflection to get a better look.

They really were, it was faint, but it was there, my Eyes were glowing bright purple. I froze on the spot, feeling both ecstatic as hell, but confused as well. My heart started cooling down from the revelation, my fire diminishing as I watched my form slowly shifted back to my handsome, usual self. If only I was wearing my bracelet, I would’ve pulled up my HUD and checked if anything was added.

“How do you feel now Jack,” Null cautiously asked as he sprang out of the water. He moved close to me, holding onto my right arm as he cautiously examined me.

“I feel better,” I answered, petting Null’s head before wrapping an arm around him to bring him close, “a lot better now.” We both smiled at each other lovingly, until the freezing mountain breeze brushed us with its presence. “Though we should probably go back in the water,” I suggested as I felt Null tremble a bit from the cold and so we did, this time seating ourselves so we could see the ocean. The cute puppy was immediately enamored by the view of the sparkling ocean, but then switched back to his focus by looking for the rubber duck again and coming back to my side with two rubber ducks. “So where did you get the ducks?”

“I found them over there,” Null happily answered as he pointed towards a basket of complementary goods sitting on a nearby stone stool, “Alfred told me it’s part of the purchase.” I could see a bunch of roses and sweets wrapped in the basket, definitely some sort of thing presented for couples.

“Hey Null, when you rented the springs,” I asked as I pinched both of the pup’s cheeks apart, ”did you by chance get us some sort of couple’s package?” He blankly stared at me with his silver eyes before smiling back at me.

“Yep,” he happily answered, “it had a lot of stuff, so I booked it for us! It worked out though, right?” Suddenly after, I can see eyes sparkling as his body begins to vibrate furiously. “Oh! That means we get to do all those cute things together like they do in those shows, like going to the movies, going on walks together, and going on dinner dates! We can even go to this bakery in Kolok that’s offering a deal for something like us! Oh I can’t wait!”

“As long as we’re splitting the check,” I added as I placed my hand on top of his head, “I may be a prince, but I will run out of cash eventually if I’m going to pamper you in the future.”

“Oh, pamper me,” Null naughtily expressed, “what are you planning on giving me prince?” He stared seductively at me as he playfully stuck out his tongue, so I gave him something in response. I quickly pecked the top of his head before backing off to see him immediately lose the facade and melt into my arms. “Alright you won this time,” he happily swooned as he pressed his body against mine. Our moment together was soon interrupted as we heard a knock on the door before it swung open.

“Hey you two,” a burly voice rang from the inside, “your clean rental robes are here! I’ll set them on the counter so you two can take your time. Enjoy your stay and don’t stay in the water too long!” The sound of the door closing followed as I immediately looked directly at Null.

“Oh yeah, the robes, they were for people that rented a night here,” he clarified as he broke our hug. “Don’t worry, we won’t have to pay for it as long as we don’t ruin them.” He immediately turned to see if he could get a good look at the robes, getting up in the process. I shyly watched water trickling down his entire slim body, trying my best not to stare.

“You think we should get out,” I asked as I immediately looked away with heat in my cheeks, “we could go explore the place a bit more.”

“You’re right,” Null answered as he quickly went out with his towel, “we should be real travelers and explore a bit! I’ll go get dressed first!” I waited for a bit, so Null was inside by the time I got out, and got out to grab my towel. “Hey Jack,” Null immediately cheered, making me freeze in place as I saw his head pop out of the entrance, “bring in the basket of goodies too! We can bring them to our room on the way!” I was still frozen in place, only thawing out when Null whistled towards me, forcing me to quickly wrap myself up and head back in, basket in tow. After a very light bonk on the pup’s head and stuffing our clothes into the basket, I put on the robe that the caretaker gave us after asking Null to look away.

The robes themselves were pretty cute, they were entirely light orange with some orange stripes as the adorable icon of a capybara was on the edge of the right sleeve. I think Null got my size wrong as my robe was a bit big for me, forcing me to reveal some of my chest. Couldn’t tell if it was an accident or not, when I saw him staring at the revealing section. Other than the embarrassment I felt, it was a bit flattering whenever I saw Null staring at my pecs. Of course Null looks lovely in them, it made him look a bit more mature.

“Hey, so does your HUD tell you what your Eyes are now,” Null curiously reminded me. I quickly put on my bracelet, mentally seeing my menus before quickly going over my profile. Lo and behold, there was a title to them now, they were called the Angelic’s Eyes rather than being given no name. The Angelic’s Eyes are purple Eyes that both signify the user as being an Angel while also allowing them to release their inner self. These Eyes are identical to those with Demon’s Eyes, but instead of heightening intimidation, it raises charm instead. Other than I now have to debate on whether it is right to call myself a Demon Prince, it was nice to know what my Eyes are.

“Yeah,” I answered, before closing my menus, “I guess that form I had earlier signified my awakening. It doesn’t tell me how to switch to it though.” Null looked a bit disappointed when I truthfully revealed that last part, so I tried to do it anyway in secret. We left to explore the room after some attempts, some of them were my ideas while Null gave me some embarrassing ones.

While we were wandering we noticed a sign that leads to a sauna and a steam room, definitely would be nice to help me recover. I was interested in going at first, but got a bit nervous when I realized I’m going to be naked with other people. Null really wanted us to go, but he relented, probably realizing I was getting a bit nervous. So instead, we decided to see if we can go somewhere we could lay down and relax.

There was a nice relaxing lounge area that had the walls decorated with a nice shade of light blue. On the left side of the room lay multiple wooden lounge chairs as the middle was taken up by some dark brown couches. On the right were some chairs and tables while a kitchen was placed in the corner, displaying some baked goods as a simple foldable menu stands next to it. We went immediately to see the food, with me mentally getting ready to pay for whatever Null decided to get.

He surprisingly paid for it himself, even offered to pay my order as well. I let him do it, realizing that so far, Null had been pampering me this entire day by not letting me shill out my wallet. The thought of it was making me purr a bit, but I suppressed it immediately before Null would hear it. It tasted nice, even better since I was with someone I love that isn’t family. We headed back to the room Null got us, the pup dragging me down the halls as I happily followed.

There was only one bed in the room that Null rented for us, big enough for just the two people. I wasn’t surprised to see it, but I still let out a sigh filled with a bit of happiness. “Y’know, I’m glad this turned out great for us,” Null admitted as he nudged his face against my shoulder. “For our first night sleeping together, I think this place is the greatest. It’s cold out there so that means we’ll need all the warmth we need.”

He gave me a playfully naughty grin at me before immediately dragging my ass over to the bed and tossing me on it. “When we were making out back at the springs, you wanted to do something, weren’t you,” he asked in a menacingly yet sexy tone, right before he leaned close, unrobing me as he opened his maw towards my neck. “Something like this,” he lovingly queried as I felt the tips of his fangs landing on my skin, causing my body to shudder in a bit of both fear and excitement.

“I-I guess,” I recklessly purred, feeling Null’s traveling my body with his hands. I didn’t know what to do except let Null do his things, turning me into his prey instead of him being mine. The pup that I’ve been friends with for so long turned into something ferociously charming as he placed a tiny mark on me, it was, admittedly, pretty hot for me. I only let out squeaks as I unconsciously grabbed a hold of Null and brought him closer to me and hugged him tightly. After that, Null and I had a great night together as he showed me a new side of both him and me that I never expected.

I woke up with Null by my side, both of us in my room as the morning sun had barely risen from the horizon. Ever since that night at the spa, Null and I decided to sleepover in each other’s room, both of us taking turns on which room by switching it every other day. Not that it really matters, since we both live next door to each other. I started to wake up earlier than usual too because of him, when I do, I’d get to admire the guy who I can call my boyfriend. Eventually I got out of bed, quietly as possible, and went to the restroom to do my morning routine. Once Null wakes up, he does his routine and we‘ll both head out for the day.

When Null and I came back to meet up with Tye, he greeted us with a smile before immediately presenting us our usual order. “Congrats you two,” Tye immediately spoke as he slid us the drinks, “especially you Jack, Null texted me you finally awoken your Eyes. Even told me you got yourself a new form.” I immediately looked over at Null, who casually tilted his head away from me as he sipped on his smoothie.

“Yeah,” I replied while mentally noting Null’s reaction, “though I still need to know how it works. They’re similar to my dad’s but I can’t seem to get myself to change into that form.” I remembered trying to get it to work earlier in the morning too, when Null was still asleep in bed.

“Have you tried asking them? I bet they’d be ecstatic to hear that their son has similar Eyes.”

“I’d rather not,” I pridefully, immediately denied, “I don’t really tell them anything about my life. I haven’t even told them about Null and how he’s both my neighbor and my boyfriend.” That was when I unfortunately heard a familiar sound of a portal tearing up behind me. “You brought him here, didn’t you?” I turned around to be immediately greeted by my dad, the white wolf variety named Simon.

“Not at all,” he happily denied as he adjusted his cap, “actually I’ve been visiting this cafe rather recently. The only thing Tye told me about you, was that you frequently come here for most of the day.”

“So it’s just a coincidence that you just so happen to come here when I’m here?” I immediately glared at the demi-angel, who was frightened for only a moment.

“Yep, but anyway, who’s your cute boyfriend over here?” I looked over at Null, who was more fascinated about the wolf and his abilities, but still drinking his smoothie. “I’m very sorry that I eavesdropped a bit,” the white puppy apologized with a formal bow, “even the tiniest tear of my portals allows any sound to go through.”

“Whatever, not like I can hide him forever,” I sighed as I grabbed the obedient Null by the neck, “this is my boyfriend Null. Null, this is one of my dads, Simon Heart.” I dropped my grip immediately, watching Null happily shake my dad’s hand.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Heart,” Null happily greeted my dad with a hint of nervousness in his voice, “I don’t remember any of my past, so people just call me Null.”

“Nice to meet you too Null,” Simon happily greeted back, “and no need for any formalities. Just call me Simon.” The white dad wolf gave a good look at the younger black wolf before softly petting him. “Those Eyes sure are unique, you must’ve been someone special if you got them.”

“I am,” Null happily barked under the petting, momentarily freezing my heart in shock, “I’m your son’s boyfriend! His special one!” I immediately felt heat rushing up my face as I hid it away before hearing Simon let out a light chuckle.

“Of course,” the white wolf agreed, “well I’m sure Jack here thinks so too. I never thought I would see my son like this, to think my intimidating son has such an adorable soft spot.” I wanted to scream so badly as Simon and Null started talking about me, but all I could do was do it silently while Tye quietly served me a second drink.

“Oh but anyway, you said you’re having trouble with your Eyes, right Jack,” Simon asked as I nodded, causing him to stare into my eyes. “So that’s what they are,” he noted, “I probably should’ve expected that considering our race. Did you ever transform, only people with the Demon’s or Angel’s Eyes and their variants can do that.”

“I did, but I can’t do it anymore,” I tiredly answered, “I’ve been trying for a while and I haven’t got it to happen ever since.”

“Do you remember how it happened?” I immediately looked over at Null, who was more engaged, yet somewhat inattentive to the conversation. I debated if I wanted to hide the truth and mess with Simon, but the serious look he gave me was a lot more intimidating compared to his peppy self.

“W-When I was making out with Null,” I hesitantly answered with a bit of heat in my cheeks, calming down a bit as I saw Simon immediately smiled. “Before you even asked, we did have more sessions like that, but it never led to me doing it again.” I could see Simon annoyingly smiled back at me, egging me on to prove it, so I did. Recklessly and suddenly, I strongly pulled at Null by the collar, forcing him to lean towards me as he fell into a kiss with me.

I watched his face heated up as I tasted some bits of strawberry from his smoothie that lingered on his tongue. We stayed, maws locked together, ignoring the satisfying stare from Tye and the delightful squeal from Simon. When I felt like it was good enough, I broke the kiss, watching Null’s gears spinning before immediately requesting another drink. I somewhat gave a smugly look back at Simon before declaring, “see? Nothing.”

“I thought as much,” he happily revealed, “I just wanted to see you two kiss, just so I can see how happy you are.” I could only let out a sigh as he took his seat next to mine. “To be serious though, I’m not sure how I could help. Usually, once you do it the first time, it becomes engraved in your memory and allows you to transform almost instinctively.” He pondered a bit, staring directly at me as he silently talked. I could feel a lot of weight piling on my shoulders as I watched my dad do his utmost best, while I couldn’t do anything.

“Well whatever is wrong with him, I’m sure he’ll learn it eventually,” the black wolf comforted me as he patted me on the back to shake me from my thoughts. “Maybe, he should go out on a trip, I don’t think he would learn anything if we were stuck in the Tower all day.” I looked over to him, who optimistically smiled immediately upon seeing my face, causing all that heavy feeling to go away. Simon was a bit hesitant towards Null’s suggestion, but he took a deep, melancholic breath as he gave his answer.

“I agree,” he answered with a smile as he placed an arm on my shoulder, “I’ll have to talk to Adel about it, but if you really want to leave and travel the world, I’ll happily let you do so. Even though I won’t be able to join you, I think it’s a good idea for a prince to go out and learn more about the world, just be careful, ok?” I felt a tight, protective grip on my shoulder as I saw his smile that had a tiny bit of fear in his eyes.

“Don’t worry Simon,” Null declared as he immediately brushed the white wolf’s hand and wrapped his arm around me, “I’ll make sure he’ll be ok! Not only am I his boyfriend, I’m his new, self-proclaimed knight! I’m pretty strong too, Tye can confirm that!” I looked over at him with shock, seeing a lot of sparkles shimmering around him. Simon was fairly taken aback, but I noticed a slight smile before he gave a light chuckle.

“No, I trust you,” he accepted as he lovingly petted the black wolf’s head. He looked directed at me before continuing, “make sure you take good care of him Jack. In a way, traveling the world can help Null out as well, maybe it’ll help him regain his memories.” I looked up to Simon, appreciating the new thought he gave me as I saw him giving me a hopeful look. “Consider it your first unofficial task from the Tower, help Null remember and explore the world.”

My heart suddenly felt happy and fluttery as I heard my new goal, I could feel my tail immediately wagging like the dog inside me as I proudly gave my answer. “I’ll do it,” I happily declared, seeing a hidden burst of excitement from Simon’s smile. I then recalled I don’t know anything about traveling so I quickly asked, “so any advice on how to prepare for a trip?” The bright, positive appreciation I have towards Simon slightly dimmed as he made a very unconfident face.

“I don’t know actually,” he lightly admitted as he softly bonked the side of his head, sticking out his tongue, “I usually let Adel do all that work.” He noticed my slight disappointment as he immediately continued, “but if Adel does let you leave, we can help you prepare.”

“No need for that Simon,” Tye chimed in, who was sitting nearby, “I’ll most likely come with them, so I can teach them what to bring and stuff like that. I taught Null how to fight and gave some combat lessons for Jack too, so teaching something like travel preparations isn’t too hard for me.” I could see Simon’s motivation decrease, silently whining as I felt a bit sorry for him.

“Hey,” I spoke out, quickly trying to think of something that’ll cheer my dad up, “I-Uh-Well, how about this, when you’re free, why don’t you perform your magic show here? I haven’t seen you perform before and I bet Null would be interested!” Both Null’s and Simon’s ears perked up, Simon’s more excitedly as I used his interest to cheer him up. Actually, Simon was a lot more giddy and excited than I thought, acting like a happy puppy that got petted for the first time, his eyes shimmering like how Null’s annoyingly shines once and a while.

“R-Really,” he excitedly, but timidly asked, “are you ok with this Tye I wouldn’t want to disrupt your customers.” Tye cleared his throat in response, his eyes gesturing to the empty cafe. “Oh yeah, well would it be fine if I help you install the stage for it? You don’t need to pay for the construction, I’ll happily do that.” Tye was a bit concerned, mostly guilty from the idea of someone covering the cost of a project, but he could only nod to the sparkling white pup. I thought I heard Simon squeal in joy, but I think it was Null spinning in his chair as another, familiar guest came to join us. It was Robin, the owl I met that was hiding her eyes’ true color, coming over to mostly see what the commotion was.

“A stage you say,” she asked, walking over the counter and briefly greeting Tye and I with a wave. I unconsciously waved back. “I wouldn’t mind adding some of my own earnings for it too. It’d be a great place for me to practice my own arts.”

Simon quickly turned towards Robin, pausing to look at her Eyes before immediately asking, “what’s your talent?”

She paused for a slight second, thinking of what excuse she’s probably trying to use. “I’m actually working on becoming a stage magician.” Those last two words got Simon more excited, eyes sparkling even more as his thoughts accelerated through his mind.

“I can teach you,” he loudly suggested, surprising the owl, “I’m a very professional stage magician and I know almost every trick!” Soon Robin’s eyes shone the same way as the pup, with me soon tuning the two out when they began talking about magic tricks and other performances. Null tapped my shoulder, taking the attention away from them.

“Who’s she,” he asked, “she seemed to know you. New friend?”

“Not really,” I replied, only remembering the chance meeting, “we just met once here at the cafe. Her name is Robin, and I guess she’s into the same thing my dad likes doing.” Looking back at her, I noticed her genuine smile as she talked about swallowing swords and locking herself in water cages. “She’s alright,” I admitted before forming my own smile.

“Yay, then would it be ok if she joined us on our trips,” Null asked, noting my smile. I confusedly looked back at him, prompting him to give his reason. “Well the more the merrier, right? Trips are meant to be fun, so why not share it with more people.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Robin butted in behind me, “don’t worry, I’ll pay for my own things too. And if needed, give you lovebirds some time alone.” I immediately, flusteredly froze, trying my best to give any sort of response before Null decided to chime in.

“That’d be great,” he happily exclaimed, “it’ll be just the four of us!” I felt a bit calmer by his outburst as he patted my back. I hesitantly nodded my head, hearing him cheer again as most of us spent the rest of the day hanging out. Robin and Simon were mostly drawing a draft for the stage while Tye played some board games with Null and I. Null was practically shaking the whole time, wondering where we’re going to go, somewhat infecting me with his hyper energy.

“Jack…”

I woke up, thinking it was Null calling my name, but when I looked over to him, he was mumbling about sweets in his peaceful sleep. I tiredly, but happily sighed, laying back down again as I held Null close. As if on instinct, he turned and wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing our bare bodies close as I couldn’t stop purring from his soft touch. Soon falling back to sleep, enjoying the touch of my wolf as much as I could before starting the day.

After some considerable time had passed, Adel allowed me to travel the world. Though from my talks with him, he didn’t know about my relationship with Null, I guess Simon hid that part from him. Instead of being assigned to go somewhere, Adel offered me access to three places to go, two located in the same continent as the Tower while another is on a different one. So instead of charging head first to unknown lands, I gathered up everyone at the cafe.

“So our options are Rokorook, Florafice, or Alchrem,” Tye noted as the party lounged around, Robin snacking on a donut while Null happily drank away. “So either we go northeast from here, further south, or go to the south western continent. I had visited these places before, but these sure are interesting picks.” He looked over at the owl, before asking, “have you ever gone to these places by any chance Robin?”

“Only Alchrem, but I’d prefer we go somewhere else,” she casually replied, “Jack nor Null don't seem to be the type of people that would care about alchemy. I highly doubt they’ll be interested in visiting. Other than that, I’m fine with going wherever you guys want to go.” I nodded, recalling the complex Alchemist Codex that was installed on my HUD Accessory. “I’m surprised that Rokorook was picked, I’ve heard they’re in the middle of rebuilding from a monster attack earlier this year. Did your dad tell you why he chose those places?” I could only shake my head, shrugging in the process as I wondered why too.

“Well whatever the reason,” Tye continued, “he gave you the permission to explore and we already got the necessary equipment. It’s up to you where we’ll be going Jack, you only have two options since Alchrem is out of the question now.” I was really hoping that they would pick one for me, but guess it’s my turn to make a decision.

“Null, what do you think,” I answered by asking Null, “where do you think we should go?” We all watched as Null quickly, yet nervously finished his drink before gently slamming it on the counter.

“Rokorook,” he happily declared, “it’s on another continent, right? That means we’ll encounter a lot of new things there! We can always travel around the Tower another time.” He looked at me with curious eyes soon enough before he asked, “so how are we going to get there?”

“Well we could go through one of the Dimension Doors at the lobby,” Tye pointed out, “but we could take a boat to the nearest port. The Tower was built near the edge of the continent so we could always set sail as long as there is someone who is willing to take us there.”

“Didn’t you say you were a pirate,” I asked, “can’t you just take us there?”

“I never worked as the helmsman,” he replied, “and even if I had, I don’t have a boat. The captain of the crew I was with was led by my sister and she usually takes the helm.”

“Well let’s see if your sister is available,” Null excitedly suggested, “if not, let’s still get on a boat! I want to see the ocean!” His eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as he immediately stared at me, though innocent his look was, I could faintly see his naughty, little intentions. One that I’m starting to get used to noticing while somewhat obeying to as it always leads to something more intimate. “It’d be fun! We’d probably be rocking around a bit, but at least we can catch the sight of the big blue water!”

And so we did, we headed towards the nearby port and started our voyage by boarding a ship. Even though Tye's sister wasn’t there, there were a couple other boats that were docked. One of them was a pretty big, fancy ship called The Seven Stars that was docked when we got there. Null and I watched as some of its guests departed from the ship, carrying their luggage or bags as they headed towards the Tower. Though I didn’t recognize any of them, Tye surely did as both he and some of the people briefly waved at each other.

“Oh good, we’re just in time,” Tye exclaimed as I looked at him with questions, “the Seven Stars is a famed traveling ocean liner that debuted from a Norren. The ship is well known to have its own massive arena built in the ship and host multiple tournaments featuring fighters from all over the world. Due to some history between the Tower and the company that owns the ship, members of the Tower are given some benefits whenever they board the Seven Stars. Though if the boat ever gets attacked, it’ll be our duty as members of the Tower to protect it at all cost.” I immediately shied away from the thought of killing anything as I was more worried about the cost of the trip.

If Simon or Adel were here, they would definitely try to spoil me by booking me a grandiose room on the ship for Null and I, and the thought of that was too mortifying for me. So with most of the money my dads gave me for the trip, Null and I were able to share a decent cabin together, one I made sure wasn’t too expensive, yet good enough for both me and Null. Tye and Robin shared one as well after splitting the cost between each other, but they made sure that their room would be on the same floor as ours. With our arrangements settled and paid, we boarded on the ship, ready to set sail for a two week excursion to the continent named Norren.

After grabbing our keycards, Null and I entered our cabin, greeted with a big bed perfect for two, a small mounted tv showing the map of the world, and a desk with both a built-in mini fridge and a mirror with toggleable lights. On the edge of the room was a porthole window that was installed to show a view of the ocean along with the horizon’s edge. Instead of immediately checking out the blue, comforting, king-size bed, Null decided to go over towards the hard, metal bottom of the giant porthole window.

“I call dibs on the window,” he excitedly declared as he slid his body down to a comfortable position on the porthole sill, “I wanna sleep while watching the stars!” He soon pressed his face against the glass, waving at the unsuspecting people on the dock, his happy puppy tail wagging around furiously. I shrugged in response, knowing that Null will come crawling back to bed after a night or two, maybe even less depending on how cold the window gets that night.

“Hey, do you want to explore the ship,” I asked while I examined the mini fridge, “it’ll take some time before we depart, so that view won’t change anytime soon. Might as well get used to the layout of the ship instead of staring at the dock for an hour.” I pulled up the ship’s interior map on my HUD, checking on what amenities that I might be interested in, though mostly curious about the arena. I may not be willing to kill, I can at least have some fun fighting at least.

“Sure,” Null happily barked as he hopped off the windowsill and ran to the door. I grabbed the keycard Null carelessly left behind before going out to follow him, which resulted in me sprinting after him down the halls as he already left me behind. By the time I caught up to him, we were already in the ship’s gigantic atrium, with Null staring up three floors of open space above us, prompting me to take in the sight.

Shimmering in the middle of the white and golden atrium was a holographic globe, slowly rotating as it marked the ship’s current location and next destination with a red, dotted line. Around the big space were the three upper floors that have around two big balconies on opposite sides. In the backend where we’re facing, there are two glass elevators constantly moving, guests coming and going before they either make their ascent or descent. In the corners were fountains that occasionally shot out a tall spout of water directly into a translucent pipe that wraps around the room and shoots out into another fountain that's in the center. While I admired the beauty and grandiose nature of the room, Null soon gleefully went up and down the stairs as each step on the white boards produced a colorful light, making a set of rainbow stairs on each ascent and descent.

“He’s such a pup,” I thought, smiling as I watched him having fun, his tail waving around rapidly yet courteously, “but he’s my pup and as long as he’s happy, it’ll be fine.” He soon went over to me, grabbed my arm, and immediately started dragging me around the ship. Running past all various facilities like the pool, the casino, and the gym, we kept running until we reached a room filled with machines that decorate it with flashing colors and noisy bleeps and boops.

It’s an arcade, I never really have any memories of myself playing in one, but at least I know what the place is and by the looks of it, Null knows too. He simply went over to one of the cabinets, one that displayed a two-player game that requires us to use the fake guns tied to it. He casually picked it up, turned towards me and smiled.

“Wanna play,” he asked, his tail wagging, “this looks like it’ll be fun!” I stared at him, wondering what prompted his sudden interest. “Oh! I didn’t remember anything, Tye suggested we should have more fun on our trip, even suggested I go to an arcade with you.”

“I see,” I noted as I went to grab the other gun, “well first time for anything I guess. Do you know how to play by any chance?”

“Nope,” he barked, “but my body remembers, so that’s a start.” He gave me a quick rundown on the gun controller, which was a simple aim like I’m using a firearm, push the trigger to shoot, and cock the top part back to reload. “Wanna see who scores the highest,” he challenged with that cocky smile, “we’re both somewhat on the same playing field this time, so I won’t beat you too hard.”

“I’m going to beat your ass for saying that,” I passively, angrily replied, “why don’t we wager something as well?” I heard Null let out a sly chuckle.

“Oh? What are we betting on this time?” I was going to answer with food, but then I was reminded that the buffet was free along with the dinner for our nights. I didn’t get a good look at the events happening on the boat either, so I can't really do anything that’d embarrass one of us. So instead, I chose my last resort, regretting that I hadn’t thought this through.

“M-My ass,” I quietly answered, Null’s ears perking up, “it was the only thing I could think of.”

“That’s fine, it’s a lot better than what I was thinking,” Null comforted, wrapping an arm around me, “I was going to say, the loser gets to wear whatever swimsuit the winner picks when we go to the pool together. Would’ve loved to see you in this thong I saw earlier, it’s pretty transparent.” I immediately flared up as I forgot about the pool from earlier. “I already claimed yours multiple times before, but I’m always down to do it again.”

“N-Not this time,” I proclaimed, tensing up a bit, “if you lose, your ass is mine, got it?”

“Of course,” he agreed while adding credits to the machine, “but you do know you can have it anytime, right? I’d be down for it as long as you ask.”

“Shut it, it’s not fun if I don’t earn it.” He let out a little chuckle, as I immediately aimed at the start button. “Now let’s start, I want to check out the buffet after this.” I pulled the trigger, starting the game as Null and I competed against each other, fumbling my shots whenever Null got a headshot on a human enemy. Even with just a simple graphic of a squirt of blood, I couldn’t stop thinking what it would actually look like, freezing me in place out of fear again. I only thawed out of my thoughts because Null was beside me, cheering and laughing as he played next to me and soon enough I was joining him too, ignoring my thoughts about life as I tried to catch up to his score. Needless to say, I lost by a substantial amount, but I had fun and getting to see glimpses of Null smiling was worth it in the end. Still, it was a bit embarrassing to admit defeat.

“S-So about that prize,” I shyly admitted, my face feeling hot as we both put back the toy guns, “when do you want to claim it?” My ears lowered, my tail wrapping around my leg as I faced Null.

He simply smiled, leaning close to me to kiss me on my cheek. “We’re not done yet,” he declared with sparkles in his eyes, “that's just round one, we need more if we want to declare the winner. Since I picked a game, it’s your turn!” From there, it would take us an hour of gaming before we went to get lunch, forgetting the bet we both made while we dined on various types of seafood aboard the ship.

After we ate though, Null and I went our separate ways. He wanted to check out the built-in shopping district in the boat while I wanted to check out the arena I saw on the map. I quickly made my way back to my room to get my equipment, only to realize that I forgot to give Null his keycard. After sending a text to Null, I made my way down to the bottom of the ship, taking an elevator instead of the fleets of stairs.

When the elevator doors opened, I was greeted with a gust of hot air and the immense sound of metals clashing against each other. I quickly hopped out, excitedly curious on what opponents I could be facing, and witnessed two familiar people fighting each other in a cage. Inside the grand stage, covered by a metallic cage, were a cat and an owl fighting against each other. Trying not to bother Tye or Robin, I stuck next to the elevator, watching from a distance and began taking notes of each of their movements.

Robin was shooting arrows with her modern crossbow at Tye, who is also shooting back with a silver revolver. It was mostly a dance between the two as Tye swiftly dodges or shoots away the arrows while Robin deflects the ricocheting bullets by coating one of her wings in a magic coating of metal. The fight between the two was going nowhere, until both of them decided to change things up, starting with Robin.

With a sound of a click, the repeating crossbow she was holding soon disassembled itself and reassembled into a pair of steel tonfas, quickly deflecting the remaining bullets Tye shot at her before she flew forward. Tye quickly summoned his digital pad of friendly faces with his free hand, selecting someone at a whim before his revolver instantly changed into a shield, blocking the incoming attack. With a mighty swing, he batted away the owl before his shield digitally transformed into a spear made of bones, splitting it in half to soon clash with Robin. The two go at each other exchanging blows with Tye doing his best to aim for Robin’s openings while Robin takes any openings Tye left behind or ruthlessly overwhelms him. Whenever he did get an opening, Robin quickly closed it up or swiftly moved away before swiftly countering back with a jab. It was pretty interesting to see my mentor lose his cool as he desperately finds a solution to his inevitable loss. As soon as I saw Robin knock him down, I noted some moves that I could use from both fighters then went back on the elevator to see if I could find Null. I checked my messages, finding a recent text from Null saying he’s by the pool, watching over the ocean, and I made my way to his side.

He looked so peaceful, his arms resting against the base of the wooden railing, peering down onto the soothe, crashing waves of the ocean, and his happily wagging tail as he scanned below for endless wonders. I slowly approached him, watching his movements carefully, trying not to make any noise until I was right next to him to see his face. His pair of silver eyes were shimmering like the water as I saw his genuine smile again, the same one that would always make me smile along whenever I see it. “Found anything yet Null,” I asked as I stood next to him, leaning a bit on him as I tried to follow his gaze.

“Not yet,” he exclaimed as he wrapped an arm around me, “but I bet with the both of us, we can!” I let out a little chuckle as I indulged with his search, purring from the warm feeling of my wolf next to me. With the bright sun shining down on us and the salty breeze brushing against our fur, I couldn’t help but get distracted with the atmosphere. I was really tempted to kiss him while his guard was down, a perfect romantic scenario like in the movies, but it’s not a dream, it’s reality.

“Yo,” Robin yelled from afar, catching both me and Null’s attention, “what are you two lovebirds doing?” Coming right behind her was Tye, smiling with a somewhat bruised ego, waving at us as well.

“We’re trying to see if anyone’s swimming along the boat,” Null happily exclaimed.

“Oh that,” Tye butted in as he made his way to our side, “had that happened multiple times back in my pirate days. Not sure how the aquatic cities are faring nowadays, but in the past they usually boarded ships they knew they could steal from.” And thus, Null’s child-like fascination with the rumor dimmed down from hearing the truth.

“I had met some friendly people swimming along once and a while,” Robin swiftly added, brightening up Null’s hope, “it’s usually to safely cross the waters or were hired to protect the crew from sea monsters. Y’know, I met a pair of orca twins, they always had something entertaining to show in case someone was stuck on lookout duty.” She walked over next to us, leaning down as her eyes darted around the waters.

“Found one,” she quickly pointed out, using one of her feathers to point where she’s looking, “it’s a bit hard to see from up here, but you can see that shark’s fin.” Null and I immediately turned our gaze to her direction, Null soon squealed with childish joy as it took a while for me to spot it. It was definitely a fin, but I saw someone underneath it swimming along, detecting a faint trace of magic when I scanned them. Null and I kept an eye on the figure, until Robin started pointing out others swimming along, some of them almost impossible to spot without squinting your eyes. When Null had his fill of people watching, the four of us went to get some dinner, sitting together and enjoying the exquisite cuisine the chefs delivered before heading back to our cabins.

In the middle of the night, I awoke from my slumber of a pitch dark dream by my cute pup. “Jack,” Null quietly whined as he shook my arm, “can you scoot over? I changed my mind.” It took me a moment to process Null’s words, but I lazily rolled over to give him room. “Thanks,” he cooed as he lifted the blanket a bit and slid right in.

As soon as he tiredly crawled under the covers, he immediately hugged me tightly, causing me to purr in delight as a response. “Much better,” he sleepily, yet loudly exclaimed, “your fur is so much better than metal. I love you sooooo much Jack.” He lightly chuckled after saying that before he gave me a lazy smooch on my cheek. I laughed with him, rolling over to see his cute face, looking straight into his silver eyes. Then a thought came to me as we cuddled, not a happy one, but one I should address before it could get tougher to ask.

“Hey Null,” I quietly let out as my smile faded, my heart frozen in fearful anticipation, “when you get your memories back, what do you want to do?” He stared at me blankly, more woken up from the question. “I-I mean, what happens if you remember you were already in a relationship,” I hesitantly continued, “I know it’s very specific and it might be long before it happens, but I-” Before I could finish the question, Null interrupted me with a kiss, a very passionate one.

“You think too much Jack,” he lightly replied as soon as our mouths parted, leaving me a bit stunned, “I know we’re on a little journey to recover them, but I’ll still be Null you knew and loved. Nothing will ever change that.” He soon smiled as he soon confessed, “And besides, I highly doubt that I was important to someone before I got amnesia. I was in the Tower for a long while and no one ever came up to get me. I think it’s safe to say that I didn’t have any meaningful relationships back then, but I sure do have a lot of experiences.” He rapidly raised his eyebrows, naughtily grinning at me, but it took me a minute to realize what he was implying.

“Y-Yeah, it was definitely shocking,” I admitted with some heat rising in me, “but I’m glad to hear you’ll still be with me.” I embraced him tightly, pushing his happy face against my chest. “Once you get your memories back, let’s continue our journey, alright? I want to explore the whole world with you.”

“Yeah, I want that too! I love you Jack.”

“I love you too Null.”

Tab 1

After two weeks of just relaxing and a bit of participating in the events, we made it to the continent of Norren. With some advice from Robin, both Null and I woke up early to see the sunrise and the upcoming town. We watched on the upper deck, the salty breeze brushing our fur as we saw the harbor greeting us with dull, tall buildings that quietly stood behind it. Soon as our ship got closer, the neon lights on the buildings started flickering on and life in the city became more colorful and vibrant. This is the port city named Navineo, the city that deals with technological exports.

I tried scanning the neon lights with my HUD, but my vision was soon filled with multiple annoying ads whenever I targeted one of them. Some more loudly annoying or visually damaging, with some displaying prices that even both my dads would probably die from. I filtered them out immediately, instead picking up multiple signs of drones hovering inside the city, a lot of them carrying something with them. Conveniently my scans also provided me with their prices as well, some even including a HUD Item as a bundle, making me wonder if my dads bought mine from here. I was curious how Null was doing, so I looked over to see his face.

Null was fascinated by the glowing lights and the movement of some of the electronic billboards. His tail happily wagged as lightly hopped up and down, making me want to lovingly hug him close. Multiple drones soon moved towards the dock, all of them carrying bright, neon signs and faces towards the incoming ship. “What do you think they’re doing,” he curiously asked, looking at me with his shimmering eyes.

“I don’t know, maybe they’ll raid the ship,” I joked as I stretched my arm out gesturing a gun, “they’re jealous of all the wonderful food we ate on here. So they’ll start their little drone uprising by sinking a ship.”

“Well they should’ve come here too, I would’ve totally shared with them,” he played along, his body leaning against me. “Though I don't think they could eat anything without a mouth.” He nuzzled his head a bit as we laughed a bit, watching the drones emit a bright screen. They all move and mix with each other, before finishing a giant, flashing sign that says, ‘welcome!’ Null’s tail was wagging around rapidly as his body vibrated in glee, all I did was fondly watch, standing next to him while our ship docked.

With our light belongings, my group of four arrived at a busy dock, one full of advertisers and bots offering a variety of tech. Tye informed me beforehand that they were most likely scammers hanging around the dock, so I held onto Null’s hand with an iron grip and dragged him away as soon as one of them decided to approach us. Despite his heart-wrenching whines, it was for the best, for both him and my wallet, but mostly my wallet. As much as Null and I would love to explore the city, Tye advised we should do so on our way back to the Tower. He wanted to make sure we got to our first destination as quickly as possible, but we were met with a slight detour when we heard there’s a delay for the buses.

Tye, with his calming charms, but mostly with announcements posted on the electronic billboards, was able to find out that there was a monster attack happening right outside of the city. Usually some of the authorities would take care of it, so the speakers advised people not to get involved. We totally ignored that and went out to look for the disturbance, weapons in hand while I steeled myself together for an upcoming fight.

As soon as our group went to check out the monster disturbance, we saw someone already working on it. The monsters around him were just as I read when I was looking at my Monsterpedia, rogue machines made entirely of metal. If I were to fight them, I could spill oil instead of the metallic-smelling blood. The guy the monsters were encircling around was someone I had recognized whenever Tye switches his weapons. Even if I couldn’t see his face, it wasn’t hard to tell it was him due to his species.

It was a blue, muscular tarantula using his multiple arms surrounded by mostly metallic monsters, each hand wearing a unique colored glove from the rest. He was wearing a brown jacket, one custom-made to help slot his extra arms, with each cuff of the arms colored to associate with the gloves. He was wearing some very tight-looking, dark blue pants, kept in check by a black belt wrapped around his waist, where multiple things are attached to it like vials either empty or filled with liquids or herbs. I could see his HUD Item on him, dangling on the belt as well, was a lanyard with glowing character charms attached to it, none of them I would recognize. We were going to go help him, but Tye advised us to watch instead, trusting in a friend that he knew, but everyone else didn't.

The arachnid watched his robotic foes carefully, right of them surrounding from all his sides. Half of the monsters were wolven, with the other being similar to the avian monsters. One of the birds quickly dove at him, only for the tarantula to dodge out the way before delivering a punch to it, with a fist glowing a purple color, shattering the monster metal instantly. With the metal remains scattered, the tarantula opened his palm to reveal a glowing, blinking piece of metal. He magically summoned a thin thread of silk, tying itself onto the piece, picking at it with a finger to reveal a connecting strand between that and the other mechs. With a free hand, he sticks one of his fingers to his fangs, drawing out a poison before touching the thread with the same finger, letting the poison travel along the strand as it instantly starts melting down the metal monsters. He soon noticed us standing by and casually, happily waved at us while wearing his sunglasses to cover his Eyes.

“Hey Tye,” he greeted, pulling the thread he was holding, “let me clean this up real quick.” With a snug, all the bodies of the monsters slowly gathered around his hand, meshing and fusing together into a purple glob of venom. The tarantula spins another thread, weaving a shiny bag before placing the glob, tying it up and disposing it in his bag. He snapped one of his fingers, summoning threads of water out from one of his vials as it flies around the area, shooting out cleansing water before returning back to its glass cage. He quickly, thoroughly scanned the perimeter, his charms and keychains glowing, before he confidently declared, “alright, it’s safe to come over now.”

We went over, with Tye being in the front, gesturing a handshake with the tarantula. “It’s good to see you my friend,” he warmly smiled before he introduced everyone to the group, “though I didn’t expect to see another friend out here, everyone, meet Nervalo Tox. An alchemist and former member of the Tower.”

“Hey I’m still a member,” the tarantula lightly replied as he took out a golden key, “I still have my room key. I’ve been busy running an apothecary back at Alchrem that I haven't got the time to visit.”

“Oh? Why are you out here,” Tye teasingly, yet lovingly probed, “you’re a bit far away from work.”

“Well I came back from delivering some remedies in Rokorook earlier. I’ll head back there later so I can go home, but I wanted to check out Nevineo for some new tools. So are you going to introduce me to your new friends?”

“Yeah, the avian lass over there is Robin, the wolf with the shimmering eyes is Null, and the tiger Jack.” Nervalo stared at me a bit more compared to the others, probably thinking the same thing multiple people did whenever I walked around the Tower with Adel. “We’re actually heading to Rokorook soon to hopefully help Null get his memories back. You were there earlier, so how was the town?”

“It’s doing a lot better, they recently appointed a mayor and he’s doing great on leading the town’s reconstruction. Don’t worry about any monsters, he’s been single-handedly taking them down whenever they start attacking.”

“That’s good, guess he hadn’t lost his edge yet,” Tye happily concluded, soon seeing more people coming our way. “Guess we should get going then, once they make sure the area is secured, the buses will be working again soon enough.”

The tarantula looked a bit disappointed with how quick their reunion was. “That’s fine, it’s nice talking to you again Tye and meeting the rest of you guys. I’ll see you guys over at Rokorook later.”

“Likewise, make sure you don’t get scammed in the city,” Tye advised. Nervalo let out a nervous laugh before bowing and taking his leave, entering back to the port city as the lights casted over his blue body. “Now let’s get going everyone, the faster we get to town, the longer we get to tour around,” Tye chirped as he led us towards the bus station.

When we arrived at the town, we were greeted with a sight of multiple wooden, oriental buildings evenly placed next to each other as multiple futuristic runic robots flew over them. Though not all the buildings were intact, some of the buildings were destroyed or were left where they were inhabitable. The robots themselves were just three big, metal balls attached to each other with three spinning blades above each one, with all of the ones we saw carrying some heavy amounts of various building materials. We hopped off the bus we were in, Tye tipping the driver a generous amount, and went on our way down towards town. As I somewhat expected, the curious Null immediately started following the flying robots and I went after him, leaving the chaperones by themselves.

By the time Null stopped, we arrived at a construction zone of some big building being built. From how the building looks, it was pretty much almost done, the exterior looks finished and the drones were just flying into the building with materials. From the signs placed on the fencing surrounding the building, it looked like some sort of mall or market building being made with a mix of some sort of arena as well. It’d probably be fun to come here again with Null once it’s done.

“Welcome to Rokorook,” a voice called out behind us. When Null and I turned, we were met with a tall, muscular black wolf wearing a light black jacket along with a pair of black denim pants, both of them having purple, rectangular lights scattered neatly on the joints of the limbs. Underneath the jacket was a plain dark purple shirt, but looking closely, the wolf was wearing a black skin tight suit with a bit of white vertical lines. Though covering his right arm was a Kote, a gauntlet covered in dark purple metals as it seemed to have been altered to have the same purple lights on his clothes. Despite how calm and peaceful he looks, the gaze from his red Eyes were the opposite, one filled with a sense of fury. “May I know who you two are,” he elegantly asked as he casually rested his right hand on the hilt of his katana, sheathed in with a black scabbard with blue ropes, “and might you tell me why you two are here?”

“I’m Null,” my boyfriend blurted and I immediately covered his mouth after. My left hand held onto the hilt of my sword as I could definitely feel something emitting from the wolf as his gaze was on me, something passively dangerous behind his calm smile.

“And I’m Jack Heart,” I introduced myself, letting go of Null’s mouth, “we were just traveling, sorry if we were intruding. My friend here got very curious about the robots and recklessly followed them here.”

“Oh, so you’re Adel’s kid,” the black wolf replied, his red eyes narrowing before lightly opening up, “well as long as you two aren’t putting yourselves or anyone else in danger, it should be fine.” The aura he was exuding faded away as I noticed the lights on him dimming down as well. “It’s nice to meet someone new from the Tower again, I’m Black’O Night,” the warrior introduced himself with a light bow, “but everyone calls me Black. I’m both an official member of the Tower and the mayor of this town. Although, once the reconstruction is done, I’m stepping down.”

“Oh, you didn’t want to be the mayor?”

“Not exactly, but I had to,” he answered as he walked towards the buildsite, “no one was willing to step up to be a leader after the monster attacks, so I chose to fill in that role. I had to get some help from a friend, but I’ve been quite busy overlooking this town. I’m not one for thinking about policies and stuff, so I’m going to continue my life here as one of the local mercenaries after the town is rebuilt.”

“You’re not going back to the Tower?”

“Yeah,” he answered, tilting his head towards the sky, looking at the clouds above us, “this town meant a lot to me when I was young. Even more since I was to be an heir of a Lord after all. I would’ve ruled this place hadn’t I run away from my duties.” I was astonished, he didn’t seem like some sort of prince, like me, but he just let out a little chuckle before explaining himself. “My family used to rule this town long ago, they swore an oath to ensure that the people here are protected and taken care of. I never took that oath nor had I planned on doing so, I’m not the guy that’s ready to sit down and be smart enough to run a town, but I know I’m strong enough to protect this town.” Soon enough, another question came to mind as I wondered about his connection with my dad.

“What’s your relationship with my dad? You mentioned his name earlier, but you weren’t as receptive when you knew I was his son.” I looked over at Null, checking on him, only to see him intently listening in. It felt nice seeing him do his best to be there for me.

“That demon, I know almost nothing, but danger and death were always surrounding him,” he coldly answered as he leaned against the fence, “I do know more about the man his soul was a part of, Adam. I used to travel with him when he was just a wandering adventurer, a very reckless man that readily threw himself to protect people, but a man that my brother and I willingly followed for years nonetheless. He even saved us a couple times, whether it was in combat or dealing with our own set of troubles.” He looked over at my sheathed sword as a question formed in his mind.

“You may have heard of my brother before since you still lived at the Tower, but does the name, Bloody Red ring any bells?” I shook my head, not recalling anyone I met with that name, then again, I’ve just stayed at the cafe for most of my time. “That’s a shame, he’s a pretty skilled swordsman, I bet you could learn something from him if you asked. Well since you’re my friend’s son in a technical stance, I might as well lend you a helping hand, from one heir to another. If you need advice, I’ll happily provide.” He hopped off the fence, motioning his hand for me and Null to follow. “Let’s go,” he casually ordered, “if we were to talk, it’d be with your group.”

As we were walking down through, we saw a crowd forming from the side of the road. To Black, it’d probably be just some random noise, but Null and I heard a familiar voice and we immediately went to check. After getting past the initial wall of people, I had to suppress my innate squeal that I almost let out when I saw a blue wolf in a cowboy outfit among a group of five people. Null however, was shaking violently as his eyes were sparkling like crazy, a tamer reaction than I thought, but we both knew who the group was.

Though they’re just the actors, they’re the heroes in a show called ‘The Rocking Roll Rangers,’ a band of heroes that perform while also protecting citizens from evil. From the group, I could easily tell who was who, but then again it wasn’t that hard to do that with who they are. The lion with the red mane is Red Rum, a caring, extroverted guy that lifts up the gang while being the main vocalist. The yellow dragon that has some golden scales is Yellow Cider, the energetic lass that plays the bass and is a pretty good mechanic. The albino cougar is White Wine, an elegant woman that cares for the team, but has a dominating presence whether she’s on drums or in fights. The grey shark with multiple golden earrings on his fin is Black Beer, one of the rival rangers with a heavy backstory that joined in later with the group as the other vocalists. Lastly was my favorite, a blue wolf in a brown trench coat named Blue Whiskey, the lead guitarist that always tries to do everything by himself so the others don’t have to work so hard.

“You two know them,” Black innocently asked, interrupting me from internally nerding out. I shook my head immediately, heat coursing through my entire body as I tried my best to deny it. I did my best to hide the Blue Whiskey pin I was wearing as well, tightly clinging onto my jacket.

“Yep,” Null happily cheered, making me flare up even more, “they’re from this show that Jack and I watch a lot.” I wanted to scream when I saw Black smiling in response. “Oh I have an idea, let’s go get an autograph,” Null suggested, “it’d be a great souvenir!”

“D-Do we even have time for that,” I asked, hoping Black would stop him.

“Go right ahead,” Black allowed with a relaxed smile, “I can call your friends over while I wait. Tye contacted me earlier after all.” Before I could ask or beg, Null grabbed me by the neck and dragged me to the long line, my body shaking out of nervousness and fear the closer we got to the group of actors. Even with Null, I couldn’t stop shaking, probably because he was as well, but at least he was more excited than nervous compared to me.

“Hii’mahugefanofyours,” Null gabbled as soon as we went to the lion actor, his favorite one compared to the others. It took a second for me to process what Null just said, but the lion lightly chuckled from the outburst.

“Take deep breaths dude,” the lion advised, with Null obediently following by standing tall as if he was saluting someone. I watched his chest inflate and deflate slowly as he took deep breaths, his shaking lessening each time. His hands were shaking, but at least he wasn’t vibrating on the stage. “Feel better,” he asked, Null quickly nodding, “good. So I’m guessing you both are fans of the show?”

“Yes!” | “N-No…”

“Yes we are,” Null immediately continued as he tugged on my arm, “by the way, is it true that Red Rum and Blue Whiskey were originally written to just be rivals?”

“Yeah,” the actor answered happily, “though due to how popular the two are when paired together, the writers sort of just went along with it.” He looked over at the blue wolf that was busy dealing with other fans. “He and I are fine with doing those types of scenes, I think he enjoys it more than I do.”

“Interesting, I was curious about it when I read the interviews,” Null noted as he turned his gaze between me and the wolf. “Oh yeah, mind if I get your autograph?”

“Sure! Anything for the fans,” the lion cheerfully agreed as he took a poster of his character and signed it in a messy fashion. “Here you go, thanks for your support,” the lion warmly thanked as he gave the poster to Null, who started shaking uncontrollably again. To avoid any injuries, I escorted Null away and back to the edge of the crowd around us.

“OkJacklet’sgotalktoyouridol,” Null immediately gabbled again as his eyes filled with a lot more sparkles, not realizing we were already away from the long line.

“N-No it’s fine,” I answered after some processing, “I don’t want you to wait in line again.”

“Icantotallywaitlet’sgolet’sgo.” He was even more excited now, as he was just hopping in place and his tail was wagging crazy.

“You need to calm down, come on, let’s go get some treats or something,” I suggested, soon spotting Tye and Robin talking with Black. Soon the blue tarantula from earlier was with them as well, carrying some bags already. “Hey, Tye and Robin are here, along with that spider guy from earlier. We shouldn’t want them to wait for us too long, right?” Null looked at me directly in the eyes, a tiny bit upset from my cowardice.

“Fine,” Null reluctantly mumbled, pouting at me as I could feel his heartbeat slow down. “But if we see them again, I’m dragging you over to get Blue Whiskey’s autograph.”

“It’s fine, as long as you have something, I have something as well,” I explained, with Null still pouting, “but I promise you I’ll get it eventually. We can put our posters next to each other.” Null let out a cheer as we went to meet up with the rest of our friends, not knowing we’ll be given our first assignment.