Lunation of Fate

Everything was not going well with Juste, Chastine, and Maxill.

The bloodhunt did acquire what he had planned in getting from the north, but it costed him his peace and composure.

He even accidentally killed one of his own, even if he only wanted to beat the h*ck out of Dreon.

Not that he cared about the snoopy bloodeye, but he realized that he wasn’t able to control his strength and went overboard just because he was led by his feelings.

Meanwhile, Juste and Chastine have had some bad encounter with none other than Juste’s current nemesis, Scion, the army commander of their clan.

Not only did Scion burnt each southern thorny wolfbane he could find around the region, he also decided to revisit the pair and take the diary of Juste’s mother to burn it before his very eyes.

Among the three, Juste was clearly the most devastated. He was starting to feel that their quest was all for naught.

Without any substantial guide to continue their mission, Juste was thinking how they would be able to complete the needed ingredients and their way to make the Remedium.

And on top of that, what Scion had said earlier to him and Chastine was creeping deeply into his very psyche.

Maxill was the first to arrive at their meet up point.

Granted, he was nearer the area and was a little shaken inside that he sought the comfort of his friends and shake off being consumed by that bad feeling.

He knew that when he would see the two love birds, his current foul mood would change and that he would be himself again.

But an ample time had already passed. Juste and Chastine were still nowhere to be found.

So he placed a spell on the door of the apothecary in that village, a hidden talisman to detect his couple friends when they arrive at the front door of that store.

And from there, Maxill looked for a nice small café within that small open village to try to calm his tension and stress with strawberry cheesecake, his favorite human food.

So far, his comfort food was getting him to cool his head down. Though he still preferred seeing Juste and Chastine.

He was beginning to feel half excited about telling and showing the spoils of his labor to them.

Minutes later, Juste and Chastine finally arrived at their meet up location.

As they stood in front of the apothecary store, one can feel the gloomy mood they were in.

Tired, droopy eyes, hunched backs, and heavy sighing, these were seen of Juste and Chastine as they outwardly expressed their disheartening encounter with their army commander.

Even Chastine’s positive demeanor wasn’t able to overpower the current miserable mood they were feeling.

They just stood there, raising their head up high, and looking at the signage of the apothecary.

They both wondered if they would ever step inside to look for Maxill and tell the bloodhunt that they didn’t get any southern thorny wolfbane and that their guidebook had been burned to bits.

The hidden talisman Maxill set up glowed, indicating that Juste and Chastine had been detected within that area.

Maxill felt his spell activated. Luckily, he had finished eating and was just reading a newspaper just to kill time.

He hurriedly went back to the drug store. He couldn’t wait to see his friends to converse with them about how he had gotten the type of wolfbane he needed to acquire.

He was a few feet to the drugstore door, and as he saw the devastated look of both of his friends, he retracted to tell his tale and was more worried about theirs.

“What happened?” Maxill’s eyebrows furrowed as he spoke in a serious manner.

No explanation was heard from the two. Chastine’s head started to bow down, while Juste tried so hard to make eye contact with Maxill.

He glanced at the tall bloodhunt and the bloodhunt knew what Juste wanted to tell him.

The mission has failed.

“Sorry, Maxill…” Juste finally croaked, albeit weakly, and broke the silence upon them.

Maxill knew it was his time to encourage his disheartened friends.

Even though it wasn’t his forte because he prefers sarcasm and snobbishness, he knew he needed to set them aside and uplift the downcast feelings of his comrades.

He lifted the sack containing his spoils and told the pair, “Here, there’s still hope, Juste.”

Then Maxill gently grabbed Chastine’s hand and led them inside the apothecary.

The door swung open, ringing the bell above it. They were attended by the pharmacist assistant which allowed their request to use the store’s lab equipment. Money does talk.

Juste and Chastine sat down inside, near the door of the laboratory. While Maxill prepared everything to test his specimen to see if it was the wolfbane they were looking for.

The sand bath is almost often used on liquid solutions, but this time, an inconvenient method of using a sand bath was called for to know which type of wolfbane was needed to make the Remedium.

While waiting for the sand on the hot plate to heat up, Maxill wanted to talk to Juste.

So he asked Chastine to look out for the setup, while he asked Juste that they have a one on one talk in somewhere more private, out of Chastine’s earshot: on the balcony outside next to the laboratory, facing a great view of the mountains.

“Do tell me, Juste.” was Maxill’s opening remark to break Juste’s cold and distant mood.

Juste was finding it so hard to come up with the words to describe what happened. But he still managed to explain to Maxill about their predicament.

The sinewy fellhound heaved out a heavy sigh, looked towards the horizon, and said, “…book was burned… Everything was burned… Scion did it.”

“You mean every bush?!”

“…he seems to know what was inside the book, every detail of the Remedium.”

“No shit.”

“We were being played. From the start.”

“Then why? On what end?”

“Beats me, Maxill, but I know something strange is happening back home. Maybe Scion’s just buying time to make it happen.”

“So what’s your plan?”

Juste started to glance at Maxill, whose scarlet eyes were glistening like fire as it touches the sun rays. “I need to go back in there. I fear for my father. My gut instinct is tugging me inside.”

Maxill couldn’t believe what Juste had just spewed out. “What about our quest? What about the Remedium?!”

“I don’t know, Maxill…we lost half our chance.” Juste’s eyes were beginning to look hopeless and at a loss.

Maxill was a bit angry at Juste. It had never occurred to the bloodhunt that this fellhound of a prince was weak by noble standards.

But he needed to handle this situation as level headed as possible. Maxill needed to convince Juste that they should continue on their journey to look for his cure.

“…is this what you really want? I’ve heard from Chas, you already bade farewell to your father.”

“I thought he was safe in there… Scion was very loyal to him.”

“Well, Juste, fact is, people do change. One day they’re celebrating with you, next day they’re going to stab your back. No matter what, you must stay on course. Do you still want to be human?”

“Definitely. I hate being a fellhound. I don’t like to eat humans.”

“Oh, so there lies the problem. You think being a fellhound not eating humans, you would become less of a fellhound?” Maxill started to raise his hands in disapproval.

“It’s an unbreakable tradition amongst fellhounds.”

“Look, Juste, you’re a prince. You can just issue a decree preventing this cannibalism in your clan from happening.”

With Maxill’s words, Juste started to raise an eyebrow. He felt like a total bonafide idiot for not realizing the power he holds amongst his clan.

“So what are you saying, Maxill?”

Maxill didn’t bother to say anything. He merely smirked at the anticipating fellhound.