The Bitter Few 2 (Patreon)

The Bitter Few 2 - or ‘The Plight of Human-Kivouackian Circumstances’ (The August Few: Amygdala, Human!SI)

Getting up from bed was a hurdle. Lucy was being quite incessant with her yapping and yet didn’t push her luck.

Self-preservation may be key, but perhaps there was more. I think it was the Bookburrow that she hung around the most in these last few years that redefined her. It was common knowledge that Sally Sefton, owner of said ‘Bank’ within Vileborne, was close to Lucy, but Lucy wasn’t too close to the intellectual fellow.

I met her once, and I could get the sense of it. Sally was too mellow for Lucy’s tastes. Calm and collected she could be, the Lacemaker was still chaotic deep in her heart. Enough that today was going to be the day of a potential murder or two which I may be involved in.

Despite what little care I had for Lucy’s vindictive streak, I still found her reasoning compelling. Goldune was a bastard, and her instinct was telling her just as much. I couldn’t blame her, not when he just up and left us to our own devices. He ditched us, clearly compelled by something that was not making him interested to linger around to tell us why.

I saw this as befitting. I would have been hesitant years ago but… I got accustomed to this world’s brutality. If not fully, at least enough to know this was justice within reason.

“C’mon, ol’ love. We can’t keep stalin’ for long.”

“Don’t rush a murder, Luce,” I hummed quietly while finishing to fix my mask and clothes. I saw the Fowler pause briefly at my words.

“W-We’re not goin’ to murder him, you silly twat.”

She didn’t sound like she meant it. Truly, it was a struggle going on inside her head.

“That’s what you’re saying, yet you are itching to have a go with him.”

“I-I don’t.”

There was silence for a while as I started to follow her outside.

“Well… Not fully. Maybe he has a reason.”

“How did you learn of his return?”

“I saw him. He visited Sally-”

“Why?”

“I was gettin’ there, ye prick!” The feline Kiv snapped with barely-veiled anger, then she deflated. “Sorry, love. I am not-”

“You are upset. I get it.”

“Do ya? Do ya really?” Like a tease, but more of a questioning pressure that came from within. I snorted in amusement at how invested she was about this. How fragile she suddenly sounded compared to her usual self.

“I know you, Lucy,” I replied truthfully as we finally left the building. This time the Kiv climbed on my leg and arm before settling on my shoulder. It was a custom she kept close to me during those trips together in town. “I know that he messed us both with his disappearance. I don’t blame you if you’re angry, because I am too.”

“...Thank you.”

It was muffled, but she heard my smile as her words reached my ears.

“So, let’s get back on topic. Why is he here now?”

“Some strange bottles. He mentioned the… the guy that starts with F and you told me the Yolsh would be on us if we started utterin’ it around.”

Fontaine. That’s… Fuck. That’s not good at all.

“Was he alone?” I asked and she shook her head.

“Someone dallied with him- he put somethin’ up to trade and got the bottles, then to Sally and now to Conny’s Chopshop.”

The pattern was familiar. He didn’t change much in his usual routine. It was the right time to…

Lucy seemed to pick up that my pace had increased. Surprise flared even more within her features as she realized I was no longer walking for the Chopshop.

“Where–”

“He is not going to keep by Conline’s Biz for long. He needs another hunger to sate.”

Perked was Lucy’s head as she dissected the puzzle with ease. “Dollhouse?”

“Skyler’s to be precise,” I answered positively. “Which means we can’t bust from the front. Not me, you could.”

“Can I?”

“Only if you keep away from glances. No risking yourself until I am in range.”

“Duly noted, Jo’.”

Ugh.

Despite that brief disgust at the nickname, I managed to make it to the Dollhouse in time. What is a Dollhouse? Think of it as the Kivouack’s version of brothels. But instead of the simple pleasure of sex, the debauchery incurred through the use of self-rottulating bodies that have been treated to be used as prostitutes- Dollfaces.

I had visited Skyler’s Dollhouse twice in the four years I have been there, both by force as Goldune just wanted to see me squirm at times. Poor Skyler, the spiderly lady, didn’t deserve the grief. She could see I wasn’t the kind of fellow that found pleasure in places like this.

She was known to make the most delicious tea-like brew in town, she made me a few cups of those. Good Kiv, sadly… she had a shitty job. I saw Goldune enter the place right as we got close enough. It was perfect- and Lucy was already off my shoulder and slithering close to the ground, getting to her destination and sneaking from the front door and then through some cupboards and planks by the ceilings.

I never got much of an understanding of this place to know how to enter from the side. Still, Goldune loved to keep to the ground floor. It was ‘safer’ for potential escapes. So, I just had to find a window on the side that didn’t lead to Kiv horni time, and I should be fine.

Two minutes later, and I found a window. Rear door, no one was checking around. I suppose things have been quiet enough to avoid security there. I opened the window and got in. Trying to catch up with Lucy, knowing that she would not risk herself too fast and… I saw her. Crouching by the hallway, the Fowler glanced up at me. Surprise but also delight. She was not alone, that relieved her to some extent but… I merely approached.

I could see from the mostly-closed door she kept by that Goldune was busy with a… new one. Never seen her face before… Yet, something about her frame didn’t please me at all. It wasn’t aesthetics, it was like… she had muscles. She was trained- a former Blood Fighter? An ex-Yolsh agent? Both options were worrying.

Could this be a raid or a sting operation? It would make sense that the Yolsh would set up such a plan to kill off new weed growing from Fontaine’s taint but… no. It was too clumsy- too casual. Too little presence of new faces. A coincidence.

And as Goldune started to play with her dollface, I saw Lucy getting antsy.

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I am not. I want to talk to him.”

I have seen this comedy sketch before.

“Luce, don’t do it.”

“I-”

“I know, you want answers, but right now it’s not the right time.”

She scowled, gnawing her teeth as her logic and her instinct clashed on what to do. And it didn’t help how ‘tempting’ it was to see Goldune deeply intoxicated and slowly losing touch with reality. It was too tempting- enough that Lucy bolted through the room and… towards the bottles.

“L–” I paused at a letter, glaring at the critter as she gave me a brief sorry look before focusing on the bottles. But I could see Goldune far from asleep. He noticed the wood floor groaning as Lucy rushed inside, and then his gaze was aimed at the Fowler.

I growled quietly, retrieving the sharp knife I had gotten out of a trade with some papers. It was sharp enough to hurt, but not enough to kill. Normal weapons just can’t do it with mature Kivs and… Yet, it was the only tool I could get my hands on to bolster my survival rate.

Even as intoxicated as he was, the bastard was still a threat. I was holding the door’s handle, ready to bust in and help Lucy get out. I could hear them talk and then shout. Finally, I readied myself for a big fight and-

Right as I opened the door, white flames slammed against my entire body.

My current outfit didn’t get burned despite the intensity of the fire, but something hurt like hell. My right eye. For some reason the fire had been far more intense on that side of the mask, breaking through and striking my eye for a brief moment. I thought I had lost it for a moment, my mind dizzy at the loud noise of ‘screeching’ coming from the fire itself, the floor collapsing as I found myself hurling down what felt like pipes to a sewage system. My arms shifted fast, tanking most of the pain and leaving me with two sore arms and a very aching right eye.

I could… see. I could. I felt something pouring out, something syrupy in appearance but far from blood. It was black with blue spots. That was not a good sign compared to the still scary but familiar red blood.

Despite the conditions I was in, I managed to get up in time that the entire Dollhouse was burning fast. I heard someone running from a parallel tunnel into the sewers, and I could hear Lucy’s small footsteps and-

Goldune.

Ignoring the pain and covering my eye with a hand, I started to chase after the noise. I was close, I could tell Goldune was not paying attention that he was being chased. He was after Lucy, and, for a time, I didn’t know why.

Then, he stopped, right as Lucy had hit a deadend into a large drainage system. He was missing an ear, his tails were ruined, his fur if not dirty was outright burned off as skin had been melted.

It was an ugly mutilation for sure but… what caused this? The bottles? Like the one Lucy was holding right now?!

Shit.

It was there that Goldune realized I was standing behind him. He turned around, grinning angrily.

“So, it wasn’t just the Fowler- even the stinkin’ furless mongrel had to come and play. Don’t tell me, you too want to ‘chide me’ for being a bad friend?”

“I would say I want to stab you for being a bastard. I guess it’s only fitting a rat like you finds his death in the sewers.”

He snarled. “John, out of all people- You know better than me and better than Lacemaker that there is more to this world than just ‘friendship’!”

“Hence why I want you dead for being a bad employer. Sucks that you weren’t a friend of mine, maybe I would have lessened the punishment to something less… execution-like.”

“You- You think that you can win?! You’re no Kivouackian! You are less than us, you are weaker!”

He rushed for me, blades manifesting from his bones and revealing the full extent of how fucked I was. Or should have been. For some reason, part of my vision had some ‘scars’ manifesting over Goldune’s body. It was lines that softly layered on his fur and clothes. I focused on a specific set by his chest. It was the least defended and… I struck him by instinct.

Surprise flashed on the foxy fellow, but as he expected an easy time, he definitely didn’t think that I would have had a reason to hit forward. Right as my blade cut through his exposed chest, carving into the line shown by my strange sight, I saw his body go stiff and his blades forcibly retracted back into the bones.

Shock fully materialized. “W-Wha–!”

Right as he recoiled, I punched him back, the hit stunning him further- just enough for Lucy to deliver her own attack. Her claws were not too sharp, but Goldune had forgotten his clothes. It was just his fur and his soft flesh. The claws cut through, but the sudden sharp pain may have snapped him out of his shock. He rapidly turned around, punching Lucy back. The Fowler managed to land on the shaky railing, but Goldune rushed against her.

I caught up to him, but as I tried to stop him from pushing her off, I ended up tripping with him and the three of us were sent towards the active drain system. He got a hit on Lucy, I heard her scream in pain under the water, but I started to viciously stab back. The smelly and putrid liquid of the sewage system barely registered by my brain as I had a single thing in mind- kill this bastard before he kills Lucy.

And Lucy herself wasn’t holding back herself.

The claustrophobic trip down the drain was as unpleasant as it could be, and the murderous exchange lasted long enough to truly pump out all the air in my lungs. Goldune failed to struggle against a downward pull, while Lucy and I managed to push forward and let him sink deeper into his wet doom. I had my right hand holding her, seeing blood pouring from her face as we soon resurfaced… out.

Out of Vileborne, but not into the Madness Frontier. No, we were  on the path to Miviam. Deeper into the belly of the beast that was the Kivouack’s Underbirth.

I slowly stood up and walked up to Lucy. Her face was aimed at the water, the spot cleaner and allowing for a reflection. Her right eye was fucked- gone was the silver eyes as the right one was now full red- iris and sclera and pupil. Broken, but still working.

I saw it in her glance at herself. But then I saw her notice my own reflection. It was there that I realized my own injury. If before I had wondered if my broken mask now showed my human self, I was shocked to see that wasn’t the case: as if mocking us both, my eye was now a full blue.

My iris and sclera and pupil. But instead of a mere shade of blue, I could see ‘dust’ in it. Tiny nebulas of stars that smudged the pure smooth sky. It was a pretty thing… in a sea of pure darkness.

The skin around my eye had gone full black. It wasn’t a case of melanin, but rather my flesh had seemingly been burned. And yet it wasn’t charred or ashy. It was as if the fire had stained it a pitch dark color.

“Jo’?” I heard Lucy speak, causing me to turn to her. “I… I am sorry. This is my mess-”

“No.”

“I should have held back-”

“Don’t do this.”

“I-”

“No,” I stopped her at once, lifting her up from the ground and bringing her close to my chest. “You aren’t getting all the blame on yourself.”

There was a pause, then a sob. A small one, and yet followed by a louder one. Lucy was crying. Blood poured from her wounded eye as she tried to bury her face on my upper torso, consumed by genuine pain, both physical and emotional.

I didn’t say much, only holding her close. I caressed the back of her head, I hummed a mindless lullaby, I didn’t stop her from letting go for a moment. And it was a strange place to do this. From the filth we pushed through, our own stains were coming loose.

Her tail was still clutching the bottle, the thing had survived the ordeal much to my surprise, but I focused once more on Lucy.

“Do you… remember the first time we met? When we did a ‘truce’?”

Gulping weakly, the Fowler nodded slowly. “I-I do?”

“Do you know why I decided to do that?”

She shook her head, looking up as her curious gaze filtered through her sorrow.

“I saw a fire in your eyes. I saw a blaze that was unwilling to die. You wanted to claw back at me, you wanted to put your all out to survive, you did not want to die because you knew you didn’t deserve to die.”

…

“Luce, you are not… broken. You are not. You hit rock bottom. So did I. And you know what happens now?”

“We… die?”

I frowned, booping her nose. “Nope, silly girl. We go up, for that’s the only direction left for us to entertain.”

“Up?”

“Well, I doubt we can go back home after what happened- Vileborne got a bit too noisy anyway,” I remarked jovially. “So… Miviam it is.”

She frowned at this. “L-Like that? We just… leave?”

“If you have a better plan, I will give you ear. But right now, we need to. Too much spice, the Yolsh will be all over.”

Nodding softly, Lucy crawled up to my right shoulder, appearing extremely tired. I had woken up just less than an hour ago, but the idea of hitting a bed felt wonderful. But we had a trek to do, and Luce was already tired as she was.

To Miviam, we move… away from trouble, I seriously hope.