Dire Fur

-When Vita climbed to the window, she saw the room looked like a storm passed through, the bedsheets were all over the place, the walls had claw marks and black smudges on it, however, there weren’t any signs of bodies. She opened the window and climbed into the room and inspected the damage.-

“What did he do here? He didn’t capture Kasumi, but maybe she used whatever was going on in here to get away.”

-Vita looked around the room and spotted some hair and claw marks on the floor. Even with closer inspections, she was not able to pinpoint what gave the marks.-

“Did… did she turn into a wolf or something? She doesn’t look like she would be in touch with nature so what left these marks?”

Vita continued to walk around looking for some more clues as to what happened but could only find hair and claw marks.

“If she had a pet, she tamed it pretty quick. At least she got out safely, but finding her will be more difficult now.”

Vita climbed back out the window and carefully climbed back down, seeing a few things while trying to get down such as a couple standing in their room with nothing on and seeming to have a normal conversation, a small group of people in a room smoking and one woman masturbating.

“Is this what the mortals do every day? What… naughty beings they are. I need to get back to Akio and check up on him.”

Vita made her way towards Akio as quickly as she could while trying to keep an eye out for the Order’s member in case they were trying to follow her or she could follow them. Vita finally made her way back to where she and Akio were staying and went to check up on his condition. He was awake and greeted Vita with a smile.

“Hello there. That was a long minute there to get us out safely. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold my own against them, but I had to try to buy you some time.”

-Vita walked over to Akio and sat next to him on the bed, breathed heavily then looked at him,-

“I think Kasumi was here.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I went around town to have a look around and I found out that one of the Order members was at the inn she stayed in. That or they were informed where she was.”

-Akio got up quickly and looked at Vita,-

“They have her?”

“No, she escaped but it seemed she had some help, or she is more than just a blacksmith.”

-Akio looked away from Vita but was wondering where Kasumi would go in a situation like this, then remembered that Kasumi wanted to get to someplace soon.-

“I don’t know where she went, but I have a feeling that she needed to get somewhere soon. All we can do is follow her tracks out of town. I doubt she talked to other people here, but we can try at least.”

-Vita stood up and started slowly walking towards the door,-

“I will ask around town, then. As for you, make sure that you stay in bed and hide if you hear someone coming towards the room. Don’t want to risk anything now.”

“Any idea what I should expect if it is you that walks in?”

“You will know. Trust me.”

-Vita walked out of the room, locked the door behind her, and closed it. She made her way downstairs and saw two men, the one near the window looked older than the other, were in the inn’s living room area having a conversation. She decided to ask them first about the incident that occurred earlier.-

“…so we went into this cave and I shit you not, the damn thing was a fucking maze. If we didn’t decide to stick together and use that powder, we would still be down there, with zero rations.”

“What did you guys do after you got out?”

“Excuse me, gentlemen.”

-The men turned towards Vita and one of them looked her up and down.-

“What do you need, miss?”

“Just wanted to know if any of you heard about a woman with an animal that arrived at the tavern nearby?”

“No, but we did she a fellow go in there and come out completely wounded. What the fuck was up with that, I wonder?”

“What do you know about that man?”

“Near nothing really. Honestly, few people know about those people. For a while, they have been our protectors and we could not be any more thankful for them.”

*Great, so there are people who support them. I need to investigate further about them.*

“What exactly are your thoughts about them? Some people don’t like them and there are some, just like you two, who love them and appreciate their services.”

“I think whoever created their Order did a great deed. The people who don’t like them are just demons and heretics. They would rather follow some demon than the calling of the gods.”

-Vita turned to the other man sitting in front of his friend,-

“What about you, sir?”

-The man looked at his friend and nodded,-

“I-I agree with him. They are the light this world needs. However, I think that people who say that they don’t appreciate those guys, probably have a better choice than a group of hooded people walking into town and declaring it as a safe haven without saying which gods they serve.”

“Bah. As long as they are with the gods and kill heretics and demons, I don’t care and neither should you.”

*Obviously, this man thinks that the Order is too centered on crusades and the purging of people who think differently than them. I should ask the proper questions about this town.*

-Vita cleared her throat and looked at the men,-

“What was the town like before the Order arrived? What happened to the law that was already in this land?”

“Hmm. An odd question. What is it you are after, miss?”

“Just curious is all. I believe that knowledge is a great tool and should be used more often as a learning instrument instead of a means towards war.”

-The older man looked at his younger companion who nodded at him. He sighed,-

“Alright. Pull up a chair then, this will be a very long story.”

-Vita pulled a chair near the two men and listened to the story.-

“There was a time when the land was governed by the patriarchy of distant lands who thought that we didn’t know any better and required proper guidance. They would send one of theirs to control this town and place taxes on goods we needed. It was later that our ancestors found out that those same people would ally themselves with demons who grant them otherworldly abilities. Apparently, other areas had the same issue and wanted to figure out what to do, so they tried to take matters into their own hands and confronted the people who they believed were suspected, however, nothing changed in my ancestor’s favor and more demons continued coming and became bold enough to kidnap people from their houses. So, some decided to talk to the church and ask for advice as to what to do, which created the Order.”

-The older man looked at his younger companion who had a look of regret and returned his gaze to Vita before continuing the story,-

“The Order helped our ancestors to get rid of the demons and the corrupt governors. We owe our thanks and our loyalty to them because if they didn’t exist, we would be in a far worse situation than our ancestors.”

-As he said that, he looked at the young man and glared at him.-

I see, so his companion here doesn’t approve of them or he doesn’t approve of their actions. I will have to get him to talk later, but first…

“I’m sure you’ve heard about what they did recently. Burned a store, a house, and killed a family. Do you approve of that action?”

-The old man looked at Vita, shocked as if he hasn’t heard of that before.-

“Wh-what?! That’s a lie. The Order must have had a reason to do that, right?”

-Vita shook her head.-

“I’m afraid not. From what I heard from a few people that managed to escape, they attacked the shop and the family without a reason.”

“N-No. That can’t be right…. Maybe the people didn’t realize that there was a monster in their town and the Order needed to clean the mess.”

“If that is the case, why not just go to find this monster that was in the town instead of killing people? It would save some complications.”

-The talk between Vita and the old man continued for an hour before the young man got up and said that he had to finish his chores before heading back here for the rest of the day. The old man excused his companion and he left the building. Vita looked at the young man and saw that he went towards the marketplace of the town. The old man continued to tell the history of the town and the deeds of the Order for a few more minutes before finally wrapping it up. Vita thanked the man for spending some time to help her understand, then left the building heading towards the marketplace, hoping to find the younger man to hear his side of the story and why he didn’t approve of the Order. It took her almost an hour of searching just a part of the district, but her efforts came up fruitless. Defeated, she decided to head back to the inn that she and Akio were in, then she heard some people were talking about finding some special stones to summon a being that the Order could kill to finally end the threat of demons. Vita continued to listen in to the conversation and heard that a few people were looking for the same stones for various reasons. Vita decided to take whatever information she had and leave before someone notices she was listening in. As she was leaving a group of young adults showed up in front of her blocking her path.-

“Where do you think you’re going? Why not stay a bit and hang with us?” One of the young males asked.

“No thanks. I have other matters to attend to than playing with children.”

“Children? Hear that guys, she called us children.”

-The group laughed as they began to close in on her, but she stood her ground firmly.-

“Please do not do this, I’m not a fan of what you do in your spare time.”

-The group just chuckled as thoughts of what they wanted to do to her appeared in their heads, then Vita pulled out a scimitar from between her tits and pointed it at one of them.-

“I won’t ask again. Run along now or you won’t see the next sunrise.”

-Some of them walked back but a couple stayed their ground and tried to get the others to stay and fight, to no avail, however. The ones that stayed went on the attack but were quickly disarmed thanks to Vita’s quick thinking. She stood where she was, waiting for them to make the next move. She hoped that they would stop attacking and leave her alone, but they continued their attack. She used her scimitar to strike the male’s left leg and kicked the female in the stomach causing her to fall on her ass. The male looked at his leg and picked up a few rocks and threw them at Vita who dodged them and swiped the air causing a wound to appear across his chest.-

“Ah! What the-?!” The man looked back and forth between his wound and Vita and his realization finally kicked in. “Wh-what the hell are you?”

“Oh come on, like you haven’t seen magic or a skilled swordsman before,” Vita said as she twirled her scimitar skillfully.

“You won’t scare me that easily.” The woman got up on her feet and picked up her weapon charging at Vita.

“No, wait!”

-Vita moved out of the way, tripping the woman with her leg and the woman fell on her face. She looked at Vita, got up, and tried again this time stopping at a good distance to thrust the sword at her, keep her near the sword, and not get tricked again. Vita dodged the thrusts and caused a gust of wind to blow into the woman’s face. Luckily for the woman, she shielded her eyes from it and went back on the attack, clashing swords with Vita. The male that was hit, decided to take the opportunity to attack Vita, but she saw him going for her and deflected his attacks while blocking the woman’s. After all that time, a few guards finally showed up and stopped the three, the two told the guards that Vita attacked them for no reason, but Vita calmly explained that everything that happened. Even with conflicting stories and witnesses telling them what happened which was supposed to help Vita, a couple of the guards took Vita and the two young adults to the cells. After putting Vita in her cell, she found out that the other two weren’t with her which only aroused her suspicion.-

“Oi, where are the other two? They should be in a cell just like how you put me in.”

“That’s enough out of you. You will wait here until someone can get you or you can serve your sentence.”

“Serve my sentence? For defending myself from being attacked by a group of bored young adults? Does that make any sense to you at all?”

“I said quiet!”

-Vita scowled at the guard who then closed the door. She looked around the room and chuckled to herself.-

“It seems human greed is worse than I thought. I’ll have to fix that once I’m out.” But first I need to find Kasumi… I wonder if Akio is walking about? No no no, I can’t depend on him, he’s injured anyway, I’ll just have to think of something. Just as she started figuring out her options, a noticeably young man walked in. Vita thought he could be a new recruit for the guards or if the guards were as smart as they are corrupt, they are trying to get her to act so they could get a better reason to keep her in a cell.

“H-Hello.”

-Vita looked at the young man and didn’t say anything. If this was a trap, they would have to try a little better to fool a former goddess. She walked over to the wood bench in her cell and sat down with a sigh.-

“D-Do you need anything while you are here? A snack or something?”

One of the other guards walked in and saw the young guard talking to Vita, “Hey, don’t talk to the prisoner. How many times do we have to tell you that?”

“I’m sorry, sir. It's just that I don’t get why she is in here.”

“She had a weapon out in public and was attacking people, end of story. Now get back in the room.” As the young guard walked back in, the man looked at Vita, “You will get used to your new home if the boss doesn’t bring you to the mines.”

“I will ask again… Why aren’t the others here? Did they pay you to turn an eye away or are you related to them?”

“Shut your trap, bitch!” The guard stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

-After a few hours, Vita was still on the bench, ignoring all the food and water the guards gave her. It became very dark and most of the guards left, except for the young recruit and a gruff man. The man was fast asleep which gave the recruit a reason to try and talk to her again.-

“Umm… Excuse me? Could you tell me what happened?”

-Vita ignored him.-

“Please, I need to know if what they said is true. I’ve caught them in their lies before, but no one wants to believe a word I say.”

“I’ll just say corruption has a way of denying the obvious.”

“I know that very well, ma’am. I’ve tried to talk to my other superiors about their conduct, but it seems all I get are threats. Our governor here doesn’t even care about the words of one guard and frankly… I’m worried about the town’s future.”

“I might be able to try and help you, but only if you let me out. We would have to bring this to someone else since the governor won’t listen.”

“You… you won’t just run away right?”

“You have my word.”

-The young guard stood there for a moment before walking back and silently grabbing the keys. He went to Vita’s cell and tried to open it with the key, however, the lock didn’t budge.-

“This was the key. Why is it not working?”

“Perhaps it only works to your boss’s touch.”

“So… I can’t get you out? Which means that they win…”

“Don’t give up yet, there has to be another way out. You are a smart man, right?”

-The young guard looked at Vita in her eyes and nodded. He went back to the other room and checked his boss’s desk for anything of use while Vita patiently waited. The young guard returned with his head lowered,-

“I’m sorry, I tried to look for something but I couldn’t find anything. I mean maybe some magic could help but my folks forbade me to learn magic.”

“Why?”

“They said it can lead to temptations.”

Vita giggled, “That is true, but it depends on the intentions of the user. You don’t want to use magic for evil intentions, right?”

“If I had magic, I would find out if it could help me expose my superiors and help those who were terrorized by them.”

“Change of plans then…”

“Huh?”

“I will help you learn magic after you find a way to get me out.”

“But how can I get you out?”

“You still have the key right?”

-The young guard showed Vita the keys.-

“Good, give them to me. I might be able to try something.”

-He gave Vita the keys and she looked at it and clenched it in her hand causing a purple light to radiate from the key. When she opened her hand, the key looked the same and she gave it back to him.-

“Try it now.”

-The young guard tried the lock again with the key and it opened. Astonished by this, he looked at her then back at the key and rushed back to put the key back and returned to Vita.-

“Now, you promised.”

“I know, I know. However, this will take a while since we have to find something really bad that a governor cannot ignore.”

“Well, the worst for this one would be killing his daughter. If he tried that or anything worse than that, he’ll get the sword for sure.”

“Come with me. My friend and I should be able to help you, hopefully, we can clean up this town while we are at it…”

-Vita slowly and quietly walked out of the room and opened the door carefully to avoid waking up the sleeping guard. When it was open just enough, the young guard followed her out the building and towards the inn that she and Akio were staying at.-