-Al Franken

"Okay… okay, five minutes. I'm done."

"Um, done, Master?"

Seras awkwardly asked the question while adjusting her newest set of clothes, after she deemed her last set unsalvageable by hand washing in the lake. This latest set was one John was rather fond of, though he wasn't sure what had made Seras pick it in particular. A black dress jacket not unlike her others, this one with a plunging neckline bordered by two folded collar lengths and connected with a double set of large golden buttons, combined with a pair of skin-tight, flexible black shorts and… John was torn on whether the outfit was sexy or intimidating. Probably both, and he wasn't sure which one caused the other.

"Done with moping," John said, standing up and brushing himself off quickly. "I fucked up. Big time, and I gave myself five minutes to get the fuck over it. I've seen too many people wallowing in their misery and done too much of it myself. I'm gonna fix this… somehow."

"I'm sure you'll find a way. You've done a lotta good so far… I'm really happy you aren't lettin' the little stuff drag ya down anymore."

"Okay, get yourself ready. I'm going to go try to find Lunaya, then apologize to Maera for dumping a bathtub full of water on top of her."

John wasn't really sure where he would find Lunaya, but he had to at least try. He was grateful he hadn't added in the extra zones that he'd promised Maera yet, or it would've been completely hopeless. Tricia's drone was still whirring, so using it to his advantage was out of the question. He didn't really want to rope the others into helping fix his fuck up either, but with time being so precious, he couldn’t afford to delay things just to save his pride.

Fortunately, Sophia was nearby after disrobing and cleansing herself in the lake, resting idly in the grass with her wings stretched out and idly waving back and forth, enjoying the touch of the soft grass.

"Sophia, could you help me out? Lunaya ran off toward the forest, I need to find her, and if you spot her from above, that would really speed things up."

"If you like, I could carry you up. Together we would have a greater chance of spotting her through gaps in the treetops."

John's natural instincts kicked in for a moment, causing him to wonder how a highly-toned woman's wings could support the both of them in the air, even with her nearly twenty-foot wingspan at full width. Their power was clearly outside the realm of physical limitations though. Most of the time she didn't even have them out all the way - not unless she was flying well above the trees and had plenty of room to stretch, turn, and swoop. When she was coasting the horizon or fighting indoors as she had earlier that day, they seemed to be able to shrink to almost any size.

"That's amazing. How much do you think that you could lift, Sophia?"

"You would be no problem at all, Father. I could carry as many as three people of your size, I think, though how to secure them would be a matter all its own. I've not yet had the opportunity to test my own capacity, but I feel as though I could still carry you even if I were to be wearing a full suit of armor."

"A suit of armor? Is that something you'd want?"

"Well… while I think that the woman you call Moira is an unappreciative and offensive mark on the world, she and her Order have quite impressive raiments. The extent of yours is less than theirs, but the runes you have added seem quite useful. Perhaps you could teach me how to create them and allow me a chance to work on my own armor?"

"I still need to make a Smelter before I can do any of that myself, and I'd need someone who knows a bit more about it to actually teach you how… I was planning to get a Smelter already, though, so I can at least work toward that. Maybe we can even finish it today. Evellyn?"

"Unfortunately, the only Smelters small enough to be crafted by your Crafting skill alone would likely require materials too advanced for you to acquire in such a short time frame. You would need metals, a fuel source and distribution method, and a containment field capable of melting various metals, some non-native to this world, all within a space approximately four-hundred cubic feet or less, which is the maximum capacity of Crafting on its own. In order to craft a more low-tech but cheaper Smelter, you would need a far larger area, and so it would require a use of your Build ability in conjunction - which in turn requires a build timer. Estimated minimum completion time: eight hours."

"So much for that… it'll have to wait. For now, let's focus on Lunaya."

"Of course."

It was as simple as Sophia had said, apparently. All she did was gently hook her arms under John's own, a grip as firm and solid as steel, and then John was airborne.

The feeling of leaving the ground was extravagant. Gravity tugged at his heels as Sophia lifted him skyward, but it could not overcome the Harpy’s overpowering wingstrokes. John’s head pressed into Sophia’s shoulder as she turned forward, nestling in against her collarbone. He was expecting her to go fully horizontal, but Sophia's wings seemed incredibly flexible - they almost rotated on her shoulders, whether by physical or magical methods. In spite of how badly he felt still, and the focus he was trying to maintain, John couldn’t help the feeling welling in his chest about just how exhilarating it really was to be flying. With the rest of what he could do, he wished he could say that it was as impressive or impossible as it had once seemed… but it was amazing all the same.

"Depending on which section she's in, we may not be able to see her from too high. I will maximize our field of view while keeping us low enough to spot the small gaps that may give her away. Do you have any sort of tracking magic, Father?"

"No, I haven't been able to develop much in the way of utility spells with the war going. We have to do this manually, but… I've got an idea."

John didn't know exactly where Lunaya had gone to train with Maera, but he had seen a very few key things in her vision, and he vaguely remembered the direction that the last place he'd found her training was in. It was a large clearing with a tree taller than most of the rest near the edge, and if it was anywhere near where John had found the Canid doing pull-ups, it wouldn't take too much searching.

John's instincts didn't prove far off. While she wasn't actually in the clearing, Sophia eventually spotted her curled up under a tree several yards outside the clear area, hiding in the shadows of the forest.

"Put me down over there," John signaled, pointing to the side of the clearing farthest from Lunaya. "Then get Seras and bring her here. Once we're done, we're going to go straight into a Barrier. Maximize our efficiency."

"Of course, Father."

"And we're going to be hunting Dwarves and such again… by the end of the day, I plan to have you a full suit of armor."

"Of course, Father."

The pride and happiness, blunted as they were by Sophia's ever-deferential attitude, did not go unnoticed by John, nor the unusually uneven beat of her wings as she set John down like a delicate bundle on the ground and immediately soared back into the sky with those immensely powerful wings of hers.

John approached Lunaya uncertainly. The Canid Reaper that had once been nothing more than a pacifistic and vaguely submissive doggirl who held a grudge against him was evolving. No, rather, John's understanding of her was evolving through time and a method of communication. She was a young woman who John had torn away from her family, cut out her vocal cords, and trapped in a tiny, isolated world with two young Nekos that he expected her to babysit. Hell, judging by the looks of the age of most of her family, she'd been the youngest or second-youngest of the pack. Her strange lust for attention and dominance might have even been her compensating and trying to return to those days- No. John was done assuming things about her.

"Evellyn, don't visualize if you don't have to - I don't want to scare her - but… do we have enough points for a day and night cycle yet?"

"Yes, Master Newman. As I indicated earlier, your latest dungeon completion was more than enough to push you over the edge. If you choose to implement a day/night cycle currently, along with an illusion of a sun and moon, it will cost you 100 points, while you currently possess 102. Would you like to do this?"

"Yeah, do it." John extended his stride, nearly halfway across the clearing now. Lunaya had noticed them before they even landed, but John was relieved to see that she was not retreating from them. The closer he walked, though, the more he couldn't help but notice the reddened eyes, the defeated posture, and the way she was fighting to summon the energy for a glare.

"What length of cycle would you prefer? And what time would you like to set it to?"

"Um… just make it a twelve-on, twelve-off deal. But start it at night, just after dusk. And… make it a full moon. Make it a nice big one. And then… bring up the Purify description for me." Risky? Perhaps. But John was growing bolder by the day, and it hadn't backfired yet. Aside from all the times that he had almost died.

"Lunaya?" John said cautiously as he came within a dozen yards of her, breaking through the first trees at the edge of the clearing. Lunaya stayed huddled up, hands over her knees as she stared into his eyes. Around John, the world abruptly shifted. A sun appeared somewhere above him, and then vanished into the ether as it seemed like the fast-forward button was hit. If John had been looking up, it might have given him motion sickness; it was like his tiny little planet did a massive one-eighty and flipped over to the night. Sunset, dusk, and then into the black of night - but the full moon shone above, nearly as bright as John had ever seen it. Evellyn seemed to have taken his suggestion and run with it; the moon must have been twice the size of the one back on Earth!

When Lunaya didn't make any hostile motions, John stepped forward further, creeping ever nearer until he was kneeling in the grass only a few feet away, nearly within arm's reach of her. Lunaya huffed, her ears twitching, but her eyes frantically scanned the area as night washed over the forest.

"We just did a dungeon… I wasn't sure what to do first with the points, but I thought that maybe I could do this as an apology. You've been living in eternal sunlight for so long you deserve a little rest from it."

Lunaya furrowed her brows, but seemed more annoyed at his kindness than truly angry. She pulled her legs tighter around her in rejection, lower lip curling slightly.

"I'm truly sorry. I had no idea about, well, any of what you just showed me. None of it. I still don't really know how to use this ability…" John held up an empty palm as if to emphasize what he was talking about, though there was nothing there to show the Purify technique. "Maera and Mithra never talked about families. Seras came from some other realm, and Sophia hatched from an egg and seems to only have some kind of inborn genetic memories of a clan and family lines. I never wanted to take anyone away from something, whatever it was you had, and I really didn't mean to take away your voice. You, um… you sounded beautiful by the way."

Lunaya flushed slightly, something John had seen perhaps once from the Canid before, after she walked in on Maera and Mithra in the middle of what should've been a living room enjoying Caturday at its finest. Her grip on her knees relaxed slightly, though she still kept up her annoyed look.

"I know I don't really have any right to say this. But I wanna fix it. I promised Mithra I'd be a better father, for her and Maera and Sophia. I told Seras I was going to build us a home and be the best person I could, and I still want to do that. I haven't done anything for you. I even suck at teaching you writing… but I can do something. I think." John glanced back to his hand again, holding it out toward her with an open palm held up toward the night sky.

"I double checked. Purify works on Abyssal creatures, not just Barrier monsters. I think you guys still qualify, maybe. I haven't exactly been willing to test it on anyone since I have no idea how to properly use it. I was thinking, after the war, when we have more time to set up a farm and a way for us to all survive here, I could start using the ability again. I can practice, level it up, and get to the point where I can create exactly what I want."

John reached out and took Lunaya by the wrist. Not forcefully, not dominating - that wasn't who he was or what he wanted to convey in that moment. John held it gently between his hands and Lunaya allowed him to peel it away, caressing her palm with a sturdy resolve.

"I will fix you. I hate to say that, Lunaya, because until you showed me how you saw yourself, I never would have called you broken. You're kind, proud, and you definitely aren't afraid to stand up for yourself. If I didn't heal from everything, I'd have the scars on my face to prove it. I don't deserve you, and you sure as hell didn't deserve to get **** into this, into me. But I promise you, I will master this ability, and the second I do… if you trust me, Lunaya, I promise I will give you your voice back."

Lunaya looked almost terrified at the suggestion of Purify being used on her. He couldn't exactly blame her - if John performed it at that moment, he had zero idea what Lunaya would become. She might just become an actual dog; he had no proof that the ability couldn't create mundane creatures or non-humanoids, though so far he only had a semi-harem of monster girls to show for it. But the more John explained his thinking, the more she seemed to calm down. She still had a layer of unease and fear, but underneath that was hope. John was also happy to see that any anger or emphasized annoyance had vanished.

"So… can you forgive me? Not for bringing you here in the first place - I haven't earned that, I don't know if I ever can. But at least for the statue, maybe?"

Lunaya tensed her hand, gripping John by the wrist instead of the other way around. At his lower level, John hardly knew what happened until it was over - one second Lunaya's beautiful eyes were staring into him, each color a different expression of the warring emotions in her soul, and the next John was being propelled toward her, Lunaya's arms wrapping around him as her lips pressed against his. It was a powerful embrace, one that threatened to crush the air right out of John's chest. It was the embrace of a woman crawling through the desert who had stumbled upon an oasis and was flinging herself into it out of fear it could only be a mirage.

Although, as Lunaya's tongue flickered out and her hands shifted to grip John's cheeks, her hips squirming and her breaths coming in flared inhales, he wondered if he wasn't misunderstanding her intentions.

Again.