Double Trouble - Chapter 9 - Rough Draft

Mikaela

“Uh, I get that you want to move on with the quest,” Reckt said, rubbing the back of her head, “but… aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Like what?” I asked. Perhaps I was a touch too cross in my response, judging by the way Reckt flinched, but… Well, I didn’t really have an excuse, I suppose. I was just annoyed that our identity had been revealed so quickly, even if it was to someone in a similar situation.

“I think she means the cocoons,” Charlotte said. “You know, the tiny one? We already cut up the big ones - no humans, thankfully, just a couple dead wolves.”

“Right,” I murmured, frowning at myself for failing to remember something so obvious. The whole rabbit thing had distracted me, though, and the revelations that followed had only made things worse. “I suppose I should see what’s in it… but if it’s another bunny, you’re not keeping it.”

“Of course not!” Charlotte agreed, with surprising ease, before bending down to scoop up Bonny. “I already have my pet! Next one’s yours.”

I scoffed at that, rolling my eyes and trying very hard to suppress the desire that briefly flicked through me. I didn’t need a pet. I couldn’t say that some part of me didn’t want one, but a second rabbit would only bring complications without reward. I’d be far better off just snuggling up with Bonny, if I truly needed to feel the warmth of another creature’s fur.

That said, if the creature inside the cocoon happened to be a more reasonable pet than… No. What was I thinking? I couldn’t have a pet. A pet would just distract me! If anything, I needed a mount of some sort, to better explain how I got from place to place… not something I was liable to find around here.

For now, I shook the ridiculous thought out of my head and approached the cocoon. Digging my fingers into the silk, I pulled it slowly apart, taking my time and checking carefully to find whether there was anything ready to pop out. Nothing did, though - perhaps due to the creature’s weakness? The heartbeat I was hearing was fairly faint…

A little worried, I pulled the webbing apart faster, wondering if perhaps the creature inside needed healing. To my surprise, though, what I found was not a creature at all - at least not yet. It was instead a yellow-ish egg with dark brown speckles across its surface. A large one, at least as big as my sister’s new rabbit.

“Huh,” Charlotte said. “Guess it’s not a pet after all?”

“Looks more like breakfast,” Reckt suggested. “…Well, if you’re willing to eat monster eggs, anyways.”

“I was taught humans feared monster meat,” I remarked, idly turning the egg around to examine it. No cracks or damage to the surface that I could see. “Something about imbibing the darkness within?”

“That’s the old Church doctrine,” Reckt told me. “The current Church says they’re just animals with magic, so… some people actually go out of their way to eat monster meat, now! There’s rumors it’ll fill you with energy and magic… at least according to my dam. A lot of people still won’t touch it, though.”

“I see…” I murmured, filing the knowledge away for later. “Well, regardless, I don’t think this egg would make good eating. It’s been fertilized already, to say the least - though I’m not sure how far the creature actually is from hatching…”

“Or what kinda creature it is,” Charlotte pointed out. “Though I bet we could just pray to you-know-who for answers.”

“We can’t depend on Granny Liz to just spoonfeed us information whenever we want,” I replied, frowning at my sister. “She’s a busy goddess.”

“Not too busy for her favorite grandchildren, though!” Charlotte replied. “Unless you think this is somehow more strenuous than playing video games with me?”

“Playing video games is a harmless, if somewhat irresponsible, distraction. Poking around in mortal affairs is something else entirely - you know Granny Liz prefers to let mortals figure things out on their own for the most part…”

“Really?” Reckt asked. “‘Cause uh… hasn’t she been making quite a few announcements over the last couple decades?”

“Mostly through her agents,” I pointed out.

“Namely Dam and Mom,” Charlotte agreed, nodding. “Though I guess she’s made a few world-wide announcements too, hasn’t she?”

“Most of those were before we were even born, and it was only because the church made such a mess of things while she was locked away. These days there’s no reason for her to stick her nose directly into things - especially not for something so trivial as asking what sort of egg this is.”

“Oh come on,” Charlotte replied, “it’s just one time. I know we can’t rely on her for everything but… one time’s fine, right? Just to find out what sort of potential pet it is? You can’t tell me you don’t want to know.”

“I’m not interested in a pet,” I reminded her.

“Then why are you holding onto it so tight?” Charlotte countered. “You can’t tell me you’re not thinking of raising whatever’s in it.”

“I’m just… I only…” I hesitated, not sure myself why I didn’t simply put the thing down. It would likely be a hassle to take care of, and for all I knew it just housed another bloodthirsty monster who’d never listen to me.  “I suppose we could ask her this one time…”

“Great!” Charlotte beamed, before clasping her hands together. “Oh great Granny Liz, we beseech you to answer our call today, preferably out loud so that we can both actually hear you. Also Reckt.”

“W-wait!” Reckt protested. “You’re calling the Goddess? The Goddess? Liz? Like that?”

“Why not?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “We are her favorite granddaughters.”

“Pretty sure she’s got, like, a dozen alerts set in case we ever call for her,” Charlotte added. “Which is really convenient when you’re looking for an invite, but considerably less convenient when the girl you’re banging starts screaming her name.”

“...Are you telling me she had prayers prioritized by physical proximity to us?” I asked, aghast. “Please tell me she fixed that issue, at some point?”

“She did!” Charlotte confirmed. “Trust me when I say it was awkward all around.”

“People scream your grandmother’s name during sex?” Reckt asked, meanwhile.

“Sometimes,” Charlotte admitted. “At least she isn’t related to us by blood? Trust me when I say it’s worse when they scream out ‘Luci’ or ‘the Fallen One’ instead.”

“Lucy like… Lucy the Heroine?” Reckt asked. “Your… um… Mom?”

“Technically she’s one of our dams,” I informed her. “But we call her ‘Mom’ anyway, since she grew up with human customs. Also, no, thank… well, you know who. My sister is referring to Luci with an I - the first Demon Queen, and our direct ancestor.”

“Ah… yeah… I can see why that would be awkward,” Reckt muttered.

“You have no idea,” said a new voice. Not Granny Liz’s, though. No. Instead, it was the voice of her secretary.

“Hello Ashley…”

“Hello… Whichever one of you just spoke,” my least favorite aunt in heaven replied. “Charlotte’s the one with the pony tail, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Charlotte confirmed. “Where’s Granny Liz?”

“Busy,” was Ashley’s succinct reply. “Not that she won’t make time for you if you ask, but… please don’t ask, okay? We really need her to do her work right now.”

“I suppose it’s not an emergency in that case,” I agreed, with a sigh, glancing down at the egg in my arms. “I only wanted to ask-”

“Hold on, I’m getting a message,” Ashley interrupted. “It says… Uh… The egg’s perfectly safe, but the contents are a surprise? Just make sure you’re the first thing it sees when it hatches.”

“Ha!” Charlotte laughed, doing a fist pump. “I knew she would be listening in on us.”

“Apparently…” Ashley muttered. “Even though she’s meant to be busy with work…”

“Give her an earful,” I suggested. “We don’t need her watching over us all the time.”

“I’ll try, but she keeps saying her precious granddaughters are the most interesting thing on television…” Ashley sighed, and with an audible click disconnected.

“Who… was that?” Reckt asked, uncertain.

“A servant of the Goddess,” I answered, succinctly.

“One of our aunts in heaven,” Charlotte added, apparently not realizing that I wanted us to be cautious with the information we shared. That, or she just didn’t care. She probably thought the cat out of the bag either way, and had no care to spare for the few details we could still keep secret. Shortsighted and foolish, but understandable. “She served our ancestor, Luci.”

She also contributed to the genocidal war between humans and demons, which had waged for two thousand years. Hence my personal distaste for her - and Charlotte’s too, for that matter.

“Regardless, it seems you’ll be spared meeting our grandmother today,” I declared, deciding to take some casual revenge upon my sister. “A shame, seeing as how you’ll need her approval if you ever want to marry Charlotte.”

““Marry!?”” both demanded, at the same time.

The look on their faces truly was priceless.

***

Reckt

***

After the girls finished their talk with the Goddess’s subordinate, Mikaela went back to pestering me about the location of the wolfberries. I warned her that I wasn’t sure that we’d find any with all the wolves gone, and she replied that she wasn’t sure the wolves were even related to wolfberries in the first place.

Which… Okay, maybe I should have confirmed that little fact with the guild before spouting my mouth off, but it was in the name wasn’t it? Wolf berries? And they did grow in the same areas a bunch of wolves roamed, so like… it made sense, didn’t it?

Not that I brought any of that up in front of Mikaela. No way. The girl was scary when she got mad - even more so now that I knew what she was capable of. Not that I thought she’d hurt me, but… Yeah.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was way more laid back. Kinder, cuter - despite having the same face - and just all around nicer to hang out with. I got the feeling she wouldn’t let anything happen to me, so long as I was in her presence. Which… was sort of scary in its own right.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the protection. Maybe I wouldn’t have a day prior - might have hurt my manly pride - but after my near death experience? I had no issue ditching said manly pride and taking refuge in my more feminine side if it kept Charlotte around.

Of course, at the moment, Charlotte was way too focused on her new pet. The deadly monster known as Bonny, who could probably drive her horn through my skull like it was tissue. Charlotte had promised to keep her under control, though, so I didn’t have much choice but to trust her. It was either that or go off on my own, and I wasn’t going to be taking my chances with potential spiders still hanging around.

Plus, I might actually get to sleep with Charlotte if things kept going the way they were! I mean, she’d basically promised I could. Which didn’t mean she couldn’t back out, but like… as long as I didn’t screw things up? I was finally gonna get to have sex!

Most of the girls I hit on wouldn’t waste the time of day on me - maybe I came on too strong? I was honestly just being myself, though, so if they didn’t like that then maybe it was for the best they made that clear… I wasn’t some wimp who couldn’t take a few rejections, anyway!

I wasn’t sure that I could handle Charlotte rejecting me, though… and not just because I was sort of depending on her for protection. I’d be fine once I got back to town, and it wasn’t like I could depend on her being around forever. Especially not if I wanted to get stronger… I needed to fight and grow for myself, and I got the feeling that Charlotte would struggle to let me after the shameful side of myself I’d shown her.

It’s just… Well, to be honest, as hot as Charlotte was? She kinda scared me. More than Mikaela, even. Not because she’d ever purposefully hurt me, but because she seemed a bit too carefree for all the power she wielded, and clearly had no idea what to do with it… Mikaela looked scary, but I could more or less trust her to be reasonable. Charlotte? Not so much.

Maybe I was just overthinking things, though? I mean, she did have a pretty strong protective streak in her, it seemed like, so it wasn’t like she’d go around hurting people on purpose… 

I still wouldn’t wanna be the one to make her mad, though.

“Look! Over there! Berries!” Charlotte said, pointing to a shrub with a bunch of oblong red berries. “Is that them?”

“Y-yeah,” I confirmed, a little surprised to run across them so quickly. Not that I was planning to look a gift horse in the mouth… Hopefully Mikaela would be happy with this, and let us go- 

“Perfect!” Mikaela declared, smiling brightly at the bush. An instant later I felt a presence in the air, as her magic power rushed past me, and all the berries in the bush parted from the shrubbery and shot towards her bag, funneling themselves in. “Now we just need to find another patch or two, and we’ll be free to go home.”

“Another patch or two?” Charlotte whined. “Don’t we have enough already?”

“For the request, yes, but what about our personal supply?” Mikaela asked. “At the very least we’ll want to bring some home for the chefs to experiment on.”

“…Oooh, good point,” Charlotte replied, clearly now on board.

For my sake, I stifled a sigh. As did the rabbit, funnily enough. I guess we both got the same message at the same time - that it would be a while before we were heading home…

Hopefully our next rookie request would go by a little quicker.

~~~

Author's Notes

Not sure how I feel about this chapter - particularly the end. I wanted to give a bit of insight into Reckt's mind, but I'm not 100% sure I got it right? And I had trouble figuring out the spot to actually end.

Still, I hope you enjoyed Mystery Egg Times?