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The Crocodile and the Rat

Despite of his excitement and great rage in finding and exact his vengeance on Asran, he forgot that he was still so angry and roared again when he reached Diamondback's Nest. The rage accumulated in him was so much that when it was unleashed, he almost flew into mindless rage.

His rage was apparent and woke almost everyone up in Diamondback's Nest. Most of them were survivors of the Creolean Waters siege, and they were still sensitive about a roar coming from the outskirts of town. The adults quickly pulled out guns and issued order, while some ran towards a warning bell. They were ready to fight if they needed, to protect their new life.

That was when Narati, barely dressed since he just woke up, ran as fast as he could to the front and snatched a binocular. He looked through it and realized that it was a false alarm.

"Guys, guys! That's not an enemy! It's Karkas!"

"Karkas?! Why the hell is he roaring like a feral?"

"Someone's pissing him off," said a croc. "And judging by how he acts, it looks like it's someone who screw him over big time."

Hearing that, Narati had an idea who it might be that made Karkas so angry. He ran towards the croc and stopped in front of him, which he realized was a bad idea. Karkas was still blinded by his rage that he unknowingly attacked Narati using a swing of his sword. If the Fa'ar wasn't nimble enough, he could be cut in half. Utilizing his feet and hands, he climbed Karkas's back and shouted, "Karkas! Stop!"

Karkas quickly stopped, and looked towards Narati. He was still confused, but then Narati said, "It's alright, Karkas. It's me, Nara. Now put down that sword before anyone get hurt."

"Narati?" He then looked down towards his two-handed sword, and quickly disarmed himself.

"I've done fucked up this time, huh?"

"It's about Asran, isn't it? Come on, let's get you somewhere you can calm down. How about going for a drink?"

"Yeah, I guess that might be a good idea. I'm also hungry, and I..." He looked towards the direction of the walled town. "...guess I've ran all the way here."

As Narati and Karkas walked towards a bar, a nearby resident, who caught sight at the commotion, said, "Wouldn't want him to destroy properties. I've never seen a croc that angry before."

"Even if your neighbor is a croc tribe?" said a croc. "He's pissed off with something, and apparently, it's enough to cause him to go berserk."

"Are crocs capable of that?"

"Yeah...my wife."

"Oh, fuck..."

"Yeah, that's the way to finish it. Angry sex. But a male gone berserk...I guess he has been living in a world of shit for a while."

"You beast races are sometimes so complicated."

"We may be humanoid, but we are still beasts. Let's keep it that way. Anyway...I need to go sleep before one or five of them starts crying."

Meanwhile, Karkas and Narati walked into Karkas's home and the croc immediately went to the kitchen and pulled out a homebrew beer from the fridge (which was a mechanism Narati made utilizing ice crystals similar to electrical refrigerators. As this world is the product of a blending of magic and technology, things like this do happen). He drank one before giving a bottled juice to Narati, who drank it down slowly while waiting for his croc friend to calm down.

After a while, Karkas took a chunk of ham and said, "What something to eat?"

"I'm fine with it. Take your time."

Even though Karkas looked like a brute, he was a decent cook who could make delicious meat-based foods. While he cooked, he said, "I'm sorry about earlier. I almost cut you in half."

"Don't worry about it. If you're not serious, that swing is very predictable."

Karkas grunted. "You really have grasped the basics of close combat, huh? Still rely on your bombs?"

"I'm nothing without them. They are my things, you know."

"If you say so." His face then grew serious. "Hey, Nara...do you still hate me?"

"Hate you for what?"

"For trying to kill you...twice, and for my prejudice against your race."

"Well, you're not the first, yet you're the first to actually talk about it."

"How about Jek?"

"Jek, well...we did start a little bit off track, but he did become nicer when...I screwed up. If it wasn't for him, Raine, and even Aranis...I wouldn't stay sane and I would get triggered by the word 'slave'."

"Were you a slave?"

"No, I wasn't. I was close to become one, hence the whip marks, but I escaped."

"We are in a world of shit, huh?"

"No, not really. So...what are you going to do about it? Find Asran?"

"I will...and I must tell you this. I might be travelling for a while again, and...I want to personally tell you this. I am going to resign from the Wanderers and pursue Asran."

This surprised Narati. "What? No! You can't quit! We are so thin in numbers and we don't have anyone supervising our first branch!"

"How about you? You're reliable enough."

"Look at me! I'm a Fa'ar! A Chaos race! No one's gonna join the Wanderers if they know I'm in charge! C'mon, Karkas, just reconsider."

"I know this is hard times, but I must remind you of this. I may have join your mercenary group, but my mind is still on Asran. Don't worry, I'll be back if I'm done. It's not like he's going to run after tricking someone. He only did that because of me."

"But..."

"You've grown a lot, kid," said Karkas while putting the cooked meat on the table. "In time, when people learned that not all Fa'ars are bad, you'll see."

"I was trying to say...how about if I join you?"

This made Karkas coughed out after choking on the chunk of meat he was eating. "Fuck!" he exclaimed. After drinking a beer and calmed down, he said, "You what?!"

"I said, I'm joining you in this personal quest of yours. No hard feelings, right?"

"What are you going to do? Trick him back? He's a cunning son of a bitch!"

"No, but Fa'ars think alike. Let's just say I'll be your lucky charm, and with me, we can find that slippery rat. What do you say?"

"Uh...I don't think Raine will approve of this."

"Don't worry about him, Karkas. Look, the sooner we finish this, the better chance you'll get him out of your mind. And...I miss travelling in the house carriage."

"That small thing? I can't even stand straight in it." Karkas then noticed Narati's disappointment. He sighed and said, "Look, that thing's busted a while ago. You can't travel that much with it anymore. Let's walk."

"Walk?! It'll be years before we find that Fa'ar!"

"At least with that, we will be conspicuous. What? Do you think I don't know you'll pack a whole cart of explosives and blow everything up? Let me do the fighting. I'm be your muscle, you'll be our brain."

Narati wasn't sure if that could work. Between the two of them, they were equal in strength and brain, with Karkas more in strength if he wasn't too reckless. Yet again, Narati being the brain posed a problem since he was a Fa'ar, and no one liked to talk to one, let alone associate themselves with him.

But at least it could work, if it was only the two of them. Raine and Kazan could do the business back home while they travel. From there, Narati nodded his head. It was settled.

"We leave immediately?"

"Let's make it official and log this as a long period quest," said Karkas. "So, prepare yourself tonight."

"Okay. And...Karkas?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you...for trusting me on this."

"I'm the one who should thank you for stopping my rampage."

They both exchanged smiles before both went back to their own business, with Karkas eating and Narati going back to his workshop, preparing for travel.

Narati hoped that things would be easy. If not, it would be one hell of a quest.