A tale of the dark past and lost memories (Private || Rackie and Arc || NSFW)

With the thirst for power and vengeance for their fallen comrade clouding their judgement at the same time, the pack barrelled straight through the corridor without considering for even a moment that the small girl that waltzed straight into their den might have set traps in their very own territory. It was unthinkable, even when they saw Luna dodge something or other, and so they tripped the trap just as planned.

Yurio grinned happily as he accepted the mussing of his hair without complaint, fixing his hair as he followed along once they moved along once again. The age of the technology in the living room was also curious, as you'd think switching things out for something newer was a given, but once more Yurio didn't think enough of it to question it. He sad down beside Aurora, close as he could without it looking or being to awkward.

The first unlucky person to trip over her trap had his head impaled on a spike, which was, of course, a part of Luna's trap. With enough luck, more people would follow, tripping over the body of the deceased. That outcome gave Luna an idea. Ana could feel that she started initiating resonance, even before she spoke anything. "Brace yourself, Ana..." She finally muttered, before grabbing the weapon with both of her hands and extended the tip towards the enemy swarm. "Soul resonance!" Luna exclaimed and it was probably the loudest Ana'd ever heard her say anything.

Not soon after they'd sat down, Aurora's grandmother quietly walked into the room with a huge plate filled to the edges with a fresh-baked apple pie. She then murmured something in a foreign language, although it was easy to deduce she was chanting her mantra. Nubia pointed her finger towards a nearby cupboard and said a spell which did two things: first, it opened the cupboard and then sent a set of small plates and cups straight into her hand. The witch then proceeded to set everything down on the table in four spots. "Tea will be ready soon, loves." Nubia said warmly, before rushing back into the kitchen.
"Ah... No teaspoons..." Aurora commented and was just about to get up when her grandpa walked into the living room with a tray in his hand. As it turned out on that tray he had teaspoons and also a cheesecake, as if having that big apple pie wasn't enough. After setting everything down, the old sorcerer rubbed his beard, before sitting down in a chair. "So, how's living in Death City like?" Richard asked, looking quite curious.

"I's been a while!" Ana responded to the increased rate of resonance between Luna and herself in kind. Soon enough the accumulated energy reached it's tipping point and formed the resonance technique they had discovered before.

Just in time, too. With the trap tripped, the eggs behind the one who had just so foolishly lost his life stopped for just a moment, though not before those even further behind who didn't see what happened attempted to push past. A further two victims fell to the spike trap before those who pushed them in unwittingly decided to use their bodies as a bridge across. They moved quickly, to be able to move past the trap before their bridge died entirely and turned to ribbons. As such, they couldn't really stop themselves from ending up right in front of the giant maw of a resonance-wolf. Within range there were three, and not for long, as they were snapped in half as the jaws closed around them. Four souls collected, a further three dead, one unknown.

Yurio watched patiently as the elder Fosters brought treats and cutlery into the room, but being himself, he soon became rather fascinated with the baked goods more than anything else. He was polite, though, so he didn't do anything about it. "Death City is... Fine?" Yurio answered. It was the first city he had lived in, so he didn't have a frame of reference. Even if he were to have one, there was the fact that he was a dragon beforehand; really, that also meant that he couldn't compare it to when he lived on a farm of sorts.

As it turned out, apart from being extremely useful in combat, their full resonance had another nice effect - it loosened the grasp that the pull of magic had on Luna. "W-Wow..." Luna commented on the effectiveness of their technique, feeling her arms tremble out of sheer overwhelming surprise, shock even. Without even checking how many were still standing, she rushed towards the second trap.

Aurora started filling all plates with delicious snacks as if she knew precisely how much her grandparents wanted to have on their plates. When she finally reached Yurio's plate she stopped to look at him. "So, which one and how much?" She asked, smiling. Thought of just filling his plate to the brim with all she could certainly crossed her mind. Soon they were joined by Nubia, who brought a teapot of considerable size with her and filled all the cups, before sitting down herself. Richard pondered for a while. "Hm... You don't stay in places other than your home city for too long, do you?" The sorcerer finally guessed,

"Oh, that's neat," Ana said, though about the fact that the dead bodies didn't leave their souls behind; she could tell that the resonance consumed them by itself. 

Neat or not, the eggs were still hot on their heels, though it seemed they were paying more attention to where they were going now.

"Uhm... Both, and plenty?" Yurio answered quietly, smiling awkwardly along with his answer. Richard's guess was pretty spot on. "Yeah, I've been all over the place but I've only ever lived in two and even then, the lizard experience is different from the human one."

When Luna arrived at an intersection, she stopped right in front of the trigger of the second trap and turned around towards the mob. With the staff aimed at them, she started walking backward, carefully getting past the string that triggered the second trap. She reached another part of a tunnel and chanted her mantra, getting ready to cast another spell.

Aurora chuckled. "I should've guessed, huh?" She filled Yurio's plate with both sweet desserts and then placed it right in front of him and then sat down next to him again.
"Well then! Your visit here will be a perfect opportunity for you to properly experience a whole new area, won't it?" Richard said. "Is it true, that dragons can breathe fire?" Nubia asked, probably unaware of how childishly innocent she looked while saying that question.

The pursuers thought they were privy to Luna's trap laying and as such stopped ahead of where they saw her stepping over something or other. Unable to reach her, they started chucking any objects they had on them in her general direction. Blades, anything heavy, any debris in the area, it was all ammunition to them right now.

"Thanks," ha said to Aurora with a smile and a nod, picking up the plate so as to sit back while enjoying the treat. By the time Nubia managed to ask her question, he had already managed a mouthful. Hurrying somewhat with getting it down, he made a strangely focused sort of face. "Ah, yeah, I can breathe fire, human or dragon form," he said once his mouth was no longer filled with cake, and demonstrating by blowing a tiny puff of smoke from his nose.

While her coat's enchantments managed to cause a few blades to slide off her body and make impact of heavy less painful, she would still end up with bruises. Also, unluckily, one of the blades managed to graze her shoulder, dangerously close to the neck. Luna yelped in pain and then growled. It was a dangerous spell, but those bastards deserved it. "Powerful energy beam" The witch growled the spell name as she stuck Ana out to aim towards their opponents. The sheer power of the spell caused the air in the tunnels to be siphoned towards the tip of the staff just as it started glowing with bright blue light, which started shooting out threads of unstable magical energy. The energy started spinning all around the tip of the staff, even creating a magical spiral going down the shaft itself, before being extinguished... Or so it would seem. Suddenly a stream of hot, pure magical energy shot out of the tip of the staff towards the angry mob. The air around the witch and her weapon was vibrating wildly in a very unnatural way. It was clear, that spell showed the true power Luna could wield.

Aurora giggled at Yurio being a sweet-tooth. She found it cute. Really cute. Meanwhile, she opted for a more relaxed way of eating a piece of the pie. She loved everything her grandma would bake or cook. Thus, she wanted to enjoy the sweet taste she'd longed for so long.
"Amazing! It's almost like magic. Without mantras and chanting though."
"Oh! Yurio can also make things using his abilities! It's so cool!" Aurora said as if she was proud of that fact. That only made Nubia even more curious. Richard was just smiling, clearly enjoying the nice company so far

With the power of the spell amplified, there was nothing that could really stand in it's way, at the very least not in the rabble that they had in front of them, all stopped and grouped up perfectly to be perforated through. The beam made the air down in the tunnel turn very hot very quickly and it really made Ana worry about how many skulls they might have melted by accident with the blast. If the corridor was straight enough and Luna's aim was true, then damage would be minimal, but somehow Ana also doubted that the heat simply radiating off of the beam would leave things in the vicinity undamaged. Still, in the end, it really expedited the fight. Six additional souls floated around the path of the beam and only three surviving individuals with rather heavy burns managed to get out of the way; they were in no condition to fight, either.

"It is magic, really, there's no functional difference, and making stuff is Glyn's thing, I'm nowhere near as good at it," Yurio said to both Nubia and Aurora, then resumed eating before any more questions could come his way; the sweets were delicious.

The consequences of using that spell would prove not-so-minimal. On its way, the beam hit a wall of skulls, destroying some in the process and leaving a crisp-black burn mark on everything around that spot. As it turned out, while charging the spell, Luna got hit a few more times, as evidenced by more cuts all over her body. In some places, red stains started coloring her shirt. Her robe obviously couldn't protect everything, as evidenced by a red bruise on her cheek. It's not like the spell itself was harmless for the caster either. Her glove had burn marks, along with the wrist. On Ana's side, she could feel their resonance getting somewhat unstable as Luna's wavelength started fluctuating. Both the pull of magic and adrenaline made Luna barely realize the extent of the wounds and bruises she'd received and done. Surprisingly, despite that, the failsafe built into her robe didn't seem to work. Without uttering a single word she slowly started making her way towards the closest living egg. Step, by step, like an inescapable fate that awaited those corrupted souls. When Luna stood in front of the first of the weakened opponents, she didn't even mutter her mantra, instead, she swung Ana at his head, with the intention of crushing his skull.

"If being able to materialize clothes isn't a sign of great skill, then I don't know what is. I mean, I know Glyn can materialize a fire sword and even recreate Angela's wings to some extent, but you can achieve similar things with your skills." Aurora said bluntly, patting him on the shoulder with her non-metal hand.
Richard raised his eyebrow curiously. "Oh? Eliza has never mentioned you have a brother." The old sorcerer commented. One could wonder - how much had Elizabeth known and shared with her parents about Aurora and Yurio's relationship. Though, in his mind, Richard probably just imagined a second dragon flying over Death City.

None of the remaining eggs had it in them to resist beyond feebly clinging to what little life they had. The one who had his head crushed looked on, shaking his head, unable to do anything about the heavy head of Ana's weapon form coming in to end his life for good. And Ana wasn't really paying attention, as she was trying her best to make her wavelength and Luna's unstable one didn't reject each other, all the while worrying over the few injuries that Luna had sustained. All in all, it wasn't anything serious, she could tell, but she was worried nonetheless. She'd have to kick her dad or something, because the stupid mission he'd picked was not meant for beginners. Never mind that they actually completed what amounted to three missions at once, Ana guessed.

"I can do a few things that aren't clothes, but yeah, I still don't think it's that impressive," Yurio said, shrugging at Aurora's praise, though looking somewhat chuffed with himself nonetheless. "He's a sort-of-kind-of brother. Functionally and for the sake of simplicity, we're siblings, yeah," Yurio explained, "Besides, I don't think Eliza has ever met Glyndwr."

While making her way towards the second remaining egg, Luna started muttering her mantra. There was only coldness in her voice as she did. Thanks to Ana's efforts to prevent their wavelengths from rejecting each other, Luna managed to stabilize her wavelength enough to wield her partner without the feeling of discomfort. When she finally approached the egg, she placed the tip of the staff towards her victim's chest and charged the spell. "Weak energy beam." She said, in the same cold voice she used to mutter her mantra. The spell was aimed straight at the heart.


"Ah, yeah, right. I'm sure she only knows of him from his interactions with Angela." Aurora said, nodding, before filling her mouth with delicious pie.
"If I have to be honest, for hundreds of years I've been convinced that dragons are a myth. Or at least a dead kind with little to no proof of their existence." Richard said, smiling and shaking his head. "It's so rare that I'm being proven wrong." He chuckled. "Although, it's even more surprising to know that dragons, just like us, sorcerers and witches, can have human forms." He said.

Fear overtook the face of the egg as his beating heart was blasted from his chest. He unravelled right after, dying quicker than even the one who had his head caved in. One was left.

"Yeah, I haven't seen any other dragons around, so I guess we're pretty rare?" Yurio said, wondering about it as well. He shrugged, in the end, as he wasn't exactly bothered either way. "Oh, my human form is pretty unique, too. I didn't have it up til' a few years ago. It's a long story."

The final one would meet a similar fate. Luna approached him while muttering her mantra. Then, when she was in front of him, she used the exact same spell to end his life. Afterward, she looked around their tight battlefield and let out a sigh. It was possible for Ana to start feeling that her meister's hand started trembling as the adrenaline in her veins started thinning out. Tears started forming in the corners of her eyes, as she started feeling the pain of her wounds and bruises. The fight wasn't over for her though. She needed to make sure the first egg to get hit with her spell was actually dead. Using Ana to support herself she made her way back to the bar.

"Pretty much, yes. I've been around for over two centuries and you're the first of your kind that I've heard of." Richard said, nodding. What Yurio said afterward made him even more curious though. He rubbed his grey beard and leaned back on his seat. "Is that so? Hm... is it an... artificial, magic-induced form then?" He asked.

Seeing Luna teary eyed, shaky, and in pain was like being stabbed for herself. She so nearly changed back to give her a hug, but alas, the mission wasn't over yet. The kishin egg was still alive, and having assumed that his compatriots would succeed, was pouring alcohol on his burn to disinfect it. He did see that the door was blasted off it's hinges and set on fire, though, so he was still on guard.

"Something like that, yeah," Yurio said, nodding. "Glyndwr is human, too, but he can do magic like a sorcerer without being able to transform."

Luna leaned on the door frame and looked at the egg with what could be described as cold hatred. In other words, she was giving him a cold glare. Luna muttered her mantra through clenched teeth and aimed Ana at the egg. "Weak energy beam..." She muttered the spell.

That part made Richard close his eyes as he got lost in thought. "That is... something new." He finally commented. "I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing. Although I do suppose that the end result is more than great." Richard added. "To be fair, I've never really dwelled too much into this story, haven't I? Like, I get it that some witches caused you and Glyndwr to have these powers, but why? Was there any deeper motive behind that?" Aurora asked, suddenly realizing her lack of knowledge concerning the very details that allowed her to have such an awesome boyfriend.

As he was ready for the intrusion, the egg managed to duck behind where he was standing at the bar. At the same time, he smashed the bottle he was holding and soon enough shot out from behind the bar, low and fast, brandishing the shattered and sharp bottle in front of himself. 

"Our best guess, is that they were trying to do what happened to us, just never got things as far because they never had any of their test subjects resonate. Again, Glyn and I killed the witch at the head of things, mostly through luck, while we escaped, and the people who let us out took care of the rest so... Yeah... ...This pie is really delicious, though."

Luna muttered her mantra through clenched teeth standing in a low combat stance, with Ana held with both hands in front of herself. "Weak..." she whispered the first part of the spell when he was close enough. Luna waited for a perfect moment to strike and her chanting her spell was like a countdown. When the egg was dangerously close, she suddenly lunged towards him, thrusting Ana at his chest as if to push him away. "...energy beam!" Luna finished the spell, shooting it out right after the thrust.

Aurora laughed, before gently elbowing him and shaking her head out of amusement. "It really is! Actually, grandma is a professional baker." She said.
"Thank you for the compliments loves..." Nubia said, feeling flattered.
"One time she baked a huge wedding cake. It was so tall, the newlywed needed a ladder to reach the top." Aurora said, grinning, but soon she went back to being serious. "By the way, do you know, that usually experienced weapon-meister pairs can survive an encounter with a witch? You had to be very young when you killed that witch."
"I would say that it depends. Magic users are not equal in terms of their power... How old were you and your brother when you killed that witch?" Richard said then asked.
Apparently in the Foster household talking about killing other magic users was no taboo at all.

The kishin egg was looking intently ad the point of Luna's weapon, expecting it to be the one thing he had to look for, and rightly so, as that was where all of Luna's magic would be coming from. He watched and watched, but the last thing he expected was for the girl to calmly play chicken with his advance until he could no longer dodge. Between the spike and the magic, he was all and truly fried. That made 4 souls and 13 uncollected. With, presumably, the last threat gone, Ana transformed and immediately hugged Luna tight against herself. "You did great! That's enough, though... You can put your protect up now."

"That sounds like one I could eat in my dragon form..." Yurio said, almost entranced by the thought. The further questions and the return to the subject at hand brought him right back to reality. "Oh, yeah, things get fuzzy, but Glyndwr was about ten? Maybe eleven? Apparently that particular witch didn't know any combat magic, but she was still a witch. I wasn't too far off my first year, but that doesn't really matter, I just bit her arm when Glyndwr thought it was best," He thought for a moment, before turning to Aurora. "You meant the one when we were escaping, right? Not Neoma?"

After the fight was over Luna let out a loud sigh of relief, which was followed by a pained groan. Though the real pain came when Ana decided to hug her tightly. Despite trying her best to enjoy it, the lack of adrenaline made her feel every bruise and cut. With a pained whimper, she just rested her head on Ana's shoulder. "I don't want to... I'll cry..." Luna told her when Ana suggested casting Soul Protection.

Aurora scratched the back of her head. "Oh, right, the other Aurora's mother." She said, remembering the whole thing with Neoma. "The one when you were escaping. Neoma's case is just... different" Aurora said. Richard rubbed his beard. "So you've defeated two witches..? No combat magic certainly explains why you managed to survive that while being so young. On the other hand, perhaps I may be misinterpreting how small a young dragon is."

"Crying is fine," Ana said, loosening her grip on Luna a little, to account for the girls reaction to Ana suddenly embracing her. "We'll go back to Kira's room, we'll patch you up and then we'll go bother Aurora as soon as we can so you don't end up with scars, how does that sound? Ah, but we have to get the souls first."

"Okay, good," Yurio said, going back to his treats until asked another question by Richard. "Uhm... At that time... Think, medium dog but, like, with wings and scales. Glyndwr could carry me around comfortably at the time."

"Don't worry... Apparently Aurora can deal with scars too..." Luna said and shuddered. "My shoulder feels wet and warm... everything hurts" She groaned. That fight was too much for her. For many reasons. While they weren't really close to death or anything, but the eggs really managed to get her with the knives. She was glad none of those actually stabbed her anywhere because she knew that it would probably change the outcome of the fight. Only thanks to her magic she was able not to break down at the realization of how destructive her magic could be when used with its full potential. She felt really tired and shaky, which wasn't too good. "Ana, wait, I must patch myself up now, help me sit down..." Luna said, realizing the wound near her neck could be more dangerous than she'd originally assumed. In fact, that wound was bleeding quite a lot which already made a big stain on her shirt.

"I wasn't far off then." Richard said while sipping on the tea. "My guess was around the size of a medium-small dog" He admitted.
Aurora stared at Yurio with a weirdly cutsy smile spread across her face. "Man, I'd pay a fortune to get my hands on a photo depicting Glyndwr carrying you around. I bet you were such a cute baby-dragon back then." She said, sounding almost like she was half-joking and even teasing.

"Ah. I see," Ana said, once she broke away from Luna. It was hard not to see, really, since that was quite some bleeding. Wasn't exactly a great time for it, considering the location, Ana though. Still, she helped Luna to one of the many vacant seats. "Put pressure on that, I'm going to see if we were fighting total savages or if they have a first aid kit tucked away somewhere."

"Unfortunately for you, no photos exist of such an even. Do NOT ask Glyndwr," Yurio said, stating such firmly and with as much conviction he could muster. Then, he went to focus entirely on the consumption of tea and sweets.

Luna raised her hand to stop Ana. "No need. Just watch..." She said and then muttered her mantra once again on that day. She took one of her gloves off and put a bare hand above her wound. "First aid" Luna chanted the spell. A green magic circle appeared around her hand as a green magic-made tape started materializing out of thin air. The tape then started wrapping around the wound itself like a bandage. When it was tightly wrapped, it also widened slightly to cover more. Luna sighed, feeling exhausted. "Let's collect souls and get out of here. I'll put Soul Protect on once I get my hands on some painkillers and once we deal with the rest of the wounds. I really, really don't want to turn into a crying ball of sadness and pain in a place like this, you know?" She said, finally getting up from the seat.

Aurora smirked mischievously for a second. "Sure, sure." She said, trying to sound convincingly innocent.
"Would you like to see some photographs of when Aurora was a little kid, dear?" Nubia asked Yurio. She clearly did not intend to give him an equivalent of a reverse Uno card to use on Aurora. Too bad her grandma was the one too pure and innocent for the world.
Aurora started blinking at Nubia as if she'd just betrayed her. "I'm... pretty sure all our photo albums have been left in Czechia." She said, trying to somehow save herself from embarrassment.
"Elizabeth sent all of them to us. For safekeeping." Richard said with a smile, which had this kind of mischievous feel to it. It seemed like he wasn't nearly as innocent as his wife.

"Huh?" Ana was questioning whether Luna lost enough blood to ask her to stop helping before Ana saw her muttering as she usually did when casting magic. That was when she briefly wondered if she was going to do something silly like cauterising the wound. In the end, she needn't have worried. "That's convenient," she said, finally, moving to Luna's side. "Yeah... Lets get those souls and lets buy, like, too much chocolate on the way, sound good?"

"I'll... N... Ye... Maybe?" Yurio seemed unsure of whether he should accept Nubia's offer or not, looking between her and Aurora as he weighed his options. He did notice Richard, too, and in his mind was a step closer to figuring out who Eliza really took after...