"You know, you will never make any friends being an asshole like that, right?" was the first thing Achlys said to Corven upon finally leaving the high school campus.
Corven sighed to himself. Achlys has always been the responsible one between the three cousins, though hardly by much, as she oftentimes joined him and Cimon on their crusade of mischief, though hardly ever without stating all the ways the three of them could possibly get in trouble for, of course.
"I am… Aware," Corven said, shrugging nonchalantly from his seat in the back of the Range Rover. "Why would I want to make friends with an asshole who is bullying me? Name aside, he's every basic, All-American, high school, white boy as a bully. He's so insignificantly cliche, I wouldn't be surprised if he was copied and pasted from the pages of a book and made reality. Like, there's only one brain cell in that dumbass;s head, and its focus is on being entirely stereotypical in every sense of the word. Plus, have you seen him? I'd rather befriend a pig…At least a pig wouldn't try to beat me to a pulp everytime I see it."
Achlys giggled out loud while Cimon looked somehow tired, bored and amused all at the same time.
"I guess, if you say so," Achlys said sarcastically, after laughing a little more, before speaking seriously. "How does it feel being 15 today? It is August 19th, your birthday, right?"
"Meh," Corven shrugged, rubbing his gut. It was healing surprisingly fast considering the condition it was in a mere 30 minutes prior —- His ribcage definitely had at least two broken ribs and one was most definitely fractured, but at least the pain was fading; it was faint, numb, nearly nonexistent, almost, but there. Still there, just quiet, dull. "I think getting jumped after school and getting a rib cage broken and fractured or two kinda ruined the expectations. Then again, I wasn't expecting anyone to remember."
Corven was considering telling his cousins about what happened early this morning — the mirror incident and the thing that happened whenever he got jumped — the power he felt coursing through his body but thought better of it. He was certain they'd admit him to a mental institution if he said something as perverse as feeling power in his veins. He knocked it down to just his sleep-addled mind and adrenaline.
Thinking about it now, maybe he could've avoided what was coming if he had of told them this, but atlas…
It might've been just him, but he could've sworn Achlys and CImon were sharing a look of worry as he contemplated his decisions. Rubbing his eyes, Corven blinked, refocusing on them, but, when he turned, they were each focussing on something close — Achlys, the road, and Cimon, a cookie pie he was munching on.
Shaking his worries aside and dismissing his worries for stress, Corven finally asked, minutes later into the trip, looking out the window. "Where are we headed?"
"To this pastry shop that we pre ordered a cake from," Achlys said, focussed on the road. "It's in the next town over, so it'll be a ride, but we were thinking of chilling in the Preserve afterwards, maybe go skateboarding at an abandoned warehouse complex afterwards. Cimon brought his spare skateboards with him. They're in the trunk."
"So long as you guys don't sing the birthday song, I'm in," Corven snorted, mockingly.
"How's Miss Blueford and, you know, the kids?" Achlys asked, curiously, trying to change the conversation. "Is she still, you know, being… her?"
"You mean ignoring my existence?" Corven asked, sounding amused. He then frowned, nodding before shaking his head. "Yeah. She blames me for her husband's death, though I don't really care. We avoid one another, we're cool. If we start interacting, it always leads to arguments. I'm not sure how long until she kicks me out and calls CPS. I suspect soon… real soon."
Silence passed by as they picked up the cake —- A medium sized cake, circular in shape and the size of a pound cake. They split it between the trees after finding a parking spot in the preserve parking lot. The three of them enjoyed one another's company, and caught up on everything that had happened since they last saw one another.
Eventually, they went to the abandoned warehouse complex after wandering the preserve, and time eventually passed. Before they knew it, the Sun had dipped below the tree line.
"Looks like we need to head back," Corven muttered, as they began migrating back into the car. But, before Corven could join Achlys inside the car, Cimon grabbed his arm. "Huh?"
"If you see anything you can't explain, tell us," Cimon said, sounding serious and grave. "Anything weird, anything at all, tell us. It could be a matter of life and death, Corven."
Corven looked at Cimon, slightly startled before nodding and affirming he heard. He's never known CImon to be on edge. He never seems like the type of person to worry a lot. He was a man of few words, yet his actions spoke volumes of the kind of man he was.
As Cimon let go of Corven's arm, and walked to the other side of the car, to the passenger seat, Corven wondered what he could've meant.
Looking up, he nearly flinched his heart out. He could've sworn he saw a pain of glowing red, predatory eyes watching him in the wooded edge of the treeline, hidden by the cover of darkness and the trees, but, when he tried to focus on it closely, it vanished.
Shrugging it off to be just his nerves, Corven got in the back of Achlys Range Rover, and they drove away towards the school, where Corven left his bike.
As they drove back, Corven couldn't help but wonder if maybe something was happening --- Something he wasn't privy, too...
He's long since appreciated his ability to have near perfect vision at night. He was confident in it's efficiency. There was no way he was seeing things... Right? If there really was something out there, should he tell his cousins? What would they do about it?
Shaking his head dismissively, Corven decided against this. He could just be wrong. No one is perfect. And even if he did see something, what on Earth would his cousins do? They may have been older than Corven, but not by much. they were only a year older than Corven,
Shaking his head, Corven rested his head on the cool surface of the window inside the car. They were arriving into Jurupa Valley again, as they had passed the Welcome sign. It wouldn't be too long before they arrived at the school where Corven left his bike.
'Predatory eyes in the night, huh?' Corven asked himself mentally.
Upon arriving at the school, Corven quickly made it to his bike after waving his goodbye to his cousins, and watched as they drove down the road.
As Corven unchained his bike, rolling across the gravel of the rough school parking lot, he couldn't shake the prickly feeling that he was being watched. But, when he looked around, there was no one around.
Finally, getting his bike free and unchained, and his backpack to his back, Corven had just started pedaling when the howls of dogs and their terror inducing growls sounded, but Corven knew instantly, that they weren't any kind of normal dogs, even before he heard the sound of the rushing podding of paws on the ground at the edge of the woods behind him.
Turning around, Corven saw three dog-like creatures the sizes of pumas, with blood red fur and menacing red, predatory eyes. They had smokey red, apparition like bodies and multiple rows of teeth the size of talons. They radiated chaos incarnate and the gravel around them on the ground seemed to warp along with the air they breathed out, as if they were unnatural creatures that even the universe had no control over.
Horror struck Corven like a dagger, inducing a temporary paralysis in his body, which gave the creatures a head start to rush his way. He was paralyzed a whole of three seconds before he came back to himself. He knew that he couldn't let these creatures get to him or he'll be dead long before he even could escape their jaws.
Upon seeing the creatures rushing his way, adrenaline once again pumped in Corven's body as he did not wait for no one as he peddled as hard and as fast as he could, steering his bike in and out of traffic before heading into the wooded area —- A shortcut to his way home.
Despite desperately pedaling, however, one of the beasts managed to use its speed and power to catch up with Corven, using its talon-like claws as leverage to rip his back wheel tire. Corven was catapulted through the air, falling face first into the ground after rolling a few times, reopening whatever wounds had already began healing from his confrontation with Josh Allen earlier, while also creating minor scrapes and cuts across his arms.
Rolling over, onto his back, Corven managed to do so just in time for the beast to leap at him, not letting him do a proper assessment of his injuries.
Hands outstretched, shielding his face, Corven managed to buy his head some time at the expanse of his arms, blocking the creature from biting his face off. That did not, in fact, stop it from bitting into Corven's arms though, causing Corven to scream in pain as it did so. With tenacity, the creature bit into whatever body part it could get it's drooling talon teeth into, his face, his arms, his chest.
Pain branched inside of Corven like a tree in a forest fire. It felt like his nervous system was on fire. Some areas of Corven's body had already begun shutting down due to the excess pain.
Multiple cold, chilling howls reminded Corven that there were three of these strange dog-like creatures, and the one on top of him made him realize that he had yet to escape from even one. He knew that if the other two arrived before he could escape this one, there'd be no hope for escape whatsoever. He'd be torn to pieces!
'I need to get out of here!' Corven managed the coherent thought before using his backpack to smack the red, smoke-like creature in the snout, repeatedly. He then chucked it, surprisingly causing the creature to get slammed onto the asphalt area of the road, causing traffic to pile up behind it.
Corven ran for his life. He ran, with everything he had in him. He was not dying on his birthday. Even with his shitty ass luck, there's no way he was gonna let the universe let that slide. He'd live just to spite the universe. The hell!
He had hardly gotten far, however, when the creature leaped and tackled him, its claws digging into his shoulder blades and its fangs wanting to bite into Corven's neck, which he had covered with his hands. The two tumbled.across the woody forest ground, many pedestrians scattering around yelling "Dog, dog, dog, dog!"
It was about to bite into Corven's neck when headlights crashed into it, causing it to ricochet off Corven's back, and into a nearby tree.
"Corven!" Achlys screamed, making her way out of the her black Range Rover, her hand clutching the rings on her fingers.
"Achlys! Stay back! There's two more coming!" Corven tried to warn, but instead she rushed over.
"I can take care of myself! Besides, you're the one that's hurt!" She rushed to his side.
The ever vigilant Cimon eyeing the unmoving oversized dog before turning to the two approaching dogs in the stance. "We need to move…," when he saw Corven's condition, Cimon tsked. "I'll handle them by myself. You get Corven into the car. There's some Nectardrops in the glove department."
"But—." Corven began.
"We can handle ourselves," Achlys repeated, as she began dragging Corven to the car. "These Chaos Hounds are predators. They'll hunt you to the ends of the multiverse to get you when they have your scent. It's best to kill these Hounds of Chaos before they can report you to their Overseer — They usually travel in packs of anywhere between 20 to a hundred. It's suffice to say that you'll be torn apart before their back up arrives. Now, let's at least stop the bleeding."
"Chaos Hounds? Is that what they're called?" Corven asked, eyeing the unmoving dog. "They're big."
Then, to Corven's shock, Cimon did something that should've been impossible. A light appeared from the ring on his finger, and, from it, a 12 foot long, brown shafted, black-bladed spear appeared in his hand. It had intricate designs on it and a single cloth tied to it just below the spearhead, on the shaft. It had a faint grey aura flowing from it.
Blinking a couple times, Corven watched as Cimon ran to face the approaching monsters — Right, Chaos Hounds —- all by himself.
Corven tried to say something, to warn him that they were dangerous, but, before he had the chance, Cimon vanished, appearing suddenly in front of the second hound, whose spear was already through its skull. —- It was dead before he plucked the spear out of it. —- Then he turned to face the third hound, as it leaped at him, ready to disembowel him, but he held it back with the shaft of his spear.
"Cimon will be ok," Achlys sighed heavily, as she struggled to help Corven into the car. "Let's get you in the backseat… You better not bleed my seats red with your blood, cuz, or you'll regret it."
Corven just blanched. He wasn't sure what to say in response to that. He was still shellshocked by what he'd seen Corven do and the events that led up to it. He could only nod as he was haled into the back seat of his cousin's range rover, where Corven watched as Achlys went to the front seat, into the glove department and pulled something gold and hard out of it.
She made her way back over to where Corven laid sprawled along the backseats, and motioned to open his mouth.
"What is that?" Corven found himself asking, hesitant to let a strange thing into his mouth.
"Nectardrops, it'll help speed up your healing abilities. It won't heal you completely, but at least you won't die of blood loss" Achlys said, dropping the golden raindrop-shaped thing into his mouth, after unwrapping it. It tasted like caramel and milk. Corven wasn't complaining about the taste. Plus, he could feel his body begin repairing itself after each chew, before he swallowed it and it turned into even more warm, fuzzy energy that continued to heal his body.
"What were those things? Why were they chasing me?" Corven tried for some answers. He figured he deserved them. Things were moving and happening too fast. He wanted — needed — answers.
"Chaos Hounds are predatory beings of pure chaos… They serve a master — An old master —- They wanted to kill you," Achlys said, as she closed the backseat doors, climbed into the passenger seat and began looking for something she found a second later — a burner phone. She began texting something, but, before she could press send, she looked at Corven. "They travel in packs — They'll be more. C'mon, we have to hurry."
The sound of Cimon fighting had died down, and vanished completely eventually. Corven was momentarily worried for his cousin, but a moment later, Cimon could be seen entering the driving sea with no scratches seen on him, breaking barely a sweat.
What did I do to justify someone sending literal Death Hounds out to kill me?" Corven asked, horrified.
"Chaos Hounds," Achlys corrected. "Death Hounds are much more cute and deadly."
Corven wasn't too sure what to do with that. "Right..".
"And you did nothing," Cimon stated, eyes on the road, as he sped them through traffic like a maniac. "It's your dad's fault. His enemies want you dead."
"My dad?" I've never met the bastard!" Corven shouted in a fury.
"That's how it is with the gods, Corven," Achlys tried to calm Corven down. "Their enemies become their childrens' enemies, and that's why they don't typically interact with the kids too much after their birth unless they're from a Legacy family, in which they're trained to fight monsters since birth. It helps keep their enemies from detecting you — And the monsters, too, of course."
"Wait, wait, wait. 'Gods?' With an 's'? As in, more than one? What?" Corven was flabbergasted.
"Your dad's definitely a god, Corven," Achlys tried explaining flatly. :All three of our dads' are… Albeit, different deities, but deities, no less. And yours is a powerful one, if whoever his enemies are would send hounds from the Realm of Chaos after you and hunt you down…".
"What the Hell is going on?!" Corven thought his head might explode. What he didn't know was that if he were an ordinary mortal, his head very well could have.
"Look, Corven, the gods are real, and sometimes they have kids with the mortals, or with legacies, like our mortal parents, who are each from a House, a family of divine descendants," Achlys said flatly. "You're one of them. We need to get you to a safe place. Can you get some clothes from your house, and be out and ready quickly?" To which Corven nodded. "Good, then Cimon will go with you. When you guys come back, we'll head to a friend's place who has the best healing powers we know of and will be willing to heal you."
Corven realized they had arrived in the driveway of his foster home. None of the lights were on. Not one. Figures.
Quickly getting out of the car Corven went around back and entered the backdoor with a hidden key, with Cimon quietly following behind him. He wasn't surprised he spotted no one on, nor none of the lights on, as he made his way to the second floor, where he pulled out the ladder leading to the attic and then went up with Cimon waiting down at the base of the ladder.
Corven packed his clothes and hygiene and all his essentials, which all fitted in a duffle bag he slung over his shoulders, as he made it down the attic stairs in record time, he paused at the base.
"You ready?" Cimon asked at Corven's pause.
Corven just shook his head. "Hang on. I gotta check something."
Corven made his way to Little Bella's room, before silently swearing to himself that he'd be back. Then, he made his way over to Korey's room to do the same, but, just as he was about to leave, Korey spoke.
"Are you running away?" he asked, sounding barely awake.
Corven wasn't sure how to answer him. He knew Korey had attachment issues because his older brother ran away when he was just 5, and the CPS managed to save Korey from their father, but he wasn't sure how to tell him his situation without triggering his trauma.
Eventually, he found his words. "I-I'm.. I'm just going on a little trip," Corven said. "I'll be back. I promise. In the meantime, look after Bella for me, okay?"
"Ok," Korey yawned, groggily. "I promise,"
"Go to sleep. I'll be back before you know it," Corven left the room, heading down the stairs, and out the door, with Cimon following him. They made it to the car, and,without much words exchanged between them, they were off.