Chapter Text
"Time to get up Puppy." Piers groaned a little sitting up slowly and rubbing at his face. He was surprised he had slept so well, he was usually the first one awake but it sounds like Jake had not only woken up first, but had brought food up to the room along with the papers Claire had left behind. Piers sniffed at the air a little, picking out the smell of chervil, the hen, the lizard, ravens and the squirrel.
"It smells good, usually I'm the one grabbing breakfast." Jake shrugged and offered him the tray.
"You needed the sleep, you were still healing after all." There was a pause as the tray was set down. "How are you feeling?" Piers thought about it, he wasn't feeling any pain but he hadn't moved around too much yet, and he moved his hand to his side to check it. There wasn't any pain when he pressed his hand to where the wound had been, feeling for it. He couldn't even feel it there outside of the scar that had been left behind.
"There's no pain, I'm fully healed." He was relieved by this.
Jake nodded at that and sat on the edge of the bed tossing the papers beside him. "Found those in Claire's room, she took off before we were awake from the looks of it." Piers nodded, leaning over to pick up the papers; looking them over while he ate.
Piers' eyebrows furrowed, "A lot of those that went missing were married. That's, very sad." He thought about how worried their families and loved ones felt, their friends were probably worried too. "So many people, we need to stop whoever is doing these kidnappings. We have to." He thought back to the kind Inding and remembered her husband was among those missing; he made a promise.
"We will, don't worry." Jake's sudden reassurance earned his attention, pulling him from his thoughts. "We'll save as many of them as we can and get them back home." Piers' lips quirked up into a smile.
"Thanks, Jake." That's right, we'll save them. I made a promise that we would. Piers set the papers down and focused on eating for a moment. The food was very good and gave him time to get his thoughts in order.
"We should probably ask around the city for now, try and find any clues that might help us narrow our search." It was worth a shot, someone might know something.
"We should start with the bartender then, they usually know something." Piers nodded, that made the most sense. Bartenders normally did have some kind of information, they saw and heard a lot. They ate in a comfortable silence.
Once they were finished eating they went downstairs with their things to ask everywhere they could about the missing people. The bartender was helpful, as helpful as they could be with what little information there was to work with. What they did learn was that this wasn't the only town experiencing this, which they confirmed from Claire's papers; but that before everyone went missing, a woman in red had stayed for a night and when she left the people were gone without any explanation.
Hearing that it had been a woman dressed in red had Piers tensed instantly. Carla's face flashing in front of his eyes and it suddenly felt like it was harder to breathe. He was no longer listening as intently, everything had come flooding back. Even as he desperately tried to focus on the important details given by the bartender, but he couldn't hear over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears.
Piers felt a strong grip on his arm and he snapped back to reality with that warm hand against his bicep. The bartender looked shaken, as if they had seen something frightening and it felt like he had been doused in ice water as his heart sank into the pit of his stomach.
Jake pulled on Piers' arm excusing them after tossing a couple gold coins to the bartender to for the information. Piers pulled the hood of his cloak up to hide his face, ashamed as Jake guided him outside and out of the city. Once they were in the shade of the trees far from the warmth of the lava stream, Jake placed both hands against his shoulders and just stared at him. Piers did everything in his power to avert his gaze, but then one of those warm hands gripped his chin to force their gazes to meet. "Don't hide from me." Piers shuddered at the words, the weight of them and his hands clenched tightly at his sides.
"You saw his face, he was terrified of me." He had been shifting right in front of him, the moment he realized Carla might be involved he had almost turned into a "Terrified of the-"
Jake shoved him further against the tree cutting the word off before it could leave his lips, and the hand on his shoulder yanked the hood of his cloak down to reveal his wolf like features. "You are not a monster Piers." He hissed at him, pale blue eyes glowing red with elemental energy.
Piers could feel his heart racing again, but for an entirely different reason now. "Then what am I Jake? Because I don't know what I am. I thought I knew, but everything's changed." Jake kept his grip on him, never breaking eye contact even for a moment.
"We'll find the answer together when we're back in Astaria. After we deal with this." Piers felt a flutter in the pit of his stomach.
"Do you mean that?" Jake nodded, loosening his grip on him.
"Yeah, I do." Piers couldn't help but smile, forgetting about the sharp teeth on display.
"Thank you, Jake." There was a quirk of Jake's lips in response to his expression, and he ruffled Piers' hair lightly.
"Thank me after, Puppy." Piers protested against that nickname again, missing the fond tone in Jakes voice.
Piers was feeling better already, his features shifting back to their normal appearance. Just a normal human, the way Piers preferred it.
"So the first problem we have is where is she hiding? If Carla is involved, she likely has a new base of operations." Jake listened to the subject change without complaint, finally pulling his hands away completely.
"We could ask around about any catacombs or ruins nearby. She's likely hiding out in one of those." Piers gave a nod in confirmation.
"It's possible, I'll wait here while you ask." Jake gave him a look before nodding lightly, he walked back into town to get the information leaving Piers alone with his thoughts.
Piers waited until he was long out of his line of sight before he pressed his hand over his pounding heart his face feeling far too warm. What was that look he gave me? I almost thought, no; of course he wouldn't do something like that. Get your head out of the gutter Nivans. Jake's just a friend, he's just helping us like he had after we crawled out of that ruin. There's no way he'd.
Piers cut that thought off, his heart squeezing in his chest. There's just no way.
He focused on calming himself down, fully composed again by the time Jake returned with their next destination.
The Caverns of the Golden Warlord.