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The scene was familiar to the purple haired boy. Though the sky was dark, there was innocent laughter in the air as the festivities the group was looking forward to the next day were being carelessly planned. It had seemed fairly easy, despite Liam’s general anxious-ness at bringing such a large group to go crypt-egg gathering. It was a task easier maintained when it didn’t feel like he was basically babysitting— with the others in the group specializing in non-fighter classes, but he felt lucky that he wasn’t totally solo, since Zeph was also there for (what Liam considered to be) backup. A certain loud, blue-haired girl seemed to be fighting for dominance of the conversation, as the others tried to shush her and remind her that they were in the wild, where anything could happen if they weren’t careful. For some ungodly reason, she had also been put in charge of the crypt egg the group had found for the night, despite Liam’s outward criticism, it seemed she was too stubborn to let him convince her otherwise. A strange crunching noise caused Liam’s ears to perk up a bit, turning around and looking to see if the group suddenly had new company. The cool night air was calm around them, so he simply furrowed his brow. A few moments later, the noise popped up again, this time causing Liam to much more visibly turn and try to scan the area once more.
“What’s wrong?”
Liam was brought back to the group by Zeph looking at him a bit concerned, and Liam raised an eyebrow.
“I just…. thought I heard something. It’s probably noth-“
As laughter bubbled up behind them, suddenly a gasp and a small shout made him turn to the group once more, only to see the blue haired girl and Shiloh standing there awestruck and Bryce, on the floor, holding up the crypt egg off the ground, if only barely. The three let out a sigh of relief as Liam figured out who had seemed dumb enough to try and play catch with a crypt egg, but a small cracking sound gave him no time to condemn the action. The group was silent as the egg shook in Bryce’s hands, with him slowly standing so the group could make their way back to the city. But first…. the large crack now in the middle of the egg seemed to be a prominent problem.
“Would…… a cracked egg still be acceptable to give to an event like this?” Shiloh finally perked up. “I would think it would be a bit inconvenient.”
“Well…” Bryce started, with a bit of a gulp and a nervous laugh, “They certainly wouldn’t be expecting it!” He tried to play it off as a joke, but honestly the idea of a Crypt (whether a parent or child) running around freely in the central sector was not very pleasant.
While the group was bickering amongst themselves, the ground suddenly seemed to shake, a low growling sound bringing the group’s focus to a nearby cave entrance they didn’t quite seem to notice before. A large, monstrous figure made its way towards the group, and give a deafening roar into the clear night sky.
The next few moments came as a blur, with the group scrambling to get out of the way as the Crypt began charging towards them as Liam and Zeph activated their systems to get between the rampaging beast and the rest of the group. Though the two of them didn’t expect to take down the beast on their own, they did what they could to distract it for as long as they could, until it had decided to set its sights on a new target. With the rest of the group all split up, Zeph sped towards the bright yellow high class still managing to hold on to the cracked egg, as Liam made his way towards Shiloh, who seemed to have the monsters attention. Since he couldn’t fly as fast as she could, he prayed to make it as the Crypt opened it’s large set of teeth towards her. Finally, he was able to get between the two, pushing Shiloh out of the way as the Crypt grabbed hold of him instead.
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Waking up with a cold sweat, Liam sat up clinging to Shiloh’s hand as she laid in bed next to him. His heart felt ready to burst out of his chest, and his heavy breathing seemed to be reflecting it. With his free hand, he pulled the covers off of himself and looked down at his now-missing left leg. Shiloh stirred at his side, sitting up and tiredly rubbing her eyes before taking notice of what he was looking at.
“What’s wrong, Liam? ….a nightmare?”
Snapping out of his own mind at Shiloh’s voice, he turned to her.
“Did I wake you? Sorry.” With a soft smile, he began to loosen his unknowingly tense grip on her hand, but she only tightened hers and gave him a soft concerned look.
“Are you alright?” It occurred to her that it was almost a year since he’d had his run in with the Crypt, and Shiloh couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt as she remembered the terrible night.
“Hey now.” With the mood seeming to get a bit tense, Liam gave a quick surprise peck on Shiloh’s cheek, which caught her off guard. With a bit of a mischievous grin, he planted more and more soft kisses over her face, until she could only help but laugh. “There’s that beautiful smile. Good morning, cuddle bug.” Throwing his arms around her, he knocked the two of them back down into bed, and gave a winning smile as she continued through her small giggle fit.
When she finally calmed down a bit, she raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think I won’t get you back for that sneak attack. You’d better watch your back.”
Returning her look with one of his own, he accepted her challenge. “Ha. I’ll be ready for it.”