Chapter Text
Hiraya didn’t think there was anything particularly special about him, after all, her first impression of him was he was quite dull for a human, fixating on the tavern’s bear rugs for far longer than anyone’s supposed to. He’s tall, with chin-length dark hair and tanned skin. His clothes were a little more tattered than hers. Not particularly striking, but humans often are plain-looking.
Later, after following the shifty-looking individual out of the tavern only to have the newly formed group’s suspicion proven right, Justo broke away from them, advancing towards the pack of thieves instead of trying to ambush them as the party decided.
She sighed, following him. She doesn't know if he's capable enough, and she's rather not see anyone get killed by bandits.
But he turns to her and declared ‘I’ll protect the cat!’ - the statement alone should have rankled her, because she’s a tabaxi, dammit! No matter how much her kind looks like the tiny animals humans (and elves) seem to fawn over. But his tone didn’t imply that he meant calling her a cat as an insult, and his face looked sincere enough to make her look away for a second, feeling her face grow warm, before pulling her scarf back up to her mouth and tightening her grip on the hilt of her sword. The last time she felt something like this was when she was younger - when a halfling named Lucy was still in the town she came from, and the two of them would spend afternoons together, and the halfling girl made her a crown made of daisies.
And then Hiraya sees Justo launch himself on one of the bandits, an arm pulled backward to gather momentum before thrusting it to the throat of the one closest to him. Her other three companions seemed to favor ranged weapons, they should be fine as long as they stay hidden among the trees, so Hiraya opted to run into the bandits’ spot as well, brandishing her sword as she joins the fray.
The fight ended rather quickly, and despite the rather... disgusting thing that involved the loud dragonborn and sea water (they were miles away from the nearest shore, where the fuck did that even come from?!) the party decided to travel together for the meantime.
And then, not even a month after they met, Justo died.
Kind of.
Hiraya still thought of him as someone who's not all there, even as they traveled under Miff’s employ. When asked a question, or when she and the pretty, green-skinned elf named Tata try to make small talk, Justo would always take a moment to answer, like clearing his mind of fog. Maybe something happened to him in the past, but Hiraya didn't want to pry.
Besides, his presence is a lot more tolerable than the dragonborn’s, so she stayed closed to him instead. Hiraya laughs quietly whenever Tata drops double entendres, and it’s either what the elf says goes over Justo’s head or he politely ignores the hidden meaning in her words. Hiraya thinks it’s more of the latter because, despite the impassive look on his face, his cheeks would turn the slightest hint of red as he straightens up his posture.
He happened to wander away from their group for the second time - Gwen and Rex were in the middle of discussing how to capture the bound wyrmling they saw when Justo sneaked through the trees to the direction of where the wyrmling was, not listening as she and Gwen and Rex called him back. Perhaps that’s the reason why he died, and Hiraya could never unsee the sight of his pale, crumpled body lying on the grass.
It was just like when her grandmother passed, when Hiraya was back in their cottage, balancing the fried eggs and bacon and sliced bread breakfast she made for her grandmother on one hip as she used her shoulder to push the door open. It was the middle of summer, and Werdamme would usually be up even before the first crows of the rooster, but instead, she’s still asleep, blanket drawn up to her chest, and her hair, gathered in a neat, silver braid, hangs off of the bed.
Hiraya thought it was unusual, but Werdamme has been complaining of back pain a lot more than usual these past few months. With a fond smile, Hiraya walked to her grandmother’s bed, ready to wake her up with breakfast in bed, only to feel that Werdamme’s liver-spotted hand was cold to the touch.
The sound of porcelain hitting the dark wood floor pierced the silence of the house. Hiraya didn’t even hear herself cry, it was like being plunged into cold water - she can see everything moving around her, but they all seemed faint and distant. She barely heard the town healer say that Werdamme Tal passed on in her sleep.
“It’s the way most of us wished to go, kid,” He said kindly, patting her shoulder as he paid his respects.
Hiraya feels a firm, warm hand on her shoulder, jolting her back to the present. She looks up, seeing Gwen with her mouth set in a grim line, holding her bracelet out to her. It’s still wrapped in pure, white light, and the patterns that never made sense to her before are now clearer, and she could see nine cat-shaped engravings, with seven of them hollowed out.
“This is your bracelet,” Gwen said quietly. “It’s up to you if you want to try and use it for Justo,”
“That... makes sense,” Rex - still in his goblin disguise - nods, sounding uncharacteristically subdued.
“I mean,” Gwen continues. “From what I know of tabaxi culture, they have a concept of having nine lives,”
It’s almost too pitiful, the way Hiraya blubbers and goes, “G-gwen, it seems that you know how to use this more than I do? S-so m-maybe you c-can use this so that Justo won’t die?”
The half-elf’s brows furrowed as she shook her head gently. “I don’t think I can do something, Hiraya. Like I said, this is your bracelet,”
The tabaxi squares her shoulders as she approached Justo’s unmoving form in the nearby clearing, but her feet trembled with every step she took. She tentatively kneels beside him, trying not to think about Werdamme as she placed the still-glowing bracelet in her departed friend’s hand.
He’s still warm, she notes as tears blur her vision.
Her bracelet starts to glow brighter. A single cat, almost spectral in its form, materializes around Justo’s hand.
Despite herself, Hiraya gasped as she scooted away slightly. The glowing cat enters Justo’s mouth just as the light from her bracelet dimmed until it’s back to how it was, except that there’s only one engraved cat that's still filled in.
Justo takes a deep, shuddering breath as his eyes fly open, gasping in the air like a man drowned.
Relief floods her system, like the gentle beating of a bird’s wings. A soft voice inside her head tells her to take his face into her hands and make sure that it’s him, it’s really him that was brought back. But she remains in her place, staring wordlessly at him. Hiraya hears her friends approaching from behind her, announced by Rex’s loud footfalls and the sound of twigs snapping, and she was thankful for the interruption.
“Did it work?” Rex asked at the same time that Gwen said,
“Justo, are you okay?”
The man sits up slowly, visibly shaken by having been previously dead, as he turns to them and croaked, “W-what happened?”
“You died, dude.” Gwen says plainly, always the ‘rip the bandage off’ person in their group.
“You didn’t know?” Rex bleats.
Hiraya could just see Gwen roll her eyes as she says, “How could he remember something if he died?”
“I… don’t remember what happened, I think I saw a bright light… but I don’t…” Justo’s voice trails off as looked down at his hands, flexing them, as if testing if he could move. His eyebrows rose in surprise upon seeing a bracelet in his palm. “This isn’t… mine…”
“You died and Hiraya used that to save you,” Rex explained.
“Oh,” Justo is visibly confused as his eyes darted from the piece of jewelry in his hand, and then back to them. “Is that… why you’re all teary-eyed?”
Unable to help herself, Hiraya scrunches her nose and blurts out, “You fucking died and we have to save you and that’s all you have to say? And what kind of idiot goes off by himself to face a wyrmling by himself?! Do you have a death wish?!”
Hiraya springs up, ignoring the looks the others were giving her as she snatched her bracelet from Justo’s hand and storms away. The dragon they were trying to catch was able to escape, one of them just died for nothing if it weren’t for her seemingly magical bracelet. Hiraya even ignores Tata’s questioning look as she tried to go back to where they left Miff and her cart.
The gnome was surprised to see the skulking look on the tabaxi’s face and she didn’t ask as Hiraya hoisted herself up to the side of the wagon. A moment later, the rest of her group made their way out of the woods, Gwen at the front, followed by Tata supporting a still-limping Justo, and Rex bringing up the rear.
“Oh my! Gwen! There’s a goblin following you!” Miff squeaked.
For a second, Hiraya was worried and pulled herself up to get a better look, but she sighed and told the gnome tiredly, “That’s just Rex in a goblin disguise, Miff. Don’t worry.”
Miff grimaces as she eyes the rest of the party. “O-oh. Oh my god. He’s freaky.”
Hiraya scoffs, settling back into her corner. “Tell me about it.”
Gwen had to threaten Rex to get him to help bring Justo into the wagon as Tata cast a spell to heal him. Everyone seems to have calmed down from the ordeal, even if the bickering between Gwen, Rex, and Tata seemed a little too forced. Hiraya appreciates it nonetheless.
After making sure that everything was in order, and that there aren’t any bandits in their way, they continued to travel, stopping only once the quarter moon is up in the inky black sky. Miff seems a little agitated, but Tata calms her down with a song from her homeland as Hiraya prepares to keep the night watch.
Every now and then, Hiraya’s eyes would flicker over to Justo. She watched him eat the food Tata prepared, she saw Rex trying hard to appear as nonchalant as possible as he checked up on the older man. She saw Gwen looking at her knowingly, and it made Hiraya feel like she was caught doing something she's not supposed to, which was ridiculous. She practically brought him back to life. Surely, she's allowed to make sure he stays alive?
The tabaxi huffs out a breath as the campfire crackles along with the chirping of the crickets. If everything goes smoothly, then they should arrive at Yartar the day after tomorrow.
Maybe it was all in her head, but her bracelet seems lighter somehow. The only thing that bothers her deeply, though, was that if her bracelet could bring people back from the dead, then why didn’t it glow back then when she needed it the most?