[Cross Fox] Long Time No See...

Mephis looked at the things that Yoka carried towards him with somewhat untrustworthy eyes. From the few things he had successfully learned from her, none of them was about her skills as a doctor, especially when having to improvise. However, he held back his tongue and gave no sign of trying to back away from her at all. Yoka might had changed since the last time they saw each other, but he doubted her moral code had changed enough for him to have to fear her…or well, more than the fear she had proven worth of after the time they spent together. She looked like a fragile girl, but he knew she wasn’t.

He just waved his hand negatively as she mentioned cutting off his shirt, almost right after the thorn up piece of clothing turning into nothing but dark fog that soon vanished, a little trick that Pet Demons had. Their clothes could seem like regular clothes, but being linked to his shapeshifting powers, he could easily change them, take them off and put them on at will.

However, he was clearly not comfortable without clothes on his upper body, and not because of shame but because the lack of clothes or fur caused his wounds to be fully exposed, showing how much damage he had taken during his rampage before escaping. Such thing caused a primitive instinct inside him, product of his feral nature, to wake and make him want to retreat and hide somewhere where he couldn’t be reached until he was fully healed again, an instinct only held back by self-control and willpower.

“I’m in no hurry nor in conditions to go anywhere, as you can see, so if your plan is to call him I can wait” His calm voice betrayed his true emotions. While he trusted Yoka enough to let her try to treat his wounds, he wasn’t so sure about other people around him.

Mephis grabbed the glass with vodka almost absentmindedly, so she wanted him to get drunk to ease the pain, eh? If it only was as simple as that to get a demon of his kind drunk…

He looked at her with a Are you serious sarcastic look on his eyes when she spoke, but said nothing about it and focused more on the next question as he toyed with the glass between his fingers “A holy sword, soaked in holy water as a way to ensure the damage. Cuts caused by the first, burns by the second. They tried with a holy dagger and the holy water on its own before, but you don’t really go deep enough to cause serious damage just with that when you’re fighting a wyvern that nearly triples your size” He wasn’t used to use creatures that big for his transformations, the lack of experience on using anything larger than a polar bear making him kinda clumsy and his body hard to control, but at the time he was too angry to care. At least that explained why his body was literally covered from head to toe on nasty burns and half-healed slashes and stab wounds.

However he had three bigger noticeable wounds on him that had been clearly caused by the sword. A deep slash on his right outer thigh that had stopped bleeding some time ago, a still bleeding yet less deep slash that went across his chest to his abdomen, and the obvious, deep and bleeding wound on his side that looked like if they had tried to sink the sword up to the hilt in his body and then slashed down a couple inches before pulling out, so close to his heart’s level that the only logic explanation on how he was still alive could be sheer luck.

When she mentioned the glass on his hand he just smiled and drank it in a single gulp “Yoka, a single glass would never be enough for my kind. I could even drink the whole bottle and still be so- FUCKING SHIT!” He slammed a hand on the table as the pain overwhelmed him. As a respectable Demon Pet, he was careful with his language most of the time, this time he couldn’t hold back. If Yoka had at least waited until she counted down to three like she had warned him he would’ve been better prepared for it.

At her next question he raised the hand he had just slammed onto the table and signaled her to wait, clearly still in shock and pain from the sudden action Yoka took to clean his wounds, needing at least a second or two to be able to speak and not only growl “None that I’m aware of. However, while I took care of most if not all the ones that dared to keep me captive, I can’t tell if it was an isolated group or just part of a bigger one. If I were you, I would keep my guard high and use the code I just gave to you to try and find any signs of those guys around the islands before they realize that you have the key to decipher it and try to change it or confuse you”.

While he would love to say that he was completely sure that she had nothing to worry about and take some extra glory from that, many experiences on his past had taught him to be more cautious and not let his ego speak before reason. Now that he knew what kind of enemies Yoka had, even he knew that if she wanted to survive taking precautions was as important as oxygen for the kitsune. Sometimes, being a bit paranoid was quite justified.

Mephis took the second glass of vodka without a single words and gulped it down. The alcohol that would make most people drunk being taking care of by his unusually fast metabolism, not letting him have any kind of kick from it. There was a good reason he only liked to order the strongest kind of drinks available anywhere he went, and even when a drink successfully managed to beat the speed his body used to get rid of the alcohol the kick was never long enough.

“Painkillers work, but only for a minute or so. While having a metabolism like mine’s can prove to be an advantage, it also has way too many downsides…” As his body got somewhat used to the pain he started to relax. His eyes fell on Yoka again, she appeared bothered about something but in the end he decided against asking.

He raised an eyebrow when she gave what he could only describe as a command. It felt a bit odd to be ordered around by someone that wasn’t his current owner even if he had a contract with her before, but he still obeyed “As a demon pet, I can turn into anything or anyone as long as I know the appearance of the creature or person in question. However, I can’t replicate abilities such as a dragon’s fire breath or an elemental’s magic…also I can’t change my eyes nor take off my collar” While the part of the eyes was true, the collar one was more of a stretch. He could take it off whenever he wanted, but he didn’t want to and would fight to keep it on at all times. He had seen the awful consequences that doing so brought if his king ever found out and he wasn’t going to take the risk.

“If I wanted to I could take YOUR appearance or even that of another nine tailed fox, but I have no interest nor motivation to do so” He tried to stay as still as possible to not make things harder than already were for Yoka. He couldn’t understand why she would be so interested on his ability to transform into a wyvern, but it could also be because he was so used to change form that he no longer found such ability interesting nor relevant. For him, changing his physical form was a talking topic as interesting as it would be talking about hair growth for a human.

When asked about his healing abilities regarding his current shape he just shook his head “I wish it was that easy, but no. It doesn’t matter what shape I am in, my healing abilities won’t get any kind of boost, nor any other of my abilities” He was starting to feel a bit curious, the questions no longer seemed to be made at random to make up a conversation so he could only guess that Yoka had something in mind with the direction she was taking.

While before he would’ve tried to figure out the thoughts behind the words this time he contented himself with waiting until the kitsune was willing to share them with him. She had successfully taken him off-guard once that night, there was no need to jump into conclusions only to have the unpredictable female do it a second time.

When Yoka told him about the chloroform he couldn’t help but chuckle “Like most poisons and drugs, I don’t think chloroform would be exactly effective on me. Yeah, I may get dizzy, or even pass out for a second or two if I breathe enough, but nobody would be able to kidnap a demon like me through such mundane techniques. There is a reason why anyone with intentions like those need to buy very specific and powerful concoctions from other demons or the few mortals with the knowledge needed to produce them” If he had to tell her about all the times someone had tried to poison him or use some kind of chemical in an attempt to render him defenseless or even kidnap him he would need to spend at least a good couple months talking non-stop. Many attempts from which only one had been successful as he had been facing a more powerful demon that had the required potion to knock him out.

His eyes went wide with surprise when Yoka offered to renew their contract. He had started to think that after how rude he had been she wouldn’t like the thought of it, and he would be damned if he didn’t take the chance before she could change her mind “I’m a creature born to serve, without someone to work for I lack a purpose…but now I wonder, would the contract be the same as last time, or you have something else in mind?” Given how much Yoka appeared to be from when they first met he had some suspicions that she would like to add a couple new conditions to the contract, however he couldn’t say if it was just him thinking things too much or if he was right.