Ragnarok

The guild, now 8 strong, are in Darkside surprisingly not following a report of a monster wreaking havoc. Instead, Hanji is visiting with Ian for various complaints she has, including a payment raise.
Sven and Teba are bored naturally.

"Gods, she will talk forever in there," groaned Sven. Teba nodded in agreement. They were outside Ian's lab building. Elfric looked up from the book he was reading; he brought it because he anticipated a lengthy visit. Stryker was also curled up reading, while Asch looked over the Irion's shoulder to also read. Valtam and Haluk sat quietly, staring off into the distance, hungry. The grass here in Darkside was sooty and tasted like burnt rubber.

Elfric sighed. "Why don't you two go off and explore then? We'll be right here, and you two are plenty fine on your own now. I'll howl when it's time to go," he suggested. His two soldiers were Tier 9s, long away from the days of being Tier 6. The area seemed quiet too, so they couldn't possibly get into too much trouble.Sven and Teba wagged their tails excitedly.

"Let's go Sven! Race ya to that rock over there!"

"Ha, you know I'll always win!"

As the two explore, they observe the the fauna and flora of Darkside, what did exist as the land was harsh, hot and poor soil. Very little plant life grew, but there were plenty of reptiles to be found. Small lizards skittered across cool molten rock. While chasing a lizard, the boys hear a rumble of a roar nearby.

"That sounds like a Mortiking possibly. They're native to the area," Teba trembled with excitement. It was rare to see one of these giant reptiles. The two search for the source of the roar, and sure enough come across a Dark Matter Mortiking. The huge beast rumbled lowly, and the boys notice a Telenine near the creature's massive feet. The Telenine looked playful, but the Mortiking seemed uninterested.

"Come on Mortar! Let's go check out the H'oula Volcano! I hear it's growing more active!" the strange Telenine barked gleefully at the Mortiking. The dinosaur scratched its chest and began to walk past the Telenine, ignoring him. "Hey wait! That's the wrong way!" he yelled, chasing after the distracted beast. The Mortiking began to lift up rocks, as if it were looking for something else than a volcano the Telenine wanted to go see. The pup barked while jumping up onto a rock, while the Mortiking continued to ignore him, lifting up the rock the Telenine stood on.

"Kid! Get away from that Mortiking!" Sven yells out. The Telenine looks over, but so does the dinosaur. The Mortiking begins to salivate and puts down the rock the Telenine stood on. It begins to prowl towards the boys.

"Wait Mortar! You shouldn't eat strangers that can talk back!" yelled the Telenine youngster as he ran to get in front of the predator, but Mortar simply knocked him out of the way, gaining speed towards Sven and Teba.

Teba drew out a scroll, and began to quickly recite the words on it, casting a spell. The spell lifted Mortar into the air and tossed him backwards into a pile of jagged rocks. Sven raced towards the downed Mortar with a sword, but was tackled by the Telenine.

"HEY! Leave my friend alone!" the red-brown pup screamed at Sven. The dark purple wolf coughed, the wind had been knocked out of him. The pup was a lot stronger than he reckoned.

"You dumbass, that Mortiking isn't your friend. All the reptiles on Subeta are mindless!" Sven spat. "Now get off me!"

"Mortar is not mindless! If he were, he'd have eaten me by now," the pup pointed out.

"You two, get out of the way, the Mortiking is getting back up!!" Teba called out, ready to cast another spell. Mortar shook off the debris of rocks and roared again. But he did not charge. Instead other roars in the distance sounded. Teba's chest grew cold; other Mortikings in the area were answering Mortar's call.

"We need to get the hell outta here, come on!" Sven grabbed the Telenine's paw and dragged him back to Teba. The three scurried up a high cliff, far enough away from mortar, who became surrounded by his friends. But it wasn't long before another Mortiking, a sun one, began to pick a fight with Mortar, causing an all out brawl between the large beasts. Sven and Teba peered off the cliff, shaken up by the close call. Sven looked back to the Telenine and glared.

"Not mindless, eh? You're right, if anyone has no brain it's you, kid," Sven growled out.

"My name isn't kid, it's Ragnarok," he scoffed.

"Fine, Ragnarok, what the hell are you doing trying to befriend that kind of monster? Can't you befriend others of your own kind?" Sven asked.

"There's no other packs of Telenines here! It's just me and my annoying family. There's hardly anyone to play with. The Gatekeeper at Blackheart Hollow tells me to buzz off, that lab guy with the weird Rreign doesn't answer the door, and my parents are always sooooo worried about the creatures that live here, I'm lucky if I can even escape from the den for an hour!" Ragnarok complained. Before Sven or Teba could retort, a howl rang out a few miles away. It was the commander.

"Foxface must be done finally. Kid--" Sven started.

"It's Ragnarok!!"

"Okay, Ragna, come with us. We need to get you home," Teba offered. The Telenine sat and crossed his arms.

"I'm not going home and you can't make me." Sven and Teba glanced at each other and smirked.

Back at Ian's lab, Hanji is retelling everything Ian had told her.
"So I told him, 'look, you need to start paying me more because you're asking me to collect more dangerous specimens and transportation of them is getting costly now that the government is cracking down on the black market trade.' And then Ian is like, 'I'll pay you an extra 5k per specimen and will try to reason with the government about--.' Oh, you two left? And....who is that with you?" Hanji stopped her monologue long enough to notice Sven and Teba returning, dragging Ragnarok behind them with rope. The Telenine was most displeased and throwing a fit.

"Untie me! This is kidnapping!" Ragnarok yelled out as he wiggled in his restraints.

"I let you guys go explore, and this is how you repay me?" Elfric reprimanded. He walked over to the young pup and began to untie him.

"Little bastard here was busy playing with a bunch of dangerous Mortikings, asking to be eaten. We offered to take him home but then he became a brat, so we figured you could handle this commander," Sven and Teba explained.

"Brats calling others brats? How crude," Stryker cooed. Sven puffed out his ridge and growled at the bird. The Irion merely chuckled to himself and went back to his book. He didn't care either way.

"I'm sorry my soldiers did this to you. How about we get you back home?" Elfric apologized. Ragnarok looked rather indignant, even to the commander before him.

"Hmph! You can't make me go home. I can do whatever I want," the pup continued his tirade. Sven gave his commander a 'told you so' look, which Elfric narrowed his eyes at, but looked back to the pup. He raised his tail and pinned his ears to look more intimidating, but the Telenine didn't even back down. Valtam stretched his legs as he stood up, getting annoyed by this wolf pup's bad manners. Hanji intervened though and jumped between Val and the Telenine.

"Hey now, come on. We just want to make sure you're at least safe so we can leave and go back home," the fox explained. "We're not gonna tell your folks what you've been up to."

'I will' Sven telepathically told his brother. Teba rolled his eyes.

"You promise not to tell them about the Mortikings?"

"I'll pinky swear with you, if it makes you more cooperative," Hanji offered her pinky finger out. The Telenine accepted. He tells the group he lives about 15 miles away from the downtown of Darkside. The group travels to his den. Once there, Sven naturally keeps to his own word.

"Hey, your kid here is messing with dinosaurs," Sven bluntly tells Ragna's parents. If looks could kill, Ragna's most certainly would, as would Hanji's. Annoyed, Hanji proceeds to punch Sven's shoulder.

"Ragnarok, we've told you a million times, stay away from that Mortiking!" his arid-coloured father whines.

"Young man, you are grounded. you will not be leaving this den for at least a month! You need to be here to babysit your new siblings anyways," his dawn-coloured mother scolds. Ragna, embarrassed and sad, sulks to his room. The guild notices a lot of younger siblings of Ragna running amuk in the den. The parents looked frazzled enough as it was.

"Thank you kind sir, for bringing our boy back. Honestly, he's such a scamp. He's been disappearing more and more lately, and we cannot have that happening," Ragna's mother comments, as she looks behind her to see two pups playing tug-of-war with a kitchen towel. The parents coats looked disheveled, and they had dark circles around their eyes.

'You really can't blame him for wanting to leave, that field pup over there is whizzing on the furniture,' Teba telepathically talks with Sven.

"You're welcome," was all Elfric said, and began to turn to leave. He was oddly quiet, like he was deep in thought. The guild leaves but Elfric halts after a while.

"I get why Ragnarok would want to leave. His parents smother him," Elfric began.

"But you did the right thing, boss. He is still a kid, and since he is putting himself in dangerous situations, you can't blame the parents for their worry," Asch responded.

"I was a lot like him years ago," Elfric quietly said. Hanji heard him though.

"Aww, so that's what's bugging you! Elfy is getting so old!" Hanji teased. Elfric glared at her, while Stryker failed to hide his laughter. He hadn't heard this nickname before.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, my good leader. Are you implying what I think you're implying?" Stryker smoothly quetioned. The bird was very wise to see where this was going. "Are we a foster home for wayward children?"

"No way you're gonna have that brat join us," Sven sulked.

"Well..." Elfric tried to start again, but Stryker interrupted with his chortle.

"Our admiral leader knows how to pick them it seems," the Irion cackled. Valtam stomped his foot against the stones beneath him, putting an end to Stryker's outburst. The bird snootily turned and began to walk away from the conversation, ready to head back to their base.

"So how do we convince the parents to let their son leave?" Teba pondered.

"They're not going to let him go with a bunch of strangers like us," Asch lamented.

Elfric already had a plan.

Later that night, Elfric howls, which catches Ragna's attention. They're still here? he thinks to himself. He carefully sneaks out and meets with the white wolf and his guild.

"You have a choice to make. Come with us and make a name for yourself, or remain with your parents. But, if you do follow in our footsteps, you'll have to cop the attitude and work hard," Elfric warned.

"Pssh, kid's already got some serious strength," Sven joked as he rubbed his side. It was actually still sore from the tackle earlier that day. Ragna considers the offer for a moment.

"If it gets me out of this hellhole and away from my parents forever, then I'll do it. How bad could it be?" the Telenine agrees.

"Ohohoho, my child, you have no idea what's in store for you," Stryker chuckled darkly, but resumed a neutral albeit still smug expression as Valtam pointed his horns at the bird, ready to skewer him for sassing.

"It won't be easy, but if what my soldiers say is true, there is potential for you," Elfric says.

"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go before my parents wake up!" and Ragnarok speeds off excitedly.

"Hey that's the wrong direction, we're heading northwest to catch the ferry," Hanji calls out. The pup changes course into the correct direction.

"He's got a lot of energy, think you've got your work cut out for you commander," Valtam commented. Elfric could tell it would be a challenge to rein in this pup, but if anyone could do it, it'd be him.

-x-x-x-x-x-The first several weeks with Ragnarok's addition are difficult. He enjoys training but is an irritant when not training. His hyper energy makes him exhausting to be around. Stryker tries telling Ragna about a monster in a nearby lake, egging him to go explore it, until Elfric finds out and puts Stryker on stall cleaning duty for a month ('it was a joke, there is no monster in Lake Clarity, commander,' Stryker revealed but it made no difference, he was stuck cleaning out the bathrooms). But even Elfric has to admit, while he was reminded of his own upbringing with Ragna, he didn't remember being this hyperactive at that age.

Then one day, after visiting Darkside once more for Hanji to complain to Ian about exporting specimens to him, Ragnarok quiets down. He becomes more aloof, and keeps to his room. He still does his training, but he seems distracted. Elfric confronts him about it.

"Ragna, why don't you get some time outside? You've been keeping to yourself in your room a lot more lately," Elfric noted. The pup's room had books strewn about, along with unforged weaponry. "Your room is a mess anyways"

"Elfric, err....commander, can I confide with you about something?" Ragna inquired. Elfric pushed some papers off the bed and sat down next to the Telenine.

"When we were at Darkside this last time, I met someone really cool. He's a blacksmith!" Ragna explained. Elfric thought for a second before realizing who he meant.

"Ah, Mathis. Yes, he owns and runs the Sable Smithy. He's an old friend of the guild. He's forged a couple weapons for us before."

"Yeah! And it looked like a lot of fun. I was wondering, could you let me apprentice under Mathis then? I really want to do this besides training," Ragna pleaded. It certainly explained the types of books around the room, all about smithing, forging and smelting. Elfric smiled.

"If it gives you something to do during the day, then I'm all for it. It's a useful skill you could eventually do here at the fort, so then we wouldn't have to travel to Darkside to see Mathis as often. I think you should take it up, as long as Mathis is okay with it," Elfric reassured. He knew the old blacksmith was friendly, but he could also be strict about who he let in the back with him. It was very dangerous work to be had.

"I won't let you down!" Ragna cheered.

As an apprentice for Mathis, Ragna finally could exert all his remaining hyper energy into something more productive. He'd come home from the blacksmith exhausted, eat his supper and then climb into bed. Mathis mentioned how strong the Telenine pup was for someone so young, and that strength alone would be useful in blacksmithing. The pup was always enthusiastic to work and learn new things. He couldn't ask for a better apprentice. And the guild could not thank Mathis enough.