Gilded Beanstalks;; Lorem/Neru;;

264 Words

It was not the most unique of views to perceive the knights and their student as weak fools for wishing to save the girl. Neru could always agree the woman was weak for being seemingly entirely unable to defend herself. The rabbit's own power had come from fighting against what most people would do. Long ago the bunny had chosen to be strong against the odds which overtime gave her the strength to do things no normal rodent would ever be able to do. What constituted a fool was all in the eye of the beholder. Neru was quite foolish in the eyes of other rabbits having the natural born courage to attempt fighting a kitsune. She also was foolish if you asked any other bunny girl having decided to save a succubus in spite of the danger the species presented to everyone in the world. Everything that was supposedly naive or idiotic she had done always seemed to end up with good results for her in some way.

She was truly above the clouds now walking atop one for the first time as she climbed off the beanstalk with her bat-like wings extended encase the clouds were not traversable. "Rain, take my hand." the lavender-haired mage stretched her hand towards him in an open palm offering. "We have no guarantee humans can walk upon these clouds." at least if she held his hand then it could be ensured that somehow he would be alright, give him time to grip the stalk again if it turned out humans could not walk these grounds.

749 words total

Walking on clouds was not very weird for the bunny girl. Obviously she had never been in the clouds before this was a new frontier for her. Neru had flown enough that the sensation of clouds beneath her booted feet was not incredibly abnormal it was kinda like prancing around atop thick tree canopies as she sometimes did. "It worked." she seemed relieved to see that he would be alright as she was entirely unaware he had wings as well. Neru often did worry about the safety of other's it was what had driven her into transforming from bunny to girl in the first place, defending kits who had been much younger and thus slower than her from the kitsune. Prey was normally driven to run away but this hunted creature was wired completely wrong and had no qualms about it. 'It would have been bad if he fell' she could hold weight in flight but she wouldn't have been able to catch him if he fell without holding her being as she couldn't fly too fast.

"Why don't we get going?" the lavender-haired girl smiled as she tugged his hand slightly when she took a few small steps forward not wanting to get far from him. 'Hopefully this place is not aura based.' Neru would hate for the solid nature of these clouds to be some reaction to winged creatures and for him to fall through it he got too far from her. "Until we find some proof humans can walk unaided on these clouds I think it's best we stay like this." she did not exactly enjoy having to hold hands with some trap pretty boy but she also didn't want him dead just because she disliked him. "I am not a swift enough flier to catch you if something goes wrong." he deserved to know that and calculate it into any choices he made. "The wings are fairly new, a gift from someone I saved recently." after that one guild-mates reaction she didn't feel like risking stating she got the winds from a succubus.

Neru strode across the clouds at whatever pace seemed best for the two of them. 'At least I barely feel him.' If she had to deal with some crawling disgust she was not sure she could keep in direct contact with him but he was docile enough to elicit no feeling at all from her. "I really hope that thing is still up here somewhere." she was actually very mellow compared to most rodents. Sure the bunny girl was optimistic and bounced around but otherwise, she seemed very calm for her species. "Defeating such a beast could be enjoyable." She would never fall to anything so they would win and have a new story to tell others. Lucky for Neru that golden beast was still alive and there was so much more up here to discover as well.

1288 words total.

Any sane adventurer would obviously hope rather desperately that the creature who made legends was still around. Most of the time good legends were only born when they could take down a nefarious foe. Without any of the frightening beasts of the world, she would have just remained some little rabbit and have been dead already. 'It would be so fun to best any creature whose rumors last until today' So long as she could take some sort of trophy to prove what she had done. Anyone who could not prove their exploits when they bragged about them, well such people were just fools who did not truly want to achieve more than what they were. Neru was never happy where she was the bunny was always aiming higher to escape the class of prey and one day become a predator.

"I hope it's a dragon." everyone wanted to see one of those, something so legendary was worth going after for sure. 'Plus people once looked like giants to me so the only ones I haven't seen are the dragon and chimera.' Seeing new things was something that should drive anyone who had decent ambition within them. "We can fight and defeat it, bring back a proof for ourself." After all, she had never actually needed someone to tell her when she had done something great even if praise was nice she was self-confident enough for the both of them. Dragons were considered one of the apex magical predators of the world and for someone who wanted to climb the ranks of hunters it was a necessary creature to defeat. "A rabbit besting a dragon even with aid is an impressive idea." Being able to still be standing when a dragon fell would make her so happy.

Walking for a while she realized that he had asked her something earlier even if the question was indirect. "On the subject of gifting wings, I suppose someone can, but my wings weren't the gift itself just an effect of it." wouldn't hurt to give her dragon slaying buddy a rundown of what she was, sure divulging info like this to someone of the male gender was disgusting but it was necessary if they were to defeat a dragon together. "I was born just a plain old rabbit and through life became humanoid, but for a long time I possessed no abnormal actually usable magic just the amount most citizens have." most of which was aimed towards hiding her rabbit status as the family that had taken her in after her colony didn't like the idea of something humanoid living with them, had not been fond of their clients finding out she was just a plain old rabbit. "Found a succubus under attack one day and decided to help her in spite of everything, by the end of it she offered to use magic they normally curse people with to allow me to utilize the same magic as her, so I can manifest traits of the species like the wings." She chose what many people would have done anything to avoid, turned what was averagely some horrid curse and made it into one of the best blessings she had ever gotten.