183 A Discovery

Laz ended up getting through the rest of the night without much more interaction with Ruby. As it turned out, she had gotten more than her fill for the evening and also was becoming rather busy. Laz ended up busier than he though he would be as he had to break up two fights. Once it was over two guys who wanted to take the same woman home and another time it was over two women who wanted to take the same guy home. He just happened to be the closest one to the fights which was why he acted. Normally, it would be up to the normal security guys to do that.

Needless to say, the night ended without much trouble and both Lessa and Leo decided that things went well. Leo was rather happy that nothing too outrageous occurred while Lessa was secretly planning a way to have a male stripper jello wrestling match next Thursday or the Thursday after without telling Leo ahead of time.

Laz stuck around until full closing and secretly met Ruby in the back before heading off. She was already ready to take off when he got there.

"Alright, Leona is in and she can't wait for Sunday. You'd better be up for anything, got me?" Ruby said, leaning in and giving him a quick kiss.

"I sometimes wonder who wears the pants in this relationship..?" Laz asked, more to himself then to her. Laughing, Ruby got in her car and rolled down the window.

"You can wear whatever you want long as you listen to me and Leona, got it?"

"YES MAM!" Laz said while forcing a salute.

"Good boy. See you soon," Ruby drove off to whatever she was up to next. Laz had to admit that she always seemed busy and even though he asked about it, she wasn't too forthcoming with what. Since it seemed like she didn't want to talk about it, Laz didn't annoy her about it. Sometimes, you had to give just as much space as you did attention, or so Laz figured. No one wanted to be drowned by someone else.

Laz wondered if Ruby was still thinking about the night by the stone pool when Laz advised her on what to do if he wasn't there. She didn't seem to want to even think about him leaving and now she hadn't brought it up again since then. Neither she nor Leona had said anything since. He had no plans to go either, but he always felt a strong pull once he stayed in one place for too long. There really was no way to describe it and it never was to anywhere in particular, at least it hadn't been yet. But it was there all the same, as though something was telling him that it was bad to not keep moving.

Even still, he wasn't ready to leave just yet, the main reason being Ruby and Leona. He was enjoying the thing they had going on right now. It might have been an enhanced feeling after he finally started healing from before, but it felt warm and wonderful and Laz hadn't had that much in life. He had only remembered a few bright spots among the normal grey and listless.

Speaking of Dee, her progress was coming along great. She was at the peak of the Awakening stage and would soon hit Condensation. With all of the information that she was able to gain from Laz, Leona and even Ruby if she needed, she had all of the information she needed. She strength was growing astounding fast and she no longer felt awkward with her transformation. Which was going to be a good thing one she started transforming, or Laz thought so anyway since he had a nagging feeling as to what she would look like once that happened.

As for Reggie, he was becoming more and more immersed in Runes and combinations of them. Seeing what worked, what didn't while also figuring out why they didn't work and if it was possible to make it work. For a while, it looked like Reggie was going to become obsessed with it, but then something seemed to change between Dee and Reggie and Reggie ended up regaining his cool and finding his balance.

Once again, no one told Laz what had happened, but he wasn't blind and they weren't desecrate. Laz could only laugh to himself when he thought about what kinds of words Leona would have with them once she found out.

He wasn't going to say anything though since he had been the same age. In a world where things are going crazier by the day, the most calming thing can be just having someone to hold.

Friday and Saturday flew by before Laz knew it.

...

Sunday morning, Laz woke up in a strange panic, causing Vivi who had been sleeping on him to go flying to the foot of the bed and almost off of it.

*WHAT?!?!* She had been startled awake by Laz.

Laz didn't respond at first, he just looked around and focused on his breathing and is roaring heart beat. It was strange, he had a dream that he didn't remember, but he didn't forget the feeling.

*What's wrong?* Vivi asked, seeing Laz's strange mood. This wasn't like him.

"I'm not sure. Nothing really. I just... had a bad feeling? From a dream?" Laz was a bit unsure as to how to describe it.

*You had a bad dream?* Vivi was trying to figure out what he meant.

"It... wasn't... It didn't... I don't remember the dream itself, just the way it made me feel... Hey Vivi? Is it normal to feel like you've been in one place too long? Like... something is telling you that you need to move?"

*Is it that strange dream bitch you've told me about?* She asked.

"No. This is something different that doesn't involve her. If it was her, I would at least know the cause if not the message."

*Makes sense...say...*

"What?"

*Have you felt... I don't know... like maybe you have a feeling of deja vu at some times? Or like... you knew something was going to happen before it did? I don't mean like you guessed and were right... but you actually knew?*

"I don't... wait... what?"

*Sigh. Humans... just think it over for a while and let me know. It's not a real pending thing, is it?*

"It... could be?"

*Well, then I would be prepared for the worst while hoping for the best. No need to be caught unaware.* Vivi started stretching and got up, off to do whatever while Laz sat there and thought about her words.

'Am I seeing things before they happen?' Laz felt like there might be some truth to that, but that it wasn't the whole truth. It was like finding a puzzle piece that you were missing, but still be unable to see the whole picture. It was kind of frustrating.

Laz went outside while still mostly naked and sat down while looking at nothing, his mind trying to lock down what he had seen.

After an unknown amount of time, Vivi came out of the camper and jumped on Laz while smacking him in the face a few times with her paws to get his attention, waking him up from his absentminded state.

*Don't you have stuff to do today?* She asked, seeing him come to?

"Yeah. I'm going out with the girls..."

*Are you now?*

"Yes. Why?"

*UGH, I don't even know... just don't forget something, ok?*

"What?" Laz asked, a bit confused.

*That there are people who care about you already.*

"Of course I know that," Laz responded, wondering what she was getting at.

*Then don't just go and keep finding new girls to get your dick wet, ALRIGHT?*

Laz was struck dumb, for a number of reasons.

'Get my dick wet? Since when has she said stuff like this? And why is she angry about that? After all she... OOOOHHHHH'

"Ah... I see. I'm sorry," Laz said with all honesty.

*It's good that you, HEY. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?*

"Obviously you're mad at me for not spending enough time with you. So come on and let me get you done up right to make up for time."

*YOU STUPID, DENSE, MORONIC BROTHER. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PROBLEM ACTUALLY IS, DO YOU?*

Despite Vivi's yells and protests, those stopped soon afterwards as Laz spent almost 3 hours of his morning, brushing her, doing her nails, rubbing her skin and spending time with her. Although this wasn't what the issue was and wasn't what Vivi was looking for, she didn't say anything and just enjoyed the time while it happened. After all, she did enjoy a good pamper and that was what this was.

By the time he was done, Vivi felt like a new little wolf pup who was puddy in her big bro's hands. Not all girls were lucky enough to get this kind of attention. As for Laz, he didn't mind. As far as he was concerned, Vivi was his sister and had been with him longer than anyone else, therefore she deserved his attention.

After this was done, Laz ended up going for a run up and down the mountain area. It was a rare thing for him to do this by himself as he normally would have someone else with him, but because he was by himself, he was able to go all out, going way faster than any other human could hope to match.

Before he knew it, he was already far away from where he had ever been before. It was an open spot clearing that looked like it had a dirt road that lead to it. Although the spot seemed peaceful, Laz caught the feel of something in the air that made him pause.

It wasn't a smell, but it had a sort of stench to it. At the same time it was kind of a feeling that spoke of foreboding mixed with a hint of death. Looking around though, Laz didn't discover anything. After taking a few laps around the area, Laz still couldn't put his finger on it. Instead of giving up though, he sat down in the middle of the clearing and tried to focus his senses while closing his eyes. The result was almost instantaneous.

There was the feeling of death here and a strong one at that.

Spreading out his spiritual senses farther, Laz started to find hits of things spread around that had been missed by his earlier search.

Animal tracks, demon beast tracks and even some small pieces of bone that had been discarded within the thick brush at leading out of the clearing. It was hard to make out what it was as it had been smashed into the ground so Laz ended up picking himself up and walking over to check for himself.

He quickly found what he had sensed.

It was a human skull.

Laz knew nothing about forensics, but from watching crime shows with his mom from back when they were still around, he was able to figure out that based on the color and the amount of bugs on it, that it hadn't been here for long. How long was anyone's guess, but he could only say it wasn't remains that were like years old. Looking around some more, he actually found other bones and even a couple more skulls spread around that patch of brush. Combined with the various tracks left from some sort of demon beast, Laz was able to come to one conclusion.

There was a demon beast that had been eating humans here.

The question that he really wanted an answer to was where was it getting the humans it was eating?

After thinking it over, he could only come up with one hypothesis; With only one dirt road leading here and no bits of human settlements in sight, Laz could only guess that someone was dropping bodies off here that would then be eaten by the beasts in the area.

'Well... this makes things a bit more interesting...'