"what happened to your mom?" i ask, handing the book back to the priest next to me. "she died of old age about fifty three years ago" he shrugs. fifty three years? theres no way he can be that old, right!? he looks all of what, twenty?

keeping my face even aside from the slight raise of my eyebrow. "how old are you?" i ask nonchalantly, glancing at vitalus. "i was born three months after everything went down hill. i stopped aging at twenty four, when i first shadow stepped" he explains.

"just how old is he?" i ask everyone, glancing around as he returns to his library to grab something. "how does someone just stop aging!? what even is he?"

Asmodeus shrugs. "Not human, I presume."

"you're telling me" i shake my head "wonder what else is different about him"

Rue listens and watches with interest. Roman is petting Cocoa and keeps glancing at Rue. Sidhe is next to Rue watching Gabriel.

i watch as Orion trots up to rue and and roman, looking for attention. i whistle for him to come to my side, and he runs up, tail wagging. "so, i guess we should start packing for our ride" i say awkwardly, shrugging.

while we are standing around awkwardly, trying to decide what to do next, a long, haunting howl emanates from the forest, causing all the dogs in the area to back up in fear, with orion cowering behind me and vega. vega spooks, rearing up and pulling at her bridal, but it doesn't give.

Gabriel throws open the door to the library, ordering us all inside. he makes sure his birds are inside, too, bundling them up on his chair and keeping an eye on them. "what is that?" i ask, as Gabriel slams the door behind us, bolting it shut. "estrago. they shouldn't be here" he mutters, moving bookshelves in front of the windows.

"where should they be?" i ask, helping him move the next shelf. "north." he replies, simply. that does not bode well for us, given as he told us not to go north. what good is avoiding the north if the terrors of the north come to hunt us anyways!?

Mizuki : Scared i backed up and help move stuff infront of the windows and aggre wt andromeda what do we do now that theryre coming to attck us .And how will we get suppiles and make weapons i say looking fo answers .....

acdintly did this twice lmao forgive me !!!

"they're not here to attack us, specifically." Gabriel explains, stepping back from his work. "estrago are much more intelligent than the other animals of the north. or anywhere, i suppose. except the human settlements. estrago have around the same intelligence as a human. they operate as a hive -like ants- with different classes or ranks of estrago. the first rank is the drone. these are the most common type of estrago, they are what are out side right now. they're the lowest rank, they're also the weakest. they are dog shaped, sort of. have you ever seen a grey hound? imagine one of those with leathery black skin, and no fur to be seen. instead of four legs, they have six. with two in the front, two in the back, and two right in front of the one's in the back. they're teeth are sharp, and they always regrow, no matter how old they are. should one fall out, it will be replaced within three days. the drones have low speech abilities, due to their tongues being thin in their snout." he explains, grabbing a piece of paper and a handmade pencil to begin sketching one of the creatures.

"they're tall" he continues "about as tall as a large dog. the next class, the builders, are taller. about as tall as a mastiff. they're much the same, except they can speak better since their whole body is bigger, including their head. these estrago have a special ability, they can spit a substance that once out of their mouth, hardens into a black rock sort of substance. they do all the building, constructing the hives and rarely leaving them. after that are the warriors, which are the size of a horse. they don't spit rock, but their teeth are serrated and sharper than the other's teeth. they speak almost perfect English. the last class is the queen. mostly, hives only have one queen, but they can have up to three. the queens don't do much, other than direct how the hive should be built and lay eggs. they're about my size, and usually you don't see them. they never leave the nest unless accompanied by builders in order to construct a new hive." he concludes.

"great, they sound very interesting" i say, sarcastically "so why are they here?" Gabriel shuffles a little, before shrugging. "no idea. i just know they've been giving me some problems. they prefer the forests of the north, not the south. i don't know why they came all the way down here" he answers.