Assigned Companions

Vito's hand was shaking as he read his paper out loud.

"It says lions!" he said with a shaky voice at the thought of it.

"Goddamn, lions," he laughed out loud completely taken aback.

Edith cheered in the background as she heard the news. She was more than happy to take back her giraffe for this little exercise.

Cyrus placed a hand on his chin as he thought to himself, 'I was hoping that he would get the giraffe. I guess he is just unlucky or perhaps, indecisive as well.'

Vito went back to his teammates and he couldn't even face them, he was partially disappointed and told himself, 'If only I had stuck to my first instinct.'

He didn't need to see Edith's face to know that she was enjoying this situation more than anyone here. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"If it makes you feel any better the lions have already seen your face once before, so I am sure that they won't be too difficult to handle,' Terra said with a cheerful smile.

Vito tried to take it to heart.

"Alright then, we have been assigned our new companions, let us make haste!" Edith said as she turned around to head towards the field she always went to.

"Hold on a second Edith, where are you going? You still haven't drawn," John said still holding the box with both his hands.

Edith's eyes widened and she thought she misheard him so she nervously smiled and turned around to face him and ask, "What do you mean by that? Every animal we have has already been distributed evenly. There's nothing left for me except my giraffe."

"That is why you are the princess," John said placing down the box and retrieving another box from the truck behind him. "There is another special box made just in case this scenario were to occur. And as the princess you get to be the only one that gets to pick an animal that was never assigned to any of you in the first place."

Edith shook her head in disbelief, she was still smiling though nervous but couldn't make sense of his words, "That's not what you said," she complained.

John raised his eyebrow curiously, "Really? What did I say then?"

Edith responded, "You said that if Vito picks the giraffe then I get the lions but if he picks the lions-"

Edith *gasped* she recalled the memory perfectly, John never said anything about giving her back her giraffe, that was Terra's doing! He was the one who said that and misinterpreted what John was trying to say, henceforth deceiving her.

All of this was his fault.

Edith turned towards Terra and her eyes looked to be lit with fire as her right hand clenched into a heavy fist filled with hatred.

Terra raised up his hands in surrender and nervously chuckled, "Sorry!"

Cyrus took note of this and whispered, "As expected of someone who works closely with Ariel, that man is a deceiver." Dawn watched all this happening in front of him and even he felt bad for her. Vito at the very least was relieved that things wouldn't be going too easy for Edith after all.

Edith finally calmed herself down and she knew she couldn't blame Terra, he was over-excited about this whole thing from the beginning so he just did something dumb, everyone makes mistakes. Plus she was the princess after all, so it makes sense that she would be the one to get special treatment out of all of them.

"Alright," she let out a *sigh* "So what do you have in store for me?" she asked.

"Well, I'm glad you asked," John said giving a low bow.

Seeing him bow put a smile on her face, she still hadn't given up on having a male servant one day in the future.

John then spun the box that he had retrieved from the truck and gave it to her to place her hand in and see what she got.

Cyrus saw the spinning motion and knew from the beginning that he had rigged it again.

'Just what is he trying to gain by doing this?' he asked himself. He decided that another confrontation might be needed down the line.

Edith placed her hand in and then out of the box,

"Now Edith," John said humbly before her, "What did you get?"

Edith unrolled the piece of paper before her and almost dropped it instantly. She looked at John hurt because of what she got. "Monkeys!? I got monkeys!!?" she yelled furiously shaking her hands in disapproval.

"That might be worse than lions," she cried out to herself.

Edith never particularly enjoyed the company of monkeys. Once on a trip far away a monkey had stolen her ice cream cone and ate the ice cream right in front of her. She had tried to chase after it and she hurt her knee in the process despite her impressive durability. She was around 12 years old.

She was not looking forward to this mission at all.

"Now that everyone has received their assigned companions, we may now separate and head to our new locations. Dawn, you are with me," John said as he began marching out.

Dawn was surprised, "Are these not solo missions? Why is he tagging along with me?" he asked the group.

Terra shrugged and Cyrus answered his question as he bent down to inspect something, "Maybe because he is worried about you. You had it pretty rough on your first mission out. As a good instructor and mentor to us, he is probably looking out for our weakest link," Cyrus said.

"You didn't have to say it like that," Dawn complained.

"Are you not? You made the least progress out of all of us, it makes sense to call you that," Cyrus said.

Dawn wasn't pleased to hear this at all, he hated feeling this way, useless, incapable, a liability, he hated all of these feelings and everything Cyrus was saying had dug up some wounds in him. Wounds that he never forgot about.

He was just about to say something, maybe even throw out a fist in retaliation to Cyrus but just then Cyrus said, "And that's why we can't afford to see something happen to you. As a team, it would be detrimental to us to have you so far behind everyone else. So he is looking after you so that something bad won't have to happen at all."

"You should be happy, you finally found people who care after so long."

Dawn's eyes were filled with shock, "How did you kn-"

"Anyways, I have a tiger to feed, I'll catch you guys in a couple of hours," Cyrus said unenthusiastically while carrying a cooler filled with raw meat.

Terra and Vito had already gotten their supplies and headed out so this only left Edith and Dawn left in place.

Dawn with his hand reached out to Cyrus who left in a hurry and Edith who was reluctant to go anywhere after receiving monkeys as her assignment.

The two were left in silence for a while before Dawn spoke to her, "Uhm, Edith? Are you not going anywhere?" he asked.

"I will," she said in a dead tone as her eyes were filled with emptiness, "Just give me a minute, maybe an hour," Edith replied with her face facing the dirt.

"Alright then, I guess I'll just head out then," he said as he picked up a brush and some apricots from the supplies on the truck. As he was about to leave Edith stopped him with an evil smile.

"Hey Dawn, you don't love yourself, right? Wanna switch with me?" she asked cutely with a murderous aura behind her.

"Edith, what are you talking about? You know that is silly, right? We can't just switch" Dawn said trying to sound reasonable as he tried to move past her.

Edith grabbed his arm and squeezed it tightly, "You're funny, switch with me," she smiled.

Dawn tried to push her back but it was fruitless and as he tried even harder he began to feel his shoulder glow and a newfound strength was beginning to fill him up, Edith noticed this and squeezed a pressure point on his wrist which put him in pain and the power that was providing him strength was now providing him healing instead.

"So will you switch with me?" she asked standing above him as he was on one knee with one hand on the ground.

"You know we can't" he let out in pain struggling to say the words, "John is waiting for me, if you go instead of me, he will just change it back anyways."

Edith let him go and then considered this for a while.

*Tsk* "Fine, I'll go to the monkeys," Edith finally said disappointed.

She kicked a rock on her way out and mumbled to herself, "Stupid John, Stupid Princess, Stupid Monkeys."

John was never one for exercise and he definitely wasn't healthy in average terms but the feeling of being dominated and left helpless by a woman tore what little self-respect he had left. For once he was considering turning around his life for the better.

****

Cyrus was contemplating what he had said to Dawn.

He knew Dawn wasn't like Edith and couldn't be flattered away by compliments and that he would prefer the harsh truth over everything else. Still, he had done everything in his power to reassure Dawn that John was trying to help.

Trying to look out for them.

The only problem with this was that Cyrus didn't believe his own words no matter how thoughtful they sounded. He had learned to be distrustful of people who have or are related to unpleasant backgrounds.

Cyrus once used to only look for the light in people and that light blinded him and led him into a darkness where he found a peace that would only last so long as he never let his guard down fully.

This darkness created an emptiness and void in him for years but it kept him safe. It was a reason he could never make friends in the past as he couldn't even look himself in the mirror and trust himself.

But it was a comfort to know that he would never get hurt so long as he kept it around him. However, this darkness took its toll on him time and again as it would never let him rest properly in certain scenarios without his mind thinking of the worst possibilities. This being one of those scenarios.

But right now wasn't the time to think about whether or not he was being paranoid. Cyrus had another issue at hand, one he couldn't postpone, he had finally walked into the den of a beast. 

One that wasn't pleased to have uninvited guests in its habitant.