Chapter Text
It was warm and soft against his cheek, a pillow Cor wasn’t all that willing to give up. It had been a long time since he’d been comfrotable while sleeping. He was usually traveling with Regis and Clarus which meant sleep was a drop of water in the bucket of life. Traveling with the two older men usually entailed dragging both men away from unnecessary fights and then going back to finish them.
His pillow was moving, Cor realized as sleep slowly edged into wakefulness. A steady rise and fall. There was also a faint, low rumble coming from deeper within this unusually fluffy pillow. Not a growl, something far more gentle...
Opening his eyes, Cor stared upwards at the green canopy of his tent, his mind slowly recalling where he was and exactly who he was traveling with. Which meant his soft, comfy pillow was a large Galahdian turned coeurl. Blinking several times, he let the realization sink in that he’d felt comfortable and safe enough with the coeurl to sleep rather deeply.
Sitting up slowly, Cor glanced over at the large cat to find Nyx still soundly asleep, his body curled with Cor sitting at the center, resting back against him. How they’d managed that during the night he wasn’t sure but decided not to think about it too much. Nyx’s nose was near his hip, and the urge to reach out and touch him on his head was a strong one the Marshal just could not ignore. Carefully, he reached out, letting his fingers slowly glide through thick, soft fur the color of steel. It was no wonder people coveted the Lucian coeurl fur he saw sold in different shops back home. Cor wasn’t all that sure he’d ever touched anything as soft. Perhaps Chocobo down, but even that still had a stiffness to it the coeurl’s fur lacked.
He was so caught up in his thoughts he didn’t notice when Nyx released a soft sigh before opening his eyes. It was only when the large cat gave a soft snort that Cor realized those two blue eyes were open and staring at him rather curiously.
Clearing his throat and looking away, Cor rose to his feet. “It’s morning,” he murmured even as he realized that was obvious by the sounds of the birds singing outside the tent. “It stopped raining, we should go.”
It only took a few moments to pack everything away, meanwhile, Nyx trotted out into the still damp grass and stretched his long body with a wide-mouthed yawn. It wouldn't take much, Cor figured as he watched the large cat, to fit most of his upper body into the cat's jaws. The thought was rather terrifying.
Back out on the road, Cor turned down one of the branching paths that lead onto a dirt road. The fact Ulric was stuck in the body of an oversized, highly aggressive cat meant he wanted to be spotted by as few people as possible.
Most of the area they were working their way through now was unpopulated, most people settling close to Lestallum for the convince of power and shopping. They would be giving the city a wide birth, however; keeping their distance until they passed across the border. Hunters stayed in the city and Cor wasn't sure if Dave had sent out a notice through the rest of the Hunters about him traveling with the oversized silver cat.
They didn't run into any trouble throughout the day. Cor was used to traveling alone and the silence that came with it. Nyx was a quiet traveling companion, only pausing now and then to sniff at something interesting on the ground or to swivel his ears around at some distant sound Cor hadn't been privy to.
The sun was starting to get lower in the sky when Cor finally called a halt to their travel. They'd only paused once today, an attempt on Cor's part to make it a little further. He'd called a stop at a rocky haven further off one dirt road that was set near a cluster of trees.
Pulling his tent from the armiger, Cor set it up quickly while Nyx proceeded to circle the camping spot a few times with his nose to the ground. The Marshal started to ask him if he was going to start marking his territory or something as the big cat walked up and dropped onto his haunches beside him. Instead, he stood back and stared at his tent.
"Purr-fect. Right?"
Nyx made a gagging sound in the back of his throat as if he was about to choke up a hairball. Cor actually laughed at that.
"I've got some fruit stowed away if you want any. It's not much," he admitted as he moved closer to the tent. He hadn't come prepared to pick up a large cat after all. "What about-"
His words were interrupted by a vicious snarl as it ripped its way from Nyx's throat. He turned on his heel, frowning towards the large cat thinking the snarl had been directed at him, but an answering roar in the distance proved that thought wrong.
Nyx's hackles were up; the mohawk-like mane down his neck growing another inch as the newcomer came darting out of the trees giving another mighty roar that Ulric answered in kind. A coeurl, and an elder one at that by the looks of its long horns, lashing whiskers, and white fur speckled with dark brown rosettes.
His katana fell into his palm before Cor had the thought of summoning it fully formed in his mind. The blade wouldn't do him much good, however, since Nyx was keeping himself between Cor and the quickly approaching elder. But when he opened his mouth to command Nyx out of the way, the Glaive-turned-coeurl shifted his weight and then disappeared. Cor stared at the spot, blinking until he heard the sound of snarls and turned his gaze to the elder. Nyx was there, sinking his teeth into the other cat as the two started their battle.
He’d warped.
The bastard could still warp.
Cor snorted at that realization, wondering absently if Nyx could still summon the other magic the King had lent to his Kingsglaive. Coeurl’s naturally had lightning, something he could easily see from the way the elder was biting and sending zaps of electricity against Nyx. Lightning likely came like second nature to the big cats, though Ulric appeared to favor his claws and teeth over the magic his body held. Each lunge ended in a swipe of claws or a bite, and it seemed like Nyx had the upper hand until the elder coeurl grabbed him by the scruff of his thick neck and threw him to the ground.
While Nyx had only been a large cat for a few days, the elder coeurl had been one for years and had probably been fighting just as long. The white cat was on Ulric before Cor could even blink. Forgetting the fact that both cats were larger than himself, Leonis darted forward and slashed at the elder. That earned him the coeurl’s ire, the large creature shoving itself away from the fallen Galahdian in favor of its new, human prey. It was weakened, however, something Cor noticed as the coeurl lunged at him and he met its teeth with the steel of his katana. Its white coat was smeared with red from wounds it had gained from Ulric’s teeth and claws. Bloodloss was making it weak and Cor used that to his advantage.
Shoving the large creature backward, the Marshal took a swing at it only for the elder coeurl to stumble backward away from the bite of the blade. It snarled at him, its mouth bloody from where his katana had caught behind its fangs. Cor moved again, slashing at it as the coeurl’s whiskers came up, the spark of electricity winding around the long lengths of fur. The edges of its fur down its back to its long whip-like tail started to glow. He’d seen that before, and quickly lept backward several feet in an effort to get out of the range of the coeurl’s attack.
He was lucky, landing just outside of the attack’s area of effect as the coeurl roared. Electricity slithered across the ground like many snakes, singing the grass and debris that littered the ground. It formed a neat circle around the coeurl, who stood at the center of it now, breathing hard. It gave one final snarl at Cor before it turned and limped hurriedly back into the woods.
Releasing a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, Cor turned to Nyx. He was picking himself up carefully, but even from the distance Cor was at he could see bleeding wounds and singe marks covering the coeurl’s coat. Moving closer, he stopped beside Ulric to evaluate him. The coeurl didn’t look at him, just simply continued to lick his wounds as if a major fight hadn’t just happened.
“C’mon.” Cor’s voice brought the large, silvery head up, blue eyes turning to look at him. It didn’t matter how many times he saw those eyes, Cor realized quietly to himself. He’d always be shocked by them. Clear blue, like a winter sky. He stared back into those eyes for a moment longer before he cleared his throat. “I have a first-aid kit in the tent.” He turned then, tearing his gaze away from the large cat’s to make his way back to the haven. Behind him, Nyx groaned but got to his feet to follow after him. He made no effort to move quietly, his large feet shifting through the grass as he lumbered along to the rock that was their camping ground. As soon as Nyx was up on the rock, Cor turned and pushed his hand out into the air.
A blue line carefully followed the edge of the rock, forming a complete circle. Once one end met the other, the blue lines of magic moved upwards, etching out hexagons in the air until it finally closed over the top like a large bubble. A protection spell. If the elder coeurl decided it wanted revenge later while they were sleeping, it would have to break through the barrier first. And by the time it managed that, Cor would be wide awake and ready.
Nyx watched the shimmer of blue magic as it encompassed the campsite, huffing softly before following Cor when he called him into the tent. There, he laid down where Cor could tend to him, whining when Cor cracked an elixir over the worst of the wounds.
“Don’t be a baby,” Cor murmured, but the rebuke was softened when the Marshal’s hand landed gently on top of Nyx’s head to give his ear a scratch. Nothing was deep and he only needed a bandage around one front leg where the older coeurl had decided to bite down rather harshly. The rest of his wounds were minor, needing only a little bit of treatment. The Marshal was careful as he handled Nyx. He doubted the oversized coeurl would bite him on purpose, but he didn't want to cause the Glaive any pain. He'd seen other animals react in a way when hurt, biting at the person trying to help them. But then again, those animals were just animals, not a creature with the mind of a human. Once Cor was finished he offered Nyx an apple and watched in mild amusement as the coeurl chomped down on it, bitting it in half easily.
Moving to his usual sleeping spot, Cor laid down and didn’t glance at Nyx when the coeurl moved over beside him and laid down so his back was pressed carefully into Leonis’ side. “I’ll go fishing in the morning,” he murmured as he closed his eyes. “We’ll have that for breakfast.” He couldn’t help the slight smile that touched his lips at the soft, definitely happy, chuffing sound Nyx made beside him.
