(BL) Taming the Field Guide

Chapter 200: Are all S Classes like this?

Day two of travel went significantly better than the first day. They didn’t run into any acid rain, didn’t run into any monsters that would delay them. Kellen even witnessed a strange flying monster caught sight of them, screeched, and flew away from them.

It was a thrilling experience for Kellen, since he’d never had a monster willingly run away from Kellen before now. The only times Kellen had had monsters run away from him previously was because of traps that he’d set or a scent that scared them.

It was similar to what Rhys and Sergei were doing now, but it wasn’t the same. It was fascinating to witness, and Kellen even made some notes on it in his notebook that he’d brought along.

Rhys had chuckled at Kellen’s behaviour, shaking his head but when Kellen met his yellow gaze there had been nothing but affection there for him. Kellen had blushed, his heart warming as he reminded himself he had to keep his hands to himself for at least a few more nights.

From the map that they were using, they would have one more night where they could rest on land before they would have two days where they had to stay awake. The reason being?

They were flying over water.

The map was incredibly accurate since it was the same flight map that the airport used. It mapped the safest route all avoiding seriously dangerous areas. That was one of the things that the D.E.C. had to control along with the other government agencies in the area.

It was also something that Field Guides were sometimes roped into, but Kellen learned that one of the reasons why the area around the cities were so safe was because of Jax and Jules.

They were a two person power team who went about in the forests, unearthing any seriously powerful monsters, closing any gates that they felt they could safely, and making sure that the flight paths on this side of the world were safe. At least within a certain area.

It was a strange realisation that they had been doing hard work like that, and also completely made sense for their characters that Kellen had observed. They weren’t...bad people. They were quite good people, but Jax was crazy, and Jules was an S Class Healer with Guide abilities.

They were the farthest from normal that Kellen could ever imagine.

Kellen shook off the thought of them, just grateful that they were doing a good job since their travels were going so smoothly. Rhys even seemed pleased now that he was able to see what Jax and Jules had been somewhat up to over the last two years. Even Sergei seemed pleased.

Kellen was more pleased that he was out of the tower, doing some of the work that he loved.

The second night camping wasn’t as smooth as the first night. Something did decide to try and test Sergei and Rhys, but by the time that Kellen was fully conscious, it had already been dealt with. To Kellen’s disappointment it wasn’t something that they could eat so they had to dispose of it.

Sergei was surprised that Kellen was upset over something so trivial, while Rhys seemed delighted. He showered Kellen with kisses as Kellen pouted, standing watch as the fire he had lit burned. Sergei opted to get some more sleep while they stood watch, everyone a little more on edge since something had attacked them. Kellen didn’t argue with him, but knew that he was going to have to actually guide Sergei in the morning.

After all, they would be solely relying on his telekinetic powers over the next two days. It would do no one any good if he suddenly felt ill or wanted to surge. It would make Kellen out to be the ultimate bad guy if he brought his best friend’s Esper to him in a poor state.

Kellen would never do that to Brent, nor Sergei. It was just going to be a tense 15 minutes because Rhys was going to be upset about it, even if he understood why it needed to happen.

~

Kellen had predicted exactly how awkward the morning guiding session would be, and at the same time he had lacked imagination. He had accurately predicted his own awkwardness, but he hadn’t factored in how awkward or strange Sergei would be about it.

He hadn’t been strange about accepting guidance from Kellen before now, but maybe it was because they were getting closer to Brent and Rhys was right there that he was so strained and flustered. It wasn’t as if they were doing anything inappropriate.

They were just holding hands.

Rhys hovered, his eyes glowing like that of a beast, pacing behind them as Kellen and Sergei sat on a log they had hauled over near the campfire. Neither of them were making eye contact, and the pacing was made worse because not a single bird, insect or animal was nearby because of the overwhelming presence of the two men.

Kellen coughed, Sergei grumbled, and Kellen was faced with Sergei’s overwhelming visage inside of him.

Sergei wasn’t as intimidating as Rhys in the fact that he was an all encompassing ocean that wanted to brutalize everything to make it beautiful, but that didn’t mean he was as soft as Hill who was a multi-headed sunflower.

He was more like Gunther, who was a water tiger.

When Kellen stepped inside the mental space to see how bad Sergei was doing and where Kellen could begin to help, he stuttered to a halt. Sergei was...almost clinically organised inside. It was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

He was facing a huge space covered in rows upon rows of bookshelves. Some were empty, some were full or half full. If Kellen was a newbie and not as experienced as a Guide he would have been lost in this fact alone. Thankfully because he wasn’t, Kellen was able to feel that he was not alone in this space.

While the rows upon rows of bookshelves were interesting, what was more alarming was the feeling of being watched. It was clear that this space already had a master, and when Kellen looked up, he met them.

A long, dangerous snout. Two incredibly bright silver eyes, whiskers that came down like a beard on either side of its face. Two hands, clawed with thick, dangerous talons and sharp, deadly teeth to match. Scales that rippled like an oil-slick on water. Deadly, dangerous, and beautiful all at once.

This was the beast inside of Sergei, and Kellen had to somehow appease it with his guiding powers. Kellen gulped.

He really hoped that other S Classes that he ran into were more like Rhys. It was far easier to deal with mother nature than to appease beasts.

Thankfully, it was fairly straightforward what Kellen had to do. He had to make books with his powers to replace the books that had gone missing. How did Kellen piece this together? It was pretty obvious.

Why would a beast like that want empty bookshelves? Obviously it would want them full. How did Kellen make books with his guiding power? He didn’t ask questions and trusted himself. What did make the work harder was the fact that the beast growled and snapped its teeth in warning at Kellen every time he took a step forward into its...lair? Kellen felt it was safe to call it that.

The only thing that placated it was the fact that Kellen knew this wasn’t his place. He even told the beast as such.

"Calm down. I know I don’t belong here nor do I think you belong to me. Think of this as a temporary thing. I’m friends with your new master." Kellen muttered quietly. That surprisingly seemed to appease the beast which allowed Kellen to work faster.

By the time that Rhys was shaking Kellen awake, Kellen was tired, but not overly, and Sergei was staring at Kellen like he’d just performed a miracle.

"What did you do?" He asked, slowly taking his hand away from Rhys because he knew that the man would get upset otherwise. Sergei’s eyes were too bright, too monstrous in his own face while Kellen turned to his extra rations and began to consume them. He couldn’t take shakes with him here, so high calorie snacks were packed instead.

He mulled over what to say as he chewed, and as Rhys wrapped himself around Kellen to mark him as his own. Even Kellen could tell it was slightly necessary at the moment. Kellen knew he’d done a good job taking care of and taming the beast within him, but it was a falsehood. He was a placeholder until the real owner arrived.

"I just told the beast inside of you that I was a friend of Brent." Kellen muttered. He was sure it sounded like nonsense to the Esper, but Sergei seemed to take him at his word.

Sergei’s eyes widened, the glow brightening until it was painful to look at and Kellen had to drop his eye. He didn’t want to hurt the only fully good orb he had left and Rhys gave a warning sound to Sergei.

"Behave." Rhys warned, which was only surprising if you knew that Sergei was normally the most composed man that he knew. Still an S Class like the others, but usually emotionless. Even when Kellen knew Rhys as the Captain he smiled more than Sergei.

Sergei turned away from them, reaching up and running his hand over his face. He gave a muffled laugh, sounding a little unhinged for a moment before he lowered his hand and turned back to them. He watched Kellen as he ate for a minute before he slid his gaze to Rhys.

"Sorry. It’s just been a while since I was guided so well. Outside of Brent..." He trailed off and Kellen felt Rhys’ arm tighten around him as he nodded.

"I know. My Guide is just that good. You heard him though, the only reason he could was because he made it clear his intentions towards you. He’s mine." Rhys reminded him coldly. Sergei nodded, giving Kellen a strained, but kind look.

"My apologies, Guide Kellen. I’m not normally like this." He sounded embarrassed, but Kellen just shrugged.

"It’s okay. That happens sometimes. Hasn’t happened to me before, but I’ve had to break up similar situations before. I get it, but Rhys is right. I was just a placeholder. Your powers are only going to be nice to me because they know that." Kellen reminded him and Sergei smiled.

"Thank you for being so considerate. I feel...good. Very good. Good enough that I probably won’t need another session until we arrive on the land in two days." Sergei said. Kellen nodded.

"Let me know if that changes. I’m sure I could guide you while we move if something happens. I’ve done something similar with Rhys before." Kellen said. Rhys grumbled.

"But you put yourself in danger then." Rhys protested and Kellen laughed.

"It was important, and I would do it again. Plus, Sergei wouldn’t be holding up several tonnes of concrete so I think it’ll be less of a strain on me." Kellen joked. Somehow the tension was diffused and they were able to continue on with their journey.