Dimension Weaver: My Wife Is The Dragon Empress!-Chapter 248 - - Shade Of a Dream (Part 1)

"Rrrr… The weather grew really cold, I need to set up some kind of fire." Talon murmured as he put his jacket on again.

The moment the two suns set in the horizon, the temperature dropped sharply. So sharply in fact that Talon was sure that it was now way below freezing point and his proof of that was his bottle of water that had frozen almost instantly.

'Am I in the south pole or something?' He laughed dryly as he finally pulled out a small camping stove he had with him in his backpack. Luckily, since this bag was brought along with him due to the nature of the mission, he had many essentials in it.

"I can at least set a fire without the need for wood." He murmured to himself as he finally pulled out a small piece of meat, cut it into small pieces. Then, he pulled out a small pot and put them in the pot.

Then, he rummaged through his backpack and pulled some spices that he had with him. Acrypha watched with a weird expression.

"How many things did you bring with you?" She asked.

"Hm? Oh, I brought many camping tools with me since I thought we might end up sleeping in the wilderness."

"It's almost as if you anticipated this." She laughed.

"I have future sight, of course I anticipate everything." He replied as he pointed at his eyes.

"Of course you do. That's why you're still alive." Acrypha laughed.

"Yeah, if you're like me, you would always anticipate danger and avoid it. I must say I'm a master at avoiding danger and going the safe route every time."

"..."

As Talon started preparing the food, he noticed that Acrypha went completely silent. "What? You don't believe me?"

"I wish I could." She replied.

"Hey!"

"If I had a gold coin for every time you almost killed yourself I would be the wealthiest existence in every dimension." She shrugged.

"The disrespect! Ouch!" Pretending to be hurt, Talon fell back.

"That's because it's true, idiot. You better start reducing the number of times you almost kill yourself or I will make sure you never be able to move again."

"You're going to paralyze me?"

"Don't worry, I will take care of you for the rest of your life after that." She smiled mischievously.

"... I don't want to be a vegetable!"

"Oh, please, isn't it quite romantic as you humans say? Then, I will carry your dead body for eternity until I also die. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Closing her eyes, Acrypha seemed to imagine that scene and smile.

The young man stared at her for a while before he turned around and continued cooking. "I wonder who's the lunatic between us. Though, I hate to admit that it does sound quite romantic."

"Exactly, which means that we are both a couple of lunatics with no limit."

Even with her usual cold, clever and logical attitude, Acrypha was very similar to Talon in personality in many other cases. Beneath all of those layers that she built across her life to protect herself from the cruelty of this world, she was simply someone who liked to joke around with people she trusts, shares her wickedly weird ideas with them and have a simple laugh around a campfire.

As simple as this was, she loved it more than anyone else out there. Simply because she can put away all of that character she built and be her true self and Talon could see that as clear as day.

'I'm glad I was able to free her from all of that…' Just remembering her broken look when she told him about her people and the life she lived made his smile vanish. That look was truly something he would never forget.

It touched his soul in ways he had never expected. Which is why he decided to do everything within his ability to never see it again.

"Why did you go silent?" Acrypha asked.

"Hmm, I was just focusing on cooking. We must have a nice steak dinner tonight." With that in mind, he continued preparing the piece of meat and cooking it slowly.

When it was done, the blue meat had already turned to a rather dark golden color surprisingly.

"Interesting… The smell isn't bad either." Talon murmured as he stared at the piece of meat. "Well, here goes nothing."

With that, he put the piece of meat in his mouth and started chewing. Instantly, his eyes opened wide as he stopped chewing for a second.

"How is it?" Acrypha asked when she noticed his expression.

"This… This is amazing!!" It took him a second to reply before he started chewing again with an excited look on his face. "This is the best steak I've ever tasted! What?! It's perfectly tender and juicy."

Even though Talon had eaten quite the variety of meat-based dishes before, this was still by far the most delicious thing he ever tried by a long mile. Not to mention that it wasn't even well-prepared. It was seared with some simple spices and yet still delivered such a flavor.

"Here, try some." He handed Acrypha some of it to try it.

The latter put the piece in her mouth and nodded her head. "This is pretty good. Sand Eaters meat is a delicacy in many worlds so no wonder it tastes this nice."

"Yeah, this is quite amazing."

As Talon took a second bite, he was surprised to see something.

[Ding!]

[You have consumed Sand Eaters meat. +4 Agility.]

"Oh?" Talon blinked. "Wait, it gave me a bonus in my status points." He said.

"It did? Well, that's expected. It's a level 37 monster. Any monster beyond 35 that could be consumed gives bonus points in most cases. Though, once you reach its level, it stops giving any bonuses."

"Damn, this makes it even better. I love these sand eaters!"

With that, the young man ate the rest of the steak with Acrypha before he wrapped things up and put them away and set a small tent for him to sleep.

"Hey, Acrypha, can you wake me up 3 hours from now whenever that time is?" He asked as he laid down.

"Sure, I will keep an eye for anything else." She said. "Just sleep well."

Looking at his companion, he nodded his head. "Thank you and good night."

"... Good night, Talon."

***

*A few hours later*

Talon felt someone shaking his shoulder. He frowned slightly as he started opening his eyes. "Is it already time… Acry-"

As he rose up, he was surprised to see that his companion wasn't there. Wiping his eyes, he frowned as he looked around him. The tent was completely empty except for him. The world was still dark outside.

"Acrypha?"

However, he didn't get any response. 'I swear I felt someone touching my shoulder just now.' Rubbing the back of his head confusedly, he decided to leave the tent to look for her. Talon didn't know why but he had a weird feeling.

The desert outside was still the same, dark, cold, and ominous. Looking around him, he called for Acrypha's name again and again and yet no reply came.

"Where did she go?"

Usually, Acrypha would leave his side to explore the world on her own. But, today should've been a different case. She had told him that she was going to stay by his side the entire time.

As he stood there, Talon suddenly heard a small noise from a distance. Looking in that direction, he noticed something weird. Something suddenly appeared from under the sand. Due to the distance, he couldn't clearly see what it was.

'Is that a monster?' Instinctively Talon picked up his spear as he started walking toward it carefully.

Meanwhile, he kept looking around him to make sure nothing else appeared. The wind whistled powerfully as it moved across the vast desert and made Talon shudder.

The creature stood there, completely motionless with its back facing Talon the entire time. That made him even more confused as he started looking around him again. For some reason, he felt really uneasy at that moment and he didn't know why.

Eventually, he got close enough from the creature, only to realize something shocking. From its back alone, Talon recognized something.

"... A human?" He asked himself.

No matter how he looked at it, this was a human. The clothes they wore and their appearance could only be described as a human, a woman at that. However, even more than that, that back felt rather familiar to him.

'Is this some kind of illusion by a monster? That should be the case. I can't let my guard down.' Clenching his spear even stronger, he tried to find where the illusion was coming from. But, he couldn't sense any presence near him.

So, he decided to do the last thing he could.

"... Hey, you. What are you doing here?" He pretended to follow this trick just to make the monster think he had fallen for it. "What are you doing in such a place, ma'am? It's dangerous over here."

The human didn't move at all the entire time as it stood there. This made Talon even more annoyed as he finally took the last few steps separating them.

"I'm talking to yo-" Putting his hand on her shoulder, he yanked it around to take a look at the monster's face. The moment his eyes fell on its face and his entire body was shell-shocked in its place.

It was as if he was hit by a lightning strike right there and then. Then, he slowly fell to the ground with his eyes wide to the extreme. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he uttered a single word.

"... Mom…?"

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