When he heard the swearing, followed by the crashing as she kicked the lever, Drake got a little worried, but as the door opened and Vela revealed herself sheepishly, he sighed a breath of relief. “I can’t go losing you just yet…Raile would kill me if his biggest silver maker went and died…” He walked through the door, and the two continued on deeper into the caverns.

As they descended, it turned less into caves and more into what looked like a temple or a place of worship. Cave rock faded into elegantly carved pathways, with unlit torches leading the way. Ancient words and pictures were painted across the walls, showing directions or other things in a language that Drake didn’t recognize. It was unclear to Drake who they were meant to be worshipping, but the altars that were present had a variety of different offerings. Some of them were the rotted remains of food or other decay natural items, while others seemed to be rare gems and minerals.

“This is quite a find,” Drake said as he looked to Vela. “Do we just start grabbing everything we see? Or is there some kind of code not to disrespect these offerings?” It was probably something he should have asked beforehand.

“Vela the great will never die from piddly little mishaps like kicking a lever in a room she has no idea what will spring. That would make me lucky. I’m going to die from being shanked by one of my ex-boyfriends for not going on a date with him.”

Vela was looking around with a sparkle in her eye. A terrifying sparkle of a woman in love with the sight of treasure. “We grab it all. In our line of work tombs and the forgotten nature are our bread and butter. They can’t use it anymore… They are dead. The faster we get all this shit… The faster we can fucking leave.”

She started to shovel treasure into a bag all while also wearing some. A tiara was one of the things she plucked and put on her head. She layered necklaces, rings, bracelets, and anything else she could put on herself. She looked ridiculous. “Look at me, Drake… I’m a queen.” She did a strut.

As Vela made her statements about the dead not needing their wealth, she started to go about the altars and take the treasures, donning a variety of them. As she mentioned being a queen, Drake snorted and looked away.

“With the way you act?” He went about his own path, grabbing all of the treasures he could, and even donning some himself as Vela was. By the time he finished, he was weaning a silver crown adorned with rubies and several rings with diamonds and other precious stones embedded in them. Then, he found it…a chair, no, a throne of gold at the end of the hall.

“Hey Vela…” Drake sat in the throne, tilting the crown as he gave her a seductive look. “A beautiful Queen such as yourself needs a King, no?” He pat his leg, egging her to sit on his lap. “The King and Queen of silver,” he said with a sly smile. It seemed as though he was starting to loosen up around Vela, and start acting a little more freely.

“Who do I look like? Simone?” She rolled her eyes. “Oh sorry, you’ll meet her eventually. She is good for business Raile says.” After she had gotten as much treasure as she could she dropped the bag and came over to sit on his lap. “Ohh… You would make a mighty fine king.”

She leaned down and kissed him roughly which lead to a whole other slew of actions on top of that throne. Probably the most action that throne had ever seen in its life. She sat straddled on his lap only wearing the treasure they had found. “Gods, I am so glad I got impaled on you,” she snorted a bit and kissed him. She rubbed her nose and his and sighed. “Well… Now instead of exploring, we got a few more hours of daylight… We can go back now and leave in the morning. Or we can try and see what else is left down here… Oh. We should probably open a portal and throw this gold throne at Raile.”

She got up off his lap and stretched a few different ways. “What do you think we should do? Our haul is already really good. I feel like if we spend any more time in this area… We’ll get a nasty surprise.”

It was unexpected, but Drake didn’t mind the extra activities upon the golden throne. Once they were finished, Vela made it clear that she was almost in a hurry to leave. As she stretched, he eyed her body, and smirked. “Well, you do seem to be the expert in all of this…if you think it’s time to go, then it’s time to go. I think this should be a decent amount towards paying Raile back.” He stood up, and stretched as well.

He started to gather his clothes, and was a little confused at how some of them ended up so far down the hallway. As he came back, still only half dressed, Vela was tossing her bag of treasures in a portal, still stark naked. Drake blushed, and glanced away out of habit.

There was a sharp whistle from the portal, followed by an ‘oof’ when Vela beamed a rather large gem through the portal. Soon, the portal closed, and Drake crossed his arms.

“All right, now hurry up and get dressed. If we need to leave, we should start heading back now. Do we have a new destination already, or are we waiting for Raile?”

Vela had no problem with Raile seeing her naked. What she wasn’t expecting was Rhenakos oogling her. She stared at him and him her before he whistled so she hurled a gem at him. “Aye, I need to get dressed.” She was dressed almost as fast as he asked where they were going.

“We’ll wait for him. There’s a tavern in between here and the swamp lands. It’s almost always empty so we can stay there for the night.”

They got back to camp and she was watching out the window with caution. “Let’s use caution leaving. We’ll fly if necessary.” She pulled him along with her. She pulled him against a building when she saw four angels descending into the town. “This isn’t good… Let’s go this way.” She pulled him with her. Once they were in the clear she got them to the tavern and she gave the barkeep extra coin to keep his mouth shut she was there.

They got up into the room and she tilted her head, “You must want to know what’s going on…”

It didn’t take them too long to get back to the surface. It took even less time for the two to prepare their belongings, especially Vela who now seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. Drake wanted to ask, but kept to himself as they snuck out. As the angels descended, though, Drake gave Vela a questioning look. Now was definitely not the time to ask questions, but she knew that Drake was going to grill her when they got to safety.

Despite the initial reveal of the angels, Drake and Vela never saw another one as they made their way to the tavern. Once they were in a room, Drake dropped the supplies he had, and turned to a sheepish Vela.

“Yeah, I do,” he said as he sat down at the bed. “If we’re going to be working together, it might be a good idea for you to explain why you’re being hunted by a group of angels.” Though, Drake barely had any room to talk. He barely had any memories of what he had been through. Though, for some reason, that didn’t seem to bother him.

“Well?” Drake asked. He didn’t seem mad, but he was definitely serious about the situation.

“Because Drake for the last three thousand years I’ve been a runaway. I’m the only daughter of the king for an angelic kingdom. They live in the clouds away from others and the poverty of the lower angels always bothered me. When I was nine I told them to fuck off and I ran away. I grew up at a street rat in Vilpamolan with Claude. You remember him, don’t you? He is the one who shot my wing off. We were together for a long time but Claude’s vision got clouded. I hated who he became so I left him and the pirate group we started.”

She looked visibly uncomfortable as she sat down, “I don’t know why they want me now… but a few decades ago they started to hunt me down. My old man finally fucking died probably. Out of everyone, he was the worst. If they are after me… It’s because I’m the only blood he has ever sired. Which is odd because he was always sleeping around. Maybe he got cursed by some angel he fucked… who knows.”

Vela rolled her eyes a bit as she flopped on the back of the bed. “I’m too much of a rebellious little cunt to be a princess. I’ve always thought that and I don’t want to go back but they think they can make me.”

Drake was quiet as Vela spoke about her past and why she was being hunted down by the angels. He wanted to be mad at her for not disclosing any of this beforehand, but he had to temper himself as she went on. It wasn’t exactly something you’d just admit to a stranger, and he knew that, if anything, her speaking about this so openly was a sign that she was starting to trust him. When she finally finished and flopped down next to him on the bed, he let out a heavy sigh.

The fact was, though, that he couldn’t be mad. Here she was opening up to him about something so personal, and yet he was hiding something equally, if not more disturbing about his own past…or lack thereof. He wondered how she would take that? To her, her past was something that was haunting her, coming back to try and take her. To him, his past was a giant mystery that may never be solved.

Not that he was in any hurry. Since he had woken up, he never really felt compelled to try and figure out what was happening. And this issue with Vela seemed far more compelling to deal with at the present.

The draconian laid back and looked over to Vela. They hadn’t been together for very long, but he was finding himself fond of her…connected in a way. He wondered if that was something she felt as well, or if she merely thought of him as a decent treasure hunting partner.

“All right, Vela,” Drake said as he turned his attention back to the ceiling. “The first thing we need to do is figure out how they’re tracking you.” He smirked, looking back to her. “I could give you a thorough investigation,” he said jokingly. “But something tells me it’s not that simple. Maybe it’s in your blood? If you’re royalty, they may have a way of tracking it.”

Vela thought about it as she lounged on the bed, “Who knows. Could be anything. Could be rumors. I am a famous treasure hunter.” She blinked up at him and then added a smirk to her face, “Oh… Is that a threat or a promise? I like it either way.” She took her hand and walked a set of fingers up his chest teasing him.

“The blood thing sounds logical. They could be using the old man to track me. It also doesn’t help that when I’m drunk I scream my full name from here to Karith.” Vela held a blank expression on her face. “Drunk me is so bold~”

She rolled and wrapped her arms around his waist, “What should we do? I’ve been on the run from them a long time but now I got this super sexy dragon-man who can protect me~ Maybe I should confront them dead on, fully naked… But what if they try to marry me to that pompous prince dickweed.” She made a face. “He was one of the reasons I ran away too.” She made a disgusted face.

“Nine year old me was soooo smart. She knew what she wanted.”