Chapter Thirty-Nine

A silent standoff ensued. The snake even lifted herself to eye level, as if to prove she wasn’t the small one.

“You can’t do aspect speak? How? Everyone who has an aspect can. Your parents should have taught you at your first transformation.”

All Arden could do was continue to stare at her until she bobbed in realization, prompting her to continue. “Oh, that explains why you didn’t respond all those times. Your blood was too thin to have an awakened aspect until you used my card. How someone with such a low birth earned the coveted life affinity makes no sense, but I suppose after using my card you aren’t so low born. The tree spirit must have boosted the card because your aspect feels almost as pure as mine.”

Surprise flashed at how talkative the snake was out of nowhere, but since he couldn’t respond, he kept staring at the snake, willing her to tell him how to speak.

Finally getting the point, she shifted the topic. “Since your parents failed you, it falls to me to teach you the basics of aspect speak. I’m probably better qualified, anyway.”

An angered chirp escaped his beak, but the snake ignored him. “First aspect speak only works between those who have aspects. If you tried the same method with anyone else, it would simply bounce off. Though my parents refined themselves to the point they can speak to those beneath them while in aspect form almost like a telepath.”

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who put his parents on a pedestal. The parallels almost scared him. It was almost like their parents knew each other.

Though from the little she said, her parents went a bit more extreme, trapping her in the dungeon for months. He couldn’t say his parents didn’t do the same. Even if he was unconscious for a good chunk of it, he was in the dungeon for a week. If he didn’t have a time limit and he didn’t unlock a bird aspect, it could have been much longer.

Unaware of his thoughts, the snake kept speaking, her normally flat tone taking a teacher-like tone as if she were speaking to a child.

Annoyance flashed through Arden again, but he quashed it. He doubted he would find another teacher.

“To perform basic aspect speak, simply feed mana into your mind with the intent to communicate with an aspect nearby. The magic will attempt to open a line of communication. More advanced forms will allow communication with someone who has an aspect but is in Fae form, but for now, we don’t need that.”

Sick of the one-sided conversation, Arden tried immediately. He sent mana to his mind while focusing on the snake in front of him. The moment his mana reached his mind, he felt a line leading to the snake forming. Another thing that became apparent was she could block the line, which she did, maybe on instinct.

Curious, he scanned with his mana sense, finding a similar line directed at him. Currently, it was one way. He felt like he could make it two ways, but also cut the connection. Unable to resist, he cut the connection, causing the snake to jerk back. An internal smile formed as he sent out a line of communication toward the snake, but the snake blocked it as she hissed at him.

A staring contest ensued, neither willing to back down as backing down would show weakness. Despite wanting to, continuing the childish standoff only worsened their situation. They were on a time limit after.

On that thought he let her form the next connection but instead of sending his own he turned the line two way.

The moment he opened communication, a flabbergasted voice tinged with a pout rang in his mind. “How? I thought you were a novice in aspect speak.”

Smugness radiated through him. “What was so hard about that? All it took was some basic mana manipulation.” Unable to resist, he jabbed back in the same tone she used when commenting about him not knowing aspect speak. “Did your parents not teach you mana manipulation?”

She didn’t deign to give a response, instead getting down to business. “So, if we want to hit all the best targets, we need to move quick. The faster we finish, the faster we get out of this forest shaped prison.”

Arden nodded his beaked head, then spread his wings as if to take off. The snake stiffened, about to strike, but at the last second held off. Not wanting to trigger her again, he explained his plan. “First, I need to learn how to take off. The other times I flew, the fairies gave me an involuntary boost. I’m new to this whole flying thing.”

Suddenly the snake looked apprehensive, probably worried he might drop her on their escape, but Arden didn’t care. His current focus was on himself. Once he improved his flight, then he could help her. He said he would get her out of the dungeon, and he meant it, but that didn’t mean it would be a comfortable process. The only way he could think of was grasping her in his talons, which he had no doubt would make her uncomfortable.

It was a position for prey, and she seemed very much against being prey.

He put those thoughts out of his mind as he flapped his wings and ran forward as if he was a plane, he saw in the books he read.

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Well, tried to run. It turned out bird legs. At least, his bird legs weren’t meant for running. The best he could manage was an awkward waddle.

Still, despite the ungraceful motion, he lifted off the ground. The problem was, he tried too close to the edge of the clearing because of his newly awakened fear of the fairies.

At the last second, he shifted back to his humanoid form, stalling his momentum just before he face planted into the tree. Since he was only a dozen centimeters off the ground in his bird form, it wasn’t much of a fall.

While trying to keep his embarrassment off his face, averting his eyes from the snake, who bobbed in amusement as he turned his back to the tree. He shifted back, finding the transformation smoother each time.

Ideas of transform attacks floated in his mind, but he pushed them away for now to focus on his current goal.

Again, he spread his wings, but instead of trying to run, he waddled forward and flapped his wings as hard as he could.

Instead of trying to imitate a plane, he went the helicopter route, which, while not quite perfect, it turned out to be the better solution. Practice would refine his take off method, but he didn’t care about gracefulness at the moment, only flight.

Fortunately, the flight happened. Once off the ground, he used the same spiral method he used to land, as he didn’t trust himself to gain enough altitude to clear the trees in a straight line. A shiver ran through him when he came close to the fairies, but they ignored him.

Around and around he went, gaining altitude and gracefulness as he circled the clearing’s edge until he cleared the trees.

Something snapped as soon as he did, which he found was the communication line. With his enhanced sight, he spotted the little snake wiggling in clear apprehension down below. Since he couldn’t do anything about their communication issue, he put it out of mind.

Instead, he flew over the treetops while spreading his senses wide. The longer he spent in the sky, the more natural it felt. As if he was born to fly. He supposed he wasn’t a novice to the feeling of being airborne, considering his parents’ preferred method of travel.

Did they do that on purpose to prepare him? There was no way they could have known. Unless they knew who his father was and lied about it.

One thing was for sure, they knew something if they did a blood test. They probably didn’t lie about the high elf royalty part, though he had his suspicions. The snake looked suspiciously similar to a high elf. What if the high elves were really Fae, or at least some of them? Something to investigate once he left the dungeon.

On the topic of leaving the dungeon, Arden turned and flew toward the tunnel leading upward and slowed enough to look up at it. He saw no light at the end, but it might have been night outside.

Though a worry sparked. What if someone closed off the tunnel and he slammed into a stone wall? He would take the ascent slow. Not that he had much choice. With how narrow the tunnel was, it would be a challenge flying up it. His spiral method wouldn’t work, especially if he carried scaly cargo.

He needed more practice before he even attempted it. Crashing into the walls wouldn’t feel good and he couldn’t trust he wouldn’t drop the snake. He didn’t even know if he could carry the snake.

It was starting to seem like they wouldn’t have as much hunting time as he thought. What would happen if the dungeon shut down with them in it because they couldn’t make the escape? He wasn’t confident he could fly out on his own without more practice. If he couldn’t fly straight out of a clearing, he couldn’t fly up the tunnel.

An idea sprouted. Maybe he could do both. First, he needed to grab a passenger and see if carrying her was even possible.

Arden circled back toward the center of the forest. Now that he could fly, the forest didn’t seem all that big. He could travel across it in minutes. Flight was a handy method of travel. No wonder all the rich fought over the few flying vehicles.

He smiled internally. Who needed a bulky and expensive vehicle when he could transform into a bird? He even had the cargo problem figured out.

Though he didn’t know what the limits were. Was it everything he touched when he transformed? Could he press his hand against something massive and take it along? Somehow, he doubted it was that easy, but who knew?

In record time, he reached the central clearing, spotting a coiled up snake within moments.

A fun idea popped into his mind as he eyed the clearing. He hoped this wouldn’t backfire on him, but it was too fun to resist.

Instead of spiraling down, he pointed his beak toward the ground and tucked his wings. Gravity took over, sending him shooting downward. He grabbed mana and held it at the ready, feeding it down his soul tether a few meters from the ground.

Fortunately, he didn’t build up too much momentum from the height, allowing him enough time to transform. His bird form gave way to his normal form, stalling momentum a few meters from the ground, which turned out to be a mistake. He played it too safe.

Air expelled from his lungs as he rolled through the landing, stopping in a crouch. He smothered a groan as he turned his attention to the snake, who perked up at his return. A brief flash of relief at his return appeared in her eyes as she sent out a line of communication.

As soon as he let it connect, he made it two way and spoke. “I checked out the exit. We need some practice, so time to see if I can carry you.”

Despite her desire to escape, she coiled up as if to protect herself. The desire to escape won out soon after, though. She uncoiled herself and went limp to give him an easier time to grab her with his talons.

Deciding to get it over with, he transformed back to his aspect form and waddled toward the limp snake. As gentle as he could, he curled his talons around her scaly form, then spread his wings.

Like he took off before, he didn’t try for a running takeoff. Instead, he used his wings to propel him upward.

This turned out to be much harder than he thought. The little snake wasn’t heavy, but it was an extra weight he wasn’t used to.

A pained hiss reached his ears when he clenched his talons a little too forcefully, but he took off from the ground. That hiss turned to fear as he ascended. He took the spiral approach to ascend, gradually flying higher.

Soon, they were flying above the treetops. The snake scanned her surroundings, only taking a few moments to take it in before pointing her tail to their right, already over the fright.

In fact, she remained mostly limp in his talons, though part of that was probably to ensure she didn’t wiggle out of his grip.

He had to give her props for her bravery. If he was her, he wasn’t sure he would put himself in such a dangerous situation. He could drop her at any moment. Though they were close enough to the treetops, she probably could grapple something.

Since she showed trust in him, he would do the same. He turned in the direction she pointed, looking forward to the loot they would gather.