Chapter 9.1 – Sakura’s First adventure Fight, Flight, or Fall
A few thousand feet up Ice Rock Mountain range sat Sakura watching the sunrise and contemplating the words her Master John had told her. The sky had grown radiant and bright as the few clouds vanished. And several hours passed until one huge golden orb emerged followed by a smaller intense red one. Sakura had rested her rump on top of the green slime with a somewhat forlorn expression.
She recalled the warm emotions her Master projected while he described this concept of companionship, lover, and a partner. It was so very similar to sitting on the rock and feeling the suns heat but this was something on the inside. That feeling that Master shared and tried to explain had sated a type of emptiness that was in her and was previously unknown. Now she could hunger for it but can’t grab a solution to it. A Partner would hold hands, and hold each other. But there was no one here let alone her Master. She glances around and sees her little slime now made butt pillow, and the spider who’s been completely spent from trying to make several wraps for Sakura. And the rock worm as the occasional footstool.
Making a come-hither motion with her fingers “Come, I want to try something….”
The spider being both eager and exhausted stands on wobbly legs and tries to serve its creator. “Yes, Sakura, I’m on my way.”
Sakura nabbed the spider by its front legs and held it in her lap. After a short while she started to pet it. But even with this she still didn’t get the feeling she shared from John. It was mildly pleasing but this was not satisfying the desire. She could feel a bit of warmth, but this is nothing like what she shared with Johns memories and emotions. She wants his hands, and his touch. She tries to cradle more of her body against the slime like you would with a bean bag but it doesn’t help with what she feels is lacking.
At first the spider was shocked then concerned it was going to be eaten. But after a while it was then being stroked along the cephalothorax (back) and abdomen. After even more time passed, it felt a strange heating sensation that started to grow. Being overwhelming the spider started to get nervous and squirmy. Surely it liked the attention, the feeling, but there was something conflicting inside the spider. Feelings it never had before. Tenderness or nervousness like blushing is totally foreign to the spider’s life experiences.
“Sakura? Um. Sakura…” It patted Sakura’s lap with a few legs to get her attention.
Feeling a pitter patter from several of the 8 legs Sakura was taken from her musings and looked down. “yes, what?”
“AH, yes. Um. Well…” Now the spider had completely lost it and became flustered.
“MaSkura, hi, Yes… um ……………..” stare with many eyes
“…………..” stare with 2 eyes.
Stare at each other.
Uncomfortable silence.
The spider uncontrollably blurts out “MASTKURA, I’m hungry, you’re hungry, shall I find you food…..?”
“heh?”
“HAH, I mean, what I meant to say um.. Sakura, is that we’re all low on energy right now. So as you can expect we need to find something to eat. Surely at least, something small. So I shall with your permission of course go look for something for you. And if you don’t want it all then maybe throw the remains to your servants? Yes?” the spider eagerly explains with small sweat droplets rolling down near its overheated head.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
After a moment of consideration then Sakura agreed. “Just let me know when you find something. We will need to take action soon.”
The spider moved like a toy that was over cranked to the point the spring would snap. It took off as soon as the legs touched the ground bouncing, bolting, and skittering around and over the stones of the mountain till it vanished from Sakura’s sight.
With only a passing thought she could feel that something was amiss with this servant but it didn’t seem bad or upset so she let the concern slide from her mind. Her mind drifted back to her new master and the super strange and foreign ideas that would quote “generate energy”. She mused over the fact that energy is the requirement for all life and change in the world. It no less was the same thing to her.
Less than an hour passed when Sakura was lead to an upper ridge overlooking a rocky area where a number of birds that stood tall and regal. They clustered together with a few of them keeping watch. All the birds in the middle blended into the rocks. They look similar to tall rocks all standing around in a group.
“Sakura, do these work? Will this satisfy you?”
She gazed intently at the creatures and gathered some minor information on them. “So these are mountain penguins?”
“I’m not sure. But they’re much bigger than me, and I’m sure a few of these would be a substantial meal. Just one is almost as big as you.” The spider says to encourage Sakura to praise the find.
The birds who stood there keeping watch were clearly over three feet tall while the ones who were seemingly sleeping or rooting around the rocks were under three feet but are bigger around than Sakura.
“Yes, these should be fine. But chances are we’re going to have to work fast and bring down as many as possible as fast as possible. I don’t think they’re going to be easy to bring down so you need to be as efficient as you can. We should creep in as close as we can before they alert the others. As soon as they do then just rush them. Do you all understand?”
The worm, slime, and spider all give affirmation earnestly. Sakura picked up the green slime and takes lead. Very slowly everyone creeps around and over rocks to keep out of the mountain penguin’s sight. But the closer they get the harder it is to stay behind cover. In the last fifty feet Sakura pauses and takes a few breaths to calm down. Little by little the worm catches up to everyone else. Finally Sakura prepares and gives the signal.
The spider springs out faster than all the others with more cover in the rocks. Sakura hops and runs as fast as she can in her state to close in with slime tucked in like a football. The worm wiggles and squirms but moves at a very pathetic speed. The group hardly left the final cover when the watching penguins were alerted to movement and they let out one squawk after another squawk in choirs. Before Sakura would let them get away she pulled out and launched the green slime at the group. It flew past a number of birds before slamming on the back of one of their head and it promptly engulfed the bird’s skull. The bird flailed and flopped obstructing others in their fleeing from the attackers. The spider leapt at another bird when it was then pecked at by one of the guard birds.
About this time the birds in a choreographed dance started to throw their bodies one after another to the ground. They propel their bodies with their wings in a slide down little mountain paths. In a matter of just moments Sakura spent a little mana to conjure a cord and bind up one of the big birds. She had to run and pull to keep the bound bird from sliding away. The momentum was too much and it was all she could do to hang on to one of these birds. Pulling back on the cord the bird yanked Sakura down the slope and sliding down the path with all the birds. Before she knew it they gained speed, and flew right off the edge of the cliff. Penguin after penguin spread their wings and took to gliding right off the edge of the cliff in a flock.
Far overhead a much larger eagle takes note of this flock taking flight. With an eager cry it sets its wings, and targets the largest one for food. As the mountain eagle picks up speed the wind whistles past its wings and it spreads the talons preparing for attack.