with cosmos perching on my head, i walked through the sunlit forest.
The sunlight shone through the tiny gaps on the canopy of trees, leaving countless tiny patches of sunlight spread across the ground covered with patches of dry leaves. The ground looked like rainbow crystals from the refracted light from the morning dew of the leaves.
Reaching my mouth towards the leaves and let the accumulated dew trickle down my throat. Despite the mysterious healing that storm… guardian (yup he seemed like a guardian to me) …did to me, somehow relieving my hunger, it didn't do the same for my thirst
Cackkck!
A wing slapped me in the face as i felt the weight on my head lighten and a slightly sharp talon poking my head which stung a little
choking on a leaf, cosmos flapped his wings panikly . It seems like he tried copying what i did and failed miserably.
Cackak cack
A leaf was spit out of cosmos’s beak with it turning purple
(Strange..)
I immediately stopped and spat at the batch of leaves i have been drinking from.
After a few seconds, the leaf didn't change colour.
(Could it be another cause?)
“Leaf, weird”
“Do you feel alright?”
“Normal”
Shrugging off the slightly off occurrence, i started humming while a continued my journey
We were still far from the river i saw yesterday, i had cosmos lead the way as he gave directions on my head.
“Go forth my loyal steed”
“Who are you calling your steed”
I yanked at cosmos perched on my head, as he avoided my awkward attempt at grabbing him
“Sigh” why is he only fluent in thing like this. If i was back on earth, would i have been reported for animal abuse?
***
As i walked through the forest, i picked up and ate some plants that cosmos pointed out that were edible. Although i did collect some of the fruits and berries, i only ate them after stuffing some in Cosmos's beak.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Picking up the familiar fruit that looked like a strawberry, i bit into it
“Mmmmhh”
Yes this is food! The jucy berry juice burst open in my mouth. The sweet taste enveloped my tastebuds which had only been exposed to water and raw meat the past 2 days.
Even my hunger was somehow sated with the healing the storm gave me, it didn't solve my urge to eat something.
Come to think of it, a being capable of such control of the natural order should have a name or something right? Not that it matters, but if its a name well know i could use it to sneak right into civilisation without much suspicion if needed… nope, thats going to attract attention. I wonder if i would have to prepare to get interrogated.
…
A random teanager shows up from the direction of a forest that leads to a mountain range and a land which is inhabitable. Thier first assumption would be that i came from the village south of them but if they confirm my identity with such a small looking village where people probably know each other like the back of thier hand… uuuuuhhhh
Welp, thats a problem for me in the future.
I would be lying if i said i was not nervous though.
“Sigh”
“Nervous, bad. Think more.”
?
(What did he just say?!)
“Cosmos you can hear what im thinking?”
Cosmos cocked his head to the side as if looking at a fool before letting out a soft fleeting caw that sounded like a sigh
“Hello?”
Yet again the bird let out a caw that sounded more disappointing than the first, lasting for a few seconds longer
“Sigh”
(I will give you another rabbit cl-, gem! If you answer my question)
“Yes, i can hear you”
The bird squaked with new found enthusiasm.
…
I reached out my hand curving it up with precision, grabbing the bird’s talons before it could fly away.
Cacckkck! caccccckkkkkckck!!
“You ain't running away this time”
KklRrrrrrreeeiiiiiiiii!!
***
With cosmos now disciplined about the consequences of keeping away information, i walked towards the river now within sight.
“Water!” I exclaimed with sparkles in my eyes
I ran to the river dragging the brain dead bird with me
“Cosmos, water!. Its waaaathaaarrrr!!!”
Wooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh!!!!
I shaked cosmos back and forth in excitement
Cawwk-
“Stop..”
“Ah, my bad i got carried away”
With a parched throat, i washed my hand in the water. I then noticed a slithering creature along the ground of the stream. I followed along the outline of the creature with my eyes along the river
Splash!
A giant head, the half the span of the river appeared out of the water a few hundred or so metres west of me
“Mmm” i bit my lips and i decided to silently drink some water from the river and headed in the opposite direction of where i saw the head of the creature.
***
Going further upstream, i heaved a sigh of relief after making sure that i was far away from the creature.
I looked at cosmos who has been silent all this while. “You okay?” I spoke in a concerned tone. From what i have seen so far, he was fairly talkative. As much i find things strange in this world, it shouldn't be the same for cosmos, afterall he was able to say so much this morning about the surrounding forest and cities.
Caw
?
Caw
(Caw?)
Cosmos seemed absent minded at my question leaving me partially puzzled.
“Hello, Earth to cosmos?”
Once again, a simple caw came out from his beak. Is he that out of it that he's not thinking of anything when speaking?
… According to what i have discovered, it could be that way, but what if it wasn't like that?
Suddenly a devastating thought came to mind… could i have shocked him so badly that he turned dumb?
Upon realisation that it might be so, i bent down and faced his beady black eyes and said with absolute sincerity “sorry, i went too far just now. I didn't think about your feelings”
At this moment, apologising to a bird didn't seem strange to me.
Peck*
A beak hit me squarely in the head, stopping my ramblings.
Cosmos's eyes started looking at me as if i was a stranger, before giving me that same look when cocking his head.
“What in the world are you doing? You just… nevermind. Anyways, im not bothered by what you did.”
I blinked my eyes… “you are speaking in full sentences” the bird i had been with for half a day had suddenly changed his tone and started speaking in full sentences as if it was normal.
Before i thought to reply to the bird before me, i noticed something strange about my surroundings.
“Rather than what happened yesterday, you were just spacing out for the last minute. I was scre.. calling you and you didn't even respond”
Yesterday? We met this morning.. i looked at my surroundings…
… I was standing back at where i first saw the giant creature.
“Sorry,but didn't i walk all the way over there just now?”
I pointed to my east while questioning the unfamiliar bird before me with a more formal tone.
Once again, the crow cocked its head in this time in confusion. However, what caught my eyes was not its gaze but the necklace on its neck that held a opaque
crystal.
As if the signs of the change of speech of my short term companion and the signs of changes of me wasn't enough to ascertain that something was wrong.i was shocked that the same opaque crystal i had received from the storm guardian.
Reaching my hand into my pocket, i found that both crystals i possessed was gone. Especially the cryst
al from the lantern in the hut which had seemed to dissapear for no reason at all. (Did i drop it?, no) Once again i looked at the bird wearing the opaque crystal before me.