Silven was acting weird today, for some reason it was carrying me around everywhere and it kept using the cold tone, which I don't like, at Jack who put on a black suit of ‘armor’. I don’t know why they call it armor, all I know is that the shell and this armor are basically the same thing so I can’t understand why someone would need to name it differently. I also found out that for some reason Silven’s species, the ‘humans’, do not have an exoskeleton and their all squishy especially the middle part of Silven is extra squishy, a very weird feeling that I don’t know if I like or not.
It feels really weird knowing that humans don’t have exoskeletons like most species do.
I’m not complaining though, it's fun finding a new species! And this species seems to have quite a populace, almost like those earth dwellers. Everywhere I looked I saw humans, and they were all so different too, so maybe not like those earth dwellers... ah forget it, it’s a new species after all! I’m also supposedly in their home something that my siblings would detest, no one wants another species in their home, so the humans were definitely an odd sibling to have.
Wait, were they, my siblings? Mother never gave me any information about them... I did have some knowledge about something that wasn’t my sibling, but Mother gave it to me hazily so I couldn’t be sure. All I know is that they have wings like my siblings, but more fluffier, and they like to make very annoying noises.
I think Silven is the closest to Mother’s species and maybe mine as well. After all, it was extremely beautiful compared to the rest of its race. When I first saw Silven’s fur, it was a silver color which was very close to white, but for some reason it was enclosed with a black ‘cloak’ which hid most of its head including its stunning purple eye.
Or that might me trying to find some comfort in this world.
I couldn’t help but think too much and come to a sad conclusion.
Oh well, at least Silven was warm.
I nuzzled into Silven and looked up causing me to freeze as I heard Silven breathing way too fast compared to before. It’s blue eyes had a frightened look and I could feel it slightly shaking.
I’m sorry! I acted without thinking-
“Thanks for the Eclipse. Just a bit farther and I’ll release you.”
It whispered as I saw it return to its normal state once again, which confused me once again.
The only thing I hate about humans, they were all so confusing... well I didn’t really meet a lot of them... Oh hey why are we leaving without Jack?
I noticed that we suddenly entered a space called an ‘alleyway’, Silven said it’s a place between two ‘buildings’ which was a word for nest or a specific space for a single purpose, like a ‘bakery’. And we were moving really fast, not as fast as that kidnapper though.
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Oh, now we are stopping, I wonder what we were getting away from?
I felt Silven’s grasp loosen, allowing me to escape by jumping down and giving me a moment to stretch my wings. And then I noticed something really strange. It was a flower that hadn’t bloomed yet, but something about it felt wrong. I have seen many flowers on my way to the human’s nest, but not one of them caused an uneasy feeling. I trotted over to it trying to figure out what was wrong with it and Silven recommended using a ‘Skill’? I quickly flapped my wings as I had no clue how to use the skills in my [Status].
Thankfully Silven was nice enough to explain how to use a skill called [Appraisal], something the red humans tried to use on me. So, I did as Silven told me and was surprised by the blue rectangle that appears every now and then.
[Blooming Undeath] A flower that consumed death essence.
I looked at the blue rectangle and at Silven a few times before Silven finally decided to answer my confusion.
"That's the [Appraisal] window, it tells you the necessary information about an object or person. The amount of information you can get from [Appraisal] increases with each level, but there are some items that can hide or change information about an object or person. Be careful when using [Appraisal] on unwilling creatures and sapient species as it'll make them angry. I'll allow you to use it on me, but you won't be able to see much of my [Status]"
I wonder why I wasn’t angry when the red humans used [Appraisal] on me- oh wait doesn’t one of my [Titles] say I cannot be [Appraisal]? I wonder if that’s the reason I wasn’t angry.
I used [Appraisal] on Silven and noticed that it twitched a little but made no other movements. Was this what humans did when they were angry? This time I was ready for the blue rectangle that appeared in front of me with no warning.
Name - Silven
Age - 24
Species - Human
Class - [???]
Level - ???/???
Silven wasn't kidding when it said I wouldn't be able to see much of its [Status]. I wonder what the ‘?’ meant, I’ll just figure out a way to ask that once I learn how to communicate with the humans, which is going to be annoying as they make so many strange noises and the only noise I can make is flap and a tick noise every time I walk inside on a hard surface. Don’t even get me started on expressions. Humans have a wide range of expressions they do with their faces, and I found out when Silven brought me to a ‘mirror’ that I simply can’t do any face expressions. Why do humans complicate even methods of communication? Why can’t they use the method my Mother and I use? It’s significantly easier than whatever the humans made up.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It seems that Silven noticed my confusion as it suddenly asked me with a weird tone.
"Hey Eclipse, do you like.... understand the symbols that are appearing in the blue rectangle?"
Finally, it seems Silven is starting to understand what I want now. Maybe I’ll also be able to understand what Silven wants. I raised a leg, then raised two legs since I understood some of the symbols, but I didn’t know what ‘?’ and ‘/’ meant. ‘-’ was something that is in my [Status] and Silven’s [Status] so I can compare and then make a hypothes. ‘-’ was in-between a characteristic and a classification so that means it defines the characteristic. As I am named Eclipse so the [Status] takes that classification and attaches it with the characteristic [Name]. It would be my first time seeing ‘?’ and ‘/’ didn’t really explain anything as it was in-between two numbers, or in this example, it was in-between symbols.
“Ah ok, sorry but I won't be able to talk about your [Status] here as I don’t know what you’re confused about. Once we get back home, we’ll use a Reader, and you can point to the words you don’t understand.”
Wait, why my [Status]? I don’t see any ‘?’ in my [Status]…
I couldn’t help but feel dejected that Silven still doesn’t know what I want in the end. But I don’t know what it wants either, so it probably also felt dejected before. Don’t worry Silven! I’ll learn your method of communication and then I’ll teach you mine!
“Wait I can explain a few words!”
Silven suddenly said loudly and stood up, coming over to sit beside me.
I mean, that’s helpful, I don’t know what some words mean, but I still want to know what ‘?’ and ‘/’ mean.
I didn’t do anything petty like show my displeasure, rather I waited patiently as Silven made itself comfortable and looked at the plant with a crescent on its face, but unlike the crescent Jack did, this one didn’t feel make me feel uncomfortable.
“Alright since this plant is an organic being, it’ll show more information than some rock-”
And then Silven paused for a moment which was weird, but I waited.
“Eclipse I’m sorry again, but we need to find Jack.”
I couldn’t help but show my displeasure this time.
Why did we leave Jack in the first place!? Are you saying if Jack came with us, you would’ve explained!?
I felt myself get picked up, but this time I moved about making it difficult for Silven as I didn’t agree this time to being picked up. But that was futile as I felt myself leave the safety of the ground and once again in the confines of Silven’s right arm. Silven then started moving quickly. This time as I was forced along the ride, I noticed more of the [Blooming Undeath] along different parts of the alleyway, and I think Silven also noticed them as it moved faster every time we passed one.
After a short moment, I felt us slowing down as we exited the alleyway and almost crashed into Jack, who stood right infront of the alleyway. I noticed that the gathering of humans had thinned which was interesting as there was quite a bit when Silven left.
“Oh, look who’s finally back-”
Jack started with an annoying tone, but Silven immediately cut it off while breathing heavily.
“No... Time... lots [Epic Blooming Undeath] in alley... high ranked death... essence.”
[Epic Blooming Undeath]? Silven, can you see more information than me or did I read that blue rectangle wrong? Ah I hate this stupid language barrier.
“So that’s why the mana took a weird shift a week ago. I have to admit, I only came with you as the people I hired did not find anything about the mana shift, so I wanted to take matters into my own hands.”
Jack’s tone suddenly lost the annoying part as it talked quietly.
“Ah that explains quite a lot. The [Epic Blooming Undeath] don't look like the average [Blooming Undeath] as these are pretty small and have orange spots on a green steam instead of purple spots on a withering stock.”
Silven seemed to have stopped breathing heavily and replied just like Jack did, quietly.
“That’s because the [Epic Blooming Undeath] didn’t slowly gain the death essence, rather a talented but amateur litch or Necromancer didn’t contain the death essence properly when using one of their skills which caused the flower to consume the death essence extremely fast not letting the necrosis finish first.”
The explanation flew right over my head as I didn’t really understand some of the words. But I didn’t show displeasure since it seemed the Jack and Silven were talking with each other and didn’t include me, which I was fine with as last time they did not understand me at all.
“Let’s go investigate this mystery by ourselves. I would say we should start asking people if they saw anything suspicious, but we don’t want to cause the public to panic as the litch or Necromancer might notice and attack prematurely.”
Jack continued.
“But why don’t we warn the Guild and the Knight Guard?"
“Simple really, we can’t trust either. The knight guard should have noticed the criminal by now even in this part of the city as this has been going far too long that it makes no sense that not a single victim hasn’t been noticed missing. There are a few mysterious people in the guild that I have yet to learn much about, there is also no one capable at the moment-”
Jack suddenly stopped as a human walked pretty close to our little group that stood beside the alleyway. As the human passed with a curious yet fearful look on its face, Jack moved its body closer to Silven, forcing Silven against the wall. Then Jack moved its armored face, with two white stretched half ovals where the eyes were and a crescent with triangles where the mouth was, closer to the wall and looked down at Silven causing Silven to slightly twitch as Jack’s curved horns grinded against the wall behind us. Jack was fairly large, so Silven was completely covered except from the side, Jack then continued quieter.
“They all are on high leveled missions. And the lord with his subjects is on vacation with all the high leveled guards and the Magus. The Adventure Guild leader is probably at a brothel and the Mage Guild leader is probably still locked up in her tower. We’ll go for them later in the day, right now we need to investigate some alley ways to find the patch with the largest amount of death essence. I know that Andrew still hates me and won’t accept my word until Steph comes with me, and you know how much Steph loves evidence.”
I felt Silven shift and saw it look away from Jack.
“O-ok I think I understand now, can you not be so c-close. People are going to get the w-wrong idea.”
Silver said stuttering.
“Oh? Would you look at that, the princess is embarrassed even though we are separated by a helmet and a hood, I wonder how embarrassed you would be if I wasn’t wearing a helmet and you didn’t have a hood on?”
The annoying tone from before seemed to have come back as Silven shifted more, and somehow, I felt the grasp on me loosen so I did the only thing I wanted to do ever since Jack showed up in my life, tap it like I did with Silven.
I quickly moved farther out of the grasp so I could reach Jack with my two front legs, and I tapped it a few times which caused Jack to look at me and make the weird noise.
“Ah Eclipse, are you the fun police or something?”
Jack then moved away from Silven, and I heard Silven let out a breath and stop shifting, tightening its grasp on me. I would’ve been displeased at this outcome, but this time I felt pride in the fact I was finally able to show my displeasure and be understood.
“Alright Silven lets go towards the store, we’ll look around on the way.”
Jack said as it started walking.
“W-wait! Why trust me more than the Guild and the Knight Guard?”
Silven suddenly yelled out and I saw Jack stop and look back.
“Simple really, you’re a friend who’ve I’ve known for a decade.”
Jack looked away and continued, Silven took a little bit of time to process what Jack said before it started moving too. Silven looked like it was in deep thought, so it didn’t explain more about its nest which meant I didn’t have anything to do but look around. This of course wasn’t too bad as I can still listen to the people talking around us, but they sadly won’t be talking about their nest, rather about a random topic that I did not understand, but it was more entertaining than just looking at the same building for the rest of our trip.
Just you wait Silven, you will satisfy my thirst for knowledge once I learn how to communicate with you! That goes for you too, Jack!
I couldn’t help but grumble a bit.