Another week passed, full of training. The wolves had yet to quiet down, so there was still no hunting to be done with the Silver Saviors. In a way, Adam had given up all hope of being a true spiritualist. He still practiced gathering spirit essence and reinforcing his sword, but he no longer had the hope that he would gain a sudden insight and be able to control spirit essence at will, like a normal spiritualist.
He still went to Cathryn's class, too. It was full of all sorts of information that may or may not be useful. It was better to informed, than to be ignorant. Every evening, Adam would naturally find himself at the wall garden, either by himself or with the company of Helen or Alfred.
Adam was currently practicing with his sword. He had taken up humming the song that reinforces his sword, while he fights. He found that he seemed to react just a little quicker and hit a little harder when he did so. His concentration was too much into actually swinging the sword, though, so his humming did little to nothing to reinforce the sword.
Before heading home for the night, Adam embraced the refreshing breeze that swept across the battlements. Listening to the howls of the distant wolves, Adam felt that this night was somehow different. Adam cocked his head to the side as he tried to figure out what was different. Then he finally noticed what it was!
The air is full of wind essence and all sound is transmitted through it. This is something Cathryn had taught him. A person speaking is exhaling wind essence in a vocalized pattern to change it in a way so that others understand. Everyone does this naturally.
With Adam's elemental sight, he always knew that the wind essence was there, but he had never been able to truly perceive how sounds get transmitted through it. Right now, however, he could faintly detect the distortions that sounds made! Most of the background noise was a jumbled mess that he couldn't made heads or tails of. The most distinct sounds he could hear at this moment was in fact those wolf howls!
The howls originated from far away, so they were still incredibly faint. They were, however, sharper than any other sound he could currently perceive. He intently examined those howls to learn everything he could about what was happening. As he carefully observed them, he could even tell that there were emotions attached to the howls!
It was like how sobbing would typically be attached to a sad emotion. Shouting to anger or other similarly intense emotions. It was very crude, though, because he couldn't see the souls of the wolves to know what exact emotions they were trying to imbue their howls with.
With a sense of inspiration, Adam pulled his flute out and tried to replicate the howls. If he played these howls, maybe he could better feel the emotions behind them and what these wolves were trying to say.
After fifteen minutes of analyzing the howls, Adam was able to understand the gist of it. But what he understood from each howl was only a single thing. It did not allow him to see into a full conversation between the wolves, only a few broken thoughts.
Enemy?
Not found!
Mourn, loss.
Find enemy, kill!
Adam sat there thinking about what he believed he heard. It was close to utter nonsense, but it did have some structure. He had no idea who the enemy was, but they wanted to find and kill it. He had no idea what the mourn and loss was, though.
As Adam sat on the bench thinking, a much closer and much louder howl was heard. This howl set all the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.
Enemy found! Kill!
Adam stood up and looked towards the forest. “That was rather close to the forest's edge...”
As Adam was thinking, he suddenly noticed a weird sensation. It was similar to that tug that led him to make the song to reinforce his sword, but this one was different. It felt ominous and the sensation wasn't telling him to pick up his flute and play something, instead it was directed out towards the forest! Whatever this sensation was trying to tell him, it had to be something that was connected to spiritualists.
The only question left to Adam was whether he should seek out where this ominous sensation was coming from or to go the other way. Adam turned around and started to go down the stairs. “Even if I went, I would only get a single song that could only be used in a single way, right? That's really not worth it considering how ominous it seems...”
All the way down the stairs, Adam continued to debate against himself, changing his mind several times in the process. By the time he finally reached the end of the stairs he thought: “Well, this sensation seems to say that, whatever it is, it wouldn't be too far into the forest.... just a peek should be fine, right? If it's dangerous, I will just turn around and run!”
As Adam quickly made his way to the city gate, he felt a little guilty. He wanted to let his mother know he would be out later than normal, but he knew that if he went back to Madame's now, he would totally miss whatever this sensation was leading him too. If that happened, he would spend the entire night awake in bed, wondering what he had just missed out on.
Just as Adam was going out the gate, a guard stopped him. “Boy! What are you doing out so late? If you go to the forest now, the wolves are sure to get ya!”
Quickly thinking up an excuse, Adam said: “Sorry, sir, but I left something important at the edge of the forest. I shouldn't encounter any wolves there right?”
“You could still encounter other frightful things. And can you even defend yourself with that blind fold on?”
“I'm trying to block the light of the city so my eyes sight is easier to adjust to the dark. Also, I have been hunting with the Silver Saviors! Anything besides the wolves, I should be able to manage on my own!”
Adam did not want to try and explain his elemental sight to the guard, so he came up with a slightly believable lie.
The guard remembered a rumor about the Silver Saviors taking on a couple of young wards to train. He also saw the sword at Adam's hip. “Hmmm, fine then. Just don't go too far into the forest or take too long. I would hate to have to send a search party out for you.”
Adam thanked the guard and left. As he was doing so, he heard someone talking to the guard: “Are you sure it was a good idea to let him go, it's dangerous at night these days.”
“Meh, he has trained with the Silver Saviors, I trust him to not be an idiot.”
Adam's ears started to burn in embarrassment as he trotted away. No matter how you thought about it, going to the forest without any preparations and so late at night was idiotic. Still, Adam continued on while keeping a swift jogging pace. Adam was hoping that it would not take more than an hour to find the source of this ominous sensation.
The stars gently illuminated the road to the forest. As soon as Adam entered the forest, though, it turned pitch black. Luckily, Adam's elemental sight does not rely on light levels to accurately see anything, so Adam did not notice how dark it suddenly got.
Eventually, Adam turned off the beaten path to head directly into the forest. He felt that he was extremely close now, so he slowed his pace. It had already been forty-five minutes since he left the city, it seemed that his would take longer than Adam hoped it too, but he was too far to quit now.
As Adam approached the source of the ominous sensation, he started to hear high pitched yelps, deep bass roars, and very uncomfortable thwacking sounds. Adam silently pulled his sword out as he sent his elemental sight further ahead. Moving carefully and quietly Adam paled in fright, when he finally discovered the source of the sounds and that ominous sensation.
Adam saw a strange bear comping on the remains of a pack of wolves! This bear was no ordinary thing, though, it was a demonic beast! According to Cathryn's lessons demonic beasts were spawned when spirits tried to posses or corrupt animals or people. The result of this possession or corruption turns them into a mad raving creature! There were times where this possession gave a guardian beast that is peaceful instead of mad, but this bear was clearly demonic.
Through his sight, Adam could see the elemental essence around the bear whipping into a frenzy. It was an extremely unnatural creature and even spirit essence seemed to scream when it was near. Adam was also startled when he noticed there was still a cub that was alive in that mess of corpses!
The wolf cub was covered by the body of it's mother and was too scared to even make a sound, so the bear had not noticed it yet. However, if the bear decided to also eat the corpse of the cub's mother, it would surely be found!
Emotions started to rage inside Adam. He could see how terrified the cub was, and wanted to help it. If he did so, however, he would have to fight that demonic bear! That bear's hide would surely be stronger than normal, maybe even steel could not cut through it. But.... his sword was reinforced by spirit essence and was stronger and sharper than normal steel... looking at the bodies of the wolves, it seemed the bear only used one or two swipes of it's paws to kill a single wolf. If Adam got hit, he would almost surely die!
Finally, Adam came to a conclusion that he resented himself for: “The cub's soul should go somewhere better after it dies. I will die too if I try to help... let's just slip away.”
As Adam turned to leave, he noticed the bear had started to move. Stopping in his tracks, Adam watched as the bear moved towards where the cub was, it would find it any moment now! Adam's fist clutched the hilt of his sword so tightly, it started to turn white as his hand trembled.
“That cub is just like me, it's family was killed by a demonic beast. How can I just abandon it? Father didn't abandon mother or me. I am still a spiritualist, maybe I can still do something!”
His mind clouded by emotions, Adam ran. Not away, but towards that demonic bear. If Adam did not have his elemental sight, maybe he wouldn't regard the lives of animals as highly as he does, but right now he sees the cub as a reflection of himself. He had to save this fellow living creature.
Adam was still a fair distance away, since he could see fairly far with his elemental sight. He would not make it in time to save the cub unless he did something, so he let out a simple war cry: “UAAAAA!”
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The bear turned it's head in the direction of Adam's cry, fierceness entering it's eyes. It was just about to find that cub, but now it started to trot Adam's way, eager for a new battle. When Adam saw this, he had a sudden thought: “Maybe if I cut across the forest, the bear won't see me and keep running forward. I could then save the cub without fighting the bear!”
Adam changed his direction and started running to his left. Unfortunately, the bear seemed to already have seen him and started following Adam. Adam felt dismayed that his plan had failed, the bear's speed was faster than his own, so he would still have to fight the bear.
Adam noticed a small copse of trees that were clustered together. “Maybe I can use the bear's size against it.”
Failing to have a better plan, Adam ran to the copse of trees, stopped right next to one and prepared for a fight. As the bear was barreling it's way towards him, Adam started to use his breathing technique to calm down. He was incredibly scared and his heart was beating uncontrollably. If he did not take control of his body now, he would certainly die.
The bear was finally upon Adam! With a roar, it swung a paw with large claws out at him. Adam could still see the bear's soul and it was easy to tell when it was going to attack, just like when he normally spared. This helped Adam calm down, this might be just as easy as sparring. As Adam dodged to the side, he slashed the bear's arm with his sword.
Before Adam could see what kind of damage he did against the bear, there was a huge BAM! As the bear's paw hit the trunk of the tree Adam was standing next to, it shattered and the tree started to fall down! Adam was stunned by both the scene and the concussive sound caused by the slamming paw.
Adam had hoped that when the bear hit the tree, it's arm would be jarred by the impact. He never expected the bear would take the tree down with a single swipe of it's paw. Sweat started to pile on Adam's brow as he realized just how ridiculous it was of him to think he could fight this bear. When he looked at the bear's arm, he had only managed to superficially scratch it.
The bear looked back his way, getting ready to attack again. Adam brought a trembling sword up in a meager defense. This was no longer about a slim chance of Adam killing the bear, it was about just how long Adam could survive before the bear killed him!
The bear quickly came back up to Adam and raised itself on it's hind legs to strike down with both it's paws onto Adam. Adam quickly moved forward and to the side while bringing his sword up. He figured it would be a futile effort, but trying anything was better than nothing. Adam was aiming to cut at the bear's armpit, where an artery should be. If Adam could just get into that artery a little, he could make the bear bleed out!
Unfortunately, the bear was smarter than Adam gave it credit for. Instead of bringing both it's paws down, it swept the paw that was closest to Adam out towards him. Adam had to move further towards the back of the bear to avoid that paw, but he still managed to cut into it's armpit when it missed!
A thin stream of blood started to pour down, but before Adam could rejoice, the bear struck out with its hind leg. Adam was caught off guard by this. As he tried to dodge, he was unable to prevent the claws from it's foot from grazing his left arm!
Crying out in pain, Adam retreated behind some of the trees to collect himself. Before he could, though, the bear started to rage about. It was furious that Adam had managed to cut into it. No other creature in the forest had ever managed to do that!
It started going straight for Adam, knocking down every tree in its way! Adam was quite frightened when he saw this. He could no longer use his left arm to hold his sword, as it was too painful. With his sword only at half strength, how could he survive long enough to let the bear bleed out?
Adam retreated further back, as the tree he was hiding behind was swatted away by the bear. In no time, the bear was in front of Adam. This time it wasn't going to play around, it was going to bite Adam and tackle him down. When the bear lunged at him to do this, Adam thrust his sword forward, aiming for it's eye.
With just one hand to control his sword, his aim was off and it first struck against the bear's nose. As it bounced off, though, it was just at the right angle to pierce it's right eye. The eye was far weaker than it's hide and Adam's sword easily slid in, until it hit some bone. The sword stopped just and inch or two in before Adam was being pushed back by the rushing bear.
Shortly after Adam stabbed the bear, it freaked out and started backing away. It had just lost half of it's sight and could not see Adam anymore. Adam noticed the bear trying to regain it's senses so he ran off to a tree on the right side of the bear, where it's new blind spot was.
The bear was looking around trying to find Adam with it's one good eye. It had started to feel an emotion it had not felt since it had become a demonic beast, fear. This puny human should be easy prey, but it had already wounded it twice, how long until the next wound?
This bear was different from a normal bear; it was more intelligent but more vicious. A normal bear would go into a frenzy with these wounds as they could easily kill it. They would do everything to kill the person who gave them these wounds. This demonic bear, however, could potentially heal these wounds. It might not be able to regrow it's eye, but it could still survive. Not wanting to die at the hands of this unpredictable human, it decided to run.
With his elemental sight, Adam did not have to look around the tree to watch the bear run away. Adam couldn't believe that it was actually running! Before he relaxed or celebrated, he waited for a few minutes to ensure that the bear was not coming back.
Adam sat down as he relaxed from those tense few minutes of fighting. He tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and tied it around his left arm to try and staunch the bleeding. After a few minutes of rest, Adam got back up and went back towards that lone cub.
As he walked there, Adam thought of those howls he had deciphered earlier. They made more sense now. The enemy was the bear, of course. The mourning was from the loss of another pack. They ferociously wanted to defend their territory against this demonic beast, but could really do nothing to it. “Maybe this is the reason the wolves have been getting aggressive recently.” He thought.
Adam approached to where the cub was hiding and gently rolled it's mother off from on top of it. The small cub couldn't be more than a week or two old. It was shivering both cold and afraid. Adam bent down to try and grab the cub, but it tried to bite his hand with it's gums. The little cub had no idea who Adam was and was very afraid of him. Still, Adam gently grabbed the cub and brought him close to his chest. He started to pet the cub in hopes of calming it down.
At this point, Adam started his way back home. The cub was still quite frightened but not nearly as cold anymore. It took Adam more than a whole hour of walking to make it back to the city gates.
Approaching the gates, there was a group of men preparing to head out.
“I told you shouldn't have let the boy go.”
“Just shut it, I made my call then and there. I have nothing else to say.”
The guard who let Adam out had been quite worried since he hadn't made it back yet. He was in the middle of forming a small party to search for him. At this point he noticed Adam coming on up to the gate. Fuming a little inside he yelled out: “Hey boy! Didn't I tell you not to take so long? Wait, why are you holding a cub?”
The guards quickly surrounded Adam, asking him questions. Adam was clearly injured and holding a wolf cub, just what had happened? Adam gave them a quick account to what had happened and warned them about that demonic bear.
“You really expect us to believe that story kid?”
“Hey, don't be so hard on him. He had to come up with some kind of adventure to explain how he got that cub.”
Adam was quite angry that these guards thought he was lying. The only way to try and prove it was to say he was a spiritualist. He thought up a quick plan to make the guards eat their words. He removed his blind fold and said: “Look at me.”
The guards slightly gaped when they looked at Adam. He had a scar across his face and his eyes were not focused. He should be blind from an injury, how could he go out to the forest at night on his own?
“I am blind, but I am also a spiritualist. Hold up any amount of fingers you want and I can tell you how many you have.”
A guard lifted up four fingers laughing: “What is this farce.”
“Four fingers.”
The guard shut his mouth and brought one finger down. “You're wrong it was three.”
“Liar! You just put a finger down! Do it again and I will still get it right!”
“Fine, you probably just got lucky.”
The guard held seven fingers up.
“Seven.”
The guard then looked over to the first. “You're not really going to buy this are you Ernie?”
Ernie was the guard that had let Adam out. Adam was looking expectantly at him. “We should at least make a report and let others do the investigation. Come over here boy, tell me your name and I will help patch you up a bit.”
The guards got all the information they needed from Adam for the investigation. As they were doing so, Ernie helped put a salve on the scratches the bear gave him and properly bandaged it up. Adam didn't let the guards take the cub, though. He wanted to look after it himself, since he felt a sort of connection with the poor fellow. He had been through similar circumstances himself.
After Adam was patched up, Ernie took him to a carriage and helped him get home. Ernie was going to make the report in person, after dropping Adam off. It didn't take too long for them to reach Madame's and Adam felt a certain sense of trepidation as he stepped out.
It was almost midnight and his mother was surely worried about him. How was he going to tell her about what had happened without making her angry about his rash decision?