Part 5
“And just like that, he’s gone again.”
Peter sat on the ground and sighed. The half dozen or so Kobold’s that had wearily been talking among themselves soon left to follow Drake, with only a few giving himself and the Nymph a second look before disappearing into the twilight brush of the approaching night.
He gave a deep breath, as he listened to the footsteps disappear, one after the other. And just when he thought that he was going to have some help. Now, Drake was truly well and gone. Off to do god knows what.
“Ah, now what do I do…” He joked half-heartedly. He was speaking more to himself, than expecting an answer out of the ever-stoic Grimal up above in the treetops, or the ever-silent Nymph at his side.
Wonderingly, he turned, gazing at the girl next to him. He stared, taking in her features.
The unnatural attraction was gone. Rather, she even seemed to be unnerved with the small amount of attention she was being given. Surely, she wasn’t the type to be bashful, was she?
Or rather, was she simply afraid?
He pondered on the thought. He had never imagined monsters to be anything but enemies, but ever since meeting Drake, that… concept had changed ever so slightly.
Could they be afraid? No. That was a stupid question. It was like asking if a standard animal had emotions. Even before the world went to shit, it was a common enough thought that animals were capable of becoming angry, jealous, or even depressed.
But… to associate himself with her, a Nymph. That was another idea entirely. A first for anyone, besides those insane enough to try, like Drake.
Peter could feel a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. Just a moment ago, he was on the edge of a life and death battle. And now, like it was the simplest thing in the world, he was just simply sitting across from a Nymph.
Was he starting to change as well?
“…”
Slowly, Peter turned his eyes towards her once again. This monster, this… girl, was what he was so afraid of? She didn’t look past fourteen, just on the edge of her formative years. Back in the old world, she would certainly draw a bit of attention, if merely for the idea of what she would look like in only a few years once she had a bit more meat on her.
Yet this was the man-eater that he had heard horror stories of. It was almost laughable.
The idea that this might be the moment… the story of someone who kept their minds from the duplicitous Nymphs’ who carried off men in the night. The sheer tale alone would have half those back in town calling him a liar the moment he opened his mouth, yet alone those who might even entertain the thought that he wasn’t just making a mountain out of a molehill.
He chuckled. No, this moment wasn’t something he would ever share.
Still, what troubled him most of all, was that this might be the only opportunity to truly see her, without the glamour and magic that made her species so feared and ask what her species intended for those like him. He almost even opened his mouth to ask such a question.
Almost.
“The name’s Peter. Nice to meet you.”
The Nymph replied meekly as she inspected the area around her. She turned to Peter; her eyes downcast all the while.
“Hm.” She lifted her eyes, her face slightly flushed with the situation of all of it. Then, she gave a simple reply in turn.
“Emeria Alstro. Youngest of my sisters, and progeny of the Great One’s trial.”
Peter frowned somewhat as he listened to the title.
“Trial, huh? Gah.” He mumbled as he shook his head. This place really was nothing but one big test. He never intended to go into such a thing so haphazardly, yet, here he was.
“Really snagged myself on this one.”
He turned his eyes away from the light stone ceiling up above. Slowly, Peter then turned to the Nymph.
Well, might as well start off from the beginning.
“So, not to be rude or anything, but just what is your role supposed to be in this place, anyway? You guys have hidden yourselves from me for the most part. Thankfully, the most I ever caught was a small glimpse.”
Emeria immediately sank under the attention. With a reluctant expression, she shook her head, as if to clear her head of any doubts. Peter looked on and recognized it all for what it was. Simple fear.
“We mean to keep away others. Our role is to simply maintain the forests, keep the balance. Exemplify the best of what our creator imbued in us. It really is a simple thing. At least, it was.”
“I see,” he scowled in frustration.
Damn. Damn, damn, damn. She seemed so pure-hearted, and sweet. Outright timid, even. Worst, she looked nothing more than a young girl in her mid-teens, despite the almost inhuman levels of perfection her features held. As a result, he felt like he was just bullying a kid, merely by asking a few questions.
He lightly shook his head, then turned away from her, only for the stray lizard Drake had brought back to catch his eye. It looked as if it had been close to half an hour since it was killed. More than enough time for any mana in the meat to drain away, although… he certainly wished it could have been something more substantial.
Well, at least he had company.
Peter moved, throwing a small pile of tree limbs and other such wood onto the fire. Taking out a small knife, he began the work of dressing the lizard, carefully cutting the head, before beginning the slow work of preparing the meat for a proper meal.
“U-umm… what are you doing?”
Emeria spoke in a low tone, as if she was afraid to be heard at all. Regardless though, Peter merely answered her just as he did was Morgan first looked on in shock as he gutted their first kill. Acting like this was nothing but an interrogation was going to get him nowhere. He needed to take her mind off of her situation, at least for a moment.
“It’s not as if I can just cook the thing whole. There’s a decent deal of preparation beforehand. Besides, the skin alone would ruin a good deal of the taste.”
She nodded slowly, seeming to take in the words one by one. She looked on the process with a good deal of hesitation, however.
“You seem quite skilled.” She looked on, an uneasy expression wavering in her eyes. “Is this something everyone outside learns?”
“That’s a tad more complicated.” Peter smiled.
The sheer innocence of that statement. Still, how to explain something as complicated and varied as the human race to someone whose never even left the confines of their birthplace. Did lots of people learn how to dress down a kill. Well sure. The craft sure as hell spiked in popularity after the end of the world and all.
Peter merely shook his head.
“A bit here and there. Most people don’t seem to take up to it as much as others. It’s easy to kill something, especially these days. Taking apart a beast is another matter entirely, however. One wrong cut and well, let me just say that you never want to cut too deep down the stomach.” He remarked grimly.
More than once did he lose his appetite altogether due to a simple slip of the hand. No one enjoys seeing what your lunch ate before you’re getting ready to eat it. Let alone the smell or taste.
“Is it… good? Eating, I mean.”
This time it was Peter’s turn to stare. Did she really mean that she had never eaten before? Surely, she had to survive off something.
“You mean to say you don’t eat?”
“No, I mean, I see my friends eat quite often. The trees where I used to reside tended to sprout the most beautiful of fruit, and they seemed to enjoy it quite often. It’s just, it isn’t needed for me, and it is, well, embarrassing.”
Emeria explained herself quite quickly as Peter raised an eyebrow. Embarrassing. Sure.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He felt exhausted for a brief moment. The sheer… act, of having to explain the process of eating. It wasn’t something he imagined ever having to give any clarity on.
“Well, if you’re actually curious, enjoyment depends heavily on the meal. Although I have no doubt that any fruit that is tended to by a Nymph would be quite divine,” he said with a sly smile. Barring the obvious pun, he certainly wouldn’t turn down something of that sort right now.
“…”
Silence, huh. Well, he tried. No one can say that he didn’t try. Not one person.
“Does… it not taste awful when eaten in that way?”
Peter frowned at the question. Where did that come from?
“As long as it’s cooked well, it’s fine. Honestly, hunger really is the best spice when it comes to things like this. Look.”
With a precise movement of his fingers and the knife, he quickly removed the feet from the meat surrounding the legs, before moving the small knife down the mid-section. Thankfully, the skin was thicker than any actual lizard, once he got under it at least. It made the job much easier than it might have otherwise been to remove the excess.
From there, he moved the knife downwards, making a split near the abdomen. Then, he turned the thing over, before starting the process of removing all the organs. There were certainly those who might enjoy little bite-sized meals such as the heart and liver if the thing was smaller, but given the size of such a creature, near four feet, the thought revolted him more than anything else.
Emeria’s eyes flickered to the meat Peter had largely finished preparing. One might have expected that the end product would have looked more appealing. However, the look on the Nymph’s face didn’t change. Rather, the look of consternation only increased as he continued to hack and slash away at the remains.
“I… have little doubt that it might be appealing at some point,” she began. “But surely in such a state, and with so little remaining, it must taste awful by comparison.”
So little? Peter looked at the Nymph quizzically, and blinked. What, would she just eat the whole thing, skin and all? Even properly cut apart and gutted, it left a good foot of tail, and two full feet of meat. Not exactly a small offering.
“You really wouldn’t want to eat the head, promise. Other than that, the feet are largely just bones and tendons. I’d say I did a pretty good job myself.” Peter defended himself.
Emeria shook her head willfully. “It certainly seems to be cut up nicely, but the meat is dead. It seems the core was removed without my notice, otherwise I might have advised to leave it in such a state that the powers the soul held might permeate more throughout the… remains.”
The soul? Rather, she said the meat was dead? She wasn’t merely speaking of the animal itself but was acting as if the meal itself potentially held power at some point.
He blinked in confusion, before breathing out and turning to the Nymph.
“You’re talking about the mana inside of it, right?” He narrowed his eyes. “Eating anything with mana in it doesn’t work out for humans… Emeria,” he said her name tentatively.
“Regardless of whether or not the core is removed quickly, it doesn’t work out. Horrid cramping throughout the body, vertigo so bad you can’t stand; I wouldn’t recommend anyone try it.”
She stared at Peter blankly.
“Look, I’ve seen it tried, multiple times.” He defended. “You can sort of gauge these kind of things after a bit, but eat it too soon, and trust me, it’ll cause all sorts of pain for the person in question. It may work for your kind, but not mine.”
“That’s wrong.”
They both stared at each other, with Emeria even catching herself off guard. Who was she to question him? Yet, what he was saying was so obviously wrong, so she had to correct him. She was put here to teach him after all, right?
Emeria pursed her lips. She looked to Peter, paused, then continued.
“What you are describing is merely a backlash. Untrained, lacking any discipline, or effort, and it will happen to anyone.”
Peter frowned, clearly confused. She merely looked away for a moment, before returning, a look of confidence shining in her complexion before disappearing again into mere stubbornness.
“What you say is wholly untrue, however. Does your kind not simply eat the fruit off a tree, or pick the berries from a bush, or do you wait so frustratingly as well?”
Peter muttered to himself suddenly. Well, he wasn’t one to turn away a small snack here or there, so of course he ate the occasional fruit or handful of berries if he came across the opportunity. But everyone knew that only animals actually held any mana. No one was exactly cutting down swaths of trees for mana cores, at the least.
“No, we do. But they don’t hold any mana,” he explained.
This time it was the Nymph’s turn to grumble, although she did so in a considerably more adorable fashion, merely crossing her arms as she looked to Peter.
“So certain of it, are you.”
Emeria’s lips pursed for a second time, and Peter sensed her disappointment. She seemed as if she wanted to continue. She probably didn’t even care that she was teaching him at this point, she merely wanted to correct what she viewed as a wrong. Perhaps being more acquainted with nature than anyone, she took the lack of knowledge Peter exhibited a lot more personally than anyone would otherwise.
“Please, show me the power that is held inside of you, Peter.”
Emeria stated it quite simply, but there was no doubt some level of annoyance held in her words. As Peter began to raise his hands to emulate the power he used before, Emeria merely shook her head, before slowly walking closer to him.
“Please, wait just a moment. I am not as skilled as my sisters, nor as foolhardy as others who are acquainted with the gift we share. It should be used properly, in a correct and disciplined manner.”
Peter quietly mulled over her statement. He looked at Emeria and shook his head.
“Don’t try anything.”
Her eyes flashed at him, as Peter received a soft glare in return. The stare bounced off him. After a second, Emeria lightly moved forward, shaking her head all the while.
“I wouldn’t dare. Your companion would no doubt move to counter me if I even willed to escape, let alone attack you.”
“Companion?”
Peter turned to the Grimal. She had more faith in it than even he did. In front of him, Emeria flushed, her cheeks reddening on her pale skin.
“That I would betray you. Unbelievable.” She mumbled to herself.
Centering herself against Peter, she glared before moving to admonished him further.
“You undeniably share the power of my creator yet… even as you began to build your strength just now, it was in such a haphazard manner. Surely your guardian was to teach you better than this.”
The look in her eyes shifted the focus towards Grimal, who merely waved his tail back and forth nonchalantly, with no care in the world. Peter only sighed.
“Well, I would have a hard time arguing with that at least.”
Grimal only turned his head and made a faint yawning sound. Emeria continued forward, sitting down right in front of Peter.
“Well-”
She gestured towards the meat that Peter had prepared, willing him to move it away so she could begin.
Peter nodded. Whatever she had planned, that she felt Grimal would move to stop her assuaged his conscience just a bit.
“Right. I’m in your care.”
“Hmph.”
Emeria moved forward. Such a succinct response. Followed by such a lively expression. And the girl herself, all too eager to teach him.
Peter lowered his head. Was this truly how the monsters he killed in the past would have acted, if he merely had the opportunity to speak with them? She was shy, and demure, certainly, but filled with a life and purpose he didn’t even see in himself.
She sat down in front of him, her eyes tracing lines over his body. Then, she held out a single hand.
“Your hand.”
“Ah. Right.”
He held out his right hand instinctively, only to see a flash of laughter overcome her face in the next few seconds.
“Peter. Did you think I meant to hold your hand in this strange manner?”
“What?”
He looked down, to see his own hand enveloping her own, moving up and down ever so slightly. He… had begun shaking her hand without even thinking.
“I’m sorry.”
He jerked his hand back in a mere moment, as he forcefully looked away. What was he thinking? No, rather, why did he do that without even thinking in the first place?
“No, it’s quite alright,” she replied in turn, the same look of laughter crossing her lips as before.
Peter heard a mutter from up in the treetops. The Nymph turned to the limb on Peter’s left where a certain companion laid, and merely smiled before returning to him.
“Please. Relax. If I’m to teach you, it can’t be in such a manner. Suspicion, nervousness, all these things will dilute the clear image one needs to properly convey the power we were gifted with.”
“The image, huh?”
Peter blinked and stopped. He stared hard at the Nymph. Then, he closed his eyes and breathed. A long, slow breath that left him with a shiver traveling down his spine as he breathed out. Then he reopened them.
“Good.” She smiled as she looked on.
“Now, your hand please. We need to properly set up beforehand and, well… I need help.”
She ended sheepishly, that same shy demeanor peeking through once again.
Peter quickly accepted. He would have rather not have another embarrassment on his hands.
Emeria smiled in thanks, only moving forward towards Peter, before carefully wrapping his hands in her own.
Now, one might have expected there to be a flash of golden energy to explode from the duo, or for there to be a glow that surrounded their forms, before expanding out. What happened was not near as grand, or powerful as that.
What it was, was a simple light.
No more than light than a simple candle may have brought. Of such intensity that one might have thought that a simple breath might extinguish it altogether, Regardless, Peter couldn’t take his eyes away as he stared between that small light and the Nymph before him.
It felt… calm. Soothing. Like a deep feeling of warmth welling up from inside of him, yet the energy they exuded was nothing more than a nightlight. It was only then, however, that he began to hear it.
A whisper on the wind. A faint melody that only grew stronger as the seconds passed, and just as he began to relax, he felt a sudden pull.
Emeria’s hands, that were initially only clasped around his own, began to tighten, the light between them flickering much like a candle, as he felt a force being drawn from him. That same warmth that he felt began to wash away from him like a bucket of cold water. as the Nymph seemed to struggle with whatever she was attempting.
Seconds passed before he noticed something was off. She began to breathe more roughly, and the light that was held between them began to fade ever so slightly. Moreover, the warmth that seemed to come from within him at the beginning of the spell kept slowly fading.
Then, it all stopped. The light that was held between them disappeared altogether, leaving the fledgling user of magic somewhat scared that he had failed to contribute somehow.
Emeria however, breathed a sigh of relief. She looked eagerly to Peter, as he hesitated.
Then it began. The melody he heard began to intensify, from a simple beginner lightly blowing into a flute, into a soothing and entrancing aria that seemed to come from all directions at once. It… reminded him of the Nymph’s own allure in a way, except, it was different. More confident.
Then, he noticed something else. Small lights, no bigger than his own hand, began to flicker in and out of existence. One… three… six. More kept appearing and disappearing, but the number was undeniably increasing.
“So beautiful.”
Emeria blinked, a smile spread wide across her face. Her eyes lit up.
“Will O’ Wisps. A light that travels to those who would hurt you, and sends them far away, so that they might never return. How beautiful.”
Will O’ Wisps. Even his identify couldn’t puzzle out what they were. That they were more than a simple by-product of his magic. Of course, that was the thing. It was something that he couldn’t simply classify. It was more fantastical, and less mundane than the world he had always known.
Peter looked up and wondered if this was how Drake had felt. Standing next to one not of this world but one created to stand against them. Yet, he was with Emeria all the same, helping her with that act of magic.
Peter slowly withdrew his hand from Emeria’s side. She stopped looking from the lights surrounding them to Peter, and in an uneasy and nervous moment, looked into Peter eyes. And smiled.
And he did as well.