Chapter 13: Rest And Recovery

Sakura

My body ached, and most of my time was spent in a swirling malaise of gray from the medications the doctors nearly forced down my throat. But I do remember flashes of conversation, little snippets as people talked to or about me.

“What exactly happened?” A male voice, filled with authority and annoyance came through the fog.

“Children got carried away. It is not an issue for you to handle. I will take care of it.” That was Manao, her voice clearly frustrated. “You focus on getting this school ready for the evacuation.”

“I’ve been giving that some thought . . .”

“Yes?”

“I . . . I don’t know if I can leave you here. In good conscience.”

Manao sighed deeply, as if this were a conversation they had had many times. “You have to. There is no other option. I am too old, my shell too heavy, and I am nowhere near where I need to be for advancement.”

“That’s not entirely accurate”

“Oh really? And you know my cultivation so much better than I do?”

The male voice came back filled with a hint of annoyance. “Yes actually. I am your companion after all.”

“Alright then, companion protector. Tell me what it is that we can do, to allow my old legs to walk that far, for that long, unsupported by these canyon walls?” Manao sounded resigned and annoyed, but not completely closed off to the possibility.

“Those students, the ones who attacked her. They say they might have found a vein of Anthrosite.”

“Bah, they’re just trying to get out of trouble.”

“Last night was a full moon. Anthrosite is only visible at the full moon, and in the presence of Star or Moon mana. Even if it's a small vein, I'm sure we can have you ready to go on the last trip out. I . . . I don’t know if I can lose you.”

“Oh Zinny. My precious boy. If it would make you feel better, then we will send scouts up there tonight with testing kits. But I hold little hope in it. That princess is not above lying to get out of trouble.”

“Thank you . . .”

The conversation drifted off to other things, and I found myself quickly back in the gray oblivion that drugs thankfully provided.

A new conversation came in the darkness that night. Two shadowy figures stood over me. “How can we pull the Gamera from her Vault?” a young female voice said. “By all accounts he’s just as damaged. If not in worse shape.”

“Yes, and I do not wish to see my mentors wrath should we fail in this.” A younger, nervus male voice said in response. “I have the extractor. It shouldn’t hurt him, unless he fights it.”

“I’ll call my spirit, see if he can coax him out so we don’t have to use that thing.”

“Good idea.”

A few minutes later, a bird I only briefly remember having a multi-colored visage squawked angrily as a snake lept from my spirit vault at it.

Leave mistress alone! Leave alone, or I bite! I bite, you die! The snake screamed into my mind.

“No one said she had a sky snake companion!” The man screamed as he backed away from me.

“It doesn’t matter. Get the net, he’ll be safe in the artificial vault.” She commanded her junior partner through the sqwacks and hisses of protest and warning that the two spirit beasts exchanged.

“Good idea!”

I tried to soothe my new companion, but the drugs were too strong. It was all I could do to focus enough to hear what was going on. Let alone actually interact. Whatever drugs they were giving me were extremely potent things.

After a few minutes my snake was subdued safely, and the duo of junior doctors were able to coax King out of my vault. His shell hissed and cracked from its heat, as sparks jumped from the cracks that spiderwebbed across his shell.

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“It's alright big guy, we’ll get you patched up . . .”

The doctors themselves were vague memories, shifting shadows whose images I could barely cling to in my mind that first day I was recovering. I felt bad about that later, as I didn’t know who to thank for them thinking of King and not just me.

The morning of the second day I found myself waking with the sun rise. As I stirred, my head and ankle both felt like they had been shattered by a falling boulder.

“How are you doing sis?” Rayce asked, his voice groggy. He had woken up only a few seconds before I did, and was sitting in a vigal chair not far from my bed.

I tried to speak but it came out as gravel, until he handed me a small cup of water. I drank greedily, and sat up, careful not to tousle my foot too much.

“I’m alright, I think.” I hissed as the pillow my ankle was on shifted, and my leg fell off the cushion.

“Oh, let me get that.” Rayce gently guided my foot back onto the raised pillows surface. “There you go. Looks like you tried to take on a silver lord all on your own.”

That was a rather apt description. “Not far from the truth,” I said, as the pain in my ankle subsided slightly.

“How many were there?” He asked it so calmly, but I could tell he wanted pay back. Rayce had not run into the same road block I had hit in his progression. He was a solid mid-teir silver. Well into the Immortal realm. He had scaled to the peak of the outer sects mountain, and conquered it all on his own by his third year.

“Woof!”

Well, not entirely on his own.

I heard a shifting mass move under my bed, and Rex appeared a moment later. His tounge was lulling to one side as he happily stared at me.

“Woof!” He said and I couldn't help but smile. The meaning of the celestial hounds' words filled my mind.

He wasn’t pleased I had attempted the ritual on my own.

“He’s right. You shouldn’t have gone up there alone.”

“Technically, I wasn’t alone. Mistress Manao was there.”

Rayce made a dismissive gesture. “You know teachers are as useless in those situations as a stone trying to stop a landslide. They see such things as opportunities for growth, and tactics training.” He clenched his fist in anger. “Had I been there, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Yeah, I know.” I smiled at him and patted his fist. He was a good little brother. While he was undoubtedly stronger then I was, at least for now, I didn’t want to burden him with my issues. And Taitha and her cronies were certainly my issue.

I had no doubt that had Rayce been there, he and his three hounds would have torn the four of them to pieces. The Hounds alone were formidable foes. Rex was nearly to Gold, his growth outpacing even Rayce’s, and the other two were silvers by now. Add to that Rayce, master of Chie, wilder of spells, journeyman warrior with the spear sword, and a potent celestial magic user, and while it might not have been an easy fight, the outcome would have been inevitable.

Add myself and King into the mix, and we made a force that few in the outer sect would have dared even challenge. Not that I added much to that equation on my own. A least, not yet.

“So we are agreed then. You’re an idiot.”

I glared at Rayce, and all he did was return my death stare with a boyish grin. “Get your older sister some more water, oh wise one.”

“Certainly,” Rayce ran off with the cup, leaving Rex to stare at me with his big doggy eyes.

“Woof”

“Yeah, I know. It was stupid.”

“Woof! Woofooferrroof.”

“Okay fine. Next time I do something stupid, I'll check with you first so you can talk me out of it.”

“Woof?”

“Yes. I’m lying.”

Rex narrowed his eyes at me for a moment, before letting out a deep and profound sigh as if I were at the center of every ailment the dog had ever suffered, before he laid his head on my lap. I scratched behind his ears, and after a few moments I was sure I had been forgiven.

Rayce handed me a full cup and I downed it in another single swig. “Is that snake yours?” He asked pointing twoards a gem filled with a swirling mix of white, blue, and yellow mana. The mana it contained swirled in a leith, and angry pattern. As if the snake inside were pacing, waiting for its cage to be opened so it could visit violence on whatever thing had imprisoned it there.

Are you alright? I sent the words through my still tenuous connection with the creature.

Yes. Sky God is fine. Is walking little girl fine?

Walking little, you mean me?

Yes. Who else? You. Yes you. Be smart or I might bite you to make you smart.

Interesting. And . . . and you’re Sky God?

Yes. Am Sky God. Nothing else eats sky titans, with talons, beaks, lightning from feathers of crystal, but sky gods. Right? So, I am Sky God.

I suppressed a sigh, one of my companions' names was literally King, an admittedly silly thing for me to have named the giant Turtle. But I had been a kid. You can’t blame me for making that mistake. Besides, I wasn’t going to do it again, lesson learned. But now, my new snake companion, was . . . well, was named Sky God. I had no idea what that would do to his ego going forward.

I shook mentally myself, and focused back on the conversation.

You’re getting better at talking to me.

Yes. It's new. New thoughts. New . . . ideas. Share with your brain. Your brain is filled with lots of things. Most silly, but some? Some are tasty things. Like words. New words. I like new words. Like new fangs, made from ideas not cloud and venum. Hmmmmmmm.

Are you alright in there? I asked, concerned my snake companion might get lost in the sea of new thoughts and ideas that he had received through our bond.

Hmmm? Yes. Am alright. Learning how to bite new things. Wonder what tasty things I can bite when I get out of here. This . . . floaty place. Like being in a cloud without the cold. Just the cloud. All around.

I felt the Sky Snake focus back in on himself and our connection which had grown strong while we were talking, became a distant echo. A low murmuring in the back of the room coming from one muffled corner of my mind.

I tuned it out, and looked back at Rayce. “Sorry, did you ask something?”

“Is that snake yours?” He repeated, and his expression had grown concerned. As if he were expecting me to grow another head at any second.

“Oh. Yes. He’s my new companion.”

“I thought you were going for one of those Eagle things. You know the ones with the crystal feathers?”

“I was. But, he was closer. And a better choice.”

Rayce’s eyebrows went up in an unspoken question.

“He has a bound spell. I haven’t tried it out yet, being stuck in here. But Sky Snakes bites are some kind of spell, or technique.” That made Rayce’s eyebrows shoot up even further. “Yeah, wild idea, but King said he felt chie in the attack he used to take down a Crystalline Eagle. Mana and chie mixing, in a bound spell? What else would you call it but a technique?”

“That is some amazing luck you have.”

“Its good fortune, sure. But not really that astounding if you think about it. There are plenty of creatures with bound techniques. Rare at steel and silver, yes, but they’re not unheard of.”

“True. But have you checked him out yet? Really given him a hard look?” I shook my head. “Well, give it a shot. Tell me what you see.”

I brushed my aura across his, and found . . . found something far more vast, and potent then my own.

“Hes. . . . He feels like you, but bigger. Much bigger.”

“Oh yeah. He’s Gold, at least. Might even be peak gold. You my dear sister, just fell out of the viper pit, and into a gold mine.”