Cera was on the floor, grasping her right shoulder wound with her left hand, she was in a bow, facing the floor and spewing out a long string of apologies to Gilliam.

A moment later, almost like snapping out of a trance or state of shock, she lifted her head and replied. Though it all came out as a single long string of words through tears.

“You said I could leave so I wanted to go to the forest but the gate was locked. I tried to find another way out but in the alley someone found me and said they would capture me and sell me back into slavery. As I tried to run they threw a knife at me and.... I didn’t know where to go...”

The long explanation sounded like a single sentence that suddenly ended in a brief pause before she explained why she returned.

“That’s not a problem. Here, let me clean and heal you.” Gilliam had turned around and placed his feet on the floor, doing his best to use calm movements.

She nodded hesitantly and got up from the floor, taking off her shirt to allow Gilliam to see her arm better. He produced the cleaning spell and started by getting the dried blood and any dirt that might be in the wound, cleaned up. He extended this to her shirt as well though it didn’t do anything to mend the cut cloth.

He then channelled the healing spell into her shoulder as he wanted to do, and the wound closed as expected in record time. Knowing the nature of the wound makes it much easier to heal.

As the wound was closed properly she looked slightly calmer. Gilliam helped her put the shirt back on as it only felt appropriate. She managed to calm down during the minute they used to get it back on.

“I... I’m also sorry about the shirt...” Pointing at the cut on her shoulder.

Gilliam chuckled. “First of all, that’s your shirt-” he put pressure on the word ‘your’. “-second of all this is a simple fix.”

He produced a circle in the air, dominantly yellow but with hints of brown in the circle, two runes filled it translating into Mend Cloth. The circle collapsed into Gilliam’s hand and moved into a small bead of light on his finger. He pressed this light against the cut cloth and pulled the finger along it. Like a zipper, it closed and mended itself. It didn’t look perfect but looked acceptably well-sewn together.

“There, see? All good now.”

He sat properly up, making sure he didn’t invade her personal space more than he had to. “Now, tell me. Are you hurting anywhere else? You hungry? Thirsty? Don’t be modest. I’m offering to help you as a friend. I don’t want anything in return besides wanting you to feel well.”

He felt the need to explain all this so she didn’t expect him to want a ‘favour’ later or something. That was kind of what happened with Petal, although that was slightly different due to the whole mana absorption thing.

“I... no... I... I’m fine... h... No..” She seemed to struggle with answering, ending up looking at the floor. It almost looked like she was embarrassed but Gilliam saw this more as trauma when wanting or needing anything.

Gilliam didn’t pressure the questions but rather produced some meat from the ring and created water into the same cup used as yesterday. He didn’t ask or wait for her to respond and just handed both to her.

“The food is free, a gift, as is the water. I want the cup back when you’re done, though. But you can take your time.”

She sniffled again but proceeded to eat and drink. Though she was incredibly closed up and barely moving when she needed to, Gilliam let her take her time.

Savia slept through the whole thing.

Gilliam joined her with breakfast, he ate some pieces of meat from his storage, and though he didn’t have a cup to drink from he decided to just wait with that. Worst case he could just create water straight into his mouth like a savage.

He let her take her time and kept giving her more food and water once it was done, she ended up eating a bit of meat. Even considering her lithe build. Gilliam was just happy that she was being fed.

As she was standing there, awkwardly eating, her ears snapped towards the hallway before she turned around to face it. Gilliam didn’t hear anything until a few seconds later when he heard footsteps, they stopped in front of his door and the person knocked.

“Good morning, Mister. My mom says that your time is up, you need to check out now.” It was the sound of a young boy, sounding to be around 10 or something.

And his statement made sense, he only booked one night after all.

“Sure thing, I’ll be right down.” Gilliam replied. The same footsteps left seconds after.

Gilliam turned to Cera. “Now. I think you need to decide what to do. You are still free, you don’t owe me anything. You can come with me through the gates out of the city, and from there you can go into the forest or do whatever you want.” He smiled, still adamant that it was up to her what to do from here.

She pondered for a few seconds before returning the cup, which Gilliam put back into the ring.

“A... are you powerful...?” Her voice was hesitant.

“I am.” Gilliam answered honestly. He didn’t intend to compare himself or brag or anything. But realistically speaking he should be quite powerful. He didn’t know exactly just how powerful he was today, compared to other people, but based on the counter-invasion to the Fractured Lands, he should at least be decently powerful.

“C.. I...” She used several seconds, seeming to almost psyche herself up to continue. “Can I go with you?”

She lifted her head just enough to get Gilliam’s face into view once she had asked. He assumed it was to gauge his response.

“Yeah, if that is what you want. You can come with me, you can stay with me or you can come with me and leave when you find out where you want to go. That’s all fine, as long as it’s what you want.” He put pressure on the last ‘you’, wanting to stress that she has self-autonomy in this.

“W... will you... protect me... as well?” She hadn’t moved since she lifted her head a little to barely see Gilliam’s face.

“To the best of my ability. But that said, when I get to Aestu, I’ll be doing guild jobs. Now... I don’t know what they will entail, but you’re welcome to come with me if you feel confident with that, or stay behind if it sounds dangerous.” Gilliam smiled at her, if nothing else it seemed that she had taken her first big decision.

And, he couldn’t lie and pretend he wasn’t interested in the beastfolk. He hadn’t met that many before but it would be interesting befriending one... though not under the best of circumstances.

She looked a little more decisive, not much but a little bit. “I... I... I will do my best.” Her sentence was almost muttered but there was some determination in there.

“Good, now. Let’s leave, you wanted to see the forests, and I think there’ll be a lot of them on the way to the capital.” He got on his feet properly and had a cursory check to make sure he didn’t forget anything in there. Though since the only thing he took out of the ring was the cup, it was fine.

Leaving the room and going downstairs, he handed in the key and left with thanks. Coming into the street it seemed that most of the blood was washed away, but some stains remained. Though that was to the right and they were now going left, towards the main gates.

Cera seemed to be extremely hesitant in anything she did, Gilliam expected her to do this for a while longer, but she’d find her voice eventually.

Walking down the street towards the gate, Gilliam suddenly remembered that he had forgotten the complimentary breakfast... Though not critical it was still a bit annoying, though all this faded away as soon as they walked through the eastern gates. There were guards on the walls and around the gate itself, nobody stopped them, asked anything or in any way halted their walk.

Gilliam took some glances at Cera, she was walking a step behind him to the side and looking down at the road ahead of her feet. This continued for a while as they walked through the main street, between all the buildings of various shoppes and homes. There were considerably more buildings on the Eastern side and most of them larger as well, than on the western side. This made sense; this was probably a more active trade route than the road between Yar’i and the Academy.

Not long after they had left the buildings behind, they were passing farms, this seemed to interest Cera much, much more. She had lifted her head and was actively looking around. Gilliam chose not to comment or draw attention to it and let her have her fun.

They kept walking like this for a short while, leaving the farms behind them as the city became smaller and smaller. They were nearing the forest surrounding Yar’i, something Cera was looking at with wide eyes.

“Throw Savia!” Savia climbed out of Gilliam’s ponytail, ending up on top of his head with her wings in the air, wanting to become suddenly airborne. However, this had the unfortunate side effect of startling Cera out of her trance with a small surprised squeak.

Choosing not to react to it, Gilliam did as requested. He cupped his hands around his tiny companion and threw her up into the air like he was throwing a rock and going for height. Cera looked at the duo with great curiosity and interest, though she didn’t seem to dare to say anything.

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They found themselves in the forest soon enough. Savia had changed her entertainment to harassing the local wildlife, being able to teleport out of harm’s way was always a boon in those cases, especially since a lot of the harassed wildlife preyed on things her size.

Gilliam noticed that Cera was looking at the forest, something he compared to her, took for granted. She was looking around with great eyes, and her ears twitched back and forth for every animal sound.

“You can go and fuck about in there if you want. Touch some trees, throw some sticks, just do whatever?” He didn’t expect her to take the initiative for herself just yet but thought it might help to get a nudge.

It seemed that this was all she needed. She took a few hesitant steps towards the treeline before she stepped off the well-travelled path, setting her feet in the grass triggered something in her mind which had her make her run towards the forest.

Gilliam assumed at this point that she might not have been outside of the city walls, having lived only in an urban environment and the only plants or trees she might have seen were the odd thing there.

He let her have fun. If she chose to disappear into the forest that was her choice, Savia was doing her own thing and returned to either sleep in his ponytail or involve Gilliam in some time-wasting.

The entire day went on like this and the evening had come, Gilliam liked the peace and quiet but at the same time realised that this would become boring as shit in not long. The lack of things to do was the main reason he was going to the Guild at all. Considering this a moment perhaps it was best to just skip over some of this walking?

“Savia?” He commented, waking his familiar as he did his best to pick her out of his hair.

“Mmmnaster?” She muttered half-asleep as she was brought around in his hand.

“When you teleported around with Aeris, did you two go closer to Aestu? Or at least closer to, or on the other side of the Capital?”

“Mnn?” Savia rubbed her eyes with the finger on her wing, trying to wake up. “Savia don’t know... Need language.”

“Language?” Gilliam asked. He realised it wasn’t just a speaking language but it was an odd statement.

“Weird language. Aeris used, sound weird but tell Savia of places.” She frantically used her winged arms to try and explain what she meant.

“Oh, you mean the coordinate thing... Yeah... I don’t know that but..” He thought about it for a second. “We need to go that way-” he pointed East. “-As far as possible, but before the water.”

Savia turned and looked in that direction, contemplating and thinking for a solid few seconds. He could feel the energy within her building up and lowering, repeatedly. It never reached the same peak as a teleport would do but it almost felt like she was probing.

“Savia can’t go to water, but can go on other side of big human place!” She turned around with a big smile.

If the big human place was the Capitol he was fine with skipping it, though it could be neat having a look there he was somewhat eager to get to the guild as soon as possible. And considering it was at least two weeks left of wandering it... was already getting to him. Perhaps if Cera was more talkative but he didn't want to force that on her.

Gilliam also started wondering where she was, she had been gone for hours, probably enjoying the freedom for the first time in her life.

“Hey, Cera! If you can hear me, I’m setting up camp off the road here. You’ll find a small cabin just off the road.” He yelled in the general direction of the forest. It seemed she had an amazing sense of hearing so he gambled on that working out.

Walking straight off the road just into the forest clearing, he repeated the hut-making spell from before. Trees, ground, rocks and dirt melded itself into the same four-walled construction as before, but this time it was a bit different; it was slightly larger. Though that didn’t do much for the outside appearance, except the size, inside there was room for two beds. And luck would have it that he had two beds. When he originally packed down the travelling bed for himself, he thought it might be smart to have another one in case he meets up with Angela or someone else.

Setting up the beds after entering the hut was hardly a problem, pinging the ring had them manifest one after the other where he held his hand, some simple nudging afterwards was all he needed to get them in place.

Another bonus of this being larger than the last is that there was room for a tiny cooking fire in there as well. He had prepared for camping, so he had everything he needed.

He started by taking out what looked like a shallow bowl on legs, over this he had a metal tripod of sorts where he could hang a cast-iron cookpot with a lid. If he had to carry all of this in a backpack he would never have even brought this, but as it didn’t add any weight to the ring it worked out for him quite well.

Firewood he found outside, wasn’t a problem using branches or logs that were torn apart through the cabin-making process and used as firewood. It was all dried with a variant of the evaporation spell he used on Savia during the rain the other day. He wanted to make a stew of sorts but the only thing he had in the ring besides meat were some plants from the Fractured lands, and they weren’t exactly edible. Instead, he put a tiny bit of water in there and threw in some meat, if nothing else it could keep it hydrated and make some good smells to send Cera the right away.

He was surprised that he felt tired, he expected that it would take longer than this to adapt, but perhaps seeing nights again kickstarted the circadian rhythm again. He had no idea how that worked but the important part was that it didn't screw him up too much.

It didn’t take too long before he heard a knock on the door.

“Yes?” He didn’t know who it was, and opening it to some bandits or something could be bad.

“M... Master... It’s Cera... Ca... can I come in?” It was definitely her voice and her uncertain way of speaking.

Gilliam unlocked the door, which was a simple slide bar on the inside, and opened it.

He saw a Cera who looked like she had spent the entire day in the woods, as she had. There were twigs in her tail, leaves stuck to her legs, mud up to her knees and it just looked like she had rolled her entire self in the dirt.

All in all, she looked like she had some fun... Or an accident.

“Well, you look like you had fun.” Gilliam trusted his guess, her expression was not apologetic and perhaps a tiny bit less traumatized, he guessed the taste of freedom at least helped.

Gilliam caught her almost smiling, there was a tug on her lips that she calmed down after entering, closing the door behind herself.

“I... Like the forest..” She replied.

He could again see that she looked better, not counting the dirt and forest still in her fur, but just the feel of her, she felt better.

“That’s good to hear. I have heated up some... well... I suppose it’s wet meat now... It should be edible regardless.” He forced a smile, realizing that he didn’t make a dish of any sort.

He didn’t ask her and rather manifested a simple bowl and fork from the ring, filled it with some meat and gave it to her. She stood where she was and started eating.

“You can sit down, that bed is yours.” He commented, pointing at one of the two beds.

She looked at him half-confused.

Filling a bowl of his own with wet meat he sat down on the other bed.

“Now, I’m considering skipping a lot of the travel to Aestu, Savia here can teleport and will take us, or me if you don’t want to com-” he wanted to give her the option to not come with, but she broke in almost panic-like.

“I want to come.” It was a weak outburst like it was a conditioned response she blurted out without thinking.

Gilliam couldn't blame her, she had been in horrible conditions potentially her whole life, and now he released her, clothed her, gave her food, healed her and... so on. It’s not that he wanted to brag but he understood her attachment to him.

It might change in time, but he didn’t mind having a little friend with him on his trip.

“That’s fine, you can absolutely come. But tomorrow we’ll teleport most of the way there, should save us a few weeks of walking.” He decided not to go overly into detail with explanations at the moment. She knew they were going somewhere and he briefly touched on it earlier that day.

For now, they ate their wet meat, supplemented by less-wet meat from the ring. Going to bed properly was interesting as it should only be a day or two left before he could get registered.

It was going to be fun.