The little pot was boiling, and the scent of the leaves being boiled was strong. Strong enough to overpower the smell of the bird, and the woman sitting across from me.

We weren’t far from the large pond she had found the plants needed to help the bird girl. Just far enough that the bugs flying around didn’t bother us much. There were large trees all around, so we didn’t need to worry over being seen by the others either.

“Were there others? I can go save them if there are,” I finally asked the saint.

She shook her head. “The few left aren’t worth saving,” she said.

Frowning at that, I wondered what to say. And here I thought her to be a real Saint.

Still…

She had took off her shirt, as to check her wounds. She had a light blouse beneath it, but was now basically naked in front of me. I had checked the cut on her back, from what she had said was from a spear, and found it wasn’t that bad. Nothing a small bandage, fashioned from the extra shirt I had been carrying around, didn’t handle.

Especially since she wasn’t human.

She had light fur running down her back. A contrast to her pale skin was black fur with white spots. It ran from her lower neck to her ass, and maybe even past it. I hadn’t gotten to see her ass yet, since she had only taken off her shirt.

“My name is Celine. I’m a saint, as you likely know,” she introduced herself again.

I nodded as I glanced down to the boiling pot. It was a little metal bowl thing. One she had been carrying… and I would have asked why she had such a thing, but knew better.

She was a Saint. She likely had been carrying it for this exact reason. She had known she’d need it.

Little Lilly, the bird girl, was sleeping next to Celine’s feet. We had fashioned a tiny bed, with a pillow, with my pack and our remaining supplies. The girl was breathing evenly, even though still pale.

“You said she was sick already?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Before they attacked, yes. Her parents hadn’t believed my methods would work for her, so hadn’t been willing to let me help her,” Celine said, and she actually smiled at the girl in a way that resembled a mother.

Shifting a little, the large log I sat on creaked and complained. I could feel the crack starting to form beneath me, too. It’d break soon, if I wasn’t careful. It was just a little too rotted.

Celine sat on a log too, but one much smaller and more healthy. Plus she was tiny. Too light to have the same problems.

“I’ve never met a non-human saint,” I said carefully.

Celine smirked as her attention left the bird and focused on me. “I’m not the first, but yes we’re rare. As far as I’m aware, I’m the fourth to ever exist,” she said.

Fascinating…

I wonder what her abilities were… Were they of the mind? The soul? She had the white eyes, so she obviously saw something. Maybe that was how she had known my name earlier. Or how she had known to run to me…

“I’m a panda, by the way.”

Startled a little, I felt silly as Celine burst out into a happy giggle. She seemed to have enjoyed my surprise.

A panda…? Really?

She wasn’t fat at all. But that did explain her coloring. Her hair was pure black, a glossy type of black. Her white eyes were made all the brighter thanks to it, since her hair was long and flowed down the sides of her face.

“And you… Vim, are a man beyond such titles or bloodlines,” she said then.

The log beneath me creaked again, but still didn’t break.

“Ah! One moment, it’s ready,” Celine stopped me from saying anything as she sat up and quickly went to the boiling pot.

I didn’t need to help her. She seemed not only fully able, but actually wanted to do it. She took the pot off the little stand we had made with rocks, and placed it on another flat rock nearby. To let it cool for a moment.

“Will you hold her up for me?” Celine asked as she turned to the girl. To prepare her for what we had to do.

Standing, I obliged her. It didn’t take more than a dozen minutes for us to get enough of the medicinal water down her throat, even though we had to do it tiny amounts since she was completely asleep.

Once we got more than half of the water down her throat, Celine put the pot down and went to wiping the girl’s cheek and neck, where some of the stuff had leaked out. “Lilly is an owl. A proud, beautiful bird,” she said softly.

I let her act motherly for a moment, and then helped her lay the girl back down. Lilly shifted a little, but didn’t wake as we did.

While studying the young bird for a moment, Celine went to emptying the pot… and preparing another.

“One wasn’t enough?” I asked. Usually too much medicine was more harm than good.

“This is for tea,” she said with a smirk.

Oh. Right. Okay…

She fumbled with digging out a small pouch from her pack, which was situated under Lilly’s head. Thankfully Lilly didn’t wake.

I went to sitting back down on my log as Celine refilled the pot, and put it back onto the fire. She poured some of the grounded leaves from her pouch into the pot, and then sat back as well.

“I… am able to see what will be. However, like all of us, our abilities have flaws. Mine are that I can only see what directly concerns me, and I can only see anything during my sleep,” Celine began to tell me of herself.

“Prophecies?” I asked, interested. That was one of the rarer abilities for a Saint.

She shook her head. “Not really. I… just see the future, or what can be, but only for things that concern myself.”

“So… that’s how you knew my name? And knew to run to me?” I asked her.

She nodded. “I knew if I ran around the village, eventually I’d find you on one of the roads. I didn’t actually know which road it was, however… I’ve spent the last few weeks at that village, waiting. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t match any of the roads to what I had dreamed about. I had almost failed in finding you, I had thought you’d be at the north side of the village not the south,” she said.

Feeling a little uncomfortable, I wondered what to say. So she could see the future… but it wasn’t perfect.

“You almost died over that mistake,” I said.

She nodded. “Actually… two people did. Both Alf and Brian are dead. If we had found you faster, they’d be alive,” she said.

I noted how… matter of fact she had stated such a thing.

“I am sad. I will weep over it… but I knew it was a possibility. Just as it was that I’d fail to stop the pillaging from happening in the first place. Yet still, I had to try,” Celine answered my concern over her lack of empathy.

“You tried to stop it?” I asked.

She nodded. “I did. I tried desperately. But…” she took a deep breath and sighed. As she did I noticed the way her blouse shifted. Or rather, how it got shifted by other things. I hadn’t really noticed before, but it seemed she wasn’t as tiny as I had originally thought… in certain ways, at least.

Panda indeed.

“Did you just stare at my breasts?” she then asked.

“I did. How come you couldn’t stop it?” I asked her.

Celine blinked at me a few times, and I could tell she couldn’t believe I had admitted it so brazenly… and at the same time ignored it. She then smiled and seemed to relax a little more. “I can see the future but it’s not certain. Sometimes I even see multiple possibilities at once. And…” she started to explain to me her abilities, but I waved her words away.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I know about all that. I meant why did you fail specifically?” I asked her.

“Oh… right. Yes. Well…” she shifted a little, then pointed at herself. Or rather, her chest. As if on purpose. “I’m not exactly a very commanding person. None of them believed me at all. They actually laughed at me. It was a miracle they didn’t just outright banish me from their village, honestly…”

I see. Yes. That made sense.

Especially…

“Had the whole village been like her?” I asked.

“Birds? Yes. Nearly all of them. A tragedy. There aren’t many left,” she said as she glanced over to Lilly.

I sighed at the knowledge, and shifted again. The log made noises as I did so.

A long moment passed in silence, following my log’s complaint… and I did my best to not notice the way Celine was staring at me.

Her gaze hurt.

It wasn’t just the white eyes, it was something deeper. What was that weird grin hiding behind her calm face? I could see it curling at the corners of her mouth.

“That was the first time I saw you, by the way,” she then said.

“Hm?” I tried to make sense of what she meant as the pot began to boil again.

“When I first saw that dream, originally… I thought maybe you were her father. Or someone special to her. Since I saw how you had held her, after saving her,” Celine said with a gesture to Lilly.

Oh…?

“Then of course, lately, I saw you more often… I realized the truth. But I just wanted you to know, that it’s very interesting the first time I saw you was here and now,” she said to me, happy for some reason.

“I don’t like that,” I said to her.

Celine giggled and nodded. “I know! Which is why I will not tell you what I’ve seen, since you’re the kind of man to intentionally try to change fate out of spite,” she said.

I especially didn’t like that either. That meant she wasn’t kidding at all.

Just how many times has she seen me? In her dreams? Her prophecies?

For her to have seen me enough to know me that well was… well…

Very concerning. To the point I was almost half tempted to run away before the tea was ready. And it’d be ready any moment.

Yet if I did…

Glancing over to the young bird, I wondered what the right choice to make was.

“I know you don’t like to drink anything, but are that weird kind type to share a drink whenever offered… so please don’t ask for any. I’m absolutely parched,” Celine said as she leaned forward to ready her tea.

Blinking at her, I smiled and nodded.

How interesting. I wonder just how much she knew about me… and to what level.

Then I suddenly realized what she had said earlier.

A wave of cold blood rushed through my body as I repeated in my mind what she had said. After telling me of her bloodline. That she was a panda.

She had claimed I was beyond such titles and blood.

That meant…

Celine huffed lightly and blew on the small pot as she held it, doing her best to hurry and cool the tea as to drink it.

“Do you know why I’m here?” I asked her. To see if she’d tell me.

“I said I’d not tell you anything I’ve seen about you. You even want me to keep such secrets, so why ask?” she asked me.

“I meant my own reason, not what fate has in store,” I corrected her.

“Oh. Sure. Right… sorry. I’ll be honest I’m a little nervous,” she fidgeted a little as she grinned.

The way she scrunched up a little as she held the pot in her hands made her look adorable. I kind of liked the way her shoulders looked, half naked thanks to the blouse.

“I’ll not harm you,” I told her. Honestly I found her dangerous, but not the kind of threat that needed to be obliterated. She was more danger to my heart than she was my physical body.

She giggled. “I know,” she said.

Great. She had said that in a way that made it clear.

She knew full well I’d not hurt her. At all.

Such confidence was concerning. It meant she’s seen more than just a little about me…

Yet she had said she only saw stuff that concerned her directly. That meant she could only see things that happened to her. Or around her.

Just how often was I near her for her to know me so well? To understand me from just simple moments from dreams?

“I was heading north. To a supposed nation that has enslaved non-humans, with a Monarch,” I said.

She nodded. “The Northern Alliance. Yes. A fellow enemy of me and my people. Of our people,” she said.

“So it’s true?” I asked.

“It is. And it’s not one Monarch, it’s three. Three very powerful ones, beyond our means,” she clarified.

“One or three, their end will come,” I said.

Celine shifted a little, and slowly spun her pot in her hands. It must be cool enough to drink now, no more steam was emitting from it.

“What?” I asked her.

“From any other man, I would have simply heard bravado. Or maybe prayer. Yet from you it’s almost like hearing a blessing,” she said softly.

I hadn’t meant it that way at all.

She smiled at me, and then went to take a drink. She only got a single gulp down before she flinched and lowered it back to her lap.

“Nasty?” I asked. Shouldn’t be too hot still, she wasn’t a human so… I mean she was holding it with her bare hands.

“No. it just hurt. I have lots of little cuts in my mouth,” she complained as she went to sticking her tongue out, and then rubbing it everywhere.

“Were you beaten by the attackers, or the village?” I asked.

“The pillagers. The villagers hadn’t believed me, or listened to me, but they were friendly enough,” she said as she closed her eyes and focused on her tongue. It was brushing against the roof of the mouth, at least so it looked like with the way she was moving her jaw around.

I’d ask why she hadn’t searched me out, long before the attack on the village… but I knew it was because she couldn’t risk it. I’d known others like her before, with her ability. Rather, I knew the sources of them.

The gods that had blessed her hadn’t had such flaws as she. Their abilities had been pure. Flawless.

And even they had not been able to foresee my hands around their necks.

So I knew better than to ask why she hadn’t foreseen a way to save the rest of the village, or find me before it had even happened. Odds are there had been a very big chance she could have died long before finding me.

Just like Yallsi, the saint I had left behind with Celine in that port city. She could hear the thoughts of others, but only a single person at a time… and not forever. The longer she listened, the louder the voice became. The more it hurt.

“Is your name really Celine?” I asked her.

She giggled and nodded. “Yes. I don’t know why you find that odd, but I know you do. I used to wonder if it was the name of one of your past lovers or something,” she said as she went to finally take another drink.

My eye twitched, and the log beneath me creaked again. A little too loudly this time. I waited a moment, to see if I’d be breaking my chair or not.

The log was fine… but my heart wasn’t.

That means she had dreamt and prophecies me asking her that question before. Or mentioning it.

Just great. Wonderful.

Fate was very annoying. Why out of all the gods was she the only one I couldn’t track down?

“Why her? You said her fate was special,” I said with a look to the young bird. She had rolled over a little, but was still fast asleep. She even had a little bit of slobber running down her cheek. Likely from the irritation of us forcing the medicinal tea down her throat.

“She grows up to be important. And I honestly had tried to save far more than her… unlike you, Vim, I am not strong. I’m actually rather weak, all things considered,” she said.

Great. That meant there had been others. Children. Women.

How many had died?

I should have rushed into the village the moment I saw it. Damn me.

“Don’t blame yourself Vim,” Celine said softly.

“I can do as I want,” I said.

She nodded. “Of course you can. We were all blessed with freedom. The right to choose. Honest free will. But even with that free will, you can’t always make the right choice. It’s inevitable, and part of life, that we are destined to make many bad choices throughout our lives,” she said.

She spoke like the saints I knew. Full of confidence. And quoting holier than thou scriptures and ideologies.

I hated such people.

Especially when they preached about stuff that only existed because of the things I had done.

Who were they to know more than me? Who did they think they are? They preached laws I had written.

Laws that had been flawed.

“How many?” I asked her.

“Sixty three. Though I’m sure many escaped and lived. Several families flew off too, the moment the attacker’s horn sounded,” Celine said.

Oh. Right. “They can fly,” I said, realizing it.

She nodded. “They can. Lilly can too, but not for long. Too young. Plus she had been sick,” she said.

I sighed and nodded. Yes. I could see why she’d prioritize the sick little girl over others. I would have too.

“Want the last bit?” Celine then held out the little pot, to offer me a drink.

“You said you were parched,” I said.

“I was. And still am a little. I plan to make more. But honestly it really hurts to drink, so I’m hesitant…” she admitted.

Staring at the pot made into a cup, I decided to play along and reached out for it. Taking it from her, I noted that there really was but a single sip left.

She smiled and nodded at me as I stared at the contents. I could smell the leaves. And not just the tea ones either. The ones she had boiled for Lilly could still be smelled, and they stunk a little.

Probably made it taste like piss too.

Taking a drink, I found it was indeed a little nasty.

Gulping the stuff down, I sighed as I handed it back to her and she went to refilling it. To make another batch of tea.

“What will you do now?” I asked her as I tried to ignore the horrid taste in my mouth. No wonder she had been so willing to share it.

“We’re going to take Lilly home,” she said.

We? “Her home is still burning,” I said. I could smell the fires still.

She smiled, but only softly and with a tiny bit of pain mixed in. “Rather, my home. In Telmik,” she said.

“Where’s that?” I asked.

“On the way north. You’ll not be diverging from your purpose, I promise. Along the way, I can answer your questions… and hopefully, maybe if I’m blessed, I can convince you,” she said.

Convince me? “Convince me of what?” I asked.

“Of joining our Society.”