The Star, The Demon, and The God - 36. Almost There

Tobias

I am surprised we have even made it this far honestly. The Spirit Sailor seemed quite adamant about doing this quest. I honestly thought that maybe he would force us to join him on his duties since he refuses to do said quest but here he is, walking behind us and he hasn’t made a move to leave.

That is all fine and dandy, I suppose, but there is something else that has been a bit of a bother.

A voice scratches in the back of my mind. It echoes as if it is a voice far behind us, but I know that there is nobody there. Only Luno and the Spirit Sailor.

The source of the whispers and cries come from my left hand.

After Drulai gave him the necklace, the Sailor had passed it on to me.

I thought nothing of it at the time. It is an item of great importance and we are the ones who have to keep it safe at all times.

Of course I forgot about how sketchy and strange it is.

It glows and floats in place when you don’t touch it. That alone is creepy enough, but this thing speaks to me.

Maybe I should be telling someone thing, but something is stopping me. It is the voices that are whispering to me; calling me by my name.

The first time I heard anything, it was in the tent where Luno was recovering.

I had heard a little girl’s voice. At least I think it was a girl. It could have been a little boy as well. I am not sure. I know that I definitely heard the faint whispers of it.

It was slightly worrying.

Okay maybe more than that, but I knew I was not in any real danger.

Those voices were filling my mind with flashes of memories. None of them made sense however. It was like I was looking at the broken shards of a mirror, only the images I saw were different parts of a child’s face.

Maybe I should have mentioned that to Drulai, but I think it is safe to say that I am too late.

At the moment, while I am walking on some road headed north, I hear the voices again.

They are coming from the necklace again.

Of course they are.

Why do they all say my name?

Who are these children? Who is this new voice? The new voice of a woman. She sounds so familiar but why can’t I remember who she is? What is she to me? What am I hearing? Why does she sound so in distress?

All of this is leaving me so confused. It is starting to hurt my head.

As I think about the pain in my head, a hand gently reaches up to cradle the back of my head.

“May I?” Luno asks with a worried smile. “I know you said to never use magic on you without permission.”

I am a bit taken aback from the fact that this is my reality. All these voices are not real. They are most likely tricks from the necklace.

It is an evil necklace. That is for sure.

I swallow whatever bubble is in my throat and nod to the little Star.

A tingling warmth spreads from the back of my head and all the way down to my toes. It soothes any aches and pains, some I did not even know I was feeling at the moment.

“Thanks,” I say to him. “Didn’t know I needed that.”

He smiles and nods. “I could feel your stress burning off of you. I am glad I could help!”

A soft smile pulls on my lips and I end up reaching for his hand.

He is about to reach for my mine as well, but then I remember we are not alone.

I quickly pull my hand away and turn forward once again.

Now I would wish to kiss Luno and apologize for having to do this because I know that must have hurt him. He is too kind and sweet to deserve to be treated like this, but he is new to this.

There are those in the world who are cruel to those like us. The world is slow to catch up with the times, but we are still on the bottom of the list to be considered normal.

I know nothing about the Sailor, but it is best to play it safe.

The last thing I want is for Luno to witness that cruelty. I will shield him from it to the best of capabilities.

When we are alone, I will be sure to apologize and explain myself...slightly.

I will do so in a way without telling him about how mean the beings of Thymestrys can be.

For now, I will cling to the warming strength he gave me and hold it close.

It may not be the same as holding his hand, but it is close enough.

Sadly, it doesn’t help with the guilt.

~~~

After around ten miles, I decided it would be best if we stopped to eat.

Luno practically falls over on a bed of grass and groans from exhaustion.

I laugh at that.

The little Star must be used to flying everywhere. For someone who has the body of Raiyo, Luno sure is out of shape.

It is both cute and bizarre to me. Mostly cute.

“Halfway there,” I say. “You can let out half your tears and save the rest for the next ten miles.”

He frowns and juts out his lip.

Chuckling at his expression, I sit down next to him and reach into my bag.

“If it makes you feel better, we will probably only be able to go on for another five or six miles,” I say.

“Why?” He says. His voice is starting to get upbeat again.

I point up at the sky. “The moon will be coming out soon. That means it will be time to hide.”

He frowns. “Already? I thought Drulai said he husband will try and make the days last longer!”

I scoff and wave him off. “He can only wish to do something like that.”

He looks very confused now; and also funny, all spread out on the ground.

“She said it as a way to comfort us. It was more figurative than anything honestly.”

He somehow looks even more confused but he nods as a way to let it pass. I suppose that is for the best.

Today’s late lunch will be...some kind of stew that was made for Luno and some lamb for the Sailor and I.

A small surprise would be some kind of apple tart that has been pushed down to the very bottom.

Well that is better than most things I suppose. I should have thanked the cooks in the kitchens for providing us with food but alas, I did care to do something like that.

Kulu, who I forgot was attached to me, slithers down my arm and slips into the bag.

Before I can manage to grab him, he opens his mouth and clamps down on one of the treats. He barely even dents the pastry. Not having any teeth on a small thing like him kind of makes this sad to look at.

Pulling him out, I set the serpent down on my leg and pull off a small bit of pastry.

I make sure it is small enough for him to swallow. Can’t have Luno killing me on the spot for making his flying snake choke to death. Especially after losing Enfi.

Gods. It is pretty strange to feel so sad over the loss of that phoenix. I didn’t even realize I had grown so attached to the fire chicken.

Sure, I had only known her for a few weeks, but she had grown on me. Definitely more than others.

Perhaps that bit is a little funny. I became better friends with a bird that couldn’t speak to me.

At least she had died protecting a friend she loves.

It was a heroic sacrifice.

Her death was very strange to see. Her body had completely lost all signs of life and color. She looked like she was cut out of some kind of painting.

I don’t think I have ever seen Raiyo do something like that. Hell...I have never seen him completely destroy an entire mountain and the city with it.

He had completely erased it from existence!

Everyone says the Moon God is the most powerful of all the gods, but do we really know this? I do not recall us ever seeing him use much of his magic.

Sure, he will do some things like his executions or the whole fading into smoke thing, but I never considered that the heights of his power.

Who’s to say that Morgoren is truly the most powerful when we are still not too sure about Raiyo?

He is still a mystery and thinking about what other things he can do sends shivers down my spine.

A wall of darkness that drains the life and color from your body? That is pretty insane.

What if that had hit Luno? Would he be some kind of colorless corpse right now?

No, no he wouldn’t.

If Luno had gotten hit, he would have been turned into millions of tiny pieces before completely disappearing from the world.

Thank the gods Enfi put a stop to that.

The sound of Luno giggling to my right catches my attention.

I could have sworn he was still laying next to me.

“Now I know you’re joking!” Luno laughs a bit louder.

The Spirit Sailor has a smirk on his face, proud of whatever joke he told the Star.

What are they laughing about?

I bet it is something stupid no doubt.

The Sailor says something else that makes the Star laugh. His voice is too quiet for me to hear.

He glances at me for a second before turning back to Luno.

Now I know they are talking about me.

It appears that now that Luno has found another to follow, he is already moving on.

Of course he has. Everyone always does.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that we have only begun this quest and Luno is already becoming best friends with the Sailor.

I should have known that not even the Star would be any different.

Luno laughs at another joke or some shit. He looks over at me while laughing and I roll my eyes then look away.

Now I really wish we tried to push the Spirit Sailor off of this quest; then Luno wouldn’t be so...whatever this is.

Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

The Sailor glances at me again before he also starts laughing a deep throaty laugh.

I want to punch his stupid wolf skull in until his snout becomes broken pieces inside his brain.

Trying my best to ignore their sounds, I eat with Kulu, even offering him some meat. I bet the little thing is starving for something like that.

My jaw clenches in the middle of eating when I hear Luno gasp in shock.

Why do they have to be so damn loud? They are practically rubbing this in my face!

Chancing a peek, I see the Sailor was also watching me again.

The old fucker.

I bet he is doing this on purpose! He must be trying to get under my skin. He is using Luno as a way to irritate me.

Did Drulai set him up to this?

Is this because we shared a room together in her palace?

We didn’t even fuck or anything!

Another bout of laughter from Luno almost has me snapping at them when I all of a sudden hear the voices again.

That damned necklace is taunting me now.

Of course it is.

“How do you know?” Luno says in a whisper, or tries to. I can hear him from over here.

That’s it!

Pushing myself off the ground, I shoves plates into the bag.

“Let’s go,” I say. “Now. We should get as far as we can go before the moon hits the sky.”

Luno whines. “But my aching feet! I can’t last another second!”

Normally I would find this degrading, but I do not like our guest on this quest. He is trying to steal Luno from me. I know it.

“You can ride my back,” I say. “You have to hold our bags though.”

Luno’s eyes brighten up immediately.

I swear I almost felt the need to smile victoriously at the Sailor as if I have won some kind of fight.

When I glance over at him, I see the Sailor is packing away his things.

Oh.

So he doesn’t care for my little act of dominance over Luno? Fine. I am sure I can come up with something later on down the line.

Whatever, time to pack my own shit.

I only brought two bags with me. One is full of food, plates, and other utensils for eating. The other is filled with various supplies that are important; for instance, that special tent that magically sprouts out and puts itself together.

The one thing I keep on me at all times is the necklace.

As much as it continues to taunt and pull at the corners of my mind, the last thing I want is for it to get mixed up in all that junk. Clearly it is the most important thing right now.

I tie the strings of the bags together and hand them over to Luno.

“Oh!” He gasps when I push them into his hands. “They barely weigh a thing! That is pretty neat.”

I swear anything will impress him.

Lucky me!

Getting on my hands and knees, I allow the transformation to flow through my body.

It does not hurt at all. It is like a bunch of tingling sensations that travel from the feet and all they way up to my head. It is quick and in about five seconds, I am in my tiger form.

Luno wastes no time in flying up to get onto my back.

When I look over at him, I see that the Sailor is staring at me deep in thought.

I growl at him as a warning.

Luno swats my back. “Be nice!”

“It’s fine,” The Sailor says. “I was only a little jealous.”

I am not sure whether I should feel smug or not.

I wanted to make him jealous over me being with the Star, but apparently this form is enough to do it?

Curses!

What a waste of a time to reveal it!

Luno somehow balances the bags enough for him to sink both his hands into the fur of my neck.

I swear I heard him say ‘so fluffy’ under his breath.

I shake myself slightly to scare him.

His little squeak tells me that I succeeded!

I am not fluffy! I simply have slightly thick fur around my neck in this form...and I suppose in my demon form as well.

Once everyone is situated, we move on towards the forest of Drualai.

Who knows what we are going to find there. I am not sure how we are supposed to find a little pond in the middle of said forest. It looks rather large on the map!

This is going to be interesting.

~~~
~~~

Luno

This feels exactly like the last quest. The main difference would be that this all feels faster.

I guess it really helps having a companion who can teleport you to any source of water that is at least thirty feet deep.

Speaking of him, the Spirit Sailor is actually pretty nice!

I didn’t want him to feel like he was some random side man who is only there to be our transporter or anything like that.

He is a friend now!

I had asked him what were his favorite places to visit, what realms were the more amazing, what was the funniest experience he witnessed while delivering someone from realm to realm.

Those stories were particularly funny!

There is something about headless pumpkin spirits dancing around a block of sparkling cheese that sounds so ridiculous!

Getting all those experiences must be very nice. With his title, you would have a new experience everyday. Something that I definitely thirst for.

As of now, I am happy to say that I am indeed living new experiences everyday. It is all a new adventure!

Unfortunately, though it is life’s way, it comes with losses.

I am beginning to come to terms over the deaths of Mother and Enfi. There is nothing that can be done about it.

Hating on the evil that is Raiyo will not help me. That would only make things worse.

Riding on Tobias’ tiger form is rather nice. He is all warm and fuzzy!

He is always warm. He is a walking furnace after all!

Is that supposed to be the demon blood inside him?

I think so.

It is truly surprising to think that we are so close to the forest already.

We are supposed to enter it tomorrow morning and we had only just begun!

I am not sure if I like that. I wanted to mentally prepare myself for whatever darkness clouds the forest.

An interesting day ahead of us, that’s for sure.

“Now is a good time to stop,” The Sailor says. “The days have become rather short.”

I frown at that.

I thought the gods have no power over something like that.

Tobias lowers himself to let me slide off.

I grab our bags and he quickly transforms back into his handsome self.

“Time to see this thing get into action!” Tobi says, rolling his shoulders for a moment and opening one of the bags.

He pulls out what looks like a rolled up load of blankets.

I am guessing that is the tent?

He pulls at a string that is holding it all together.

In a blink of an eye, a rush of wind surrounds us as large walls of cloth move and freeze into place.

Yes, yes it makes a giant tent!

Where did all the wood come from to hold everything together?

The entire thing is huge! It is a like a tiny home! There are rooms and everything!

It is mostly made of the different cloths. Even the doors leading into said rooms!

This is pretty neat!

When I look closer, I see a faint glow to the sheets. They let out a low hum as they shine their little designs.

“Alright then,” Tobias says, pulling a door flap to throw his bags inside. “Time for bed. I’ll keep the first watch.”

A watch? To keep us safe?

“Do I get one?” I ask, getting a little excited!

“No,” Both of them say sternly.

Dang it!