My stomach groaned, a gnawing bringing me back to reality. "How much farther is the forest?" I thought of food, hoping a skewer or maybe even Raine's bad stew would magically appear… "Is it possible?" A sigh emanated in my head as Titus gave off waves of incredulity.
'You cannot even summon a basic glyph and yet you fantasize about summoning food?' I shrugged. Thinking back on my time at the market, did any of them conjure food? I didn't see anything like that, so probably not.
"We don't have any snails and we don't know where the forest is, so what else can I do?" I argued back, the irritation forming in my voice with the increasing gurgles of my stomach.
'There's a simple solution to this,' I straightened. "What is it?" Titus, in an unexpected action, turned my head. I jolted and sent a wave of mental force back at the unexpected action. "What was that?!" Titus pushed back on my force.
"Calm down," I grit my teeth as I felt my emotions spinning out of control. I didn't know why. A part of me explained it away as my body being controlled and I accepted that. "How'd you control my body?" Titus's mental force faltered at the angry question.
"I'm in your mind, it isn't difficult to influence your body from its physical core," I sort of understood what he said, I didn't like it any less though. I withdrew the force and glared inwardly.
"That doesn't help me," I growled. "You said you wouldn't try taking my body, so why?" Titus withdrew his own defenses. "I'm simply guiding you as you requested," irritation laced my mind.
"That's not guiding," I stated. "That's controlling me, don't do it," Titus sighed and sent back a mental nod. 'Then how do you wish for guidance to be given?' I thought it over as my anger ebbed. An image of me riding on him like a Palisman came to mind and a low growl came from Titus before he cut himself off and a tiny black blob manifested in front of me. Slowly, it shaped itself into a tiny wolf silhouette. I frowned and it went back to the blob shape in response.
"Is this fine?" A garbled voice unlike Titus's or his puppets grated against my ears. "Something's off with your voice," A garbled sigh later and Titus's voice came through my head in a clear tone. "Does this work?" I thought back to my riding idea. 'No, I'm not carrying you,' I wanted to ask why, but before I could, Titus's body shaped itself into an arrow, pointing at the shop with the sign Thai Go.
'As I was saying, there is a simple way for you to procure food,' The realization hit me like the tendril of Titus's puppets as I shook my head rapidly. "No way, I'm not stealing," Titus gave me a confused impression. 'Haven't you stolen before?' I wasn't sure what he meant. I didn't steal anything or at least I didn't remember stealing anything... Maybe?
"Sorry, what did I steal?" Titus shaped himself into a writhing shape almost like a fire. 'That orb of flames you consumed,' A vague idea came to mind, but I couldn't quite remember what he was talking about as my mind wandered from it. Titus seemed to realize that as he brought me back on track. 'In the basement of that estate we had fled from,' The image in my head snapped back and cleared up as the green flames from before popped into my head. "Oh, right the giant house or uh, mansion, right?" I focused on Titus and he bobbed positively.
More memories came with the image. I pushed them away and looked over Titus and his imitation of flames. "Huh, you're pretty expressive all of a sudden," Titus gave a mental shrug. 'It is easier to express things with visual aids,' I agreed as I watched his imitation.
'Back to my point,' I snapped back to reality as Titus shifted back to a blob. 'You have stolen before with the orb, so what makes this different?" His point hit home, but I didn't want to admit it. "I had no choice though," Titus sent an impression of indifference to the excuse.
'Anything can have an excuse, but unless you have claimed the object from the owner without deception then it is stealing,' the words surprised me. "Don't you steal things?" Titus shook his form in the negative.
"I have always confronted the owners of things I wish to take in contests or combat," I thought back to the giant centipede he'd sent after me. "Well, contest maybe, but combat?" Titus rippled in irritation. 'I confront all I fight,' my eyes narrow, a flicker of my previous anger coming through. "You fight demons weaker than you too, isn't that just stealing with force?" Titus's surface stilled and drooped.
'I'd rather take it directly than use a trick,' I sighed at the defense. It was better than underhanded schemes. I thought back on my actions in the basement. Was it right for me to have run after using that magic artifact? Then I thought of the injured psycho, Alexandrius, and dismissed the thought. It was the right choice, I knew it was.
A feeling of disappointment brushed my mind, only to disappear as quickly as it revealed itself. I turned to Titus and saw his faceless form as still as apple blood sitting in the fridge. I decided to keep my mouth shut. That wasn't something I wanted to point out.
"Still, by your rules, I need to find the owner and fight him or her for their food," I gestured to the dim interior of the shop, barely illuminated by the setting sun. "Does it look like the owner's in there?" Titus chuckled. "What's so funny?" Titus's form turned toward me, though it was hard to tell with him floating above my shoulder.
'That glyph spell I wished to teach you will come in handy for our purposes,' My eyes widened and I watched as Titus slipped through the door and floated off to a vague shape hanging on the wall. Titus started to shape himself into a glyph that I couldn't make out before a flash of light followed and an orb of yellowish white made its way out of the building with Titus, I looked on in disbelief as the Pitch black blob followed the orb and I, by my inability to come up with a protest, followed too.
**********
"Kid!" Eda called out above the forest, hoping that the second area she'd combed through would be the place the brat ran off to. She didn't know why she was searching so hard. This kid, Azure, had only shown up in her life a few days ago. Did she feel responsible for their kidnapping? No, it was the bird's responsibility to make sure that her- the kid didn't end up taken by some crazy.
She flew over another empty clearing in the forest. "Where is this darn brat?" Her thoughts slipped back to her frustration with the Bird Brain and his 'efforts' to save Azure.
This whole situation happened anyway, and now she couldn't leave the kid out there. The image of the kid and his familiar green eyes. "...Whispers," A flash of Raine came to mind and Eda shook her head and started up her search again, hearing a rustling from the treeline. "Azure, are you down there?" She called out below. A random demon beast answered with an oddly calm look as it peeked out from a random tree. Eda sighed, flying on to the next area as it watched her go. Then it spat up a pile of mush before nibbling on the tree it'd covered in its lunch.
**********
"Sorry, I need to do what?" Titus pointed over to the house as he calmly restated what he'd said. 'You need to walk up there and challenge them for the food at their shop,' I stared at Titus. I knew he'd wanted me to follow him, but I hoped this was a joke.
'Ok, Titus doesn't really make jokes, but still,' I glanced at the house. "No, way am I walking up to a stranger's house and asking to fight them like you," a mental groan came from Titus. 'You need to if you want a simple source of food,' I shook my head as I thought about the guard from that castle where Raine and I went. I focused on the guards and sent the image to Titus. "What if those guys show up?" I thought my point shut Titus up as he went silent for a while, but that didn't last.
'This is a different place from your home,' I couldn't disagree with that as the odd houses and buildings populated the corners of my vision. '-and even if they did come, they wouldn't be able to defeat us, a puny guard couldn't dream of beating me,' that I also disagreed with, both because it probably wouldn't be a single guard and they knew about this essence stuff already. The essence that Titus is made of and I barely understand.
Titus's surface stilled as I focused back on him. "We don't know if they'll-" I was interrupted by him again as he retracted into my body without explaining. "What are you-?" A shush came through my mind and I stilled. I didn't know why Titus wanted me to shut up until a soft patter of feet came from the distance. 'A coven guard?' I went to hide behind something as a green shiny object on wheels stuck out to me. 'That'll work,' I jumped behind it as I waited for the guard to get closer.
The steps increased in volume. The louder they got though, the more they sounded off. It was like the guard had more than two feet. I shrugged that off. 'They could be something other than a-,' what was the word? 'A biped,' Titus answered. I nodded. '-a biped, which is… a demon with two feet?' I got a positive response from him as I felt a little prideful for figuring out something that my memory didn't tell me. I pushed that thought away and focused back on my situation.
I looked around to see if there was a place to escape to- and it was an open dark stone road lined with slabs of lighter stone similar to the stuff I'd seen at the shore with grass… grass? Why'd that seem so familiar?
My mind scoured my earliest memories… and another odd shape took form in my mind as Titus almost knocked me out of my spot behind the shiny object with his laughter, feeling almost surprised under his amusement.
'What are you doing?' Titus laughed for a little longer before the shape I'd remembered was shown to me by Titus as if I didn't just see it. 'What?' Titus's amusement faded, his expression turned more to that of an adult's, like Raine, who knew something I didn't. 'What is it?' Titus gave me a look that said 'I'll let you figure it out,' like we weren't in a bad situation.
'Fine, I'll look at it,' I turned my attention to the shape, and as I looked closer, I realized it was a leaf, only it had some kind of pattern on it. The memory came back to me unlike my buried ones with a sharpened detail as I lunged for the grass and grabbed a stalk. I tried using the glyph on it and… it didn't have a glyph? "What?" I looked at it more closely. Like I saw, there was no glyph. I turned it sideways and then upside down as a minute or so passed, still no glyph. What was going on?
My confusion didn't last long as a cough rang out behind me. I suddenly remembered the reason why I'd jumped out then along with the stinging feeling of skin scraping on stone. I held my reaction as I turned up to see an… adult demon with round ears?
I stared at them confused as I was distracted from my knee. "Round ears?" The demon gave me an odd look. "Yes, I have round ears?" Their lips thinned to a line. "Where are your parents, little guy?" I shrugged as I broke eye contact with the older demon. He sighed.
In my attempt to avoid his eyes, my own drifted back to the blade of grass in my fingers. 'Why doesn't it have a glyph?' I brought it closer to my eyes and then I was brought back to focus by a sudden lifting of my body as I was placed on my feet. The sting came back as I noticed a dark red liquid was sticking to my knees.
Things started to feel off and I started to squirm as memories of previous encounters with strangers popped up. I ignored them once again and looked back at the man only to see two other demons behind them. That's when I realized that it was a family and my uneasiness faded just like that. I found it strange afterwards that I'd been that paranoid, but before I could think about it more, the other two came close and I stepped back.
The youngest of the three, probably their kid, didn't stop there as she got closer with a goofy smile missing teeth. "What-?" The girl pointed to my blue hair. "Hey, is that your real hair?" Her finger changed position again and pointed to not clothes. "What's with those clothes? They look super old!" She went on pointing out every part of my appearance with an excited smile.
"Uh…" I didn't know how to respond until she finished her spell-like gesture with my ears. "Why are those so pointy?" My brows furrowed and I touched my ears as I was reminded of one of the many differences between me and the rest of the people here. The older lady drew her daughter back and handed them off to their husband. Turning back to me with a smile, she glanced down at the scrapes on my knees and I felt that same discomfort rear its unwelcome head.
"I see you got some scrapes on your legs," I nodded slowly. "Would you like to come inside and have me patch you up?" I shied away. The woman only gave a smile. "That's ok, then do you want me to call your parents?" A flash of a thought shot across her face. "Do you know your parents' number or where you live?" I didn't want to answer, I didn't really have an answer since I didn't know where I was. That didn't stop me from pulling out my scroll and unfurling it.
'No signal,' I read out in my head as a sinking feeling replaced my unease. At least it answered how far I'd ended up from home. My thoughts went to Raine and everyone. There were more immediate things to focus on right now. I shook my head and focused back on the lady in front of me. I saw her confused expression on my scroll. Was it strange to have a scroll here? I rolled it up again and shrugged.
She sighed and went to talk to her husband. I couldn't hear much, so I decided to lean in. "-much we can do-," was the first thing I picked up from the guy. A spike in the woman's voice made me think she was angry at her husband.
"-leave him!" The lady's voice rose above the normal whisper. The man slumped and nodded. "I'll call-" Again I couldn't tell what they were saying. It was unfortunate, but my frustration didn't last long as the girl with all of her questions came back.
"Are you a bad guy?" That was a strange question. "What?" The girl tilted her head a little to the side as she glanced down the street. "My mom and dad said they'd call the police and the police drag bad people away," a spike of urgency drove up my spine as I heard what sounded like the guards in BonesBorough. Something was strange about what they were called.
"Po-lease?" Maybe it was some kind of thing from outside of BonesBorough? "Yep, the police, who drag naughty people away," that still didn't bode well as I refocused and looked for the nearest escape. It took me a few seconds, but luckily I found those odd metal covers that held tunnels underneath them. My eyes snapped back and I saw the adults were done talking. I was out of time, so I ran for the metal. I could hear the familiar noise of footsteps pursuing me as I went to lift the lid and- it didn't budge.
"Why isn't it lifting?" My actions became more frustrated as I tugged. I tried harder as the voices of the adults joined their footsteps. I continued more frantically before I noticed something casting a shadow over me. I looked up. There was a metal shape there accompanied by a screech that hurt my ears.
I knew it was going to ram me. I didn't have time to think. A glyph launched from my hand and I felt myself being thrown by air to the side. I tumbled. Scrambling to my feet, my eyes darted around the scene of my failed murder. The metal creature had halted to a stop and I tensed in preparation for its next move. 'Titus, what is that thing?' Titus didn't respond. I went to prod him, but I felt someone grab me. 'An ambush!' I struggled to break free.
I didn't want to be turned in to the guards, especially with what I'd done to Alexandrius before. Would the guards recognize me and cart me off for that? Was that why those adults talked about calling the Po-lease? Did they recognize me as a criminal?
"Let go! You won't arrest me!" I turned to look at who was holding me and saw the teary, confused look on the woman, who'd talked to me before. "Little guy, why would we arrest you?" I stopped at that.
"You aren't calling the po-lease like she said?" I stared at her as the distressed look turned to one of amusement. I thought it was an amusement? The lady was smiling and laughing, but her eyes still looked wet. "Is there something funny?" The lady stopped and dragged her arm across her eyes.
"Not really," my face scrunched. Why was she laughing if something wasn't funny? I thought back to my actions. Hindsight hit me hard as I thought about how odd it would look to see a kid jump out of nowhere and then immediately stare at a piece of grass.
I didn't want to admit it, but that was goofy for a kid my age. That wasn't my intent, but it seemed to come off that way. My head snapped back as I heard a sound from the direction of the metal creature. An odd sight greeted me as another round-eared demon stepped out and charged towards us.
That wasn't good. I went to summon another gust of wind. A breeze started up and then I slumped. I was tired. Why was I tired? It felt like when I overused my glyphs, but that didn't make sense. I'd already rested and recharged my magic. My mind drifted over to the piece of grass and its lack of glyphs.
I didn't like the direction of my thoughts and the panic I'd been keeping at a low irritation started to act up… or that's what would've happened if I could've spared the mental energy to care. I chalked it up to a coincidence for now. Glancing up lazily at the lady holding me, I saw her look of concern, while her husband talked to the demon who had stopped charging. The loud voices were hard to understand and I felt the need to sleep. My eyes slowly drifted shut as I felt what was left of the ground leave my feet.
**********
"What were you doing?" I yelled at the distressed driver. "You could have killed that kid!" The driver shrank away with a guilty look. That didn't last long as he let out a growl. "What do you mean, what am I doing?" He gestured over the kid who was limp in my wife's arms. "Why was that kid in the middle of the road?!" I didn't know what to say to that, but the yelling seemed to calm him down. His concerned face returned and he glanced over at the kid we had found jumping onto the sidewalk.
The kid was probably not all there to put it nicely. I mean he ran out into the road! Even disregarding that, why did he try to pull on a sewer lid? I wasn't doing very well and I think the driver saw that as he sighed.
"Is the kid hurt?" I shrugged and looked over to my wife. She looked up and gave us a confused look before the driver pointed at them and made a thumbs-up gesture that alternated directions. My wife gave him a glare and he put his arm down.
"He's ok," my wife called out in a clipped tone. Both the driver and I sighed. "That's good," I refocused on the man in front of me. "So…" I felt awkward now. We weren't that kid's parents, but we were the ones close by when he ran into the road. What did we do now?
"So is that your son or…?" That was direct and also pretty stupid to ask since we already had a daughter and had no intentions of adopting. Though it brought up a question that held a lot more questions. We weren't his parents, so why were we the first ones nearby? Why was the kid running into the street? Were we doing something suspicious? I could answer that… except for why he ran out in the street, but still, we'd sound suspicious.
I didn't want to deal with the stress, but I felt a tiny body bump into me as I looked down at a guilty-looking girl. 'Why is she…?' My little girl started to go teary and I kneeled down in a flash. "What's wrong sweetheart?" Anne gripped my leg and glanced up with teary eyes.
"I um… I told Pointy Ear that he was going to be taken away for being bad by the police," that froze me in my tracks and I took in a large gulp of air. I can't believe my daughter would say such things… 'but then again,' we had taught her that and I may have needed to be more specific. The real question though, was the reaction of the man in front of me. I glanced up towards his face.
His expression wasn't what I was expecting, but it didn't look like he'd say anything rude about Anne. I gave my little girl one last hug before standing. My movement seemed to get him moving as well. His eyes jumped back to me and nodded. "It looks like things are ok then," I felt a twinge of annoyance at his words, but I nodded in return. "Nobody got hurt badly, so it should be fine," That's what I thought until my wife stomped up with a glare.
"You aren't going anywhere until this boy wakes up and we see if his head's ok," her glare became fiery like the sun as it burned away the man's confidence and he found himself nodding. Scary.
We didn't linger long after that as the man parked his car in our driveway, we headed inside and patched up the child's surprisingly light external injuries with disinfectant and gauze. We finished and waited as hours went by and everyone grew a little unsettled despite the patching we'd done to cover his bleeding. Mostly from his knee, but other areas as well with a few scrapes and tears around the uncovered parts of his clothes.
Time passed and finally we spotted some movement. "He's waking up, be calm and let me talk," my wife explained as we watched her lean above the bed with the driver who was too eager to confirm the kid was ok and leave.