Neil

I startled awake sitting straight up with a quiet gasp and immediately leaned to my side to let out the contents of my stomach. I reached forwards for the ground and kept reaching, leaning further and further until something grabbed the back of my shirt and held me up.

As I emptied the pitiful contents of my stomach I opened my eyes and was struck by an immediate sense of vertigo as the ground was a good 30 feet below me.

With one last retch I weakly tried to right myself, fortunately the hand new what I was doing and hauled me backwards onto something steady. Laying down I took stock of myself and tried to figure out where I was.

All around me I saw a sea of green and brown, I was laying on something that was firm and stiff, but still somewhat warm to the touch.

Rubbing at my eyes I shut them groaning and gave up on trying to figure out where I was and just focused on what had happened before I fell asleep.

Thinking back and I remembered escaping from the giant spider, holding on for my life as Talass swam through a river, and then I had vague recollections of walking through a forest being held up by Talass before things became blurry and I couldn’t remember anything else.

Opening my eyes I saw the silhouette of the Lamia in question above me in a sea of green and browns.

Groaning I spoke. “What happened?”

“You threw up, and almost fell out of the tree. Are you alright? You look like you're dying.” Talass said bluntly.

“I feel like I’m dying.” I said as I tried to sit up. Taking pity on me Talass pushed me up from behind.

Looking around I saw that I was in fact in a tree, sitting down on top of Talass’s coiled tail, her human half looking down at me.

“You smell like it too, now stop moving and talking or you’ll get both of our faces pecked in.”

Looking up I saw that she was looking past me, and at something past the trunk of the tree. I looked the same direction squinting my eyes to try and focus and I saw an Air Jack sitting in its nest looking at the two of us. Something was moving near the lowest part of its body. Looking more closely I saw that it was three young Air Jacks.

This was the first nest that I had seen that still had young in it, all the others had only had broken eggshells and pissed off adults in them.

The ugly lizard looked at the two of us and honked before settling back down giving us a baleful glare and a final honk.

“I hate those things. They’re like geese, but somehow even bigger assholes.”

“I don’t know what geese are, but air jacks are terrible. One time when I was young one chased Renther from one end of the village to the other, it bit him right on the end of the tail. My mother had to stop him from crying long enough to give him a potion.”

“When I was young I was attacked by an entire flock of geese, there must have been twenty of the damn things. They were all chasing me around honking and hissing at me until I fell into a damn lake.”

Laying against Talass as I was I could feel her stifling a laugh as her stomach danced up and down in suppressed mirth.

“I would have given anything to have seen that.”

“It wasn’t funny, it was terrifying, although my mother laughed so hard she fell down and hurt herself.”

Her stifled laugh turned into a soft snort, which caused the air jack to look up at us again with a glare before turning back to its young.

“How did we end up in a tree?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I remember you pulling me through the river, and not much after that.”

“I pulled you onshore, and you could barely walk, but I managed to get us up a tree. You’ve been sleeping ever since. I think you had a nightmare.” Talass said trailing off. I got the impression she was about to say something else so I stayed quiet.

Looking forwards I focused on the air jack in front of me and saw it looking at its young squawking softly gently flapping its wings. As it did a breeze began ruffling the leaves, then the trees started shaking as the wind picked up.

Reaching out with my Mana Sense I felt something coming from the adult air jack. It was threading throughout the air in gentle eddies and although mana didn’t really have a taste or smell I could swear I was smelling a fresh spring day.

DING

For watching a teacher you have gained an AIR AFFINITY. Find a teacher or practice to improve!

“What the fuck?” I asked softly in English.

A teacher? The lizard bird was my teacher? Would any teacher work? I mean it would have to, right? The lizard bird wasn’t teaching me, but its young. Could Jax have given me an earth affinity earlier? That would have been useful to have this whole time.

“What?” Talass asked.

“I just gained an air affinity from watching that asshole lizard goose teach its child how to use air magic.”

“That’s it? You couldn’t have figured that out earlier?” Talass said as the air jack began poking its young with its snout, forcing it up and out of its nest.

The small animal was pushed to the edge of the branch and I was considering intervening when it spread its wings and mana spread through the air, a moment later a gust of wind came from nowhere and lifted it into the air. The baby Jack swooped through the air before making a tight turn and returning to its nest. It started squawking at its parent which cooed back.

“You see that? That’s what I want to do. I would give anything to be able to fly like that.”

We watched together in silence as the two Air Jacks approached the edge of the nest, spread their wings, and a moment later a wind rose from the trees ruffling leaves and lifting the two lizard birds in the air.

It was an amazing moment that I hoped would go on forever.

“I want to thank you, for saving my life, in the tunnels, I panicked and I almost got us killed.”

I felt a little bad knowing about the quest that I had to save her life, but still I would have helped her no matter what.

Talass continued after a moment. “Neil, are you actually dying?” Talass asked suddenly surprising me.

Sitting up I looked backwards at Talass. “What? Of course not, why would you even ask that?”

“When I carried you here you threw up then as well, it was black and smelled like death, when you threw up now it was the same. I’ve only once seen something like this once and that was when an elder died after being sick for a long time.”

Twisting around to look at Talass I stifled a groan as I felt the now familiar pain in my back. It looked like I couldn’t get a good night's sleep no matter where I was. As I looked at her I could see that despite putting up a neutral front Talass was at least a little worried about me, there was a tightness around her eyes that I took to be concern.

“I am a little sick, in the city under the mountain I....” I hesitated for a second not sure how to describe what had happened to me. “Caught something that seems to be making me sick. It’s some kind of an affinity, but it's wrong, twisted. Even if I don’t intentionally use it, I can feel it bleeding into my magic. It’s like a poison or a toxin. That alone would be bad enough, but it’s powerful and it can make my magic stronger. Since I gained it I’ve done things with magic that I should never have been able to do. Fortunately Gaia gave me a quest to return these flowers, if I can do that I should be cleansed of it. Whatever that means.”

“I see.”

I waited for Talass to speak again, but the moment dragged on and she said nothing.

“We should probably get going, we have a long way ahead of us. I don’t suppose you know where we are?”

“I recognize some of the mountains there.” Talass said pointing in the distance. “The summit of the ancients should be behind those peeks there, so long as we head in that direction we should be able to find our way back to the village.”

“Alright then, I guess we should get going.” I said getting up.

“Neil, wait. I have something I would like to ask you.”

I turned to face her and paused to let her speak.

Her mouth worked a few times before she spoke hesitantly.

“I was wondering if I could receive your blessing.” She said looking away blushing.

“My blessing? Sure I guess, but I have a question first.” I waited for a moment until Talass looked at me still blushing. “How exactly do Lamia get blessed?”

“What? You don’t know? How can you not know? You're not a child are you?” She asked sounding scandalized.

“What no, I’m an adult. I’m just not religious and the only blessings I know of are for Catholics, but I’m not Catholic and I feel like it would be different for Lamia.”

Her mouth opened but no sound came out and I got the impression that she had no idea what to say. After a few moments of her mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out she spoke “It’s a fertility blessing.” She eventually got out in a squeak.

“A fertility blessing, so...” I trailed off connecting the dots of why Yallia had laughed at me before. “So it would be sex wouldn’t it?”

“It’s a blessing! Receiving a humans blessing can help a woman's future children to be stronger and healthier!”

“So when that guy asked me to bless his daughter, he was asking for me to fuck his daughter?”

“He was asking for you to bless his daughter, a sacred ritual where the seed of a human strengthens the soil of a womans womb.” She said sounding offended.

“And when Yallia asked what I would do if the entire village asked for a blessing and I said I would bless everyone at once to save time, what I was actually saying is that I would have sex with everyone at the same time?”

Talass stiffened and looked at me with a horrified expression rather than answering.

“Well now I know why she found that so funny.”

“Do your people not have blessings?”

“Not like that, usually some guy in robes just waves his hands around and says something about Jesus or God or something. I don’t know, I told you I’m not catholic! But is this seriously a thing that parents try to set up for their children?

“I guess? Humans have been gone for so long we only have the stories, but receiving a blessing is good for future children. They were even common enough though that even now we still remember the stories.”

“Yallia knew about ‘blessings’ too, that must mean that her people had them as well.” I said trailing off in thought. “Those brilliant perverts.” I said loudly. “They probably told the locals it was a blessing whenever they got to a new area. It was an easy way to convince the locals the sleep with them.”

Talass paused for a second then started shouting. “So it’s not real then? The blessing? There just a way for your people to sleep with young women?” She said her voice raising.

Hesitating I wasn’t sure how to answer. “I mean, I’m not really sure.” I finished lamely. “It sounds like something perverts would claim so they can have sex. But if it was so widespread that even Yallia and her people know of it then it’s entirely probable that there is some truth to it.”

“What would her people have to do with anything?”

“The humans that were here and the humans that were native to Yallia’s homeland were separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years. If the practice was common enough that it was known to both of your cultures, then it probably wasn’t just some fringe group of perverts. But that doesn’t really mean that it works, just that most people thought that it worked.”

Talass was silent and her face screwed up in a pensive expression staring into her lap. After a moment she looked me in the eyes and I was reminded that despite her taciturn nature she was in fact incredibly beautiful. “I still want your blessing.”

“You do?” I asked surprised.

Talass looked at me offended. “What?” She snapped at me. “Of course I do, why wouldn’t I? Is there something about me that makes you think I wouldn’t want this? Am I too ugly for you perhaps?”

Suddenly on the backfoot I had no idea how to respond. Should I tell her I thought she was a lesbian? Did Lamia even have gay and straight? Deciding to go with part of the truth I spoke.

“I always got the impression that you didn’t like me, that you hated me.”

“I don’t hate you.” She said hesitantly. “I was just angry at you, and jealous. Shassala is my best friend I spent almost everyday of my childhood with her and instead of her last days in the tribe being spent with me and her family; she spent it with you.” The words had been spoken softly, with more hurt than anger in them. For the first time I really looked at her, not at her expression, but at her.

She was missing her best friend, someone she had spent her life with. That was something I had never had before. I barely had friends growing up, I ran away from my parents, hell I barely had friends now, I had no idea what it was like to have a best friend like that the lose them.

“I’m sorry that I stole what little time you had left with your best friend. But at the same time, I had never had a friend like her before, I’ve barely ever had any friends before, so I can’t really regret it.” I finished feeling like I hadn’t really apologized at all.

“I don’t blame you anymore. Shassala was always rushing from one adventure to another, never stopping, never taking any time to rest. She always grabbed life with both hands, I can’t blame you for getting tied up by her tail.”

“Tied up by her tail?”

Talass looked at my dangling feet. “I guess you don’t have that expression.”

“No but I think I get the idea.”

I smiled at Talass and to my surprise she smiled back at me. A small smile, but still something.

“Talass, you are beautiful and I would love to... bless you, but now isn’t really the time. When we get back to the village and sort all this out, if you still want to then we can do the blessing then.”

Rather than look pleased, her lips pursed and her eyes took on a look of determination nodding at me.

The two of us made our way down the tree and when we finally found ourselves on solid ground we looked towards the distant mountain range and started off.