Chapter 4: A Filthy Mouth's Bird

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“How many bites could one take from you?” She asked surveying the animal trapped under her water jail. “Four or five, seven at most” She appraised under the horrified look of the animal.

“Oh, so you do understand human language!” she voiced, her smile growing radiant as her killing intent flare. Hadn’t she asked this insolent thing back in the water room to show itself? Wouldn’t she have been lenient had it obeyed her back then instead of trying to annoy her at every turn?

Instead of the anger that had been present in the animal’s eyes, fear took place. Such a black suffocating killing intent, this wench was serious it realized.

“This one is not tasty” it squeaked in her mind, making her flinched for she was unprepared. “Absolutely not.”

“What are you?” She asked a little surprise, her anger gone and three fingers massaging her template for the voice had been shouting.

Seyran hadn’t actually expected it to be able to talk, so, as fast as she had thought to skin it and eat it, she was thinking how to use it. Sensing her change of mind maybe, fear fled it and it roared with anger again.

“How insulting! Treating my great self like this! Stinking human, free me this instant!”

Her icy blue eyes contained laughter now as she stared at the agitated animal batting its wings frenetically on a little hill made of mud. It was really a perplexing little thing, so Seyran let it ran its mouth as it pleased.

At first, she thought it was a spirit that had manifested in the human world as a familiar. But it wasn’t. Familiars weren’t able to talk in anyone’s mind other than their own master. And this bird and she hadn’t formed any bound yet so she wasn’t its master, still, it spoke so clearly in her mind.

But then again it could actually absorb mana like a real familiar!

Usually one needed to summon a spirit, the summoner would then propose his mana to his summon and if it is to its satisfaction, the contract could be formed. Most of the time, the very fact that the spirit responded to the summoning meant it was okay with the future master’s mana, the ones who sometimes failed to make a contract after a successful summoning were those who had forced said summoning to happen. That was the first method, requesting the user to call the spirit in the spirit’s dimension. The second possibility was that the spirit was already in the human world –in that case, it already bore the appearance of a familiar-, not having returned after its master’s death or the break of their contract. To form a bound with this kind was a little more complicated for they were usually stubborn and capricious, looking for mana with the same taste as their former master. One needed to be really careful because it was usually the most powerful familiar, which, still missing their master, refused to return to their own world. But if one was lucky, one’s mana could be to their liking and they wouldn’t hesitate a single bit to steal it thus allowing one to be their new master. Books said it was an honor, Seyran used to think it was nonsense and stealing was still stealing –no one touched her things without her permission and lived to tell the tale.

Seyran still couldn’t decide if it was or not familiar material. Back in Unzu she had forced some familiars to obey her by sheer power, they obeyed her for a time but she could never establish a bound with them. She tried many methods to feed them her mana, but always failed. They seemed to suffocate and a little afterward would disappear, returning to their spirit’s dimension; thus, she had never known the feeling of being a master. Five minutes ago she still wasn’t interested but seeing the ability of this one as such a little age as it seemed to be, make one wondered about his future abilities. Having lost the majorities of her power, she wouldn’t mind having a powerful familiar now –before it was just out of curiosity that she tried.

Now the birdie was trying with all its might to break free from the water that encircled it. Its whole body turned into fire and steam started to form, evaporating its prison. With one brow raised, Seyran just touched the surface of the water and it changed into ice, then into a crystal. She infused enough mana into it to make it fire resistant for a time. Occupied as it was, the animal didn’t absorb her mana and even if it wanted to, it couldn’t have for the time being, since the prison act as a container as well.

The little bird increased the heat of its fire under Seyran’s smiling eyes, mocking it for wasting its time and its energy. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the vibrant red fire and its heated atmosphere turned into a bird again, panting heavily as it collapsed on the floor, still very much inside its prison –a crystal one now.

“So?”

The bird looked furiously at her, seemingly cursing but at the same time not wanting to have her angry over its curses.

Of course, it wouldn’t feel comfortable if she looked at it with hunger or if she suffocated it with a heavy killing intent that could almost materialize itself. Hey, this bird cherished its life! Having her looked at it with interest –even mixed with mockery- was way more acceptable, although humiliating, it was better than being dead.

But really, its great self so easily subdued, and from all species, it had to be a human at that! How humiliating, how degrading!

That’s where hunger led it! Never stay hungry enough to coveted human qi!

‘It is really glaring!’ Seyran mused.

She laid the book on her hand to one side, touched the jail with her right hand, making it crumbled and with the other hand took hold of the red thing.

 “Stupid human.” It exclaimed confidently the moment the barrier was destroyed.

A big gust of wind came from the outside towards their direction. Unlike his others wind’s attacks, this one wasn’t harmless. It swirled getting bigger and more violent as it was approaching, lying cut here and there in the room. In its wake it only left pieces of the books that it traversed, mincing them into fine confetti.

The birdie had a confident look and wasn’t even resisting as it was trapped in Seyran’s hand. Seyran was really interested in it now yet didn’t like its overconfidence. With just one snap of her finger, the whirlwind got blasted and the bird’s face morphed into something akin agony and unwillingness.

“What a shame, what a shame” It complained piteously in her mind before losing consciousness.

Yenaigai burst into the room at this moment, with a scared look on his face shouting 'princess' along the way. She didn’t even turn to him, just hear him thanked all he believed in, with a relieved sigh as he apologized for his behavior. She didn’t acknowledge this either as she kept on staring at the little red bird completely exhausted in her hand.

“Mistress?” he risked asking once again. This time she stood up and showed him the animal.

“It can use fire and wind; become invisible as well. Is it someone’s you known’s familiar?”

“Familiar?” he repeated tasting the sound on his tongue not really knowing what she was referring to.

“Do you know anyone who can tame a bird like that?”

“…A …master?” He stammered and then continued confidently as if enlightened. “Oh, is it a contracted beast?”

As soon as the words left his lips, his face paled terribly. His heart grew panicky.

“Is this one of the royal family’s member‘s contracted beast? Was it after mistress?” He was almost shouting, beads of sweat becoming large on his forehead; fear written all over his face, making Seyran raised one eyebrow at him.

‘Why would they make a move all of a sudden when they have not done anything for a long time?’ He thought, his back now completely drenched with cold sweat. ‘Or is it that they got wind that the princess was awake, were they still in the forest perimeter even after all this time?’

***

They had gone back to Seyran’s bedroom, taking with them some books that were still legible. Yenaigai had a troubled look on his face as the two of them were seated at the table in one of the corners of the room. He had started to explain his behavior but had had a messy way of telling things, thus Seyran told him to shut it, not willing to nurse a headache for the time being. The red bird was inside a new crystal cage, and now she had been kind enough to not press it on the ground but instead gave it room enough to jump or fly a distance of one meter.

When she materialized the crystals from her hand Yenaigai had been baffled and that’s when she understood once and for all that this world didn’t know how to manipulated mana.

They two of them, leaned each one on a different book, were searching through the ones with contracted beasts as subjects, precisely those which referred the feathered one. So far they still haven’t found the one with the description matching the bird sleeping in the crystal cage.

Yenaigai lifted his head from his book and looked at her; he looked down on the book again then repeated his actions. Was it alright to ask he pondered? She was flipping her book not sparing him a single glance, but he knew, she wasn’t oblivious to his conflicted state, just wasn’t interested. He hesitated a little, but in the end could stay silent no longer.

“Is …mistress really going …to form a contract with this bird?”

He was really hoping that this contracted beast hadn’t a master yet, and certainly not a master affiliated by any mean with the Royals.

“Depending on it and on the possibility of forming a contract, yes.”

Contracted beast she understood some few minutes ago weren’t exactly familiars. They weren’t spirits and they didn’t live in another dimension, they couldn’t be summoned either. They were simply beasts that lived in the human world. Well, maybe not simply beasts for they were able to cultivate. She still didn’t really grasp the meaning of that but it depended on qi as energy.

Nevertheless, even if it wasn’t a familiar, it didn’t mean she didn’t want to use it. Since it was impossible to know if a beast was already in a contract, they were searching for a way to break the contract if proven it already had a master. Each beast had a different way of breaking contract –that was depending on the type of contract of course. Even more, she was interested in knowing if it had any other abilities.

There were two types of contract: the master-slave and the equals. 

In master-slave, for a beast to break the contract was impossible or so said the book, only the master could. He decided the life or death of his beast while the beast couldn’t turn against its master. It was the preferred type of contract here. In small little notes, it read that it was rare but a third person can actually break the contract; however, the book hadn’t explained how. 

Then there were the equals. Master and beast stood on the same foot, neither could dispose of the other; to attack one’s beast was to attack one’s self quite literally for if the master wound it, then the same wound would appear on the master and if the master killed his beast then he’ll die with it. Of course, that applied only if one party of the contract harmed the other, if it’s a third party then only the one hit would be suffering. Any party can break this type of contract but it would suffer repercussion for the break though, to lose an ability specifically voiced, to lose cultivation and depending on the situation it could harm life essence –reduce one’s years in the living world!

“And… if the contract cannot be formed?” If it’s really an enemy’s contract beast? He wanted to ask but didn’t have the guts!

“Then boiled bird wouldn’t be bad for tonight”

Startled, Yenaigai paused his movement and surveyed her. She was still leaning over her book, reading it, her face impassive and he wondered a little if she was serious. It didn’t seem like she was joking –did she even knew how to, he mused wryly in his mind. He looked at the sleeping animal. Could they really eat that?! However small it was, it was a contracted beast, right? Where had it even been heard that these things were edible?! They also had a core right? They also cultivated right? She must be joking right?

However, Seyran was utterly serious. After her altercation with the thing and after making it a new jail that she created by her mana solely, her mana’s quantity was low again. If that thing can be helpful then she didn’t mind making it her contracted beast or whatever it was called but if it proved to be more trouble than necessary, she wouldn’t bat an eye and disposed of it!

“Awake?” She asked without turning her head. She had felt it moved in the cage. It wondered a little, then saw the cage and started cursing nastily once it realized she wasn’t going to react. She ignored it, not even sparing it a glance. Yenaigai, it seemed, couldn’t hear it. He approached the cage, surveyed its inhabitant, looking from left to right, down to the bottom as it kept cursing his ancestors. It was indignant that humans treat it so, or so it kept cursing anyway!

“What species is this from?” The question had been a soft whisper from Yenaigai to himself. By now, the bird had grown tired of cursing and sat dejectedly lamenting on its hunger.

“Hawk fire?” inquired Seyran having a hunch that it couldn’t be so for it really didn’t look like a hawk. Nonetheless, the quantity of birds affiliate with fire element and wind element was huge, but those with the two at the same time was quite a thin list. Going by the ability displayed, only the hawk fire matched.

“It can’t be,” told her Yenaigai. “The hawk fire is actually huge, even the baby has the size of an adult dog.”

And so the second book was closed.

She opened the parchments now. Contracted beast, read the first one. It explained the basic of forming a contract. Beasts, read the second, detailing the type of beasts: the common beast, sacred beast, mythological beast. And there were those found just in legends, which were said to have long disappeared from the surface of this world. Looking at that title, Legendary Beasts, she remembered this rare summon in Unzu. The Phoenix. It was quite an arrogant thing said the books. But contrary to this one, the Phoenix didn’t manipulate wind nor became invisible. It was a fire element, the ruler of said element, the one that can be reborn from ashes.

She got up and came close to the cage to talk.

“What are you?” Seyran asked the little bird once again not feeling like searching any longer.

Yenaigai looked a little troubled by the inquiry. It was a contracted beast ah, how could it talk to anyone other than its master? To use human language a beast need to break through the late medium stage right? Yet this bird didn’t even look like it had passed the early novice stage!

“Mistress…” he tried to explain on behalf of the animal but one look from Seyran made him shut up.

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