The rest of the ride I spent with Vothe, I was trying out our connection, and now we can communicate better without needing to touch. I've also been asking Henry things about where I'm going and who I'm living with, but he doesn't want to say much, mostly just that the boy I will meet will tell me about the city, and about himself if he wants to.
After another half an hour or so I feel a sensation similar to what I had with the Tower, but now towards my insides! After the practice I got I can connect with it. "Master, we have a problem. Fi, An and Bo are growing hungry, and there's nothing to eat here! Is there a way you could send something in? Apparently not everybody gets their energy straight from the Tower." That is a problem indeed! Although it is really nice that Goba can talk to me from my world using the tower.
"Henry, I wonder, could I have some of the meat of the cow you hunted? You know, Vothe was a great help and all. And maybe I can treat my roommate tonight?" He looks at me for a moment with questioning eyes, then he shrugs. "Yeah sure, I'll get it before we set you off." Damnit!
A few minutes later "Ummm could you please pull over for a moment? I really need to... go to the bathroom." Henry looks at me again with slight amusement in his eyes. "Why don't you just do it out of the window?"
I look at the window, then back at Henry. I shrug. "Okay." I turn my back towards the window and start pulling my pants down, but before I do I feel a hand grabbing my hand stopping me.
"You can't do THAT out of the window!" I haven't seen him like that before, his cheeks are even turning red! "Jack! Pull over! Someone needs to do a big delivery!" He really doesn't like the situation!
Right when the carriage stops Henry opens the door. "Leave your hare here and go find a place! Be quick though."
And like that I run of into the forest. Right away I hear the soft sound of moving water, I follow it and find it soon after. Above the water I see the perfect thing, mosquitos, many mosquitos!
I make sure there's a big tree behind my back and do the quietest summon I've done so far. "An, insect queen of the skies, Bo, ambusher from the mud, come to me! Come to me to grow strong for me, yourself, and our world!"
The chants are a bit corny, but I like them! And I know them instinctively. I should experiment with them, see if I can make them shorter, but that's not important now.
In a small flash both Bo and An are in front of me, Bo just sitting on the ground and An hovering in front of me. "Hey guys, sorry for the wait! I couldn't find something to send you guys, so I'll need to do it like this. I hope you guys like mosquitos, there are a lot here! I'd say go and hunt, send the souls to the Tower and eat the meat till you're full. If you want you can hunt more after and send the meat to the tower after."
They both nod at me but don't fly away yet. "You can send the soul and flesh to the Tower right?" Then they nod again, I can also see the wings of An getting a black edge and having golden veins, making them even more beautiful, her little grippers on the end of het legs also turn slightly golden at the inside edges while the outside turns very black.
Bo opens his mouth showing me that the tip of his tongue turned golden while the very tip, the grabby part, turns black.
I think those are their equivalent of Goba's scythe and book.
"Okay, great! Then why aren't you going yet?" They look at each other and then An speaks. "Well, shouldn't we be with you? We should protect you right?" Her voice is really high, but it sounds sweet when she's worried.
"No, don't worry about me, I'll be fine! I'll only be another hour down the road, and you can probably sense where I am. Oh, Bo, it might take you more than an hour though, but don't worry, if somethings up I can unsummon you guys and summon you again. Then you can protect me okay?" They look kind of sad though, I wish I could take them with me, but they just have a bigger value exploring the world, hunting, and getting things for my world. I was going to call it Monster Haven, I should stick with that, or just Haven.
"You know what, I'll give you guys a more proper goal. Three things!" I hold up 1 finger. "First goal! Reproduce, I want to know if your children will be as loyal as you, if they can send offers to the Tower and if they can enter Haven." I need to know the limits, otherwise it'd be better to focus on great strength few in stead of strength in numbers. I hold up my second finger. "Second Goal! I want you guys to offer souls and flesh. And if you can try to fulfil wishes, but don't put your life in danger for the offers, once dead you can't contribute anymore." This one is the most important thing if the reproduction plan fails. I hold up my third finger. "Third goal! Evolve, only when you're strong can you earn the right to stay with me and protect me. I can follow your progress, but I won't contact you when you're ready to stay with me, ask yourself if you're strong enough to protect me. And if the answer is yes, then seek me out in any way you want. Show up in front of me, use the connection with the Tower to contact me, or find another way. But remember, if you are not strong enough you shall go back to Haven and you won't come back. And if you're not strong enough, and you are not sincere, you shall re-enter the circle."
That did go quite dark at the end, but I don't want to nurse everyone through every step. And the punishments do feel appropriate, when they're sincere going back into Haven without an opportunity to contribute as much is terrible. Anx if you want to go back into Haven to not contribute losing your life is terrible.
And I was right in my speech, there's fire in their eyes, they are ready to go. "I'll be going now before they'll miss me. An, Bo, I wish you the greatest of luck and success."
Their fire burns even higher now, as if I gave them a true blessing. ""We won't disappoint, we shall grow stronger and more useful to Haven, to you, Master!"" Bo's low raspy voice and An's high clear one sound really bad together, but they're united, they're ready.
I turn around and walk back to the carriage, I'll look for them soon, see how they're doing.
"Hey kid, you really had a big delivery! Hahahaha you took so long, Henry was worried you ran off or something!" Jack greeds me in his own merry way. "Got to go when nature calls right?" This question got the reaction I expected. "Hahahaha damn right you are kid!"
Back in the carriage my greeting with Henry is just a 'Hey'. And then we were off.
Only an hour later we arrive at Mountenless Valley and I can see why it's called like that, there's a giant tear in the earth with the city build on both sides of it.
"It's a sight to behold, isn't it?" Henry asks, even he looks mesmerised by the tear that seems to have no end, a deep black abyss. "Yes, it is."
A few minutes later we stop in front of a big house, only slightly smaller then Pridove's mansion. There are no other buildings nearby and the forest we just came from is right behind it. "This will be your home for now kid." I nod at Henry.
"My name is Gosamu, you can call me that if you want. Thanks for bringing me here, this ride was one of the most... pleasant things I've done in my life." Henry puts his hand on my shoulder.
"Thanks for sharing your name Gosamu, we appreciate it." Jack nods too after an elbow from Henry. "I'll come by when I'm around kid!" Jack pats my back before he turns around to feed the horses.
"I'll walk with you, making sure he'll let you in." And like that we walk to the door. I knock on the door with the knocker and a few minutes later a boy, maybe a year older then me opens the door.
"Are you the new guy?" He looks about 11 years old but has steelgray hair and light gray eyes with a tiny hint of pinkish red around the pupils. He is thin overall but his long bony fingers show this the most. They're not unnaturally long, just thin and long.
"Yes, I'll be staying with you for the next two months before we go to the College." I give him my best friendly smile, but I don't get one back.
"At least you don't look like a cold hearted murdered, you are a murder they said though." He narrows his eyes at me, I don't like his attitude, so my smile disappears too, my face stays calm though.
"I did kill a man indeed, but without knowing the story you can't judge if it was in cold blood or if my actions were the right thing." Now he smiles at me.
"Good, I like your answer! I'm here because my entire family was murdered, and just before the son of the man that killed my father wanted to throw me of the walls somebody stopped him, and this was the best option they could give me to continue my life. Oh right, my name is Astonax by the way, what's your name?"
By now his smile looks fake, or mostly his eyes don't look like they're smiling anymore, the pink in his eyes now turned a bloodred. On second thought, I do like his attitude.
"My name is Gosamu, I killed the man who was the master of my friend. And as the man was an ex military guy and I'm an orphan it was this or death."
I hold out my hand and Astonax shakes it. "Nice to meet you Gosamu." There's a bit more pink in his eyes again. "Nice to meet you too Astonax."