[Why did it duck inside the town hall?], Voxea asked me as we entered the building.
[Who cares, we still need to catch it].
"Where'd it go?", I asked aloud.
"Over there"!
Lavian pointed at the Spiricoot's glowing lantern as it turned a corner at an entry way on the far side of the room.
"After it"!
The three of us proceeded to chase after the Spiricoot, turning that same corner and catching sight of the monster to turn yet another corner.
[Oh for the love, y'all are too slow! I'm just gonna chase after it!], Voxea said as she flew on ahead of us and after the Spiricoot.
[Why didn't you do that earlier]?
[Someone had to make sure you didn't suddenly keel over. Now shut it as I-Oh], Voxea replied.
[What? Did you catch it?], I asked as Lavian and I hobbled onward.
[No, I don't think we need to do that...], Voxea said cryptically.
[What are you-Oh].
"Wait. This is...", Lavian began before stopping. The two of us had finally caught up to Voxea, only to see that the three of us were now staring into Savina's room.
Standing over Savina, the Spiricoot was waving its lantern tail over her body. Strange symbols that didn't look like anything Voxea had taught me manifested in the air around her. Lavian was about to go in and interrupt whatever was going on, but Voxea and I stopped them. They looked at us confused for a moment, but our gazes were steady. They immediately stopped and just trusted us.
Under the Spiricoot's command, the symbols then gathered over Savina's body to form a small spell circle. A small all of light then left the lantern on the Spiricoot's tail and rushed through the circle and into Savina. She began to glow after the ball entered her and the three of us had to cover our eyes from the light.
The three of us watched with our breaths held tight, wondering whether or not the spell had worked.
_________________________________________
For just a few moments, let us turn back the clock a bit and tell the tale of a family that lost it all on Monster's Night.
Once upon a time, in a little town in the middle of a very strange valley was a person named Lavian.
Now Lavian was the mayor of this town and was quite good at their job. The whole town love and respected them and Lavian made sure to act in a way appropriate of such high regard. Lavian was happy...for the most part. There was only one thing, they had no family.
Lavian did have parents when they were younger, but they had died when a wild majimonster broke through his hometown's defenses. A common yet tragic story in this era of binders, regardless, Lavian still grew up to be a wise and kind, if lonely, individual.
That all changed one fateful night.
One evening, Lavian was heading home from socializing with the townsfolk. They were in a bit of drunken stupor due to the town's new brewery providing a particularly heady ale that night, but that stupor soon ended when they arrived to their door.
Awaiting on their doorstep was a basket with a little baby girl sleeping away inside it.
In a panic, Lavian called out to into the night to try and find her parents. Despite calling for a solid ten minutes, no one replied. The whole time they called out, the little girl was just sleeping away.
Tired from the fruitless endeavor, Lavian brought the baby girl inside their house to shield her from the cold and planned to try again in the morning. Funnily enough, the baby woke when she was brought into the house and cried up a storm. Lavian went into a bit of tizzy trying to get the baby to calm down and stop crying, but they managed to pull it off after playing with her, feeding her boiled goat's milk and changing her diaper. It was a stressful night...but Lavian was satisfied when they got the baby to go back to sleep.
What Lavian didn't know that night, was that he was going be doing this for many nights onward.
Every day after that night, Lavian would bring the baby with them wherever they went to try and find her parents. But every night they'd come back and would have to care for the baby in their stead.
Lavian kept this up for about a week, after which, they just decided to adopt her. That day, they said, "Alright you little snowbean...I'm going to name you...Savina. And from now on, I'm your Baba".
The newly minted family had their ups and downs as all families do, but they loved each as most families do. Savina would go on to grow up to be a bright and king young girl, while Lavian became the proudest parent in the whole Empire. Their loves soon became even richer as Savina had develop a talent for becoming a Binder, binding a Spiricoot that she named Banda to be her partner. Everything was looking great for the family...until Monster's Night happened.
On that night, Savina and her friend were attacked by a mysterious and fearsome monster. The friend managed to escape, but Savina...didn't. The next morning, Lavian went into the woods to look for her. They found her, but she wasn't unscathed.
The attack had left her in a rather peculiar state. She wasn't injured, wasn't crippled, wasn't left for dead, but she wasn't quite alive either. She could walk, eat, breath and drink, but whatever made a person, "human", wasn't there any more. Lavian was devastated by this, their precious daughter was now a husk.
From then on, Lavian would care for their doll-like daughter. It didn't matter if she couldn't react or think anymore, they would always be their precious snowbean and they would always be her Baba.
This story would've ended with her eventually dying, shortly followed by Lavian out of grief, but...call it fate, call it destiny, there was another plan for the one named Savina....
_________________________________________
One minute passed.
Then two...
Three...
"We're we...too-", Lavian started before being interrupted by a groan coming from the bed. Just as we had given up hope, Savina eyes slowly blinked and her hand started to slowly move towards the Spiricoot.
"B-Banda? What are you doing here bud? Did the Shrieker get you too?", Savina said in a soft voice as she slowly stroked the Spiricoot's head. The Spiricoot just relished in Savina's touch for a bit before turning its head towards us and making a squeaking sound. When Savina turned her head away from the Spiricoot, the little guy turned back into aether and flew into the drajule on the dresser.
I had seen Savina's face countless times over the years, but the look on it was always...empty. Everytime I looked into her eyes, it reminded me of an empty wine bottle. But now, for the first time in seven years, I can see my dear friend again. As Savina's gaze locked with ours, she became startled.
"S-Silvia? Ba...ba?", Savina said with tears starting to build in her eyes, "Are...you...really...here"?
I was too busy crying tears of relief, but that didn't stop Lavian from stepping forward.
"M-my...My snowbean! Oh how I missed you!", Lavian cried as they rushed to hug Savina. As the parent and daughter embraced each other properly for the first time in years, the light of dawn filled the room.
[Huh...like something out of play], Voxea commented while wiping a tear from her eye.
Monster's Night was finally over.