After quite a bit of walking the pair finally arrived at the edge of the town. It was more like a village with how few people and creatures there were. The flight had made the trip seem like it would only take an hour, but it was almost dawn by the time they walked through the fence gate.
She shrunk into his feathers and made herself as still as possible, not that it helped anything with her brilliant white scales reflecting the rays of the rising sun behind them. People took notice of the pair almost immediately and began to approach.
"Beil, where did you get that snake? It's a beauty. I'd be willing to buy it for seven, no, eight and a loaf of mama's bread," a rat man spoke up. Dark brown and covered in fur everywhere except his nose, hands and feet, and his tail which still had fuzz but not nearly as thick as his coat, he approached them. He also had very long whiskers and little round glasses somehow sitting between his nose tip and his eyes which held genuine admiration that did wonders for her anxieties. She lifted her head and looked directly at him. His eyes went wide when she blinked at him.
'I'm not for sale, sir. Can they hear me,' she asked and looked back at Beil who nodded and sat on his hindquarters telling her he'd let her host the conversation. She wanted to smile but instead she patted the tallon closest to her with her tail, and his eyes lifted in his version of one. She shifted closer to the rat who now looked like he was in mild shock and that he very much regretted his offer.
"My apologies, miss, I meant no insult or to insinuate anything. I wasn't aware that you bare Kinsoul." Well that sounded familiar.
'An easy mistake, I was not offended, ' she said smoothly with more of an air of nonchalance than she really felt, it helped that it was the truth since Beil had made the same mistake only hours ago when he snatched her up.
"What brings you here, if you don't mind me asking?" He was so polite it bothered her a bit, but maybe if he felt that he needed to make up for his mistake, she could use it to find out what she needed a little easier.
'I was looking for aid, though I don't know who to look for. You should ask Beil.' She shifted and the sound of her scales on gravel made the rat visibly twitchy, plus she could smell his fear, something she noted for later. It was salty and a little sour, like ammonia. Maybe it was because snakes are a rat's natural predators? She wondered why he had offered to buy her then. Maybe he liked the idea of owning an exotic pet that could normally kill you? She knew humans loved doing that, like zookeepers and the rich, and that one guy who died because of a sting ray, who was that again? She couldn't pinpoint the memory.
"Ah, that's right! Beil, my friend, why did you bring this lovely young lady with you?" Why did everyone call her young? Did she seem like a child to them? He had called her lovely, too. Now she felt awkward.
Beil stood and shook his hand with one of his tallons carefully. "Alex, good to see you. She needs Edna, have you seen her?"
Alex looked at Nova in surprise and she felt a little annoyed for some reason. "She's a new one?"
"Fresh as a night lilly bloom, and she's missing too much to be stable forever. So where is Edna?"
Did this Alex ever not look regretful? It was really bothering her at this point. "Ah, she moved five weeks ago to Mount Saltree. Said we were driving her mad with all our disputes and drama. It's mostly Beth from Palm Cove with her eight children causing all the mayhem."
"I see, well thank you for letting me know. Hop on," he said while looking at Nova who happily complied while glancing at Alex. It was mostly curiosity that made her gaze linger but when she saw that he was once again avoiding eye contact and holding his hands tightly together she sighed and held her head low over Beil's side to reach right in front of Alex, who immediately noticed her and tensed up to keep from taking on step backwards.
Hoping it was quiet enough for only him to hear her, she thought, ''thank you for your help, I won't forget it. My name is Nova. I hope to see you again.'
Beil promptly spread his wings, much to her surprise, and as she wrapped herself around his feathery neck to secure herself in place he jumped and beat his wings, taking off into the sky.
Alex the rat had looked up at her in awe and a little thrill shot through his spine. He had earned the Great One's forgiveness and a wish to see him again. He would cherish this.
Meanwhile, Nova had her eyes clenched shut and was pressed up tight against his back from the upward force even as the wind whipped around, but one it grew quiet and she knew she wasn't going to fall off, she peeked over and her eyes grew wide.
The view was utterly breathtaking. Thick green forests of yunnan and oak speckled with the honeyed orange larch that looked like pine trees painted with the sunset. Pools of crystal clear water and the fresh chilled air. It felt clean and crisp and Nova was instantly and helplessly in love. Beil, however, was used to the scenery and had something else on his mind.
"So, Nova, did you say something to Alex back there," Beil asked after he saw that she had relaxed and was just enjoying herself in the air now that she wasn't being pinched by his tallons this time.
'Yes, I thanked him and told him my name. I didn't like that he looked afraid, it's not like I planned on eating him or anything,' she thought back with a sour tone. Normally Beil would laugh at her cuteness but something serious was preventing him from doing so and she picked up on it. 'Was that wrong of me?'
Beil hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh. "Not exactly, no, but you should really be careful who you give your name to. Someone might use it against you, or if they are really dangerous, they might just keep it."
Nova flinched and her mouth fell open for a second before she settled again. 'I won't anymore, not unless I really trust them, but I didn't sense any I'll intent from the rat man.'
"And you never will with him, he is a genuinely good man even though he does practically worship the powerful, but cunning creatures can still trick you into thinking they are sweet little innocent citizens until they get what they need and then they still might not reveal their true colors until they know there is nothing you can do against them. You must protect yourself in this world."
Worship the powerful? But she was still so much smaller than him, and she didn't have fangs, it's not like she could do anything to him. So giving him her name felt like the right thing to do in this case, but she decided to keep it in mind to avoid doing that in the future, so she nodded.
"And," he waited until she looked at him again, "you may not think you are, but you are much more powerful than him."
She hissed in disbelief and was about to comment how much bigger he was than her, but the hard look in Beil's eyes made her back pedal. She laid back against her coils. 'Fine, explain how I'm stronger than him. Why would he fear me when you're so much stronger than me and he was all chummy with you.'
"He expects my power, I am almost seven hundred years old. You are a little over two weeks, and yet your power is two thirds of mine."
Nova lightly smacked him with her tail. 'Yeah right, I highly doubt that.'
"Which part?"
She shifted to look him in the eyes. 'Both parts. How could you live that long, and how could I already be close to your power level? That doesn't make sense. Not even a little bit.'
"You spoke to Alex and only he could hear you."
'Yeah, and?'
He looked disgruntled and she was thrown into confusion. "Only people who have trained for meany years are able to achieve that. The voice bounces too much or the mind cannot single out any one entity to target without touching them, and there is one more important detail to note: you were touching me and yet I could not hear you. I tried and there was a very strong mental wall. That should not be possible at such a young age. Your will is extremely strong."
She blinked. 'Say that again, please.'
"You should not be able to--"
'No, no, the very last sentence. Please.'
"Your will is strong?"
Nova gasped as a memory seeped back into reach and she wrestled her mind to hold it in place. Blue skin and black horns, and a smile so gentle she wanted to reach forward with hands she didn't have and cup his face.
"Beil!" She shocked herself and him when she shouted that out loud and he surged sideways and started to fall out of the sky for a moment before he righted himself.
"Good Lord! How did you... nevermind, I shouldn't be surprised."
Rolling with it and too worked up to care, she loosened herself back up from the scare and bonked her head on his neck. "Land please."
"Seriously," he said and began to descend while shaking his head. One after another this girl was picking up skills. Just how sharp was she?
They landed on a cliff edge and she quickly plopped her body down from his back and slithered away just to circle back and lowered her head. "Sorry about that back there."
"No need to apologize, what is it that you needed to say or do?"
"I think I unlocked a memory."
"Are you sure of this," he asked lowly and looked around to make sure they weren't being over heard before lowering his head and continuing with his mind so that only she could hear. 'This is important, are you sure it wasn't after you got your eyes?'
She copied him and stopped speaking aloud. 'Yes, because I had hands. I saw... someone. I don't know what they were but they were light blue with black horns. I think they were the one that saved my soul.'
Her soul extractor was a troll, but with light blue skin? Half troll? A great mage if he was able to transport a soul so strong that she was able to regain a memory with her memory lock. Who locked it was the real mystery. Well that narrows it down a little.
'That is good, the more memories you recover on your own the less Edna will have to wrestle out of you.'
Nova came to a realization. 'Why are you helping me so much. You've more than made up for catching me in your tallons already.'
He looked at her and his eyes softened. 'You reminded me of myself when I first came here, but I did not have anyone to help me for a long time, and your case is far more important than what I had to handle. I wanted to avoid scaring you, but if you do not unlock your memories your soul will out grow your body and you will destabilize.'
"Wait, really?!" She was so surprised that she forgot to think it instead of speaking it. She looked around frantically for a moment before he held up a tallon.
"We are alone. I do not sense anything beyond the trees and a weak little vole two feet under the ground a small distance that way," he said and pointed with the same tallon. Her tongue flicked out on impulse to taste for it before she looked back at him.
"Beil, why am I so powerful?"
He swallowed and looked into her eyes. "Please refrain from speaking my name. Names have power here, and when the strong willed speak your name it is hard to keep the mind steady."
"But you can say my name just fine."
"Ah, but I have not, not in the same way at least."
"What do you mean, you're the one who even named me, you've said it many times."
"You are not aware of it, are you," he asked with a touch of concern in his voice. "You have been emanating your will onto everyone around you from the very beginning, which is why Alex was so wishy-washy around you. He is actually stronger than six well built human males with daggers all at once."