In this picture perfect clearing, with the shaded forest and beams of light shooting through the canopy, the beautiful image was shattered by the mangled corpse of a crystal bird and the silent yet tense stares of two Kinsoul Ayakashi.
She sat stunned and he shifted his weight from tallon to tallon, not daring to look up into her eyes. He held bitter shame for his desire and he knew she would hate him for it, but he couldn't seem to escape from the feelings.
Instead of an answer the next sound he heard was the squelching sound of meat and he looked up. She was eating? After what he had said, she was really just eating? Sure she really needed it but she was already passed the point of danger and this response felt like she was either choosing to ignore him or she was angry and taking it out on the prey instead of him. He watched quietly until she was consuming the entirety of the bird, which should not have been physically possible with it being four times her size. He finally understood why she was as powerful as she was at such a young age. She had the ability of absorption, meaning she could eat endlessly and simply turn the remainder of her physical meal into energy as soon as her stomach was full.
He took a step back on reflex when she raised her head up from the stray feathers, the only thing that was left, covered in blood and with a very serious glint in her eyes. He was still powerful enough that she wasn't exactly a threat to him yet, but with his current emotional vulnerability, his regret made him timid.
What he did not expect was for her to take off in the opposite direction and he stood stunned, staring at the patch of trees he'd seen her tail slip into. His beak fell open as dull pain filled his chest, but he accepted the outcome. This was to be expected. He turned to leave when something struck him in the back of the head and he whipped around.
"You think you can say that and not explain why?"
Nova watched as the look on his face changed dramatically. From deep sadness, to alert, to startled, to awe, and finally confusion.
Nova was in a human form, but the twelve year old child was gone. Replacing her was a young adult, roughly sixteen or seventeen, a very angry one with ill-fitting clothes and another rock in her hand. She swung it over her head and it struck him lightly, barely any power behind it.
"I'm sorry," was all he got out before she sprinted. Her fast snake body seemed like just a worm to this speed. She was right in front of him before he could blink and her hands gripped his face.
"No, Beil. Don't apologize. I don't think you should feel ashamed of yourself for being attracted to me."
"How did you..."
"You think I haven't noticed? My mind is nineteen, and I'm not dense all the time, at least not when it matters most," she said quietly, thinking back to a few times where she could have made wiser choices in life.
He didn't know how to respond to her, especially since she hadn't let go of this face yet, so he just waited. Her strikingly icy blue eyes stared him down and he watched the gears turn in her head.
"So?"
"Uh, so..."
"So I'm someone special to you. To what degree?"
"Degree," he repeated slowly. He was relatively out of it, with the soft and warm touch of her hands, her unwavering gaze, her more mature body, her obvious power boost just from the crystal bird, her behavior, everything she was and could be. He was hypnotized.
"That bad, huh?" She felt pity, regret, and a sick sense of satisfaction which she fought against carefully. She would not allow herself to enjoy putting anyone on the hook if she didn't intend to dedicate herself to that person just as much.
Not only that, they had only known eachother for a little under four days. Yes she was grateful, and she had no clue as to how she was going to make it up to him for his time, effort, and care when she was at her weakest; however, how it happened that he was so infatuated this quickly was beyond her ability to understand, and she refused to repay him with empty commitment.
"No, Beil. I can't."
He stood for a moment longer in his stupor before the pieces snapped into place like chains.
"Oh shit."
He broke from her hands as reality slammed into him like a runaway carriage and he stumbled backwards into a tree, leaves falling inappropriately delicate around them to make a beautiful scene that was definitely not a match to the mood.
"I am so sorry, I never meant to--"
She held up a hand and closed her eyes before pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "I just said don't apologize. You can feel what you feel, just don't expect me to reciprocate, or even to really respond right now. I need a few minutes," she managed and turned around.
As Beil was having trouble breathing and trying not to watch her leave, he started to get really angry with himself. He had acted like a starstruck idiot and stressed her out so that she was also upset, and she had rejected him just like he had expected. He turned to face the tree he had bumped into and leaned against it with his forehead for a moment, trying to breathe through his nostrils to clear his head.
Something was indeed wrong with all of this, not just the fact that she was practically a child. The instant she had voiced her rejection outright it was like the mist had cleared and his deeply unsettling desire for her dissipated with it. All she had said was 'don't expect me to reciprocate', not 'I don't want you', but it must have been enough to break the spell. His eyes grew wide as he thought back for a second.
A spell? Wait. An enchantment? Was it proximity based and he could think straight now that she had walked away? No, not that, it would have broken when he had gone as far as he did to hunt for that crystal bird. Why did it break then?
Meanwhile, Nova was walking. She kept going to the point where she eventually forgot to look where she was going, tripped over a root and fell into a thorn bush. Or she would have, were she still human, except now she was bending so far forward that she should not have been able to catch her own weight and the thorns was just a thumbnail away from pricking her nose. She stood up slowly, analyzing how she was able to do that. Maybe it was because her initial body was a snake and she still had the reflexes and agility.
At first she felt lucky, then she immediately felt annoyed with herself. She should not have been dwelling this hard over something so simple. He was in love with her, she was not with him. He was much, much older, six-hundred and eighty years older. How could she ever be okay with that massive of an age gap? She didn't even feel kind an adult herself some days, not even taking the age of her new body into account.
Wait, hang on, she looked older. Not by much, but she felt like she was almost the same as before she was a snake. But the slight increase in age just didn't account for Beil's nearly obsessed behavior lately. It was like all the maturity he had developed over the centuries had vanished and he was a lovestruck teenager again. When had it started?
She thought back. Things were pretty normal at his Nana's, well at least it seemed that way. His behavior had shifted subtly after he saw her shift into a human for the first time. He was envious of her ability, which didn't feel like him, and he looked like he was struggling to find the words. Before her shift he had never hesitated, always knew what to say, was always a few steps ahead. Now he was both physically walking behind her instead of beside or ahead, and mentally he worsened visibly every few hours, he even looked intimidated by her when she grabbed his face, which honestly didn't make any sense.
Just then she felt like she was about to have a light bulb moment, Beil landed softly in front of her. She froze and a small grimace threatened to rise up on her face. She kept herself neutral, barely, and waited.
"Nova, I think I have discovered what the issue was with myself as of late."
"And that was?" She didn't mean to let the attitude leak but she was so upset with his infatuated and confusing state of mind that she couldn't anticipate his next move. He watched her carefully, and she noticed that his behavior was back to the calm, collected, and calculating Beil that she had first met. She uncrossed her arms that she didn't realize she was still holding on to so tightly and tipped her head forward a bit in half a nod.
"I must have seemed like a village idiot," Beil said with an upset chuckle, and this time he wasn't looking away in shame or cowardice but maintained eye contact with patience.
"Not quite, more like a boy with a crush. It was more disturbing than anything."
"I apologize, child."
Nova smiled with ease again after that word. Ever since she had turned into a human, that word had vanished. He was back to normal now.
"It seems that on the day you unlocked your human form, your powers were influential against those of lesser, equal, and even slightly above your level, including myself.
"You know, you never mentioned what powers I had... have, and how I could almost match you in power. That's something I can hardly believe," she said and shrugged. At this point, with everything going on at once, she was so overwhelmed she didn't even know where they were headed or what they were doing anymore. Since he had captured her she had just been following his lead, and she had felt exhausted and had a small headache since the moment she had woken up as a human. After that point it was almost like they were meandering to no real destination, just walking down the mountain.
"First, take a deep breath, then I need you to feel for your core."
Nova was instantly surprised. Her core was very nearly full, and since she was a snake it had quadrupled in size and capacity, but it was draining very quickly, almost like there was a crack in the base, and refilling just as fast, probably from the bird she had somehow just kept eating.
"Alright, now find the source of the draining."
"How did you know it was draining?"
"You have been unconsciously casting an infatuation spell. The moment you rejected the effect it was having on me it broke on my end, but you still have not dissipated the spell itself."
"Infatu-- a love spell? How? And why that of all things?"
"Coincidence, honestly," he said in amusement and walked up to her, tapping her on the forehead. "Your true skill is, in fact, emotions."
Nova cringed hard, uncomfortable with everything about that.
"And what is the problem?" He had raised an eyebrow and his eyes were happy cresents.
"I'm a snake, not an over emotional child or a PMSing woman."
"No, it is not just you being overly emotional, it is emotions themselves, no matter how subtle. If you could cause me to degrade with overwhelming desire, even when I could sense that it was wrong and was fighting with myself, you overwhelmed me. You may some day manage to manipulate a very powerful Yokai to bend to your will, especially if you made it seem like it was their own idea."
Nova's eyes went wide. "You mean to tell me I could possibly make a murderer change their mind about killing?"
Beil's jaw dropped and she could see his tongue when his beak fell open. He looked stupefied for a moment before he choked, doubled over, and began cackling like a crazy witch.
"Beil," she tried but he was too loud.
"Beil!" Her effort only seemed to make his laughing harder.
"BEIL, IT'S NOT THAT FUNNY!"