A walk through the forest

The first rays of sunshine woke Helia up, as usual. Years of having to wake up at the crack of dawn for prayer had created a habit that her body still refused to break, even if she had been trying for several months.

She stretched and sat up inside of her cheap sleeping bag. The rest of her belongings could be found inside of her backpack, which she had been using as a pillow. A few changes of clothes, her beloved lyre and flute, some food, and not enough money to afford a bed. Still, she couldn’t complain. She was alive, she was well, and she wasn’t alone.

Sleeping next to her on top of a makeshift nest was her companion, the Great Spirit, Ceres. A very powerful Wind Phoenix, whose existence had been forgotten even by legends. Even if now, it looked more like a strange parrot.

They had decided together that his true form, although magnificent, was not practical for everyday life. So, he settled on his current form: a minty green bird of about 25 centimeters of height. This also meant that he could rest on top of Helia’s head while traveling, which he loved, and she pretended to hate. He seemed to enjoy even more if he thought he was annoying her.

She poked him, smiling fondly. Ceres was the only bird she knew of who had trouble waking up in the mornings.

“Gn… Five hundred more years…” he said, her words resonating inside her head, as usual.

“I know, I know, but we still have a while to the next town, and we have to arrive before nightfall.”

Ceres groaned and stretched his wings. After making sure he was awake, Helia focused her attention on making them breakfast.

Six months had passed since the night she had “died” and been reborn. Her new life as Helia  wasn’t always easy, but she felt like it suited her better than her old one. Traveling from town to town, trying to make a living from her singing and a name for herself. And then, on the night of the full Moon, offering a new song to her benefactor.

That was probably the easiest part of it all, honestly. Singing to the sky, instead of multitudes of people who would stare and judge her. Or, even worse… Who wouldn’t even notice her there.

She probably hated performing for others as much as she loved singing. Every time she thought of having to start singing in the middle of the street she felt a huge knot in her stomach. But she needed money to survive, and this was one of the few things she was good at.

“Helia! Hey, Helia!”, suddenly, Ceres was screaming at her.

“Wow, no need to shout, I’m sorry for wak- ”, she turned around to respond.

“Your food is burning” he interrupted her.

Startled, she looked back at the pot. Indeed, something smelled wrong. She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed that, or Ceres trying to get her attention.

After a somewhat edible meal accompanied by mockery coming from Ceres, they tidied up and set out to continue their journey. Their destination, the town of Varsey, was still more than half a day away.

“Let’s hope the people of Varsey are more generous than what we’ve seen recently” said Ceres, flying to sit himself on top of Helia’s head.

“Really? Already?”, she reproached him, looking up.

“Don’t look at me like that, you’re the one who woke me up so early, this is the least you can do” he answered, making himself cozy in her hair.

“At least stop moving around like that, it’s going to be a pain to fix before today’s performance”, she sighed, anticipating lots of de-tangling and feathers.

“Anyway, Varsey” he said, while definitely moving around way too much. “Not that I’m complaining, but, why all this fuss just for a child?”

“From what I heard, the Lord is a widow who lost his wife during childbirth, and this was after years of not having children, despite wanting them desperately. It’s not surprising that he would spoil his little princess”, Helia shrugged, to which Ceres chirped in complaint, almost falling from her head.

He took some time to sit comfortably again before continuing their conversation. “In that case, wouldn’t her birthday be a time of mourning for him? Why the giant party?”

“I guess…”, Helia pondered, softly. “Maybe he wants to replace the sad memories with happy ones. Be surrounded by people celebrating his daughter’s life, instead of focusing on what he lost", there was an obvious tinge of sadness and melancholy in Helia’s voice.

Silence fell between them as they walked along the road. Sometimes they were able to travel alongside merchants or adventurers, in exchange for some odd jobs, or a song, if they were lucky. But today, no one else was there in the forest with them, and only the sounds of its inhabitants and Helia’s footsteps could be heard.

The silence made Ceres uncomfortable. He knew what Helia was thinking about, and he felt responsible, with his careless comment. Despite their usual bickering, she was his partner, his Handler, and he hated seeing her upset. But he hated even more that she wouldn’t complain or blame him when she was truly hurt. She was still just a child, and he was impatient to see her grow and become the person she was meant to be.

An unspoken distance existed between them, the savior and the saved, the power imbalance between them too great. Within her heart, she trusted him only because of their Pact. They shared a Soul; it would be like not trusting your own hand. Despite Helia’s best efforts to close herself off, Ceres worked hard to earn it for real.

He knew there was nothing he could say at that moment that would help. So, instead, he started singing. In contrast with the powerful, deep voice Helia would hear in her mind, Ceres' chirps were mellow, a soft melody that she recognized instantly. Her newest creation, that she was still polishing for the next full Moon. With a smile on her face, Helia started humming alongside him, one step at a time.

They were full on singing when Ceres stopped suddenly and got off Helia’s head.

“What’s wrong?”, she asked.

“Something is coming”, he said, looking deep into the forest. She focused on the direction he was pointing at, and suddenly, she felt it too. A certain wrongness, something not belonging in the world. And this something was moving in their direction, fast.

With a call, Ceres assumed his real form and stood in front of Helia. The Wind Phoenix’s real form stood almost as tall as her, standing between her and this thing’s trajectory, while she readied herself to cast a spell.

From the rustling of leaves emerged a creature that should not exist. At first glance, it looked like a wolf, however, that stopped once you started focusing on it. It did indeed have four legs, a long tail, and a head resembling that of a canine, but the proportions were wrong, as if someone who had never looked at a wolf had tried making one. However, the biggest discrepancy was that it was pitch black, a three-dimensional shadow, oozing darkness into the world.

Instinctively, Helia understood that she should not let this thing touch her.

The “wolf” made a sound like a menacing growl and jumped to attack Ceres, its mouth wide open, much wider than any animal should be able to. But he was ready, summoning a gust of wind with his wings, and growled right back at it.

This finally snapped Helia out of her shock. Looking at the creature directly made her feel uneasy, but she did her best to steady herself. She wasn’t used to being a Handler yet, and the thought of failing and losing her partner, and her life, terrified her.

Making use of her agility, Helia jumped to Ceres' side and raised her hand. She visualized the ambient Mana being drawn to her Spirit and flowing into her through him as she called upon her Handling. A strong wind surged from her hand and flew in the direction of the creature, pushing it further from Ceres, and enraging it further.

Faster than should be possible, it turned towards Helia and surged at her, its dark silhouette trembling with rage. It seemed to have forgotten Ceres’ existence, focusing only on Helia, and so the phoenix was able to hit it once again, this time a powerful hit with his wing, amplified by the wind.

Its body hit a tree’s trunk with huge strength, leaving dark droplets of shadow around it that evaporated rapidly with an unsettling smoke. As soon as its body hit the floor, it struggled to get back on its feet, clearly with the intention to attack them once again. It didn’t seem like the creature felt pain, only overwhelming rage.

“Helia!”, exclaimed Ceres with urgency. “I don’t think Wind is going to cut it!”

She held her breath. What Ceres was talking about, was something she really did not want to do. Even if he had tried to reassure her that Divine Handling was not technically forbidden, she still felt like she would get in trouble for it. After all, worshiping the Sun Goddess was currently taboo, the cult of the Moon God had disappeared for the same reason, and the only way to Handle the Divine is through a Pact with one of their Spirits. His loophole couldn’t soothe her worries.

“What if someone sees me?”, Helia answered.

Ceres turned its head around to look at her, exasperated. “Is this really the time to worry about that?!”

She didn’t even have time to answer properly, all she could do was gasp. While they were arguing, their attacker had gotten back on its feet and lunged back at them. Unable to do anything more, Ceres protected Helia with his body.

Horrified, she watched as the shadow sunk what looked like teeth into Ceres' wing. In the spot where their bodies met, a slimy darkness started slowly oozing into the bird’s body. He screamed in pain and tried to pin the creature down, who was already trying to free itself to focus on Helia once again.

“Ceres!”, she yelled.

She knew she was being unreasonable. She also knew that Ceres knew that. Naturally, she was scared of being seen, of being discovered doing something she was not supposed to do, and once again, being punished for it. This fear lived in the back of her mind, and anyone would agree, it was a reasonable one. At least, when she was not in the middle of the forest with no person in sight, it would be a reasonable fear to have. However, it was not alone.

There was something else, something she hated feeling. What if she was not good enough? What if she tried to do this, and failed, and Ceres got hurt, or died, because of her ineptitude? How would she live with herself if that happened? Could she even live, if he was gone? Would her body revert back to the state he had found her in?

Ceres called at her, forcing her to open her eyes. Her gaze met his, and she saw it. His trust. He believed in her. Even when she didn’t believe in herself. Even if she still thought it was too good to be true and kept him at arm’s length. So, instead of listening to her doubts, she placed her faith in those eyes.

Shaking, she raised both hands and pointed them towards Ceres and the creature. It was still struggling to free itself, its head pointed towards Helia, as if the giant phoenix pinning it down didn’t even exist. And every time its body touched Ceres', more and more darkness seeped into him, tainting his beautiful feathered form.

Suddenly, all she could feel was rage. How dare this thing, whatever it was, hurt her partner? And how dare she, Helia, call herself her partner, if she was this scared to even try helping him?

She felt the Mana flow, from Ceres into her, but it was different. Regular Mana was like rain water, and this was like the cleanest, purest, mountain spring. Within her heart, there was also certitude. This would not hurt Ceres. She took just a drop, savored it, and threw it towards the shadow.

Her silver hair shone and swayed around as pure moonlight surged from her hands and struck the creature like lightning. It screamed in pain and fought, but it was too late. Ceres held it down while the light slowly erased it, the black ooze that formed its body quickly becoming smoke, until it completely disappeared from existence.

Once it was clear it was gone, Ceres collapsed on the spot with a sigh.

“Ceres! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I…”, Helia ran to him and dropped on her knees. Her hands hovered above his now tainted feathers.

“You did it”, he answered, his voice full of pride. “You really did it.”

“Well, yes, but, you, your feathers, I was too slow, I’m so sorry, I couldn’t” she didn’t even know when she had started to cry. Relief, shame, anger, a cocktail of emotions swirled inside of her as she tried to convey her feelings to him.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Look”, he said as he used his wing to raise her head.

Through the tears, she saw what he was talking about. The black shadows that had been covering him were slowly disappearing, just like the creature had. With this, her relief won. She cried, and cried, and hugged Ceres' neck tightly. He was surprised, for a second, then he lowered his head to rest on top of hers and enveloped her with his wings.

“Just, try to be faster next time”, he whispered, once Helia had somewhat calmed down.

She gasped, outraged, and started tickling him in revenge. He laughed, both with his voice inside her mind and his physical body. The strange echo made Helia start laughing as well. She was happy to be alive, and she was happy Ceres was well.

After some much-needed play time, Helia stood up and retrieved her things from where they had fallen to during the struggle. Thankfully, nothing had been seriously damaged.

While she did that, Ceres shrunk and flew towards her, landing on top of her head. “This is the least you can do”, he said playfully. Helia sighed and scratched his head, smiling.

“What even was that thing?”, she asked.

“I have no idea, but whatever it was, it’s bad news”, answered Ceres. “For now, let’s get out of this forest, fast.”

She could only agree with him, on both fronts. Just thinking about the creature made her head spin.

“We can try to find some information in Varsey”, she said. “It can wait until after the party, though. They will probably be too busy tonight, and it’s going to be difficult to explain.”

In silence, they walked through the forest, their hearts full of worry.