Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Fourteen

I was jumping at every little sound, worried that some high-level spiritual beast may come out and attack me. Orpheus thought I was hilarious, back in his fox form as he was, he was much smaller than me, though by no means threatened by me. "Nothing is coming near, why do you think you could hear the nocturnal spiritual beasts, who are known for their viciousness by the way, but never encountered any during the night? They don't dare get close to me, they know that that is not a fight they'll win." I had known he had followed me before into the woods, but I hadn't known it was because of his presence that I was never attacked by other spiritual beasts in the dangerous Silver Woods.

I had thought it was strange, but I just took it as me being lucky for once. "Okay, maybe you are indeed responsible for keeping them away from me on my way to the cabin, but why did they never come into the boundary at night, did it have something to do with the strange flowers marking the boundary?" He nods his head, it still felt strange to see a fox nod, I had seen the Dagon family's spiritual beasts before, intelligent creatures, but I had little contact with them.

"Yes, except those strange flowers are actually home to the White Viburnum Gnat's, they are nocturnal so as soon as the sun goes down, they come out in swarms, waiting for the unsuspecting spiritual beast or even human to wander too close and then they devour them whole, leaving nothing remaining after only a few hours. They have venom that paralyzes, allowing them to devour prey without struggle, meaning they are a very effective means to protect a place from intruders at night, but not something one can carry around to protect them while traveling."  It was still strange to hear him talking, like a spiritual beast of a higher level, instead of the silent one I was used to using hand gestures to communicate, I thought it was because he couldn't speak, but it turned out that I was the weak one who could not understand him.

At this age I should already have a spiritual beast of my own, but the Dagon family viewed it as a waster of resources to take me to the Silver Woods and hunt for one as was tradition. They had simply bought me a measly low level one from the market, a crystal songbird, with no true use but the beautiful songs it can sing, not to truly let me have it, no they wouldn't allow a member of the Dagon family to be seen with such a low-level spiritual beast, even a despised member as I was, they simply bought it to tease me with the idea of having a spiritual beast only to cruelly kill it in front of me.

From that day onward I never fell for their tricks or sought out for one on my own, with my strength back then as well as my current strength now, anything I could get to form a contract with me would just be tortured by them and I refused to make any innocent spiritual beast suffer through that. Yet here I was, a extremely good spiritual beast walking beside me, but one who refused to be my contracted spiritual beast, and who scared off any other spiritual beasts that might get close to me.

So here I am having been in the Silver Woods for months now, but no spiritual beast to show for any of my efforts, though I had gotten a lot from here, I still felt silly to have come here and now leave without even getting a spiritual beast. Orpheus eyes my frowning face with annoyance, as if he already knows what I am thinking, though with the fox bead he forced me to ingest, he very well might know what I'm thinking. "Any spiritual beast you bind to now will be weak, besides I can't allow you to have one at the academy, not when I can stay by your side by pretending to be your spiritual beast. Not that any academy's silly boundaries would be able to stop me either." I knew that he must be reasonably powerful, that he likely had all nine tails that a fox could get, but while he refused to tell me, his comments about how any spiritual beast in the Silver Woods wouldn't dare come close for fear of losing a fight with him, made me certain he was quite high in terms of power.

Especially with his comment early about how me forming a contract with him would likely make me explode. "I know, I'm just being silly. The Dagon family viewed it as a tradition that once a member of the family turned fifteen, we would take a trip here and hunt down a spiritual beast to become our own, but they never viewed me as being worthy of that, so they never took me here, they bought a low-level spiritual beast from the market to tease me with the idea of having a spiritual beast only to torture it to death in front of me. I just feel like since I'm already here, and have been here for months, I should have gotten myself a spiritual beast." He swishes his tail quickly as he stares at me with annoyance.

"You're right, you are being silly. So stop this nonsense and let's continue, if I have to listen to you prattle this whole trip, I very well might abandon you to the spiritual beasts lurking in the periphery of my vision, too scared to reveal themselves to me, but I am sure they would have no problem coming out to see you, likely attacking you in the process, I wonder if you would get your desired spiritual beast or die in the process?" I frown and close my mouth, knowing better than to say anything else.

I doubt he would actually let me die, he wouldn't have given me the fox bead to save my life if that had been the case, but I can tell he was becoming annoyed with me, and when he became annoyed he became violent so it was better for me just to let go of my fantasy of having a contract with a spiritual beast, I could think about it again once I was stronger.

It takes us only two days instead of three to get to the town that resides just outside the Silver Woods, likely due to the fact that Orpheus ensured that nothing got close to us, so I walked with ease, without having to look over my shoulder every second. Most of that time was spent with me being silent for fear of angering Orpheus, I had been hesitant to leave the Silver Woods, but now that I was finally out of them and among civilization again, I felt relieved.

They had served to toughen me up, to make me stronger both figuratively and literally if I counted Nero's power boost that served to raise me to the second common qi level. I suppose this actually worked out for the best, because another month or so and we would be getting snow, and I did not think I had enough supplies to deal with winter in the Silver Woods.

I was getting looks, they weren't mean or anything, just curious, granted I don't think too many woman ever entered the Silver Woods alone, or anyone really entered it alone, that was like a death sentence, usually there were groups of people, or maybe I was overthinking it and it was just because I bet I was filthy after traveling through the forest on foot for two days, not to mention that my clothes weren't in the best shape, no they were in quite a shabby state.

Dirty with tears I had sewn shut with different colored thread, and patches of other fabrics that I could find, I had used these clothes for months now, I knew they weren't in a very good state. Thankfully as the sun was starting to go down I knew we would be staying here for the night at least, which should allow me to get a bath and some new clothes, not to mention stock up on all the other supplies I needed.

I had about twenty-six gold coins left in my pouch from the trip to originally get here, I was prepared to spend up to five of them to get new clothes, a night in an inn, and supplies, though I figured I could probably get it down to three coins if I haggled. I knew that there was supposedly a large sum of money in my spatial tattoo, Amadeus had said as much, but having to live frugally most of my life in order to survive didn't mean I could suddenly change my attitude now that I had the money.

I didn't want to spend wastefully, so even though I knew there was supposed to be a large sum of money in the spatial tattoo, I hadn't even looked at it yet, and probably wouldn't until my own sum of gold coins ran out. I bought two premade dresses, they weren't tailored to fit me, but made with Medium-Grade Silk, they looked pretty enough, though the store owner had given me a look like she hadn't expected me to be able to afford them. I spent more than my limit on them, but I knew I would be able to reuse them, she had wanted five gold coins, but I had talked her down to three gold coins, with matching shoes added in, after all while they were Medium-Grade Silk, it was Low quality Medium-Grade Silk, not truly worth the two gold and five silver coins she was trying charge me.

But because I spent more on clothing than I wanted to, I chose to buy less supplies, enough food to last for only a week's trip anywhere only cost me five silver coins, and the inn keeper charged me one gold and five silver coins for a night in the inn, for a private room with a tub, and a hot meal both tonight and tomorrow morning. So, I stayed at my limit of five coins, though if I had truly wanted to limit myself to three coins, I could have bought cheaper clothing, and suffered without a bath and hot meals. But I figured after days of travel and likely more ahead I could afford to splurge a little today.

It may not have been the most productive day but overall, I felt pretty good, especially after that hot bath, that cleaned all the filth off me. I knew that I had some hard work ahead of me to find an academy, one that was willing to teach me, as well as still open to accepting students this late in the year, but I figured I could deal with that when the time came, for now I was going to be content with the fact that I was sleeping on a bed that wasn't filled with dried grass, much comfier than the one at the cabin, and I wasn't going to wake up to animal sounds and worry about being attacked, so I took it for the small win that it was.