Aqueo and his Water Spirit

Chapter 2 - Bond and Memories

    As they held each other, a white light leaked from their touching hands, emitting thousands of tiny fragments of light that slowly revolved around them.

    Aqueo's grip tightened, the little guy's tentacle hand was so soft; something stirred within their eyes, and their gaze at each other deepened.

    Suddenly, Aqueo was looking at himself. For a moment, he thought that the little guy had become him. It wasn't so, it was just that he was looking at himself from the glowing ball's eyes. And he wasn't just looking at himself, in that moment, he could also sense his surroundings without actually looking around him.

    He was inside the little guy's head and he could feel that they were connected.

    As the connection deepened, foreign memories started flashing in his mind consecutively in a rapid manner. He knew they were the memories of the little guy.

    The flashes of memories were too fast, some he thought must just be fragments of a complete day in the little guy's life. But he roughly understood how its life was like ever since it was born until it met him.

    The little guy was a spirit born in this lake. It had been around for at least a hundred years, just wandering around the cave and going out from time to time. Aqueo couldn't exactly tell when it was born, it was just based on the memories of the spirit exploring around the town nearby.

    The spirit encountered so many things in that hundred years. Aqueo was so astonished.

    After experiencing the memories of the spirit, the light from their touch and the floating fragments of light slowly vanished. As it did, and the light that stirred within their eyes faded, he felt a connection with the spirit that wasn't there before they touched. Curiously, he could tell what the spirit was feeling right now—wonder and excitement that seemed to reach his heart.

    He remembered what happened earlier when he was using the spirit's eyes and wondered if he could do it again. So with just his will alone, he tried to enter the spirit's mind just like what he experienced earlier. The spirit sensed his intentions and let him in.

    It was like having three sets of eyes: one of his, one of the spirit's, and another one that could sense his surroundings without actually looking around. Although it looked rather confusing so he closed his own eyes and just used the spirit's. And there was something else. Earlier, he felt something from his surroundings, it felt incredible, just as now.

    He looked up. It was the huge crystal at the center of the ceiling. It was radiating an incredibly strong energy. Now that he was using the spirit's senses, he finally understood why it looked so drawn to it a while ago. Even in its memories, the spirit spent a lot of time gazing at this crystal.

    Even though he had some of the spirit's memories now, he could only vaguely tell what the spirit was feeling and thinking in it. And he wasn't exactly sure if the spirit could actually think. It was quite dumb if he compared it to a human. He thought that maybe because it had no physical body like a human, and so, the needs and senses of a human, it was thinking differently.

    And it wasn't just gazing, it was absorbing energy from it. Aqueo could describe it as eating or more like tasting because in its memories, the spirit wasn't absorbing energy all the time. It was also going out from time to time to taste different kinds of energy. Mostly, from the people's things it could sense outside near the cave.

    The cave must be hundreds of meters deep in the ground. The spirit would occasionally pass through the thick layers of stones and soil above the cave and emerge into the forest above, and there it would find people to follow around, snacking from the energies of their belongings. Mostly glowing stones as what Aqueo could see in the memories. Those people were usually armed with weapons like bows, swords, and spears. They also carried staffs with gemstones which he identified as the weapon of mages to enhance their spells.