Chapter 461: The Park
Maia finally stopped after feeling Laz’s reaction which is what she was going for. While one might not think of a tree spirit as having any sort of emotions or desires, one must also remember they have never met a tree spirit before.
As for why Maia did this, it was simply because she was annoyed that Laz was treating her as either a little girl or some un-touchable entity. Although he was trying to be respectful, all he really did was annoy her. Perhaps if she had been living her life for the last ten thousand years, she wouldn’t have felt this way. But the truth was that aside from watching over her people, she was probably only awake for maybe twenty years towards the end of the war before she was forced to sleep to recover her strength.
At that time, no one would have thought that she would have been resting for so many years as that wasn’t the intention.
So if you wanted something to compare her mood and mental development to, she had basically been a shut in who was only able to watch movies and shows to understand about the outside world. And her only contact with another person was Ivana and her successor before her who could only talk to her remotely, like a phone call.
Needless to say, Maia wasn’t even close to being a transient being... quite the opposite in fact. She was like a young girl finally set free for the first time in her life and she wanted to do all the things she couldn’t do before.
Ivana and Laz followed her as she roamed around, touching grass, speaking with birds, playing with a cat the size of a horse that seemed like it wanted to run away. Since only Ivana knew her way around, she would suggest places to go and visit.
At first, she was trying to show them architectural marvels and noticeable pieces of art. But soon she learned that Maia had no desire to see any of that. As she put it,
"I’ve been seeing this stuff for ten thousand years, why the hell would I want to look at it again?"
After hearing this, Ivana seemed at a loss, but Laz had gotten the concept. He whispered to Ivana,
"Where would you take a slightly older child for enjoyment?"
"There is a park with many animals that roam free. There are several types of rides and entertainment built around there as well. But I can’t understand why the mother tree of our people..."
"Hush. That sounds perfect. Lead us there," Laz said with a smile.
As for why Maia didn’t lead despite having branches and roots that spread out all over town, the answer to that was simple when Laz finally asked.
"Have you ever looked at a map or seen a painting of something lifelike? While you can imagine it, it feels different when you actually walk those streets, or touch the things in that painting."
Laz felt like he understood. A two dimension view versus a three dimension view is truly a different world.
When they got there, Ivana barely had time to pay the admission fee before Maia was off at a run. The first animal she saw, she ran up to it to try to pet it. When Laz saw her, he was shocked as the thing she was petting looked like a cross between a rhino and a lion, with a large body of tough skin and a furry main covering it’s feline like head that had a horn sticking out of it. Of course the horn looked more like a unicorn horn than a rhino horn.
Despite Maia’s friendly demeanor though, this strong creature appeared scared by Maia’s sudden appearance and shook a bit as she tried to rub it’s mane. It dared not fight back, but it also didn’t seem comfortable.
Laz thought about it and figured out it made sense. Maia, despite her appearance, was still a god tier being. While smaller creatures wouldn’t be able to sense it, this creature’s strength was on par with a Condensation realm expert and even the tiniest bit of energy from Maia was enough to scare it.
Maia was stupid and obviously understood that while she wanted to touch and play with the beast, such interactions might cause it to go into shock and die.
Seeing this and the depressed look on Maia’s face, Laz walked over and walked up to the big beast.
"What are you worried for hmm? Scared she’s going to take a bite out of you?" Laz said with grin on his face.
"You... have the smell of blood on you..." The big creature said with a deep voice.
"Of course. I’ve killed many, including many demon beasts not that long ago. I’m surprised you can still smell that," Laz said, still smiling.
"The scent of blood isn’t on your body..."
"Of course it’s not. So between me who sticks of blood and death and this little girl, why should you fear her?"
"She... smells nice. Like jasmine and cherry blossoms."
"That’s right. Instinct is important, but you must also take the measure of a person. Or in this case, a little girl who wants to pet your fluffy mane."
"You’re not going to touch me, are you?" The creature asked, stepping back from Laz.
"No. She’s the little girl you idiot."
"I do not understand the identifications of your kinds."
"You... really need some education..." Laz said with a sigh while Maia laughed from the side. Obviously these types of beasts were just raised for enjoyment purposes and due to the environment, they wouldn’t be weak. But being strong didn’t mean you were smart and more so, they wouldn’t be taught things either.
As far as the rhino-cat thing was concerned, Laz was the first person to have talked to it face to face before.
As Laz stepped back, Maia came closer and this time when the beast looked down, he didn’t back away but instead held his head a little closer to her, allowing her to pet his head and play with his soft brown mane.
Ivana walked up, having witnessed everything as she made her way over.
"You speak to them like equals?" Ivana said, noticing that Laz had treated the beast far different than either she or anyone she would have known would have.
"Of course. Why would I not?" Laz said, turning to her.
Ivana’s hands were on her hips, resting on her shorts and causing them to drop a hair. While they were already pretty low, the slight dip was still somewhat tempting as it seemed like she didn’t even know she was doing this. This caused Laz to remember what she had said about normal types of dress and looked around, only to find out she wasn’t kidding. While the many other women who were here with their children weren’t as beautiful as Ivana, that wasn’t to say they weren’t gorgeous, it was just that Ivana was in a league of her own, comparable to only the queen and maybe Genevieve, but that was only after she had matured for many more years.
As for what they were wearing, it was pretty much in line with Ivana with the fabric only seeming to cover the essential parts. It seemed the concept of excess body weight didn’t exist among these people, except for where breasts were concerned. And since all of them had stunning figures, it made sense that there was no need to hide anything.
Laz also couldn’t help but notice that the temperature seemed pretty warm overall as well.
Laz wasn’t the only one who noticed Ivana’s unique beauty though since there were lots of men who were staring at her as her golden highlights shimmered in the sun, women as well. As Laz watched on, many of the women ended up being broken of their trance before their husbands were smart enough to look away, causing more than a few harsh words and/or fists to fly.
"I guess I have no answer to that. We have always just treated them as beasts even if they could talk. Although we don’t put undo burden on them, we have never thought about them as anything more..."
"Out from my world, demon beasts have been running wild, sometimes by themselves, sometimes in waves. They had slaughtered many humans in their attacks and of course we have slaughtered them as well. And I have fought some who were especially strong and I have no doubt I will do so again. In this world of limited energy and recourses, you don’t have to worry about them. But outside... you would do well to not just treat them as stupid animals. It might be the last thing you ever do," Laz warned. Of course he had lowered his voice so as not to talk about the outside with others, but the truth was it wouldn’t matter even if he did as they didn’t understand his language.
As for how he spoke verbally with the beast, even he didn’t know per say. While his words were English, the beast responded with words that seemed like the ones the elves spoke in. And both were understandable.
"How is it I am able to understand your language and you can understand mine, yet I didn’t when I first arrived here?" Laz asked Ivana, asking something that had bothered him.
"That would be me, actually," Maia said, off to the side while the Rhino-cat seemed to be balancing the young girl on his snout while moving her up and down.
"You?" Laz asked back.
"Yeah. When you passed by the entrance, your marking cleared you as a friendly so I just blessed you. While it’s not much, it helps to break the language barrier between our people. That’s also why the other’s who where with you can’t understand us yet nor us them. They didn’t have the same clearance. Of course I don’t mind now that everything has happened, but its usually better to be cautious in these situations.."
"Ah. That makes sense." Laz thought about how he had understood them after passing the gate with the queen, but not before that. He just figured whatever and went with it since it made things easier.
Just as Maia wanted to go visit another animal who was sun bathing not too far away, she turned her head to stare at a distant figure making their way over. Laz then noticed that Ivana was staring too so he turned his attention.
Coming in their direction was several young men wearing some rather ridiculously luxurious and heavy clothing considering the weather. Watching on, they never stopped once and instead made their way straight for Ivana, most of them having a rather wretched look in their eyes.
As they came close though, Laz stopped staring at their stupid uniforms and noticed something else.
Their hair was black...
’Doesn’t that mean something?’
