Chapter 60: 60. Blood Moth.
"What? No, no, that’s not what I meant at all! I just meant, you know, now that you’re free and everything, where would you prefer to stay?"
"I’m staying close to you."
Austin was immediately taken aback by her response. "Oh. Um, okay."
"We’re bound now, remember? If something happens to you, it happens to me too, so it makes sense for me to stick around and make sure nothing happens to you." Tatiana explained before stretching her arms above her head with a yawn.
"...Fair enough."
For a moment, the two of them simply lay there in complete silence, enjoying the cool air as the wind continued drifting lazily over the grass around them.
But then, as if remembering something, Tatiana sat up suddenly.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot."
"What is it?" Austin asked, and Tatiana raised her hand again.
She twirled her fingers in the same lazy motion as before, and a second sphere of condensed air shimmered into existence above her palm.
But this time, unlike the first one, it didn’t contain a glowing core. Instead, something within it resembled a butterfly.
"What is that?" Austin asked.
"It’s a blood moth." Tatiana replied, and Austin instantly recalled her voice warning him about the blood moths back in the forest.
At the time he couldn’t see them, but it had felt like there were hundreds of thousands of them sucking his blood all at once.
"But wait a minute, I couldn’t see them before. Why is that?"
"That’s because they’re spirit creatures. Since you’re bound to me now, you should be able to sense spirit creatures more easily, or at least see the outline of their presence nearby." She explained, and Austin’s eyes widened in surprise as he realised Tatiana was right.
Until today, he had never really noticed Sylvie’s presence in the form of a silhouette or an outline.
Before, he could always sense a small white orb of light hovering above Rowena or following behind him, but today he had definitely seen the outline of the little fairy.
This was exactly how he had known Rowena’s spirit wasn’t large, but small.
Even so, he hadn’t been certain of what type of spirit she was until Sylvie revealed herself to him.
Realising this, Austin was even more amazed by the benefits that came with having a symbiotic contract with a dragon.
If only it also came with an increased lifespan, it would have made him a lot happier.
But then again, maybe in the future, as his symbiotic contract grew beyond 5%, he would gain an increased lifespan as well.
Since this was only an assumption for now, Austin decided to focus his attention on something else.
And so, he pulled his gaze back down to the little moth.
Seeing this, Tatiana muttered. "Deadly little creatures, aren’t they?"
"Yeah."
"They feast primarily on the blood of their prey, but they do have a sad story to them."
"What is it?"
"They live no more than six months, so they try to feed as much as they can and mate just as much, because in the end, they have very short lives." Tatiana stated before lying back down on the grass, staring up at the huge moon.
"Anyways, it seems like you’re well acquainted with the elves living here." Tatiana stated, and Austin nodded before asking.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well, seeing as how you were about to die, and I had no idea who your friends or enemies were, I had to make my way to the nearest location that could offer you the best chance of healing. I saw a few villages on my way here, but this mansion seemed far better than the other buildings I had seen, so I landed here and requested their help."
She continued. "If they had been reluctant to help, I was prepared to burn this place to the ground, but you can’t imagine my surprise when I found out you were actually acquainted with those who lived here. Talk about luck, am I right?"
"Yeah, even I know I’ve been lucky to be alive these past few days."
"Well, you’d better not be making any more stupid decisions that could cost you your life, because if you die, I’m definitely going to find you and kill you myself."
"How are you going to kill someone who’s already dead..."
"Want to find out?"
"Nope, not interested." Austin instantly replied, and Tatiana couldn’t help but grin while staring at the sky.
"You really are a strange human, aren’t you?"
"What do you mean?"
"A human, impregnating a wolfkin and being friends with an elf. If my mother had heard about this, she probably would have laughed so hard a mountain would have split in half, because she would have found it impossible to believe something like this could ever happen. But here you are, and so far, what I’ve heard from the maids here is nothing but utter respect for you, a human."
"If it were centuries ago, your kind would have been storming into their villages and killing them for fun."
"Were we humans really that bad?"
"Well, based on what my mother taught me, you were the worst. Your people had really short lives in comparison to the rest of us, and yet you still managed to cause chaos and despair wherever you went."
"It was strange, but that was how my mother generally described your race."
"Well, sorry for being human. And now that I think about it, it’s strange that you offered a contract to me, despite knowing how my kind had treated other races over the years."
"I didn’t do it because I had a choice. I was desperate to leave that horrible realm, so I was more than happy to offer a contract to whoever I felt was fitting." She replied.
"Aww, that sounds like you think I was special."
"Don’t push your luck, human." Tatiana uttered in a warning tone, but Austin could definitely see the small grin at the corner of her lips.
"But still, I do have to admit that you are a strange human for impregnating a wolfkin and being friends with elves."
"Nah, you’re forgetting one more thing."
"What’s that?"
"I’m also friends with a really powerful dragon."
