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My father laughed as he looked back at Shade.
"It seems my girl knows more about yours than yourself." He laughed.
"Don't joke around about this Allan, this is a serious matter." Shade said while crossing his arms. He got genuinely concerned.
"Anyways, she's sleeping like a kitten in your arms, Sylphy." Sighed Nepheline, caressing her daughter's cheeks.
"Yeah she was always trying to cheer me up and ate too much. She probably fell asleep out of the exhaustion." I said, looking at her adorable sleeping face.
Nepheline and Shade looked back at her with a smile, and then both petted my head.
"Take good care of her."
"Yeah."
"Huh? Sure?"
I guess they were just telling me to be a good friend.
"Well, you meet your entire family now, Sylphy. I told you it wasn't going to be pretty years ago… How do you feel about them?" Wondered my mother.
It was a heavy question indeed…
"I don't know… In one way, I was terrified of how hostile everyone was…" I sighed, mother nodded back at me, agreeing with my opinion. "However, I was also surprised there was another facet to them. When grandma showed up, even if she was forcing them to, they seemed to be slightly more like a family. The king… grandpa, he probably is not as bad as he seemed to be."
"Well, he's not…" My mother had to admit. "He's simply someone forged in wars after wars, battle after battle, bloodshed after bloodshed, for thousands of years. That changed him a lot. However, deep down, that stupid old man still cares about all of us… He wants the best for his family and the country. Even though he's an idiot."
Mother added a lot of emphasis on grandfather being an idiot, and I couldn't help but agree with her in that regard.
"Hmph…" My father didn't commented or anything, but he seemed visibly pissed about him, even now. I can't blame him, honestly.
FLAAASH!
And as we talked, uncle Arafunn arrived from the skies.
"Hello, got room for another one?"
"Arafunn? You're coming?"
My mother quickly asked in surprise.
"Why yes, if I just disappear what will little Sylphy think?"
"Uncle, you're coming?"
"Yeah, I've made up my mind."
The rest of the group seemed oddly surprised over his decision.
"But why? I thought you said you wanted to go off like the wind?" My mother asked.
"Never thought you would stick with us for the long run…" My father added.
"This is very odd, what are you planning?" Shade narrowed his eyes.
"Maybe he got nothing better to do at the end." Laughed Nepheline.
"H-Hey, give me a slack, will you? I just wanted to come… For old's time sake, eh? You're… you guys are my friends after all, right?" Arafunn asked, his handsome face smiling cheerfully.
The rest sighed as they nodded.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess we are." My father said. "I kind of thought you forgot about it."
"Come on Allan don't be so harsh." My mother told father.
"Sorry for being so cold sometimes, that's just how I am…" Sighed Arafunn.
"Well, you've gotta known that if you ever need someone to talk… we are here." Said Shade.
"Yeah!" Nepheline said.
"Aw come on! Are you trying to make me cry now or something?" Laughed Arafunn. "How about we have a little and calm melody for the trip, hm? It's on the house!"
Suddenly, Uncle Arafunn took out a beautiful flute, and began to sing a beautiful and calming melody.
We enjoyed the song while we flew across the skies.
At the end, it was so calming I fell asleep…
.
.
.
When I woke up, I found myself sleeping inside a bed I remembered from somewhere…
"Huh? Wha…?!"
And when I stood up I looked into the window, I was in the skies!
"Oh, so we are back in the airship?" I asked to myself, looking around the small room and finding my parents with Zephy sleeping in his cradle.
"Look who's decided to wake up." My father said. "Breakfast been ready for a while now little lady."
"Good morning dear." My mother kissed my forehead.
"D-Did I fell asleep through the whole trip?!" I asked.
"You sure did! Arafunn's melodies are sometimes too calming. If you're too exhausted, you tend to fall asleep. Well, it was also a way for him to support us back then." My mother recalled the past.
"He uses melodies to calm the fighting spirit of monsters, sometimes even sending them away. Other times he can even put them in a dazzle so we could slay them more easily." My father recalled.
"Wow, so he can even do that with his songs? That's amazing… So that's the true strength of a Bard!" I said in surprise.
"Yeah! I remember he charmed so many monsters back then that he had a whole army of familiars with us. Feeding them all was sure a pain in the ass though, we had to free a lot of them when everything was over. Some others stick with us and become our familiars." My father sighed.
"W-Wait a moment, really?! So some of your Familiars…" I asked.
"Those that aren't spirits? Yeah, most of them were actually charmed by Arafunn, and when they joined us they took a liking on each one of us." Said my mother.
"I initially had no affinity with the Phoenix, that bird was constantly attacking me and only liked being around Arafunn. Eventually he softened the bird and we got closer, until the bird turned into my Familiar…" My father laughed.
POOF!
Suddenly, a small and beautiful colorful orange and red bird appeared over father's head.
"Who are you calling a mere bird?!"
"Ah… okay, okay! Why are you angry now?"
"Hmph… Feed me that bacon!"
"What? It's mine!"
"I said feed it to me!"
"Sigh… Always so bossy…"
My father ended feeding the phoenix until it got happy and then went back to his soul scape.
I guess my father had quite the relationship with his Phoenix.
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This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢