Kitsune of the Blue Sun

[Keeno POV]

After a day of traveling, we finally made it to a city. After resting for a night, we went to the guild. After going down several stairs we reached the gate room where we paid for a gate to Odeen and completely cleaned out all of our savings.

 

“…” (Keeno)

 

{It’s alright, Keeno.  Mortal money is easy to get, so just take some quests and you’ll have saved up in no time.}

 

‘Not what I was thinking, Ama…it feels weird here, and I mean weirder than when we were last here.’ (Keeno)

 

{How so?}

 

‘It’s…too full of life…or something like that.’ (Keeno)

 

{Hmm.}

 

While Ama seemed to delve into her thoughts, we exited the stairwell onto the Adventurer floor of the guild, and I heard something that I thought I’d never hear again.  A voice projected with a slight static behind it.

 

“It’s the sixth round and everybody’s favorite ballisteer has just scored his 50^th consecutive bullseye. Is there no stopping him!?  What’s this?  The dark horse of the competition has also scored 50 bullseyes!  Will we see an upset and new champion in the Odeen Tournament of Marksmanship!?!”

 

“A radio?” (Keeno)

 

“A what?” (Freya)

 

I know Freya said something, but I was too distracted to respond as I followed the sound and arrived at a table with a bunch of other adventurers sitting around it, staring at a box with rapt attention.

 

“What’s this?” (Keeno)

 

“Shh.  They’re about to announce the winner.”

 

“Oh!  Both competitors have reached their final targets!  *GASP!*. THEY’VE BOTH HIT BULLSEYES!!!  We’ve reached an unprecedented feat today!  What will the judges decide for the tie breaker I wonder!?”

 

The adventurers leaned closer to the radio with rapt attention.

 

“And the deliberation is over!  The winner will be the one who manages to hit a coin tossed into the air with wind magic!  How will they do it with a ballista!?..And there it goes!……OH MY GODS!!!  THE DARK HORSE HAS HIT THE REIGNING CHAMPION’S BOLT OUT OF THE SKY AND HIT THE COIN AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!”

 

Sensing the impending celebration, I quickly moved backward. Just as I did that, the adventurers jumped up yelling and cheering while a few slammed down their mugs in bitter disappointment. One of them even picked up the radio and was about to throw it when two tackled him to the ground and wrestled the thing away from him.

 

“Oh!  You know how expensive this thing was!  Don’t you dare try and break it just cause you lost a bet!”

 

The adventurer then gently placed it down on the table.  I approached once more and spoke up.

 

“So, what is that thing?” (Keeno)

 

A few of them turned and looked at me.

 

“This thing here is the newest commodity from the capital.  It has some long, fancy name too, but we just call it the noise box.  They’ve been all the rage for a little over a month now, or at least that’s when we found out about em.”

 

“Any idea how it works?” (Keeno)

 

“Nah.  All we know is that you need lightning magic to make em work.”

 

“Hmm.  Thanks, guys.” (Keeno)

 

“No problem missy…hey, I just won a lot o’ money, care to celebra-”

 

“Married, not gonna happen.” (Keeno)

 

“Ooooooooh!”

 

I walked away from the group and back to Pram and Freya.

 

{And say goodbye to your lightning magic.}

 

‘What was that, Ama?’ (Keeno)

 

{Nothing, MY love.}

 

I didn’t quite get it, but the way she said ‘my’ made me feel super happy.  That aside, I finally reached Pram and Freya who were looking at the quest board.

 

“Find anything lucrative?” (Keeno)

 

“Not yet.  Satisfy your curiosity?” (Pram)

 

“Yeah.  Not something we’ll be able to afford at the moment or even use.  Unless either of you can use lightning magic and just never told me.” (Keeno)

 

“Nope.” (Pram)

 

“Neither can I.” (Freya)

 

“Then its of no consequence.” (Keeno)

 

I started skimming over the quests on the board with them. None seemed particularly lucrative, with most being plant gathering or delivery quests.

 

“Might as well just take several of these and spend a few days here building up our savings again before moving on.” (Keeno)

 

“That’s what I was thinking as well.  Freya, what’s your opinion?” (Pram)

 

“We need to get our savings in order, so let’s get these done.” (Freya)

 

With that settled, we picked up several quests and, over the next few days, completed them. Surprisingly, we managed to finish the gathering quests extremely quickly due to Pram’s life magic helping the herbs grow a bit faster and making their medicinal properties more potent, netting us a bonus for quality.  Today we were out gathering more herbs when I felt something off.

 

“Keeno, what’s got you so irritated?” (Freya)

 

“I don’t know.  It’s like there’s this itch but I don’t know why.” (Keeno)

 

“Did you get into some kind of plant again?” (Pram)

 

“THAT WAS ONE TIME!” (Keeno)

 

“And you complained about it for a whole week after burning that part of the forest.” (Pram)

 

“It deserved it!” (Keeno)

 

Pram was about to say something, but I motioned her to stop. She nodded slightly and I reached past her and grabbed a small bug that glowed with an indigo light.

 

“An undead bug?” (Keeno)

 

I stared at the tiny bug in my hand as it tried to fly away. Deciding to try something, I poured some mana into it and the glow started to turn blue before the bug went up in flames before burning to ash.

 

“Meh.” (Keeno)

 

“So…what was that?” (Pram)

 

“Some undead bug. It’s weird, and I’m going to…teach whoever sent it some manners in regards to whatever it is they were using it for when we find them, but that’s for future us to deal with.” (Keeno)

 

“Wait, how do you know someone was controlling it?” (Freya)

 

“One, bugs have no souls, so they make for horrible undead, and two, this country is too full of life for any undead to naturally spawn.” (Keeno)

 

“…” (Pram)

 

“…” (Freya)

 

“What?” (Keeno)

 

“You seem displeased by the too full of life thing.” (Pram)

 

“Not particularly…I think?  It just feels off to me, I guess.  I mean, winter should be getting into full swing now, and yet it’s like it’s in the middle of spring, that annoying season of stupid blooming things and pollen.” (Keeno)

 

“Ugh.” (Freya)

 

“You hate it too?” (Keeno)

 

“Yeah.  Worst time of the year. Most of the thunderstorms happen then, and even with buildings made to dampen the sound, the thunder is deafening.  In Vanir we called it sleepless spring cause everyone is sleep deprived more often than not and it’s the time when most violence occurs.” (Freya)

 

“…I’m not qualified for this conversation…only spring I’m used to really is the one where it snows less.” (Pram)

 

“…Ama, is there a country anywhere here with normal weather and seasons?  We need to get Pram there so she can experience these things more than just our tainted bias.” (Keeno)

 

{Hmm…There is Lokir, it’s a country on the other continent. It also has a Dead Zone, but all it really did was make the entire country a forest. It still has normal seasons, almost like Falheim, though you never really saw spring and summer there.}

 

“Hmph.  Guess that’ll have to wait then, sorry Pram.” (Keeno)

 

“It’s fine. Not like it’s something I’m particularly worried about.” (Pram)

 

“Ok, that’s great and all, but back to the topic, what are we going to do about these bugs?” (Freya)

 

“Burn them when we see them. It’s all we can do for now until we find the source.” (Keeno)

 

“Fine.” (Freya)

 

After that we went back to our quests until we acquired enough money to travel again and set off for the next city.

 

[Eblana POV]

“Hehehehehahahahahahahahahaha!  The little fox is much bolder than I thought!  To try and wrest control of one of my undead from me.  And from your looks, you must have gotten closer to your dragon ancestor in some way, if those eyes and scales are of any indication. Though I wonder who it is, I don’t remember anyone with black scales. Even mine only look black from a distance. Hmm.  Anyway, come on, I want to meet you already!”

 

I tossed my book down as I stood from my chair and accidentally hit it towards the wall with my tail, breaking it.

 

“And three tails…much different from last time when you only had one…I wonder what your secret is?”

 

I looked up at the wall where I could see Death spirits working.

 

“My silent spirit friends, will you tell me?  I want to know why you get all excited when she’s in this country and why she’s grown so much in only about two years.  I’ll even release some of those souls the old man keeps to you if you tell me.”

 

Some of the shadowy spirits prickled up at this and I felt a bit of pressure coming from them.

 

“Don’t blame me for that!  He’s the one that’s doing it!  Even I can’t mess with souls like that, even as a Death mage!”

 

They stared at me like I was an idiot before looking at one another and discussing something between themselves.  One of them waved a hand and a skull appeared.

 

“Dumb child…know……yo…ur plac……e.  Only…our go…ddess…and…her foll…owers…can…or…der us…you…do not……yet qualify…the…pest above……desecrates…the cycle…you…facilitate it……learn…of your…transgressions………and atone…then……we shall…call you…friend.”

 

The skull then disappeared into smoke and the shadows of the spirits left.

 

“…Hmm.  It seems I must become more active…maybe an outing is in order.”

 

I looked over my small room and picked up my books and journals and placed them in my storage ring.

 

“First order of business, figure out what that mongrel of a contractor is doing.”

 

Chaos Realm:

Hehehehehehe.

Order: She’s…really…*sigh*

Luna: I don’t get it.

Pride, Luna.  It makes people dumb to even the most obvious of things.

Luna: I fail to follow.

Order: Just keep watching.  Things should be clear in time.

Luna: Well, whatever it is, I’m super engaged.  I wanna see Keeno slap that dragon around for daring to spy on her!