Kitsune of the Blue Sun

[Keeno POV]

{Oh?  What happened to the Death Spirits?  Why do they look like little fire spirits now?}

 

“I don’t know, Ama. Oh, and good morning.” (Keeno)

 

{Good morning. You really know how to please a woman if you knocked me out for a few days.}

 

“Thanks for the compliment.  Anyway, there is some foggy part of my mind that knows why they changed, but I can’t recall it completely.” (Keeno)

 

{I see. It’s best not to worry about it then.  Back to this though, it’s interesting seeing such young spirits. Especially ones in the verge of growing up.}

 

“Growing up?” (Pram)

 

{Spirits have four stages. The first is the young stage, then adolescent, then mature, and finally king. You will only rarely ever see a spirit king, so most will be in the mature stage.  It’s very rare to see young spirits outside of their respective spirit realm, though if there was any place you’d find them in the mortal world, this would be one of them, I guess.}

 

“Keeno, do you know what that strange feeling and those faintly blinking lights are?” (Margaret)

 

“Death Spirits. They are being attracted by the corpse we have in there.” (Keeno)

 

“…I see. Can you ask those feathered friends of yours to see if there are any other people going I either direction from us?” (Margaret)

 

Poking their heads out of my tails, Huginn and Muninn looked from me to Margaret then back to me.

 

“Please you two.” (Keeno)

 

The flapped their wings and took off into the air. They circled around us for several minutes before coming back down.

 

“Caw!” (Huginn)

 

“Crrrr.” (Muninn)

 

“We’re clear. No one else on the road for now.” (Keeno)

 

“Alright.” (Margaret)

 

She turned to four of the knights and made a hand gesture. They nodded and dismounted their horses and walked over to the carriage. They unhooked the horses that were pulling it after turning it in a direction off the road.  Just before they pushed the carriage into the swirling ashes a feeling I haven’t felt since the time I got information from the Well of Knowledge washed over me.

 

“Hang on just a second.” (Keeno)

 

I walked up to the carriage and undid the Rune seals keeping it shut. I cracked the door open a slight bit and nearly vomited from the smell. It seemed that it was warm enough in there for the body to decompose even though we were traveling through a giant icebox for the longest time. Not to mention the smell of other things that were there while the noble was still slowly starving to death.  Even so, the smell wasn’t able to deter the young Death Spirits who swarmed into the small crack in the door.

 

They flooded in so fast the carriage began rocking. Doing my best to ignore the smell, I peeked inside the door to see a strange sight. The spirits were tearing into the body like vultures to carrion, but instead of tearing the rotted flesh, they tore at a spectral body. Looking at it closer, it was the noble’s soul and what was getting torn apart was the muddy corruption.

 

{Interesting. Seems this change affected the spirits more than just in appearance. Though they kind of match your personality a bit more, if not made them a bit more aggressive.}

 

“What do you mean by that?” (Keeno)

 

{Your aggressive disdain for corrupted souls. Even through that princess mask of yours you get slightly more violent when it comes to them.}

 

“…” (Keeno)

 

Watching the spirits consume the corruption of the noble’s soul I noticed a few changes.  The light from most of the spirits began to dim while two others began to grow brighter.  Wanting to see if it would help in whatever was happening, I channeled a small bit of Divinity inside the carriage.

 

{…While I wouldn’t recommend doing that, you’ve already done it, so let’s see what happens.}

 

“I had a weird gut feeling, so I followed it.” (Keeno)

 

The two brighter spirits glow shifted. For a second they snuffed at the Divinity before latching onto it with their teeth.  All across their flickering bodies Runes flashed, engraving patterns that tugged at my mind. A connection similar to the one I shared with Huginn and Muninn was forming and I needed to cement it for things to end well.

 

“I name you two Geri and Freki.” (Keeno)

 

The Runes flashed again, becoming one with the two spirits. The wobbled a bit in the air before turning back to the body and tearing into the soul again, this time even more ravenously than the last time. Seeing this, the other spirits moved over to them and clumped up into two masses.  As Geri and Freki consumed the soul’s corruption, power began flowing from the masses of dimmer spirits into them.

 

{Interesting. I always heard of things like this happening, but I’ve never witnessed it firsthand.}

 

“What’s happening?” (Keeno)

 

{Like I said earlier, there are four stages to a spirit. Though still young, those two you named are in the process of becoming adolescents.  However, in their case, they are showing the metaphorical “seed” of becoming spirit kings.  But the funny thing here is, your Divinity changed something in them, and now they are what I’m going to call Runic Death Spirits. They keep their nature as Death Spirits, but with your Runes mixed in, they will become the first Rune Spirits.}

 

“Interesting.” (Keeno)

 

As I watched the spirits grow, one of them, the one I decided is Freki, began to shine in a different color. The flames that made up its body became blue and, for some odd reason, the temperature inside the carriage began to drop.

 

“Names hold power…I need to remember to watch what I name things in the future.” (Keeno)

 

Soon the masses of spirits completely faded away, leaving only Geri and Freki inside the carriage. They had also finished their ‘meal’ and floated out of the carriage.

 

“Keeno…what are those things?” (Margaret)

 

“You can see them now?” (Keeno)

 

“Yeah.  Are those spirits?” (Margaret)

 

“Yeah. They are becoming adolescent spirits now.” (Keeno)

 

{Pay attention, this isn’t something most mortals or gods, for that matter, get to see often if ever.}

 

We all watched with rapt attention as the spirits morphed.  The seemed to lose all shape as they turned into floating spheres about the size of pumpkins that would win a blue ribbon at a harvest festival. Runes covered the entirety of the spheres in jumbled messes that made no sense as they layered on top of one another continuously. This slowed to a stop after several minutes when the Runes vanished completely.  With the Runes gone, the spheres became floating masses of grey the same color as the ash around us with a red-orange glow in the heart of one and an icy blue in the other.

 

{Strange. They are showing signs of having physical bodies.}

 

“Hmm.  No, it’s different, Ama. They are giving me the same vibe as mum.” (Keeno)

 

{Hmmmmm.  Considering Fafnir is half spirit, she may be able to make her body incorporeal as well as physical…we should ask her about it later.}

 

I simply nodded as I watched the glow inside the spheres pulse like heartbeats.  It was a mesmerizing sight.

 

{This is going to take a while. If you can move them and be in your way before your luck runs out and other people show up.}

 

I nodded again and relayed Ama’s words to the others. The knights who were moving the carriage stood behind it and mumbled some chants. After they finished, a mix of earth and wind magic pushed the carriage off the marked road and into the sea of ash. It rolled for a bit before it hit a loose patch of deep ash and began sinking rather quickly.

 

Turning my attention back to the spirits that were growing, I moved next to them and touched them to see if I was able to move them. When I touched the surprisingly smooth spheres, they flashed in a golden light and vanished. I looked around to see if they teleported or something but couldn’t find them.

 

“Keeno, those Runic tattoos on your arms look different.” (Mostima)

 

Looking at my arms, the Runes had indeed shifted. On my left arm they had taken the shape of a wolf’s head with flames surrounding it while the other took a similar wolf shape but made of Runes with meanings of ice and cold.

 

“Interesting.” (Keeno)

 

“Did you move them?” (Margaret)

 

“Something like that. Let’s get going.” (Keeno)

 

The knights that pushed the carriage had remounted their horses and we started on our way again.  I looked down at the two shapes on my arms and smiled, happy to have more companions, the fact that they would become a pair of hellhounds once they finished this stage of their growth slipping my mind completely.

 

Chaos Realm:

Nykuro: …<3 <3

Swil: Ehehe.  You’re a cutie.

Nykuro: *blushes* Am not?

Swil: Why a question?

Nykuro: …Because I don’t know what I’m doing.  I want to accept compliments, but it makes me so embarrassed to do that, that I want to hide in a hole. But I don’t ever feel that way when the others compliment me…Is this what having a Fated One feels like?

Swil: I don’t know about others, but I feel this inexplicable urge to take care of and spoil you.

Nykuro: Hahaha!  Then the great and Evil Nykuro shall let you.

*Nykuro moves over and sits in Swil’s lap then placing Swil’s hands on her head*

Swil: *furiously blushing* *begins patting the head of the Nyoodle*

Nykuro: Ehehehe. Happy.