Grimoires & Masters - Chapter 12

The sun was resting under the cover of the clouds, and the wind whistled every so gently. The snow-covered valley of Auron was not as cold as the Desolate Desert, and there were flowers all over the place, sprouting from under the layers of snow.

Aoun and Elena were resting by the side of the tear-shaped lake. And Ray was busy eating the flowers that it deemed tasty.

“From now on, do not come out without permission.” Aoun seriously looked at the three little foxes. “There may be people in the forest, and you are not allowed to show yourselves.” 

Mera sadly lowered its head, and Winter nodded to him. Shuvi seemed to have no qualms whatsoever. 

“When we arrive at our destination, you can play all you want,” Elena added to the delight of all three of them. 

Winter flew over to her and rubbed its small face against hers, expressing that it was happy. Mera and Shuvi went over too to play with Elena. 

Over the days, he had learned that all of them loved her a lot more than they loved him. And it was not necessarily a good thing for him, considering that two of them were his Soul-Beasts.

After taking a little but a delicious meal, stored inside Elena’s Space-Ring, they were ready to set out for the Whispering Forest.

The three foxes turned to shades of light and entered the heart of their Masters. 

The black and white lights disappeared inside Aoun, and the crimson light entered Elena’s heart.

Aoun took out two Black cloaks from his ring and handed one to Elena. 

Their identities could not be discovered by people, or they could fall in trouble here.

Whispering Forest was part of the Wild North that belonged to no one, but it bordered the Kingdom of Dreams and the Desolate Desert of the White Winter Empire.

The for a Kingdom to border an Empire for centuries and still exist was an achievement in itself. Though White Winter had never tried conquering it, that did not mean that they had no intentions of it. And so did the other Empire that bordered this Kingdom.

One reason why The Kingdom of Dreams still existed was that it was not easy to conquer. However, the main reason was that it bordered two Empires. Any attempt from an Empire would force the other Empire to ally with the Kingdom of Dreams. They would rather have the Kingdom exist than letting it become part of the other Empire.

Aoun smiled when he saw Elena take out a mask similar to the ones Mellissa always wore. She wore it to cover half her face and then put on the hood of her cloak.

He was glad that he did not have to ask her to do it. Her beauty was ethereal, and it was bound to bring trouble to their door.

“Ready?” Elena asked, flashing a sweet smile.

“Mhm…” He nodded to her and patted her head. “Let’s go.”

Ray pranced after they both got on it, and then it sped toward the forest.

The Devil’s Den could be seen by them from over three hundred miles away. The Three Peaks disappeared in the clouds that always surrounded them, their tops not visible to any eye.

Ray stopped galloping and started trotting as soon as they entered the forest, and Aoun guided it according to the trail laid out on the map of his Grimoire. 

At the current speed, it would take them 20 hours before they would arrive at their targeted location, under the foot of Devil’s Den. And this part of the journey was no less dangerous than the Devil’s Den.

Since the only part of the White Winter connected to this forest was the Desolate Desert, any person inside this forest was unlikely to belong to their Empire. They had to stay wary of the Mercenaries, and Hunters from the Kingdom of Dreams that could be here in the outer layers of the forest.

It wasn’t long before they saw their first wild Beast in weeks. It was a stag with a thick red-coat, eating the snowgrass that was present under a tree. It had already sensed them, and it looked at them with its yellow-colored eyes as they passed by.

For a Mortal Beast, its instincts were sharp. It had sensed no hostility from them and had not bothered to run away. Or perhaps it had not dared to run away after sensing the Aura surrounding them.

The necklace was giving off the Aura of an Emperor, and a mere yellow-ranked Mortal Beast had no chance to escape from such a powerhouse.

“You don’t want to hunt it?” Elena curiously asked. 

Aoun smiled at her words and shook his head. 

“But its meat would be tasty. Yellow ranked Mortal Beasts are hard to come across.” She reminded him. 

“We already have sufficient delicacies to last us a few weeks.” Aoun sighed and then pointed to their left, deep inside the woods. 

Elena curiously looked where he pointed, searching for what he wanted to show, and under a few seconds, she finally saw a pair of fawns with their mother, playing under a tree. 

“Do you want to hunt it now?” He smiled and asked teasingly. 

“Lucky him.” She smiled brightly. 

“You are still too tender-hearted.” 

“You are the one that gave up the thought of hunting it first,” Elena replied.

“Had we been hungry, with no food on us, I would have hunted it right under the eyes of its family. Can you say the same for yourself, Princess?” Aoun whispered near her ear. 

“Of course!” She replied right away, but her words held no conviction. 

They both knew that she was incapable of doing that.

“I am surprised that you are not listening to my thoughts.” Aoun curiously said.

“Now I am…” Elena giggled and leaned her head back, stealing a sip of his lips.

Her sudden assault made his heart thump hard, and she shyly looked away from him.

The sky darkened, and the curtain of night descended on the Whispering Forest. 

In the darkness, the forest came to life. The birds sang melodies, and the predators roared and howled. 

Ray paid no attention to the Beasts that were scurrying away from the path they were taking. Nothing bothered them or crossed their path, not until late at midnight.

They happened to pass by a few camps, and people gathered near the bonfires that roasted the meat they had hunted over the day. 

It was already too late for Aoun and Elena to turn away, by the time they had realized that there were people ahead, they were discovered by the Scouts hiding up in the trees. 

Turning away was unlike the semblance of an Emperor, and would arouse the curiosity of these people for no good.

Ray walked slowly as they passed the people who were already up on their feet pensively looking in their direction. 

His heart calmed down when he saw that none of them dared to block their path. And almost all of them bowed after they had passed them. 

Even if one was not a Master, the Aura suppression of an Emperor was unmistakable. Not all the Mercenaries were Mortals, a few of them were Masters, and that explained why the presence of the Emperor Aura on him had them tremble in fear. 

Elena was fast as she grabbed the Grimoire from his hand in hers. An Emperor with a Novice Grimoire would have made these people burst out in anger. And who knew if they would have survived that. But as it was presented to them, it was an Emperor bringing his disciple out here to train or catch Beasts.

“How did we survive?” A man slumped down on his knees and panted heavily.

“We better get out of this place fast. I don’t think we have any more luck left after this…” 

Several people nodded to the mercenary’s words.

However, there were still some who had other plans. 

Half n hour later, when they were closing in on the second layer of the forest, Elena finally sighed in relief. 

“Those idiots won’t chase us, right?” She giggled. 

“Not if they want to live.” Aoun smiled and replied to her. 

The Rune inside his mind stopped revolving. It had become active right when they were passing by those camps. 

Aoun deduced that it worked as a part of his senses, and when circumstances were hard, it would start on its own. 

It was another reason why he wanted to get full control over it. He could not risk it against strong Masters. He knew that it could intimidate even Tyrants, as he had Seven and Nine tell him that on the day of his awakening. But a sheep in a lion’s clothing would die if hounds decided to stand their ground.

The second layer of the forest was darker, colder, and no birds were singing here. After entering deep inside the second layer, they came across a path with luminous fruits hanging on the trees, mostly in red and purple. 

Elena was just as curious as he was, but they both had no idea what these fruits were. And not all trees had these fruits on, only the ones on either side of their path. 

“They might be poisonous.” He stopped by a tree and reached out to grab a fruit with the purple light.

The fruit stopped illuminating as soon as he plucked it. It looked like some purple berry, but he could sense some spiritual strength from it. 

“It is probably some Spirit-Fruit.” He sniffed it, and its delicious smell made him salivate. 

He was thinking about tasting it when he saw a pair of blue eyes looking at them from behind a tree dozens of meters away. In the darkness, he could not make out its form, but the color of those eyes tightened his heart. 

Elena sensed the change in his emotions, and she looked in the direction he was looking at. 

“What is that?” She whispered. 

“No idea.” 

The Beast was not approaching them, and they did not dare to make a move either. 

They did not have the strength to contend against a Blue-Ranked Beast. And the shine in its eyes was bright, which meant that it was not a Mortal Beast. 

“It looks like some small beast.” He pointed out. “The eyes are not too spread out, and are at the front.”

Aoun calmed down a little when he sensed no hostility from the Beast. Even if it was some powerful beast, it would never be mad enough to attack a person with Emperor’s Aura.

He drew his arm back and tossed the fruit at it, hoping that it would catch it, and they would be able to see its form. 

And the Beast did catch it, but to their dismay, it was too quick and vanished with the fruit before they could have a good look at it. 

“It wanted the fruit?” Elena surprisedly asked. 

“I guess so…” Aoun wasn’t sure either. 

Now he was curious what Fruit it was, and so he plucked another one from the tree. 

“It’s back!” Elena smiled and pointed to a direction not far from where it had first appeared. 

The crystal Blue eyes looked at them again. They had not made out what that look in its eyes meant, but now they understood that it was drooling over the fruit in his hand.

Aoun threw the Fruit at it again, and just like before, it caught it and disappeared again.

“It is a small Beast.” Elena nodded. 

“Because it made no sound?” Aoun smiled and asked. 

“Mhm..” She nodded. 

Elena was interested in feeding it too, and so she plucked a few fruits from the trees and waited. 

To her delight, the blue eyes showed up again, and she threw the berries one after the other to it. 

The Beast caught them quickly, not revealing its form, but they managed to catch a shade of it. It was indeed a small beast, no bigger than one foot, and it had a long tail.

Elena was excited at it, and she wanted to see it up close. She planned on luring it close to them with a few more berries, and Aoun did not stop her. 

However, as she reached close to pluck more fruits from the tree, something terrifyingly unexpected happened. 

The Tree shook, and the fruits on it started blinking as well. 

The Beast with Blue eyes disappeared when this happened, and Aoun did not wait to see what it was. 

“Ray!” He called out to the horse, and they quickly moved out of the crowd of those trees.

Luckily, nothing attacked them or chased after them. 

The siblings decided to not stop again, no matter what. They were halfway to their destination. 

The temperature kept dropping, not that it mattered to them, and neither was it as harsh as that of the desolate desert. And just as they stepped foot inside the third and final layer of the Forest, it came to life.

Whispers, low, yet echoing, spread through the forest. The trees they passed by shivered, and those trees with luminous fruits on them blinked uncontrollably. 

They heard the cries of the beasts, fearful, and painful, but they saw not one of them. 

“The trees are alive!” Elena called out in alarm. 

“Specters…” Aoun grimly whispered. 

Specters were a class of their own in the category of Beasts. And there were several kinds of them. What this forest was filled with were Tree Spectres that were primitively old, and wickedly powerful. 

He had read about them in the library at the Palace. There were several kinds of Specters, but if one had to categorize them, they fell into two categories. Those that were stronger in the daytime, and those that were stronger in the nighttime. 

Tree Specters fell in the category of those that were stronger in the daytime. They nourished themselves in the light of the day and used the nights to rest. But that didn’t mean that they turned weak at night. 

“If even one of them is harmed, the entire forest will come after the life of the assailant.” He told Elena. “We will be safe since they have not attacked us. And look…” He pointed at the front of them, where the trees were making way for them to pass peacefully.

Elena relaxed after seeing that and sighed. 

“How long before we can reach the destination?” She asked. 

“Nine hours,” Aoun replied as he looked at the map.

“Ray,” She called out to the Beast. “Can you go faster?” 

Ray neighed to her words and started galloping. 

The speed at which they rushed forward was matched by the trees that made way for them. 

Whispers never stopped. They knew that the Specters meant no harm to them, but their rest had been disturbed by either them or someone else. And in both cases, they had to get out of there. 

The distance to be covered in nine hours was covered by Ray in less than one-third of that time. It did not hold back its speed as it rushed forward. It understood that the trees would move out of the way that they were headed, and so it stubbornly charged forward.

They escaped the forest right before Dawn, and what came before their eyes was a rocky wall. It was the foot of one of the three Devil Peaks. The forest did not stop whispering even when they were out of it, and it ascertained their guess that the Spectres were after someone.

Elena was the first to jump off Ray. She stretched out her limbs and then went forward to hug the Horse that had given its all.

“Thank you!” She gently planted the kiss on the mark on its head and brushed its mane with her fingers.

Aoun got off the horse and stretched his limbs too. 

“Brother!”

The alarmed voice of Elena surprised him, and he turned to look at her. 

“What happened?” He asked.

“Your back!” She drew her hand and pointed at him.

He could not look at his back, but he could share his sense of sight with Elena. He turned his back to her and closed his eyes. 

What he saw was a beautiful little Beast clinging on his back. It wasn’t moving and breathed softly, but what alarmed him more was that he felt no weight of it. He had no idea when the Beast had clung onto his back.

“What is it?” He carefully took off his cloak and placed it on the snow under their feet.

“Looks like a monkey!” Elena crouched near it and looked at it with sparkling eyes. "I want it!” She announced to him and made her dibs on the Beast.

“We don’t even know what it is?” Aoun reminded her.

“Doesn’t matter!” She shook her head and to his alarm, picked up the little monkey in her arms. “It’s beautiful!” 

He could feel how warm the body of that little Beast was. It was pleasant, and its scent was pleasant too. 

“Why do I only feel its warmth with my hands, and not on my arms?” 

Elena’s words led them to do some experiments on the sleeping Beast.

The creature was beautiful. Its fur was soft, and it was a foot tall, but its tail was longer than its body. It had a cute white face, and watching it sleep so peacefully made their hearts warm. 

Their close inspection led to some conclusions.

Firstly, the Beast was weightless. It simply had no weight, but it had a physical body. Secondly, it could only be felt by skin to skin contact. Clothes served as a barrier. That explained why Aoun had not discovered it. Thirdly, it was the same Beast that they had given those fruits to. As they smelt closely, its mouth still held the fragrance of those Fruits. And lastly, it was female.

“It did not run away when the Forest was disturbed.” Elena smiled affectionately and softly stroked its black coat of fur that had several white spots on it. “I will call you Chino!”

Aoun couldn’t help but smile, seeing his little sister so happy, his heart was sweet. 

He let her be and walked over to the point that was marked on the Grimoire, it was right by the side of the wall. 

There was a Teleportation Portal right under his feet, but it was hidden under a spell. 

Aoun infused some mana inside the necklace Mel had given him, and soon the gem on it let out a piercing light. 

The Portal appeared right under his feet, spanning over nearly twenty feet in diameter.

“Let’s go…” He smiled at Elena and Ray. 

As they both stepped inside the portal, he willed it, and they disappeared from the place together with the portal.