The group of four – three hawks and a human – arrived safely back at Haven. Sylphie stuck to Jake the entire time as he carried her on the flight. She was awfully quiet the whole way, and he was pretty worried about her.
Once they got back, she didn’t leave him but stayed cradled in his arms. Jake just sighed as he went to his porch and sat down. The two parent-birds joined him as they also looked worriedly at Sylphie. Nobody said anything, Perhaps it was just Jake being callous, but he believed this was something she had to work through herself. Whatever she was working through.
In the end, she looked up at him questioningly. Jake wasn’t sure what she wanted but just rubbed her feathers a bit. She blinked and made a quiet screech. Shaking his head, not understanding what she wanted, Jake could only keep petting her in reassurance as she was figuring stuff out.
“Just do whatever you think will make you happy.”
That was all the advice he gave her. She ruffled a bit at his words and seemed more content as she got up, looked at him one more time, and flew up to land on his head.
Not what I had in mind, but okay.
He just shrugged and took out his cauldron, deciding he may as well get some crafting in as they were relaxing. He was getting closer to level 130, and he would soon use the upgrade item on his boots, but not yet. While he had resigned himself to not reaching 130 before the Treasure Hunt… he would get as close as possible.
Jake had barely begun his crafting when Sylphie on top of his head just… disappeared. He was alarmed for a moment, but quickly he understood – she was going to get her stat-boost thing.
While she was already technically D-grade before, reaching level 100 remained such a spike of power, it still required one to enter that evolution space. Jake smiled, and Mystie and Hawkie also looked happy.
Go get them stats, Sylphie.
Sylphie had gone to the evolution space, but also somewhere else. She took a pitstop as she experienced something many other unique or powerful individuals did around evolution-time. Because the time for evolution was a time where access was most easily established. The foundation based on Records was expanded, and it was a great time of change.
And when Sylphie got the message, she didn’t see any reason to say no. The wind – still present in the evolution space – whispered that it was a good thing, so why should she?
*Stormild has invited you to her realm. Accept?*
She did think Stormild was a bit of a weird name, though.
At first, she couldn’t hear or see, only feel her surroundings. She thought it was very windy, which was nice. She liked the wind. Oh, but then it got hot. She didn’t like that; it reminded her of the bad biggest eagle… oh, but then it got tingly. That reminded her of the lightning that dad made, so it was nice again.
Sylphie finally opened her eyes.
BIG!
That was her first thought as she saw the figure before her.
The wind was blowing, space burned, and everything crackled with energy. In front of her, a figure spanning the cosmos floated as it looked down at her with eyes the size of stars. The entire shape of the being was everchanging but always seemed to revert to that of an avian. Perhaps that was the chosen form the god had decided to adopt the majority of the time.
All of this was lost on Sylphie, who only cared about the bird-like thing looking big and feeling super strong. She wasn’t sure if the big bird was as strong as Uncle, though. Uncle was super strong, after all. But then again, the biggest eagle would only look like a tiniest eagle in front of the big bird of wind and fire and lightning.
Uncle still stronger, she affirmed. Mom and dad had told her that how someone felt was super important. Uncle felt stronger than the big glowy wind-bird, so he had to be stronger, right? Well, this bird did feel stronger, stronger, but it didn’t make her feel scared. Uncle didn’t either, of course. Uncle just always felt strong.
thought all this as she stared up into the big glowing bird-eyes. The bird-eyes stared back
…
…
at each other. Sylphie was the first to get
scared or anything. She knew the big birdie couldn’t hurt her. Why? Well, the weird wind and fire passing through her
made a weird booming sound that wasn’t at all a proper bird sound. Well, it wasn’t really a bird. It was more like
thing was super-much bigger and super-much stronger. And on
she happily flapped her wings in response and screeched back. Dad and
bird seemed nice and even asked her a few questions. Oh! Oh, big bird knew Uncle too! That made sense, Uncle
that shifted and shrunk until it looked almost to be the size of the biggest eagle. Then, it lowered the talon
have received a Lesser
WHAT!?
SYLPHIE WASN’T LESSER!
as Patron? All faith-based skills, titles, and Blessing will be
YEAH!
Stormild was the big bird’s name – she just pieced that together now –
“REEE! REEE! REE!”
it clear just how rude it was to do that. Finally, the big bird seemed to recognize its mistake, and after a moment of confusion, it made another
again
received a Major Blessing by the
big bird, so that one didn’t suit her at all! The big bird was major, not Sylphie, as Sylphie was a small bird. What if it
she made that one go
looked confused as Sylphie didn’t feel like she needed to give any explanation. Her logic made sense; it was
to say no to a gift, but wasn’t
at Sylphie. Sylphie gave it a good screech, explaining how
a Greater Blessing by the Primordial
NO!
Stormild as Patron? All faith-based skills, titles, and
SYLPHIE ISN’T FAT!
indignation and anger. Sylphie wasn’t a fat bird! Uncle never said Sylphie was too heavy, and she was super fast too and not
just silently looked down on her and took her complaints in. Then it made another booming noise that
wanted, but not the best one. Big shiny lightning bird only had one
said to just
ree ree,
as Sylphie. She was polite like that. She also made sure to
was a yes or no. Either way,
talking with Sylphie. She asked silly stuff, and Sylphie happily answered. Big bird asked a lot about Uncle, but also about Sylphie herself. That made sense. Both Sylphie and Uncle were
did she need to ask such an easy question to answer? Big bird Stormild listened and seemed satisfied by her answer
final talon poke as it popped up with a new
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