"My name is Crypt. And I followed your scent from the river to this cave. I wanted to know why a female was in my territory with no males accompanying her. Are they dead?" Crypt asked, in an almost innocent tone.
"...I never had any males accompanying me anywhere. Where is this place?" Rhaëlya continued to ask in a wary tone.
[You're in the beastworld! You need to-] started the voice in her head
"Shut up!" grumbled Rhaëlya as she massaged her temple.
Crypt closed his mouth shut before he could say anything. Looks like the pretty female was still upset with him
"Sorry, that wasn't meant for you." Rhaëlya said in an apologetic voice
"...no worries." replied Crypt, barely believing that a female apologized to a male.
"Anyway, please answer my previous question." Rhaëlya started again.
"Of course, but before that. May I know your name?" asked Crypt, curious about the name such a beauty would have
"...you can call me Bloom." Rhaëlya replied after a bit of hesitation, it's not really a lie, that's the nickname her friends gave her when they were young. Although her parents added 'Midnight' to it due to her hair color, giving her the pen name of 'Midnight Bloom' in her high school days as a small author. But those are distant memories now.
"Bloom. Such a fitting name..." mumbled the snake man before quickly replying to Bloom's question when he caught her pupils shrinking into slits.
"And we're in the Whispering Forest."
"..." well, that doesn't help much, Rhaëlya thought.
[• Whispering Forest: A magical tropical forest in the middle of the Beast continent, it houses three tribes inside it mainly the proud Peacocks, the Menelaus Blue morpho Butterflies and the Jaguars. Of course, it also has some errant beastmen of different species blending in, like the snakeman in front of you.
• Name origin: At night, the forest spirits awake and sing for the moon. And to worship their Moon Deity, they'll dance until sunset.]
Is what appeared in front of her, like a semi-transparent screen. Rhaëlya froze while reading the content of that screen. She didn't know how it happened nor how it was possible. Then she remembered all the books she's read and written before she started college and thought that it wasn't that surprising.
'See! I can still help you!' The system chirped with pride in her head.
'Alright, now tell me, what the heck am I supposed to do with this information??' She asked it.
'Well-' It tried to reply
"Where are you from? Bloom." Crypt asked her, breaking her focus on the system.
"... ... ...I forgot.." She improvised while putting on a pitiful face and using an uncertain voice that could earn her an award.
"It's alright, you don't have to force yourself!" Panicked Crypt. He also thought that it was a bit weird that she could remember her name but not her origins, unless she came up with the name on the spot or...unless she was lying.
"Ah! It's ready, here have some." He said while walking towards her with a crudely made skewer with grilled rabbit meat on it.
"Oh, thanks! What meat did you say it was?" Rhaëlya replied while stretching her hand to take it from him.
But he was too captivated with her and gave her the skewer at an awkward angle, causing her finger to touch the piping hot meat
"Tsss!" She let out due to getting burned by the meat but she still took the skewer with the other hand, she was still hungry after all.
Crypt broke out of his daze and grabbed her burned fingers before bringing them to his lips
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Let me reduce the pain." He announced before sticking out his dark purple forked tongue directly on her red burn mark, causing her to wince at the irritating sensation.
"Please don't do that!" She said while snatching her hand back, or at least trying to.
"Don't worry, my saliva has burn relieving properties since my core is made of fire." He replied calmly before continuing his treatment to her wound
She was getting truly upset. She hated being touched after she asked someone, especially a man, not to touch her.
She could feel anger building inside her stomach before feeling the familiar zaps all around her body. She did her best to control the intensity and yet
"Argh!" The snakeman suddenly let go of her hand and was covering his burned tongue, he didn't understand what happened. All he saw were thin lines resembling lightning strikes lightning up around Bloom's body and before he could react he got burned.
"Well, now that you finally let go, please don't worry. I promise you it'll go away in a few hours." She said with a sweet smile on her face.
'...my new host is a bit scary isn't she?..'
[Well, we were given someone qualified as a monster even by their standards.]
'AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME BEFORE I SPOKE TO HER?! (ＴДＴ )'
[You didn't ask.]
The system and the screen argued where Rhaëlya couldn't hear them.
Crypt was confused and his heart was aching. He has spent more than two centuries alive after breaking through the 10th level. In two centuries of living, he had never interacted with a female with the intention to bind himself through her.
But now, he didn't know how to act around one nor how to care for one. But he did know that he shouldn't upset her even more so he let her have her space.
And in two centuries of living, he had never heard of a female having an elemental blessing, unless she wasn't from here...but he went through all the continents around the beast continent, even to the Elven Forest and had never met a female like her.
There were only rumors of an island beyond the skies where females dominated the males through power, but those were merely rumors from 126 years ago.
And even if she was from there, he wouldn't care. He wants her and wants to take care of her, and that's all that matters to him. Not her origins.
.
.
.
Rhaëlya sighed before looking up at the snake man again.
"Sorry, I didn't mean for it to be that strong. Are you alright?" She asked in a softer voice
"It's not your fault, I should've listened when you told me to let go." Crypt replied while looking at her with curiosity
She felt a shiver going through her body when she saw the look in his eyes
"...what is it?" She asked him, wondering if she overdid it right now
"Those...small lightnings, what was that?" Crypt asked while also wondering if he shouldn't have asked that. He just remembered that in those rumors, that tribes' females disliked being questioned or known. They liked being shrouded in mystery.
"...." She was stunned. She forgot. She was so used to the life in the academy that she forgot that the people outside of it had no idea about Gifts. If you can even call them that.
'Quick! Divert his attention to something else!' The system chirped in her head, right then the screen appeared in front of her again
[You're thirsty. Please drink water in the next 15 minutes or we will have to force a shutdown on your body.]
'But I'm not thirsty?' She said
[Y.O.U.'.R.E T.H.I.R.S.T.Y] Insisted the screen, this time with a bright red font and a timer counting down from 15 minutes on the left corner.
"Uuh...I'm sorry but I'm really thirsty right now. Can we continue this later?" She asked Crypt, in her softest and most pitiful voice while lightly touching her lips.
"Of course, I'll go get you some water. Please wait here." He immediately rushed out of the cave afterwards. He knew she didn't want to answer, so he wouldn't ask anymore.