System: A Travel To The Mages' Timeline

FOUR

"Ooh…!" Acquilles made a noise, its eyes focused above normal air level.

Hagel turned to Jorin and asked him. "Wait... Did you call Acquilles?”

"No, I didn't..." Jorin replied, noticing the bird approaching his arms far from the sky.

"He called his name, but did not call him..." Tycus added, nudging his own left elbows as a sign, that he probably would have kept quiet.

"No worries, the idea you gave is valid and valuable... I think Acquilles is growing wiser these days" Hagel remarked, studying the fast pace at which the bird flew downwards, and toward Jorin's side.

"I can discern the bird coming now... Why is Acquilles acting funny though?" Jorin stated, ending it with a question.

"That is not funny actually... It is only gaining more skill in wisdom, Mr Jorin!" Tycus said, according to his own very clear intelligence.

"Yes, I agree…" Hagel rejoined.

"Skill in wisdom?" Jorin asked Tycus.

"Yes... what I meant was... ways of using its wisdom. Hawks can fly high, but eagles can fly higher, soar, and can also use more different styles in flight than Hawks do" Tycus explained.

"Now, I get your point!" Jorin exclaimed in agreement and understanding.

"What can hawks do to help us..." Hagel started to ask, but Tycus tried to cut in.

"Erm... but, hawks..." he was saying, before he stopped and realized he was actually trying to interrupt a Contra Sangue Lord.

"Hawks, what?" Hagel asked him.

"Nothing, Lord..." Tycus returned calmly.

"No, I actually want to hear from you!" Hagel stated.

"What were you going to say about hawks, Tycus?" Jorin then asked Tycus, planning to avoid him from getting punished for little intelligence, at that moment.

"Happy! Hawks cannot help us at this period... The last hawk I saw when I was in Birchensburg bit me hard, even though I had saved him from injury in a dark fight with some monsters..." Tycus began to explain, but then Hagel caught a word from it.

"monsters, you said?" He asked Tycus.

"I think there are monsters here, as well... I can sense their movement, Lord..." Jorin suddenly cautioned.

"I can also sense that, Master Hagel... Did we by any chance call them, sir?" Tycus faced the Night Contra Sangue, and asked.

"No, we really didn't..." Hagel replied, so curious about the discernment of strange monsters there.

"Eww!" was heard from the sky. So, the three of them looked up and expected Acquilles to prepare its flying down, to rescue them from the monsters sensed to be around.

"What's that? My thought is... the eagle..." Tycus suggested, stalking forward the other two Contra Sangues, to set a smooth proximity and ensure they all had heard Acquilles.

"Should we call the eagle down here, sir?" Jorin asked Hagel.

"Should we, sir?" Tycus rejoined.

"Maybe we can do that... but hold on, while I think out some things" the Night Contra Sangue instructed.

"Alright, Lord!" Jorin agreed.

As Hagel closed his eyes, thirty monsters were seen by him, though he was not visualizing all he saw. When he noticed three of them as the familiar set of monsters, he sighed and opened his eyes again.

He spread his two legs, drew the other two Contra Sangues backwards and held his both hands up, trying to meditate more on what he had seen.

But then, Tycus screamed, "Oh! Oh whack you to death!"

"What's wrong?" Jorin asked him, almost getting afraid like a baby. He was even about to nudge Hagel by his left, but was tapped.

"Beasts or monsters?" Hagel asked the two, after opening his eyes another time.

"Beasts!" Tycus hollered in response, turning himself back to the spot he had seen a very large beast winking slowly at them.

"Then, let Acquilles be here!" Hagel ordered them.

"By now?" Jorin asked.

"Yes, Jorin!" Tycus replied, raising his wet eyes up to the clouds.

Right as he lifted his face, Jorin noticed Tycus's eyes; he spotted the watery part of it and asked him, "I hope you're all right, Tycus? No offense... asking about your ocular health..."

"I wonder why it's been running some liquid for hours now..." Tycus replied, as he brought down his face.

"Now, you are free with us..." Hagel said, having marked Tycus's sudden switch to word contractions.

"Free, you mean what sir?" Tycus asked Hagel, looking directly into his face, as a watery substance dropped off his eyes as if he was sobbing.

"It is good, repeat that!" Hagel said to test him.

"It's good!" Tycus exclaimed in reply, expecting to be correct.

"I understand, what Master means is that, you're hiding some sounds in your words now... like saying 'I'm' instead of 'I am,' you get me now?" Jorin explained to Tycus and asked him at the same time.

"Now, I understand..." Tycus commented.

Suddenly, something cut short his words, making the three Contra Sangues sigh, as they all turned their heads forward.

It was Tycus who sighted the beast bird that made the noise, so his eyelids flickered, trying to confirm he had seen what he thought he saw; none of them was expecting to visualize anything save the presence of either a vampire, or Acquilles the eagle.

"Here is a beastly bird!" He hollered, shrugging immediately to avoid the others from knowing.

"Beastly bird, you say?" Jorin questioned.

"Isn't that Acquilles?" Hagel suggestively asked.

"No, sir... Acquilles is not here at all. I can sense a contention with some stronger beast birds..." Jorin returned.

"Stronger? What bird is stronger than the eagle in height, power and acuity?" Tycus wittily raised.

"Acquilles is an... that's true..." Hagel blabbered, smiling to stop a strange and sudden fear which rose from within her.

"This environment will soon be darker than it is now.” Jorin explained, his suggestion in detail. “I feel we have to leave, after meeting with Acquilles maybe, sir…”

"Do you know we can do perfectly well, even in the darkest of nights?" Hagel asked them wisely.

"Darkest of nights..." Tycus repeated, showing he got caught by the wit in the statement.

"But, before we prepare anything like mediation, don't let us forget Acquilles, the eagle," Jorin suggested calmly. “That's what came to my mind just now.”

"Acquilles must be safe, but it must also know how to see well in this upcoming dark weather!" Hagel declared very loudly that Acquilles itself heard, right on the tree where it patched gently. “Everything must go just as planned.”

"The Night Contra Sangue is right here with us!" Tycus hailed Hagel, drawing his hands toward Jorin to make him submit to the same agreement.

And the silence began to crack and twist off the space, again.

“Why the sudden change of weather?” Hagel was full of questions, but none of his subjects could give him the right answer. “I hope we are totally safe, anyways.”