Morning.

When the alarm rang to wake Aonaka from his slumber, he was shocked for more than only one reason, he had never felt so attached to his bed before as In waking up would be quite easy to do so. Perhaps it was the fact that this apartment had better housing and furniture stuff? He laid there on the bed, half naked for a while while letting the alarm go on and on. Finally however he stretched himself to stand up and closed the clock with a small lacrima to power it up. His mammal friend was also doing fine, stretching both via normal movements but also using his flight. Reaching out the bed for a t-shirt on the ground the boy huffed and puffed to get himself awake. It was time to prepare for the day.

Aonaka would resort to making some omelets, veggie omelets to be exact for his breakfast, some coffee would find its way on the tray along with it and some felgreth goat cheese wouldn’t be that bad. He opened the wooden framed glass sliding door that opened to his balcony and sat on the small table there. The view from here wasn’t anything amazing, it was just town stuff, but that was enough for Aonaka as the town itself was unspeakably beautiful in his eyes. He started to cut his meal to tiny pieces and eat them while enjoying a small conversation with Panthello who would only respond with growls, snickers, an attempt at stealing the food, that would be successful. Aonaka wouldn’t even understand why the bat was stealing the food since he didn’t mind him taking some, but over the years he learned that it was the best to let the bat play around.

After his meal was done, Aonaka lit a cigarette to enjoy and damn it had felt good over the food. He stood in that position for a while finishing his coffee and smoke and then started to think about what he was going to do with his day. He could go for a job no doubt, but he didn’t know if he felt like going to a job. A small house cleaning would be nice but then again he had already done some good work around his flat and wasn’t sure what else would be necessary. So he opted to studying some of the lore of Fiore and some magic. He opened his dusty text books that he hadn’t for a while and adjusted his glasses to see better, the fingerprints on the glasses were quite annoying but Aonaka had already sat down and standing up was too much of a hassle. It was these moments that made being a beast master the best thing ever as Panthello flew to the glass cleaning kit and gently brought it to him. “You deserve a snack today my boy.” Aonaka said as he pat the mammal’s head and started to study some magic circles, healing techniques, old writings he did while he was practicing Handbeat Magic and so on.

He spent a few hours like this, buried under books but the time was flying fast. The rest of the day would prove to be interesting as he heard someone call for him outside his window. Dacol, who looked quite worried about something. “Dacol? What is it?” Aonaka would ask him from his window, but the young man only gestured him to come as if words were too hard to use and just wouldn’t come out. Aonaka put on a polar and quickly ran down the stairs to meet Dacol outside his apartment building. “Sorry to come on a notice like this, Aonaka.” the man claimed. “But the blue ball, the river entity is back and it looks... different, it’s my bad to call it a ball, its more like a child now.” Dacol exclaimed. Aonaka stood there trying to understand how he found his home place but given the situation that surely was not the important thing.

“The spirit comes out when it’s dark,” Dacol spoke as they walked through the cobbled streets. “So let’s just wait around until the sun sets, I know a good tea place, you like tea?” the man would add. Aonaka would respond to his smile with one of his own and express his liking towards tea. They would enjoy some hours of talking as Aonaka learned a lot about the town from Dacol and that Dex was fine and when finally the sun set, they both felt comfortable with each other to work together. The walk to the river wasn’t a long one, they left the gates of the town, walked down some cliffs and paths and finally reached the river when the moon was shining on the sky. Aonaka quickly realized what Dacol meant when he said that the spirit was different. It was humanoid, calmly sitting by the river.

At that moment, the spirit spoke, it spoke inside Aonakas mind and called him closer. When Aonaka started to walk, Dacol exclaimed a small panic but the beast master calmed him down. Panthello was also there, standing silently on a branch but then started to growl when Aonaka started to walk towards the figure. “Take notes, Dacol. I can hear the spirit.” Aonaka said and Dacol nodded before taking out a small notebook.

“Humans, my name is not important. I am from the past and now stuck here in this ethereal body, I was a gardener mage and after my years of service, the forest shared its mana with me so that I can stay and warn you. Please human, an old friend of mine that succumbed to evil will be here soon. Defeat him and please, give him back to me.”

Aonaka repeated everything the spirit said as Dacol took notes. The spirit faded away but Aonaka knew more would be coming soon. “Talk to Inspector Nilan if anything happens... I fear something big is coming...” Dacol said before they went their separate ways.

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