7 Ball?

With the sun shining so brightly at the sky, the humid wind passes through the gaps in the leaves, making them move as if to partner them with a dance.

In the forest where only the sunlight could pass through the gaps in the leaves, there was a child or rather a baby humming.

"Hmm~"

The tone was somewhat joyful and all but there was nobody to listen to it. As the child that wore clothes that hang around his waist, he looked like a baby version of barbarians. The child's skin was white and he had gray hair to go with his little blue eyes.

Although to the people that lived in this colorful forest was familiar with him, thanks to his delicious mana, the people of the outside world will definitely be shocked when they see a baby like him.

After walking for a while, the child that was humming a joyful tone came to a stop. The land that he stopped on was the same place where he made a mark on the ground, the place where his training began.

Training might be the word but he only had one day experience under his belt so he didn't really know what to do.

The child's teacher, Lyra, wasn't with him today to help him as she was taking part of the meeting as the village head's daughter.

The child, Desire, began to wonder about whether to continue learning the magic: water or another magic altogether. As he was having a problem deciding, he remembered the words of his teacher or rather, the person that was becoming special for him after she said those words.

"I just have to learn the magic that suits me."

Desire nodded his head and soon he began his thinking on what kind of magic will suit him.

"I don't have one, don't I?"

Indeed, even if he wanted to find something that suits him, there's no way he would find it that easily. After all, he was only baby, a one month old or something at that. There are no memories of him using something that felt natural to him.

"Ah!"

Then suddenly, he remembered he had something that he could call his own.

"Summoning!"

Summon Familiar is a skill that he gained after coming across a small altar. It was a skill that came in with its own advantages and disadvantages as it uses his life force. Simple as it may be, he didn't see someone use a summoning skill so he thought that perhaps…

"I haven't considered using it as it uses my life force but even though it's small, I have something that could be called as mana now."

The reason why Desire put off the use of his summoning despite knowing that it saved him is that, for him the summoning isn't really reliable. Taking his life force, he would collapse after its use.

The most likely biggest factor of why Desire didn't use it since then is that the familiar took on a human's form.

'There's no way I would use that when it is a human!'

Are his true thoughts on the familiar.

But now…

"I just have to confirm it with him don't I?"

Having learned his lesson of not all monsters look like one, what with his environment of Suckus, he decided to just confirm it with the familiar himself.

Having hardened his resolve, he held out his hand in front. With the help of the system that manages the skills, he knew how to use it even in sleep.

He shouted out,

"Summon!"

Right after that, the ground in front of him produced a black smoke thick enough to suffocate any man.

The black smoke swirled in front of Desire but unlike before, it wasn't large enough to encompass the entire area. Instead, this time's black smoke swirled only in front of Desire and soon it formed a shape.

The black smoke that formed the shape soon changed into a blue color. The blue color then parted and with it, emerged a blue ball large enough to match Desire's height…

The ball may be as tall as Desire but…

"Grrr!"

It immediately let out a menacing growl with its mouth nowhere to be found. The blue ball, as bouncy as it may seem to be, looked around with its non-existent eyes.

Desire who summoned it was shocked. Shocked at the fact that…

"Whoa! A monster! "

A monster has come out to answer his call.

"Hey, can you talk?"

"…"

The blue ball didn't answer but Desire felt the blue ball was 'looking' at him. He could instinctively feel it. He began inspecting the blue ball with his fingers, poking here and there but the ball didn't react.

"So you can't? Hmm that's troubling…"

It was troubling for Desire that the ball couldn't talk. After all the reason why he summoned a familiar was so he could ask about his race and try out his limits. Even the baby who would usually give his all attention to a monster couldn't help but feel bad about it.

As if to console Desire, the blue ball expanded and pulled Desire inside its soft and fluffy body.

Desire didn't resist the pull of the mysterious creature; he knew that it is his ally. He thought that the system is convenient in so many ways.

Surprisingly, Desire didn't find the inside of the ball as suffocating or uncomfortable at all; in fact it was relaxing.

The ball then bounced off with Desire in his body. He was twice his original size now with Desire inside him but it didn't seem to disturb him at all.

"Hahaha this is fun!"

With his speed, they went around the forest and Desire was laughing. He found it to be fun to see the world while inside a monster.

'It's almost as if I've gone back in time!'

Desire also remembered the feeling and the sights that he used to see before. He felt nostalgia at remembering the fleeting moments that he used to have while inside his mother's womb.

****

While Desire was having his fun, the village was proceeding their meeting smoothly. The village head, Liya and her daughter, Lyra was sitting on the center while the women talked in front of them.

The topics were mostly about the necessities that they don't have anymore and also what they should do as a village and the all-important marriage of Liya.

"What will we do about the marriage?"

"Although we would like if the village head gets married as soon as she likes, the danger still exists."

"That's right. We have to be wary."

Liya sighed. She didn't think that the village will strongly support her marriage with Desire even though he was but a baby. Their village doesn't really do marriage as they just take the seeds of men from other races. The only ones who do marriage are those that could be called as a representative. In her village, that would be her daughter, Lyra.

"Lyra, you're the one who brought Desire here didn't you? Why don't you marry him?"

"But you're the one he proposed to, mother. I can just be his second wife you know?"

As a race, they aren't that strict with marriage. With their origins being a succubus, one could guess how they view marriage.

As the women were talking about the marriage of their village head, the sound of the branches of the tree expanding could be heard. The rustling of leaves was brought by the wind. The village head's house was the one closest to the colorful trees, with the house resting on the trees themselves.

The women who were talking shut their mouth as the door glowed a green light. After some time, the light dimmed as it opened.

"T-terrible!"

A Suckus came running in with her out of breath. The surrounding women tried to calm her down and the woman expanded her lungs as she took in and out the air. As soon as she finished, she spoke.

"Fire! The humans are starting the fire again! It's already in the rivers and it's so big it engulfs the sky from here!"

The news she brought put pale faces on the merry women who were just discussing a marriage. Even the village head Liya had her face without the usual color. As she repeated the words spoken by the woman, she gave orders.

"Look for the humans responsible for this and see if we could put out the fire! Hurry!"

The Suckus were always hunted down by humans with the pretext of being abominable creatures. As such, they know how to handle this kind of situation. The women soon got their wits back as they responded to Liya's words.

"Y-yes! I'm sorry but you will guide us there!"

"Call for the others!"

"Gather the ones who were hunting and have the whole village meet up at the plaza!"

The women who could be called the pillars of this village gave out their orders to the younger ones. The ones who received the order moved their feet as fast as possible for every second counts.

Lyra as well has been mobilized to gather the village at the place which they call the plaza. At this busy meeting of the women, one woman had a dark expression on her face.

It was the woman most trusted by the villagers and the most powerful of them all, Liya.

She remembered the time when she used all of her mana just to calm the fire the humans have set before and now, without even a month passing, another one has started.

'Will I be able to put out another great fire?'

She thought to herself as the possibility of her failure comes to her mind.