15 Basement

Ella observes the person in front of her who has blood all over his black clothes. He has jet black hair and black eyes which seem to be filled with worry and surprise. 

His neck which her teeth were in had two little holes, dripping some blood from it. Strangely, he smells sweeter than anything she has smelt before.

'What am I?' She weirdly thinks of the boy's question.

Her teeth which had been dipped into the boy's flesh previously, she tried to touch them. It was sharp. It wasn't like her original teeth at all. 

She eventually realized she could not see the blonde-haired boy in her room, so she narrowed her eyes and tried to look down on her tummy, which she thought had a hole there.

However, it was gone.  All she could see was that she was uninjured, not even a scar existed on her tummy, but the hole on her dress is proof that it really happened.

'But how?' It surprised her.

Shadow looked at the girl in front of him, she was surprised about herself.

'At least I guess my blood managed to do something to save her,' the boy was relieved.

"What's happening to me? Why do you smell so sweet and who are you?" her voice trembles while asking all sorts of questions that pop up into her mind. 

Due to her taste loss, she managed to distinguish some taste from how it smells with the help of doctors. It was the first to really taste what 'sweet' is.

"My name's Shadow my lady" he spoke in a calm voice to the girl.

"Shadow?" With her blood-red eyes, the girl glanced at him. She suddenly remembered what her mother said. 'So it's a person?'

Shadow told her, with a soft voice who seems to have remembered the good old days from years ago, "You don't know me, but since before my lady was adopted I have been working under Anna."

"Mum, she told your name before!" Ella exclaimed.

"She did?" Shadow spoke like he wasn't expecting it.

Ella was happy that somebody her mom told her was coming up to her. Trusting him due to her mother's words, she told him the words Anna said before the call was cut.

"I am sure the master will try her best to come back, I have been ordered to protect my lady" even though he wasn't ordered by Anna she lied to ease the trembling little girl. 

While telling her that he was feeling guilty about not being able to protect her, he continues to explain what just happened since he comes in to see her.

"I do not know what is happening to you but I saw your injury started healing when you drank my blood and about the smell, do I smell sweet, or is it my blood?" he questioned her back while he answered her questions.

Ella approached him without fear while Shadow just stayed without moving to let the girl do whatever she wished.

Ella sniffed him first then the side of his neck, which she had previously bitten. 

Shadow's blood attracts her like it was some sort of food. She couldn't control herself, she bit down his neck again making Shadow surprised.

"My lady??" he asked the girl who dug her fangs in his neck and drank it like a juice box.

It took a while for her to stop.

"I'm full," she said as she took her teeth out of Shadow's flesh. She got flustered by her own words and actions.

"I am sorry, it just...tastes so delicious... I... have never tasted something like that before" she stutters as she tries to explain.

"Delicious? Doesn't my lady have dysgeusia?" his brain started to work when he told her that. 

Raw food, dysgeusia, it all connected somehow. Raw food must have some raw blood left in it sometimes which made the taste a little different from cooked food.

Shadow thought in confusion 'Someone who can only taste raw blood?'

"I just can taste it well for the first time in my life" Ella answered him thinking he doesn't believe her words. But Shadow doesn't care about it much since she is safe for now.

"Leaving that aside I think we should investigate why master said those words in her call and who the two were from before. My lady, you should stick near me. I am afraid I can't fail Anna another time" he told her, feeling worried that if the two from before knew that Ella is still alive they would come back for her.

'Two?' Ella thought in her mind.

Shadow started walking to her wardrobe, took a new dress since the one Ella is wearing is stained with blood and he could see her pale tummy from the hole of the dress.

"Don't worry, it is not dangerous" he said to her after giving her the dress and the shadow started to wrap around her like making a cover for her to change.

'Shadow is a shadow elementalist?' she tried to touch the shadow wrapping around her in a circle, admiring it.

After Ella changed her dress she shouted "I am done?" 

Hearing her, the shadow wrap around Ella disappears and Shadow could see her hair and her teeth were back to normal.

'Maybe it's her crest's real power? She used it without even knowing,' he made a side remark in his head about it since Ella's crest power has been able to change her hair color since she was three.

"Let's go" Shadow took Ella's hand gently and started to walk to the library in their house.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To investigate what is in the basement?" he just replied. 

Shadow knows that there is a basement connected to the library in this house. He had been there eight years ago but it was just like a hidden place which had a living room and a kitchen, nothing new.

Anna has been using it since last year and he never had permission to follow her ever since then. He saw her bringing in many big wooden boxes there. She went there almost every week.

Going down from the glass stairs Ella grabbed a part of Shadow's cloth. There was no light turned on except for the moonlight and the glass stairs felt scary for her. 

Shadow didn't say anything about it since he knew Ella was scared. He did watch him during the time he's at  their mansion.

The two got to the library by walking, Shadow didn't use his element to go there. 

He is trying to save some mana if the man and the boy from before were to come back, he needed enough mana to protect her.

Ella becomes excited to see a hidden basement she never knew existed in this house.

There's a desk and a chair that James would use when he has to do some work at home. And the couch that Anna would lay down on to read some books. 

There are more than ten bookshelves inside the library filled with books, it has two floors.

Shadow let go of her hand and started to take random books out of the bookshelves. Among the bookshelves, two bookshelves on the first floor started to open revealing a tunnel with stairs to go down. 

It is wide enough even for two cars to go inside by side. The stairs are made of stones that would sparkle in the dark. It made the tunnel bright enough for people to see in it.

"It's so pretty" words in her mind slipped.

"It's is, now let's go down" Shadow took her hand. 

They started walking down through the tunnel. It was a five-minute walk before they could see a huge door stopping them from going any further. 

The door looks like a high-tech one. When Shadow was about to get past it using his element, they could see a wide green ray of light start to pass their body from head to toe.

  The light has a little bit of warmth in it. A robotic female voice was heard after the process.

[Welcome Luna and Shadow]

'Did the door just scan us?' Shadow was taken back because he has never seen this kind of door before in the basement. He has seen these types of doors only at Fable's head base. 

The basement he has seen is just a regular room that looks like a hideout for someone to go and relax so why is it here?

The door opened, revealing something he had never expected.

"A lab?!" he exclaimed.