18 Chapter 18

As the world had changed to accept mana as part of itself, so did animals.

In every aspect, in fact, even better than humans did.

Whist humans spent years struggling to incorporate it into the cage that was society and technology. Their close proximity to nature allowed them to adapt almost as soon as it did, leaping ahead while the more intelligent primates stagnated in trying to preserve their old ways and comforts.

Humans, as egotistical and completely unimaginative as they were, simply dubbed these things Evolved Beasts.

But these things were anything but what their new titles suggested of them.

As whether human kind were to accept it or not, the world was now ruled by these beast.

Leaving but small patches of the planet for humans to survive in.

Curtis however, was not alarmed when this one closed in on Tasha.

Patched brown hues cascaded down its plumage, fading out to a light orange belly.

When one heard it's name, they would assume that it exuded a certain radiance from its visage.

But they'd find themselves quite disconcerted if they saw it face to face.

Because that Grand title that preceded the name of its species did not so much refer to a majestic visage, so much as it referred to the other meaning of the word.

Right as it fluttered over, clawed feet tapping in the ground and it's head cocked up, Curtis could spot the tell-tale characteristic of this creature.

More specifically referring to how, in the middle of its head, where its face should be, there was a space that was bereft of any feathers.

Creating a patch around its beak and eyes made of its bare wrinkled skin that resembled those on the face of an elderly.

This feature made it quite intimidating to look at, and for a time, actually scared quite a few people.

That was until some others did a research which connected its lineage to that of the domestic pigeon.

Who's only point of terror was its accuracy in hitting the unassuming person with a rain of its rear discharge.

It's evolved version did much of the same thing.

Except that with it becoming in tuned with mana, those discharges could not be washed off ones vehicle unless one used industrial acid.

And if one were ever to accidentally get hit by it on their hair, it wouldn't just end with an unpleasant visit to the washroom but an unpleasant one to the emergency room.

This didn't exactly mean that there was no threat from it. If disturbed it had the ability to shoot the things it usually shot backwards... forwards.

Both of which were extremely dangerous to a person's well-being almost as much as they were disgusting.

But it was quite the docile creature in general.

Much like its original counter parts, it gathered towards people who offered it some food.

It used to be bread, but now that Curtis zoomed in on him, she saw that it was looking at a piece of white meat that was pinched between Tasha's thumb and index finger.

Coming closer, it gave the piece a test peck of sorts, checking out if there was anything wrong with it.

Seeing that nothing happened, the Grand Pigeon came closer once more before repeating the process.

Only after the third time did it seem comfortable enough to tear off a piece from between Tasha's fingers.

Jerking its head upwards so that the piece would jump up and fall down into its wide open beak and welcoming throat.

All the while, Tasha's hand shifted lower and lower until he placed the piece on the ground and let it draw even nearer to show he didn't mean any hostilities and was offering the piece to it.

It only tilted its head twice while looking at Tasha before advancing on the piece, neck bent downwards to reach for it.

Now Tasha's hand reached out above its lowered head, which made it jerk back a little before it felt Tasha gently stroke it from between its wings, down its neck and up its head.

Curtis stayed at the side line, jaw open and amazed by the scene.

She'd seen a lot of people do things, but she'd never seen an evolved beast, including the docile ones, come to any person so easily.

She couldn't tear her eyes off the serene interaction between boy and nature.

Which lasted about 5 seconds.

The next thing she saw was his hands blur around its neck and the conclusion in which it became bent at an angle she wasn't sure it was supposed to be able to bend at.

She, like the bird was frozen for a moment, unable to figure out what the heck had just happened.

The bird being the recipient of the action, figured it out first.

It's body went from standing, to sprawled in a weird shape as it spasmed uncontrollably.

It's feathers flying about as it thrashed on the ground.

It's discharge came a little late. Though probably not in the form of an unfortunate incident or attack, but in that of a life form having to come to terms with its very sudden and painful mortality.

It stopped twitching a few minutes later, finally relenting to this cruel turn of events.

Curtis who stood inside was still trying to make sense of it.

He slid the door open and walked in as if nothing had happened.

All the while her eyes never left the bird, from when it stopped moving, to it being picked up... and even now as it moved through her apartment in his hands.

She forced a smile onto her face as she tried her best to say, "Whatcha got there... Buddy?"

He stopped, looked at the table and looked up at her in wonder, as if it was the most ridiculous question in the world, just before he answered in the same indifferent tone he always had.

"Breakfast"

"Umm..." somehow she found herself nodding to his matter of fact tone while uttering this statement.

Tasha seeing that she was somewhat satisfied with the answer entered the kitchen quickly.

Curtis simply sat down in the table, with her smile still stuck on her face.

At some point just now, she'd come to understand something.

She should really stop being surprised so much.

Honestly, with all she'd found out in the last few days, a little thing like how he killed that bird so simply and so emotionlessly was one of the more normal things she'd found out about him anyway.

She figured that if this was what life would have in store from now on, she might as well be more open minded... at the very least it'd save her heart from going through unnecessary spikes of cardio from time to time.

As she picked up a piece of the poultry which was going from hot to warm in front of her, she noticed the little piece which was torn off before she got here.

She wasn't sure why, but she began to wonder where it went.

Thinking back about the meat Tasha was baiting that pigeon with.

The puzzle and it's piece was right there in front of her, but something still unsettled her heart.

Like something was missing.

She looked around and spotted the trash can near the kitchen door.

Shuffling towards it, sweat began to drip down her forehead.

Looking inside, she figured out what she'd been trying to find out.

Right there, in the center of a very clean trash can, was the head of another Grand Pigeon.

In her mind, that kid morphed into a semblance of Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd the demon barber to the Pigeons.

Luring them in with the flesh of their own kind, cooking them to perfection and restarting the cycle over and over again.

...

Despite knowing how the meal was caught, she finished breakfast without much problem aside from when she tried to swallow her food.

Tasha sat on the other side and quietly and cleanly finished his food.

While he did so, she put her books on the table and slid it to him.

He looked down at the books and then up at her questioningly.

"Well since we want to enroll you, I thought it best if I helped you prepare for it..."

He continued to look at her without any signs of understanding, which confused her at first until she realized that she hadn't even told him anything they'd discussed about these past few days.

"...Got it?" She finished about 40 minutes later.

Still she was met with his blank stare.

She really wondered how those before her communicated with this kid.

"...great, ok so you gotta pick one and I'll help you form it today." She decided to just continue on.

Looking at both, he decided on the Sword-hand.

Sitting in front of Curtis, he began to focus on the mana being formed by his core.

Gathering it and solidifying it to form a ring around his core in the shape of the diagram laid out in the book.

Inch by inch it began to form the shapes of the runes inlaid between two lines.

But before he wasn't even a third of the way there, he found himself exhausted of mana.

It was a higher grade of ritual spell compared to the previous day's after all.

Expecting it to form as easily as the ones in the textbook was simply wishful thinking.

But this was exactly where Curtis came in, filling him up directly with her own mana.

Which was easier said than done.

Like a finger print, the mana inside each person's mana core was very specific to them.

They would absorb the mana from outside and filter it to enter their own core.

If she simply pushed all her mana in, he wouldn't be able to absorb anything at all as his core would reject it.

In the end it would just cause his mana core to bloat from all that it has absorbed excess and burst like a balloon.

For his core to accept it, she needed to push her mana out, mix it with a little of the world's mana and then supply it to him.

This was a method most big families used to help their youth grow faster.

But the higher the ring's grade as well as the level they were tackling, the more taxing it became for the people helping.

Big families would have several Grand mages help in turns when one of their Apprentices wanted to form a ring.

Luckily since their levels were so far apart, it'd only last a minute at most before Tasha's ring began to form and filled to the brink with Curtis's mana

Contrary to her expectations however, it showed no signs of stopping after 1 and a half minutes.

Then 2.

Then 3.

She started becoming wondering after the 5th minute.

By the 10th minute she altogether cut the connection.

With how much she put in they could form a 5th Acolyte ring.

Checking inside him however, there wasn't a single ring in sight.