Flying Eyes
"Wowo! Enatsu! Your eyes!" Yoichi exclaimed, impressed, taking a step back and ready to admire Sora's skill used by its tamer.
"See? It's nice, isn't it? The eyes of this colour make me look... stronger! It's a glorious feeling!" Enatsu replied, who from that moment on began to see the Bronzeforest from above, as if it was inside Sora's mind.
"Tweet! Tweet, tweeet!" the parrot demon chirped, flitting through the trees and swirling on itself, swooping to the ground and then rising back into the air.
"It's beautiful! What... what do you see? With this skill, you can send Sora forward and avoid dangerous situations! Although it's not a very useful skill during a fight, I think it's perfect as a utility!" Yoichi affirmed with conviction, beginning to enter that complex mechanism, excited to learn what the other tamers' demonic skills were.
"That's right. You get it perfectly! Sora and I have never fought together, I'm too afraid it can get hurt. I wouldn't stand it! The Waromu are used by the lookouts of my village's control towers beyond the mountains, in Silvertide," Enatsu explained, moving his head from side to side, though nothing was interesting in front of him apart from his friend.
"Oh, look at that. It looks like someone's fighting just outside Ambershire... it's a perfect opportunity to show you how it works, let's go!" the young merchant continued, whose eyes suddenly returned to their original color.
"Ambershire? Where is it? Is it far from Goldhaven?" Yoichi asked, thinking back to the quest assigned to him by the bloody writing. "Remember, I have to tame a demon as soon as possible and..."
"Don't worry, it'll take only a moment! After witnessing some fighting, we will immediately go to Goldhaven. Ambershire is on the road!" Enatsu said, speeding up the pace.
The two adventurers continued to follow the path between the chirping of birds that populated the forest and the sound of water flowing into several streams that engraved the soil somewhere beyond the oak trees.
In the distance, after walking for about 30 minutes, behind a hill, some white houses appeared, adorned with gold-coloured domed roofs.
"Behold, we're almost there! You'll see, you will love Ambershire! It's one of the nicest places to visit, especially if you don't know the area! In ancient times, it was a trading hub of the city of Goldhaven and served to increase the effectiveness of their distribution network of goods of all kinds in the rest of the Tentochu region," Enatsu insisted, beginning to speak out of the blue.
"I understand... well, maybe I should summon Kenji, don't you think? Ah, and then... I have another question for you..."
"Yeah? What is it?"
Before responding to Enatsu, Yoichi stopped, and after a long breath, making sure there were no passers-by nearby, he uttered his Oracle's real name aloud.
"Ildriss! Grr... ouch!" he exclaimed, beginning to feel the burning in his chest at the very moment when the last syllable of that word was pronounced.
*swiishh*
A reddish air stream began to swirl, twirling from the ground upwards, carrying dust and small shrubs. After a few seconds, it materialized into a solid, well-defined body, which fell to the ground on all fours, without making any noise, like a true feline.
"Screeek!" Kenji cheered happily, waking from its sleep and breathing the fresh forest air into its lungs.
"Hey! Here you are, little guy... aargh... can I know what you've done in here? It hurt me a lot..." Yoichi said out of breath, sweating from his forehead and rubbing his chest, waiting for that painful feeling to vanish.
"Screek?"
"Never mind, it's not your fault... don't worry, buddy", the young tamer continued, believing that that strange phenomenon would subside with a little practice.
"Are you all right?" Enatsu asked while he watched the scene from afar. "You said you wanted to ask me something, didn't you?"
"Ouch... yes. Mmh... okay..." after clearing his voice and straightening his back, Yoichi began to speak again. "You seem to know all the ins and outs about the demons' skills, even about those who aren't on your team... how do you do that?"
"Ahaha! Good question, my friend! Well, I happen to have studied a lot from my father's bestiary! I almost memorize it!"
"Bestiary? What is it?" Yoichi inquired, who had never heard that word.
"The bestiary is a book, Yoichi, or better... is 'the' book. If you really want to become a tamer and join a Guild, you absolutely have to start studying it! It contains all the information regarding demons known to man: their skills, their evolutions, their strengths and weaknesses... oh, even the location of their centre of gravity, which is the point you have to hit to imprison them in a Demon Tooth! Everything about demons is written in the bestiary, which is produced by Tentochu's most experienced tamers and updated once a year," Enatsu replied, trying to be as precise as possible.
"Mmh... then I should buy one..." Yoichi thought aloud, touching his chin and watching Kenji walk proudly beside him out of the corner of his eye.
"Let's say it's not very cheap, ehehe! As I said, I always used my father's, who received it as a gift from his old instructor... I have never been able to accumulate the money to buy one of my own..." Enatsu interrupted, speaking for the first time of a member of his family, with his gaze pointing to the ground.
Yoichi caught a glimpse of the resentment in that sentence and avoided asking about his father or family, merely nodding his head and storing that information.
"Then can you tell me what Kenji's skill is?" he suddenly asked, smiling at his friend and trying to lift his spirits.
"Um... the Nekages are fire and earth type, so if I'm not mistaken, as a first levels' skill, they should be able to strengthen an area of your body with scales..." the trader answered, trying to remember.
"Oh, which means? Like a hand or a foot?"
"Yes, such a thing. During your first fight, simply order Kenji to activate its ability and think intensely about the point of your body you want to enhance. Or at least, this is the general theory that works for all demons," Enatsu concluded.