Consume

Eventually Azalu felt the creature starting to move around which meant it was waking up. Azalu had said she wanted to leave at first, but now she wanted to stay. It was like the instinct of a mother that kept her there, this creature probably couldn't even defend itself. "I'll just teach it and get some information." Telling herself that she watched the creature open up it's eyes and look directly at her blankly for a few seconds. Waving her wing around Azalu probably figured it was best if she returned to a more normal look. Flames grew around her in a flash as she disappeared and was replaced by Relia's form.

"Nice to see you finally awake, I'm sure you were quite tired. Feeling well rested now, little one?"

Surprise filled its small eyes as it looked at Relia change before it's eyes.

"How...Relia?"

"Just a little trick I can do, I'm sure you'll learn to do similar eventually. In fact I kind of want to teach you how to do some of these things. If I had to take a guess you're running from people aren't you?"

The creature nodded its head as it looked at Relia, she was very similar to the girl in her memory but she noticed something different. "Bad memory." Its memory was far from perfect with only bits of pieces that it had taken from Xilo so it was probably the cause of the weirdness. Watching the creature agree with her words, Azalu tried to think of what she wanted to do first. "I guess speech is the most important." Talking out a stick from some of the branches she had lying around Azalu started to write on the ground. For the next couple hours she wrote down a bunch of basic things that the creature picked up fast. "It's really smart." Which meant there was a good chance this creature had started off as a human before changing.

"Hey, do you have a name of any sorts?"

"Name..No. I haven't talked to people. They all just try to kill me whenever they see me. Astral Beasts also fear me for some reason so...."

"I see, well I can fix that then."

Looking at the creature she saw some obvious signs that it was female.

"How about the name Yanyan? Like the sound of it?"

The creature tilted her head to the side hearing that name, it didn't really know what to think about the name but it was something.

"Yanyan....alright. That sounds good."

Azalu didn't hear much excitement in her voice when she said that. "She doesn't really have emotions does she." Yanyan never talked with anger or joy. It was all just monotone blank words that were completely neutral. "I guess I can ask a bit about her past now." Since Yanyan had mostly figured out how to talk, Azalu figured she could get some answers. Bringing up how she got here Yanyan talked about everything she had done. All by herself she had been chased to the ends of the world as an Astral Beast. The parts she had on her body were also apparently gained from consuming Astral Beasts that had actually fought her along the way. "So...she consumes them and grows with it?" That was what it seemed like at least."

"When you consume an Astral Beast do you gain it's abilities or just parts of it?"

"Just parts...I think. I don't really know why but I feel this hunger whenever I look at any living thing. Even when I look at you I have this feeling of wanting to eat you. Usually I can hold myself back, however it's a struggle if I'm really hungry."

Azalu was reminded about XIlo's strange habit as well when he took Astral Beasts parts. "Are they similar?" Feeling a presence of a weaker Astral nearby, Azalu summoned a fire ball and shot it straight at the animal. She would have left it alone normally but she wanted to test some things out with Yanyan. Going out to grab it quickly she returned with a small dead fox and presented it to Yanyan to eat. Yanyan stared at it greedily as she reached out and practically ripped it from Azalu's grip without a second thought. "Aggressive." Taking note of her strength she watched Yanyan devour the thing entirely in seconds without a problem. "Well then." After a few seconds passed by, a small fox tail grew out of her back.

Opening her eyes wide in surprise, Azalu didn't think it would happen so soon.

"Can you control how or what part grows Yanyan?"

"No..It just goes wherever it wants to and I don't know how to get rid of them. These kind of things just make people hate me more....I don't like them."

It was still that same old bland tone but Azalu noticed a hint of sadness lurking underneath this time. "She consumes and adapts them to her body." If that was the case then was she really a human from the start. "Or has she consumed humans?" If she consumed humans that would explain the lack of knowledge she has along with others things. "How does she know Xilo though." Pondering inside of her head Azalu gave up thinking about it and just asked Yanyan. That was only way she would get anywhere.

"So Yanyan, do you mind if I ask how you know about Xilo and even me?"

Yanyan paused for a moment before speaking.

"I ate Xilo and gained some of his memories in the process."

"You killed him!?!?"

She was shocked to hear Xilo had died like that but it didn't make any sense, he wouldn't die so easily.

"No. We fought when I was still growing down in that abyss. He managed to defeat me but not before I ripped off a part of his body. Thanks to his power I was able to survive and gain some knowledge. When I was down in that abyss the people who created me only gave me Astral Beasts to constantly feed on and get stronger with. He set me free."

Trying to explain herself the best she could Yanyan sensed Relia's panic when she said she consumed a part of Xilo.