The wooden bird

Samson look down from the window, confused. This body eyesight was good and just now there were plenty of people down there. Samson was ecstatics at the sight of people.

One must understand that he has not talk with anyone for 2 weeks now, his desire for communication has reached its peak. Not only that, those men down there could gives him some precious information, a thing he desperately need right now.

Sure the house mannequin could solve both these issues at once but he was much more cautious toward it. He has seen it merged into the house. If he reveals everything to it and it doesn't like the truth couldn't it just poke his head in the back while he's sleeping? Samson was always a cautious person and never take risks too big.

And just when he wanted to go down and greet the group, they disappeared from the spot like an illusion, leaving only a few ray of lights! Samson was greatly disturbed by this. Why did everything in this world has to be so strange!

He has accepted the weird house and was not scared of it. If he was outside then it'll just be a moving house and there's no reason to fear it more than one fear a vehicle on the road. But people who disappeared like ghosts didn't bide well with him. Not only did it gives him a good scare, it also make him doubt the possibility of communication and civilization in this place.

"I'm going down." Samson said, not bothering to wait for Quin to response. Since he was a lord, he should act like one.

His feet land on the ground with a 'thump'. Samson took in a breath of fresh air before giving the surroundings a look.

Samson has never visited historical sites before when he was still on Earth. The closest thing he could imagine was a museum and that wasn't very impressive. This however is a breathtaking sight.

Overgrown plants were everywhere, some roads were broken while other were still intact. Paths start from nowhere and end randomly. High rise buildings now look like a strange tree covered entirely by moss. The smell of rust gives a unique sense of abandonment, a deathly silence lingers in the air.

"This is could be an incredible tourist spot..."

Out of the corner of his eye, a wooden bird carving was rapidly waving its wings. He wasn't sure if it's trying to take his attention or if it's a weird ritual.

"It's waving it's wings?... wait isn't it a wooden carving?"

Seeing that his attention was captured by it, the bird spoke out in a loud voice, startling him.

"Great sir would you spare some time for this poor bird?"

Samson quickly recovered from his shock, he has already seen the mannequin and this is just a wooden bird. His interest was now on the jewelry on the bird's body. If the description in the book was correct, this jewelry is the necklace he was looking for.

Out of habit, Samson willed a bubble towards the bird. It was a habit he picked up when testing his new power, he was curious to see different reactions to his power.

Seeing the bubble heading toward it, the bird screamed loudly while kowtowing.

"Great sir please have mercy! I'm willing to do anything you say please spare me!

Samson stopped the bubble just before the bird. Now why did it freak out like that?

After the bubble stop, the bird also calmed down. It was still kowtowing and although not bothered, Samson didn't know what to say to a wooden bird. He just meet it after all.

Since the bird didn't want to speak anytime soon, Samson spoke in a commending tone.

"Say about that gem..."

"Yes sir! This gem on my body is an amazing artifact created by a top skill Refiner back in the day. Sadly he has died years ago and none of his other artifacts were as amazing as mine!" The bird spoke with pride as if it was praising itself.

Samson look at the bird carefully, trying to see if it was a species he knew. However he never learned anything about bird so how would he know if it was similar or not. In the end he gave up trying to find any familiarity in this word.

"That gem is mine."

He could feel the bird tense up. If it was a person perhaps sweat would have appeared on it's head already.

"So it was great sir. You see, this gem was preserved just for you. I didn't want anything to happen to it either but it was placed on me for too long thus I came to be. If you can be so kind sir and spare my pathetic existence..."

He understood a little more about the world. Artifacts have more of an effect on the surroundings than he thought. It could bring an inanimate object to life! It was different from the house mannequin which was originally an artifact itself, this inanimate object was very ordinary.

"Well... fine. Do what you want."

He didn't intend to leave the bird alone of course as it was still of use to him but right now his attention was still in the desolate ruins of a once great country. Part of it remind him of countries on Earth which interested him even more.

"Wait sir!" The bird said.

He look back at it slightly annoyed. His eyes were telling it 'what now?'.

"Can you please refine me!" The bird did another bow.

Samson didn't understand what it was talking about. He did however smell an opportunity, an opportunity to get all the information he wanted!