Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 50

The man that approaches us is the pinnacle of a high grade person, from his straight posture and smooth way of walking, bringing the flustering edges of his clothing to their full potential behind him as he moves, to the mere way he dresses, many layered long sleeved clothing put on top of each other and overlapping their colors in a refined way, from light blue to darker blue to white with blue cranes mid fly sewed on, to the long gold earring dropping from his ears and ending with a blue sapphire, to the crowd nesting his long black hair on top of his head in a high bun, and yet having enough to cascade it alongside his face and shoulder.

His golden eyes curve upwards as he approaches, pulling at the suave red line around his eyes and at the red lotus painted on his forehead.

"Good evening young misters." The kind smiling man says in a very polite way, greeting us with a fist resting in his other extended palm as he gives us a little bow, eyes up as he watches us even while being courteous, which only makes me keep my guard up and, as I don’t feel like taking my eyes off of him either I give him a simple single nod of the head in return, already aware about his companions sitting at the table, cup in hands but eyes on us, watching for any of them to disappear and try to sneak behind us or move to intervene in any way.

What can I say, better prepared than sorry.

I try to keep the appearances up as much as I care to for these stranger humans, or rather, any human unsettles me, but the little devil beside me, like a stubborn kid, is even more on guard and much less worried about keeping it civil as he does nothing to acknowledge the other’s presence beyond annoyingly narrowing his eyes and, while grunting, actually putting his body a little more in between us and in front of me, which bothers me as I’m talking with the man too so I step aside from his strange protectiveness enough to see the other’s face, and as much as this sidestepping annoying devil allowed me to.

Seeing our guarded reaction, however, instead of being offended the gentle gentleman smiles and apologizes, all too gentle and polite for my paranoid taste:

"Sorry to disturb you two, I didn’t mean to scare you. Me and my colleagues are here in official business in the name of the Cultivation Realm. We are cultivators from the Enlightened Sun Bearers, and we mean no harm, we just want to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind, that’s all."

"We mind." Says the little devil before I can answer with a cold attitude that seems odd coming from his always so cheerful self, and the other seems quite shocked to receive such a rude answer, especially when the little devil turns around and, grabbing my arm, pulls us upstairs, barely giving me enough time to look back at the person left behind, a little blinded by their overbearing aura, as I’m left to wonder who are those people and why do I feel as attracted as alert towards them? Why is the little devil overly watchful with them?

And yet I have always been curious so with caution I study them and their appearance, their postures, the entire picture making the hair on my neck to raise and telling me that they are quite strong, and what would it be of me if any new encounter or chance to grown I would run away with my tail between my legs?

Plus they seem strong... and that in itself was enough to have caught my interest.

So once the double doors close sideways behind me, giving us some privacy in this single bed room, I turn around with many questions wanting to surge up, but I start slowly so I do not look desperate:

"Who are they?"

"Cultivators." He simply says, as if that single word should explain everything.

"And what about that Cultivation Realm? And the Enlightened Sun Bearers..." At that the quiet devil lets go of his bag on the table, and as he sits on the chairs to take his shoes off he takes a deep breath and says.

"Like I said they are cultivators, they are humans with high magic power, some sort of elemental core or something, I don’t know much about them." And yet carries such animosity towards them... there is much he is not telling me, but that is not a new thing coming from him since I don’t even know his name.

"Are they powerful?" I ask, having difficulty to read his face, especially with the mask on, and as I take my own veil and cape out, relaxing my shoulders and finally stretching my wings, cramped as they were hidden away like that, and start pouring some tea for us as I let my body fall back on the sofa in front of him, feeling the weight such adventure had on my wounded body as it catches up to me.

He shrugs, accepting the drink. "Some are, some aren’t, like any other field I suppose."

"...You don’t seem to like them very much." I say, moving the for free tea bag around the cup, proving to have the taste of the cheap free tea it is as well, but at least it warms my body and hands.

He gives me a tsk before looking out at the open window towards the night sky. "I don’t like what they pretend to be, righteous and just, only a bunch of greedy gossipers they are. Fighting to obtain immortality, is a very high stand to achieve, they are bound to have a few stepping stones on the way aren’t they?"

I don’t know enough about the subject to agree or disagree, so I stay quiet and drink my tea in peace, sleepiness getting over me even though I still had much to ask, but not only I was still recovering but had walked a long way around the place, so is no surprise that I get as tired as I’m at that point.

The little devil, of course, notices that, so he simply says: "You should not be up so late, take the bed, I’ll take the couch."

"That’s-"I wanted to say that there is no way I’m taking the bed too since he is the one paying, but he soon cuts me short:

"You are sick and hurt, just accept it without a fuss alright? Now go to bed already, jeez."

I’m still suspicious about his behavior, however even I have my limits, so I end up dragging my body to the bed, thinking that bathing could wait until the morning, and while it takes me some time to get into a comfortable position in such small bed with my big wings but I still manage to fall asleep somehow, finding comfort in the blankets embrace as I hug my tail until darkness covers my vision as I fall into my slumber.

And I dream of mother, and all that could have been between us.