Stray

A huge emptiness enveloped him at that moment. Nemo didn't even want to pay attention to Oliver's reaction, and his eyes quickly returned to the two blue birds. There was a huge hole in his world, and he felt no less shaken now than after the battle with Witherspoon.

In Nemo's consistent perception, those anomalies are at best parasitic vines entangled in tree trunks. They sucked on the happiness he had set for him, twisting the trunk of common sense - but the tree was still firmly rooted in the soil, even if it was doomed to decay slowly.

Now it is shaking dangerously.

Merotti Delaney is just an ordinary girl who grew up on the frontier. Even if her appearance and talent are not ordinary, they are not outstanding enough to be praised by the whole country. She lives step by step, just like he used to be.

So how did she do it?

Lubiao Town naturally also has some on-off lovers - but they are all very understandable, standard romances. People appreciate each other, work with each other, join hands after success and separate after failure. During the period, of course, the sweetness, scolding or indifference are indispensable. Nemoko never believed in descriptions of fate or love at first sight. Those romantic stories only appeared on paper or in rumors.

Nimo Wright will be an ordinary townsman of Signpost, destined to form a family at the right age with a girl who is also not very special, and raise offspring. He will grow old in fire, rice, oil, salt and trifles, until he becomes a gravestone on the edge of the frontier forest, like most people in this world. He had been so convinced for so many years. Even now, he still thinks that the dust will settle one day - and he will return to "normal" and continue to live an ordinary life.

But he's not so sure now.

The two blue birds are hugging each other quietly, as if everything else in this world has lost its value. It wasn't the greasy hug he had ever seen, not even the sweet atmosphere. But for just a few seconds, they seemed to be the masters of this space, radiating trembling power and will. That was obviously just a three-month weak relationship.

It's not that he hasn't been "in love". But compared to the one in front of him, the "love" he once had was perhaps closer to a mixture of respect, pity and habit, missing something very crucial.

Nimo knew that he should be relieved at this time and wished the reunion lovers from the bottom of his heart. But now it seemed that someone had placed a block of ice against his heart. It didn't make him feel pain, but it made his blood cold and his chest was like a stone.

"...I admit she is Merotti Delaney." Pasototu's father said gloomily, "You win."

"We didn't want to 'beat' you." Nemo responded instinctively. "I think you can let go of your son, Miss Delaney can't go anywhere like this."

"They both have to stay here until I figure it out." The leader almost immediately rejected the offer.

"But you know she's a blue bird."

"So what?" A new voice joined them. Jesse Dillon, again at his best eavesdropping skills, stood behind them at some point - the blond young man with his back against the wall on the other side of the tunnel, with a ridiculous nightcap on his head. As he spoke, he used his fingertips to draw the words of the blue bird in the air at high speed.

"That means the people in Vincennes are probably-"

"Humans sometimes sell them as commodities - alive or dead, whole or in part. It's just that the same kind doesn't prove anything." Jesse yawned, "Do you think that when Mr. Pasotalo talks about this, the birds outside can immediately let go of their hatred with He Lele?"

"...I will consider this." The leader - Paso Tallo nodded to Nemo, his attitude was not sincere. He waved his hand, and the railing that was bent by Merotti became straight again, and then he even added a few magic circles himself. Immediately, he swung large pieces of golden handwriting towards Jesse in the humid air, and his movements were sharp and sharp.

Then he and his entourage all left the tunnel, surprisingly none left to watch them.

"I don't understand." Gray parrot took the opportunity to interject, "Anyway, this draenei can't go home, and you don't look like you're going to kill the male. Why bother here Are there any? Just slip away—you are not the same as the class, why bother with a group of foreigners."

"They still owe me a favor!" Jesse tugged the nightcap off her head and cleared her throat solemnly. "If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't even have a clue as to the size of the wire."

The grey parrot's attitude softened a little: "But their mission was unsuccessful..."

"I didn't intend to break my promise." Oliver sighed, staring at Nemo's back - Nemo began to stare at the pair of blue birds in a daze again. Although he didn't understand Paso Tallo's words, with Nemo's answer, he could guess a bit of the situation.

"The first day is over. You gave it three days, and now there are two days left—well, I'm not lying, Mr. Ramon. You might as well agree now. "

"I don't want to draw conclusions without knowing enough." Oliver responded politely and distantly.

"Isn't it all obvious? Or, if the people in Vincent Town are not bluebirds, do you think war should happen naturally?"

"If the people of Vincennes are really human, their hatred should not be dictated by me, an outsider who knows nothing. At least both sides are making sober decisions." Oliver Think for a moment. "If that's the case, we have no position to prevent anything but help reduce casualties... So if you lie, I won't promise you to 'stop' this war."

"Ouch, what a surprise, I thought you were of the 'war is evil' faction. You're colder than I thought, Mr. Ramon."

"Because I'm neither impartial nor mature, I'm not qualified. Taking a step back, even if our strength can solve a temporary problem, they will continue after we leave... No?"

"How can you be so stupid!" Jesse exclaimed, "I only care how many of them survive, I don't want to listen to the development of the happy ending!"

"...but you said 'stop' at the beginning." Nemo finally turned around, frowning slightly. "If you really don't care, you don't even need us. You're very strong, aren't you? Just stun a few and take them out of here, even if the bluebirds and humans here kill each other until none are left, your deal will be lost. Are you done?"

He walked straight to Jesse, with an inexplicable bad mood: "Dylan, what do you want from us? Is your target me? Playing around like this, if your target is really me, I don't want you to involve Ollie and the others."

It was the familiar terror again, but this time Oliver didn't feel any part of his internal organs shrinking in fear. He raised his eyebrows, and managed to take his eyes back from those silver-gray eyes and cast them towards Jesse with difficulty.

"No, no, don't get me wrong, I just thought he would agree!" The blond youth's tone was full of suffocation. "Who knows that each of you is more inhuman than the other, well, let me explain—you will know when you see my trade partner, if I really do that, I will definitely be punished—"

"Are you really afraid of retribution?" An interjected lukewarmly.

"...a real curse." Jesse changed her words immediately. "Oh, so strict. Please come with me."

He turned to one side, leaned forward slightly, and made a "please" gesture at the end of the dark tunnel.

Ann stepped forward first and played a striker. Oliver and Nemo followed. This time the knight commander was the last one. He stopped and looked silently at Jesse Dylan's smile that seemed to be tattooed on his face. He moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing.

The tunnel does not lead to the ground, but rises slowly. They didn't know how long they had walked, and the boring stone walls kept repeating, and everything became more and more like a nightmare about cycles. Just when Nemo's sharp emotions were about to be rounded by the surging boredom, Jesse stepped forward and walked in the forefront.

There are many bands of light swimming in the air. Like a flying centipede. Nemo squinted his eyes and looked carefully for a while before he could distinguish the true bodies of those things—innumerable living creatures with incantations were wandering in the dim tunnel. As they approached, they stopped abruptly, their soft bodies stretched like an arrow—until Jesse tapped the metal-scaled choker on his neck, and they calmed down and began to swim softly again.

There are more and more such incantation flying insects, and at the end, the group is almost struggling through the condensed incantation. Fortunately, this torture did not last long. After passing through the last incantation barrier, their eyes suddenly opened up.

This appears to be the interior of a mountain. A towering cone space, surrounded by countless fine statues, are all lifelike blue birds, without any trace of weathering and corrosion. The bones of countless blue birds are scattered on the ground, and the ground is engraved with dense incantation patterns, and the dark blue brilliance is surging like mercury in it—they flow and gather in the center of the spell formation.

It's hard to describe what's in the middle.

It was the biggest blue bird they had ever seen. His... or her eyes are closed, the huge wings on the lower back hang weakly at the sides of the body, and the body shows no signs of decay, and the place where the legs should be under the abdomen has turned into a pale sturdy tree trunk. Picking up twigs without leaves.

A blue bird, or a giant tree that is too weird.

"What is that?" Nemo swallowed hard, stunned, completely forgetting his previous entanglement.

"That's my trade partner. Since Mr. Wright can understand the language of the blue bird, it would be nice for you to meet." Jesse pouted, "In the words of the birds, she is 'Spirit of Purity'...I know it's a tongue-in-cheek name, and I can help you translate it into Common."

Then he paused for a moment, as if a comedian was waiting to shake off the most proud baggage. Seemingly startled by their voices, the huge blue bird slowly opened her eyes, and those eyes were very beautiful—not as dark as the usual blue bird, her eyes were very deep blue, with a shimmer of light in them, as if in a summer night. starry sky.

"...you can call her 'Lavinia'."

(m..=)