Tama

  We reached the edge of the forest and I quickly removed the tag on Saki. Jiggle of course, did not stop, I had to turn him and have him ram into another tree.

  After I jumped off and walked to the edge. Lyran and Saki were still there, but they were coming towards the forest now? In a panic I rushed over to Jiggle and freed him before turning to set the tag on Saki again.

  I paused before I did it though. Slowly, even as Jiggle stomped his hoof at me, I lowered my finger and said “Jiggle, go play.”

  Jiggle huffed at me again, but turned and ran off back into the forest. I realized I probably hadn’t needed to have him follow me, but I didn’t want to leave him with Manna either.

  So I had brought him with me. I doubted Manna would go for him alone, maybe as bait at worst.

  I walked to the edge, but as I heard Saki’s voice I panicked and jumped onto a nearby branch. I climbed a few branches up until I was around one hundred feet from the ground.

  Then I watched carefully, perking my ears up to listen carefully.

  “I don’t care if you're scared, we need to go make sure he is okay before Tama finds out!” Saki’s voice was irritated and she sounded out of breath.

  “I mean, it's Jiggle, you said he was Tama’s pet… He should be more than capable of dealing with anything in this place, unlike us…” Lyran said, his voice sounded small.

  They reached the clearing as Saki responded, she was holding a stone that glowed brightly and sounded slightly scared too. “Maybe, but do you want to be the one who told Tama her pet died because of something you did?”

  Lyran, who had appeared next to Saki, visibly seemed to pale and he glanced around as if looking for someone.

  I stood and went to blink when Saki spoke, causing me to pause. “Do you know what I will do to you if you hurt my best friend's pet? Lyran, I like you, but Tama is my best friend.

  That’s not something I could live with.” Her voice was very quiet, her words solemn and she was looking at the ground away from Lyran. Lyran looked even more uncomfortable.

  After a moment he took the stone from Saki and said “Then we better find him right? I am certain he is fine, but just in case, it's best we make sure!”

  Saki looked up at Lyran and blushed slightly, nodding before they went further into the forest.

  I probably should have gone down. But.. I kind of wanted to see how they fought together. Smiling broadly, not at all because of what Saki said! Don’t question it!

  I blinked from tree to tree slowly following them. They weren’t even heading in the right direction of Jiggle. That was probably for the best.

  My ears perked up as I heard some slurping sounds. Very quiet, but the sound of sizzling from their acidic goo digesting whatever they ate was something that had kept me up at night as a child.

  Gleeblet’s were nearby. Perfect! I blinked over a few trees and found a small set of three. They had killed a wolf. Based on the destruction of the wolf, these Gleeblet’s spat water acid. I threw a dagger and it landed directly in front of the first one.

  It looked around and I used the wind to echo my voice as though it was coming from Saki’s direction and made a cooing noise. The Gleeblet instantly started heading towards the sound. They were so stupid and fun!

  It took less than a minute until the Gleeblet’s got close enough for them to notice. Lyran noticed first, he pulled a glowing red tablet thing and looked panicked “um Saki, we might have a problem.”

  Saki paused and instantly, all nine of her tails came out and were coated. She took a combat stance and brought up an ember flame in her hand. She was ready for anything! I trained her so well!

  “Does it tell you what?” Saki asked

  Lyran shook his head and stated “It is odd though, it says there are six, but only five are showing up?”

  Saki froze and looked back at Lyran with a raised eyebrow. “You don’t say?” She asked, almost sardonically. She paused and suddenly her eyes seemed to go vacant for a second.

  After a moment her eyes focused again and she looked directly at where I was. “Must be a glitch.” She said, despite her words. She was glaring directly at me.

  After a moment, she shifted right as the Gleeblet’s entered the area.

  The first spirit ball of ooze instantly fired a ball of acid water at Lyran. Saki shifted two of her tails to cover him and the water hit her stone covered tails.

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  The acid ate through the stone, but Saki was already shifting again and she pulled back and threw her ball of fae fire at the one in front.

  The Gleeblet tried to become untouchable and I winced instinctively, but fae fire ignored that apparently and it was hit full force. The flame itself didn’t do much, but the burning it caused was horrible.

  The Gleeblet let out a screech of agony and began floating really fast in circles trying to put out the fire.

  I looked at Lyran and to my surprise, he had pulled out some small circle, if circles were round? Saki called it a sphere or something. He tapped the top and it made a hissing sound. He threw it not at a Gleeblet, but between Saki and the nearest Gleeblet.

  The hissing grew louder and it suddenly made a cracking sound. A full earth elemental came out of the sphere and instantly crushed the second Gleeblet before it could even try to become intangible.

  I stared in open shock at the creature from a circle! The final one however rushed past and spat another ball of acid. Lyran stepped forward for some reason, and he broke something in his hand. There was a wave of air around him and the water acid was simply thrown off and to the ground.

  Saki coated her tails in bits of void energy and stabbed a sharp one forward at the last Gleeblet. It died instantly, erased from existence. Saki swung another void tipped tail and sliced clean through the one on fire. It too was erased.

  I was so excited I blinked down in front of them cheering “YAYA, Saki and Lyran are the best! Wooh!”

  Lyran tripped over himself and fell on the ground in surprise. Saki just crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Having fun Tama?” She asked in a sarcastic tone.

  I nodded excitedly and said “That was amazing! You guys destroyed those Gleeblet’s! Tama is super impressed!”

  Saki rolled her eyes, but her smile widened slightly. “I am assuming if you're here, you know what happened?” She asked after a moment. The smile suddenly faltered slightly.

  ? I looked at her confused “About Manna? Yea, But Tama dealt with her!”

  Saki looked at me worried. Her arms dropped and she looked at me seriously. “What do you mean you dealt with Manna? What happened?!” Her tail curved around her and she suddenly looked very nervous.

  “Nya! When Lyran did that move thing to Jiggle, Tama went to check on him. Jiggle was fine, Tama let him out of his tree. Then Manna showed up and said mean things. But I told her she was just lonely! Then Tama and Jiggle left her.”

  Saki just stared. She opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head and muttered “Of course that’s what happened. Because in Tama world, all things go right.”

  Lyran had finally stood up, only to fall back over as a loud crashing sound rang out.

  We all three turned to watch as the Earth Elemental Lyran had summoned crumbled to.. rocks?

  “Really Lyran, it’s your golem and you got knocked off your feet from its death rattle?” Saki said as she held back laughter, her hand covering her mouth to hide her smirk.

  Lyran coughed into his hand as he got up and sighed. “Look, I didn’t expect the collapse to happen so suddenly,

  I was positive I had at least a good sixty seconds…” Even as he spoke he trailed off. He had pulled out the tablet thing and was frowning.

  He looked at me, then quickly put it away and looked sheepishly at Saki. “So.. what now? Jiggle is okay right Tama? We should get to town, where there are guards…”

  “Guard’s won’t save you from Tama Lyran, trust me, I know from experience.” Saki said with an amused smile, her eyes filled with laughter.

  “Oh look, a bunch of children playing in the deep end. Careful little ones, dangerous things lurk in these woods. Things even your precious princess can’t win against.”

  The voice was clearly Manna’s.

  She must have followed me earlier. I went to grab Saki, but I heard it and my eyes went wide. “Run” was all I could get out before a massive boulder flew out from nowhere.

  I barely managed to get out Serenity and cut it in half, causing it to fall to either side of us. I glanced over for a brief moment to see Saki and Lyran standing and staring in shock.

  “RUN” I screamed at them. This time they listened and I sidestepped a smaller boulder before it entered view. I tensed and activated my water veil. I had to buy time. Manna was right, I couldn’t beat it, but I could stall it.

  The massive lumbering creature you would expect to have thrown those boulders, didn’t appear. Something far worse, and far fluffier did.

  A small humanoid covered in dark green fur and cat-like eyes walked into the clearing. It walked on two legs and had what could only be described as a smirk as it shifted slightly. I instantly blinked into the air, barely missing the super sharp and deadly dart it had just thrown.

  “Doing Manna’s dirty work!” I started as I threw a dagger at him. He simply sidestepped it as if in slow motion and vanished. I turned to block behind me but was too slow and felt extreme pain as I hit the ground leaving a small crater.

  Coughing up blood I quickly blinked again, barely dodging the second strike. Throwing another dagger even as my water veil healed me. Without it I would have already died. “Is that..” I coughed up more blood and my vision grew smaller for a second.

  “Pathetic, as always little Nekojin. This time, you don’t have your Sensei to save you though. Maybe, I will finally claim what's mine.” He said, his voice sounding amused. He wasn’t even out of breath.

  “Nya! Tama thinks Crivar is stupid if he thinks he can win!” I snapped at him as I felt my bones snapping into place.

  In response, he punched me. I didn’t even see him move. I felt the first tree, the second tree, and part of the third tree.

  My vision dimmed and I pulled a single item out of my bag. Something Lyran had given me. I smiled through broken teeth as blood colored my vision.

  “Shtupid Crivar.” and broke the small thing. Instantly the world around me vanished and I landed, bleeding and almost dead, directly in front of the church altar in Drestor.

  The last thing I saw before everything went dark was Saki rushing up to me looking horrified. I tried to smile but everything went black.

  Chapter 123: Memories Best Left Behind