The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 242

Chapter 242:

Are You Lost?

“Pu! Pu, puuu,” Sora’s voice boomed through the woods. Its voice was a little louder than usual today—it must have been in an especially good mood to finally be back in the forest.

“Sora, we can’t head too far into the woods, okay?” I followed 

after Sora as it bounced ahead. I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wanted to go very deep into the forest.

“Puuu?” Sora stopped in its tracks and turned back to look at us.

“There might be dangerous monsters or animals out there, Sora.” I made a face right after I said this. I’d been scanning the area for auras and hadn’t noticed any. This was strange.

“What’s wrong?” Druid asked.

“Well, um, I’m not sensing any auras around here.”

“Hm?”

“I know that the creatures who don’t like the cold might have already started hibernating for the winter, but animals and monsters who don’t mind the cold ought to still be out. It’s weird that they aren’t.”

Usually, whenever I walked through the forest, I would always sense auras moving about. I would figure out which were safe and which were dangerous as I walked. And when we first entered this forest, I had indeed felt the movement of many different auras. A lot of these auras fled when they sensed Ciel’s presence, but for some reason, the air was completely still now. I did sense auras, but they all seemed to be motionless. It struck me as strange.

“Do you think something’s wrong? You’re right, it is too quiet,” my dad agreed.

I sharpened my ears. I could hear the breeze and the rustling of the trees, but I couldn’t hear any animals moving. It was like I thought: There were auras there, but none of them were moving.

“I’m starting to get a little scared,” I admitted.

“Yeah, I can see why.”

Is Ciel okay out there? I nervously looked around.

“Pu! Pu, puuu,” Sora cried out joyously.

I cautiously walked over to the slime…and found a little black orb on the ground in front of it.

“Oh! Isn’t this one of the guardian deity’s children?”

Druid was right. It was indeed a baby of the serpent we’d encountered a little while ago, the one that might have been Hatow’s guardian deity.

“What’s wrong, little guy? Is Snakey not around?” I asked the little black orb, but it didn’t even budge. Worried, I carefully touched it. It shivered the moment my finger made contact. “Oh, good. It’s alive.”

I was worried it might be dead, but it was okay. Is it just scared? I remember the other orbs like this one acted timid when I met them. Hmm… Maybe it was the wrong decision to touch it. I moved my hand away and made my voice as calm as possible.

“I’m sorry, buddy. We met before a little while ago. Do you remember me?”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.” Sora jumped in a little circle around the orb. Was it trying to have a conversation? I stared at the two for a while…and then another little black orb suddenly popped out atop the first one.

“Look! It has a face,” Druid cried.

“Aw, that’s so cute.”

During our last encounter, we’d been so preoccupied with the giant serpent that we hadn’t gotten a very good look at its children, so we hadn’t noticed they actually had little heads. They were just so cute to me.

“Huh? You think it’s cute? Uhh, I wouldn’t go there.”

Druid disagreed with me. That was too bad. I thought they were cute, but maybe I was alone in that viewpoint. That was an unsettling thought.

The little black orb spun its tiny head around to have a look. It seemed quite desperate. Maybe it had gotten lost from the serpent?

“Do you know where Snakey is?” I asked, assuming it was comfortable around us by then.

The little black orb stretched its neck as far as it would go to look at me, then shook its little head no. I was surprised to find out it had a neck, but the sight of it relieved me a little. I’m not sure exactly why; maybe seeing creatures caring so much about something warms my heart?

“If it doesn’t know, then it must be lost,” Druid said.

But it shook its head again. It wasn’t lost.

“Do you know where we are right now?” Druid asked again. The black orb went completely still. It just didn’t seem lost to me. I shot a glance at Druid and saw that he had an awkward smile on his face.

“What should we do?”

“Good question. Sora, do you know where Snakey is?”

“Pu!” Sora jiggled from side to side and shrugged its head. I guess that’s a no.

“Oh well,” Druid sighed. “Let’s just wait here until Ciel returns.”

Was that really the only thing we could do? There were no moving auras nearby, but it was too dangerous for us to go wandering around to search for the serpent. Then again, I was one to talk, seeing as how we’d already followed Sora off into the forest. Hypocrisy aside, I didn’t think it was a good idea for us to move any further. Not while we still didn’t know where Snakey was.

“Yeah, we’ll just have to ask Ciel for help when it comes back.”

It felt bad to give Ciel more work to do, but we couldn’t just leave this little black orb that was apparently a wood sprite alone. If someone bad found it, there might be trouble.

“What a funny little creature you are, though,” Druid said, poking the black orb. It didn’t retract its head, but it did shiver. It was probably still timid. The jerky way it moved was so cute to me.

“Druid, be nice.”

“You’re laughing, too, Ivy.”

“But its reactions are just so cute!”

As we stood there, laughing, I sensed an aura approaching us. I tensed up for a second, but relaxed when I recognized its owner. Sora, also picking up on Ciel’s aura, bounced off in its direction.

“Is it Ciel?” Druid watched Sora bounce away.

“Yeah, it’s headed toward us really fast.” As I marveled over Ciel’s speed, the adandara elegantly pranced over to us.

Mrrrow.

“Hello! Hope you didn’t get hurt?” I asked. Ciel nuzzled its cheek against mine in reply, pressing harder than it usually did. In high spirits over a good hunt, it was nudging me so hard that I was falling over.

“Are you all full?” Druid asked. He gently held me up so I could manage to survive Ciel’s affections.

Mrrrow. Ciel purred as Druid gave its head some scritches.

I suddenly remembered the black orb and looked over to see it was back in the same form as when we first encountered it. It had probably retracted its head in fear of Ciel.

“Ciel, I have a job for you.” I stared into Ciel’s eyes, and it stared right back.

“You see, this little guy is Snakey’s baby… You know, that giant snake we met in the forest on our way to Hatow? And I think it’s lost. Sorry, kid, I’m just gonna pick you up a bit, okay?” I gently took the black orb in my hands and showed it to Ciel. “We want to take it back to Snakey. Do you know where it is?”

Mrrrow, Ciel answered without hesitation. It knew where the serpent was.

“Can we go see the snake?” I asked.

Ciel turned back to walk on the path it had just come from.

“Are you going to take us to it?”

Mrrrow.

“Thanks.”

I was about to put the black orb back down on the ground, but then I remembered how slowly they moved, so I kept it in my arms instead. If we walked at the little guy’s pace, we wouldn’t get back to the inn until nighttime.

“We’re going to take you to Snakey, okay?” I quietly told the little orb in my arms. I was surprised when its little head popped out. I had to admit that the little creature was a bit creepy when it moved suddenly like that.