Questionable Freedom!

 

In Sharlae’s time, she had been the only one to have made it to Immortal Realm, and with this she watched as the ‘golden’ strand did slowly loss it’s members due to old age, so…That was another reason she had left the Golden Tribe…Besides that of knowing of the Dragon King…

Not having said anything, the male human stepped closer to her, just about ready to touch her, most likely to see where she had cultivated to, but she moved to miss that outstretched hand.

“What? Afraid? I won’t poison you, I promise!” The man stated, smirking once again.

Sharlae smirked back, “I’m not afraid!”

“What…What’s going on?”

Sharlae started to panic at Nathanial’s sleepy voice coming from behind her.

In that small moment of panic, the male in front of her touched her and she heard his sharp intake of breath.

“It’s you! The serpent beast!”

 

In just mere moments, Sharlae brought out her golden wings and flapped them rapidly towards the man in front of her and focused upon picking Nathanial up by going between his legs and flapped her wings once again to fly away.

She didn’t really know what she was doing but she had a feeling that the man back there would most certainly bring her back by force, meaning…He would most likely use Nathanial as a hostage or even kill him!

Her body worked before she did and soon, she found herself in the air, flying back towards the path where they should have been on instead of having gone the wrong way.

 

“Hey! What’s going on!?” Nathanial yelled, somewhat not able to get over the fact that the serpent beast was just flying him somewhere, away...

This was the first time that she had flown him…She’d done it before with her previous master’s because ordered too but…

Wait, it wasn’t the time to think about this!

“My bag was left behind…” He grumbled, holding onto the serpent flesh that went between his legs…

Nathanial swallowed.

Sharlae looked back, to see the man left behind indeed pick up the bag but her eyesight was blurry and was getting worse as she flew further and further away.

The Golden Tribe must now be in Rosna!

She had completely forgotten about them!

The last time she had been with them, they had been in Prodeaneah!

…Doing this ‘job’ of Nathanial’s might prove to be troublesome!

 

“Put me down!”

With Nathanial’s order, Sharlae couldn’t help but nearly release him completely right then and there and directly flew towards the ground, so that he wouldn’t die just from falling.

Turning back completely to her human self, Sharlae looked from the direction they had come from and stared.

Would they follow?

Yes…They would! To have a ‘golden’ strand creature in Immortal Realm, it was too big of a reason to let it go!

“Let’s go!” Sharlae stated, taking Nathanial’s hand and walking on the path back towards the coyote territory.

“Stop it!” Nathanial stated, getting his hand back from her.

 

After a breath or two, Nathanial frowned, “Now, tell me what is going on?”

Sharlae could only speak up, being ordered to, “Have you heard of the Golden Tribe?”

Nathanial shook his head after a moment’s thought.

Sharlae sighed, looking back from where they had come from again, “Since they have seen me and now know who I am, they will most definitely want me to meet with their Alpha Leader!”

How comical, she thought now that she said it, if anyone would be the leader, it should be her!

Already, the Golden Tribe’s leader was beneath her!

Seeing Sharlae so…Concerned…So serious, Nathanial didn’t know what to say, while rubbing his eyes and slightly yawning.

…He had never heard of them before…

 

“Don’t you get it! If you are with me, preventing me from going to see their leader, they will either take you as a hostage or kill you! We need to go back! If we go back, they might lose us! They didn’t know your creature and even so, you give of a smell of a boar, they might think that we are just travelers and not part of the coyote pack!”

Nathanial could see that Sharlae was serious but…If he were to return, without doing what he left to do…

He couldn’t really go back, as how should he explain what the serpent beast is saying to his own leader!

Then…What is he to do?

 

Nathanial scratched his head to the drama unfolding before him…He just couldn’t seem to take it in so quickly and had to think more about it, so as the seconds ticked by he was starting become more and more awake, seeing the seriousness of the situation…

“Come on!” Sharlae stated again, grabbing his hand and continuing towards the coyote boundary.

Nathanial shook his head, perhaps…Perhaps…

“You go and…And see the leader or something, I still have to deliver the reports.” He said, getting his hand back again.

He might be more awake now, but this was the only conclusion he had come up with in the space of just a minute or two!

“And I need my bag…” He added dumbly.

 

Sharlae turned and stood directly before him, “…You are releasing me? You want me to go!?”

For some reason…This really angered her!

In mere moments, Nathanial sought out the enslavement contract from inside him and used much of his power to change the engraving of it, so that the serpent beast did not have a length restriction from the master involved in the contract.

Opening his eyes, Nathanial frowned to his slight headache and looked at Sharlae, “The restriction is taken away, you can go.”

Sharlae was…Mortified!

 

So easily, he has let her go!?

She could see that that was the only restriction taken away but…So easily!

Fine!

With no further ado, Sharlae turned into her Golden Winged Serpent creature and flew away, leaving Nathanial alone.

What was I wanting anyway!? Why does it anger me so much!?

Sharlae thought herself as stupid as she flew further away, yet…She looked back.

Sighing, she flew to what seemed like the halfway point in between that of the ‘golden’ human male and Nathanial. For some reason, she still…She felt like she still had to keep an eye on that idiot of a man that went the wrong way!

 

Sharlae had only been in the middle for one or two minutes before she grumbled and put a hand through her hair.

His bag!

What a pain!

Troublesome man!

Even though she was cursing a particular man, she was flying once again, closer to the ‘golden’ person and a particular man’s bag.

“So troublesome!”

In such frustration, Sharlae was sudden when she attacked the ‘golden’ man and picked up the bag, not caring much of what her attitude might bring to her later…Because she was just so angry!

“Hey, come back!”

 

 

Nathanial didn’t know what to do at first. It was still night-time after all!

He had awoken now, so does that mean he should keep going then?

Putting a hand to his head, shaking it, he sighed.

She was gone.

Had I done the right thing?

Now that he was more awake, Nathanial really did question why he had released the restriction upon the serpent beast!

Was it to keep myself safe?

It had to be…

 

After a few minutes, Nathanial was starting to get angry. He was awake, so he didn’t want to sleep, especially when someone nearly came up behind him as he slept last time…But it was still dark, so he couldn’t really keep going, could he?

Not having any other option, Nathanial found a tree close by and sat against it, only having the option of waiting until it was no longer dark to continue along what seemed like a path road.

He had gotten lost once before, even though he shouldn’t, but…Perhaps he had been side-tracked…

Snuggling up to his legs, because of the cool breeze, Nathanial sighed.

Things had changed, he knew it. And…With now remembering the serpent beast in front and defending him like that, where he didn’t get to see much of the other person, Nathanial wondered if…

Was she protecting him?

With a loud noise, something impacted with his head and then fell to the ground!

 

Seeing his bag in front of him, Nathanial looked up, but couldn’t see anything.

It must have been her!

Yet, why did she have to drop it right on top of me like that!?

Touching his head, to the pain that was still there because of his bag, Nathanial groaned.

Protecting me? No, it was more like trying to kill me!

But…He had gotten his bag back…

His fresh water was in there, among other things, so…

As much as he was frustrated with her, for dropping the bag on his head, he was grateful.

“Thank you.” He said softly, getting out a pair of clothes and bundling them up for a pillow. It’s a shame that the blanket was left behind but…He didn’t have the courage to ask for that as well.

 

 

It was still a couple of hours before the sun was to come up, but the time went by quite quick as…Nathanial was lost in his thoughts towards a particular serpent beast.

At first, he was frustrated and complaining but…As time passed, he felt like something had changed in her.

She wasn’t teasing him so much anymore and it was strange.

Why would she suddenly stop teasing him?

Was she…Completely finished with caring now?

Did she not care at all anymore?

Or…Or did she have some sort of respect for me all of a sudden?

Nathanial was at a complete loss when it came to the serpent beast!

 

His father and mother had been killed by her, yet he put it passed him as much as possible as he found out that he would be the serpent beast’s new master.

He told himself that she had been told to do it as a command, that she had no choice!

After letting her go free for a time, he had changed into completely ignoring her because…She hadn’t been worth it!

Having to grow up and mature quickly, and worry about other things, he simply didn’t have the time to continue to hate her and just dismissed her completely instead.

People bullying him and keeping his feelings from going astray was hard at first, but he got used to it.

He was…After all, a boar.

 

Remembering when he still hadn’t gotten his creature yet, Nathanial had hoped that he had a coyote creature but to his utter surprise, he had taken after his father.

Upon eighteen, he finally questions about the reason why his mother had gotten with his father.

Why…Why had a coyote creature been with a boar creature?

Wanting to secretly find out what happened between his father and mother, Nathanial had even gone as far as going to his father’s family, only to find out that his family had not seen him often at all since well before his death…

Apparently male boars did tend to venture out on their own…

Having only stayed briefly with the boars, considering him being an outsider and all, Nathanial did see a few things that only made things harder to understand…

 

His understanding of the boars and how sociable they were when in a sounder, started to open Nathanial’s eyes upon the real discrimination that he had already endured through.

The coyotes had made a big deal about his creature but was it the only thing that they were discriminating against?

Boars seemed to have a nice nature, that didn’t go around war or fighting. They were somewhat strong though and perhaps that was the problem?

Yet, how could a female with the creature of a coyote, fall for a male with the creature of a boar?

It wasn’t unheard of, but it was rarer in Ceptily to not be with someone with the same creature. The lions got with the lions, the wolves got with the wolves and the coyotes got with the coyotes…

Nathanial knew that in other countries it was pretty common but here, he hadn’t seen it and so…

 

There were too many ideas upon why this had happened and why it had been such a big issue.

And that was why Nathanial thought that there might have been something else behind it as well…

Perhaps his mother had not done what she was supposed to do and on top of that had a child with someone outside of the coyote pack?

His mother was the Alpha Master’s own daughter and so, it would be understandable that being with a boar would be enough for them to be mad about but…Why so much bullying when I was the grandchild of the Alpha Master…And that thought had driven Nathanial to think that there was something else to the meaning of her death…

He had only been small and does not remember how things worked back then but now, now that it was a bit too late, Nathanial could only sigh to the real reason why his mother and father died in front of him.

The coyotes had tamed him with his loyalty and used him to be the next master of the serpent beast! He had only found out the truth two years ago, at the age of twenty-three, one year after the serpent beast had killed someone after he had given her freedom…That the truth was that the coyotes were being sneaky and sly with her and themselves…

 

Since he had taken the roll, he looks back now to see that the coyotes seemed to have calmed down about the serpent beast, simply because none of them were the master of her.

They might still tease him about things, like his creature, but when it comes to be the master of the serpent beast, none of them say a word about it.

And…It was all because they had brought him up that way!

They had killed his mother and father to bring him in to be easily seen as someone lower than them, then they had him live with them to gain their loyalty.

They hadn’t been the best of people to live with but, the Alpha Master had given him special treatment over the years, probably because his mother was the Alpha Master’s daughter, and so…He was loyal…

 

Closing his tired eyes for a moment, Nathanial blanked his mind out.

There was no reason to worry over this now.

He was accepted into the pack and it really was his home, what’s the point of further questioning it?

…Seeing more and more of the area being lit up by the slowly rising sun, Nathanial got up and packed everything away.

It might be early but…The sooner he gets his job done, the better, and…He was awake now and…Wanting to change his thoughts…

On his way, to an unknown area, Nathanial still seemed to get lost but kept an eye out this time. Well, it helped that a certain serpent beast wasn’t there to distract him!

 

On the other hand, Sharlae watched the back of Nathanial with intent eyes.

The ‘golden’ man had not chased after him, as he was still on the other side of her, so she could continue this way.

She knew that Nathanial had not traveled much in his life, so she kept thinking he’d get so totally lost that she’d have to go and save him!

But…As hours went by, she saw that Nathanial was doing just fine without her.

With the restriction being taken away, she could fly away, she could go anywhere but…There’d always be a string between them and if Nathanial wanted to, he could feel her and sort of know what she’s doing.

And…For some reason, she just couldn’t go out and do what she did last time…

 

Now that she was somewhat free again, Sharlae felt like she should take a different path. A path where she wouldn’t kill someone, as to not be so constricted once again!

So, she had not gone after this ‘golden’ man, only keeping him at a distance, yet…Why wasn’t she flying far away and still watching the back of the man with a boar creature!?

Instinctively, her creature should be scared of a boar like his, yet…He had never come across as someone she wasn’t afraid of. He was gentle and compassionate and what irritated her the most was his obvious loyalty to a creature that wasn’t his own!

 

It was something she continued to not understand, not fathom to reason with!

Why? Why was he so hard-headed!?

He had a boar creature yet stayed with the coyotes, looking after the coyote’s children…It didn’t make sense!

Shaking her head and grunting out her displeasure, Sharlae sighed. Even feeling this way, she still felt like, at the very least, she will make sure that her master gets to the Crocodile King!

After he gets there, he can find his own way back and she can fly free. Perhaps she’ll get a decent piece of clothing or…

 

Her eyes saw the ‘golden’ man move…Heading straight towards Nathanial…

Was the Golden Tribe closer to Nathanial?

She had been slowly making her way towards the sea, it now being in the far distance but…Did the ‘golden’ man see that she was getting close and decided to just wait for her there?

Flapping her wings, Sharlae flew to continue to be in between the ‘golden’ man and Nathanial but…The distance was slowly closing in!

 

How could it be such a coincidence!?

Seeing the ‘golden’ male go closer and closer to Nathanial, Sharlae could not help but end up having no choice but to show herself.

She flew to be further away from Nathanial, hoping to, at one stage, lead the ‘golden’ man away from him, then appeared behind the ‘golden’ man, “Stop!”

“Stop what?” The ‘golden’ male stated, after turning human from his frog creature.

“Go another way.” Was all Sharlae stated.

The ‘golden’ male raised his eyebrows and smirked, “And…If I say no…”

Sharlae narrowed her eyes and glared at him, “I will make you!”

All she got was a laugh and so she frowned, “I mean it!”