[Ophidia POV]

I teleported Skadi and I to an out of the way place in the capital of the Celestia Kingdom.

 

“Ophidia, what is it that you wanted to do here?” (Skadi)

 

“Two things.  The first one is to see master’s shrine.  The second is to take you on a date.” (Ophidia)

 

Skadi smiled at me and wrapped her arms around one of mine.

 

“Then let’s be off.” (Skadi)

 

I chuckled a bit and we left the place that we teleported to.  It was a place near one of the city gates and when we left that spot, we were bombarded with the noise of the crowd.

 

“The shopping section of the city?  Why’d you choose a spot here?” (Skadi)

 

“It’s just the first place that I thought to teleport to.” (Ophidia)

 

We waded into the crowd in front of us and did our best to make our way in the direction we wanted to go.  After about an hour of walking, we finally made it out of the sea of people.

 

“Skadi, couldn’t you have done something about that crowd?” (Ophidia)

 

“No.” (Skadi)

 

“Why not?  It is a sea of people.  Don’t you have some sort of partial Authority over the sea?” (Ophidia)

 

“Pfft.  Ahahahahahahahaha!  I never thought of it like that.  If we ever get put in a situation like that again, I’ll see what I can do.” (Skadi)

 

“Hehehe.  Alright.” (Ophidia)

 

The place we ended up at was a somewhat small street lined with stalls and small food shops.

 

“Is Lady Atmos looking out for us?  This is the perfect place to end up.  Skadi, I’m going to go and buy some things before we head to the shrine and out date.  There is something that master told me about a while ago that I want to try, but I’m not too prepared for it.” (Ophidia)

 

“What is it?” (Skadi)

 

“I’ll tell you later, just be patient and enjoy yourself.” (Ophidia)

 

I then went around most of the stalls and shops and bought something from each of them.  After I got everything and threw it into my inventory, Skadi and I left the street and slowly walked in the direction of the shrine.  On the way there, I looked up at the sky.  It was clear and there were no clouds to be seen.  Skadi followed my gaze and squinted her eyes.

 

“You know, it’s hard to believe there are tons of monsters and other creatures up there and nobody really knows that.” (Skadi)

 

“Yeah.  Especially since you’d think they’d be seen on a beautiful, clear day like today.” (Ophidia)

 

“It just goes to show how even if you live as long as we do, you can still discover new things in this world.” (Skadi)

 

“Yep.  Though in my case, most of the places we go are new to me.  While I always knew that there was a larger world outside of my jungle, I never cared enough to venture out until I met master.  There were times I wanted to, but those feelings passed before I really tried it.” (Ophidia)

 

“Now that you say that, care to tell me some things about the time before you met Luna and the others?  I know you’ll probably think it’ll be boring for me, but trust me, it won’t be.” (Skadi)

 

“I guess I can.  Though it’ll have to wait until later, I think we’re close.” (Ophidia)

 

We came out onto one of the main roads of the city.  Around us were several tall buildings that were very impressive.  As we made our way down the road, we finally reached our first destination.

 

“Wow.  It is really impressive.” (Skadi)

 

“Indeed.  I even think it’s a bit bigger than Lady Tamamo’s.” (Ophidia)

 

“Hmm.  I think it’s the same size.  I do like the material it’s made of though.” (Skadi)

 

“Yes.  It feels like something master would definitely like.” (Ophidia)

 

In front of us was a shrine that reminded us of the one in the Beast Kingdom.  The biggest difference between the two, however, was that this one is made of beautiful black stone with white spots of differing sizes.  There were other parts made with wood painted red and large gates that had interesting shapes.  In the places that weren’t stone were freshly planted trees and shrubs.  When we stepped through one of the red gates, it felt like we entered a whole other world.

 

“Master is definitely going to love this place.” (Ophidia)

 

“Yeah.” (Skadi)

 

As we walked closer to the main building, we started to hear the sounds of hammers.  When we looked around to find the source of the noise, we found a group of people working on more wooden structures around the stonework.  One of the people was a muscular, bald man that looked like he yelled more than he spoke.

 

“OI!  GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULLS!  BE QUICK AND CAREFUL!  THIS PLACE IS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT, SO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!”

 

““““YES BOSS!””””

 

I leaned closer to Skadi and quietly spoke to her.

 

“Should we leave?” (Ophidia)

 

“I think we should.  I feel like we’ll be roped into helping out here if we get caught.” (Skadi)

 

We slowly started to back away from the people working when the bald man turned around and looked at us.

 

“OI!  WHO ARE YOU TWO?!”

 

“And that’s our que.” (Ophidia)

 

I grabbed Skadi’s arm and teleported us away from the shrine.  We ended up on top of the city wall overlooking the plains on the west side of the city.

 

“Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!” (Skadi)

 

“Hehehehehehehahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha!” (Ophidia)

 

We sat there laughing for several minutes before we had to stop and catch our breath.

 

“Now, let’s start our date.” (Ophidia)

 

I stood up from where I was sitting and looked out over the plains in front of us.  When I spotted a nice hill with a tree on it, I grabbed Skadi’s arm and blinked us over to it.

 

“What are we doing all the way out here?” (Skadi)

 

“Something called a picnic.” (Ophidia)

 

I pulled out a large blanket from my inventory and placed it on the ground.  I sat down and patted the spot next to me.  Skadi sat there and I started to pull out all the food I bought earlier.

 

“Now, we’re supposed to eat and then relax the rest of the time, or so I’ve been told.” (Ophidia)

 

“Then let’s dig in.” (Skadi)

 

We started eating everything in front of us.  While it was no match for master’s cooking, it was enough to be called decent.  Once everything was gone, I leaned my back against the tree.  Skadi crawled closer to me and laid her head on my lap.

 

“Luna had ruined normal food for me.” (Skadi)

 

“Same.  How should we make her take responsibility?” (Ophidia)

 

“Make her cook us wyvern meat for a thousand years.” (Skadi)

 

“Won’t that make this problem even worse?” (Ophidia)

 

“Yep.  Then we’ll just make her take responsibility again.  That way we can have her cook for us forever.” (Skadi)

 

“You know, I loved you before, but after coming up with that plan, I love you even more.” (Ophidia)

 

“Hahaha.” (Skadi)

 

We sat in silence after that.  I looked up at the sky between the leaves of the tree as a gentle breeze blew through the area.  I then looked down and saw that Skadi was staring at me.  I tilted my head which made her chuckle before she moved her head from my lap.  She moved to the side a little and then patted the ground next to her.  I slid down from my sitting position and laid next to her.

 

“So, mind telling me some things about before you became who you are now?” (Skadi)

 

“Depends, any requests on a specific time?” (Ophidia)

 

“How about when you were the guardian of those ancient people?” (Skadi)

 

“Alright.” (Ophidia)

 

We spent the rest of the day laying there while I regaled Skadi with stories of my past.

 

Chaos Realm:

Astraea: Papa, Mama, can we do that one day?

A picnic?  Sure, it's not like we have anything else to do.

Order: We'll need to find a good place, so just let us know when, and we can go.

Astraea: YAY!

Want to help make the food?

Astraea: Can I?

Order: As long as you promise to pour all of your feelings into it and let one of us handle the knives.

Astraea: Hehehe. *Jumps up and hugs the both of us*

Order: SHE'S SO DAMN ADORABLE!

I KNOW!  IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!