"It should go without saying that I had absolutely no idea what was going on," Yahanaseara says. "Not only was the concept of losing consciousness completely alien to me, the place where I had fallen asleep was not somewhere that anyone or anything could simply 'stumble upon.'"

"What, was it in some really remote location?" I ask.

A slow nod of affirmation.

"The creatures that I had observed 'resting' typically did so in places that they considered to be comfortable," the Elemental Spirit says.

Lifting an arm into the air, she lets her long sleeve fall back just enough to reveal a delicate wrist adorned with a couple of finely-worked silver bracelets.

"And for me, silver is the most comfortable material there is."

After her little rant about money earlier today, how could I possibly forget.

"As such, I had chosen a mountain that had several silver veins running throughout it," she explains. "Close to its summit, deep within a cave."

"...yeah, I guess that'd definitely count as 'remote.'" I remark.

"Yes," Yahanaseara nods. "Yet there he was. A dirty, emaciated child, with naught but rags for clothing."

She heaves a deep sigh.

"With his head still lowered as if he was too afraid to even lay eyes on me directly, he began repeating... sounds. I did not understand them at first, but it was not long before I was able to decipher their meaning."

Oh yeah, automatic language comprehension.

Must be useful, that.

"To this day, I can still remember his words vividly..."

Yahanaseara's lips curve into a faint smile.

"Please, Lord of the Mountain... help me avenge my family. I do not care if you want to take my life afterwards, I have nothing left to live for anyways. Just let me see those bastards draw their final breaths before you do."

"........."

I stare at her.

"Ah, the look of determination in his eyes..." she sighs. "It was absolutely adorable. So of course I-"

"Er-" I interject, "I think you skipped a bit there?"

"Hm?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Lord of the Mountain?" I repeat.

"Ah, that," she nods. "While I had always taken care not to be seen when I did my spectating of others, I never thought to take any such precautions while engaging in other activities..."

Ah, the "sky painting" stuff.

I can definitely see how that would draw attention.

"...and as I had made that mountain my base of operations for a time prior to my unintentional slumber, it seemed that the humans who lived within view of it were fully aware of my presence there."

Oh.

I guess that makes sense.

"This seemed to have faded mostly into folktales and legends over the century or so that I was asleep, but the child who was pleading for my assistance had never once doubted my existence."

"Huh. So I guess that's why he climbed the mountain? To find you?"

"Exactly," she nods.

"With his head still lowered as if he was afraid to gaze directly at me, he explained to me that the village where he lived had been ransacked by unknown invaders," Yahanaseara explains. "All the adults who fought back were slain, while those who did not were either grievously injured and left for dead or captured along with the children."

"And this kid managed to escape them?" I ask.

"By sheer luck, if one could call it that," she says, slowly shaking her head. "Both of his parents were among those who fought back..."

Shit.

I can see where this is going.

"To abbreviate things, he was knocked unconscious and awakened within the charred wreckage of his family's home, long after the invaders had moved on. And with nowhere else to turn to, he considered me as his only possible option for taking revenge."

"And I'm assuming that you acquiesced to this request."

"It was not as if I had any reason to refuse," she shrugs. "Not to mention that this was the first request ever made of me, from the first intelligent being to ever directly interact with me."

I guess I can understand the reasoning there.

"When I told him as such, he finally mustered up the courage to actually look me in the eyes..."

Leaning back against the crates that are serving as her makeshift seat, Yahanaseara looks up at the sky and flashes a smile that's just

"Beautiful."

Oh shit, did I say that out loud?

No wait that was her who said it but how'd she-

"That was the word that escaped his lips upon properly seeing me for the first time," the Elemental Spirit laughs.

Still leaning back, she glances at me out the corner of her eye.

And her smile gets even bigger.

"Just as you did, more than a thousand years later."

"Uh-"

aaaagh my face is on fire what the fuck what am I even embarrassed for

"In that single way, the two of you the same..." she sighs. "...though on second thought, I suppose there is one other."

"Eh?" I blink a couple of times. "Wha?"

"...never mind that."

She flaps her sleeve in the air as if shooing off my question.

"So after agreeing to his request and assuring him that I had no intentions of taking his life, I scooped the child in my arms and had him direct me towards where he believed his hated enemy had gone."

A cute little chuckle as she pushes herself back upright.

"This is when I learned that humans have difficulty breathing at high altitudes," she laughs. "And that they have difficulty breathing at high speeds." She laughs some more. "And that they need to breathe."

"Yeah, that's kind of important," I sigh.

"But even at a greatly reduced speed, I located them easily," Yahanaseara says. "A raiding party of a few hundred, with captives in tow. Luckily, their destination was far enough away from the boy's village that they were still in transit."

She pauses for a couple of seconds.

"Thinking back on it, it is rather odd..." Yahanaseara taps a finger to her lips. "Basic life functions such as 'resting' and 'breathing' held no meaning to me until they were explained to me, yet the concept of 'killing' is one that I have always innately understood."

"...huh," I nod.

A thousand ideas for research materials race through my mind, but I toss them all aside.

Because Yahanaseara isn't some test subject.

"But yes, I understood exactly what the boy meant when he requested that I not give his hated enemies a peaceful death," she says. "Instead, he wanted them to know exactly what hell they had unleashed upon themselves. To die consumed by fear and regret, the same misery that they had inflicted upon his parents."

Her expression darkens, yet her smile remains.

Somehow this makes it seem even prettier.

"As such, I announced my arrival with a loud rumbling of thunder," Yahanaseara explains. "Then I landed a safe distance in front of them, and lowered the boy onto the ground so that he would not get caught up in what was to come."

"And then you killed them?" I ask.

"Yes," she nods. "But as I had no understanding of how much lightning a human body could or could not withstand, they ended up dying much faster than I had intended."

She lets out a little sigh.

"But even so, my task was complete. The child's parents had been avenged, and his people freed from their captors. And after being filled in on the details of what led to their liberation, they even lauded him as a hero for his efforts."

"Happy ending, huh."

"In a way," she frowns.

"Oh yeah..." I mumble. "He was still an orphan."

"Yes," she nods. "Though his parents had been avenged, he was still all alone in this world. And upon realizing this fact, I decided that I would continue watching over him as his guardian."

Wait a minute.

"It was at that moment that I first felt the desire to be the 'same' as humans, and so I assumed this form for the first time," she says, patting her tiny chest. "And that was also when I learned of the concept of 'nakedness.'"

yeah I guess she would be-

Wait, that's not the important thing here!

"So after procuring one of the raiders' capes as a body covering and receiving some rushed explanations regarding human customs, I came to a conclusion," she continues. "Though I am female, my default physical form appeared far too close in age to his own to reasonably claim to be his mother... not to mention that I could never take the place of the woman who had died trying to protect him."

Gazing off into the distance, Yahanaseara holds an arm out as if grasping for something unseen.

"So I said to him..." she smiles, "I, Yahanaseara, shall take you as my brother. And from this day on, neither of us shall ever be alone again."

I knew it.