Vesper looked in front of him and the Guardian wolf had an intelligent glint in its eyes.
"You are the one talking in my head?" Vesper asked, still unsure of his findings.
"Yes it is me." The voice sounded inside his head again.
"If you can speak why attack us first, you almost killed us." Vesper spoke back with an annoyed tone, he remembered the dangerous feeling he felt when this creature attacked them.
'That was to warn you humans, secondly I doubt talking to your group then would have helped my job in any way so I just did my job by chasing you out.' Its voice said again.
Vesper could not find a way to retort the creatures logic so he huffed, then he spoke again, "what familiar scent where you talking about?"
The wolf gazed at Vesper before walking deeper into the forest, 'Follow me.' its voice sounded in Vespers head.
Vesper obediently followed the wolf as they got to a tree, the same tree he had pointed to the girls in hope to get some herbs and fruits.
The tree had beautiful flowers and white coloured leaves. It was majestic and beautiful, atop it fruits that glowed with energy could be seen from afar.
Vesper stood under the tree as memories flooded him, he saw it perfectly clear, when a woman with black hair and blue eyes, fought against a wolf and then came to an agreement with it, carrying the child that had mysteriously appeared there.
'Vesper is it? I remember the name she gave you here. You have grown but I did not think fate would bring you here this quickly, when you appeared here a three nights before that woman took you, you were just a baby that had begun to crawl.'
'I had wondered why of all places to be teleported to, you landed here, inside the eternal forest with no protection whatsoever. On the day you came you appeared on the circle just before the tree. You may not know but that tree is the spirit tree of this forest, it can change its location if it wishes and my sole duty is to guard it until my death.'
'The tree used a bit of your soul power and mana, thereby crippling you mana pathways to summon a familiar for you, do you see that egg over there? That is your familiar, its specie is unknown but that is your familiar.'
'Now you must take what belongs to you, place a drop of your blood on the egg to start its hatching process, but I must let you know that the familiar spirit inside is as old as you are, and has a lot of knowledge and intelligence.'
The wolf said looking at Vesper while a stone like egg was nestled at the root of the tree.
Vesper walked and picked up the egg feeling an odd sense of familiarity and comforting energy from it. Without wasting more of his time he bit his thumb as he pressed it atop the egg, them the egg glowed with a white aura before returning to its stone like appearance.
"Sir Guardian, can I take a few fruits from the tree?" Vesper asked
The wolf was about to refuse when a humming sound came from the tree and then a small wooden staff appeared with some herbs and fruits floating before Vesper.
'That is new.' Vesper thought before taking everything and placing them in his storage ring.
'Vesper, that staff is a spirit weapon meant for a spirit beast, you should drop your blood on it, and then place it by the egg.'
Vesper nodded as he did as instructed, "Thank you, Spirit Tree." He said as he turned running back to the Imperial hunting grounds.
Along the way Vesper met a few guards who were coming his direction, then he turned around and to his surprise the tree was nowhere to be seen.
"It seems, this was all pre arranged, I doubt such coincidences occur." Vesper muttered under his breath, as he waved his arms revealing himself to the guards patrolling.
A while later, Vesper was in the throne room where the Emperor Marcus sat on the throne and three women sat beside him on smaller thrones.
In the room, there were thirteen other young adults aside him and the others were guards who stood in front of the Emperor and the Queens.
"What happened Vesper?" The emperor asked.
"Your Majesty, I, Aurora and Catherine went to the hunting grounds for sport, after which we got curious and crossed over to the eternal forest, there we first encountered a group of poison clawed panthers, after killing a few the rest ran away and we decided to go to a tree within the outer perimeters that was when we encountered the Grove Guardian." Vesper said.
"Father, all he said is true, he drew the attention of the creature, allowing me and Aurora to escape back to the Imperial hunting rounds." Catherine said.
Marcus gaze turned sharply at Catherine who kept quiet and sat back. Marcus was enraged, he almost lost two of his daughters for a careless reason.
"So what the three of you are telling me is that, you foolishly ventured outside my jurisdiction and put yourselves in danger?" Marcus Voice thundered the throne room.
"I apologize your majesty, it is my fault, I was the one who suggested to them even when they were unwilling, I lured them with the great returns." Vesper said, shouldering all the blame himself.
Catherine and Aurora wanted to speak when they felt the gaze of the second queen and the fourth queen on them, and they kept quiet not uttering a word.
"Is this true?" Marcus asked as he turned to Aurora. Aurora was about to speak the truth when she saw Vesper shaking his head slightly, clenching her fist she replied.
"Yes lord father, it is exactly how he said." She replied.
Marcus turned to Vesper and said, "For putting others in dangers for a foolish exploit you will be subjected to twenty whips, and be chained for twelve hours above the fire room."
"Is there anything else, any of you want to say?", Marcus asked, as he looked at all the people present in the throne room.
"Lord father, if I may speak." A hand raised up, looking downwards it was a young man with white hair packed in a pony tail and blue eyes.
He was the first son of the Emperor and the Empress, Adolfus Ashborn.
"Yes Adolfus, say what you have to say" Marcus replied.
"I heard that Vesper can now manipulate mana, I just want to ask, how long do you intend on keeping this information to yourself, or perhaps do you intend to fool the Emperor?" Adolfus' voice spread around the throne room.
There was utter silence as some looked at Vesper with surprise and a very few looked at him with pain and one person had a smirk on his face.
"Is this true Vesper?" Marcus voice echoed calmly, but underneath that calm anyone with great perception could tell, one slip and Vesper was going to suffer.