Kushi got lost when he was searching for the kind chimaera. He couldn't hear any of those grateful and feracious munchings of others, but at least he knew that he was supposed to eat the food that was showcased almost in every direction he glanced at.
'Where is that big sis…' Kushi thought, as he filled his mouth with saucy steak with a mess all over his hand and tattered clothes.
The Forest Caretaker noticed the deaf boy, 'The Soul Supreme commanded me to serve everyone in need.' She then tried to use 30% of her thinking capability to determine the culture of demi-humans. 'Ah, he might be separated by his guardians.'
As Kushi glanced left and right, he was mildly altered by what he thought was a little girl with green hair and flowery tattoos that was trying to talk something out to him, yet all of the words were lost within the barrier of disability.
The young Aiseirighian showed a sign of fear. The Forest Caretaker began to worry about the boy at the same time.
After some time realizing that the girl didn't show any ill intent, he decided to conversate as he gestured his hands in sign language.
"'Can I help you!?'"
The Forest Caretaker got confused, tilting her head. The spirit then somehow grasped something, she then gestured to the boy to follow her as she walked away.
'I guess I should follow her?'
Both of them passed many kinds of people. Some had all of their families together, it made Kushi's chest tighten a bit. Both of them then got out from the gigantic buffet area where numerous kindred spirits of nature could be seen.
Meanwhile, on a nearby freshly built mana fountain.
"Cool, you can infuse the stable mana into water."
"It seems like a mana that hasn't been marked by a miniature realm can be transferred to everything." MF puffed her chest, closing one of her eyes as she tried to act superior in front of her wife. "Which means I can even create a natural mana crystal at this point, fufufu. Praise me!"
"Such a feat! Such an extraordinary and awesome superior ability!" Foel exclaimed with her usual poker face.
"... I can't read you, don't tell me you developed a symbols-pill for that?"
"Kekeke."
"Don't 'kekeke' me!" MF pouted hard. "Ehem, I might need to upgrade my mana reactor, in this case I need a legit artifact for passive-conversion using mana circuit, can you do it?"
"I never tried to create an artifact before. I'm already on the Nascent Realm Enlargement stage, I might try one or two if I can get the schematic. How about the loot from the raid back then?"
MF shrugged. "There wasn't any sutra, books, or codex in any kind that we can use to create them. Although I already grasped a little bit of the circuit formation from one artifact I used to create my mana reactor, I'll write the book later then."
A smirk permeated the Ouroboros.
"The Wise One, I found a little human with horns that couldn't understand universal tongue," said the one of the fifty vessels of the Forest Caretaker, with Kushi behind her alerted.
Kushi noticed the scary tanomobi with the monocle. He flinched before moving to the back of the caretaker. Until her eyes finally met with the calming existence of the Ouroboros' halo.
"Caretaker... I told you not to bring anybody outside the area." MF facepalmed. After peeking through her fingers, she then noticed that the young Aiseirighian was deaf. "Ah, why don't you try to connect your consciousness to establish a bridge to his mind?"
"Oooh, as expected of the Wise One. Great idea!" The Forest Caretaker then turned around, closing her eyes as she tried to puncture Kushi's head with a consciousness string. '"Young dragon, can you hear me?"'
'"Ah, I can hear your thoughts! Big sis! Although, why are you calling me a dragon?'"
"'You're not? Your kin have a violent wavelength as fierce as those who burn the sky, and the word dragon came into mind.'"
Indeed, Aiseirigh was once a prideful dragonfolk, with giant wings, long armored tail, and strong jaw. Again, their almighty genes degraded with time. Eventually, they will scrap all of their fierce genetics and become the incarnation of their true human predecessor.
It seemed like the Caretaker met a dead end, she slowly shifted her gaze to the Wise One. MF felt bad so she decided to help out regardless.
The tall Ouroboros approached forward, crouching down with her black dress touching the ground. With a gentle smile, she gestured her hands in sign language, "'Little one, can you understand me?"'
Kushi widened his eyes, he then tried to reply as best as he could. "'Yes! Are you an Angel?"'
'"I'm the new Director, how is the meal I cooked?"'
'"You're the the one who prepared all of that food?!?"'
'"Yes."' MF nodded.
"'it's delicious! I never had that kind of meal in my life!"'
"'I'm happy if you think so, although, I will be more happy if you could eat more to grow big and strong."'
"'I will! This is the first time that I had that amount of delicious food in my life, I'm scared if something will change within me."'
"'Be worry not! I want to give you a present for being such a good boy, may I know your name?"'
Kushi stuck out his index and middle finger of both hands, forming a cross by moving the fingers of both hands together. He repeated the movement. Afterward, he spelled his name using the finger alphabet.
"'Kushi!"'
"'What a beautiful name, your name means 'perseverance' and 'fortitude' in tribal Aiseirigh's tongue."'
MF straightened her posture as she swirled both of her hands to the front. A blob of dark goo was secreted from her left gauntlet's palm. She then molded the seed of creation into a crystal bio-artifact with its needed subconscious energy fueled by the 'faith' MF accumulated.
After performing the basic improvised movement to enhance the bio-artifact with tree symbols pills' essence, MF turned it into a talisman. Walked forward, and put the necklace on Kushi.
"'It's a gift, never give up when a hurdle comes in front of your life. I'll gift you more if you work hard in making yourself happy."'
Kushi was mesmerized by the talisman. Tears started to flow, some memories started to plow her teary gaze with an even more emotion.
Because there was once in his life time where his parents gave something similar. A talisman, but living in the slum was harsh and eventually, he needed to sell it to buy the food that would never come due to the fierce competition within the alley.
It proved that the world was harsh towards those with imperfection. Why did a young 14 years old child manage to tell himself that 'everything will be okay' numerous times without breaking? Forcing those that were treated unfairly to pent and pent and stash all of those emotions away.
The deaf kid bowed, his gaze on the ground, watching the droplets drop one by one.
Without any words, the Forest Caretaker guided him to the banquet again.
"Meshia, you can actually heal her handicap. Is there a reason why you didn't do it?" Foel asked, as she noticed the uneasiness in MF's heart.
"He will get stronger this way, I believe so."
"You really wanted to heal him… do you?"
"All I can do is to ease the kid's hurdles in the future." MF threw a melancholic smile. "It's all an experiment."
"... Want to cuddle before initiating the plan?" Foel gently smirked, breaking her poker face once in a while.