Chapter 17

"I know what you're thinking about but it's nothing like that at all." I immediately defended when I saw the teasing smile on her face.

But her smile just widened even more after I said that.

"What was I thinking anyway?" She asked, still in a teasing tone.

"He's just my guardian." After saying that Sassy's smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown.

"What? Is he your relative or something? Eww! Incest!" She said and even acted like she was shivering in disgust.

I looked up in frustration and stopped myself from slapping my forehead with her reaction.

Yeah, this is Sassy.

I silently grunted before deciding to talk to her again.

"No. It's not like that! Not at all!" I said too full of conviction to my liking.

Sassy stared back at me the same teasing eyes are back on her face once again.

"Oh come'n, this is part of the story and mind you. You are also a guardian of mine." I said just to wipe that smug smile on her face which I think I succeeded doing since her face was now full of another set of confused expressions.

"Yes, you are. Now can you please keep it down and let me continue?" It's my turn to hold a smug face now, she scowled at me for a while before she finally nodded.

"Good." I complimented and continued discussing about our situation.

"You mean to say that, I am part of that so-called prophecy?" Sassy asked, her eyes are so wide and full of disbelief.

"Yes, that's what you get when you have that mark," I answered while pointing my finger at her shoulder.

"But I don't have any powers like you guys have! How can I be one of your guardians?" she asked her voice full of disappointment and mischief.

"That's exactly what we were thinking. Another thing is that we can't take a mundane here, Sass. So please behave and follow Hailec's orders for now, or else..." I purposely trailed off my words so that she can fully hear the warning on it.

"You mean I can cause unbearable consequences to that perverted creep?" she asked in an innocent tone, contradicting her choice of words in addressing the baylan.

"Yeah," I answered while chuckling.

I heard her sighed heavily, so I gave her a comforting smile and a slight pat on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry for dragging you in this mess." I apologized sincerely.

She immediately shook her head repeatedly.

"No. You don't have to apologize. It's not like you wanted this to happen and it's not you who put this animated tattoo on my back!"

"It's not a tattoo, Sassy." I corrected.

"But it looks like one!" she insisted stubbornly.

"My mom's gonna kill me if she saw this!" she added with a horrified face as she tilted her head while trying to look at the mark on her back.

After hearing her talking about Tita Sally, I suddenly remembered my mom, too.

My silence didn't escaped Sassy's attention. I saw her lifted her gaze from her back to my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

I shook my head a little and tried to blink away the tears that were starting to blur my vision.

"I just missed my parents. I don't know if I can ever meet them again." I blurted out.

Sassy stood up and enveloped me in a bear hug.

I immediately felt a little comfortable than earlier.

"We are going to get through this Fhyra. Together." She said comfortingly as she tightened her embrace around me.

"I'm still figuring out how I could mask her around the other fantasians. She can trick other flamias, glacias, and baylans but she can't hide her smell to other beings here, especially to creatures like the fooleys." Hailec said as we resumed our "meeting".

"Hey! I don't smell, you perverted creep!" Sassy yelled at him.

'You're friend is really something, Princess.' Cool teased in my mind as we watched the two bickered in front of us.

'Shut up.'

'But I never saw the Punong Baylan ever riled up like that.'

I shifted my gaze to him, who was seated in front of me.

'You're starting to talk too much now, Commandant.' I pointed out while raising my right eyebrow and the corner of lips lifted into a smirk.

He rolled his eyes on me and just resumed watching the drama in front of us.

"Aren't you guys done arguing yet?" he asked a little while after we realized that we're being sidetracked away from the main problem already.

Hailec came back to his senses and apologized as he sent glares on Sassy's direction.

"It wasn't me who started it!" Sassy interjected, her eyes are slightly bulging due to frustration from the still on-going bickering between them.

"Nobody says you did, idiot. Now sit down properly and keep your mouth shut will you?" Hailec retorted.

A smile creeps into my lips when I saw my stubborn friend took her seat unwillingly with a scowl on her face.

So there's someone who can tame this tigress.

"Going back. We need to mask her 'scent' for these creatures." He said while putting much emphasis on the word "scent" as he glances sideways towards Sassy.

"Why? They seem friendly to other fantasians." I asked, remembering how Jada, a fooleys living in the palace treats me.

Fooleys are large creatures, can be passed being called a giant, with red skin and a horn between their forehead. Their sharp fangs were showing and their ears are like that of an elephant.

Yeah, they look a little scary, I was actually terrified at Jada at first, but she was actually pretty nice.

She works as a receiving clerk in the Queen's quarters.

"Fooleys are also known as mundane eaters---"

"What?!" Sassy and I exclaimed at the same time.

I gasped, a picture of Jada devouring my friend creep into my mind. I shivered instantly with that thought. I saw Cool shifted his eyes when he saw me shivering.

'What's wrong?' he asked with his brows furrowed, I just shook my head trying to make the image go away and to assure him at the time.

"Well, don't take it literally," Hailec interjected that caught back our attention.

"Fooleys don't literally gobbled up mundanes. As I've said before, we must mask Sassy's scent because these creatures feed up with mundane souls. We, Fantasians have a different scent from the mundane in a Fooleys' perspective." he explained but Sassy and I just stared at him in confusion.

"Take it this way." Our gaze shifted from Hailec to Cool who spoke before rising from his seat and went in front beside Hailec.

"Imagine Fooleys as humans, they think of fantasians like us are just like them, but of different nationality or ethnicity. However, mundane, to them are like shellfish, they disregard the shells which is the body but they do eat what's inside the shell, souls. When a mundane soul was eaten by a Fooleys, the mundane won't die, at least not physically but they will lose their will to live, to survive, and later on, they would take their own lives." Cool explained.

"You mean, some suicides from our world is actually because they have been eaten?" Sassy asked.

"Not some, all of such cases in your world are caused by them. Fooleys are the only fantasians who were legally allowed to come to the mundane world every now and then, since their food source is in there." He added.

"Wow. You just let me see my world in a different light now." Sassy blurted out.