CHAPTER 115: Quetzalcoatl.

I climbed on one of the roofs. I did not dare to fly at this point. The risk of getting spotted was just too high.

Eventually the people left. They had left the body of the woman behind and looked rather disappointed.

Yet the man with the burns still had an uneasy feeling about all of this.

He turned around and looked at the ruins for a little longer.

Right now, I sat nearly on the other side of the ruins, so I was fairly sure that he could not see me.

But he still looked in this direction for an awfully long time.

Then finally he turned around.

I let out a sigh of relief and leaned against a wall when all of them were out of my sight.

I waited for another half hour before I climbed down the roof. Here I walked over to where the hole in the wall was created.

I had to check if that weird metallic substance was still affecting me, and I also had to try to remember their scents while they were still fresh. It would not surprise me if they came back to check if the body were moved.

I stepped through the hole and entered the room that was barely standing at this point.

The body of the woman was indeed still lying there. I tried not to come close, since I could feel that at least that magic circle around her was still active.

Therefore, I stayed close to the wall. This made it also clear that the metallic substance had lost its function. It did not surprise me. they had stated that it was expensive to recharge their weapon. And that would not be the case if they could just reuse the substance.

I still decided that I should not touch it. Just because it had no effect without contact anymore did not mean that I was safe to touch it.

I moved away from the substance, making sure that I did not touch it.

Then I gathered all my willpower to walk towards the centre of the room without interacting with the body in any way.

Here I tried to memorise the scents of the people who had been here.

The first one was quite obviously that of the dead woman on the floor. With her blood dripping out, it was only natural that her scent would be most dominant.

The next was a pretty strong lavender like smell. I figured that this one belonged to the other woman. This made it really hard for me to figure out what her natural scent was. It would not surprise me if I could not tell that it was her simply based on her scent, the next time we would meet.

It crossed my mind for a moment that she maybe had done that on purpose to create this exact scenario.

The next scent was rather warm and familiar. Tough one's scent could change based on their surroundings, a part of it would mainly stay the same.

And I had definitely smelled this somewhere before.

Was it maybe someone I had encountered while I travelled with the group? No that could not be the case. If it were then I would most likely not recognise it at all. The same way that you simply wouldn't recognise a person just because that person walked past you a few months ago.

This one was more familiar. I was sure that I had spent quite a lot of time with this man.

Then it hit me. the reason why it was so familiar yet so hard to place was because when I was around that person for the last time, I was still human.

Back then I obviously did not focus on someone's smell. Yes, I might had noticed it if that person did not bathe for a while. But it was nowhere close to how I sensed it now.

So now I could tell that this was indeed my father.

I backed away from the area and climbed through the hole in the wall again. not caring about the last person.

("He had been so close! How could I have missed him?")

But then again how could I have made contact with him? I could not just walk up to those people saying, 'Yea I know I am a demon and all and he is a human, but he is my dad so don't kill me.'

Something like that was just never going to work.

The following two days I felt pretty miserable about it. I finally knew that at least one of my family members was alive, but I had no way to tell him.

Yes, I could send Noah or Beatrice. But even if he came. Would he still believe me?

Maybe I could make an illusion of my old self to interact with him? Only the problem was that if I did that I would have to come up with an excuse as to why I could not come to the main city of Atlantis with him. And I would also need a good explanation for the others.

("Maybe I should just let go?")

Afterall it had been at least five years since we had last seen each other and we both seemed fine. And trying to interact with him would just bring way too much risk.

But my ray of thought could not go on until the end of times. A specific group of people had come to disturb me.

I climbed out of my hiding place as soon as I noticed Allenya, Elisa, Alex, Noah, and Beatrice approached.

Alex waved at me the moment I came in their view.

I walked over to them and noticed that Allenya was holding a bird that I had never seen before.

The bird was green with some hints of blue in its neck and its tail. It had a long beak and small white rings around its eyes.

"What is that?"

I pointed at the bird that was quite obviously frightened of my presence.

Beatrice smiled and gave a quick bow before she petted the bird in a useless attempt to calm it down.

"it is something like an offering. But if you wish to know this particular bird is a lime green spreeuw."

Allenya was annoyed by the way that Beatrice answered my question. And took a step back so that Beatrice could no longer reach the bird.

"Actually, we saw this bird at the market, and it was pretty cheap because this one can't fly due to an injury. So, we thought, you can fly therefore you can carry it to give it the feeling that it is flying! and when the dwarf is not here you are basically alone all the time. So, it would be a nice companion."

I found it hard to imagine that the bird would not die of pure fear when it stayed by my side for a few days. But it was really thoughtful of them.

"And does it have a name?"

"Actually," Alex replied. "we called it Quetzalcoatl!"

"Was that not the name of a feathered serpent?"

Elisa nodded. "Yes, it is. But… it has green feathers like the original Quetzalcoatl. So, he thought that it would fit him."

Allenya handed the bird to me. in blind panic it flapped its flightless wings but soon found that it was unable to escape. Without any options left it felt like it could only surrender and stayed unmoving in my hands hoping that I would not kill it if it did not make any sudden movements.

"See?" Alex cheered. "I guess that it already likes you!"

But I knew that the bird actually was still frightened. I could hear its little heartbeat, beating faster than that of any human. I truly hoped that Quetzalcoatl would get used to me because I really liked this bird.