Whoooo?

Kies walked over to a nearby tree and sat down. He was unsure of what to do. He didn't know how the banshee managed to kill Ammine just by flying through her. Furthermore, why did nothing happen to him when the banshee passed through him? He knew nothing about banshees and what they did.

So what was the plan now? Kies was on his own now. He decided to list out the things that he could do right now and narrowed it down to two options. The first option was to go around and try to find help. But that was a very risky idea considering that everyone and everything they met so far was unfriendly.

The second option was to find a way to bring Ammine back to life. He hypothesized that Ammine may not actually be dead and that maybe the banshee took something away from her. He would need to track down the banshee and defeat it. Doing so might somehow resurrect Ammine, and if it didn't then he would have avenged her. But this idea also seemed impractical since he had no idea where the banshee went and even if he did manage to track it down, he wasn't sure if he could kill it or stop it from escaping if it wanted to.

Since those two ideas were unlikely to work, Kies scrapped them and tried to think of something else. While heavy in thought, he didn't realize that there was something watching him until a small branch fell from the tree that he was sitting under and hit his shoulder. Kies instantly got up from the tree and pushed himself away from the tree and looked up, already preparing his magic for a fight.

In between the branches was an owl. Kies stared at the owl with a confused expression and the owl stared at him back. He wasn't sure why there was an owl in a place such as this but he didn't have the time to wonder about that. Since it wasn't a threat he decided to ignore it and went over to the tree and sat back down again.

A few minutes went by, followed by a few more, another couple more, and even more, until around half an hour passed by. Kies shook his head in frustration. He didn't know what to do. He got up and walked over to Ammine. He bent down and checked her condition. Nothing had changed. Her skin was still pale and she wasn't breathing. She was still lifeless.

"Consider moving that body, else a spirit may possess it." The voice startled Kies and he slipped and almost fell on top of Ammine as he tried to stand back up.

"Who!?" Kies scanned the surroundings and saw nothing.

"Up here, child."

Kies looked up in the branches and saw the owl from before. "What?" Was the owl speaking to him? Kies clapped his face with his hands to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating or anything.

"It's no dream, child. Hitting yourself won't change anything."

Kies slowly backed away from the owl while keeping his eye on it. "What are you?" he asked. There was no way for an owl to speak. It was probably something else disguised as one, or maybe it was an evil spirit possessing an owl. Whatever it was, it shouldn't be trusted.

The owl tilted its head and continued watching Kies as he distanced himself from it. "I'm not your enemy... unless of course, that is what you wish for."

"Sorry, but I can't trust anyone or anything in this forest." Kies gathered the winds and compressed them. He was ready to attack the owl in case it tried to make a move.

The owl saw what Kies was doing and laughed. "Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo, if you want to even stand a chance against me then you best practice for another few thousand years." The owl flapped its wings and the wind in Kies's hands suddenly disappeared.

"Huh!?" Kies quickly tried to regather the winds but they didn't respond to his call. "What did you do!?" Kies asked the owl.

"I dispelled your magic, it's as simple as it sounds, child," the owl hooted. "You best take my advice and move your friend's body somewhere safe." The owl paused for a moment and then said, "Speak of the devil, there's one right now."

Kies looked over at Ammine's body and saw that there was something on it. It looked like some kind of ghost or spirit and it was trying to enter Ammine's body. Kies quickly tried to shoot wind at it but found that he still couldn't use any magic.

"Hey, I still can't use magic," Kies told the owl.

"My apologies, child. Try now." The owl did something and suddenly the strange feeling that Kies had disappeared. Kies tried again and this time the winds responded to his call. He immediately shot a jet of wind at the creature that was trying to possess Ammine and sent it flying back. It let out a scream and then faded away.

"Not bad," the owl complimented. "But not too impressive either. You still have a long way to go." The owl laughed again and then asked, "What will you do now?"

Kies still didn't exactly trust the owl but it didn't seem like it was trying to harm him so he decided to tell it about their situation. The owl listened to Kies's entire explanation without interrupting once and then said, "A banshee. That's quite troublesome. That banshee likely took your friend's soul hostage and defeating it won't bring her back."

Kies's initial guess had been wrong. Killing the banshee won't revive Ammine. "Then is there any way to bring her back?"

"Unfortunately-" The owl stopped itself and paused for a moment before saying, "Actually, there is, but..."

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