Lesser Spirits

Aric listened to the lights with a look of surprise on his face. He could actually see the spirits. He immediately sat up, his sudden movements scared the spirits, and they all flew away screaming.

"Wait, wait! I am not going to hurt you, please." He begged. The spirits paused, unsure if they were the ones he was talking to.

"Is he talking to us?" one asked.

"It can't be us," another responded, and soon they burst into talks of whether it was them or not.

Aric found their banter amusing, their tiny voices going back and forth repeatedly.

"I am talking to you, the little floating balls of light," he said. The spirits immediately went silent for a moment, and then, in the next moment, they burst into a rage.

"Did he call us balls of light?"

"How dare he do that!" They started berating Aric.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean it as an insult. You all look beautiful. Your light is warm and nice," he said, trying to convince them.

"Hmm, I like this human-elf monstrosity," one spirit said.

"I'm not a human-elf monstrosity. I am a half-elf. My mother was a human, and my father was an elf," he said.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, I've never seen that before," one spirit sounded like he understood, only to say he didn't.

"Is that possible? I've lived for five years now, but I haven't come across that," another spirit said.

"And seeing he is the oldest, the rest of us surely haven't seen it," another spirit confirmed.

Aric loved how talkative they were. It was like they were already comfortable around him.

"Well, it's not something common, to be honest. My mum was basically raped by my father and then had me. She died at birth, and I was left with my father.

He saw me as a failure, impure blood, and never took care of me. Along the line, he ended up banishing me," Aric said.

"What a bum. You higher races confuse me with your stupid reasoning," one spirit said, causing another banter on how the reasoning of higher races was whack.

After close to a minute of bantering, they finally stopped and paid attention to Aric. "So you, how did you come to gather so much spirit energy? That was what pulled us to you," one spirit asked.

"Yes, I've never seen an item or being capable of making such an amount of spiritual energy around them," another spoke.

"When we felt yours, we came this way. I'm very sure other lesser spirits would be on their way now."

"Spirit energy is needed for our growth and sustenance. We need a good amount to stay alive and also to evolve, and your body was emanating it in large quantities," one explained.

"Is this something you can do repeatedly, or is it a one-time thing?" they asked.

Aric didn't fully understand what they were saying, but he was smart enough to put one plus one together.

"I think I know what caused it, so let me try to do it again," Aric said, and then shut his eyes, concentrating to the max. His body soon started emanating soft spirit energy.

His body seemingly acted as a conductor. The spirit energy flowed through him and then was emitted outside.

The spirits started flying in circles happily around Aric as they felt the spirit energy. With this amount, they would evolve in no time. They could actually become spirits rather than lesser spirits.

Aric opened his eyes to see all the happy lesser spirits, and then an idea popped into his head. There were about ten of them, and having them could really help him out now.

"Would you guys like to stay with me?" he asked. The spirits all paused after he asked that, like they were thinking about it, and then, like usual, it turned into a banter.

They argued about whether what Aric said was good or not, but after the long argument, they all came to an agreement.

"Fine, I think it's a good idea, but I won't do it for free," one said.

"Yes, yes, we have to do something to help," another one said.

Aric was surprised that they had a sense of responsibility, but that made things better for him.

"You don't have to do much. I understand this forest is quite dangerous. I'd like it if you could help me keep an eye on things whenever I am working, and also help me find things around the forest," Aric said.

He expected another banter to follow, and it did. They started going back and forth on the gains and losses of this situation, and after a while, they finally came to an agreement.

"We agree to that," one said.

The door of the room suddenly opened, and Ariel walked in. When she saw the lights in the room, she froze. She, like many others, knew what a spirit looked like.

"Are those spirits?" she asked.

"Uhm, lesser spirits," Aric said.

The spirits saw Ariel and started flying around her, asking what she was and who she was.

Ariel had a slight look of worry as she saw them, though she could not hear them.

"What's happening?" she asked Aric.

"They are asking you stuff, but it seems you can't hear them. I discovered I had an affinity for spirit magic, so I tried sensing them, and that called them here.

They are only lesser spirits, though, but they are super friendly," Aric said.

"You can't just say 'just lesser spirits.' Many spirit mages spend their whole lives trying to have this amount of lesser spirits around them, yet here you are with this amount already.

I really don't know how you do the things you do," Ariel said.

Aric didn't have any explanation. He just let out an awkward laugh and didn't say anything. There was really no good way for him to explain this to her, so he didn't even try.