After purchasing everything we needed, we found Rita and the rest of my family enjoying some roasted meat skewers in the food stalls area. We quickly decided to join them and enjoy the food as well.
"Hey, look what I got myself!" Rita showed her new pet, which was now sitting inside a small cage. It was not what we expected, as it was a tiny, white colored rat.
"Chuu, chuuu…" The Rat seemed slightly stressed, and was making a very loud sound while sniffing his cage.
"You got yourself a tiny white rat! So cute… But it is so afraid." I sighed.
"Hmm, will it obey you once you turn it into a familiar?" Wondered Mark.
"As long as the familiar contract is made it should be possible! Of course the rat has to agree to that." The Great Spirit explained.
"Meow…" Blackie quickly showed up in my shadows, giving a glance filled with appetite to the tiny rat Rita bought.
"N-No! He's your new friend, not food, Blackie! I order you to never eat it." I told the black cat.
"Mereoow…" Blackie gave an annoyed meow before diving into the shadows again.
"Well, we can get to do that once we get back home for now." I sighed. "Have none of you seen any hollows?"
"Nope, they have not showed up at all." Rita said.
"Seems like the Charms we put everywhere are doing a great work." Sighed Mark in relief.
"Good, because I can feel a ton of them outside the village, they're beginning to pile up by the dozens." I sighed.
"Ah, yeah there's a lot of dark smoke coming from far away…" Mark sighed, pointing at the distance.
Hollows were only visible to people that could wield magic, and they emanated a black smoke when they stayed in a place for a while. According to the Great Spirit, this Black Smoke would eventually land somewhere else and create even more Hollows, so it is dangerous to keep them in a single place for too long and its better to slay them before that.
"Hey sis, what are you doing there? Come! There's seafood skewers here! Oh, they're selling homemade ice cream too!" Mary called for me with her two little daughters.
"Auntie, ice cream…" Little Camilla offered me her own ice cream, which was half-melted and already licked all over.
"Sure, I'm coming! Camilla thank you for the ice cream but don't you worry, you can eat it all by yourself." I gave her a head pat, as she guided me with her sister Tereza to Mary.
At the end, we were forced to stop our chat about magic and stuff and just enjoy the day and the trip as well. Today we didn't had any plans on cooking back home, so we began trying out every single thing we found around the food stalls. Rita and Mark had a good time, and I saw my daughter giggling and smiling with her friends.
How long has it been since I saw my daughter smile so carefreely ? And she has also been reconnecting some more with our family. It made me so happy to see her smile … And it also reminded me how I began playing Brand New Life to reconnect with her.
I have already met her Avatar and even made her into my guild member and all, but I feel like I've already reconnected quite a lot with her these last months, not necessarily because of the game, but due to the many things that have happened IRL.
Nonetheless, now that I've been revealed such truths about Arcadia, and I've awakened a power that could help me protect her and everyone I love, it fills me with motivation to keep striving forward.
"What's wrong mom? You've been looking at me for an awful lot…" Elena wondered.
"Nothing, I just want to tell you that mama loves you~" I said, giving her an hug and kissing her cheek.
"O-Okay, I get it but don't do this in front of my friends!" Elena got all embarrassed.
"Heheh, look at your face all red." Anna giggled.
"Your mother really likes to spoil you, Elena…" Elisa said.
"Sorry about that, I just felt like I needed to refill my energy a bit." I smiled back at the girls.
After enjoying the harvest festival in the plaza for a while, we finally returned back home. My parents were exhausted so they quickly went to take a nap, and my brother stayed with the farm animals, my daughter and her friends started riding Patches, my daughter's horse, in turns, and Mary and her daughters went to the house to watch TV (mostly for the little girls who were growing bored).
Meanwhile, Mark and Rita came with me to the river, which has now become our temporary meeting place. We told my brother we were going to go fishing to relax for the rest of the day, so he shouldn't be coming here curiously.
"Alright, I guess we can begin now." The Great Spirit said, having engraved a magic circle using monster blood on Rita's palm and then engraving it on the tiny white rat she bought. "Elayne, give the rat the purified Hollow Crystal."
Purified Hollow Crystals simply became Magic Crystals, and apparently they were useful for a variety of things such as turning normal animals into familiars. Blackie digested an unpurified one by accident and survived by miracle too. However, the normal method uses purified materials.
"Now, feed the rat the Magic Crystal while channeling your Mana into him. Tell him that you want to protect him." The Great Spirit said.
"O-Okay?" Rita nodded, as the rat sniffed the magic crystal and then began munching on it.
"Hey please become my familiar, I'll protect you or something…" Rita said without a hint of honesty in her words.
Her Familiar Pact Magic Circle began shining, and so did the Rat's one, which had already devoured the magic crystal.
A thread made of magic between the two was made, and in mere seconds, it was done!
"Wow this was surprisingly easy!" Rita laughed.
"Wait, what the heck? It worked?" I wondered.
"Well, animals are not that perceptive." The Great Spirit sighed. "It could be said the little rat got easily tricked."
The little rat jumped over Rita's head.
"Uwaaah! No! Don't get there! Aggh, get away! I hate rats!"
"Wait, if you hate rats why did you even get one?!"
Mark and I ended facepalming at the same time.