Kristen stared blankly at the faces in front her.
'uhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
This entire encounter had been too shocking for her to come to a conclusion that fast, and she still needed a minute to process everything.
"Could you give me a minute to decide? This is still a bit new to me."
She replied to Lucia's interruption with a nervous voice.
Sharing a look, the other two birds took a few steps back and gave her some space.
Kristen turned her back on the two and moved behind some leaves, thinking fast on what to do.
'Okay. Sooo there are basically two choices on what to do here right? Either I run as fast as I can and try to shake them off my tail or I accept their offer. Since there are two of them it would be hard to get rid of them, and they seem to be able to use the shadows somehow. Also, it looks like they're pretty strong.
I could join them instead, but I don't really know what I'm signing up for here.'
She was stuck in a dilemma, leave or stay.
Deciding that the safest option would probably be to stay she trodded up to Lucia and Olivia and gave them her answer.
"Just so you know my name is Kristen and I don't really know much about this world, so I think that I'll join you guys, if thats ok."
Delighted, the birds pulled her into a big hug, happy that there would be an addition to their group.
Lucia was the first to break away and resumed their conversation.
"Thats great! But you should know that it will take a while to earn our trust."
Olivia continued.
"And we will have your back if you have ours. Thats fine, right?"
Kristen nodded seriously at these declarations, knowing that these things took time.
..
.
.
Lucia and Olivia couldn't just recruit anyone of the street; they needed some with the nerve, guts and strength to survive whatever situation the world sent their way.
And so, they had been watching this peculiar bird as soon as she had entered the grassy plains, observing her behaviour and strength. Deciding that she was a suitable replacement for their missing third took a while, but they were sure with their decision.
.
.
..
The trio chatted for some time, Kristen being able to find out that they were staying quite far away from this area and were near a human city. That was why they had been flying for an hour towards their home, or whatever it was.
She also found out that the pair had been together for almost 2 years.
This fact daunted over her as she didn't know if she would be capable to fit in so easily.
"Its a nice view, isn't it?"
"Yes it is, I'm glad that I'm here to see it."
Olivia snapped her out of the daze with some small talk.
The small bird had a habit of talking about their surroundings whenever chatting with her, it was almost as if she didn't know what to say, but her confident demeanour said otherwise.
"You seem distracted, is anything wrong?"
"Not at all hehe, I'm just a little nervous on what joining you entails.'
Kristen fumbled over her words.
"Well, we often go on missions when we gain knowledge of hidden goods that those greedy humans horde."
"Oh. Will I be going on these missions with you?"
"Of course~
Why do you think we asked you to join us in the first place?"
Kristen, feeling stupid for asking, hastily replied in a rushed tone.
"I was just making sure-I wouldn't want to go into a situation blind hehehe."
Seeing the embarrassment in Kristens movements, Olivia chuckled internally and moved away from her, letting the humiliation really sink in out of pure amusement.
'GOD! Kristen get it together!!'
She scolded herself for acting so dumb in front of someone who was still getting to know her, trying to let the red fade from her face.
Building up the courage to continue the conversation, Kristen flew closer to Olivia.
"Will I be joining you as soon as we get there? Because I'm not sure how reliable I'll be."
"We can give you some time to settle in, but I don't think you'll need it. You're stronger than you think.
A spark of confidence lit in Kristens chest at Olivia's words.
"How did you and Lucia meet? I find it hard to think it was just by chance."
"We are sisters. When I broke out of my shell Lucia had already turned a month old and she took care of me ever since, training me, teaching me. Tell me, did you ever have any siblings?"
The expression on Olivia's face changed into something more carefree at these words, while Kristens paled from the question.
Remembering how she had killed her younger sibling in cold blood, she gulped down and shook her head fiercely at Olivia's query.
A comfortable silence fell over them after this and remained for the rest of the trip.
3 more hours passed by fast and soon they were approaching a rather grand city. Massive gates at the front stood proudly, surrounding by fortified stone walls on each side in the center of the gate there seemed to be an ancient inscription carved into it.
Confused, Kristen asked what it was.
"Hey Olivia, whats that thing on the gate?"
"Its an array. Arrays are a type of tool that those humans make, it is infused with their Qi and usually serve a purpose such as defending from enemies. But those silly humans fail to notice us sneaking in each week hehe."
Olivia said while giggling.
"Honestly, I doubt that they even have brains hehehe, all they do is fight with each other and start wars. Never trust a human, Kristen.
Everything they do is driven by greed, making them the most unreliable creatures in this world.
Anyway~
We're finally here."
In front of their eyes was a large mountain next to the human city. Kristen looked at it with confused eyes, unsure of what was happening.
Lucia looked over at her and smirked, then going over towards the mountain and disappearing without a trace.
'Wahhhhh.'
At this Kristen got even more confused.
"Lucia's divine ability is illusion hehe~thats why the silly humans can never find us.
Follow me and I'll show you the way."
Olivia explained what had happened and took off in the direction of Lucia, with Kristen scrambling to follow.
Just as they were about to hit the side of the mountain it seemingly vanished and was replaced by a small cave, big enough to house a bear.
'Woah.'