Andreas exhaled deeply.
It started as a long, slow breath out, moved through his throat, climbed, kept climbing, and somewhere between his chest and the open air became a sound that was high and thin and involuntary, a wailing note that hung over the dark forest illuminated by the soon to rise sun.
Andreas layed on his back and stared at the sky.
He turned his head.
The two girls knelt on both knees, as if on command.
Nanna The brown haired one with her head bowed so low her curls grazed the dirt, both arms pressed on the transparent box of flowers and wands. Anat, who had gotten even paler, her back straight and her eyes down as she hugged her book, letting her head touch the ground.
Andreas looked at them for a long moment.
Then he looked back up at the sky.
Then back at them.
They had not moved.
"...You don't have to do that," he said with his deep voice.
Neither of them moved.
"I'm serious," he added.
Nanna and Anat flinched.
Anat said with a shaky voice, "Our apologies, lord, we... we didn't..."
"Lord???" Andreas asked.
Anat and Nanna raised their heads to look at each other first, then to look at Andreas as he stood up and patted the dust from his clothes.
They measured his expression and saw that he was squinting slightly, one corner of his lips raised.
"I'm sorry... no, we are very sorry. May we know what you would like to be referred to as... please?"
Andreas looked at the girls as they continued to kneel and answered, "I'm... Aldric di Sangro, but I'd like for you to refer to me as Andreas."
Nanna the brown haired girl's shoulders were shaking and she returned her gaze to the forest floor. She could not tell if she was crying or suppressing laughter or in the early stages of some kind of religious episode.
Anat with her composed expression hid her fear and confusion very deliberately. Her eyes were calculating and careful and gave nothing away.
"Sir Andreas, may we ask you a few questions?" Anat asked as a bead of sweat fell across her temple.
"Sure," answered Andreas, very nonchalantly.
"Are you truly a faunus goat, and are you perhaps the same one that awoke a few years ago within the same family you are now possessing... please forgive my bluntness. Lord sir." Anat asked and pressed her head against the ground.
"...I see. Is it really that obvious that I'm not Aldric? And also, I don't know what a faunus goat is," Andreas answered truthfully.
"Huh?!" Anat widened her eyes in shock.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck. It's easy to tell that a faunus goat is within his body, but if he doesn't know what a faunus goat is, then there's a high chance that something else is inside that body and somehow tamed it.
"Sir Andreas, please accept my apology for the inelegant sound I let out. I was so surprised..."
"It's fiiine. But anyway, I didn't get your names, so can you please tell me, and maybe tell me where exactly we are?"
Goddammit. It seems I can't really hide my... unique circumstances. Yes, unique. I should ask her how she found out and whether I can prevent that somehow.
Andreas looked at Nanna with a worried expression.
She had not moved. Her shoulders had stopped shaking, which somehow made it worse. She was just kneeling. Perfectly still.
Her curls still grazed the dirt.
"Is she okay?" he asked.
Anat glanced at her briefly. "She is fine... sir." Anat said, frowning at her own way of speaking.
"She hasn't said anything."
"True, lord... sir, but I am grateful that she is still breathing. She will regain her composure soon if we do not enrage you."
"Me? So that's why you won't stop bowing," said Andreas as he scratched his temple.
Anat raised her head, opened her mouth.
Closed it. Chose her words the way someone picks footing across wet stones.
"You are... somewhat difficult to be in the presence of, sir Andreas. For someone sensitive to spiritual things. Nana is too weak to be in such a... wonderful presence."
Andreas looked at Nanna again.
"Hmm," he said.
Slowly, like something being physically wound upward, Nana lifted her head. Her eyes were red. She was not crying, exactly.
She looked like someone who had seen something very large at close range and had not yet recovered their sense of scale. She looked at Andreas and then immediately looked at his collar instead.
"I see. Is there any way to prevent this situation? You see, I don't want to be scaring people everywhere I go," Andreas said.
Anat watched the exchange with the controlled expression of someone taking meticulous notes in their head. "No, my lord. I do not know such a spell, but if you would allow my opinion, removing the faunus goat within you would lessen your spiritual presence, and those who do not know you would blissfully enjoy their ignorance."
"A faunus goat? What is that and how do I remove it?"
Please do so I seriously want to ascape.
"A faunus goat is one of the few divine beings associated with a species and is said to come from a lineage of goats owned by a god from the earth itself, called Faunus." She hesitated. "They are considered to obtain the traveler characteristic from birth."
"Characteristic?" Andreas repeated.
"It means that they can travel between dimensions, or teleport as it is commonly described..."
After a short pause Anat continued. "Yes, that is all I know of them, sire. Concerning its removal, if my assumption is correct, you can simply command it to come out," Anat said, continuing to look at Andreas's chest, afraid to meet his brown eyes.
As Anat finished speaking, a black and luminous blue liquid sprayed out of Andreas's leg and took the form of a blue cat.
Andreas and the two girls stared at it.
"Is this the goat? Or... what. I don't think I commanded anything."
Anat was quiet for a moment.
"I think," she said slowly, "yes. It is the faunus goat."
Nana sighed as she felt like the universe was no longer watching her.
Andreas looked at the cat for a moment. Something very close to amusement moved across his face and then resettled.
"Your goat, huh," he said.
The blue cat nodded, which made Andreas smile. Then his expression twisted in confusion. "You can understand me."
The cat nodded again.