Things were peaceful here at this oasis. There was the rustling of the plants in the ever present desert wind and the gentle bubbling of the oasis itself from the underground spring that fed it. Other than that all that was here was the crackling of the fire and the breathing of Alontar, myself and his horse as we settled in for the night. Despite a part of my brain rightfully being wary that we might be attacked I let sleep claim me. Not that I stayed asleep long though.-
Not because something happened but simply because I didn't need as much sleep as a normal person anymore after Nocturnal left her little spiritual hickie on me. That said as time passed I did notice it's "freshness" fading into the background of my soul. Like how a new tattoo would be angry and sore for a while before it healed and returned back to normal besides the ink under the skin. It was an interesting understanding that I hadn't encountered in my studies before but was not terribly surprising either. Souls were far more durable and lasting than many would think but terribly fragile at the same time.-
That might sound contradictory but it really wasn't. It was like cloth in a way. It wore as time went on and could be stretched and stained without much issue but put under the right kind of stress and it tore. Blessings settled on the soul in just such a way that they were like tattoos, temporarily painful before they were healed over. My soul was no different despite it's frankly ludicrous shape and density. Anyways I woke up probably no more than five hours after I fell asleep. -
I was rather surprised to find that we were not alone anymore at the oasis, though it was less of a "who" and more a "what" that was here with us. It sort of hovered in place opposite our campsite and at first glance resembled a storm atronach with it's floating rock body but those four "blades" on it's "back" told me a very different story.
An Air atronach.
This variety of atronach was the unique creation of the "Serpent" during the event known as the Celestial revolt of the second era. It was the event that made it clear that in truth the birth signs in the heavens above were in fact gods. Of a minor sort at least. Mortals who at some unknown point ascended to take those signs as their divine sources. Anyways Air elementals were unnatural beings that had the powers of all three natural atronachs and could absorb whichever elemental magic they happened to be on at any moment. Most were thought long destroyed after the Serpent was sent back to the heavens after it's wicked apocalyptic plan failed. Clearly however a few still survived to the present day through careful hiding.-
This also explained why the thing had managed to escape my detection spell despite my instincts telling me something was off. As an elemental being it could easily blend it's essence with the area surrounding it making my spell pass over it without detection since it's soul wasn't in a single group like normal. The thing was also clearly not expecting either of us to wake up so fast and was left with this awkward situation where I was staring at it and it was staring at me. I could almost see the thoughts in the glowing stone head moving towards a rather violent decision it would definitely regret.-
Rather than having to fight an ancient air atronach I hoped it was smart enough to understand what it meant when I held a finger up in front of my mouth. The atronach stared at me for a good second before miming the same movement with it's stony body and then floating away from the oasis silently. I breathed a relief at that as the temperament of these air atronachs were pretty much unknown. During the revolt they were all basically brand new and driven by the Serpent into outright hostility. After that however they were hunted down based on their actions during that time so there was no knowledge how they behaved naturally without the influence of their creator.-
As far as I could tell from this interaction the things were quite clever and actually avoided conflict if they could. Honestly they sounded almost perfect for the role of guardians for an area. All atronachs rarely wandered beyond the area they were summoned unless they were left without a choice. It was theorized that they were territorial in nature as a result but if purposefully left without a territory they just wandered aimlessly until they found somewhere they deemed comfortable and "unclaimed" before settling in.-
I considered attempting to "tame" this air atronach but I genuinely didn't see a point. I didn't have any set base of operation at the moment and power wise it would probably only be troublesome for normal adventurers or soldiers but easily over run with numbers. So I just watched it leave to where ever it was heading and went back to my own business. That is to say retrieving the beasts I had received as gifts and feeding them as I did every morning since I first got them. -
The majority of them weren't a problem and were in truth well behaved and mostly docile. The sept adder on the other hand was far too greedy for food and would grab the food and my fingers if I wasn't careful. I was trying to train it NOT to do that but snakes weren't exactly the most obedient of pets to begin with. Somewhere in the middle of me dodging the strike of the thing and bopping it lightly on the nose for the fifth time Alontar woke up.-
"I don't think I will ever get used to seeing you do that." he muttered.
"It was a gift and it's venom is worth a small fortune on the open market. It's just a stubborn little shit and doesn't like learning not to snatch food from my hand. Making progress on that front but it's slow going." I say without looking away from the highly venomous reptile that was fully focused on jetting that chunk of raw meat between my fingers.
"No sane person looks at a snake and decides it's just stubborn while it's trying to bite them." he pointed out.
"All animals can be trained, it's just a matter of persistence and understanding. This little fellow is quite well behaved when there's no food involved, it's just this it has trouble with." I replied easily.