Level Up Saintess

The next morning after we’d done the morning prayer and eaten breakfast, Meria took Chella and I back to see the birds. I was excited the entire walk there, imagining what kind of birds they could possibly be. Perhaps they’d just be chickens, or maybe church doves, or maybe since we were in a fantasy world they would be some kind of weird feather covered creature that I would barely classify as a bird at all! They said letting the townspeople see them could rile them up, so maybe they could even be dangerous looking dinosaurs! But I doubt they’d entrust such scary looking things to average church priests, so that one’s probably off the table.

 

I guess they must not be birds that make eggs often, since I’ve never seen us have any food that uses them. Or maybe the people around here have some kind of phobia or misconception around them? Hell, for all I know, the eggs in this world could actually be dangerous. How sad, I really like eggs. They’re one of my favorite foods…

 

I looked over to Chella as we followed Meria through the surprisingly long and deep halls of the church. She looked a little uncomfortable as we walked along, which was pretty odd of her. Like, I’m used to her looking perturbed or miffed or inconvenienced or embarrassed, sure, but… No I don’t think I’ve ever seen her uncomfortable like this before, right? At least not that I can remember.

 

“Chella… Are you alright?”

 

My whisper caught her attention, and she glanced at me, but then she quickly looked back ahead and tried to adjust her expression, as if she couldn’t let anyone see her like this. It took a few seconds, but eventually she managed to whisper a reply back, although I had to strain my ears just to catch it.

 

“...I don’t really like seeing the birds.”

 

Her eyes were trained on Meria as she spoke, and instead of the usual way she seemed to look up to the priests, her eyes were rather… cold.

 

“At least it’s better when it’s Meria, but…”

 

… I must be missing something here. Does this somehow have to do with why I’ve never seen Chella and Meria hanging out together? I know they must have been close at one point, so was it something to do with the birds that made them come apart like this? What, did Chella just not like how they were being taken care of? Oooh, or maybe the priests are abusing the birds somehow? …Damn, I really hope that’s not what’s happening; I love animals, there’s no way I could just sit by and let them mistreat them… But also I need to live here, so would it be okay to strain my relationship with them like this?

 

Oh no, it’s sounding more and more likely that I might be making the right guesses! Please don’t make any of this be the case! Really, I don’t want to be right right now!

 

We exited through a back door that I had never even seen before, and came out into a back courtyard. I never knew that the church was actually this big, you know? I would have never guessed we had a whole back yard with a garden full of veggies and stuff back here. Heck, I would have never guessed we had a back door, either. Oh and look, there’s even a cellar door next to some barred windows, and-

 

“And here we are! Let me just get the birds out for you.”

 

Meria swiftly stepped over to the cellar doors and undid the lock with a key she’d been holding. The old wooden doors creaked while they opened, and I was sure that they must have been dangerously flimsy, but the metal plating on the inside of them immediately erased any thought of such things.

 

…Why do they need metal plating to hold in the birds? Are they bigger and more dangerous than I’ve been expecting them to be? Maybe I was right with the whole dinosaur idea or something, if they have to keep them locked up in a big underground place like a cellar. How is Meria even strong enough to handle such crazy things if that’s true, though? It’s gotta be that they’re just big docile birds like chocobos or something, right?

 

Once the doors were open for a while without a single peep coming from down in the cellar, I could see Meria’s expression quickly change into annoyance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her make that face before. She's normally so smiley and relaxed; It’s very off character for her to show this kind of look. Honestly, it's a little spooky how different it is.

 

“Ay! I know you lot heard the doors open! Now get up here already!”

 

Yeah, that was pretty off character for her too, although I suppose it definitely tracks with the annoyed face change, so I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything different. It’s not like I’ve spent a lot of time with Meria, so maybe this is just completely normal for her. Or maybe this has to do with what Chella was talking about? Although I doubt she’d disapprove of Meria just because of her harsh tone of words. I mean she herself-

 

Oh, I can hear a bunch of footsteps! The birds must be coming! I can see a big clawed foot appearing at the bottom of the stairs, so they must indeed be really big! But uh, besides the taloned toes, that foot actually looks disturbingly humanoid. Wow, and once the leg reaches the knees it suddenly turns quite fleshy and bald. Maybe they’re some kind of hairless bird? I’m still holding out for some kind of dinosaur-like thing, although they don’t seem to have any scales on them. If anything, that thigh looks positively human-like, and-

 

Oh… Oh no. I get it now.

 

A humanoid waist leads up to a humanoid chest from what I can tell through their baggy potato-sack clothes. They almost look like mini-dress versions of the monk outfits I’d imagined they’d make me wear when I first got here. And their bare arms… The outer sides of them were covered in fluffy hair-like down, and long pretty feathers; Feathers similar to the ones that were woven into Chella’s hair tie. The feathers even trailed over the tops of their backs, up the backs of their necks, and came up to the back of their heads where they grew interspersed amongst thick luscious strands of hair atop their heads, just like the regular humans and beast-folk had.

 

I expected their faces to have some kind of beak or something around their noses or mouths, but their faces were perfectly normal as well, although their eyes were shaped like what hawks had. And from the flashes of their teeth that I could see, it seemed their mouths had mostly regular teeth, although they were a little sharper and plentiful than a human's, maybe leaning more towards a goose's type. Thankfully, though, it seemed that their tongues weren’t serrated as well, so that was at least a small blessing.

 

“Hurry up already! Stop trudging and get out here!”

 

Meria’s harsh voice reminded me why I was here. I’d been so lost looking at these new avian spectacles and their actually quite surprising beauty, that I completely forgot the reality of the matter. These bird-people were the church’s slaves. Definitely, definitely slaves! That’s crazy. Sure, I came from a world where slavery’s illegal, but I kind of guessed that this place might have had slavery, so I wasn’t that surprised by it. But seeing it first hand, how lifeless and defeated they all look, the bruises they’re covered in, and how skinny they all are… And in a church no less! A church that follows the Goddess! Shouldn’t there be some kind of doctrine against this, at least for holy people?! And what did the bird people here do to deserve this?! Why are they all birds, is it some kind of race thing or something?! And why…

 

Oh.

Oh no...

Oh Goddess, please, no. Don’t do this to me… Why would you make me see this?!

 

There, the last bird to come out. His white feathers were flecked with gold, and the tips were basically pure chevrons of it. He was tall, his hair was white, and overall he was just so, so pretty that he was impossible to miss. It was obvious that his feathers were the ones that had been picked for Chella’s hair tie, there was just no mistaking it. But even without any of that, even without a single one of them, there’s no way I could have ever possibly not recognized him.

 

“...Kale…?”

 

My knees felt weak. I rubbed my eyes, but that was still Kale right there.

 

“...Kale, is that you?”

 

Before I even realized it, I was walking towards him. I wasn’t moving very fast though, maybe because my legs weren’t trying to listen to me at the moment. Everything was getting really blurry, and my eyes stung. My head was pounding like my brain wanted to break out of my skull.

 

That face... There was no way that wasn’t Kale; It was his exact face, right down to the small dot next to his left eye. He might have different hair and eye colors now, but that wouldn’t stop me from knowing it was him. Even in a crowded room, Kale would always stand out to me, no matter what.

 

“How… Kale… Kale! Kale!”

 

I guess everything was too much. My face was very wet. The ground was getting closer. I have to get to Kale but… I don’t think I can. It’s gotten really quiet somehow… And it’s also very dark.

 

I think… I’m passing out.

But Kale is here, so it’s okay.

All I have to do is find him when I wake up.

He’s really here. He’ll be here.

 

…Kale. I missed you so much.