"Spirit, I saw how you were treated just now. I promise you, if you bond with me, I will always never let you feel sad, and you will forever only feel happiness around me," Tessa said.
She had to improvise a little, but the words came from her heart after seeing its expression just now after its bond was erased.
The spirit was conflicted, and the bell sounds made sure to let everyone know just that.
Tessa looked saddened as well. What was this, the third time she was trying? Both times before she had tried to copy the other people's words and as such had failed.
However, now that she was using her own words, from her own heart, if even this failed, then she wouldn't know what to do.
'Maybe I'm just not meant to have a spirit,' she began thinking.
Tap.
The spirit touched her hand and let out a small jingling noise.
Ning returned just in time for everyone to see the summoning circle form beneath the spirit's feet.
"I… I did it?" Tears rolled down her eyes. "I did it. I did it guys, I did it."
"What? I didn't get to do it again, teacher!" the little princess complained.
"Not now. I'll get you one later," Ning said.
"Congratulations," Saphandra walked up to her and hugged her. Tessa became a sobbing mess for a while, and her spirit made sad bell sounds as it cried just by feeling the emotions in the air.
After a while, she was finally calm enough to stand up and try out what she had acquired.
She had only thought about it when the wind took up speed around them and moved violently.
"Stop!" she cried out in surprise and suddenly the air stopped moving altogether. It stayed still, unmoving, even when other things tried to move it.
Ning tried to breathe but the air didn't come into his lungs. It struggled to move outside so much that pulling any in was just too hard.
Instantly, both the princess and Saphandra started suffocating.
"Release it," Ning spoke. Only then the Tessa realized what she had done wrong.
"Move, move!" she spoke and the wind flowed naturally.
"I'm so sorry, are you okay?" she asked the two girls that were breathing heavily by now.
"Phew! I was about to give her a mental order," the slime spoke from the side.
"It seems I will need a hell of a lot more practice," Tessa said softly. The spirit flowed down to her and nudged at her cheeks.
"Yes, yes, no need to be so sorrowful," she said to the spirit.
"Are you naming it?" Ning asked.
"Of course," she said. "Hmm, Wind… Gale? No, that's the headmaster's spirit. The…"
"Sylphrena," Saphandra suggested.
"Sylphrena… hmm, that kinda sounds like your name, not gonna lie," Tessa said. "Yeah, it's not bad. Sylphrena, Sylph for short. How do you like it? Oh, you love it?"
The spirit moved around happily, making serene bell noises.
"So, do you wish to stay, or do you wish to leave?" Ning asked.
"I… I think I'll leave. Also, I want that hair dye too. I don't want everyone to know I've received a spirit," Tessa said.
"Okay," Ning said. "Umm, can you stick around for a bit? I will take this little princess and see if I can get her a spirit quickly too. If she can't find one in the next half an hour, then I'll take you back alone."
"Sure. That gives me some time to get to know Sylph," Tessa said.
"Great! You guys wait around here okay?" Ning asked Saphandra and Slime.
"Sure," they both said.
"Alright, let's go, missy."
He carried to the princess and disappeared. The two of them arrived in the dead cold of the snowy lands in the west of the island.
Ning could see the misty barrier of the land not very far away from where they were and started searching around for the spirit.
"Teacher! Teacher! What is this? What is that white thing?" the princess asked.
"That's snow. You don't know about snow?" Ning asked.
"This is snow?" the princess crouched down to touch it. "Hehehe, its so cold."
"Ah, you have never seen snow, have you?" Ning asked. It made sense. After all, the Darius kingdom was around the equator line, so any chance of snow there was impossible.
"Look how fluffy it is," Ning said. "Play around."
"Yes," the princess said and jumped into the snow. He jumped alongside her.
They played around for 5 minutes before Ning made her stand up. "But I want to keep playing," the princess said.
"Later, we have work to do," the princess said.
"Okay."
Ning searched for where the spirit had moved to and teleported nearby it. The princess was about to jump up and scream at it, but then she remembered she couldn't make any sounds.
The spirit saw the only non-white thing in the surroundings and curiously flew towards them in a gentle jingle.
"You want to know what to say?" Ning asked.
"No, I know," the princess said and put both her hands on her waist. Then she spoke to the spirit.
"Spirit! Do you like playing?" she asked.
Ning looked at her weirdly, but the spirit only jingled a bit. Neither of them could tell what the spirit was saying, but the princess still continued on.
"Do you like having fun? If you do, then bond with me. Together, we will have all the fun in the world."
Ning smiled a little when he heard that.
"I can also let you play with my friends. There is Occy and another small Occy. Then there's Slimy, and Slimy has so many other friends. There's also Joan, and I think my mother will like you—"
Tap.
The spirit bonded with the princess and giggled a bit.
"I want to play too!" the spirit spoke with a peal of laughter in its voice that was followed by some smooth jingles.
Ning's eyes went wide when he heard that. The princess had managed to bond with a spirit that was fully sapient and could thus speak.
