#ardua

Continuing to stand here wouldn’t make that any better.

“Yeah, you are right, I’d better bring these to him, hey you wanna try planting one too?”

I separated about five of the plants and held them towards him as he nodded. 

He gently took them and started putting his tools away.

“Well, i’ll be off then, good luck with the plants and see you later”

He waved and put a few more stones around the perimeter of the garden before continuing to put his stuff back in the toolbox he got from Barsen.

Speaking of Barsen, where was he anyway?

While he had the habit of finding everything in the Garden it was a nightmare to search for him as he sometimes just disappeared into the greenery.

Well, I still didn’t want these to wilt so I’d better find him.

Going methodical might be best here, so I would go back and see if he was near the rock anywhere.

He’d been there last i saw him, and it was likely he’d go back there to collect the plants he asked for.

And I hoped that at this point he finally went to get the wheelbarrow repaired.

Ducking under a branch back into the unobstructed space next to the rock I could see him, so I had been right.

He did come back to collect the plants he asked for, and this time he was not carrying a wheelbarrow on his shoulders.

He turned to face me before i could draw any attention to myself, Once again a bit eerie but he was the gardener and probably knew what made the different sounds in the underbrush.

He smiled when he saw me and the bluebells I was carrying with me and I gently passed them along when I reached him, but instead of once again disappearing like he did so often he looked at me with a serious face.

Uh oh, did I do something wrong?

Did I step on some prized plant as an Ardua?

But it appeared that I was wrong in that aspect.

“There is someone in the main hall that knows your name, your entire name, and he asked to speak to you.

He’s waiting somewhere in front of the throne for you, you better hurry i have no idea how long he’ll actually wait”

Someone that knew my name? My full name at that?

The only ones who I had told that were Robin, Arthur and Rikaad.

So who the fuck waltzed in here with the knowledge of my name?

Well, there was only one way to find out, and I couldn’t deny that I was curious as to who this person was.

And also ask how they knew my name, because that was very weird.

I knew I had not told anyone my name as there really wasn’t much opportunity to since Fae blooded people were basically hunted for sport.

Maybe it was an estranged uncle or something?

After all, claiming to be related to a Fae Bastard was not something people would have freely admitted just a month ago.

Still wouldn’t really.

But if the guy wanted to freeload on the fact that i lived in the castle i would tell him to fuck off.

I now had people that liked me for who I was and not because I was rich or whatever.

I wasn’t even rich either, the only thing I got here was shelter and the occasional sweet treat from the kitchen.

Well, feeding something the size of an Ardua would get fucking expensive really quick so it was good that i could live off of sunlight.

But there were still things I could not resist, like cinnamon bread.

The loaves made by the Castle were really good though.

Speaking of Castle there it was, including the, at least in my opinion, stupidly oversized door.

So the guy that knew my name was in there, I briefly wondered what he would look like but since I was about to go see for myself that wasn’t necessary.

Going in I could see that the room was almost empty, safe for Norrin who was talking to Rikaad and a few other Guards in one of the corners.

And of course the man Barsen had said that he knew my full name.

He wasn’t facing me, he was facing the throne instead and I could see he was tall and had long off-white hair.

Since I couldn’t see his face I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he seemed to be fit, an archer perhaps? Or a dancer?

Maybe the off-white hair threw me out of the loop a bit.

But I could also tell that he was tall, very much so, taller than Rikaad even.

I’d guess he was at least six foot something and he was clad in a weirdly sewn green tunic that had leaves embroidered on the upper part of the sleeves and light beige pants with sturdy boots.

So that was the guy that knew my name and wanted to see me, Well, I’d better greet him then.

“Hello, are you the one that wanted to see me?”

The man turned around and suddenly I wished Barsen would have told me beforehand that this was an Elf, an actual one and not a Bastard.

His pointy ears were even longer than mine so there was no doubt about that, and now it made sense why he was so tall too.

The strangest thing about him however was that he was the palest person i had ever seen and possessed a pair of red eyes that looked like dull rubies.

An albino then, huh, but on top of that he looked eerily like one of those expensive porcelain dolls that Noble children sometimes had.

Something was off about him though, but I couldn’t say what, just an inherent sense that something was weird about him.

His movements were graceful, but seemed overly practiced and his face was like an emotionless mask even as he smiled.

A perfectly symmetrical smile that did not reach his eyes and seemed almost painted on with practice.

He opened his arms in what was probably meant to be a welcoming gesture but to me it still seemed strangely puppet like and practiced.

Then he spoke in a calm and melodious voice, still smiling that weird and a bit unnerving smile of his.

“Hello little Brother”

Nea stared for a few seconds, waiting for anyone to make a move.

As that didn’t happen she shrugged and turned to the other two Knights that had stayed behind.

“Get some blankets and bedding material, i don’t think they are going to move”

The knights hesitated and she snapped at them.

“I said ta get Blankets! Are ya deaf?”

She raised her helmet a little which sent the two under her order running through the door in order to fulfill her command.

Now we were alone with her.

She turned back to us and rummaged through the barely reachable pocket in her tunic under the armor and pulled out a keyring with various keys in different sizes after a few seconds.

“Gotta open tha door of course”

She walked past us right towards the over to the big wooden door that was tall enough that even i wouldn’t have to duck much.

What the fuck was that even built for?

I heard the telltale click of a lock opening after Nea fumbled a few seconds with it and then shoved the door open as much as she could with her shoulder.

The oversized wooden gate was just a bit too big for her to do that alone.

I decided that since I was apparently staying there anyway I might as well help and pushed the door the rest of the way open with my head.

One thing was still weird to me though, She was the least freaked out person about my big and fuzzy stature I had met and she freely sent away the other Guards, meaning she was alone with us now with no backup should anything go wrong.

Asking couldn’t hurt right?

“Hey, Nea right? How come you are so…chill with a big green beast right next to you?”

She looked at me with something akin to amusement in her eyes.

“Same story as ta how i got to be such a high ranking guard, i’ll tell ya when ya are all somewhere warm”

Well now I was intrigued, and I wasn’t the only one as Arthur and Robin slowly walked through the entrance after me.

The inside was spacious enough, with a hayloft and some straw strewn about.

Aside from that and a few torches here and there it was empty and rather dimly lit.

Hey, maybe Robin and Arthur could sleep on the elevated platform, might be fun for them.

Looking back I could see Nea doing her best to close the door and actually manage, a job I was sure usually needed at least two men judging by how I had to push against it.

Maybe closing it was easier than opening it, who knew.

The door closed with a clack and the cold air that had seeped in disappeared.

She turned back to us and made a shooing motion.

“Pick a spot and get Comfy, no idea how long those guys are going ta chatter each other ears off”

Her weird nonchalant demeanor was kinda funny, I had a feeling a manticore could charge in and she wouldn’t bat an eye.

And I kinda liked her accent, it was not something I had heard before.

Since it looked like I was supposed to wait here until whatever Rikaad did with those guys I might as well get comfy, I didn’t want to make an entire army angry at me after all.

In the end I just laid down on the floor with some hay so the ground was a bit more insulated. 

The wood was still warmer than blank stone though.

I wasn’t even in place for one second and Robin had already claimed a spot right next to me, shuffling into the fur of my arm and using me as a pillow.

Arthur had a bit more hesitance and slowly went over to us while not breaking his line of sight with Nea.

He ended up settling next to Robin on the floor, hand near where his sword should be.

Nea herself dragged a three legged stool from somewhere over and set it a fair bit away in front of us.

“So, i’m sure ya want answers, can’t give much of them as my knowledge is limited but i can tell other stories too if ya’d like?”

She was really trying to be friendly, but I didn’t think anyone else in the room was in a good mood.

We just stared at her in silence, until.

“When can we see Rikaad?”

Robin had piped up and immediately buried into my fur again.

Nea looked not too surprised by this question.

“I guess after they are done talking, However i don’t know for how long they decide to talk, so might be in an hour or tomorrow who knows”

Well that was not very useful, but at least we could see him at some point.

Before I could think of something to ask Arthur had stood up.

“Say, what the fuck is going on? And if Rikaad is heir to the throne why wasn’t he ever in the castle? Why was he living downtown?

And why did nobody tell him? Just WHAT THE FUCK in general!”

I had pinned my ears back at his sudden outburst, and even Nea seemed taken aback by it.

She composed herself quickly enough though.

“Well i don’t know the details, tha only ones that do are the highest ranking schmucks, but as far as i was told it was for his own protection, personally i suspect that a previous Heir was murdered but that’s just a rumor”

Finally some useful information, even if it wasn’t much.

Maybe I should just ask her to tell us what even happened one thing after the other.

“Nea? Maybe it’d be easier if you just tell the story of what even happened, like how did you know which person to look for? And where were we?”

“Oh yeah, good idea! Shoulda have done that from tha start i guess”

She made herself a bit more comfortable on the wooden stool and then turned to us again.

“About i dunno, three days ago? We got the order ta go and get some guy from the School dorms as the king had died about six hours prior.

When we got there the headmaster informed us that the man we were looking for wasn’t there, hadn’t been for some time even cuz he ran into the woods with some other student to retrieve someone else and just didn’t come back.

So tha head Guard decided ta send us out into the snow and search for him, that sucked by the way it was cold as fuck.

But yeah, after we didn’t find him in the city Norrin had us go out into the woods, at night, i really wanted ta strangle him for that.

And the rest, well ya were there, though i have to say i wasn’t informed that we were looking for tha Heir, i really wish i had known that sooner and not just last minute”

Huh, so that’s what was going on, and I guessed that it was technically my fault too.

If I hadn’t taken Robin that day they would have found all of them where they were supposed to be.

Nothing I could do about it now.

It was kind of funny though that even the people that were supposed to search for him didn’t know what was going on.

“Well, that’s all, any more questions before I go look for tha idiots that were supposed ta get blankets?”

Oh right, she sent the other two knights to get that.

She also did say she would tell the story of how she became a Guard.

To be honest she was kinda sympathetic, and she didn’t really hesitate to call her coworkers schmucks, which was funny.

Better ask before she left, she had already stood up.

“You said you’d tell the story of how you managed to become guard, And i have to say i’m curious, i didn’t think the old king allowed Women in his ranks”

She turned back to us and I could feel Robin shrink even more into my fur.

“Yeah right, I did do that. Well, I used ta be a farmhand, I lived right next to tha forest and one day a patrol was there n’ said they were looking for a Drake.

I found it, it got into my shed, and I ended up beating the thing to Death with my grampas Helmet.

I also might have kicked some of tha soldiers and I guess they were impressed? Whatever, it did land me a pretty good job at least.

Well see you later if those idiots don’t come back soon”

Before anyone could do anything she had already vanished out the door.

What a kickass lady, I wasn’t sure if I believed the Drake story though, those things were dangerous enough if you were with a group.

Taking one on alone? With nothing but a Helmet? Surely not.

I wasn’t the only one that thought so either, judging by Robin’s nervous Question.

“You think she really killed Drake? Those things are like, twice the size of a horse!”

“No idea, but she is a high ranking Guard so maybe?”

Arthur meanwhile had left his spot next to us and climbed the elevated platform in the other half of the room.

I couldn’t make out what he was doing very well but it looked like he was staring out a window.

“Arthur? What are you doing?”

He turned to face us.

“I’m trying if I can see anything, like maybe I can see Rikaad in one of the windows?”

Sure, I didn’t think it would help any, especially since the castle was on the right side of us and the platform faced forward so he wouldn’t be able to see much.

Whatever gave him peace of mind, I was far too tired to think at this point and needed sleep.

I had taken the first watch today and the last watch yesterday so I had been awake for way longer than I should have, and then we had to walk even more through the snow after the Guards found us.

My legs definitely wouldn’t cooperate for the next six hours, not that my brain would either.

I Lifted my arm and put it down on the other side of Robin before dragging both closer to me and laying my head down.

Robin was now smooshed against the side of my head and leaning against my arm, sort of forming a narrow furry space he could squeeze between and use as a source of warmth.

Those fucks still weren’t back with any Blankets after all.

Arthur had meanwhile climbed down again and it took him a few seconds to find Robin nestled against me.

“You know what sleep sounds like a good idea”

He walked over and just fell face forward into my side, not caring that he was still exposed to the cold air.

For once the tail was useful, I curled it around me so the fluffy tip of it would cover Arthur and shield him from the cool air in the oversized room.

We could worry about what would happen when we weren’t so tired anymore, and for now Rikaad was okay,

if he really was King they wouldn’t hurt him.

I laid my head down and sorta trapped Robin by doing that, but I knew he wouldn’t wake up before I did so it was fine.

I was asleep within seconds, safely curled around both Arthur and Robin.

I woke up some time later to the sound of the door creaking and opened one eye to look.

Nea had come back and she was carrying something that looked like fabric, the blankets she said she’d get.

I couldn’t have been asleep for long then.

She looked around confused for a second before her eyes settled on my side.

Arthur’s arm was sticking out from under the fluff and decently visible.

She then placed the blankets on top of the stool she had sat on earlier and left again.

Since there was no danger or even any sort of problem I felt like I could go back to sleep.

If anything wanted to hurt the two little men right beside me they would have to go through me first.

I closed my eyes again and the dreamland welcomed me back.

The next time I woke up was because someone kept shoving at the underside of my jaw.

“Donovaannnn Move, i wanna get up and you are trapping me!”

My head jolted up and Robin let out a rather adorable squeak.

“Sorry, I thought I would wake up before you, you okay?”

He was now half draped over my arm but nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, I’m good, now let’s go look for Rikaad!”

Ah, right, so all of this wasn’t a dream then.

I slowly stood up and saw that Arthur was also awake.

“Alright, where should we look first?”

“I suggest the door”

All of us whipped our heads towards the voice at the same time.

And we weren’t mistaken, Rikaad was standing in the doorway, no idea how he had managed to pull the squeaking hinge open without us noticing though.

It wasn’t even a second and I could already see a ginger blurr zip past me,  immediately latching onto the taller human with a big smile and squeal of delight.

Arthur also walked over as fast as he could, not full on sprinting though.

I didn’t know if I should go over just yet as well, they knew each other for way longer than i did so i just stood awkwardly there staring at them.

I could see that Rikaad had been given new garments, a dark blue vest with purple trim and red undershirt as well as dusty brown pants and a pair of shoes.

There also was some sort of gold insignia on his chest and he was wearing a light blue sash.

I didn’t have to think about whether i was wanted in that awkward group hug or not as Robin winked me over and i realized that all of us did not fit into the doorway at once, I would shove them away if I tried.

Robin stopped clinging so tightly to Rikaad but still refused to let go and instead dragged him inside.

No doubt that if Rikaad had just stood there he wouldn’t have budged a millimeter, but he just went with it anyway.

I kinda didn’t know what to say, one one hand he was still the weirdly stoic Rikaad i knew and on the other he was the Heir, So what the hell was I supposed to do?

Also i ate the guy not even a few days ago.

As it turned out I didn’t have to do anything as the nagging question we all had was voiced aloud by Arthur.

“Soooo uh what the hell? Can you PLEASE explain? The best we got was some lady telling us that they walked through snow to go find you”

Rikaad nodded curtly.

“Of course, it might take a while so we best sit down somewhere”

Since there wasn’t really anything in here aside from the hay and the stool with the blankets on it I just sat down where I was.

Realizing that I was still a lot taller than everyone else I laid down on the floor again and Robin immediately jumped to use one of my crossed arms as a backrest.

Arthur just sat on the floor where he was and Rikaad did the same, crossing his legs and making a straight back.

Yeah, I could kinda see his bloodline with him sitting like this.

“So tell, what is going on?”

I was really curious, like why did they put him in a civilian household?

That didn’t make sense.

At least he was willing to explain, and that he did, luckily a lot more coherent than Nea too.

“Well, I was informed that the reason i was placed into a foster family was that every other heir was killed pretty soon after being born, rather violently too.

So there was a murderer that specifically targeted the Royal bloodline and I was sent away and declared dead to the public.

I was supposed to leave with them the moment the old king had died and take his place.

But they couldn’t find me at the dorms, you all know why, so they sent a search party to find us and bring us back to Kamerasca.

Any questions?”

That… did answer a lot of things really,

like why he was not in the castle in the first place and of course why the knights were willing to go into the forest at night.

But to be put into a foster family and not even know it?

What about his adoptive parents? It was impressive that they never told anyone but now that Rikaad knew what would they do?

Those were far too personal Questions though, so I wasn’t gonna ask.

Arthur also didn’t really look like he had questions , just horrified at the prospect of assassins in the castle, which, fair enough.

Robin however-

“So I’m the only normal one here? Whyyyy, thats dumb”

Ah yes, Problems and priorities.

Though I would not call him ‘normal’ of all things, He was a chaotic little ginger that spaced out sometimes and made nice flower crowns.

His comment however seemed to have confused Rikaad a bit.

“What do you mean by that? Arthur is pretty normal too”

He didn’t know! Oh that was going to be awkward, if Arthur even told him.

On that thought, why did Robin know of Arthur’s heritage?

He only told me as far as i knew.

Maybe he told it during the time I was unconscious?

Whatever it might have been, that wasn’t going to save him from Rikaads intense gaze that clearly wanted an answer.

Arthur had stayed tight-lipped for a few seconds before he finally came out with the truth.

“You’re not the only one with royal blood, so it’s kinda my fault that the Maringand Guards stuck us in the tower? I’m really sorry about that though, my uncle’s a dick like that”

As I had thought it was awkward as hell, At least for Arthur’s sake I decided to stay out of it.

I even put a paw in front of Robin and hugged him closer to me so he would keep his chattery mouth shut.

Rikaad took it in stride though, and he didn’t ask specifics, probably to not bother Arthur about it even more who was visibly uncomfortable.

“So I take it you can’t go to Maringand anymore?”

Arthur sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah pretty much, also they think i’m dead and they better keep it that way”

I had a feeling this conversation was going in an even worse direction,

at least for me.

“Why do they think that?

I thought you said you escaped through a sewer?”

Arthur was silent for a few seconds, likely realizing what he had given away just now.

“Nevermind! Say what’s the plan for now?”

He rushed out an octave to high.

Rikaad still looked at him a bit suspiciously but thankfully let it drop.

Gods i didn’t want to explain that fuckery, especially not after getting stabbed by him.

I could feel Robin trying to break free from my hold and gave him a bit more space so he wouldn’t have my paw in his face anymore.

“Yeah what do we do now? Do me and Arthur have to go back to school? What about Donovan?

Where is he gonna stay? And what about the no Fae rule your old man made? Is that still in place?”

It looked like he wanted to say even more but I nudged him in the side to make him shut up for a second.

“Breathe, you look like you’re going to fall over, we can look at all this later, yeah?”

He very predictably pouted and made puppy eyes.

It was sadly very effective, so I had to look away.

I looked at Rikaad instead, Robin had brought up a few very good questions, what about me? What was I going to do now?

I wouldn’t really mind living in this weird shed if it got a bit spruced up.

There was of course the possibility that i would have to leave, I didn’t entertain that thought for long.

“You can of course all stay at the castle, you are my friends, I’m not going to send you away!

As for the rules the old man made i will look them all over individually”

It was a relief to know that we could all stay here, even if it was weird to think that it was literally the castle.

Another thought came to mind, the closer we had gotten to Kamerasca the colder it got, did he know anything about that?

Because this was way past freaky weather.

“Did you find out why the weather is so fucked?

This extreme cold can’t be normal”

He shook his head.

“Sadly not, but i do agree with you that this is not normal, i will look into it”

That was probably a good idea, if this went on all the crops would die and the people of Kamerasca would starve.

Not a pretty fate.

“Maybe Oakley knows what to do? He knew about the Ardua thing too!”

All eyes in the room went to Robin, he, Well he wasn’t wrong but it took multiple days to get to Oakley’s place.

And Arthur was the one to point that out.

“It takes ages to get to his shack, and there’s no guarantee that he does know, or even wants to help at all, i mean Kamerasca has not been nice to the pointy eared folk”

It was kinda funny that he said pointy eared folk instead of Fae, but we didn’t actually know if Oakley WAS Fae, he might just be weird.

Also it took a Human a few days to get there, about a week at the shortest.

I wasn’t human, and my legs were way longer so i probably could make the journey in about three days minimum.

“I could go? If i go alone i’m way faster, and Oakley kinda expects me back anyway so it’d be rude to just not tell him that i live here now”

Yeah it would be an asshole move to not say anything, so just because of that i had to go there.

The others seemed a bit apprehensive about letting me go into the woods alone.

“Are you sure?”

I looked at Arthur who was the only one to voice his concern out loud and nodded at him.

“Yes, and that way i can give him back the compass too, so i’m going”

Judging by the light filtering through the dusty window I had plenty of time to prepare myself before going out.

I didn’t really need anything though, not as Ardua.

I looked to Rikaad, he was now king so he probably had to give the okay.

I Wasn’t really sure how this worked.

He nodded and stood up.

“I think that is the best we can come up with, at least for now, and the sooner we find out what is causing this the better.

We could also renovate this place a bit till you come back”

A smile sneaked its way onto my face, I didn’t dare show teeth though.

“That would be nice, well then i better go there as soon as i can right?”

Before anyone could answer there was a knock on the door and a somewhat familiar face entered, it was that Guard guy, Norrin.

“I deeply apologize for disturbing you, but we arrested someone that said he knew you? He looks rather weird though”

Someone weird looking? I was admittedly the weirdest thing in Kamerasca, even before all of this, so who could that be?

“How weird are we talking about? And what’s his name?”

Even Rikaad seemed a tad confused, I doubted that he knew many weird people anyway.

“He did not say his name but instead of arms he has wings, he also got a tail-”

He did not get to finish his sentence as we had all stood up and ran past him out the door.

There was no one else we knew with that features besides Oakley, So it had to be him.

My brain decided to toss away any possible answer I could have given away at the sight of this…man? But luckily Rikaad had an idea how to respond.

“Alright that’s very impressive, are you the one that lives here? If so we are sorry to intrude we do not mean to and will leave as soon as we figure out the direction we need to go in”

Oakley cocked his head to the side and I noticed his eyes were a piercing shade of yellow, like those of a hawk and I couldn’t help but feel uneasy looking into them.

“Where are you going? I might know the way, and you are welcome to stay for a bit especially since it’s been forever that i have talked to someone who didn’t throw stuff at me”

He was right, he lived here after all and knew the area better than us so just asking might be the easiest way and the invitation didn’t sound too bad either.

But we did not know this guy, he could be dangerous and thus far we hadn’t even seen what the entirety of him looked like.

I noticed that his gaze had suddenly fallen onto the cursed bracelet on my arm and was watching it intensely with his striking yellow eyes.

“Ohh you found it! I’ve been looking everywhere for this trinket after someone stole it a few years ago!”

He suddenly pushed the cloak behind him and swooped out of the tree and I could see that he did not have arms, instead there was a pair of leathery wings in the same color as his skin flapping to keep him in the air.

Having something akin to a giant bat suddenly swan diving to my face I instinctively put my arms up to shield myself.

For a moment nothing happened but suddenly I could feel the bracelet being stripped away, but no pain, it seemed that he had managed to get it off somehow without hurting me.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL”

He had flown to sit on the tall stump, the bracelet was held in his tail by wrapping it around the trinket and he perched there like a content Magpie.

It took a few more seconds for his words to register in my brain but before I could say anything the others had already responded, with Arthur shouting loudly.

“YOU MEAN THAT’S YOURS?”

And Robin making a worried face while Rikaad seemed to calculate the best way to not fuck things up.

But Arthur had a point, if it was his he could probably fix the curse! I had expected to shrink as soon as the bracelet was off but that wasn’t the case apparently.

I Wasn’t sure if he actually knew how to lift the curse, But asking if he could help wouldn’t hurt.

“If that is yours” I pointed at the trinket “can you fix this curse then?”

He seemed confused at my question so I decided to elaborate.

“This thing turned me into a giant and i would like to be normal again”

For a moment he seemed to actually listen before I heard a strange chattering sound and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was him laughing.

“HEKHEKHEKHEK, that’s not a curse! It works as intended! It’s not my fault you don’t know how to use it! Which is weird, seeing as you are Ardua you should know.”

I understood exactly nothing of what he had just said, what did he mean this wasn’t a curse?

He had called me an Ardua twice now, whatever that meant, and why should I know how to use it? I’ve never seen such a thing before this month.

Apparently Robin agreed with my thinking as he asked.

“What’s an Ardua? And what do you mean it’s not a curse?”

I had no idea what that word meant, but if it was just another word for Bastard I would punch something, preferably Oakley.

Oakley however just stared at me with an incredulous expression, like he couldn’t believe that I had absolutely zero idea what he was talking about.

“You ARE Ardua how do you not know? If you weren’t the bracelet would have killed you the moment you put it on your arm”

Well that was not reassuring at all, and I still had no idea what he was talking about aside from apparently being a specific race of elf? Well half elf.

The others looked at me weirdly and I grimaced at them, as if I Had any idea what was going on! I didn’t understand jackshit either.

The birdlike man once again cocked his head to the side and then walked over the top of the stump where he stood sidewards like gravity didn’t really affect him.

Weird fucker but i wanted answers so i was at least going to listen for now.

“Since apparently I know nothing about this, could you maybe explain it? I’m sick of not knowing what the fuck is going on with me right now”

He turned his head weirdly and winked me closer.

I very reluctantly got slowly closer glancing back at my fellow travelers who also looked a bit mistrusting, a tiny bit curious but still wary.

“Hold out your hand i’m going to put the bracelet back and show you”

I wasn’t sure whether i trusted him or not but so far he hadn’t hurt any of us and he seemed to know something about it so it might be my chance to go back to normal.

“Wait just one second”

Ignoring his confused gaze I scratched all over the area where the Trinket had been as I wasn’t able to do that for some time now and it had started to get annoying.

Slowly holding my arm out he put the Bracelet back over my wrist where it once again shrank until it fit perfectly against my skin.

For a few seconds nothing happened then Oakley swiped his tail over the gems and I suddenly had the feeling of falling forward.

Trying to catch myself I put my hands out in front of me just as I landed on the grass, but something was wrong.

Somehow I did not feel bipedal anymore, and looking back to my human companions I could see various stages of shock and disbelief on their faces.

There was silence for a few seconds before Robin shouted with gleaming eyes.

“KITTY!”

What.

Looking down on myself I could see paws where my hands should be, and even worse was that they were covered in green fur and looking at my back showed that there was even more fur on my new now quadrupedal form with a tail swishing behind it.

What. The. Fuck.

There even were some plants growing on my fur covered back which made even less sense.

“Oakley what did you do??? Turn me back! This isn’t normal”

The man in question just stared at me with a huge grin on his face and started flapping around me like an oversized bat.

“Come on, just because you didn’t know anything about it doesn’t mean it’s not normal, but i’m not really surprised you know nothing about it i had believed the Ardua to be extinct”

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Rikaad had sent Arthur and Robin to get a bit away and was now aiming his crossbow at the flying form of Oakley.

However with the way he was flying it was impossible to get a clear shot, at least not without also hitting me.

“I don’t care! I just want things to go back to normal! Give me my human form back!”

Though, did I REALLY want things to go back to normal?

After all, the time I had been a giant I had been the least lonely since basically forever.

But i still preferred having hands as the lack of them made it difficult to catch the flying fucker and swiping with paws just wasn’t working well.

So not being able to use my hands I instead snapped at him with my teeth missing him barely and causing him to cackle again.

“HEKHEKHEKHEK see? You already fit your new form! Let’s see if you can catch me!”

He was now flying even faster around me and acting like an annoying bat so I snapped at him again, making my teeth clack against each other.

“rrrRRRRRrrrrr get down here you fucker!”

He was flying higher so I tried to jump but missed again, temporarily forgetting about the humans I had come with as I tried to get Oakley out of the sky.

Surprisingly the four legged form wasn’t that hard to control and I could move just as well as when I had been a half human half elf.

At some point Oakley landed on the tree stump and stood sideways on the wood like gravity did not bother him at all, two of his toes bent back to grip the bark.

He kept out of reach from Rikaads crossbow too, smart fucker.

“Look, you are the only one that thinks this is funny but I hate it! Can you please turn me back? This sucks and i miss having thumbs”

Oakley stopped grinning and walked down sidewards the length of the stump reminding me of how crabs moved.

This guy just got weirder and weirder but at least he seemed done with his bullshit for now as he moved near the bracelet again.

For the first time I could really see him up close and noticed that his wings had three fingers on top with only two being long and having a membrane for flying as well as that his knees were bent with what seemed to be an elongated ankle.

He Swiped his tail over the bracelet and I had once again the feeling of falling, but only this time I really did fall, on my face.

Due to being a four legged creature before I fell face first into the dirt, but now I was human sized again.

Finally! I was back to normal! And looking up at Oakley he had cocked his head again, probably wondering why I was still lying on the floor.

“I gotta teach you how to use that thing, this is just stupid how come you don’t know anything about it?”

Oakleys weird energetic behavior was gone for a moment but before I could respond anything I was yanked off the ground into a hug, startling me badly as I wasn’t used to interacting with something my size anymore.

My brain froze up for a moment before I registered a red mop of messy hair next to my face burying into my shoulder.

The one that had yanked me into a hug was Robin and I hugged back after a few seconds, still a bit out of the loop.

I was touching someone my own size! This was awesome!

And Robin interacting with me like this meant that we were friends, right?

I hadn’t really allowed myself to consider the three humans as friends before, I had been a Giant after all and as such couldn’t go near any city ever again.

Being back at human size i noticed that Everything looked weird now, like it was too big as i had gotten used to everything being smaller than me but i couldn’t complain.

I was back to normal after what felt like the longest week and a half or so of my life and I was able to actually do mundane stuff again!

Someone patted my back and tried to yank both me and Robin into a standing position and I had to let go to avoid falling over again.

Looking directly and face to face into Arthur’s eyes was weird, and awkward considering what had happened three days before so I turned around to talk to Robin only to see Rikaad.

He was taller than me now.

And I had definitely been right in being scared of him.

He was rather buff, not overtly so that it would restrict his range of motion but I was sure he could throw me pretty far.

Also looking up at someone was strange and seeing those icy gray eyes up close did not make it better as they seemed even more intimidating now.

“Are you alright? That was… weird, especially that green creature you turned into for a bit”

At least Rikaad was friendly even now but I agreed that it was weird.

“I’m fine, really it’s just weird being small again everything seems… bigger”

It was a lame answer, I knew that but my mind was still reeling with the fact that I was back to normal so I didn’t care if my answers made sense.

“How did you turn into that green thing? I’ve never seen such a thing before”

Arthur had a point, apparently this weird bracelet could do more than turn me into a giant and Oakley knew how, I probably should ask him how and besides, it was his anyway and I should give it back.

“Can you turn into the green kitty again? It looked soft”

I looked at Robin confusedly, why would he call that green beast i had temporarily become a kitty?.

“What on that green thing looked like a cat to you???”

“It had paws and a fuzzy tail, also your ears flicked funnily”

That wasn’t really enough reason to call it a ‘kitty’ though, but as long as he wasn’t scared of it I wouldn’t correct him.

And it was probably time to give the trinket back to Oakley, he’d be glad to have it back, After all, it had been stolen for long enough that the corpse of the thief had rotted to the bones.

“I should probably give this back to Oakley now, it’s his after all”

I tapped the metal accessory to show what I meant.

Rikaad leaned over, ending up sort of looming over us and I tried not to be bothered by the fact that I wasn’t the tallest anymore.

“He did mention that it belongs to him, so i Believe returning it to its rightful owner is the best thing to do”

I nodded at them and turned to walk over to Oakley who was once again standing Sidewards on the stump.

This man did not care for Gravity huh.

Ignoring that he seemed to take offense to the existence of gravity, I went over to him again to return the trinket to its owner.

Glancing back for a second the few meters I had already walked, I saw Arthur ruffling Robin’s ginger locks and Rikaad smiling at them.

I wondered if I could have such things too?

I was back to normal now, but my normal still contained the fact that I was a Bastard and not wanted in any of the Kingdoms.

Ignoring those thoughts for now I held the arm with the Bracelet out to Oakley, I still didn’t know how to get it off myself after all and needed his help to get it off my wrist.

He reached for it but then seemed to have a different idea.

“Keep it”

I was baffled, he’d just give me an enchanted…whatever…Bracelet? But he said that it was his.

Why would he give it to me now? A Bastard of all things.

Apparently my stare showed my confusion as he smiled at me.

“I cant use it, if i where to put it on i would die from incompatible magics, also it doesn’t fit over my wings, and i really don’t know how i would even wear it so giving it to the only one i’ve ever seen that actually CAN use it is the best decision here”

I stared numbly at the weird… fae? Whatever he was he seemed to be an alright guy if a bit of an annoyance at times.

But I did need to know how to use it, even if it was an awesome gift it would be useless if I didn’t know how it worked.

“Thank you! But uhh, how do I use it? You moved too fast to see what you did so can you show me?”

He stood up straighter adding at least an inch to his height and tilted his head to the left before nodding.

“Ah yes it would be smart if you actually knew how to use it, after all it won’t be of much help if you don't”

He walked a few steps away from the stump, probably to avoid damaging it should I grow and I followed suit, glancing behind me for a second.

The Humans were talking among themselves but repeatedly looking over at me, probably out of concern and I gave them a thumbs up to signify that all was well before turning back to Oakley.

“So, first off that’s not a curse but rather a genetically tied Enchantment for Beings that are called Ardua, and you can only use it if you are a descendant from one of the original otherwise you just die”

“So I could have died back then??? Why would anyone design it like this???”

He shrugged.

“Defense mechanism is my best guess but i’m not all knowing, so let’s continue”

I nodded numbly, A defense mechanism did make sense so he was probably right.

“I have never seen an Ardua in person before, only drawings in various scriptures some of which were as detailed as having entire biological sketches but that’s not important, well unless you need a doctor because your organs are kinda nonsense to humans”

Well I was very aware of that.

“I get what you mean i know my anatomy is kinda fucked, besides i cant go to any human doctor anyway they’d kill me”

He looked a bit concerned but continued anyway.

“That’s horrible but moving on to the matter at hand, to change between form you should take a good look at the embedded gems”

Holding my arm up to my face to inspect the gems closer, The only thing I could see for now were the five inlaid green gems.

I didn’t even know what type of gemstone they were let alone how they would help me shift into a giant or that green thing Oakley had called an Ardua.

The five gems were spaced rather evenly with three forming a single line down between the ornaments from top to bottom and two more stuck between even more of the big ornament to the sides.

I didn’t really see what I was supposed to do, press them like buttons?

Trying that didn’t work so I looked back at Oakley for help.

“You have to turn the gems, like a gear and the direction decides what form you are going to take”

He put his hands on the magic trinket and slowly turned the darkest green gem at the top of the three row counterclockwise.

Before I could react I had grown back into a Giant at about the same speed he had turned the Gem.

“YO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”

Looking behind me I could see my human companions looking confused and Arthur had apparently been the one that shouted as his hands were still half raised to form a speaker over his mouth.

“I’m fine! Oakley is showing me how this thing works, don’t worry!”

I waved the arm with the bracelet to show what I meant.

They seemed to calm down a bit at that and went back to listen to whatever Robin was Rambling about, frequently turning to check on me.

Turning my attention back to Oakley i Bent down so he could reach the Bracelet again.

“Try turning it in the opposite direction as long as it’s the same gem you are fine”

Taking his advice I slowly turned the dark green gem in a clockwise rotation until I couldn’t turn it any further, and after about a second shrank again to my normal height.

“Oh this is actually pretty awesome! How do I turn into the green thing?”

A huge smile had plastered onto Oakleys face and I could see two sharp fangs poking out, even longer and sharper than mine.

“You turn the other one, the one at the bottom, it works just like the top one”

That made sense, but what function did the other gems have?

“What do the other gems do? Don’t tell me this thing has MORE forms to turn into”

“No it doesn’t have more forms than that, the two gems on the sides are for stabilization if i read correctly and the Rhombus shaped one should be the one that draws in power from the environment so it is usable”

Man, this guy knew a lot about this even if he had said that he’d never seen one in person.

Deciding not to question it for my own sanity I tested the Ardua form out again by turning the lighter green gem on the bottom.

After a second I was back in the Four legged form of the Green beast that Robin had called a Kitty.

The form itself wasn’t so bad actually, i felt like i suddenly had more muscles, probably to support the Quadrupedal form.

Now that I had a bit more time to inspect this form, I gave myself a lookover.

I had sturdy legs that were like everything else covered in thick green fur, paws that had sharp looking white claws and i knew i had to be careful with those as well as a fuzzy tail with a tuft of lighter green fur at the end and for whatever reason there were literal plants growing on my back.

The plants were mainly Daisies and Dandelions but had a few violets and lots of other plants strewn in, most of which I recognized as edible or at least not poisonous.

“Why do i have-”

“ it’s earth element magic so i’m not surprised about the plants, It’s even funnier when you realize that it lets you photosynthesize like one too”

“Photo-what?“

The word seemed familiar, Like Id heard it before, Then it clicked.

"Wait, you mean because I’m like a plant I don’t need to eat? That would explain why i never felt hungry”

He nodded, affirming my thoughts and I had to admit never having to eat was absolutely great! I wouldn’t have to steal food ever again!

“Just remember to drink enough, don’t want you drying out do we?”

I nodded as things made a lot more sense now where before that was only confusion.

And now I know how to use it! That was awesome! It meant that I could switch between forms whenever I wanted! I could-

I still couldn’t go back to Kamerasca.

It was only logical really, I was still a bastard and being able to turn into a green monster wouldn’t help to show that I was as much of a person as everyone else there.

I doubted that the three humans I had befriended could do anything about it as they weren’t even full Guards yet.

“Oi what’s got you down so suddenly?”

Oakley had apparently sensed that something was wrong as he tilted his head again reminding me of a bird.

“I just remembered that I can’t really go back to…. any Kingdom really, I’m still an unwanted bastard and they would probably kill me on sight if not worse, but i don’t want to roam the woods like some mindless beast either”

Oakley wasn’t human either so he would probably understand, After all, he lived all the way out here on the mountain.

“Ah I see, yeah humans do that, they don’t understand something and immediately stamp it as a bad thing that has to get rid off, i’ve seen it countless times so if that’s the problem you could live here? Some company would be nice”

I looked around the clearing that he lived in, it was a nice place and he had an actual house so I wouldn’t have to sleep in a cave or something and it was protected by the woods and mountainside.

a good place really.

But I couldn’t leave the humans to go back on their own, what if more beasts appeared? So far the manticores hadn’t been that hard to get rid off, I had just kicked them across the map but they were smaller than most monsters so defending themselves was going to be a challenge.

Oakleys offer was good, very good even but I had promised to get them back so I would do that.

I could still come back here later after I had brought them to Kamerasca.

After the Victory Rose had anchored,  with the smaller Halcyon close behind we were finally home.

Not wanting to spend too much time in Tunstead lest there was a repeat of Naroa Island and someone didn't like that there were Nonhumans visiting.

Not like Rikaad would allow that but there were always assholes.

So instead we went straight for the castle, none of the crew of the Halcyon having seen a building this big before, or confusingly built.

Which was very evident as half of them got lost in less than half an hour.

At least Imugi had fun doing figures around the spikes at the bottom of the cliff.

We found them about two hours later, Jamie having been chased out of the kitchen like some raccoon and Ronan got brought outside by Norrin, who had scruffed him like a disobedient dog.

For some reason the Grumpy young man Leon came with us to the castle and refused to say much or leave.

We left him for now,  with Nea and Norrin around there wasn't much he could do.

I shooed the Crew to Okaleys tower,  he would have more information about the blue bracelet anyway.

Yamet had opted to tour the kitchen, stating the others could tell him later and that he'd rather see if he could trade recipes.

The tower itself was as askew and unorderly as always,  and we hadn't even knocked.

The door was missing completely anyway for some reason so we simply walked in.

I did come as a surprise though that Nea was in here,  holding a brown creature with white spots on its back.

At first I thought she was holding a fawn, but then I noticed the longer neck and nubby horns as well as the claws and long tail.

“Nea? Where the FUCK did you get a baby Drake?”

The thing in question made horrifyingly pitiful bleaking noises,  pawing uselessly at the air as Nea held it like a particularly squirmy cat.

Though it was more the size of a young goat.

“I found it! So I get to keep it!”

I was not about to Argue with her, she'd kick my ass,  Instead I stared confusedly at Oakley, who was painting the cat blue.

Oh so one of those days where nothing made sense involving him.

“Oakley, why are you painting the cat blue?, and why does Nea have a baby Drake?”

He turned to face us and shrugged.

“No idea what the insane lady here is doing but i'm trying to figure out what magic affinity our dear kitty here has! 

The paint is made of lapis lazuli by the way!

Now say who are those people behind you and why is the Zoa trying to pocket some of my Gems?”

I looked over at Jamie who hastily put some sort of clear crystal back onto a shelf.

“Uh, those are friends i made while on the ocean, long story i'll tell you later, but uhh we found another Bracelet, its blue this time”

I pointed at Ronan who in turn pointed at the Bracelet on his arm.

In less than a Second Oakley had gripped his arm with one foot and was hanging onto the wall with the other, inspecting the new Bracelet up close and with no regard for personal space.

Ronan just stared confused at Oakley, though to be fair he was already used to having to be a Perch for jamie.

“Did the creature look anything like the Ardua?”

No that it did not.

“Uh, no, it was more like a seal with big and flat hands and a long tail with a fin, does it have its own name?”

Oakley Jumped of off Ronan and walked back to where he was, rummaging through his coat a bit before pulling out a Book.

While he flipped pages, and apparently had trouble reading it? The Cat, Gloxinia trailed blue paint everywhere, jumping up the windowsill and bapping at the very confused baby Drake Nea was still holding.

The poor thing probably had a very weird day,  getting manhandled by a quite frankly rather crazy woman and then getting disrespected like that by a cat.

The thing bleaked again, trying to wind itself out of Nea’s Grip,  yeah that would be futile.

“AHA! Found it! I think translating is gonna take a while seeing as the author changes the stupid coded letters every five pages! 

And language as well!, tell ya what, imma deal with Nea now and then go back to translating, you can come back after Dinner or so”

That was reasonable, and Jamie and Akeem had left already anyway, leaving only Ronan and Imik here.

No doubt Akeem went after Jamie to prevent chaos,  and they took the clear crystal from the shelf again.

Nea set the confused Drake on Oakley table where it did a wide stance as if it couldn't decide between fight or flight,  not that either would be a good idea with Nea here.

“So! Arthur got all pissy when I brought ta lil guy with me! Said just cuz i got rid of tha big one din’ mean i could keep tha smaller one!

I say tha only one that can tell me what ta do is Rikaad! 

And i want you ta tell me what exactly this is so i can ask to keep it,  or him or her or whatever!”

The thing in question made another bleaking Noise, sniffing at the table and looking over the edge of it.

Ronan put his face close to it and the thing screeched horribly, scrambling and slipping on the old wood and nearly falling off.

In response to that Nea tossed Ronan out, literally, she tossed him out the window and Imik walked out after him to make sure he was okay.

Since Ronan had landed in a bush he only had some dirt on him, and after that they both wanted to look around the castle more instead of being near Nea.

Yeah, fair, I did however want to see how the entire Drake thing would play out so we parted ways and I went back inside where Oakley was just telling Nea that the little guy was a male.

“I'd say it's a young male,  the spots have the same reason as fawn spots, they fade with time and he should get some more tan and brown colors. 

I can't say what species exactly yet but it's possible he'll get stripes,  or colored horns.

If you're sure you wanna try taming him go ahead, i can't guarantee anything but i sure am gonna watch you try, you'd probably be the first to do that, well to be fair you gotta be a bit insane to try”

A bit was good, but I also wasn't exactly fond of anyone trying to kill something so young, and thus far the little guy hadn't done anything.

As it was he was even afraid of the cat, who was still covered in blue paint and attempting to groom him.

All that did was cover him in blue paint too and he looked rather miserable at that.

While Nea argued with Oakley about what size he could reach, apparently Nea had expected something big like a dragon but Oakley estimated something slightly larger than a horse,  so I held out my hand to the strangely fluffy creature. 

All in all it looked scraggly and scruffy,  the only scaled parts being the legs and sand colored underside as well as the rather beak-like snout that seemed to be made of cartilage.

It tentatively sniffed at my hand, bonking its head against it.

Then Gloxinia wanted all the attention and I had to pet her with the other hand while the goat sized creature was inspecting my hand with its amber colored eyes.

Maybe Ronan would have some tips for Nea since he’d sorta raised Imugi already.

I was handed a blue stained cat by Oakley who told me to go wash the color off before she decided to lick it off.

“You want me to wash a cat? 

A cat of all things who are not known for liking water?”

“Yeah! Good luck!”

And with that he shoved me out, not even saying if he'd figured out if Gloxinia had any magic or magic type.

Well, better get this over with,  I wasn't even sure if the paint was edible so she probably shouldn't lick it even if that was how cats normally cleaned themselves.

Ignoring that my own shirt had gotten blue in places,  I went to the next best water source and tried my best to keep a hold of Gloxinia who definitely did not like water.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

I looked up to see that Leon guy.

“Oakley put paint on the cat, i'm trying to get it off before she licks it,  but i don't think she likes water”

Leon stuck his hand into the water bucket,  taking it back out and flicking water at me.

“Yeah no shit, thats cold water, why the fuck would wold a cat like that, try warm water next time dipshit”

Rude, at least I was trying, and not letting her eat paint.

“You do it then! If you're so much better at that!”

At the moment neither the cat nor me were happy about it.

“Aight, bet”

With that he grabbed both Gloxinia and the bucket, slinging the cat half over his shoulder and dragging the bucket to who knew where.

Well, at least I didn't have to do it now.

And judging by the fact that Gloxinia tried rubbing her head against his ear she was also rather happy about that.

Whatever, if that guy thought warm water would make her hate it less he was free to try.

Now where did everyone else go? 

Hopefully none of them got into trouble.

As it turned out they just had gotten lost in the castle again,  which we only found out because Jamie walked along the outside of it to try and get someone that knew where the fuck everything was.

Yamet however was found in the kitchen, 

talking and working with Myril so we left them to it, whatever they were doing smelled really good so we were not going to interrupt.

As expected when two very good cooks were put in the same kitchen, Dinner tasted amazing, some sort of Goulash that heavily utilized spices.

Yamet was probably the one that had brought the spices.

After that I brought Ronan back to Oakleys tower,  also rather curious about whatever he found out.

We did do a little detour though as apparently Nea had decided to train her new Pet like a Dog, including the command to fetch things.

Well, things, she let it chase a rat carcass she had tied to some other poor Guard that had to run laps to avoid the little beast.

Not something anyone wanted to be involved in.

“Is she trying to train the Drake?”

“I think so, but i don't think she knows how to,  how did you know how to take care of Imugi?”

He shrugged.

“Fuck around find out really, Imugi was easy cuz she loved doing what i was doing, also i was the first thing Imugi saw when she hatched so i guess she imprinted on me? I'm not entirely sure she knew she was a sea creature for the first few months.

Also I gave her treats when she did good things. 

Maybe I can talk to the lady there later and see if I can help! 

I've never really seen a Drake this close! Or young!”

“You do that, 

i'm not entirely sure she won't tell the little guy to bite you though”

I Wouldn't put it past her to do that, Besides we had other stuff to do first.

So, Ignoring whatever torment Nea brought upon everyone else,  I knocked on the doorframe to Oakley tower, the Door itself still missing.

“Ah there you are! Come in! I accidentally melted the door anyway!”

I kept quiet about wondering how the fuck someone could melt a Door on accident.

“Did you find out more about the Blue bracelet? 

Does the water creature also have a name?”

Oakley wordlessly pointed at two chairs and told us to sit down, 

heaving the book he rummaged for earlier onto the table.

Flipping pages around he stopped on a depiction of the creature Ronan turned into, though the drawing on the old paper depicted spots Ronan did not have as well as a different tailfin and a more brownish coloration.

But it was still the same creature, the depiction surrounded by runes and letters that were absolute gibberish to me.

Oakley pointed at it.

“So from what I found out this is a Faraselgi,  and it's basically the same principle as for the Ardua just with a water element instead of an earth one, the rest is pretty much the same.

Well that far we got ourselves already.

“Anything else about it? Or is that all?”

I would have expected it to have at least a few more differences.

“Nope! Aside from the different creatures, which are really just based on environmental factors, it's pretty much the same!

What? Did you think the blue one got superpowers or something?”

Of course not, but after being able to turn into an Ardua I couldn't exactly know what to expect regarding those Bracelets.

“How much is the same? I mean I know about the two hearts thing, 

Is the rest also the same?”

Ronan asked, brow creasing as he tried to read the absolute mishmash of letters and runes, clearly not getting anything from that.

Oakley just nodded.

“Well yes, if you take aside the tailfin shorter hind legs and stupidly big paddle shaped grabbers it is very similar!

Oh also your thoracic vertebrates are longer,  so you sort of got a mock fin on your back, but it's technically bone”

There was the weird thing,  of course there had to have been at least one weird thing about it.

Well, weirder than it already was at least.

“So I got more bones? Awesome! Do they have a function too?”

Leave it to the biologist to find that exciting.

“I don't think so, maybe helps with balance,  don't go around trying to remove them”

A fair warning considering this was Ronan.

“Don't worry! I'm not gonna vivisect myself! 

Jamie and Imik would beat the shit out of me!”

That really shouldn't be his only concern here.

“Well then that's really all since you seem already familiar with it somehow! Just don't go around scaring people or you will find your head mounted to a wall someday!”

With that he picked up the book and shoved it back into his coat,  which shouldn't feasibly hold something that big.

“Hell yeah! Now I know what it's called! I'm gonna go tell the others! 

And Imugi! Imugi first! Before it gets dark! Byee!”

He rushed out the doorway,  well at least there would be a bit of daylight still.

“Does he know where he is going?”

“No i don't think so,  when i go back i'll inform someone to keep an eye out”

Eh, he'd be fine, he had a stupid amount of luck.

Besides, I did want to talk to Oakley a bit more.

My turn to say something that would throw him for a loop.

“I met your ex”

He spit out the tea he'd been sipping.

“What? Wait which one? 

Ah no considering where you were it can only be one”

Which one??? Dumbass, then again he was like what? Sixhundred?

It was likely he had more than one ex, or more than ten even.

“So, how is Grella doing? 

It's nice to hear she's still alive after all this time”

“She's kinda dying, just like magic,  but you knew that already didn't you?”

He stared into his mug.

“Kamerasca doesn't have any Ley lines, the closest one is where my old hut is, which is why I built it there, but yes, magic is dying.

I've noticed a long time ago,  but nobody I know could do anything about it. 

I can't do anything about it, and telling people brought nothing,  either rejoicing at the ‘evil’ becoming less or simply not caring considering it wasn't their problem.

The only ones that did care were the mages and wizards and the like,  I know a few Elemancers tried to figure out WHY it happened but when I got there they were dead already, stabbed in the back by someone that saw his magic as a curse rather than what it really was.

I debated telling you after I moved here,  but I didn't want to take your joy away so soon,  Besides, there is nothing you can do, and I didn't want to see anyone else get hurt trying to figure out what was going on with magic.

At first I even expected you guys to either not care or to actually care, and go off on some stupid mission to fix something that a mere human could never fix and die.

All the powerful and old magic users are either dead or somewhere in Valyria, which is very dangerous as is already, i bet even more died in the last two hundred years as most used magic to prolong their life.

But with magic dying all the old magic users will too, and Grella as well.

She's really the only one I feel sorry for.

How much time did she estimate?”

I stared at him, so he hadn't told me to not worry me,  but from what I gathered he would have told me eventually,  when it became relevant for me.

“She said about thirty years at most, she will die in less than twenty”

Oakley looked at his three fingered wing hand,  sadder than I had ever seen him.

“If i wasn't a coward i’d visit her, but alas i am just that”

“Why? She sounded like she still likes you, i don't think she’d hurt you”

He shook his head.

“No, i know she won't hurt me, we split because i could never really go dive into the depths with her, and the school i wanted to go to was a good bit inland, where she couldn't go, in the end our interests just didn't match anymore and we agreed both to call it off.

But there are things out there, that I made very angry,  people I made angry by obtaining what was considered forbidden knowledge.

If i were to go too far from Barmea and too close to Valyria again they would kill me, and they could make it permanent”

There was a lot I did not know about Oakley, but I knew he was not a bad person, why ever he had done it he would have had a reason to.

“So you're stuck on this continent? 

Wait, did you just live as a hermit for a few hundred years? 

No wonder you were so weird when we met you, you still are”

He puffed up indignantly.

“Well, social norms have changed a lot since I went into the forest! 

It's not my fault you humans can't stick with one thing!”

Well that was true.

“Fair, but I'm sure you could just have read up on it!”

He grinned, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

“Well i find the fuck around find out approach a lot more amusing! 

But if you insist I will head to the castle Library to get catched up now!

Also i need to get a new door, maybe i should do that first”

I looked at the doorway that let a cool breeze in.

“Yeah that has probably priority right now, well have fun repairing your door, i still need to say hi to Arthur, if i find him”

“Oh i think he fell asleep sorting paperwork!”

I nodded at Oakley and went back to the castle,  stopping briefly to grab the red blue and purple shell I had picked out for him, I did say I'd get him one.

Now I just had to find him.

Since every other hallway ended up in the throne room at one point or another that's where I went, and Rikaad and Robin were already there.

Rikaad stared with disdain at the needlessly pompous throne,  to be fair it did not look comfy at all.

“Hey! Have any of you seen Arthur? I did promise to bring him a shell"

I waved said shell in the air.

“I have not seen him, but he has to be around,  perhaps Norrin will know where-” Rikaad got interrupted by Arthur emerging from one of the side hallways.

“I hate the layout of this place! Oh you're all back!”

There was a Squeal and Robin rushed to hug the blonde, who had to hold a bunch of paper over his head to not get them scrunched up.

For some reason they had reddish brown stains in one corner.

Arthur nearly fell over if not for Rikaad grabbing his arm to keep steady.

Arthur awkwardly patted at Robin's messy head and I noticed that two of his fingers were in a splint.

“What happened to your fingers? Did Nea break them?”

Robin let go after that, inspecting said finger gently.

He did say before we left that he wouldn't doubt that Nea would do just that.

“Huh? Oh no i tried to grab at something that fell behind that longass drawer, kinda broke my finger when i slipped on paper”

Well, that still sounded painful.

But at least the next bit would probably cheer him up a little!

I handed Arthur the shell I had picked out for him, 

the blue, red and purple shimmering in the light.

“Here! I did say I'd get you a big one!”

He turned said shell over in his hand,  the thing being almost bigger as said hands.

“I didn't know seashells could have those colors! 

Thank you! OH! Also I have something as well!”

He held out the slightly stained paper, which I was now pretty sure was blood, and carefully took it, looking it over.

My face split in a grin as I read the title, 

It seemed like Rikaad had to rewrite a law pretty soon.

Man, I couldn't wait to write to Fable!

Robin and Arthur also gave confirmation that the garden looked pretty and Barsen smiled widely.

“Thank you! I work hard to get it like this so hearing that I did a good job makes me very happy! Though, say what are you doing here?”

Oh right, we had wanted to look at the cliff.

“We wanted to look at the cliffside, the only places we know are the empty shed and the old tower that Oakley claimed”

I wondered what the tower would look like when Oakley was done, he’d keep the tree for sure but beyond that it was a mystery.

“Looking at the cliff? Well I know a spot where you can do that without having to worry about falling, want me to show you?”

There was an excited shout from Robin and Arthur agreed as well while I nodded.

So he waved to follow him and he went a bit towards the castle.

After just a few meters I could see a big boulder embedded into the ground that stuck about seven feet over the cliffside.

The boulder itself was very long but most of it was on solid ground and half embedded in the floor.

It even went into the floor so who knew how big it really was.

The top of it was smooth, probably from years and years of people walking over it to get from point A to point B.

I had to admit that was actually very cool, and since the longer part of it was anchored to solid ground there was no chance of it tipping over.

“Oh that is awesome! How come it hasn’t fallen yet?”

Barsen stood on top of the flattest part.

“I think the embedded part of it goes on for quite some time, see that tree back there? From what i know it goes all the way over there if not farther”

I looked in the direction he had pointed and saw a small birch tree about thirty feet away, oh yeah that stone slab was secure and I doubted it would fall any time soon.

The thing also wasn’t that far from the castle, hell I could see the building perfectly from here and wouldn’t have to walk more than a minute or two, at least in this form.

“Well you have fun, and don’t forget to be careful, I have to get back to work now, see you around!”

With those words he turned to walk into the trees that we just left and we waved after him for a second before turning to the cliff once more.

“I’m gonna look down!”

Robin jumped on the rock and walked towards the edge before I could react.

I went after him and closer to the drop where he had started to lay down on the floor and inch his way closer to the edge like a caterpillar.

that was smart, like this it was harder for a sudden breeze to knock him off or to lose balance.

A glance back showed that Arthur stayed behind like I had predicted so I focused forward.

I did want to know what it looked like without having the restrictions of a tiny window.

Inching closer and standing next to Robin I looked down.

And down and down, how tall was this drop-off? And there were tons of stony spikes jutting out of the water.

I had seen some of them before, a few of them were taller by enough that they were almost reaching the level of the main part.

There were even two that did reach the same height, but they were a bit too far for any human to jump to.

One of them even had a little tree growing on its flat topside while the other was right behind it and only had some grass growing on it.

I idly wondered if I could jump the distance as Ardua, I managed to go over the stream and the spikes weren’t That far away from the ledge.

I kinda wished that they were in front of the stone slab so I could actually try but no luck there.

Whatever, I didn’t even know if the spikes themselves were stable, maybe the one with the tree but that was it.

Aside from that there was just saltwater far below us gently sloshing against the cliff wall.

I decided to get back now and inch slowly backwards until I was sure I could turn without any problems.

Robin followed suit as he saw me leaving my spot and heading to the more secured part of the big stone slab a good fifteen feet away from the edge.

This part was almost completely flat save for a few bumps and grooves and I suspected that this was where most people had walked over it.

The stone itself was pleasantly warm from the sunlight, hmmm.

I was still a bit tired and I didn’t know if it was the Ardua speaking or just my body asking for rest while the teal stuff Oakley gave me took effect but I was very tempted to just loaf here and sleep for an hour or so.

I’m sure nobody would mind.

After all, this wasn’t in the middle of a road or anything and I was pretty sure the plants on my back would appreciate the sunlight.

I still didn’t know why the fuck i had those but my best guess was that they helped with gaining energy from sunlight.

Yawning, I sat down on the sun warmed rock and settled down.

“What do you two wanna do now?

I think i’m gonna take a nap that teal stuff is making me tired”

Arthur looked between me and the castle.

“I think i’m going to take a look at the castle again, maybe ask someone to explain the stupid floorplan to me”

While Arthur talked Robin had immediately jumped to burrow into the crook of my arm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a bit tired too, he’d spent all day being like an energetic little cat.

And I wouldn’t mind sharing, even if I was sure that the only reason he wasn’t seeking out a bed was the fact that I was fluffy.

Not that I minded, company was actually nice when they weren’t trying to kill you or hunt you for sport.

Thinking about it my life had been really fucked up, at least not anymore now since Rikaad was doing the paper stuff for that.

“Yeah whatever, if you find out how to navigate that nightmare of a floorplan let us know”

He gave a thumbs up and left the immediate vicinity of the cliffside as fast as he could without running.

Poor guy, first motion sickness and then vertigo too, that must suck.

Eh, he could just do other things then, and i doubted we’d be climbing anytime soon.

Since there was nothing else to do now I decided to settle down and sleep till the teal stuff wore off and I wasn’t numb anymore.

Robin was still wedged in the crook of my arm so I decided to use that arm as a pillow and create a little hollow.

He fit in seamlessly.

Like that nobody would disturb him, or even see him, perfect.

Closing my eyes and listening to the waves crashing against rock far below, I fell into a peaceful sleep.

I had no idea how long I actually spent sleeping on that rock, but it was strangely nice to just laze about for once.

That wasn’t something I got to do often, especially since I used to sleep on the street which was very dangerous, specifically for me as a Fae bastard.

so I enjoyed it as much as I could.

At least until someone shook me awake.

At first I tried to ignore it and curled a bit more around the redheaded form right next to me who was also still fast asleep.

Whoever it was that had disturbed my slumber tried again, this time even speaking in a voice that was somewhat familiar.

“Donovan? Come on get up, when i said there would be a stupid celebration for our admittedly weird victory i meant it”

What? Oh right, so the one waking me up right now was Norrin.

I lifted my head and blearily looked at him, blinking a few times against the light.

It was quite some time later judging by the stand of the sun.

And the fact that my pouch wasn’t numb anymore, and just as Oakley had promised all the pain was gone, what a relief.

“What? Oh do you mean right now? Wait where?”

He laughed a little at that, the skin around his eyes creasing the tiniest bit.

“Not yet but in about half an hour, i thought id tell you beforehand in case you wanted to do something first and the celebration itself is in the castle, the main hall to be exact”

Ah, so I still had some time, good to know.

But I couldn’t stand up right now as Robin was still using my arm as a pillow.

He looked so incredibly small while he slept and I did not have the heart to wake him right now.

He fit in perfectly in the crook of my arm and I didn’t dare move more than my head.

Maybe he’d wake up in a few minutes and then we could go.

I did wonder what that celebration would all entail.

Well there probably would be food and music as that was pretty much a standard for such things.

Norrin had followed my gaze to where the little ginger was sleeping and peered over my arm.

He had to stand on his tiptoes to do that, and looked at the peacefully sleeping ginger.

“Ah so that’s where he is, and i was running around the castle like a headless chicken looking for both of you”

He shook his head at that and I imagined it must have been pretty funny to see the headguard run around aimlessly in search of two people that had been in the same spot for quite some time.

“Mhm, gimme a few minutes, well come in a bit to the big entrance door”

At least I knew where that was, and I strongly suspected that the main hall was right behind the throne through the two doors I had seen the last time I was there.

The older man nodded.

“Sure, i’ll be waiting there, but tell me if you don’t want to attend or i’ll be standing there for nothing”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know, but please make sure nobody stabs me when I appear in human form?”

I would prefer to stay in one piece and not end up injured, again.

He nodded once again in affirmation, eyes flicking to my ears for a second.

“Right, pointy ears, don’t worry i’ll let all of the guards know not to touch you”

“Thank you, now gimme fifteen or so minutes to wake Robin”

He nodded and then waved and left towards the castle where I could see the dull walls reflecting the sunlight and giving it a more orange tint.

Huh, it was already close to sunset, I’d bet that was pretty from up here.

Well, time to wake Robin, as much as i would like to let him sleep we had to get up sometime.

I gently nudged him with my free hand, paw? Whatever, but he just curled up even more and mumbled sleepily.

So I tried again, this time telling him softly to wake up.

“Robin? We gotta get up, come on we are invited to some celebration over the ice mage”

There still wasn’t much reaction other than some more mumbling.

Oh I had a good idea what would get him to get up.

“Don’t you wanna try the Royal food? And imagine the luxurious chairs”

That got his attention.

“Whu? Oh, wait, you mean they are throwing a party?

In the castle? I wanna see that!”

He sprung up like an excited dog and almost hit the underside of my face.

And now he was up, like predicted, well time to go then.

I wondered if I had to bring anything or if there was a dress code but Norrin Mentioned neither so it was probably fine.

Besides, he was waiting in front of the door, if we forgot anything he’d surely tell us.

Since Robin was awake now I could also finally stand up.

Shaking the tiredness of and stretching like a cat, much to the ginger’s amusement, I turned to look towards the castle.

“Norrin said he’d wait for us at the big entrance door, Are you okay to go or is there anything you wanna do first?”

The redhead shook his head.

“No, I’m good, let’s go! I wanna see what a castle party looks like!”

He was excitedly jumping up and down and I had to admit that I was curious about that too.

“Well then let’s not waste anymore time”

With those words I bent down a little and Robin immediately jumped to climb on my back.

“How fancy do you think it’s gonna be?

You think they have golden plates and cups?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a bit too expensive, even for the castle unless there are not a lot of people, then again i don’t actually know how much is in the treasure chambers”

Falling into a steady trott towards the castle it wouldn’t take longer than about two minutes to reach the big entrance door.

“Maybe, do you think there’s going to be exotic food?

I’m pretty sure they have some of the most expensive wine too!

But I’m not gonna drink that, last time I drank alcohol it made me puke, Have you ever drank alcohol?”

If I had drank alcohol?

Well, sometimes that was all I could get from sneaking around pubs when there was no clean drinking water, I wasn’t keen on getting dysentery after all so alcohol was actually the safer option sometimes.

Alcohol was used as a disinfectant too so sometimes I HAD to get it.

Even if it was causing headaches later and made me act weirdly, I’d better not drink anything alcoholic today since I now had the bracelet and who knew what I’d end up doing should I drink to actually get drunk for once.

“I have, when there was no clean drinking water, and I agree it’s kinda awful, Also, aren’t you too young to drink alcohol anyway? Did someone sneak some or did they give you some at the guard school?”

A valid question considering he was only around sixteen.

“Hm? Yeah they did, I think it was wine?

But it tasted awful so i’m not gonna drink that ever again”

To be honest I had no idea what wine even tasted like, aside from that it was made out of grapes and dark red.

Since beer was cheaper it was easier to steal that from the pubs, and it had less alcohol in it than wine too so I had never been absolutely drunk.

“Fair, if it made you throw up you probably shouldn’t drink it anyway”

I’d believe Robins account for how wine tasted and spare myself the trouble of getting sick from it like he did.

While we talked we had gotten to the castle and I could see that some of the windows were already illuminated.

Seemed like we were just in time, going around a flower bed that was planted right next to the wall to avoid stepping on them.

I saw that the big door had been propped open and was nicely illuminated from chandeliers and whatnot within and as Promised Norrin was waiting in front of the door.

He had cleaned his armor from mud and polished the gold accents so they shined in the light.

Well, I better shift down to human form so I could actually use the smaller doors and sit in a chair, as well as everything normal sized too.

There really wasn’t anything for big folk, Why should there be? This was a human place after all.

But first Robin had to get off so he wouldn’t fall from my back when I shifted into a way smaller form.

“Hey Robin? Do you mind getting off of me?

I need to go back to human form so i can use doors and stuff”

He leaned forward a bit and nodded.

“Sure! Oh if it has tables I wanna sit next to you and Arthur and Rikaad!”

I bent down and he slid off on the side, he was getting good at this I noted.

“I’m sure you can sit at least next to one of us, and if not maybe there’s someone we can ask for more chairs”

He just grinned while I twisted the gem on the bracelet that let me turn back into the smaller two legged form I was used to.

“So, ready to go?”

He nodded with a big grin on his face and zipped past me to chatter at Norrin.

The poor Guard looked very surprised for a second before he composed himself again.

I went after him as fast as I could without running, I was not keen on getting stabbed in the time it took me to walk the twenty or so meters to get to them.

Getting closer to the castle I could already hear music, as well as some people jowling in joy.

Must have started the party already.

Whatever the case, I decided to head inside and see if I could find Arthur or Rikaad.

It was quite possible that Rikaad was still sitting in front of the paperwork after all.

He was a very diligent man and seemed to rarely tire, he might just be a workaholic though.

I hoped that at least he’d take a little break, if only for a bit.

Coming up to the big front door and greeting Norrin he led us inside.

“Ah glad you decided to show up!

But i have to say that your human form takes my brain a second to recognize as it is used to the green form”

Right, he’d only seen me once in this form and that only for a short time.

“I guess so, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get used to seeing me in my various forms, for now let’s see if they have any good food!”

Norrin laughed a bit at that and led us around the, overly expensive looking, Throne itself to one of the two doors behind it where a big hall was that fit a really big and long table and a few chandeliers that illuminated everything.

It was actually pretty, especially with all the decor around, but to be honest the thing that enticed me most was the food.

It was scattered all over the ridiculously long table and looked absolutely delicious.

Sure I didn’t have to eat thanks to the bracelet but I doubted that it would hinder my ability to taste things.

And there was an overabundance of expensive food around that i really wanted to try since i had never gotten the chance to do so in the past.

I had never even seen some of these, like what was this weird long yellow fruit?

I decided to try it and found that it didn’t taste bad at all, aside from the skin which had a tough texture.

Better peel it next time, which was surprisingly easy since I could just rip strips off of it and eat the inside.

I wondered what else there was and went around the table picking random stuff to test out.

All the while Robin followed me and stuffed his face with whatever he could reach. 

He seemed especially happy to stuff his face with something that looked like miniature cakes.

Trying one too I could see why he liked them, They were very sweet and tasted of honey melon.

Then I saw something I recognized, Cinnamon bread, oh I HAD to have that.

That was one of the few things I could rarely get while on the street and I even remembered my mother baking these once.

Also cinnamon was tasty as long as it wasn’t just the powder, the powder was just dry as fuck and could cause a coughing fit.

I learned that the hard way.

Regardless, these ones looked really good, they were even still steaming with warmth like they had just come from the oven, so I picked one up and sunk my teeth in.

Yep, just as good as I remembered, if not better as the castle probably had higher quality flour and better ingredients overall.

I really hoped I wouldn't get nauseous. 

After spending weeks eating nothing due to the bracelet it might very well be that I would have an upset stomach later from stuffing myself with whatever was on this bigass table.

That was a problem for future me i decided.

“Donovan!”

I looked around to the person that had called my name with half a bread in my mouth to see a familiar blonde framed face.

“Arthur! Hey, look at this, they have so much food!

I don’t think they are gonna eat most of it, at least not in one day”

I shoved the rest of the bread into my mouth and grabbed a new one.

He looked at the table and then back at me.

“Yeah maybe, however i think you should try using cutlery, saves you the hassle of having sweets stick to your fingers and face”

“Mhm?”

With a mouth full of bread I couldn’t answer but looking at my fingers I saw what he meant.

They were stained from the various treats I had tried and I probably should not shake anyone’s hand today.

The main culprit was probably the mini cakes.

Eh i could wash that, if i found where that was.

Looking around a bit for anything that I could use until Arthur tipped at my shoulder and pointed to a wall behind me.

“There’s a thing for washing hands, it’s just a fancy bucket really but who cares”

“Ah, thanks, hey have you seen Rikaad anywhere?

I mean he’s king now so surely he’s around, right?”

He nodded.

“Yeah I saw him like five minutes ago, he was talking to the cook, complimenting Her i think.

I have no idea where he is right now though, and I assume Robin is here also?”

Ah so Rikaad WAS here, i’d say hello after washing my hands, and then i could tell him that Oakley had helped me and that the stab wounds were gone.

As for Robin I pointed Arthur to where I last saw him, which was one table over and taste testing everything he could reach.

He went over to look at what the Ginger was doing while I went to wash the sticky sweets off my fingers.

Weaving between some other people that either talked or danced to the rather obnoxious music, I finally found what Arthur had pointed at.

Looking at the basin thing I saw that Arthur was right, it did just look like a fancy bucket.

Whatever, as long as it stopped my fingers from being sticky I didn’t care.

Sticking my hands in the water I scrubbed my hands together to get all of the stuff off.

Only after that did I realize that there was literally nothing to dry my hands with. 

Did someone steal the towel? Or was there just no towel?

Maybe I could unsuspiciously dry them off at one of the curtains?

Before I could move to do so another familiar bearded face appeared, holding out a piece of cloth I was very sure he took from one of the tables.

“Barsen! What are you doing here?”

He smiled and handed me the cloth which I gratefully accepted.

“I was responsible for putting flowers up as decoration, aside from that nobody in the castle cares where i go or not, i could sit on the throne and nobody would blink at it”

Huh, that was something, but I didn’t doubt him.

After surely not enough hours of sleep I was woken up again, 

by Jamie once again having no regard for the stability of my spine and literally walking over me.

“Yo! Wake up! We managed to toast bread! If you're fast it might even not be soggy!”

With that they jumped off and walked out,  leaving the door open as I grumbled miserably into the pillow.

Maan i felt miserable, and not in the way that my body got battered around, instead just, plain miserable.

Instead of getting up I just continued to lay there, I didn't need to eat anyway and I didn't want to get potentially soggy bread again anyway.

After not getting up and instead moping miserably for what had to be at least an hour of just laying there and doing nothing, Akeem walked in through the door I hadn't even bothered to close after Jamie left.

“Are you alright? 

Jamie told me you were already awake but not doing anything”

I just turned my head away and grumbled into the pillow, not even words just sounds at this point.

I heard the wooden floor creak as Akeem walked next to me.

“Do you not feel well? Did you get seasick after all?”

I shook my head, still burying my face in the pillow.

“No, i just feel miserable, i don't wanna do anything today”

Apparently Akeem didn't care about that as I was picked up by the scruff and set back onto the bed in a sitting position.

“Things still have to be done even if you don't want to, imagine where we would be if we never did anything we didn't want to?

Now what's the reason you feel so down?”

“...dunno, i just feel miserable, maybe i need to get better sleep”

Akeem just stared at me, and for the first time since I set foot on the ship actually blinked.

“I do not think that is it, i remember when Yamet was new on the ship he also had a bout of ‘being miserable’ as it turned out he was simply homesick”

Homesick? The very fact I could get that was astounding,  but I wasn't really Missing Kamerasca itself.

“I- uh, I guess? Maybe? But to be honest i never really cared about Kamerasca aside from the fact i was living there”

“Ah it is not the place you miss but the people living there”

That would make more sense.

“Uh, well, yes? I miss my friends, and even some of the Guards from the castle, and i worry because i don't know if they're okay or not”

I had no way of knowing anything right now, 

not if they were okay or even still alive after the storm.

"I am sure that they're alright, they must worry about you just as much as you worry about them"

Fair point, and moping wouldn't help anyone so might as well get up.

"You're right, and laying on the bed all day won't do anything, is there any toast left?"

Akeem nodded and strangely enough actually blinked for once.

"There is, but it is cold by now"

Well that was still better than soggy 

"Fine by me, let's go before Imugi makes everything soggy again"

Akeem had already walked out the door, only stopping for a second. 

"I doubt she can squeeze her head into the kitchen, not that she hasn't tried"

Oh so this time they actually ate in the kitchen, why they didn't do that sooner was beyond me though. 

I followed Akeem to the kitchen and he handed me a piece of cold toast that I ate in a few bites.

Meanwhile I noticed that the windows had a bunch of scratches around it, a new one being added as Imugi’s beak nibbled on the wood.

More of her didn't fit anyway.

Akeem grabbed the intruding beak and shoved it out so he could close the window. 

"We ought to get a better window lock in here, 

Imugi will chew on the wood if she doesn't get a treat,  But we can't give her one as we don't to reward that sort of behaviour but she keeps doing it”

Looking at the beak marks in the wood I did have to agree with him, though a Sea monster like Imugi probably liked the smell.

“Good luck, or try putting something in here she doesn't like”

Maybe if she saw something she wasn't fond of she'd stop chewing on the ship.

“The only thing i know that she does not like is Dolphins,  and we are not putting that in the kitchen”

Fair, also the bread really was starting to get stale,  no wonder they tried to toast it.

“Mhm, that would take up like half the kitchen anyway,  how far till we reach the Island you mentioned?”

Akeem motioned for me to follow him to the deck, which I did, still munching on the stale Toast.

Not like I hadn't eaten worse as a bastard street rat.

Up on the deck I could see that the sail was bunched up at the top and that a very old looking anchor was tossed over the side of the boat.

We were still in the middle of the ocean though, why did we stop?

Confusedly I turned to Akeem who had gotten some sort of ladder and rope from who knew where.

“We are stopping here for a few hours so Imugi can properly rest, there even is some seagrass for her to sleep in this reef”

Oh, right, in the hurry to get Home as fast as possible Imugi probably hadn't gotten all that much sleep.

Poor thing, and now I felt guilty.

Akeem tossed me a towel as well as Shorts that seemed to be made out of a weird silk like substance.

“Wh-”

“Those are specifically made for swimming, since Imugi has to rest you might as well enjoy the ocean for once”

Ah, that made sense, probably?

Before I could say anything else Akeem had tossed the Rope which appeared to have a weight at one end overboard and jumped after it.

Considering he was stone he didn't resurface,  but he also didn't have lungs so he couldn't drown.

Oh so the rope was that he could climb out later, smart.

Taking a look at the swimming shorts again, I decided to join Akeem.

Not like we could go anywhere with Imugi sleeping.

Going inside the ship again for a short moment I changed into the shorts Akeem had given me, they mostly fit at least even if they had to be tightly bound together at the waist with a string.

Putting my clothes in the empty box next to the door I walked over the deck again and looked over the railing.

Huh, the water didn't seem that deep here, and there were corals and fish.

A Reef then, and judging by the looks of it a big one.

Suddenly I was glad that this ship wasn't all that big,  and had a serpent maneuvering it.

With the way the rocks were positioned everywhere they could very well cut open a boat.

Being so absorbed in watching the reef under the boat that I didn't notice a figure sneaking up behind me.

Well I didn't notice until my arm got grabbed by a clawed foot.

“What's up you wuss!? Scared of the water?”

Came the cheerful voice from a blue clad maniac right into my left ear.

“Jamie! You don't have to be so loud! I'm not deaf, though,   keep yelling and I might be, also I'm not scared of the water! 

I wanted to see if i could spot Akeem or something cool”

“The water itself is cool enough already, also aren't those Ronan’s?”

They pointed at the swim shorts Akeem had given me.

Oh so those belonged to Ronan, hopefully he didn't mind.

“Akeem gave them to me, also considering you never seem to get out of that Blue sweater you're not gonna swim at all”

They shrugged.

“My legs are so fucking inefficient at treading water that i really should just stay on the boat unless i want to sink after five minutes.

Really though, with how thin my legs are i need to move them so fast to not go under it sucks”

Huh, hadn't considered that, of course thin, almost stilt like legs with thin toes would not help with swimming.

“So I guess you're just gonna have an eye on the ship then? Nice of you.

“You gonna swim or not? Also, don't you ever take that Bracelet off?”

The bracelet? Well, Since I had gotten it the only time I took it off was when I met Oakley.

“Not really, just like you and that blue sweater, also I am going to swim! I just didn't want to jump into a jellyfish or whatever!”

With that i swung myself over the railing and landed with a splash in the water below.

Fuck! As a human the salt stung terribly in my eyes,  which made me realize that I did not have that Problem as Ardua.

Strange, well that demanded to be tested!

Twisting the gem it was barely a second later that instead of a two legged man a big and green beast emerged.

Carefully opening one eye under water it really didn't sting anymore!

Though everything was still blurred by the water.

How weird! But also useful! 

And as Ardua swimming was faster too, the broad paws apparently not only good for digging in dirt.

Now that my life wasn't in danger or anything else needed to be done swimming through the reef was actually fun!

There were lots of fish and coral!

And swimming on the opposite side of the Boat was where Imugi had made a temporary nest out of seagrass.

It looked like actual grass just under water, it was moving slowly with the gentle waves, well at least the parts Imugi wasn't using as Mattress.

Imugi herself was sleeping on the seagrass so I left her alone and instead went to see if I could find Akeem.

Considering he was stone he had to be walking on the ocean floor.

That sounded kinda awesome actually.

Getting a deep breath of air I dived down again, seeing something blue and yellow dart past me.

Turning my head I saw it was Imik, who had ditched his shirt and revealed that his entire torso was dotted with blue scales that had yellow spots in some parts.

On his back there was also a thin and short fin which fit with his webbed hands and feet.

I briefly wondered what type of Merling he was, 

considering he had no fishtail it definitely wasn't merman.

Needing fresh air I resurfaced, Imik following right behind.

“Hey! Nice to see you swimming! Why'd you change back to the green form? Just because it's got bigger lungs?”

Bigger lungs? Hadn't thought about that but he was correct.

“Well i found out saltwater doesn't sting my eyes like this, 

also less risk of having some fish bite me while i'm fuzzy”

Imik laughed at that.

“Fair! Hey, I think I spotted a shipwreck that got washed up in a cave!”

A shipwreck? Well that sounded interesting!

“Really? Where? I've never seen one!”

“I'll show you! I think i'll need your help anyway cuz i want to explore it!

And if something goes wrong you could probably just smash it!”

Ah, there was the unhinged in his case.

“Uh, sure, where is it? I'll follow you, but i'm not a fast swimmer”

Imik nodded and then darted forward a few meters,  waiting for me to catch up.

That pattern repeated until he led me to a deeper part of the reef with weird rock formations.

They looked like natural long columns had fallen over to create some sort of irregular net pattern over sandy grooves.

Kinda pretty still, especially with the coral.

“Okay see that one groove that's bigger and deeper than the others? 

The ship is in the cave to the side of it!

Oh and don't forget to check the time while you dive! 

You don't have gills!”

With that he dived down, leaving me to follow.

Taking a deep breath I dived down after him,  seeing the cave he mentioned and swimming inside.

Luckily the cave entrance was very large,  which it had to be considering an entire ship fit through.

The floor was sandy and the small gaps in the stone roof let plenty of light in, almost like the pattern leaves made on a sunny day.

Huh, pretty.

Swimming around a bit I caught sight of Imik waving at me and pointing at the side of the old looking wooden ship, making a punching motion.

He really did want me to hit the thing huh?

Considering he was a treasure diver it was no surprise he wanted an easy way in.

Not knowing if that even worked underwater I swam to the sandy bottom right next to it and tried to get a good stance.

Considering it was sand it was rather ineffective but I managed to punch a good sized hole in the wall anyway.

Then I had a better idea and started ripping entire boards away so I could get a look inside too.

There were crates, and the ship had another hole on the bottom where some sand covered stone was visible.

No wonder that thing sank!

Getting low on air I motioned to Imik that I was heading out,  who in turn nodded and swam into the wreck.

No doubt he'd examine the crates for any treasure.

On the way out I saw a piece of wood stick out of the sand, looking like the corner of a crate.

Eh, I still had enough air for that.

Making a slight detour I hooked a claw into the crate and pulled it out of the sand.

Well, half of it, the crate was already broken and then spilled its contents.

The crate had contained a variety of shiny gold coins and some jewelry with gems, though not much, and-

My brain stopped for a second,  not comprehending what I saw for a moment.

What the hell?

There in the sand was another Bracelet,  though this one possessed Blue gems instead of green ones.

It was currently human sized so hooking it onto a claw didn't work,  and I didn't dare shift as I was currently holding my breath.

So taking it into my mouth was probably the only way to take it with me right now, even though it would give me a mouthful of sand as well.

Grimacing, I swam closer and opened my mouth above it, 

taking the Bracelet, and a ton of sand as expected, into my mouth.

Tilting my head down I let as much of the sand trickle out as possible.

Despite that there still was some stuck in my teeth as I swam out of the cave and back to the surface.

Breaching the water I swam closer to the ship,  the Bracelet still in my mouth as the Ardua lacked opposable thumbs.

Nearing the ship, and the ladder they had put out to get back up,  I tried to put the bracelet on one of the steps of the ladder.

That proved to be stupidly difficult as doing that with my mouth was challenging, not to mention the ladder swayed with the waves.

“Need help kitty cat?”

I glanced up to see Jamie perch on the railing next to the ladder.

I gave them a deadpan stare before nodding.

They ignored gravity and instead used their claws to walk on the side of the ship,  stretching one bird-like leg out and then walking on top of my snout.

“I'm guessing whatever you got is bigger than your human mouth and you can't shift?”

Instead of nodding, which I couldn't do as Jamie was literally standing on my head and I didn't want to throw them off, I gave an affirmative huff.

They nodded and used their claws to grip tightly to my snout, leaning over the side and fishing for the bracelet.

First off, Ouch those claws hurt, secondly i could feel them find the Bracelet and yank it out, immediately jumping back on the boat.

“Hey this looks like yours!, well almost it's more blue”

I twisted the gem and climbed up the ladder, seeing Jamie inspect the outer side of the bracelet.

“I think it might be something similar, no idea what it was doing in the shipwreck though, also you shouldn't wear it”

They tossed it to me and I barely managed to catch it.

“Why?

Also if Imik found the ship he's gonna want all the treasure out of it”

I looked at the bracelet and compared it to the one I had,  they looked pretty much the same aside from some scratches and the different gems.

“Oakley told me that people can only wear this if some weird gene got passed down, apparently everybody else just dies”

“Well that's stupid, I want to be tall too!”

They hopped from the railing on my shoulders, making me feel the sharp claws again but this time also the full weight of them.

They were pretty light at least.

“I believe that, but i don't think you should test it, i have no idea How you would die, it might curse you or some shit”

They looked pretty disappointed and jumped to the ground.

“Well you better put it somewhere safe then,  I'm sure we got an empty lockable box for you somewhere.

Hey what do you think would happen if Akeem wore it? 

He's stone, he doesn't have Genes!”

That was certainly a thought.

“Not willing to risk that, he seems the only one with common sense here, but i gladly take the box”

Jamie seemed disappointed but still showed me one of the lockable boxes on the deck, though this one was literally just a hatch in the wall with a small hollow space behind it.

It didn't stand out at all, perfect!

Stowing the new bracelet away I turned to the ladder once more,  hearing someone climb up.

Judging by the yellow mess it was Imik,  and he was carrying a bunch of gold coins.

“Look what i found! We can repair the kitchen window Imugi chewed on now! And there's more! Akeem is putting everything in bags right now!”

Oh so they did find the gold, nice.

“Want me to help? I can carry a lot more at once than you do”

Imik looked up from where he was shoving treasure into a chute I had previously overlooked.

“Sure! That's gonna be one fast treasure hunt!

Oh and you'll get some of it too! For helping!”

With that he Jumped back in,  and not wanting to lose sight and not find the cave anymore, 

I jumped over the railing after him, turning back into the Ardua form.

Imik was pretty fast at swimming but I managed to see where he dived into the cave again, and after taking a deep breath went after him again.

Akeem was indeed walking along the bottom of the sea, just like one would on land,  and was neatly tying up some bags and crates into nets with rope.

When he saw me he waved and used even more rope to tie a big sling, attaching every bag he could before holding out the sling to me.

Oh smart! Without thumbs I couldn't hold it, and I needed my limbs to swim anyway so that I could just carry the rope with my teeth.

Gently gripping the rope he held out, and trying not to bite it,  I turned around and swam out of the weird cave again.

Pretty heavy though, they must have found lots of good stuff in there.

Resurfacing I quickly realized they did not have their crane anymore, how would all this stuff get on the ship?

Imik breached the water shortly after me, apparently coming to the same realization.

“Ah fuck, were missing equipment, well if we do manage to get the gold up there we can use it to get a new crane at least”

Great, but how to get it on the deck now?

Suddenly Even more rope was tossed straight onto my head.

Jamie, of course.

“Yo fuckers! If you tie it to that we can use the winch of the second anchor to tow it up here!”

Well, that could work.

I tried to keep steady as Imik tied a variety of complicated looking knots to secure everything before climbing up the ladder and helping Jamie with the winch.

Not sure if i could let go now or not i just stayed as i was, hearing both of them work to use the winch.

After not too long there was a tug and the weirdly packaged treasure was heaved out and halfway onto the deck.

Swimming back to the ladder I changed back to the more human form so I could climb it before immediately switching back to the Ardua form as soon as I was on the deck.

I walked over to where they struggled to heave the mishmash of rope and treasure onto the boat and leaned over the railing.

Grabbing the tied together chaos I dragged it completely onto the deck, hearing at least two of the crew cheer at that.

“HEAVE HO KITTY CAT! HAHA”

At least one was Jamie.

Shaking the water out of my fur like a dog,  and drenching all of them again, I shifted back.

After shifting i immediately got a stick thrown at my head and turning around it was Jamie,  who due to me shaking the water out had gotten wet after all.

“Dumbass!”

“Sorry, forgot”

They let out an annoyed chirp and walked up the mast,  wringing the blue sweater out as they went.

Imik had meanwhile detangled the winch from the crate mess and tied another rope to it instead.

Oh right, Akeem was still underwater and due to being a statue couldn't swim upwards.

“Should I shift again and drag him up?”

“Nah, not sure if the Boat likes that, but you can help pull since Ronan is distracted, well he shouldn't anyway with the injuries”

Fair, so I grabbed part of the rope and helped Imik to drag Akeem up from the ocean floor.

It wasn't that bad until Akeem was actually heaved out of the water and still had some meters to go to get him on the deck.

Apparently him being out of the water made him heavier?

Whatever, letting go now would undo all the work we had to get him up, not to mention embarrassing.

Powering through it he was on the deck pretty fast and I could literally watch as the water just flowed off him till he was mostly dry.

Living statues were weird.

“Thank you for your help, without the crane getting me out is quite difficult”

Before I could respond a big blue head with a bony beak bonked into the railing, making whistling and chirping sounds.

Ronan immediately appeared from who knew where and hugged Imugi.

“Imugi! Hey there! Have a nice nap?”

The Sea Serpent click-whistled in response and gummed on his hair.

Despite being gently gnawed on Ronan immediately went to coddle her as she clicked happily.

“Hey what's in those crates? 

Did you go diving after Jamie knocked me out?”

Jamie knocked him out? Was that a good idea? He was still injured.

Then again he had been walking around and doing stuff when he shouldn't, so maybe it wasn't that bad? 

Aside from the possible brain damage.

Though according to Jamie he didn't have a brain to damage anyway.

Also Imugi was careful with him,  only gumming on his head instead of his bandaged limbs so at least she wouldn't open any of the strange electric burn marks.

Imik immediately interjected the inane nonsense though.

“If Imugi is fit again maybe we should go back on route? 

The treasure is nice and all and we're gonna have to use most of it to get a new crane but we really should aim for the harbor now!”

Imugi stopped gumming on Ronan’s head and made a clicking sound at Imik before diving into the water again.

The two of them walked to the front of the ship,  probably to toss the towing gear to Imugi again,  leaving me on deck with a living statue trying to sort the rope and crate chaos and a bird legged maniac that sat up in their nest and apparently had no desire to help.

Well to be fair they seemed to basically never use their hands and i doubted untying rope could be done with those stick thin bird legs.

There was a tug on the boat that confirmed that Imugi was back to towing the boat.

Not really knowing what to do now I went over to Akeem and started helping to untie the ropes from the mess of crates,  and earning, what was probably? An affirming look.

It was hard to tell considering his eyes were made out of some orange gemstone but he seemed to appreciate it and started instructing me on what to do.

After not too long Imik came back and helped until everything was untied, and promptly started to drag the crates to the door at the back of the ship.

Oh right, he was stowing the treasure he found there.

Helping to move the heavier crates the day went by fast until the sky, and ocean, was painted a purple and magenta shade by the setting sun.

Apparently time went faster if you had something to do, huh.

Suddenly I got a piece of stale bread tossed at me,  just barely managing to catch it before it fell on the floor.

The one that had thrown it was Jamie, who seemed to have lost all respect for gravity and was standing sidewards on the mast.

“Good catch!”

Jamie Immediately got whacked by Imik.

“Don't throw food like that! Especially on a boat!”

I did have to agree with Imik on that, it seemed rather wasteful, especially if i hadn't caught it.

While I bit into the stale bread the two started squabbling again,  with one of Jamie's bird claws straight up gripping Imiks face.

Apparently that happened a lot so I ignored it and sat next to Ronan on the stairs to the top part of the deck.

“How many times does that happen?” Ronan shrugged, and then winced as his skin moved the bandages.

“No idea, stopped counting, but they never do it for real and like this Jamie doesn't go after me for dumb stuff at least”

“Fair, but you really do dumb stuff sometimes”

Ronan grinned sheepishly and tugged at his own ear.

“I know, but sometimes i get excited about new stuff and then forget the stuff around me”

Well that sounded familiar.

“I know someone with a similar issue,  he keeps spacing out and not paying attention to things that don't interest him, his name is Robin and he's my best friend”

Fuck how i missed all of them, i couldn't wait to get to the Harbor and then home.

“Your best friend? What's he like? Oh and does he have any tips on how to deal with the scatter brainedness?” “i don't think so, as for what he's like, well first off he's ginger” That earned a laugh from Ronan.

“As for what he's like, hmm, well he's the first person to not just see some street bastard halfbreed.

My mother died eight years ago and since then he was the first to be nice to me, for no reason too.

Our meeting was, uhh, Chaotic and he would have had every reason to hate me and fear me but after a bit he didn't.

He loves plants and the Cat that walks around the garden. 

He randomly helps the people near us out even if he doesn't get anything for it.

He loves to make flower crowns for people, 

He even tries to match the colors of them too.

Also he's easily excitable and can hyperfocus on things he likes”

“Sounds like a good guy, maybe if we visit your place, Kamerasca was it? One day we could throw a big party and let everyone meet!”

A big Party to introduce everyone to each other, huh.

“Sure, why not? You gotta keep an eye out for Nea then,  she can, and will, throw someone out a window, 

I'm also pretty sure she already did that at least once.

But i think that would be fun, i don't think Rikaad would mind, 

and Arthur won't either as long as he doesn't have to go on a Boat”

Ronan smiled widely,  showing off his fangs that were a little smaller than mine.

“Sounds like a plan then! 

Wait, who are Rikaad and Arthur? More friends?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, they are Rikaad kinda owns the place we live at and Arthur had really bad Motion sickness”

“Ouh motion sickness sucks, I got it once, Imugi grabbed me by my shirt and dragged me at high speed through the water,  making lots of curves all the while! 

I nearly puked!”

Just hearing that was horrifying.

“Yeah that sounds like something that would make you throw up, why did she do that anyway?”

“Oh yeah! So Imugi used to be really tiny and that was basically the first time she realized she could actually drag me! 

I guess she was excited, haha!”

Oh right Jamie had mentioned that Imugi used to fit in a mug.

Ronan kept on rambling though, apparently I had struck an interest.

“Imugi did all sorts of wild things around that time! 

And also kept bringing me raw fish so i'm pretty used to that now,  Yamet actually combined it with rice and sauce. It's very good.

Oh! One time Imugi fell off the boat and managed to get back on deck on her own for the first time! She was really happy about that! 

And then kept going on and off for like two hours,  but at least we didn't need the crane to get her on anymore!

Then there also was the one time she got something stuck in her gills, I think it was a fishhook? 

It was definitely bent metal though, so I had to reach in and get it out!

I'll tell you fish gills are already weird but because Imugi was already so big and the hook so deep I had to fit my entire arm down her throat!

Heh, so i guess the reason i had no fear when looking at your teeth was because i had to stick my arm into a sea serpent already!

Wait! I forgot! Fuck! Why didn't you say anything?”

Much to my chagrin I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I did tell him i would let him look at the pouch firsthand after all,  he was probably going to cash in on that sooner rather than later.

“Yeah I was kinda hoping you would so I kept quiet about it”

He looked at me with a deadpan stare.

“Well, we still have time till we reach the harbor, and I'm still curious!”

My eyes nervously darted to where Jamie and Imik were still wrangling with each other, how they had not drawn blood was a miracle.

Ronan seemed to catch on for once luckily.

“Oh yeah, don't want to freak Jamie out,  normally someone ends up losing an eye or finger”

Well that was horrifying.

“Well then, uhm, let's wait till they sleep,  minus Akeem because he never sleeps anyway”

I sighed and ate the last piece of stale bread.

“Well, i did say i would, and id rather Jamie doesn't take out my eye so waiting till its night is fine by me”

I also didn't want to freak them out, again, seeing as i had no idea if anyone told them it was fine considering the chaos at the time.

So we talked about nonsense till Akeem dragged both Iik and Jamie inside for sleep.

“Wait, doesn't Jamie sleep in the nest thing normally?” Ronan waved it off.

“Nah not all the time, and if Akeem drags them Inside they actually sleep inside, though that might be due to laziness”

Ah yeah, made sense, so now that everyone was gone I was surely expected to shift into the Ardua form again.