Chapter 69 - Evelin
The leader of the robbers laid down on the grass, unconscious, with some burn marks on his face and back. Most of the robbers had been "tamed" by Whitey and the small bird that was chirping around the little girl.
Nerun was standing next to the defeated boss, however he was actually frowning. "Like I expected, it's not enough. It's not natural, and feels restrained", muttered Nerun to himself.
Nerun had actually opened the Πυρ - /Pyr/ Heavenly Gate, and the "Ignis" Core meridian. Both meant fire. Nerun had thought he would open either the Water or Ice Meridian and Heavenly Gate, but in the end, it looks like his body was better attuned to the fire element, which was shocking to him. Had he known in advance, maybe he would have followed Maikal's Path of the Interceptor Fist instead of the Free Flowing Fist, since according to Nerun's understanding of the elements, Fire was a mainly aggressive and explosive kind of element, great for offense.
There was nothing Nerun could do about it though, since he himself had chosen to keep going with the Free Flowing Fist, since it better allowed for the circulation of both Qi and Mana, but the spirit of the Martial Art was also better attuned to water's gentleness and not with the violence of Fire.
Also, Nerun's use of the spell was greatly hampered by his mana level. Even though he had already opened two heavenly gates, the power of his magick was barely the same as a Mana Adept. It was quite powerful against an unsuspecting enemy, especially in the lower ranks, but Nerun knew better than anyone that when time passed, it would be greatly lacking against the truly powerful experts in the continent, like his parent's enemies.
Nerun had learnt this first Magick from the
Nerun knew the importance of Martial Skills and Magick Spells, and he remembered Maikal's teachings. He should not randomly learn just any technique. Usually both warriors and adepts had issues with opening their Auxiliary Meridians, and also with getting proper spells and techniques that were actually compatible with them. After all, one could only associate one technique or spell with one open auxiliary meridian, and skills were both rare and expensive.
Nerun, however, had no such issues, since he already had 9 Auxiliary Meridians opened, and Maikal had left several techniques behind for the children. So Nerun actually could have filled all of his opened auxiliary meridians with different Martial Skills but he dared not do so. For Nerun knew that his true power came not from the power of Martial Skills or Spells alone, he was both a weaker version of a warrior and an adept. He needed to find a way to merge both paths, or Nerun would just be a bonafide Jack of all trades, Master of none.
In the end, Nerun knew that he had yet to find an adequate solution to this conundrum, so he could not help but sigh. Suddenly he got clobbered in the back of the head.
Nerun tumbled a bit, and grimaced a bit in pain and turned himself to see what enemy had attacked him, only to see the little feisty girl with the bird on her shoulder staring daggers at Nerun. "Did I do something to you little girl, Shouldn't you be thankful that I helped you earlier?" asked Nerun, feeling a bit wronged. Whitey who was loitering around, suddenly got up and ran right next to Nerun and started showing his fangs and growling at the girl.
"You still dare to ask what you did? You slaved that poor direwolf, and commanded it as a servant and you still try to make yourself look good. I knew that Master was right. Humans are disgusting creatures. First these men try to kidnap me and a bunch of other children, but you are definitely the worst of the bunch. How can you all make Magical Beasts serve you like slaves, they are wonderful and intelligent creatures. So that's it, I'm taking him with me, you Beast Bully", said the girl almost shouting with a reddened face from the fury.
When Nerun and Whitey heard her, they could not help but tilt their heads to the side as if trying to understand what the girl was talking about, and then looked at each other, seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.
"Eeeeh. I think you have something messed up a bit, you little girl. Whitey is not my slave nor pet, he is my partner. He is my best friend, and he decided to follow me on an adventure" explained Nerun.
"Lies, nothing but lies. That's a proud Direwolf, a noble lineage among Magical Beasts…", when the girl was about to keep talking and berating Nerun, Whitey then started growling at her softly.
"Eeeeh… He is telling the truth. You know each other for years now, and he has helped you before. Why didn't you say that from the beginning? I mean, way to make people misunderstand, do you like causing trouble with other people everywhere you go?" started saying the girl once more.
Nerun was a bit flustered, it looked like if he did not stop the girl, she would talk nonsense till his ears bled. "Stop. Wait a minute. I don't even know you little girl, and you are the one that started making accusations". For the first time Nerun kinda felt, like others did about himself, and was at a loss of how to keep the pace with the girl. That being said, he somehow found it funny how this small and cute looking girl had such a mean mouth and dared to say and do anything she wanted. He could not help but wonder what kind of people could have raised a small little wild thing like her.
…
"Achoo… Mmmmmh, is someone talking about me. Now, where could that little girl have run to. She gives me the biggest headache. Thankfully, Little Green went with her, otherwise I'd worry myself to death. Well, it's not like some hardships once in a while would not be good for her, otherwise she'll grow up believing that things will always go as she wants them… Besides, it's not like she can truly be harmed. After all, I'm sure he probably followed her while hidden. We are spoiling that brat rotten, hahahahahaha"
An old looking man, with wrinkles all over, and a bit humped, was looking at the stars in a house that was made on top of the branch of a gigantic tree. This tree was so tall that it looked like it could touch the heavens, and it was quite thick, almost as much as the city of Radem. There was a gigantic forest surrounding the tree, and auspicious birds were flying around, making this place look like a magnificent garden. The man looked as if he was part of the tree itself. His eyes looked a bit cloudy, but when one looked at them directly, the universe itself seemed to be looking right back at you.
…
"So, your name is Whitey. Well, that's a good name I guess. This is Little Green, she is my best friend as well, and I named her myself. Do you like the name Whitey? We could change it, you know, I can give you the best name ever. You could come with me, I promise you will like my place much better than being with this runt" said the girl with a sparkle in her eyes while looking at the Direwolf as if he was the greatest treasure ever.
Whitey started whimpering a bit and quickly hided behind Nerun. For some reason, it felt that the girl was somewhat like Nerun, but he was somehow afraid of her "affection".
"Please, don't scare Whitey… Wait. You can understand and talk to Whitey. You can talk with Magical Beasts?" asked Nerun, feeling shocked after understanding what had happened.
"Hehehehe, indeed. I can talk to beasts, it's my gift. Jealous a bit? Beasts are just the best, and I can talk and understand their speech and thoughts", said the girl feeling quite smug about it.
"Wow, can you teach me? That way I could talk to Whitey all the time," said Nerun, approaching the girl and grabbing her hands in excitement. The girl quickly jumped back and let Nerun's hands go. She was a bit scared from his excitement.
"I'm sorry I jumped like that. I was a bit overexcited. I think that talking to Magical Beasts is really cool". Said Nerun feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Eeeh. it's ok, I'm just not used to that sort of contact. I overreacted, I mean, it was ok, I think. Anyway, I'm sorry I can't teach you. Not that I don't want to, I just don't know how, I simply have been able to understand them since I was a girl." said the girl a bit flustered. She had really no experience in dealing with other people, but she kinda liked talking to Nerun. At least the boy looked interesting and seemed to like Magical Beasts.
"Oh.. it's ok then. My name is Nerun by the way, what's yours little girl?"
"I'm not a little girl. My name is Evelin.. So Nerun, what are we going to do about this now? Why are these men trying to kidnap children. I mean, is it normal for kidnappers to roam about in the roads of Ansem?".
"No, of course it's not normal. Actually this problem has arised recently, and there has been a series of kidnapping that the authorities are investigating. I think these men are probably working the people behind this whole deal. I don't really know what their intentions are, but security has been greatly increased in the city. I'm actually surprised that they still dared to wander around, considering they are being searched all over." said Nerun seriously.
He started looking at the children that were still waiting for them. There were about 5 children in total. They knew that they needed help from Nerun and Evelin to safely get back to the city. Otherwise they might, very well, be captured again. As Nerun was pondering on what to do, he started rummaging through the men's belongings to see if he could find anything useful.
Nerun was about to give up, when he noticed that the leader had a piece of parchment in one of his pockets. It only contained some weird words, with not much meaning or relations among each other. Nerun quickly understood that it was likely a code. When Nerun noticed the parchment and saw that he could not currently make heads or tails out of it, he sighed…
"Man… I guess I'll still have to hold back on getting the money I wanted. I guessed the fish was not big enough. Another bait seems necessary then" said Nerun with his hands on his shin while thinking aloud.
"Fishing? Are you going fishing? What does this have to do with fish? Are you ok boy, do you have a fever?" said Evelin while getting close to Nerun and touching his forehead.
Nerun turned to look at Evelin. She had a cute normal face, full of freckles, but she was quite unassuming. The girls back home were a lot prettier, but Nerun kinda got lost a bit when he looked at Evelin's eyes. Her black eyes seemed to be a perfect mirror and a black hole at the same time. Nerun kinda got lost in them, and stared for a bit, which eventually made Evelin uncomfortable and she quickly moved back.
"Sorry about that. I was just a bit dazed. I thought you didn't like other people to touch you", teased Nerun to try and make the situation better.
"Who wants to touch you. You were just saying weird things and I got worried a bit, that's all" said the girl while blushing a bit. 'Why did I touch him? I mean, his pensive look was kinda ok, but he is, I mean, so meh… It must have been because he really likes Magical Beasts. Yeah, that's it, his interests seem close to mine… Maybe my adventure could be following this kind and his wolf around. I'm sure I can convince Whitey to go back home with me, hehehe'. The girl started laughing at her own mischievous thoughts. Whitey shivered a bit but had no idea why exactly, and went even closer to Nerun.
'Weirdo. But her eyes are pretty I think', thought Nerun for a bit.
"Anyway, we better do something about this mess. Ok kids, come with me. I need you to do me a favour when we return to the city." Nerun then told them some things and untied them. Using that same rope, he went then, and immobilized the kidnappers.
…
"Hmph… That brat better not try anything funny. Humans… Always so conniving. Kidnapping children even. Mmmmh. This place looks kinda familiar. Wait… Could it be?", muttered a tall shadow watching Nerun and Evelin from the sky, hidden among the clouds.
…
The rest of the night passed without much ado.
As the Gates to the city were opening once more, and the City army was patrolling the gate, they suddenly noticed a commotion coming towards them. They took their weapons and wielded them.
Then they saw a bunch of children coming toward them and screaming loudly. The shouts were so loud, that the people waiting to enter the city turned to see them, and even some of the soldiers in the City wall could hear them.
"Save us please. Save us, we had been kidnapped. Please send us home, we want to see our parents, I miss mommy. Please."
The shouts were varied, but most said things like that. The City Guard quickly understood that these were some of the missing children. One of the guards wanted subconsciously to stop the children, but quickly stopped and realized that it was too late. The guards in the City wall had already seen them, and one of the soldiers from Ansem's Grand Army was there to check for any lead towards the case.
"Guards, hear my commands. By the orders of Lieutenant Serena Dai Vanilla of the Grand Army, as well as the County Governor if we find any of the kidnapped children, they must be taken to the Governor's annexed manor. Men, guard the children and make sure no harm comes to them… What's that?"
As an Army Corporal the man was used to receiving and giving orders, and quickly realized that a lead to the case had come in their time of need. He needed to escort the children personally. However he stopped for a bit, since he noticed that in the direction that the children had come from there was a huge amount of smoke rising.
Some of the guards quickly approached and noticed that there were several men tied down together, some of them with different types of injuries, and mistreated. The pupils of the guard that wanted to stop the children constricted since he recognized them. The boss was tied down with his joints dislocated so that he could not apply any strength at all. There was a great bonfire as a signal in front of the men, as if whoever did this was afraid that the men from the city would fail to notice this "gift".