Chapter 19

Arroserion appeared mortified and for a son like Ogsydane, the feeling was often but today told a different story, he stretched his arms and Ogsydane put his hands out. "You're not my father."

He cleared his throat "I mean I'm not a hugger."

Serena rushed into his arms and pecked him on the cheek and he was red as a tomato.

For a nixie with a broken flipper she swam fast, with one double-dealing look at Arroserion, he set her aside but she held on tighter, supposedly it was just cousin antics, Ogsydane caught the gleam in his eyes.

She stared at her hero with newfound admiration and her lashes fluttered,

Arroserion cleared his throat "I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

Here it comes. He thought giddy with excitement, hoping for the best, he stretched out his hands and Arroserion's expression was filled with light and embraced him.

Strangely, he didn't smell like fish but a fragrant ocean breeze. "Okay pops, where's my reward?"

He looked startled "Reward? There's no time for rewards" He led him out of the prison with Serena tailing them.

The halls were a traditional sky blue with flowering sea plants everywhere, they reached a hall with a dead-end. Water guards patrolled the place then they stayed at attention in the king's presence.

By a long door with designs, he pressed a hand to the door and a sky blue ambiance circled the knob and it rumbled open.

The Equizerox's eyes narrowed on Ogsydane as he lingered by the chamber,

Ogsydane's eyes squinted at the dim place, he saw the red sheen on the statues' eyes, three pair of eyes on every corner of the darker expanse, their eyes ascertained their presence. They were ten feet tall and they were carved with the same armour and helmet with spears, as the water guards.

The box was at the centre under a single light source in the water dancing over it.

When Arroserion reached the stone, the stone soldiers rumbled moving and their spears leaned down into their hands, as if ready for battle, steadied to the centre where he was.

The Stone Soldiers in the inner chamber were ruthless, it was said that the first ruler of Okeanos brought them to life to protect the gem and they attacked anyone who tried to steal it_except royal blood.

The stone showed the glorious bluish-green stone with the mermaids under it on the surface.

The land-livers attacked and tried by all means to steal it, they succeeded and the sea became unstable, which became the onset of an all-out war.

Their great ancestor, a King named Olaido harnessed the Aqua-Sapphire and controlled the waves to overwhelm them so the merpeople could escape.

There was a rift between both worlds and the merpeople stayed off the land and remained unseen.

King Olaido was afraid it would happen again and hid it under the stone but the water remained torrent, as long as they evolved to sail the seas again.

The surface crumbled as he slot in his hand and Ogsydane caught the blue radiance as it danced all over his face and eyes, he lifted it aggrieved and faced him.

"Again and again, the land-livers prove to be remorseless, that reminds me that the Aqua-Sapphire is worth protecting and you're the only one with human appendages"

Ogsydane quirked an eyebrow taking it, the water stirred and it glowed swirling around the spirals on his gauntlets and establishing itself, it appeared lighter.

+5600

Achievement: 1 +5

Level: 5

Donnie stiffened in shock and fell out of the cradle, he turned his head slightly over the cold floor in the gaming grid, his ears rung slowly becoming reacquainted with the real world, he almost couldn't believe it. No water, no water guards and especially, no evil brother.

"Subject number 4 is offline"

The stronger guards hoisted him up and he flinched in shock, breaking out of their hold to touch his head and touched his belly. "Jeez, I need a fruit."

He mumbled hit by the reality, he was stupefied, he blinked when someone replaced his glasses and he jumped holding his hands out at Sebastian.

"Enjoyed your time?."

"Yeah, thanks for asking after you nearly drowned me! I am going to sue_"

"Ah, taking the easy way out aren't you Gryphon?"

"I will sue you, I fucking will." Donnie retorted.

"I've been doing my homework and I am impressed by your records, Gryphon, a PhD student, currently running a small tech company"

He swallowed swinging his arms and looked unsure "I own ourty_fourty five percent, I have a partner_partners, my mom and sister,"

"G-Tech." He flipped his tablet to show him the company's logo. A cleverly embossed silver G with tech under.

Tsk tsk tsk "Not very fundamental but_"

"We're working on the name," His eyes moved uneasily from Sebastian to it.

"I am one step ahead of you Gryphon, two actually, I'm a marketing master and I've had intel that you, Donnie Gryphon, hacked into my game...twice."

He turned pale at the facts "Touché"

"You're not so smart either, I think that allegation could be sufficient enough to undermine your 'charges'. If you can make them.

I'm sure you were going to repeat the same thing with cheat codes. You were going to be number one.

You may be authentic in the eyes of a few characters but I can see right through you." He folded his arms with a conceited stare.

"I should probably disqualify you right now but I am a merciful man and you can't hack your way out of this one, so pull up your big boy pants and put some honest work into it, okay pork chop?"

He whirled him to the exit and pat his back, Donnie rubbed his back and his hand curled up.

"That's what my mother calls me." He muttered.

...

Glazier

Avatar: Yupik (Bones)

He shuddered and pulled out the strings from his parka and knelt tying his snowshoes to the pieces of thick tree barks and snatched the tree branches, with the temperatures dropping, he had no time to test them thoroughly enough if they were efficient.

He waddled with the makeshift skis and poles to the edge of the high hill, the wind whistled and there was a rush of snow.

"These are one of the reasons men die quickly" His skis leaned on the corner and he hopped without a moment's hesitation.

He screamed at the rush of snow and skied down the hill with his knees together, his parka ruffled and his eyes were barely open from the sting of ice cold crystals but he was moving, he felt the elevation as he progressed up the hill with his poles and slid down the ramp, his insides tightened at the distance to the other edge and he made the jump, he half-laughed and plopped over a rock, skiing backwards down the hill, his body was prostrate over the snowbed, with the skis still sliding and he rotated his arms to maintain balance, it was both startling and exciting,

At least the bark was flexible enough, he was keeping the balance and the bark bounced back. He took short gasps and hopped "Oof! Bad idea, ohhh!"

He tumbled and the bark snapped in half, he swooped to the wall of ice with the first ski shaking and grazing on the thin ice and fell back.

He groaned and stepped up pulling up his torn parka and took a wide look at the large ice sheet, snow fell over it and he detached the bark glaring at the walls surrounding it.

"My life," He groaned and fished out a rope and a pickaxe.

He grunted and rolled up the cliff taking up the ropes, he was so high, that there was mist everywhere in the middle of the night. Skipping down the cliff, he passed a grateful look at the yellow glow downhill, he slipped down and stopped short at the ice bear rummaging around a bonfire.

+500

The ice wolves_not technically, were nomads, you wouldn't see them staying in a settlement for at least two weeks.

He stopped cold at the bodies splayed on the ground, one looked to be five with flesh ripped off her neck, his eyes watered staying low with splashes of blood on the snow. The second was a woman in buckskins parka.

The Takhuna had the face of a bear, the body of a yak, a horse-like tail and the hooves of a mountain goat. It had long fangs like a walrus that enabled it to cause much harm to the villagers.

The bear sniffed around and growled, the people of the village did not dare confront the bear that was ransacking their store of food. The one's that did were victims to its teeth.

Everywhere it went, it left footprints that were luminescent, and its eyes were glowing blue, it snorted breathing out cold air.

[ It wants something ]

The ice wolves were not so unsophisticated, it was a ghoul that terrorized at the slightest opportunity.