“…the people were the main thing he needed to watch out for.”

Jodeus coughed the life out of him, clearing the water from his lungs. He sat on all fours and pounded his fist against his chest, violently spatting out the salt, his eyes stricken with tears. He took a long deep breath and groaned out loud, heaving as though he was still desperately catching his breath underwater.

After a while, he stood up, still dazed from almost drowning.

Nothing could've prepared him for the sudden thunderstorm. He was in deep slumber when he got tossed off his hammock, crushing his nose against the wood. It was when he noticed the intense swaying of his boat that he rushed outside, stumbling on his footing, and saw the seas wrestling against themselves.

The sky ruled over them, crackling and seething with wrath.

He grabbed hold of the ropes tightly, securing them down before desperately reaching for the steering wheel. 'Anywhere would do.'

Then the enormous darkness descended on him, engulfing him whole.

"At least I'm on land," he murmured grimly before gently gripping his ring. "And at least, I still have you."

He resided on the less jagged rocks he could find, and strolled along the shore for a bit, seeking for any of his belongings that may have washed up on the beach. All while admiring the emerald blue water softly reaching for the sand and pebbled coast. It was lovely and reminded him of his homeland's beaches, which they would often visit on special occasions.

Beyond the land was nothing but rocks and rocky hills. With the horizon covered in thick fog, he had no idea where he was and where he would be heading. He'd reckon there would be more rocks in this journey.

The corner of his eyes darted on a floating piece of wood, drifting towards the shore, he sprung to it immediately and yelled in glee when he found the wreckage of what was left of his boat, just tucked between two giant rocks. The boat, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh please. Please," he begged silently.

This day only got better when he saw his suitcase as he lifted the wooden pieces one by one. A slew of fruits was bobbing alongside it too. He unlocked the clasp, and fortunately, none of his belongings were drenched and ruined: his clothes were pristine, his blade was still perfect as ever, and his books were intact.

'Thank goodness for Tanzanite merchandise!'

But everything wasn't fine. When he couldn't find the map The Alumnus had given him, he let out a deep sigh.

"Great! How will I track down the healer now, M- OUCH!" There was a sudden stinging ache in his head, and he tried soothing it by massaging it in circles, hoping it wasn't a concussion. "Mercius, Marcius? Mera! Her. How will I ever find her now?"

Jodeus reached into his pocket and found a flattened soggy bread, contemplating whether he should salvage it or not. He cringed and took off his nightwear for the sun to dry, including the bread.

It was a luxury to be able to go about in his blue tunic and breeches, relieved to wear something that wasn't damped with salt and sand. Patting himself down, he felt something poke him through the cloth. He took it out and frowned. The fountain pen's cap was considerably broken now, the Tanzanite gem had fallen out of the tip. He cursed under his breath, before looking for something to tie it with.

"There we go…not as fancy as it was but it'll do." The cap was tied in every direction, properly securing the gem back to its place crudely.

He glanced at the fruits he had found with his stuff, along with the broken pieces of wood. It was an underwhelming comparison to what he had sailed with. Nevertheless, he had his essentials.

Closing his eyes, he tried to recall the map and where he was supposed to go. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes with a smile, 'Southeast'. He looked up to see where the sun was about to set and faced the opposite direction, scooting a bit to the right.

'Night will come soon,' he thought to himself as he watched the sun right above him, he only had a few hours.

'Shall I wait for the sun to rise tomorrow?' Nodding to himself, he made his way under a concave rock, pulling his suitcase along with him. He flipped the pages of his journal, eager to make his latest entry, he wrote with his pencil as his quill and ink were lost.

…

The sun had just set and only the moon illuminated his surroundings. With nothing else to do, he unsheathed his dagger, marveling at it as the ice glistened under the moonlight. That's when he noticed something odd.

The gemstone resting on the dagger's hilt. It wasn't a Tanzanite gem or any diamond he had ever seen.

"What is it?" he asked out loud, squinting at it. It had a slight viridescent gradient at the bottom with a deep azure painting the rest.

He examined the blade next and smiled softly, tracing the engraving on the fuller, wondering what it meant. Wondering how she was able to prevent it from melting and have it look stunning at the same time. She was incredible, she was everything he aspired to be, both her and his father.

Glazing at it, he focused on the tip of the blade and slowly lengthened it but stopped halfway through. The edges were a bit rugged, not on the same level as his mother yet. He tried again: the image of what he wanted to be was perfectly painted in his mind. And after a few moments, the weight on his hand changed and his hand started tingling, he opened his eyes to see a light blue glow coming from his palm and climbing through his fingers.

The dagger in his hand had gradually altered into a short sword, crystal-like ice forming a longer blade while the cross guards widened, one side forming a knuckle guard along his fist.

When the saber, as straight as an arrow, had fully formed, the faint light from his palm had faded; from his palm to his fingers, leaving only a telltale cold sensation in his palm. Smiling to himself, he turned it back into a dagger before repeating the whole process again. He spent the night hours training himself to transform his weapon quicker, without needing to close his eyes and give much thought to it.

Eventually, the hours of usage from his blessing drained him. He passed out, leaning against the makeshift sand pillow.

…

The sun was rising now and he felt sand scuttling on his leg. He sleepily brushed it off, his eyes still closed when the sand found its way to his arm. Not even seconds later, he feels the 'sand' crawl to his face, its little feet tickling him and jolting him awake.

The sand had a thousand white eyes blinking up at him as it laid itself on his chest. He let out a blood-curdling shriek, hastily pushing the thing off him and yanking his dagger.

He jumped up to his feet, hitting his head on the rock. Before looking down to see a giant centipede at his feet. Another scream of fear and disgust escaped him when the large bug tried to shuffle its way to his shoes, which he yanked and dashed away with long strides, away from such a large and disgusting creature.

'Is it… venomous?' A shiver runs down his spine at the thought of the creature crawling on him during his sleep and possibly biting him. Speaking of which, it's now making its way to him, with its vile eyes and thousands of legs.

"No no no no… DON'T COME NEAR ME!" He pleaded in sheer disgust and a flurry of snow protruded from his hand as it scuttled close enough, knocking the creature a good distance from him.

"THAT WAS GROSS!" he exclaimed, gagging.

Recovering from the fear, and along with the power of disgust, he unsheathed his dagger and transformed it into a full-fledged saber–a second or two faster than it took him last night. He struck the saber on the oncoming vermin, splitting it in half, both of the halves squirming and curling in on themselves before slumping, finally dead.

Jodeus took a careful step towards it, keeping a distance in case it would spring back from the dead and eat him alive. After inspecting its body, he buried it under a good six feet pile of snow and took his belongings to go as far away as possible.

…

He looked up at the sky, seeing that the sun was already rising. Quickly forgetting about the vile creature, he started heading southeast, not wandering too far from the shoreline. He walked for hours, only stopping to rest for a minute or two. On his way, he held his dagger in his hand, trying and failing to turn it into another weapon other than the saber.

In what seemed like the whole day, he made it to the other side of the 'island'. He slumped his shoulders when he spotted a larger land that seemed like miles away.

He banged his head against the rock. "I don't have a boat."

Jodeus sat on the rock, suitcase beside him, thinking of any other way he could cross the waters without dying. He gazed at the calm swaying of the currents. 'But what if…'

It was a long stretch, but he had no other choice. He did manage to carry his own boat with his blessing but it wasn't easy at all and it took him a while to regain his energy right after.

Jodeus stood in curiosity, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths as he held his hands out in front of him.

He envisioned a boat, a modest wooden watercraft propelled by oars. His hands began to quiver as the imagery in his thoughts became a lot more vivid. His ears twitched at the sound of the ice building itself on the water, the sound of its creaking and faint humming. He could feel the cool air directly in front of him, but he didn't even take a quick glance since he didn't want to lose focus.

When he felt that it was finished, he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was his hands, they appeared to be covered in frost, although the coldness of it didn't bother him at all. Taking his mind off his hands, he raised his head, his gaze locking on the ice boat, making his heart leap with joy.

It was a perfect replica of what he had imagined. But as he walked closer, the carvings and the wood-like texture were crudely made, like water that hasn't frozen completely.

Jodeus picked up both of the oars, inspecting them closer. These were more complete and quite similar in both sizes and weight, although they needed more smoothening. But if he said so himself, it was perfect the way it was.

Jodeus looked up, noticing that the Sun had already set, yet the land was still there, and he had already squandered a whole day. He leaped in, almost losing his balance, but hurried as much as he could since he didn't want to lose daylight. He rowed as fast as he was able towards land, his boat perfectly intact.

…

"NO, No, no, no. Come on, please no."

He tried to patch the hole that was filling the boat up with water, covering it with his hands and trying to mend the hole but to no avail, the ice simply melted away.

The boat began to sink a third of the way, still giving him too much water to swim across. He tried to save his melting boat, the small hole that filled his boat with water growing larger every second that passed. Closing his eyes, he repeated what he did when he first made the boat, picturing a regular wooden boat and putting his hands in front of him, except he was panicking now.

"Please. Please," he begged his boat.

He wailed as the water was now up to his knees, frantically trying to think of something that could help him. But it was too late, the boat no longer held its perfect form, he needed to abandon the ship and start swimming to the land, and he did.

Jodeus leaped into the sea, kicking his feet on the remains of the boat to give himself a push, using his suitcase to help himself stay afloat. He swam as rapidly as he could, attempting to cross the waters as quickly as possible.

A mile in, his lungs started to hurt and his legs and arms were tired, his whole body wanted to rest but he pushed himself and after half an hour of swimming, he was almost there. Adrenaline rushed in and he swam faster than he had been, his whole body burned but he ignored the pain and kept swimming. His controlled breaths turned into gasps of air, and tears welled up in his eyes, only to be swept away by the saltwater that surrounded him.

Finally, after an hour and a half of non-stop swimming, he arrived at the shore of the island. His whole body went limp, unable to move as he panted and wheezed while just lying there on the sand. Tears fell from his face as his whole body ached. The feeling of his whole body in pain slowly made him lose consciousness.

…

Jodeus woke up in fright when a child tripped over him, who was now inspecting his sheathed dagger with widened curious eyes.

"Amice! Step away from the homeless man, we don't know what kind of disease he has!" said a woman, who seemed genuinely annoyed.

He sprung up, still dazed, and quickly yanked his dagger from the child (who only screamed) not wanting her to accidentally slice off her finger or get it stolen. This sudden movement made him groan, his body was still recovering from the impressive length he swam earlier. When he had recovered from the sudden pain, he turned back to the child, only to see her gone.

Shrugging his shoulders and steadily pushing himself up, his legs wobbled as he did so. It was exhausting to almost drown twice in a row in the sea, after all. He stretched his body and pulled up his suitcase with him and checked if he lost anything.

The sound of civilization was very much welcome in his ears. Everyone seemed busy and it didn't take much to recognize this place as a market. The smell of fish and spices filled the air, along with the loud chattering of the people.

As he walked by the stalls, his stomach grumbled, reminding him that he only had what was left of his fruits for the whole of yesterday.

But he wasted no time and asked around for a healer named Mera.

"Ten for a kilo. Thirty for two and a half." said the man in his gruff voice, not even glancing at him.

"Uhm. Actually, I have a question," he said nervously.

"All prices are listed here. If you don't like it then leave."

"Do you know anyone named Mera?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as he could. The man finally looked up at him with a sly look.

"Oh yes I do." he said, giving Jodeus a grin, who leaned in, thinking how lucky he was to finally be able to see the one he was looking for, but the man continued, "Had her last night, not much thighs but good breasts. Worth the fifty she took from me. You can find her in the Dusty Broth in the morning and most often in the streets at night."

Jodeus coughed, picked up his case, and left at that, his face reddened.

'Vulgar!' He thought loudly. He never had anyone who spoke to him that way, never met anyone who did.

He pursed his lips and moved on to another stall. Everyone he asked shook their heads and went on with what they were doing, giving him curious glances as he went on to ask another, but to no avail, no one seemed to know her. He even asked one if he was in the right place, but only received a snort as a response.

...

Taking a break, Jodeus sat beside the icky road in the inner town, his suitcase just beside him, looking lost and down. He sighed into his hands and glanced at his ring, which was dimming quite dangerously, adding up his fear even more. Thinking about how he could possibly find her in the sea of people, he curled into himself and recounted the places he had been.

"What should I do…" he whispered to himself.

He had searched for the Town's apothecary, who was only an old man complaining about his dying age and how the youth was wasting their young days snorting leaves (Jodeus had no idea what he was on about). He also looked for public physicians, who only kicked him out when he said wasn't a patient before heading to the private ones, only to find out that there were no private ones.

The townsfolk had no idea as well and gave him a map of the Uvite (so he was in the right place), which was simply called The Poor Gravel.

He snorted at that, thinking it was a joke but their expressions were serious and he felt like a pompous asshole. They thought he was an Azurite Tourist who got into the wrong station so they told him to get on a wagon to the station and find the concierge. He kept that in mind, not knowing what those words actually meant.

One thing he did notice was that this town was fairly small, and beyond the horizon was a gigantic fog and he could only see the mountains making an appearance ever so often behind it.

It only took him a few hours before exploring the whole town. There was no inn nor any place he could stay so he found himself here, on the side of the road, thinking about what the hell he should do next. The Alumnus had never told him which town or city she resided in, and he couldn't just explore the whole country, Brytos would've been dead by then. He felt his stomach growl.

With that reminder, he approached a baker's stall. Whiffing the fresh, hot pastry that made his mouth water. The baker noticed him and welcomed him with a bright grin.

"What're ya buyin' lad? Ya look like ye could use sum' bread," Jodeus stared dumbly at the man, he understood what he said but it was the first time he had heard this accent.

"Uh…that one," he pointed at a sugary pastry that had a hole in it.

"Ohohoho, g'ud eye 'eh? One of me' best!"

The baker scooped up one but Jodeus told him he'd like to have three. It has been a long day after all. He beamed at him and eagerly gave them. Jodeus opened his suitcase to get his bag of coins, only to realize that he had only Tanzanite coins. The man seemed to have read his situation.

"A tourist eh'? Shoulda' known. Shoulda' known." The baker nodded to himself and Jodeus feared he'd take the pastries away and possibly shoo him. But he didn't do such a thing and gave it to him with no charges. "Name's Grasium Malcus, please to be at yer service!"

"Jodeus Argyran Sirvellas S. Matellius The First at your service, and please, I can't take that." he pleaded, despite being hungry but the man pushed the pastry into his hands with a raised brow until Jodeus accepted.

The first bite had sent him wanting for more, it was sweet but not too much. And the filling was a taste he'd never had before, and believe him, he has had many. The baker simply beamed at him, clearly happy with this reaction. After finishing his second, he rummaged through his bag of coins and gave the baker a handful.

The baker looked at it curiously, examining the golden glint it had. "Ain't Azurite coins? Never seen 'em gold before. You do 'ave an odd name, you a royal?"

"They're Tanzanite ones, I don't know their value here but they're the only ones I have," he explained apologetically, not bothering to answer the question.

The baker's eyes bulged out, looking at him in disbelief, Jodeus wondered what the problem was until he realized that he was most likely the only Tanzanite to have been here in the last few decades. He tried to explain but the baker simply beamed at him again.

"M' grandfather's bes' man was a Tanzanite!" he said excitedly, "I used to 'ave pictures of me' grant's wedding. But sold 'em with me' bakery when I canna afford to live in te' city!"

The man continued, and Jodeus was very much happy to listen as he bit into his third pastry. Jodeus sympathized with the loss of the man's bakery and him being forced out of his own home after the war. Before he could ask about it, the man started talking about his own son, and then wiping his tears off with his apron.

"That 'eartless bastard! Worryin' the life outta me!" he cried.

"Told 'im to be back quickly with the deliveries, n' he never came back. Tol' the town what had happened but there was nothin' they could do! I want mi' boy back! Wish I coulda given him his favorite pastry before he had gone to enlist!"

Jodeus stroked the man's back as he wept loudly.

"I'm sure he misses you…" he said softly.

"O' bet he do' They don't feed 'em right in the army! Don't treat 'em right either I reckon!" he exclaimed loudly.

He sniffled in his apron, dabbing away the tears in his eyes and finally calming down into softer sobs.

Jodeus pulled away and gave him a polite smile, wanting to give him his handkerchief so he wouldn't have to use the apron but he had no clean ones to spare. All of his clothes needed a thorough cleaning, seeing as he'd been washing them with salt water, minus the suits he hadn't worn yet.

"But you, boy, don't you 'ave somewhere to be? 'Eard you were lookin' for someone."

"Oh that, yes," he remembered that he was stranded again, not knowing where to go. He sighed, looking down. "I'm looking for a healer, her name is Mera. but she's not in this town. I don't even know where I should start looking."

The baker nodded sympathetically and wondered for a second. "A healer eh? Not your typical physician?" he asked.

"I guess so…"

"If it's a woman then it must be a witch, not an enchantress. Goodness knows she won't be enchanting anyone at that age!" he snorted and said it as a matter of fact. Jodeus raised a brow at that. The baker explained further,

"Back n' the city, n' Capital Mountain, where I used t' live, t'was an ole' hag who gave free check-ups, n' when ya need healin' she'd give no charge, bless that lady, but being in the city means you pay n' pay. Last I 'eard, she was bankrupt just as t'was with mine," he said solemnly and continued.

"Never knew what happen' but there's one thing I'm sure of. That lady used to be a great enchantress n' most likely older than the whole country itself. 'eard her cursin' the lot who tried to muv 'er out 'er clinic!" Jodeus stood rigid at that.

'A healer who was old as the land itself, just like The Alumnus!'

"Are you sure, Sir Grasium?"

"Sir Grasium? But ye', do be warned tho', dem' city folks don' like outsiders, yah need an Identity Card to get in yah see, very expensive." he said.

"Money is tricky but, at least I know where to go now, thank you so much! And please, see those coins I gave you and have them exchanged for Uvite ones, they must have value, they are solid gold after all," he said enthusiastically before picking up his suitcase.

"Solid gold — wait— If yer heading to the city, if you see mah boy, tell 'em I miss 'em and he better write to me. Matthias Malcus 'is the name."

"I will! And thank you so much!"

"Wait!" Grasiam called out again and Jodeus halted to a stop.

"Yah need fud, don' yah? N' I reckon' yah don't know the place,"

Jodeus waited for Grasiam, who gave him a bag of bread and pastries, and explained to him which wagon to take to the city, and if he doesn't have money, he could just haggle with the gold he had, or walk but that would take time and he better save up the food as the journey to capital is as tiring as living there.

He listened intently to every word, confused at the terms of Aria Station and Aria Concierge, and to get his Identity Card, he needed a lot of requirements like a Birth Certificate and blood type. What would they need his blood for?

Knowing he won't be able to complete any of these, he'd have to just sneak in somehow. He was glad that he had someone who had been to the city to explain everything he needed to know.

Jodeus said his goodbye, waving, and headed for the fog.

According to Grasiam, the Capital Mountain of Uvite was on the mountains and it was heavily guarded at all times. Not that it would've been easy without the security anyway; the outskirts of the city was full of dangerous predators (Jodeus remembers the centipede).

And other than that, the people were the main thing he needed to watch out for.