Chapter 10
Once we arrived in Porth Llaffan, we saw that something was happening that we were a bit perplexed about. A teenage girl with red hair in dual pigtails on the back of her head and wearing a leather dress and having a necklace with seashells on it. She looked to be doing a small prayer in the waters that made me confused. "Oh great Lleviathan... we humbly ask you to give us your blessing..." the girl said, me seeing something in the distance. A giant purple tail splashing the water and a whole slew of fish being sent to the shore! Enough to get at least 10 barrels full!
"Praise mighty Lleviathan!" the citizens exclaimed at that, the girl looking a bit troubled at that as she went through the crowds and towards a shack to the west.
"That girl looked awfully conflicted after doing that ritual thingy... and why the hell are these citizens worshiping a fucking fish? Do they not know the beauty of sissy Celestria or papa Zenus? Those are who they should be worshiping, not some overgrown sea creature!" Stella complained, actually swearing in frustration.
"You seem a little annoyed at that, Stella... is this a pet peeve of yours? People worshiping anything other than the Almighty and the goddess?" Ina asked her.
"You have no idea, little dancer girl," Stella groaned as she turned back into her little ball form and sat on top of my head as we proceeded to the girl's house, where we were sure to ask her some questions.
When we did so, we happened to have been stopped by a taller man with a handlebar mustache, wearing a blue shirt, and yellow overalls. "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" the man asked.
"Sorry, we don't mean to intrude mister. We just wish to speak with the red-haired girl... we want to know some information about what just happened in the town," I said to him politely.
"Red-haired girl? You mean Jona? She's currently resting," he said, obviously lying.
"Sorry, but I don't like being lied to, mister. Your mustache twitched when you said that, but not when you spoke before. Now I suggest you speak truthfully in the presence of a Celestrian," I said to him, making him look at me with confusion before he started to laugh out loud.
"You seriously want to try and fool me with a story as unbelievable as that?! AHAHAHA!" he erupted in laughter, me grabbing onto his arms and him looking surprised before he gasped at the sudden appearance of Stella on my head. "What is that thing on your head?" he asked me.
"Thing? You're calling me a THING?! You obviously haven't seen a fairy before, have you?" Stella exclaimed as she flew off my head and turned into her normal form in front of him, shocking the man greatly at that.
"Oh my! Y-You really aren't joking, then... you really are a Celestrian!" he gasped.
"Yes. Now please, tell me where Jona is?" I asked him.
"Fine, I'll tell you. She's in her room right now," he said, me immediately moving past him with my group and him looking surprised when Stella disappeared from his vision. "Was that a magic trick?..." he asked.
"No, it wasn't. People lose their sight of the spiritual realm the moment they lose physical contact with me," I said to him as I then knocked on Jona's door and wondered how she was doing.
"Who's there?" Jona asked.
"Some visiting adventurers. We want to ask you about what had happened on the town shores just now," I said to her.
"Oh? Come in, then, quickly!" she said as she opened the door and we entered her room, seeing that it had a lot of fish-based items in it, including large harpoons, fishing lures, a large net being a makeshift hammock, and a picture of a man holding a little version of her.
"You... seem to have a fascination with fishing, huh?" Harley gawked at the stuff on the walls while I was more pressed in wondering who the man was, as it was not at all the same as the guy we had seen before.
"It's how we live in Porth Llaffan. We're a fishing village and we provide fish for our trade," Jona explained as I looked at her picture.
"Questions... 3 in fact. First off, what was that ritual about that you did in the middle of town? Second, what is the Lleviathan and how are you able to communicate with it? And Third, this picture has a different man than the one you're living with... which is your father?" I asked her all at once.
"I kind of hoped you wouldn't ask me the first two questions... you saw that scene, did you? The 'ritual'?" Jona asked, using air quotes around the word ritual.
"Yes, we did... but why the quotes?" I asked.
"Okay... I'll explain... not long ago, roughly four days ago, my father disappeared and he hasn't been found anywhere. But in the process, I went to the beach to pray after I learned this and, out of nowhere, the mighty Lleviathan that is talked about in legends among fishermen provided our entire town with fish... ever since, people have become extremely lazy in their fishing and rely solely on me to ask Lleviathan to give us fish... and that man that I live with? He's the town's mayor and he told me to keep the act going and he would house me... as for what Lleviathan is, he's a mighty whale of gigantic proportions and he is talked of in myths and legends. And as for the final question, my father is the one in the picture and he's the one who disappeared... the mayor is not my father, nor do I ever want to consider him as such," Jona said, my disgust plain as day as she explained her tale.
"This mayor sounds like an asshole. He's taking advantage of you so the village can get free fish! And he's doing this to you after you discover your father has gone missing?! That's repulsive!" I growled at that.
"I know... it's repulsive... but I don't have a choice... no one else in the town can house me and my father's house was his boat, which also disappeared with him... I was just lucky I was out fishing in a different boat when he went missing..." Jona said with sadness.
"Trust me, he sounds like bad news. You don't need to live with a man like this," Ina frowned at her, making Jona smile at her.
"How old are you?" Jona asked her.
"12. How old are you?" Ina smiled back.
"12... where do you come from?" Jona smiled.
"Gleeba. Same with my cousin Carl here and my sister Harley. We're traveling with Mariana and Stella the fairy to find divine fruits called Fyggs that fell from the Observatory. Do you know where we may find a fruit like that?" Ina asked.
"Yeah, I overheard that argument you had with him... anyways, I don't know where a Fygg could be... but I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have something to do with Lleviathan's sudden urge to help us... you said that fruit is divine? It may have given the monster of the deep a change of heart," Jona smiled, me looking a bit perplexed.
"That sounds like the exact opposite of what happened to Abbot Jack at the tower," Harley frowned, that immediately getting Jona's attention.
I then took out the Fygg from my bag and showed it to her. "This is the fruit that we're trying to find. There are 7 of them that fell in total. And in case you're confused, the Abbot at the Abbey ended up eating this Fygg and then went mad. When we confronted him at the top of the Tower of Trades, he turned into a monster with spears on his knuckles, demon horns, and a long tail with a stinger on it. No matter who the person is and no matter what the creature, these Fyggs are bad news unless you're a Celestrian like myself," I explained to her.
"Oh my... wait... I think I have an idea!" Jona gawked.
"What is it?" Carl smiled.
"I... I don't know why I think this, but I think that someone may have ate that Fygg while on the seas and turned into a monster resembling Lleviathan! And that person must like me because he only delivers us fish when I pray at the shores... I have a feeling that, if we try and summon Lleviathan at Cuddiedig Cliff to the west, we may be able to find that Fygg of yours if I summon Lleviathan there! It may even tell us if it knows anything about my father's whereabouts!" Jona gawked with giant sparkles in her eyes.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's head off!" I smiled as I was about to walk out the door, but Jona stopped me before I could.
"Not now. The Mayor Bryce wouldn't like it if I headed off for the cliff without telling him first. And even then, he never lets me venture outside of the village ever since I became the supplier of fish..." Jona said with a sigh.
"Is that all? Watch me work," Carl smiled as he walked out of Jona's room and looked at the mayor in question, him looking to be eating some soup on the other side of the house... and it had fish in it. Of course. "Excuse me, mister mayor?" Carl smiled, getting his attention while his mouth was full.
"Yes what is-" he was about to say after he swallowed before Carl then chanted a spell that I smirked at.
"Sleepius Creepius!" he shouted as he waved his wand and shot the beam at the mayor, making him immediately fall into a deep slumber.
"Sleeping spell, huh? Nice," Jona smirked at that. "Let's go before he wakes up. But I'll need to borrow this from him..." Jona smirked as she stole a key off of him and we then proceeded outside and towards the gate in question. After opening it, I smiled at how Jona was ahead of us, yet she held onto Ina's hand the whole time. And upon doing so, she looked at Stella with a smile. "I'm guessing this is your fairy friend you mentioned?" she asked.
"That's me, Stella of the Starflight Express... wait..." she frowned as she gasped at Jona's nails while we proceeded forward. "Honey, your nails are all grimy and riddled with dirt! You could catch a fungus if you don't take good enough care of them! After we've dealt with Lleviathan, I'm giving you a full-on manicure, my treat," Stella smirked at her, me face palming at her antics. She really wanted to be a nail artist I guessed.