Chapter 11
"So you're going to the Pot again?" Alaeus asked him as they sat down in the kitchen for some breakfast. Ienzo nodded between a mouthful of toast and a sip of his coffee.
"But Master Ansem had asked if we couldn't get some fish bowls yesterday. You came back so late with Braig, he had tried to visit you in the library. I fear we first have to buy some and then you can go to see him." Ienzo gulped hard and threw him an irritated glance.
"And why haven't you bought the bowls yesterday?" Alaeus stopped in his motion to took a sip from his coffee.
"Erm," Ienzo could see the pallid light pink around his big friends' ears. "This little excuse for Master Ansem, you know with the tank and why it shattered... rose a little idea in me... and I got a little carried away..."
"Which means you've spent the hole day in one position, without moving, lost in thought over one mathematical question," Ienzo added helpfully. And the faint pink grew a little more visible. "And you've been calculating what?"
"I came to the solution that the claws of Myde have a hardness from 8,34 Moos. Plus, minus 0.045." Ienzo knew better than to reply on this.
Radiant Garden was a marvellous town. The glittering pillars of silver fragments, which gave the town its name, were definitely an eye catcher. Ienzo and Alaeus strode over the market place in search for a pet shop. With a hint of nostalgia his gaze wandered over the steps he once used to sit and read. The steps on which he had caught Master Ansem's eye. He lost himself in memories. There was so much and yet it has been a comparable boring live. Of course, his childhood had been hard and nobody said that being a student of Ansem the Wise was a walk in the park. But there had never been a sudden death in his environment or a crime. He never had to fight with his fists, always with his mind. Aside from some really cheerful New Years Eves and Birthdays there was not more alcohol involved than necessary to make him drunk. And he had never been in love. It hasn't just been necessary and it has just never happened. But now it meant the world for him.
"I'm ready. Let's get back to the castle," Alaeus appeared behind him with a huge bundle on his shoulders. Ienzo knew that his 'help' was more of a psychological assistance than actual help. Ienzo draw his eyes from the steps and followed his friend. Alaeus handed him one small round fish bowl, which he had to carry up to the Bastion.
"I heard some rumours from the townspeople."
"What kind of rumours," Ienzo asked.
"There is a water ghost in the river, which wants to avenge the caught fish. A huge blue fish with glittering fins." Ienzo chewed on his lower lip.
"Damn."
"Yeah, he obviously swam down the river. But you can't resent it. After the tank and in this small lake it's just naturally."
"I know. But he should knew better to be careful. He was the one that asked to stay hidden."
"Perhaps you should talk to him. Or to Master Ansem." Ienzo sighed. It really depressed him to hide this secret from his respected teacher. There was a time in his live in which he just had learned to impress Ansem. But he had grown up and had found his own goals. And he found out to doubt on Ansem's subjects for research.
As Ienzo left the last green branches behind he was mildly surprised that the rock he had fallen asleep on yesterday was empty. Clueless he walked to the green water, the tiny white stones crunching under his feet. He waited for a minute then he called the name of the merman in a quiet shout. The merman came to the surface two or three meters away from him, but his head just plopped out half of the water, though Ienzo could see him smile.
"What-" he began but was cut as Myde rose his pointing finger to tell him to wait. Myde frowned in deep concentration.
"Ah, now it's ok," he finally said and swam towards the shallow area of the little fount lake.
"What was that about?" Ienzo asked curiously.
"I have to prepare my lungs before I take the first breath. I need to get rid of the water in them." Ienzo sat down and tried to look into the merman with some kind of x-rays in his eyes. The scholar in him was thrilled to explore the inner anatomy of this hybrid creature between fish and human.
"Something wrong? You look like you wanna eat me. Not that I would be afraid," Myde grinned teasingly at him and Ienzo, sure he had been caught, turned his head away to hide his pink cheeks.
"By the way you've been seen". Myde just rose his brows in a silent question, so Ienzo continued. "The townspeople tell that a water ghost is housing in the river. A huge blue fish, which glitters in the moonlight." Ienzo was sure it wasn't possible but Myde's pale brows rose something further until they nearly hit the beginning of his hair.
"Oh," was all he said. Ienzo shook his head. He was not the one to lecture Myde. He didn't know how fast he was on the land, but after he saw how easy he could lift himself up on a book shelve he was sure the merman could watch out for himself.
"I would like to move with you to the sea side," Ienzo whispered after some minutes.
"Oh, really? Because you don't have to."
"You know with all those heart connection thing I can tell if you lie to me. And by the way you're an awful liar." Myde laughed lightly at this.
"Do the fishers here also hunt with nets?"
"Yes, they do. But only in bigger rivers or in the sea. Why do you ask?" thoughtful silence greeted him.
"Do you have a personal nightmare?" Ienzo had to thought at this. There was one. Not having something to read. To loose Alaeus or Master Ansem. But Myde didn't let him time to answer.
"The fisher in Atlantica used to hunt with enormous big nets. They place it somewhere in the ocean and after some days they come back to see what got caught in them. And sometimes they forget them. Just leave them where they are. If it are thick ones, out of strong rope, the Palace Guard sends some people out to collect them. But the humans in my home have also very light nets, invisible until you're direct in front of them." Myde looked up from where he had placed himself in the shallow water.
"When... I was a little younger I managed to get myself got caught in one of those invisible cages. I don't know if it was luck that it was one net that has obviously been forgotten. I once saw dolphins and sharks and other bigger fish caught in them. It is a slow and cruel death. Not getting enough air or starving.
First I didn't notice something was wrong, but then I slowed down. And suddenly I couldn't use my arms. And that was the whole problem. Otherwise I could've cut myself free. But with my hands deprived of their freedom I panicked and wriggled just deeper into the net until I couldn't move a bit. And as I tried again to free myself I could suddenly see the ropes of the net, because it had cut my skin and sucked out my blood. I hung there in the middle of the ocean for two days until my brother found me.
This feeling, being caught and every movements cuts you deeper, deprives more blood and pain and this utter helplessness. That's my personal nightmare.
It's not that bad here. But after this ... tank with the invisible walls... and all those shores here around me. I just want to swim," and the pleading look that tried to force him to understand with every part of his being, got right into Ienzo's soul, making his stomach twitching and nearly causing tears into his eyes. He took Myde's hand and pressed it right on his heart.
"I'm not angry with you. I'm sorry if I appeared so. I'm just worried about you. So worried. Please don't be upset." Myde reached up and hugged him. His body was very cold from the clear water, but Ienzo didn't mind.
"You said you got yourself in this net as you were younger. I wonder how old are you actually?," Ienzo asked suddenly, causing Myde to lean back with a puzzled face. And with the pace of a turning fish he changed topic.
"Tell me about your companions back in the castle." Ienzo looked at him as if he had grown a second head, but Myde just smiled at him with his white teeth shining in the sun light (if he hold his teeth together Ienzo hadn't to think about the horrible pointyness of them).
"Well," he sighed, "there's Alaeus, you know him already. He and I had to share a bed in the orphanage since I could remember."
"Why've you been in an orphanage?" Ienzo shrugged at this.
"I've also asked this questions. The sisters who care for the children won't tell them bad lies about their parents just out of town to save the world or something like that. My parents just died in an accident. They showed me an article out of a newspaper, which says that a gas main in a house had exploded and killed all the inhabitants except for baby in the age of 9 months. And since I had no other relatives the sisters and the pater took me. Alaeus' mother died in child bed fever. And since there's never been a father he also came in the orphanage. There aren't always hyper sad and heartbreaking stories behind. Things just happen."
"I'm sorry anyway."
"I know. Thanks."
"And Alaeus, we've stopped there."
"Ah, yes. You know all the pupils under Master Ansem are great scholars. We've all specialized on one theme. There's no other place in this world where you can find more concentrated wisdom than here.
And Alaeus is something like human computer, just much faster. You're talking to him and suddenly he fells rigid and silent for 5 minutes and then he says '3,14' and you think 'ok, now it has gotten him'. But then I read further in my book and asked myself 'hm, what's the solution of this equation?' And here we go. Yes?" Ienzo asked at Myde's heavily knitted eyebrows.
"What's a computer?" The purple haired human had to blink at this. How the hell should he explain it to the merman.
"Let's just agree that it is a box, which can calculate much faster and accurate than a human."
"Except Alaeus."
"Except Alaeus," Ienzo agreed.
"Then there is Even. He's the oldest of us. Something over 30. he's more a college than an actual student for Master Ansem. He has specialized on chemistry. He's nice and all, but you don't see him much, because he prefers his own lab in the basement. His hair is always messy and stuck out in every thinkable way. It is very pale, nearly white. And we joke sometimes that it is because he never got any sunlight and has already bleached. He would've starved down there if Master Ansem wouldn't drag him up from time to time to eat. Normally he's a little chilly, even frosty. But it's not rude, he's just not interested in organic beings with more than one differentiated cell type. And if you give him the chance to watch one of your experiments he gets this glitter in his eyes. As if you would show a little child a sparkling thing."
"He sounds nice."
"Not all time. If there's something he can't solve he's a little ... annoying. And then he can get very fanatic about it. He's the one I would believe he would test you as a mere fish in every possible way."
"That, on the other hand, doesn't sound nice."
"Yeah, but he would respect the fact that I found you. So the honour of the first cut would be mine." Ienzo had to laugh at the disturbed face of Myde.
"Well, the second, if we go after the age, is Dilan. Dilan's really cool. He has specialized in biology and his last work was about the behaviour of really big and dangerous animals. He studied them in wild nature and the scares he got on his back are enormous. But I think the biests had sometimes more fear because of him then he of them. He has really big sideburns."
"It seems as if you really appreciate him."
"You know, Dilan's just strong. And you can relie on him. And if you are not so well he will be one of your friends who will put you in bed and walk down all the way into the kitchen to fetch you some warm milk. But he's also always so... aloof. As if you could never reach him."
"Yeah, I know that kind of guy."
"Your brother?" Ienzo asked, but Myde shook his head.
"My father. He's one of the three generals in the Guard. But I'll tell you later. Go on. Who was the one who carried you home yesterday?"
"That was Braig. Braig's just crazy, he has very pointy ears. If Dilan is so atop Braig can reach him just one step while looking like a complete fool. Imagine this scene: Dilan's just about to tell us something about his last work and we all sit there and listen and think about how cool, manly and awesome that guy is. And then Braig gets up and pulls Dilan's ponytail, he has great brown hair, all long and smooth, and says 'Have you stolen those from one of your big bad buddys or do you just have the unluck-' he never gets further than this, because Dilan's always trying to hit him with something. Braig stucks his tongue out and Dilan, who you thought a minute ago how great he is, chases him down the hallway screaming bloody murder."
"Haven't you said there are just geniuses in this school?"
"It's no school per se. But Braig is a genius. He's a mad technician. He can build the most complicated machine you can imagine. Or there is a harvester, for example, which he had never seen before. And just one little screw in it is not on its right place. And Braig hast just to look for about 5 seconds at this thing and then punches it just on the right place for the screw to jump back on its own, and everything is all right again. It is just that he sees the things in the things. He sometimes says he has magic eyes and how horrible it would be for him to loose just one of his precious eyes."
"And why's he crazy?"
"That's difficult to explain. He has a mad sense in humour and a thing for weapons. And there's no way you can trust him, because he's so incalculable."
"Were that all?"
"No, there's still Xehanort." Myde frowned.
"You mean the one with the yellow eyes," his voice had lowered.
"Yeah, but what did you mean with his smell?" But Myde just waved this question casually away.
"Doesn't matter know. Tell me about him."
"Well. He's the latest of us pupils. And he is no pupil at all. He just appeared on our doorstep and asked for advice, because he had heart that Ansem is the wisest person in this world. He has no memory but a remarkable amount of knowledge. And currently Master Ansem is training with him to get his memories back."
"And what have you specialized in?"
"Who? Me?" Ienzo pointed at himself. Myde just rolled his eyes.
"No, the guy behind you of course!" Ienzo had to resist the urge to turn around.
"I've specialized in knowledge?"
"Knowledge? You mean wisdom?"
"No, cause wisdom comes with the time and out of what you do with your knowledge. And before wisdom there comes knowledge. So I try and learn everything I can get to now as much as possible."
"Out of books?"
"Out of books," he confirmed.
"Why?" Myde looked puzzled of course he had also felt the need to just know something. But his curiosity had ended with his goal fulfilled.
"Because I think they are the most mighty and dangerous things that exist."
"Why mighty?"
"Because books in fluent the human mind. A book can create your sight of the world and other people. A book can get you believing in things. A book can make you doing things. And objects, which work with your mind are always the most hazardous ones. Take the books of the religions for example. Thousand of people following the rules of one book." Myde made a puzzled face.
"What's religion?" Why has the merman always asking more question which he wasn't able to explain in one sentence.
"Religion? You don't know what religion is?"
"I have no clue."
"Maybe you know it under another word. It's the believe in a higher person or a amount of some. They're probably called gods."
"A higher person. As perhaps the king?"
"No not a king. A not physically person with great power."
"A ghost? But we just know that ghosts exist."
"No, something with a all-embracing mind," Ienzo was getting annoyed and Myde more confused. "Isn't there anything your folk believes in?"
Myde shrugged nonchalantly. "We believe in our own strength, but we also just know that we're strong."
"There's no personification of that strength. Or a higher spirit which replaced the music. No all-mighty father who created the world??" Myde laughed at the obvious desperate of Ienzo. He couldn't really tell why the scholar was so excited.
"Why should we have something like this?"
"To explain yourself how the world was created for example?" Now Myde laughed loudly, Ienzo saw the pointy teeth shimmering in the light.
"But we don't know everything from the world, so why should we accroach to know how. And an all-mighty person who created everything sounds like a very cheap excuse to me." Ienzo stared silently on the green water. A strange folk. With no religion. Perhaps it was true what his books said? That the Folk under The Sea had no souls, so they try to drown the humans, who have one, to get one for themselves. Hadn't he also read that the proof of existence of a soul was the existence of religion?
He turned his gaze to Myde. The merman grinned at him with a mischievous spark in his eyes. He was obvious highly amused over his discomposure. Ienzo just couldn't believe that Myde didn't have a soul. He had a image in a mirror. He had a shadow. And he laughed. All signs for the existence of a soul. But what was it then Master Ansem and Xehanort always had with their hearts? Was the heart the same as the soul?
Or perhaps Myde was just the purest and most innocent person in all worlds.
"What are thinking?"
"Nothing..." his head hurt and he felt hot. It was as if the feelings from his heart wouldn't go hand in hand with the thoughts of his mind. Myde took his hand and pulled him again on his stomach.
"Do you also believe in a... god? Or what else you've called it."
"No. I believe in my knowledge. And in my own ability to separate fiction from truth."
"But all your books said we, I mean mermen, are myths."
"Yeah. I know. That was... confusing."
"I bet every time you see me you have to reassure yourself that you don't dream, right?" Now it was Ienzo who laughed at this.
"Yes, but out of different reasons."
My new semestre has started and stress is all over me. I have to redo some exams and my new shedule comes directly from hell. plus that I realized that my mum's calculation about my monthly amount of money's not nearly enough for me to survive! well, she thinks that it is perfectly fine with the small amount of money she pays me .
well, enough emo-ing for today. Time for some good news!
ME HAS SOME GODLFISH!
Yay, I thought about getting me a pet (and since there aren't allowed any animals here in my dorm that might cause allergys, fish are the only option), but the buzzing noise from an average tank keeps me up all night. so I had to think of a solution. and the solution are goldfish. they are coldwater fish, who can breath with their guts
Their names are Myde and Zexion. Don't ask, I'm not responsible for the names. But the characters fit very well. Zexy-fish is nearly a genius (for a goldfish) and Myde is just a dork -.- seriously, I never thought goldfish can be that dumb!
EDIT: Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry! I forgot to put that chapter here into the story, though it's been uploaded for nearly a month now!
