I'll admit, this one took a really long time to start. On the upside, I added two more chapters to my other fic after a long time frame of inaction. But now we're getting back to the near end of the Wind Orb Saga. So let's get to reviewer replies first.
Alka M.C: I managed to be a lot more precise on my last chapter (I was a lot more awake that day but for sure I'll have a bunch I'll miss again because of exhaustion). But I fixed the ones that passed by me and now we're good. I was also wondering what you were going to think of the ship but it was really obvious by chapter 7 I think. And you were right. Things are going to be nuts and I do hope that you'll enjoy these types of nuts.
Kaiban: A bunch of things are going to happen but my oh my are you looking really far ahead. I will try to go for the other books after finishing book one but wow, book one's really long. In game, it took around five years to create and I think I might take a while too. Rest assured we will get there and…as for the end of book one…I have plans for that and I discussed it with a friend of mine. She became really upset at me. And that's as much as I'll give you.
As an overall note, did you guys really think I'd write incest for no apparent reason besides shock value? Didn't the incest seem left field? But maybe I'm just a really good trickster. Or maybe my hints weren't good enough. Either way, let's get a move on and see what happened to our hero. Maybe hero isn't the right word anymore. Let's see what's happened to our protagonist and her object of…something.
Once Found
I should have seen it from the very moment I talked to Tomoe. Everything was going too smoothly and whenever there was a crinkle in my plan, Tomoe would be the one who'd smooth it out unintentionally.
At least that was what I thought.
The first time we met, he must have immediately known that I wasn't his sister. He even lied and said that we hadn't known each other for long. That time there were no hints. Tomoe is a very good actor.
But that was no excuse for being duped on the boat. Tomoe showed me different ways to knock someone out without asking questions. Then when I tried knocking him out with that chop to his neck, he hesitated before falling down. He pretended to faint. He wanted my plan to work. He even helped me knock out Ennosoke. There was no way I could have thrown him so far across the deck from where I was standing below. Then there was that time when he kept Hideyoshi from stopping "Yumiko" when I pretended that I wanted to chase after Heiji while they were stuck in the brig. At the infirmary too; Tomoe asked Hideyoshi about the Village's scrolls near enough for me to hear his answer.
Tomoe must have recognized me. He knew that I wanted revenge on the ninjas. But why is he doing this? He even put his own sister in danger. What is he hoping to gain?
Whatever it is, he was willing to throw his friends and his sister under the boat for it. Crafty bastard.
"I need to tread carefully." I say out loud, pushing away another rock. Lib, Drakath and I have been stuck under the rubble for a while now. I'm not sure how long it's been. It had to have been a couple of hours at the least. I could've checked on my phone but it wasn't working for some reason. The screen was messed up and when I tried dialing, it'd crash on me. It wasn't wet or damaged and knowing Alison, she must have made it magically. It's probably because of the Wind Orb. The Orb's magic must be messing with the phone's signal.
"We could have avoided this if you had just looked at her papers closer like I told you to." Libérta sticks his tongue out at me as he lounges on one of the larger rocks that I had dislodged.
"Shut up, Lib," I say, glowering as I move another rock to make a pathway out. "You'll wake him up." I nod over to Drakath.
Princey was still snoozing on his side facing the corner of our cavern with the Orb sitting beside him. It's probably been hours since we've been stuck down here but he still hasn't stirred. He must be exhausted.
I wanted to get a start on getting us out so I gently laid him down by the wall and wrapped my cape around him in addition to his own to make sure he wouldn't get sick. Drakath seemed to be unconsciously fine with it and buried his nose into the cloth. Along with that, I placed the Orb closer to him. The Orb seemed to be emanating a little bit of heat so I thought that it would help out a bit too.
"I think it's better if he stays asleep," I say, choking back a yawn. "I'm sure he'd want to start a fight the moment he gets up." I rub my eyes, trying to keep them open. My eyelids feel heavy and so does my head.
"Hey, Butterbrain? Are you tired or something?" Lib asks, flying next to me. I shake my head both to answer his question and keep myself alert.
"Of course not. How can I be? The Orb's shining too bright for me to fall asleep," I get ahold of another boulder, tugging on it slightly to test if I could dislodge it safely. "But it's helping me see clearly." I say before my vision goes black for a split second. My head falls forward and I just manage to catch myself before my skull crashes into the boulder.
"That's assuring." Lib drawls, taking my forearm into his jaws and tugging it away from the rock.
"I'm fine," I shake him off, trying to keep my vision focused. "I don't know what's wrong with the orb but we have to get out of here at the very least."
"How about I just transform into an adult?" Lib suggests.
"I like my bones not powdered into a fine dust thank you very much…but we might have to consider that." I tsk as I remove another rock from the wall. There was hardly any room left to put them now and it looked like I hadn't made much progress at all.
I rub my eyes again and slap my cheeks lightly to keep my eyes open. My movements were getting sluggish and clumsier and I didn't notice when I placed the rock on Lib's tail. Hissing, he pulls his tail out from under the rock and chomps down on my hand. I blink twice slowly at his teeth sinking into my skin before staring back at Lib, somewhat dazed.
"You really are out of it," Lib releases my hand, rolling his eyes and his scales shimmer briefly. "You should stop before you make the wall collapse on us."
"I said that I'm fi-" I clench my teeth together to keep from yawning. "Fine. Just fi-" My voice dies out and I lurch forward. Lib sprays me with a glob of water and even then, I collapsed and didn't wake.
Once Found: Side of A
"Come on, Eli," Alison touches Eli's arm as he looks across the sea to the burning town of Osprey. "Get me my lil sis back."
"I'm not sure. Perhaps we should talk." Eli wracks his brain for something that didn't make him feel like having a fit.
"Don't think. Feel." Alison smiles and I gulp. It didn't sound like she was using those words correctly. Rather, they sounded hateful.
"Right," Eli nods and his hesitation disappears. He glares at the home of the pirates and raises his arm. "Fire!"
The mages from our ship and the other ships see and hear his signal. They launch their attack together and a gust of cold wind rushes across the water towards Osprey, freezing everything in its wake in a bright flash of blue light.
On their own, each mage was formidable but together they were able to freeze the entire coast in front of them. Stretching from one end of the beach to the other, Osprey and its surrounding waters had frozen solid.
Ships became stuck in the thick ice or were completely frozen themselves and the pirates, caught completely off guard, started firing into our fleet of ships. Some of the mages were still winded by the huge amount of mana they had to use for their collected effort but the backup mages did their best to deflect the cannonballs.
Some made it through and ram through the hulls of our borrowed ships. One hit ours but it hardly mattered. It created one hole that the others were already starting to repair.
"They're all trapped!" A rowdy rogue whoops by the rail as Eli commands the boats to sail forward. The others cheer as well, ready to capture the pirate cove and find out what happened to Ty. At least, I hope they just capture the cove. By the looks of things, the others were ready to split the island in half for what the Pirates and Ninjas did.
But was it really the Pirates and Ninjas? Something doesn't feel right…My head really hurts too.
I tear at my hair, trying to think clearly. I wasn't as excited as the others but ever since we started to make up a plan to rescue Ty, I wasn't able to walk in a straight line let alone think rationally. My brain's a scrambled mess and I don't understand what's going on. I'm worried about Ty, worried about Alison suddenly getting strange…well, stranger and everyone else is acting way too out of control.
"Eli, sir!" One of the guardians from the lookout above us yells. "More pirate ships are coming this way!" From around the corner of the island, seven larger ships sailed out. All were much more elaborate and, judging by the number of cannons peeking out of their gun decks, much more armed.
"Ready the cannons and be on your guard. The pirates might board our ships. Tell the others to keep the other ships frozen," Eli commands one of the guardians and glances at Alison who hadn't stopped smiling. "All we need to do is stall."
"Ash," Alison walks over and touches my shoulder. "How about you and me go for a private ride? I think you need some time to relax anyways." She smiles, motioning over to some other guardians preparing a smaller boat for us.
"What? But we're in the middle of a naval battle. It's too dangerous!" I shake my head, wincing from another sudden jolt of pain.
"It's all part of the plan and also-" She leans closer to whisper. "- I need to talk to you privately." Before I could ask why, she turns her back on me and heads towards the smaller boat, expecting me to follow after.
I take quivering steps after her as the ship rocked, hardly aware of the shouting around me. I didn't even notice when I tumble into the small dinghy reserved for Alison. I curl up in the bottom, trying to breathe. Before Alison hops into the boat with me, a guardian hands her a jingling bag and she thanks him as he looks on in a daze.
My vision starts to get blurry again so I close them and try to rub my dizziness away. I hardly feel the boat drop down to the surface of the water. I could hardly even hear the cannons go off even though they were so close. What's wrong with me?
"Hang in there, Ash," I vaguely hear Alison tell me. "Once we're out a little more, I'll fix you up."
A dull ringing fills my ears and for the moment, I gave up on trying to think. Alison had taken the paddles and I think she was rowing us towards the frozen shoreline. I'm pretty sure that doing that was extremely dangerous but then again, I was extremely not feeling so good.
"Ash," Alison pulls my limp body up into a sitting position. Cold metal is pressed up against my slack lips and something solid falls into my mouth. Alison pinches my nose and makes me swallow.
A sharp stab of clarity hits my brain and brings me out of my blurred daze, gasping for air.
"Alison, what just happened? Why are we attacking? We should ask them about Ty! We have to make sure we aren't making a mistake! How do we know it was Ty that wrote the note? If she did, why would her captors let the hawk go so easily? Where is the hawk? Where did Ty get a hawk from? Why is everyone being so insanely mad? They aren't like this and..and…" I trail off, ending my string of questions. "Alison, what's happening? Did you do something?"
"I just gave everyone a push is all. I'd never make them do what they didn't want to." Alison says as she stood over me. The bracelets dangling around her wrists jangle and click against each other as she smiles sheepishly. "They're doing what they want. Just without that pesky thinking part."
"What?"
"Sit for a while, Ash. You seem a bit confused so talk to me for a bit." She says, taking a seat and smoothing out her dress.
"But we're sitting in the middle of a battle!" I exclaim, trying to figure out how she was being so calm. From living with her for the past while, I figure it might just be her personality. Thinking back, she never really did take the wars we had seriously. Wait a second, did she take anything seriously?
"Forget about it for a second," She smiles brightly, ignoring the cannonball that just hit the water right beside the dinghy, making it lurch to the side. "I have to get some things ready anyways. Help me pass the time."
She fishes around in her bag eagerly for a jar of glowing blue star shaped rocks. She opens the lid, reaches in for a handful and stuffs the things into her mouth. She crunches on them for a few seconds before swallowing.
"What was that?" I asked, pointing at the jar.
"It's something to help energize me," She picks one of the stars out of the jar and offers it to me. "One is enough to keep you awake for about three days straight but after that, you'll need to spend some time in bed and not move."
"Uh…no thank you," I politely decline her offer. "But didn't you just eat twenty? Are you going to be okay?"
"In a moment," She coughs into her hand as she puts the jar away. "Unlike Ty, I can't go on for days without sleeping or eating but I am stronger than her. Believe me. It's just that I'm only allowed small bursts," She sighs, annoyed at something and she rummages around her bag again.
This time she pulls out a dagger. It didn't look as special as any of the other weapons in their house. It was a short blade with a gold hilt. Probably wasn't even gold.
"Hold this for me," She carefully holds the blade and offers me the hilt. I take it from her tentatively, feeling how light it felt. On closer inspection, it had a symbol of a star inside a circle. In fact, the same symbol was on her bracelets. "As I was saying, I'm allowed short and small bursts of power. The pills help make it easier and so does the fact that the pirates and ninjas attacked first. That also means that Ty and I didn't break our promise."
"What promise is that?" I ask, feeling a bit uneasy.
"To never harm humans unless they attacked first." She nods solemnly.
"Does that mean you aren't human? Both you and Ty?" I try not to sound offensive. It's been in the back on my mind for a while. Ty was strong and she trained a lot with me but during the war, she wouldn't eat or sleep for days and she'd still be okay. Her wounds healed faster than normal and that one time that Bassault had attacked…that was insane.
Alison too. She can change her form but it didn't seem like she used magic for her transformations.
"Duh? Did you think that monster was human?" She said, referring to Ty. "Did you think I was human? No way did you think that."
"Then…is it okay if I ask what you guys are. It's kind of hard to tell." I explain, feeling embarrassed and intrusive. The boat rocks again from another bunch of cannonballs hitting the ice near us. I clamp down on my seat to keep balance and Alison just disregards the ice shards flying past her orange-haired head. Flakes got stuck in her strands of hair and she brushes them away.
"Sure. It's fine for me but you'll have to ask Ty for her answer later," She reaches into her bag and pulls out a handful of blue and green herbs that resembled mint then a bag of chopped gingersnaps. She blinks once and they suddenly get set aflame, burning bright yellow and sending a strange cool sent into the air around us. "Geez, this is gonna hurt later. I probably won't look so good soon."
"Ah, can't you just transform like you usually do?"
"Not after this. It takes power to keep me pretty," She looks down at her hands sadly. By now, the flame had disappeared and so had her cheerful expression. "I can't just spontaneously make myself look pretty. Would you like to know how I change my appearance?" She sat up straight again and her smile returned.
"Sure!" I answer quickly.
"Hmmm, maybe I should start all the way from the beginning." She muses as another loud crash echoes through the air. It came from one of our ships. It had been hit directly by a volley of cannonballs breaching its hull.
"Right. Long ago, probably more than a millennia, my home world had nothing." She begins and starts to reminisce. "There was just water. You couldn't even call it water. It was just an endless mass of liquid nothing. For a very long time, it was just nothing. It was all very boring now that I think about it but back then I didn't know what boring meant.
Then all of a sudden, something green formed from the liquid mass. It was probably the first form of a stem or leaf. It died immediately of course. There was no system to keep it alive and it was too primitive. But that wasn't the end. More things; living things began to pop up in the mass. It started with plants that died and turned into dirt. Real water appeared and stayed. Soon, so much of them appeared that it created the land and sea and soon everything in between. It came from all of that nothing. They had begun to change and created my world out of nowhere.
They just decided to become.
It came to the point where they turned into sea dwelling creatures that soon grew legs and crawled up to the land. One even grew hot and rose into the new sky to become the sun. It was so amazing, I remember seeing it all become colorful and so…full of life I guess.
But at that time, I didn't know what it was like to feel amazed so I wasn't.
Years later, hardly any of that stuff was left. They had all become something of worth. All except for that one little puddle of nothing. It hadn't changed at all. It was just there being worthless like it couldn't be bothered to change. Or maybe it was just uncreative." Alison crosses her arms and became irritated. "What a dumb thing it was. Lazy too but at that time I couldn't understand what lazy meant. It's embarrassing to think about even now."
I hear a crackle and see energy spark on Alison's shoulder but I brush it off as me seeing things because I hadn't blinked in a while.
I was trying to grasp Alison's story. It wasn't anything I had heard from rumors or books. This wasn't how Lore was created to my knowledge. A legend from another continent maybe?
"That puddle of nothing moved around aimlessly. Animals would step on it and it would be rained on by the weather but it wouldn't change. Then one day, it just stopped moving. It stayed motionless under a sapling. It sank into the ground and was sucked up by the baby tree's roots. It didn't die but was it ever really living?" Alison pauses for a moment before shaking her head and continuing.
"That doesn't really matter I guess. Anyways, skip forward a few hundred years and the tree is humungous and still hosting whatever that thing was. It was on a summer day that everything changed. A small human boy had come by wearing a straw hat and carrying a bucket of bugs he collected. He was a brunet, his skin was tanned from playing in the sun so much and his eyes were green and they sparkled at the tall tree.
Even where I come from there were humans. There are humans everywhere it's like a multi-universal law where every world has to have some form of humanoid creatures. I'm sorry. I always get off topic." Alison laughs and the air around her crackles with electricity.
"Uh…" I want to say something about it but if I do she might not tell me the entire story.
"Well that human boy wanted to climb up the tree. He set his bucket down and jumped for the lowest branch. The boy was a very good climber and swung his way all the way to the top. Once he reached the top, he yelled excitedly at the view of the entire forest and tried to pinpoint where his village was. He pointed with his finger in the westward direction and tried waving at them even though he knew that they were too far away to see.
Then there was a gust of wind.
It blew his straw hat off of his head and startled, he reached out to catch it. He stretched too far. He lost his grip on the branch and fell and fell.
He should have landed on feet first, perhaps bend his knees on landing to lessen the force of impact, roll and find help while adrenaline was flowing through his veins.
Of course, he was oh so very young, small and bumping into the branches as he fell didn't help him.
He landed on his side and his head bounced on the solid ground. I heard a crack and red saturated the soil for the next few days until it rained.
The boy lay there for a long time. I can't actually remember how long. I should know these things.
Eventually he sunk into the ground as well.
That was the trigger.
He was eaten by worms, bugs, scavengers and even the trees absorbed his nutrients from the soil he had sunk into.
That liquid nothing ate him too. It tasted everything from his head down to his toes and for the first time in its existence, it thought. It thought that it wanted to move; to go for a walk.
Something began to form inside the tree. Its trunk was stretching wider and wider. It as if it had become pregnant. It took a few years but eventually, the bark split down the middle and a boy slid out, covered in water and sap and nothing else.
It wasn't the boy from before. Far from it. But the boy lying outside of the tree was wearing him. It stole his form for its amusement.
The form wasn't perfect. His eyes weren't full of life and he was pale as a ghost. It was a poor copy of the boy who once lived.
The "boy" gingerly stood up. For the first time, the thing could truly see the grand vermillion forest of autumn. It could feel the now overgrown grass beneath its feet and the breeze on its assumed face.
And it felt a pull.
It took one step forward, wobbling a bit. Then it took another. And another in the direction of "home." It even picked up the bucket that the dead boy had left behind. It had to return it to his little brother after all. It had said it would return it.
At the time, I had no idea what "home" or "brother" meant but I just went with it.
The thing walked through the forest on the overgrown path towards the dead boy's home on the outskirts of an old farming village. In the back of its mind, the thing knew that it was very late coming back home. Years late.
By the time it reached a decrepit and rickety old shack, it had become nightfall.
It rapped on the door three times and a called out. The voice came out distorted and haunting. It was the first time the thing had ever made a sound.
The door swung open and a man in rags stares down at his long lost older brother. It had been twenty years since the last time he'd seen his brother running into the forest promising to come back by nightfall.
A few days after that, the whole village had scaled the forest and found nothing. It was speculated that his brother had been taken by demons. Months after, he and his parents were still mourning. A year later, his parents were still mourning and refused to get up from bed. Years later, his father fell into a river and didn't have the will to swim. His mother stood up soon after and went into the forest. This time the villagers were successful in their search. Half-successful at least. They found a body.
He had spent all of this time working and toiling and hating his disappeared brother. He despised how his brother had ruined everyone's life by disappearing and he despised himself because of how much he was willing to lay the blame on his brother.
But now, there he was standing outside of the door, naked, shaking and pale. He froze in spot, thinking that a demon had taken the appearance of his brother in order to invade his home.
Well, he was close in his reasoning.
The thing stares up at the man, confused but unfeeling. Then it felt its mouth open and words fall off of his tongue.
"I came back late. Sorry," the thing said slowly, pronouncing each syllable with care. "Friedrich, you can have your bucket back now." The thing held out the bucket in its hands.
Overcome with emotion, Friedrich could contain himself no longer. He threw his arms around the thing that ate his dead brother and cried for what seemed like a lifetime.
At that moment, the thing became a him. It began to feel warmth and water dripped out of his new eyes. It may have been the dead Gregory's memories making him feel but that could hardly matter. It felt wonderful, so new and strange and made him want to run and run and run. This was nothing like before and there will be no time when he will ever want to go back to before. Back when life didn't mean a damn and he had wasted all of that time just existing and not being.
Later he would recognize those feelings of joy and sadness and he would go on to know so much more.
Now the thing had a name. He was Gregory and his new older brother was Friedrich. I had a brother now and I wanted to know where our parents were.
Of course he didn't answer. He just hugged me tighter and let me into the shack.
It was strange at first, living with my brother Friedrich. Even if he did accept me, he still felt wary sometimes. A few nights out of the week, he'd stand over me as I was pretending to sleep. I wasn't sure what was going through his mind but he was always holding something in his hand. Perhaps it was a weapon like knife or club that he held while debating whether I was a monster in disguise or not.
He always chose wrong.
Though that was the only times he'd ever thought about hurting me. The rest of life as Gregory was near blissful.
The real Gregory died when he was twelve so I still had a lot of stuff to learn. Friedrich taught me as much as he could. I learned to speak better in their native tongue, rudimentary maths, how to grow food, hunting, swimming, cooking and so on.
I learned how to be more human too. It's strange though, saying that learning to feel, love, cry and laugh is the same as learning how to be human. Maybe I was just learning how to be myself.
I watched the seasons pass and the forest changed from green to red and yellow to white and then green again. I had sensed it all as that shapeless blob of nothing but I never felt any awe or wonder. Friedrich would play with me and teach me how to fish by the river in spring and summer, in the fallen colorful leaves in fall and the snow in winter. I shouldn't have acted so excited. The real Gregory had known these seasons and this joy for years; they were nothing new to him. But it was to me and I pranced around like I was just born.
During this time, Friedrich became much happier. He started dressing better and even started to go down into town; something he hadn't done in years. He never took me there and the reason was obvious. How would the villagers react to me, the supposed disappeared brother, if he came to town not grown or changed at all?
I couldn't grow or age. Not at that time.
I didn't know I was supposed to grow and age.
Looking back now, if Friedrich though that it was strange, he never showed it while he thought that I was awake.
One time while we were fishing, Friedrich had to go back to the house to grab another bucket. A fish swam into my net and I untangled it from the woven rope. I held the wriggling creature in my hands for a while, feeling how slippery its skin was and seeing how pretty and shiny its scales were.
I couldn't help myself. I bit it into it, tasted its flesh and bone and swallowed it whole. Suddenly, I felt like I couldn't breathe. My legs ached and I felt my bones fracturing themselves and shrinking. I fell into the water, thrashing and flapping my fins.
That was the second time I turned. Hazy memories of fast currents and fleeing from bear claws drifted into my panicked state of mind. There was blood in the water. It was my blood. Well, not mine. It was the fish's blood but technically it was the same as mine now.
Instinct was driving me more than common sense. I flicked my silvery tale and my senses were telling me to swim as fast as I could downstream. They were also telling me to get out of the water right now. Friedrich is going to come back and he'll be so angry and annoyed at you and find out that you aren't Gregory.
You'll have to go back to living that disgustingly boring and empty life as a tree again and Friedrich'll be lonely.
What'll he do without Gregory?
I threw myself out of the river and on to the wet grass, flopping and gasping for breath.
Friedrich grabbed my shoulder and shook, telling me to calm down. He asked me what was wrong as I coughed and sputtered.
I sobbed and lied and told him that I accidentally fell in the river and got a bit tangled in the net. I panicked but I was fine now.
As he was drying me off with his raggedy old shirt, he promised me that he'd get something sweet for me from town later and we would share it after dinner.
I nodded and walked back home with him. After that incident, I went out in the middle of the night to the river again. I tried to turn back into the fish. The first few times it didn't work and I just ended up exhausted. Concentrating on turning almost made me pass out on the riverside but I'd always make it back to my own bed somehow.
I kept practicing though and found time to sneak out in the middle of the night. Eventually I was able to turn my arms into fins. The bones in my arms would break and shrink, skin would harden and turn into scales but they'd pop back into being Gregory's arms soon after. It was really painful. The worst thing that happened during my practice sessions was when I did successfully turn back into a fish but I couldn't turn back into Gregory.
I was flopping all over the grass and suffocating. I flipped and flopped until I was out of energy and gasping motionless on the wet ground. It was probably the worst ten minutes of my life. I nearly passed out and died but then I heard something close to a scream and I morphed back into Gregory. I think it was my scream that woke me up. I think…hmmmm. Can't really remember.
After that ordeal, morphing from Gregory to fish became easier. It would take time and it would hurt but eventually I got used to it.
I tried morphing into other animals like bears, deer and butterflies but it didn't work. I'd sit by the river and focus on their images but nothing would happen.
Then Friedrich and I went for a walk in the forest one summer afternoon and I ran off to grab some berries and check the snares while Friedrich went off on his own to hunt deer. A big grey fluffy rabbit was stuck in the snare.
Its fur looked so soft and fluffy and its ears would have been so nice to pet and have.
The urge overcame me again and I bit off its head and swallowed the rest soon after. Pain pierced my joints and my spine shrunk. I grew grey fur and my ears elongated until I had become the rabbit sitting in the red grass where I murdered the real one.
This time, I could think better. I wanted to run back to the burrow but I also knew that it was the rabbit's instincts affecting me and I should transform back into Gregory. Or maybe it was Gregory's memories messing with me. I not sure about that either.
But that was when I connected the dots. I couldn't transform into anything unless I ate it. If I ate something living, I gained its appearance, its memories, its powers and abilities and its weaknesses.
Overtime, I was able to mix and match different attributes like hair, eyes, bones, laser beams, teeth and the like," Alison runs her fingers through her hair as it grew shorter. "You understand now, don't you?"
Her eyes turn green and her hair turns brown. She became shorter and took on the appearance of a young boy.
"This was my first body." Alison explains, voice becoming higher and more boyish. "Brings back a whole lot of memories." The air around us crackles again as she glances at her reflection in the sea sadly.
I swallow hard and blink at Alison…no Gregory. Right now, she was Gregory.
"Y-you…You ate people?" I shudder at the thought. Did I eat people? What was the stuff that she fed us?
"Calm down, Ash. If I really did have to eat everything alive now, would I be able to do this?" Seamlessly, without any nasty bone breaking or screaming, the boy grew taller, eyes changed to hazel and now I was staring at myself.
"How?"
"I practiced a lot," I say-I mean Alison says, shrugging. "After a while, I perfected my ability to change into anything that I ate. There were restrictions of course. It has to be living and it usually has to be alive. I got around that last part. It took me a hundred years at the least to figure out and I won't go into the details since it'll take long." He crosses his arms and stares at the ship-to-ship battle beside us.
It's weird looking at me. Even the clothes look like mine. Were the clothes made out of Alison too?
"To put it simply, I became able to take on the appearance of anything living or once living if I just consumed a part of them. It went from a mouthful to something as small as an eyelash. Way more convenient but the transformation isn't as perfect," Could've fooled me. Definitely fooling me. "It also doesn't hurt a lot to change forms anymore." He changes again, growing taller, hair turning black and eyes brighten to blue and now Ty was sitting across from me.
"At least for something as simple as this," Alison says, twirling a strand of black hair. "For something bigger like a dragon or titan, it needs more energy and power. And it hurts like a son of a bitch," Ty…I mean Alison frowns. "I've been getting better at it but I haven't had a lot of time to practice lately because of…something. Why can't I practice like usual?" Alison holds her chin thoughtfully, mimicking Ty's pose. "I think someone helped me…Oh well, I'll think about it later."
"Do not retreat! Not till we give the signal!" Eli yells loud enough for us to hear. We both look over and see our ships being flanked by the pirates. The pirates were trying to board but the others were holding them back for the time being. "Wait! Not yet!" He yells more orders and his voice was being amplified magically by one of the mages. I think he was directing that to us.
"The captain's ship isn't here," Alison frowns and bites her cheek. "I need the captain's ship to be here. Why aren't they here?" She mutters and more energy crackles. She notices this time and takes a deep breath in. "Ash, keep talking to me."
"Um, you said it took you at least a hundred years to figure out your powers. How old are you?" I ask quickly, noticing her becoming tense.
"I dunno. I lost count but it's more than a couple thousand. A couple ten thousand? A couple million? I forgot. Age doesn't matter much when I can look forever sixteen," She winks. "Well, when I'm using Ty's form but Ty and the others don't like it when I change into them. It makes them squirm." She giggles.
"Did Friedrich ever find out? What happened to him?" I instantly regretted asking as Alison pales. A loud burst of energy bursts from her bracelets and a large crack splits down one, shattering the gold ringlet. The bones in her arm break and she doubles over, biting down on her lip to keep from screaming.
"What happened?" I jump over to her, reaching out to her arm. She glances up, still wearing Ty's appearance and she lunges forward to wrap her uninjured arm around me.
As she hugs me and rests her head on my shoulder, I feel something move under her skin.
"This happens when I'm about to transform into something big. One time I made a big change and it was by accident. I almost died. Instead, I went into a coma for twenty years. My mother, Lyla, put seals on me to keep me from suddenly changing," She tenses again and her broken arm twists backwards. I think I screamed but she wouldn't let me go. "But if there was ever a time where I wanted to change, she gave me a way to break those seals. The seals are invisible so I have to use something that symbolize them. These bracelets for example." The broken bracelet on the floor of the boat glints in the sun and I was going to shatter to pieces if she doesn't stop hugging me.
"Breaking them isn't enough. They have to be broken by a special kind of energy. Tell me, what do you think of my sister?" She whispers into my ear. Her lips brush my skin and I gulp.
"Ty's really cool, nice-"
"I'm not asking what she's like. I'm asking if you have…a thing for her."
"W-why now? I-I mean I don't…I like her but not like that but I maybe-" I start stuttering incoherently.
"Hmmmhmmmm," She pulls back and nods knowingly. She glances around at the crackling air. Blue sparks were appearing all around us and Ty-I mean Alison grips my wrist. I hadn't noticed but my hands were shaking and I almost let the dagger slip out of my hand.
"Emotions can be powerful and obviously you must feel overwhelmed."
"Ummmm ummmmmm!" I was overheating and it wasn't because of the tropical sun.
"Retreat!" Eli yells. "Here they come!" I glance at the ships and Eli was staring back at our flashing boat. A bigger ship was approaching and a man with an eye-patch and greenish jacket was at the helm.
"Right on time," Alison whispers, tightening her hold on my wrist. "Strong emotions can break the seals keeping me from ripping myself apart. But right now, I want to tear myself to shreds. And that's why I need you. So I'm sorry."
"Uh, don't worry about it…wait, why are you apologizing?"
She grins guiltily and leans closer until we were breathing the same air.
"H-hey, what are you-"
"It's been years and years and I still find these emotions overpowering at times. I have two favourites though. Can you guess?"
"Ummm. I don't know." I shake my head, coming close to just jumping out of the boat. Heat was rising in my cheeks and Ty-no Alison. This is Alison. Alison wasn't moving and the others were running away. One of the pirate ships had seen us and was coming over. A cannonball flies right over my head close enough to rustle my hair. Even with all of this happening, I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
I didn't want to.
"They're the feelings that make you abandon all rationality and logic, make adrenaline rush through your veins, makes you ready and willing to jump off a cliff and never look back." Alison touches her forehead to mine and I didn't dare move or breathe.
"Passion and fear."
Before I had time to blink, her lips, Ty's lips, push against mine and like a complete idiot, I push back. My eyes close and I didn't think. Alison grabs my hands and I didn't notice until it was too late. I was still holding her dagger when she thrust the blade into her chest.
Blood splatters on to me and I scream against her lips. I let go of the dagger shove her away. Now she was back to her usual form. The dagger was hilt deep in her chest and blood was spilling on to the bottom of our dinghy and mixing with water. I could barely hear the cannon fire over my own panic.
"O-Oh no no no no!" I stutter, watching as she stood shakily. "Why? What did I do?"
In reply, she smiles weakly and gingerly touches the hilt of the dagger. Energy was crackling and sparking all around the dinghy. Her other bracelet and her hairband splinters and fall to the floor.
"Thank you, Ash. Hehe, you sure do get worked up over hardly anything," She says in a quivery voice.
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" I try getting up but falter and fall back to my seat. I was still in shock and she was still bleeding everywhere. "I…We n-need to get help!"
"Something like this won't hurt me. So do me another favor?"
"Do…Should I ever do you favors again?"
"Just tell them…" She coughs and the hilt of the blade in her chest cracks. "Just tell them that I summoned the monster."
The dagger crumbles and pieces of gold metal tumble to the wooden planks. With the first plink of the fragments hitting the floor, a bright blast goes off and I'm thrown into the water.
I sink slowly, not able to move my limbs. Above the surface of the water, blue light flashes and close by, some ships had capsized because of the blast. I was too far to tell if they were ours or the pirates.
Then I remember that I had to do something really important. I had to breathe.
I right myself and swim upwards to the surface. I was halfway there when I notice something else sinking.
Alison, tangled up in her skirts and long orange hair, she was slowly falling to the bottom. Her limbs were a twisted mess.
I call out to her, forgetting that I was underwater and I lose a mouthful of air. Not thinking on it much, I change direction and swim towards her. As I swim, the currents in the water grew still and I feel something strange, almost scary.
It might have been because my vision was blurring due to being close to drowning but Alison was melting into the water. The water was dissolving her. I try swimming faster but I was already slowing down and blacking out.
But I can do it! I'll make it and b ba k n ti…
"Come on, Ash. I asked you a favor so at least be alive to carry it out."
The rumbling voice rouses me a bit. My eyes open but were unfocused. I let whatever was talking to me grab me and drag me to the open air. We break through the water and it tosses me back into the dinghy.
That wakes me up and I begin to cough up sea water. Though I feel weak and sick, I drag myself up to take a look around. Alison was gone and so were all of our ships. Eli and the others had fled, leaving no one to guard me from the approaching pirate ships.
"Bunch o cowards!" I hear the man in the green jacket yell from the front of his ship. "Attack us while we be occupied and flee when we free. Cowards! Could o mistaken em for ninjas!" The rest of the pirates cheer and jeer at the already far away ships. "Even left one o their own to us."
I yell for Alison but all that came out was a strangled yelp from my burning throat. I search around the water for her but I couldn't see anything. All there was to see was swirling water around the boat.
"What?" That wasn't there before.
"First mate Rhubarb, what in the eight seas is that?" One of the pirates on the ships closing in yells fearfully.
A long snake-like shadow appears in the water and disappears a second after. The waves had completely vanished and an unsettling silence falls on the pirates. Something bumps the bottom of the dinghy and I nearly lose my balance. Bubbles rose to the surface and for another moment, the shadow appears again. A monster was hiding beneath the surface and it was swimming around the dinghy.
"Is that you?" I croak, quivering.
A huge gush of water erupts into the air by the green jacket pirate's ship and they all scramble to fire at the source.
"Stop!" The man yells, halting the movements of his crew. "It be a trap! It's confusing us."
"First mate, that boy down there!" One of the pirates points to me. "That boy must be a mage! He's tricking us wit 'is magic!"
"Don't make any moves. That is an or-"
A cannon fires and the blast rings across the coast. The cannon ball was shot precisely and headed right for me. I bring my arms up to brace myself and the cannonball hits.
It hits another jet of water and when the mist settles, a tall, sleek and silvery tail rose above the ships. The pirates and I watch it grow taller and taller before it slams down into the ships that had tried to kill me.
The ship is virtually sliced down the middle. Its crew and supplies were thrown into the sea and the monster disappears again.
Wildly, the other pirates fire into the sea hoping to drive the creature out. When they needed to reload, the creature strikes again. This time it goes for one of the ships close to the green jacketed pirate's ship. Its tail impales the ship and wraps around the hull before dragging it down into the dark depts. At that point, the other ships try to sail for shallower waters but they were already frozen by the mages of Falconreach. If they wanted to get to a safer battleground, they'd have to sail around the coast to shore. They wouldn't have time for that.
The green jacketed pirate commands them to retreat before he runs to one of his on deck cannons.
Another ship gets attacked. This time it was perilously close to the dinghy and I paddle myself to the ice before it took out that ship too.
The creature doesn't use its tail. It leaps out of the water and crashes into the ship, taking it down as its crew jump out. Whatever it was disappears again and no one got a clear look at it. That creature was too fast.
It leaps out again and a ship veers to the left, narrowly missing certain death. The monster, aiming to correct its mistake, leaps once more and a canon goes off.
A cannonball pierces through the veil of mist and hits the monster right in its, now visible, sharp metallic teeth. The creature shrieks and falls back into the sea, creating a huge wave.
"Alison!" I cry before the wave sweeps me up on to the ice. I land on my side on top of my still healing arm. Pain shoots down my limb and I roll on to my other side to take pressure off of it.
Then I hear laughing. An amused giggling that gurgles from the bubbling water. Two long sharp horns rise out of the water followed by cruel yellow eyes and two sets of jaws. A white scaled and metal horned serpent laughs and it was unmistakably Alison's laugh compiled with the laughter of hundreds of dead men and women.
"You," It breathes out misty air. Alison turns her gaze to the man named Rhubarb. He stands, unfaltering, facing my friend. "So you're the one I'll be dueling," Alison spits out the cannon ball that dented her steel teeth. "Good. I do enjoy challenges."
Alison laughs again and electricity crackles between her metallic horns.
"Get ready."
Author notes: Hello once more. It's been a month since we last saw I suppose. It's been a month since I last updated that top part up there. June is a busy month and that sucks. So have some chapter notes.
This was a more Alison and Ash centered chapter. Ty is down for the count but she's not out. Don't count Rhubarb out either.
So we learn some details of Alison's birth though she's telling it. I wouldn't trust her truths.
It's a shorter chapter but it makes more sense to end it here.
Another thingy I want to say. I've been working on an AU recently. It's short right now but I plan to keep going with it. I already have the four story arcs planned. Though it features Ty as a secondary main character.
I have also put up another poll. My dear friend Electronelle has offered to make a water color piece for one of my stories. Choose which one I should ask her for on my profile~
That's it for now and sorry it was kinda short but I'll get the next one out for sure. I'll see you around. I also probably have a thousand typos right now but even if I check it again for the eighth time, I won't find it till it's up. I'm a loser.