Chapter 11 - Somebody I Used To Know (Part 1)
Rains, falling down heavily in Teran since yesterday afternoon, show no sign of slowing down. Living in Teran for over four years, Pop has never experienced such a fearful weather.
Nobody is seen on the streets. In fact, everything is invisible in the rain.
I guess the weather created difficulties for Hyunkel and Marm to be back, but... but why don't they use teleportation? Pop wonders.
They both must be too obeying to Avan sensei's rule.
"Pop!" Menru is running into the dining hall, carrying Melsa on hands. For a long time, he has never seen Menru looking as terrified as now.
Their liltle Melsa is screaming something they can't understand.
"Melsa must be feeling or seeing something very dark, the way I saw and felt when I still had the ability. Pop, can you calm her down? Mel is too liltle to face this."
Pop nods and straight away places a spell to his daughter. "Don't scare, sweet heart." He tells his baby girl.
And the liltle baby is put into a soft peaceful sleep tenderly.
"Honey, I think Melsa might see something terrible that happened to Marm. Before she became uncontrollable, she murmured something sounds like Marm's name."
...
Miles away, in the remote area of Dragon Chamber, a strong smell of burned village is blended with smell of the wet soil, making it difficult for anyone to breathe. However, there are no more sense of lives. The whole village and people who happened to be around the lake were destroyed.
Heavy raindrops and strong winds are slapping Marm's face, thunder are tearing off her ears, waves, sometimes can be as high as a building level, are tempting to eat her out anytime. However, she is not scared.
Marm doesn't know why she is still breathing.
Looking at the lake side which are within her ability to swim back, Marm doesn't feel like returning.
She dives into the lake again.
I don't want to leave this place.
Hyunkel, even if you decided to leave me, I won't leave you.
I will not.
Right at the moment her whole body loses the conciouness, she no longer breathes, her heart stops beating, an Elf shows up in the water and carries her to the surface.
This is the fifth time she is doing the same thing. Is the human girl intentionally drowning?
...
"Marm..."
"Thanks god, you awake!"
Marm feels the comfort of the bed and the positive aura of the surrounding. The flowers smell nice and the blanket is warm. Please, let this be Romos. Let Hyunkel sleep next to me. Marm prays.
But when everything becomes clear in her eyes, she sees Pop, Menru and Menru's granny.
"Hyunkel..." Marm tries to speak up, "Why am I here?"
They don't answer.
Pop sits down next to her, "We only found you on the lake side, you were next to the crystal ball that conveys the Dragon God message. Rather than that, we didn't... What happened, Marm? Where is Hyunkel?"
"Nothing happened. I want to go back to the lake."
Marm sits up.
"Hold on! You are very weak! Seems like you have been in the water all along the time.. The village at the lake side was... destroyed.. you know?"
Marm doesn't answer, she stands up quietly.
Realising this is the room Hyunkel and her stayed just one or two nights ago, realising he has slept on this bed, seeing his belongings, Marm bursts into tears and collapses immediately. Can't stand properly, she falls down on the floor.
"Oh dear..." Menruru runs to Marm, holds her up.
"What... what happeded?" Pop murmurs.
"I can't... I can't stay here... Can you take me to the lake now? I must look for Hyunkel."
Without waiting for Pop or Menru's response, Marm disappears with the teleportation, leaving her friends in a rising fear when start realising what's going on.
Hyunkel... where are you?
This is a nonsense. Of course I know where you are.
Marm stares at these ruins under the lake, her hands reach out for the emptiness in front of her, imagining hugging Hyunkel.
And she closes her eyes. She wishes to end this emptiness as fast as possible.
I'm coming to you, honey.
After a while, she is losing her breaths, her body loses every sense, her head aches, she lets it be.
...
"She was tempting to end her life there, sensei, I'm serious!"
"No, this doesn't sound like Marm." Leona shakes her head.
"Tell everything again, Pop, clearly please." Avan looks at Marm who is unconcious on the bed with worriness.
The village in the Dragon God chamber was destroyed out of a sudden, a mysterical explosion took away lives of close to a hundred unfortunate villagers and soldiers who guard the place.
According to Pop, the chamber under water is nothing but a mess of ruins now.
"When Menru and I first arrived, we were shocked to see the burned village and unfortunate lives that were taken away. Marm was laying on the lake side unconciously. She was pale and wet and her palms full of wrinkles, signing that she had been in the water for a very long time. And there was... blood stains along her clothes..."
They look each other, almost breathless. The blood doesn't belong to Marm as there is no physical injury on her.
"Hyunkel... wasn't around. I seek around the area and even underwater, but I didn't find any clue, not at all."
"Oh god..." Leona is trembling and leaning in Larhalt, who remains in deep silence since the moment he saw Marm inconcious and the blood stain.
"Did Marm say anything?"
"She said she wanted to look for Hyunkel under the lake, but obviously when we were there, she...she tempted to end her life. She almost succeed but thanks god it didn't happen."
"Oh my..."
The room turns to a deadly silence.
"I don't believe Hyunkel is..." Leona murmurs to Larhalt, it is difficult for her to finish the sentence.
"Nothing is confirmed, honey." Embracing Leona, that's all Larhalt can say. He is not in any better mood.
"Menru, you have the ability to locate anybody, right? Could you look for Hyunkel's whereabout?"
"I'm sorry, Avan sensei..." Menru shakes her head slightly.
"Since the day Melsa was born, Menru has lost such ability." Pop says.
...
Without awareness of even the wisest person on earth or the eldest demon in the underword, the forest which surrounds lake of Dragon God Chamber is a magical one to a scarce kind, the Elf.
Such a forest, connected through various kingdoms, is a gift God presents to Elfs, the most vulnerable kind of living beings on Earth.
She has been starring at Hyunkel with a mixed feeling. Even his hair has turned to a darker color, she knows she can't be wrong. This is her Hyunkel-sama.
The Elf gently holds his hands and continues eyeing on him dearly. "Please open your eyes..."
Everytime she holds his hands, she sees images of a same human girl and these images are drilling holes in her heart.
"There are lots of things I'd like to ask you. Are you living with the human girl now? What happended to you both? Hyunkel-sama, why are you... dead?" She whispers.
Knock knock...
The Elf is disrupted and reluctanly leaves Hyunkel in the chamber to open the door.
"It's you..." The Elf smiles gently and strokes the boy's silver soft hair. "Come in."
The boy is wet from head to toe and grasps hurrily, his body is trembling because of the fierce rain he has gone through to reach here.
"I told you it is dangerous here. Why don't you stay in the human town?"
"I... I worry for you, mother."
The Elf gently squeezes the boy's hand and tells him softly, "Foolish boy. You don't have to worry for me on every small matters."
She brings a cup of hot honey and lemon juice to the boy and happily looks at him as he finishes it. The hot drink will keep her child warm. In the end, the boy is a mixed blood and can't be as immortal and unattackable by illness as her.
"Mother, a couple from Romos would like to adopt me..." The boy speaks out softly.
"What does it mean by adopt?"
"It means... they would like to raise me up as their child. But the problem is that they live in Romos, if I follow them, I can't visit you easily anymore. Mother, can I tell them..."
"No!" The Elf is freaking out. "You must not tell anyone about me, my child."
He nods.
"If they raise you up, does it mean you will no longer be hungry, or be beaten on the streets?"
"I think so, mother. And they are very strong! I will ask them to train me, and I can protect myself when I grow up." The boy grins.
"Then you should follow them." She smiles. "I know Romos. I can go there and look for you when..."
"Really? You will go to Romos with me?"
"But not so soon, my child. I have to take care of somebody."
The boy is stunned for this is the first time he has ever heard his mother talking about "somebody." To his understanding, his mother has never left this forest and has absolute no interest as well as no knowledge in anything or anybody that exist in the human world.
"You need to see him before you go to Romos. And remember this carefully, you must not touch him." The Elf says.
When the Elf takes her son into the chamber made of leaves and flowers where she keeps Hyunkel, she is surprised to see a man with his back facing them.
The man has dark, black hair and his outfit tells that he is a knight.
How come a human knight show up here without my notice?
"Who... are you? What are you doing to Hyunkel-sama?"
No answer. To her surprise, the man has disappeared in a blink of eye.
"Mr Hyunkel!" The boy screams and runs to Hyunkel. "Mother, why is Mr Hyunkel here? What happened to him?"
"Don't touch him, he will vanish!"
The Elf drags her child out but it is too late, the boy has already patted on Hyunkel's shoulder.
"Noooo! Hyunkel-sama!" The Elf screams helplessly. To her, the world is ending again.
When the village in front of her forest was burned by the fired stones falling down from the sky, she ran out of her tree house to save as many human beings as she could. However, it appeared that everyone was dead. She kept searching for any possible lives that still were survived outside the village and realised damages out there were much worse. Easily, a huge crystal ball by the lake side and a human girl laying next to it caught her attention.
The human girl was still alive and she would have healed the girl hadn't she seen a beautiful light floating around both of them. She understood it was spirit of a dead being that was trying to leave its last message. However, the spirit seemed vanishing before it could do anything.
"Don't worry, I will help you." She carried the spirit in her hands and immediately felt a sense of itimacy. "I will bring you to my magical forest where you can gain your original form, and you can leave any message that you would like to."
When the spirit showed up his original form after absorbing magical power from the forest, she bursted into tears immediately. To the Elf, it's her Hyunkel-sama.
She held his hands trying to catch the message he would like to leave. Unlike human beings who can destroy a dead human spirit once they touch him, the Elf can read his mind with the touches.
However, she didn't catch any message Hyunkel'd like to leave. In stead, she saw images of a human girl drowning in the lake and she sensed Hyunkel's strong desire to save her. That was when the Elf transferred herself to the lake to save Marm, on behalf of Hyunkel.
Marm was very determined to end her life and the Elf ended up saving Marm five, six times before Pop and Menru arrived and brought Marm back to their house.
"Haven't I told you to not touch him?" The Elf shouts at her son angrily.
"But Mr Hyunkel is still here, mother." The boy murmurs.
"Hmmm?"
That's right.
Hyunkel's spirit has not been vanished after the touch. On his lower lip, a small red drop of liquid is seen. The Elf leans closer to him and gently licks the drop of liquid. That costs her a burned tongue. That is a drop of blood, extremely hot blood.
"I don't understand." She is surprised, "Anyway, stay away from Hyunkel-sama. Don't ever touch him again."
"Yes... mother." The boy moves back. He doesn't understand why can't he touch Hyunkel, but his mother is always right although she may sound weird most of the time.
"How do you know Hyunkel-sama?"
"Mother, he and his wife would like to adopt me."
"Really? He would like to raise you up?" The Elf smiles happily and holds her son close to her, "My child, Hyunkel-sama is no longer a human being. However, nothing can stop us living together once he awakes."
What does mother mean by "no longer a human being"? However, I think Mr Hyunkel will want to go back to his house when he gets up. The boy thinks.
End Chapter 11.