Hey... It's me... Miss me...
So... I am back... Ish...
Like I said before, I will write the story but it will be all over the place. So don't get mad, you signed up for this! I did not make you!
So here's the chap have fun or not. up to you.
[]
A fire crackled under a dent-up pot, the only source of light on the shore of Sal Viento. The wood that was fueling the flames was slowly turning into ashes. The broth that was inside the pot was boiling.
Surrounding the pot were pieces of driftwood that were used as seats. Their backs were facing the dim city while they had a view of the ocean in front of them.
A man could be seen, stirring the inside of the pot, making sure the ingredient was cooked evenly and not to ruin the food while sitting on one of those pieces of wood.
And it seemed that he was not the only one present.
Beside him were two other people, one was visibly younger than the other.
The younger girl was bouncy on her log, visibly excited on his right as she watched in fascination Njord stirring the broth. The girl glanced away from the pot and stared at Njord's calm expression.
"Mister Njord?" The girl called.
"Yes?" Eyes still on the broth, Njord answered.
"Are you really making food?" The question that had nagged her since the start finally got the best of her as she asked the man.
"Don't trust me already?" With a smirk on his face, Njord asked.
"It's not that I don't trust you, Mister Njord!" She quickly explained, "It is just… the ingredients that I brought were not appeasing to look at." Then she looked at the other person with them, "Even Big Sister Irene could not find anything better than some potatoes and chickens." Then her eyes suddenly lit up, remembering something, "Oh! And she also taught me how to waltz!"
Hearing her name being caught up, Irene, who was sitting just beside Njord, did not meet his eyes which were now focused on her.
"You taught her?" The smugness in his voice was so concentrated that you could see it oozing out from his mouth as he said it.
This made her face aflame as blood rushed to her cheeks.
"... Maybe I did," She muttered just loud enough to be heard, "It is not something so insignificant that you need to know…"
"Hoo~?" Njord smirked when heard her answer.
This only intensified the redness of Irene's face.
"What are you even making now, Njord?" In a desperate attempt to change the subject for something else, Irene pointed at the pot that Njord was attending to and asked him a question.
"..."
"..."
Njord could see Irene literally begging him just by looking at her eyes. Pitying her, Njord gracefully threw her a bone and let it be.
"Soup." He simply answered.
"Soup?"
"Soup?"
The two girls on his side, copied him in their own confused version as they leaned into him closer and looked into the inside of the pot.
"With just these little ingredients?" Irene doubly pointed out to him, "Although it is mostly my fault in providing them, these aren't much to make a good soup."
From the corner of his eyes, Njord could see Anita looking at him, curious about his answer, making him hum delightfully. Rather than answering, Njord's eyes fell back onto the boiling broth in front of him as he slowly stirred it.
"Carrots. Potatoes. Tomatoes," Njord listed down the ingredients that he used, "Yeah… It's enough."
"Enough for what, Mister Njord?" Anita asked.
"For ABC soup," He answered.
"ABC soup?" Irene was still confused.
"It stands for the vitamins inside the soup," He explained further, "Carrots for vitamin A. Potatoes for vitamin B and tomatoes for vitamin C."
"Does it taste good?" Anita asked something that she believed was the most important question.
Njord showed a thin smile.
"It is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted," Njord claimed easily.
"Really?" It seemed that Irene was not as convinced as Anita, "How can you be so sure?"
"How am I sure, you asked?" As he stirred the broth, the spiral that Njord was making felt like it was pulling his attention away from all of his surroundings.
A bowl of soup was presented in front of him. Pieces of chicken and chunks of potatoes and carrots could be seen in it. And that was it.
After he had a long enough look at the bowl and its insides, he glanced at the person who gave him lacklustre cuisine.
Her excited smile was almost just enough to not dampen her mode at what she just created.
Almost as the keyword.
"ABC soup?" He asked a person in a confused tone, "That's its name?"
The woman seemed to not like the tone of his as he gently smacked her hand on his back earning her a smile.
"Oh don't be like that Ye!" The woman chided him, "You didn't even try it yet!"
"You mean water?" He joked, "It's alright. Nothing that revolutionary."
"Har. Har." Her laugh was almost as bland as the soup that she made for him. "Since when my husband was a joker."
"Ow…"
His wife, Lin Yue, did not like his joke as she pinched his cheek and pulled it.
"What is today's date?" Although his cheek was in the mercy of his wife he could not help but tease her more.
It was his favourite pastime.
If it meant he died doing it, he died a happy man.
Finally letting go of his cheek, Yue grabbed a spoon and pushed it to his face.
"Just give it a chance!" Yue ordered, "You won't regret it."
Not wanting one of the two only women who could play him like a fiddle, Ye gave in and took the spoon away from her.
It's not like it was a hard thing to do, the was not poison.
He hoped…
Nothing is set in stone if it is related to Yue.
A trait that Ye endeared.
He scooped a small portion of the soup and ate.
His eyes lit up when he got the taste.
Slowly he moved his head and looked at the naker of this… he did not know what to call it.
Yue smirked when she saw his shocked expression.
"Told you." She smugly said.
He chuckled to himself as Njord reminisced about this memory.
"Someone that knew how to shut up an idiot," He told them vaguely.
This only confused the two but they did not get the chance to ask him more as Njord was now putting the broth in small portions into bowls.
"Try it." He handed a bowl to Anita, "You'd be surprised how good it would be."
Trusting Njord, Anita took it away from him and a spoon and sat back in her seat.
Njord repeated his action and handed a bowl to Irene now.
Although skeptical, Irene was interested in how the soup tasted so he took his offer and found herself looking at a bowl of broth with a spoon in her hand as she sat next to an Aegir.
Her old self would have called her a fool if she could see her now.
But now…?
Now, it did not really bother her that much now.
While Irene was pondering on this fact, she heard the sound of slurping beside her. Turning her head to the sound, Irene saw Njord enjoying the soup that he made already.
"Ah…" He sighed joyfully after one spoon, his eyes landed on the soup, "Just as good as I remembered."
Anita who saw this as well, could contain herself and dug into her own. She put a good portion of the soup from her spoon into her mouth to know what it tasted.
Her eyes widened in what looked like pure shock.
Irene waited for her reaction but no matter how long she waited, Anita was still in her stunned state, spoon in mouth and all.
Njord was also a lost cause as he was more focused on eating his own portion of the soup.
With a nervous gulp, Irene took a spoonful of the soup and led it towards her mouth.
And when the broth finally touched her tongue, a combination of flavours flooded her mouth.
The first thing that she found was that it was sweet. This was likely because of the carrots and Tomatoes. The creamy texture and starchiness were likely caused by the potatoes used in it.
There was also a slightly savoury flavour in it, she reckoned it came from the chickens.
Although the ingredients that he used were barely enough, the soup Njord made…
It was…
"Tasty…"
In a moment of weakness on both Anita's and Irene's sides, they let their thoughts escape from their mouths.
Something that made Njord's attention on them instead of his soup.
A smile formed in his mouth.
"Right? What did I say?" He was oddly prideful now, puffing out his chest, "You don't need a thousand things to make something delicious."
They slowly nodded at his words, too surprised to even form words for him, something that Niord did not seem to be kind of at all.
They enjoyed their soup as the sound of the winds and waves accompanied them under the glow of the moon.
When they finally finished their respected soup, Anita was the first to start the conversation again, as excited as ever.
"Can you teach me how to make this, Mister Njord!?"
Hearing this request, Njord lightly chuckled.
"Did you focus on when I cooked?" He asked.
Anita's answer was to furiously nod her head.
"Then you already know how to," He claimed.
"But what if I messed up?" She worryingly asked, "I might get the temperature wrong, or cut the carrot too big, or-!"
To stop Anita from rambling any further, Njord placed a hand on her head. He caressed her head softly as he chuckled at how amusing she was acting all flustered and worried.
"You'll do fine," He reassured her. Then he nudged his head towards the Inquisitor, "Besides, Irene will be there to help."
"... I'll think about it," She said curtly.
"She meant yes."
"Hey!"
"Thank you, Big Sister Irene!"
"Listen to me!"
The beach then was filled with amused chuckles mixed with bickering. Just when Irene was about to give a thing a two about decency to Njord, she spotted a lone bowl and noticed that there was still some of the soup left in the pot.
Unluckily, Njord also noticed her looking at them as well.
"Well look at this," A smirk appeared on his face, "Still hungry Miss Inquisitor?"
Like many times, Irene's face reddened at being called out.
"It is not that!?" She stammered out her denial as she pointed at the bowl, "I was just curious about that empty bowl, that is all!"
"Yeah… Of course…."
"Njord!"
It seemed that Njord's words did not assure Irene at all as she shouted at him accusingly. This earned her a joyous laugh, something that Irene did not like.
"Njord! Listen!"
"Hahaha!"
How Irene was still trying to defend herself from Njord who did not want to hear her words at all.
Anita also giggled at their interaction. She noticed that Irene's and Njord's relationship was getting closer now compared to where they started. Njord was now openly teasing her while Irene did not scowl at him anymore. She was so happy to see how comfortable they were now, especially Irene.
Anita knew that Irene did not have a lot of friends around her, not like she was any different but that was beside the point!
Anita had a family of sorts and children her age to interact with. On the other hand, the best that Irene got was Mister Dario but even Anita knew that Mister Dario was more of a tutor than a friend to Irene.
So Irene had Mister Njord as her friend, no matter how much she denied this claim, Anita was happy for her.
And seeing Irene flustered was so much fun to see! So bonus!
Hearing Anita giggling along with Njord, Irene set her eyes on her minted now.
"Hush you, Anita!"
"Heehee."
"Anita!"
And in a way, Big Sis Irene was her friend as well.
After having a good laugh to the dismay of Irene, Aniat was also curious about the bowl and leftovers.
"But Mister Njord, what are you going to do with them?" Anita curious asked.
Njord smiled at the question. Rather than answer, he scooped the remaining broth of the soup from the pot and poured it all into the lone empty bowl. He held the bowl of soup in his hand and watched the stream that was coming out from it drifting up to the air above.
"Well, we cannot let our new guest not feel welcome, now do we?" Njord vaguely said as his eyes were focused on the body of water in front of him, enjoying the sound of crashing as well.
The two of them were confused by his words. Will another person will be coming here? But who? Was it Dario? He was the only one that would come to shore in the city besides the two of them.
Before the two of them could voice their curiosity to him, something happened.
A sword crashed straight into the pot killing the fire below it as well as kicking up the ashes left out of it.
{}
Gladiia walked through the street of the sleepy city of Sal Viento. Like the priest told her, the sun was nowhere to be seen up in the sky. The residences of the city were also a sight to see in the night.
However, oddly enough this city did not match the idea that she had on it before she came here. It was not as… lifeless as she expected it would be.
Yes, the buildings here were all run down and the plantation seemed to be creeping up on them.
Yes, the people who reside in the city are barely able to hold a full conversation with her if she tries to communicate with them.
All of this was to be expected.
But still…
Life seemed to be lingering in this city. Like something was protecting its barely visible life from being snuffed out by the thing that was killing it.
It was not something.
It was someone.
Based on the information that she got from the priest, this change all started with the arrival of a figure that caught the interest of the Inquisitors that were assigned to this city.
This figure was so important that they concluded that they needed to keep the identity of this figure a secret from the public. This was something not hard to do, seeing how the residents were more focused on wandering the city rather than seeing this figure. They did not even bat an eye when she first arrived in the city with a sleeping figure she was carrying.
However, it did not stop the priest from becoming suspicious of them. The priest told her that she could find this person at night at the shore, where the waves were the closest.
So here she was, standing at the stairs that led to the city's shore. The sound of waves crashing filled her ears, singing her a melody.
A pleasant one.
This set off alarm bells in her head. Hearing this pleasant sound should have been impossible with how filled the ocean was with Seaborn. It should have sounded something resembling scratching on glass.
Then she noticed the wind. They were gentle, investing almost, ushering her closer to the shore.
Something was not right about this city.
And it was all related to this mysterious figure.
Her instincts were screaming at her to turn around and leave the shore. Get as far from the sea.
But curiosity was not a trait that only felines had.
She unsheathed her long sword and grasped it tightly in one hand. With her resolve hardened, she finally took a step down the stairs and headed straight toward the shore.
The sand crunched with each step she took on the dark beach that only had the stars and moon as her source of light.
Her being an Aegir made Gladiia able to see in the dark better than most races but it still made an eerie atmosphere.
As she walked further and closer to the ocean, her eyes caught a flicker of light in the distance in front of her.
Fire.
And surrounding it were three figures.
A child.
A woman.
and between the two, a much larger figure.
A man perhaps. The said man was now pouring something from the pot that was on the fire into a bowl.
They were cooking here of all places?
The sounds of their conversation were mixed into the ambience of the beach. However, it did not ruin the melody of the sea. It enchanted further.
Their laughs.
Their bickerings.
It made all of the eeriness disappear and was replaced with a more welcoming environment.
Like they were openly inviting her to join.
Gladiia tightened her grip on her sword for reassurance before she took a step forward…
Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum! Ba-dum!
Her heart started to beat rapidly. Frozen, that was the state of her whole body. The melody that filled the shore was now gone. It was completely silent.
Beside her rapid heartbeats.
If her instinct told her to run at the beginning, now they told her to survive.
From what?
From that thing.
So her body did something that she only registered after it was too late.
Gladiia threw her sword straight toward the man's head, aiming to end him before he knew she was there.
As the sword flew to its target, the chances of anyone dodging it were close to impossible with how fast it was going.
The man did not even move as it got nearer to the back of his head.
Suddenly, the wind around her started to rush harshly.
It was enough to change the trajectory of her sword and missed his head just by the strain of a hair, making it stab through the out in front of him instead.
The fire that was the only source of light died under the sword.
Out of fright the two girls jumped from their respective seats and turned their focus on where the sword came from. Their eyes landed on her and she heard voices from them.
But she did not pay attention to them. Her only focus was on only one thing.
The figure hadn't moved an inch after all of that.
[]
Irene pointed her sword at the unknown figure that was masked by the dark with how the fire was now gone. Her other pulled Anita near her as she shielded her from the person.
"I said identify yourself!" Irene repeated her question as she tightened her gasps on her sword and Anita.
It seemed her words fell on deaf ears as the person was still unresponsive. From the cover of her eyes, she saw Anita gripping her clothes tightly. She must be frightened.
When she was about to shout some more, she noticed there was also someone other than this person that acting strangely now.
With the bowl of soup still, in his hand, he lifted the other to her.
"Hey, hey don't be like that." While trying to calm her down, Njord rose up from his seat and smiled, "Our guest was just caught off guard. She meant no harm to you."
While Anita was a bit relieved by this news, Irene still had her guard up.
Irene was skeptical of those claims of his and her sword was still pointed at the unknown figure. Although she had mellowed out her ideas on Aegir because of Njord, it did not mean she'd get along with every one of them. Like it or not, Njord was just an exception.
Njord must have expected this reaction as he slowly walked toward the two of them. He bent down on his knee and held out the bowl of soup to Anita which she numbly took away from him.
He stroked her hair lightly, happy that she understood him so quickly.
"Hold it for me for a while. I need to deal with something," Njord told her, "Can you?"
Anita could only silently nod at his words. Seeing this, he rose up back to his feet and stared at the conflicted Inquisitor, who finally looked away from the woman and at him instead.
"Njord, explain-"
"Sorry I can't," Not even letting her finish, Njord cut in, "It… It's a bit personal."
Her brows deepened hearing this as she stared back at the woman.
"... And you ask me to lower my guard?" She accused him.
"Yes…"
"Why should I?"
"..."
This was not the response that she wanted as her grip tightened again.
"Do you trust me?"
And this was not one of them either.
"That is not fair, Njord…"
"I know…"
Njord openly admitted that he was using the time they had spent to get what he wanted. A tactic that would be considered sickening to use on a friend.
A tactic that Lin Ye would never do.
But Njord would.
And he did as he saw Irene lowered her sword and sheathed it away.
Njord placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you."
Irene threw a glare that did not have a lot of bite in it.
"You better not make me regret this, Njord."
"I hope so too," He playfully answered.
"Not something I want to hear, you know..."
Rather than saying anything, Njord walked toward the sword that a few moments ago was about to puncture a hole in his head. He gripped the handle and pulled it out from the sand.
"Me too, Irene," He looked down at the surface of it. The moonlight making it shined under it, and his eyes reflected back at him on it, "Me too."
His eyes looked back at the still stunt woman who was still in the dark. He let the sword dangle on his side as faced the person.
"Mind introducing yourself, Miss?"
"..."
Unsurprisingly, the woman did not answer him. So he would introduce himself first. This reminded him a bit of how he adopted all of his cats when he was still Lin Ye.
Some things were hard to get rid of. Old habits were one of them.
"My name is Nj—"
"Njord…" Finally, the women spoke, "The unknown God…"
"Oh?"
This surprised him and the rest. But what they were focused on was the second part of her sentence.
"God…?" Irene's eyes drifted to the back of his head.
"It seemed that you know my name," Njord hummed curiously, "Can't really say about my occupation though. Since when I was a god? And to whom?"
The woman looked wary as she glanced at the sword he was holding. Following her gaze, Njord understood why she was still tense.
Without warning, Njord threw the sword and embedded it back into the sand just a few inches away from where she was standing. After the sound that it made, no sound could be heard.
Then the sound of clapping filled the silence.
"There. No need to be so tense." He dusted his hands with a thin smile, "Name please?"
"... Gladiia."
"Nice to meet you, Gladiia. I would be introducing myself but you already know me," He noted, "That's something that all of us want to know."
"… What do you know of the abyssal hunters?"
Njord raised a brow at her sudden question, something that was shared with the two girls behind him. Seeing that he had nothing better to do and was now curious, he might as well entertain her question.
"Well, I know that Aegirs developed Aegir-Seaborn hybrid "super soldiers" as a defence against the Seaborns."
The mention of Seaborns made Irene and the Hunter tense. Anita noticed this.
"The Seaborns remained hidden in the depths of the ocean. Therefore, without Aegirs, mortals have no method to combat them," His statement made Gladiia's body tense but for now, Njord ignored this and continued, "I've heard that the creation of Abyssal Hunters involves a variety of sophisticated methods, and applicants are selected from the whole Aegir populace, regardless of their prior employment. You guys at least don't discriminate against one another. A plus is a plus."
Gladiia was not the only one who was hyper-focused on what he was saying. Anita and Irene were putting their full attention on Njord. Although Irene knew of the Seaborn her understanding of them never went passed on how they looked, the same goes for Anita as well. She never knew where they came from.
But a new question arose as she listened more to Njord.
How did he know so much about them to begin with?
Njord looked at the waves and enjoyed how peaceful it was. Quite interesting that those same waves also hid hideous things under it.
"Abyssal Hunters possess unusually high physical strength, endurance and speed, far surpassing regular mortals. Traits that are essential to face the monster your ancestors created," Njord hummed, "With the Seaborn being creatures that could adapt to any situation, Hunters use melee weapons to kill them as well as prevent the Seaborn from evolving countermeasures. Smart, I'll give you that. Imagine fighting a being that can tank a nuke."
Njord walked closer to the defenceless hunter.
"But nothing is perfect. The same goes for the hunters. The Seaborn blood that is in you can take over the Hunter's Aegir blood if it is left unchecked. You people can change into the monsters you hate at any second," The being chuckled, "Ironic, is it not?"
Although Njord was far away from her and was not much taller than her, Gladiia felt like he was towering over her at the moment.
"I heard most of you died, the last stand facing off the Leviathans," He hummed, "Congratulations by the way. Not an easy task to do. "
Although it seemed that he was patronizing her, Gladiia truly felt that he meant every word. Before she could ponder more on this, Njord still had something more to say.
"But can I ask something," He hummed as he focused back on her, "Why did you attack me?"
"..."
"Not the two of them," He noted, "That sword was aiming for me and me alone."
Njord raised a brow at him curiously.
"Why did you try to kill me?"
"…"
Njord did not sound bothered as he asked it. In fact, Njord genuinely sounded interested in knowing the reason.
After being quiet for long enough, Gladiia finally spoke again to answer.
"… No."
This surprised Njord.
"No? Didn't seem like it though," He hummed, "That sword was flying straight for my head. From my memories, when someone's head is gone, they die. Are there races that can survive without a head?"
"… That was the point," The hunter answered.
Now he was even more confused.
"So you did not want to kill? But rather, end my life?" Njord said what was in his mind, "Yeah. Still doesn't make sense."
With the little strength he had, Gladiaa pushed herself and finally looked straight at him. Her ruby-like eyes stared intensely at his dark blues.
"I was trying to save you." Barely standing up straight, the huntress answered.
"To end your suffering."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… Pardon?"
[]
So there's the chap.
Irene is harming up Njord and Anita is still the adorable kid that she is. So put in the famous ABC soup - I think it's famous, my mom would love to make the soup so I thought it was. I like to think that every family had that one dish, no matter how the time of the day is, they would still devour it without any second thought.
I have two.
ABC soup and green chilli spicy chicken. Man! I would eat those things like it was my final supper...
Damn, miss mom.
Anyways!
A wild Gladiia appeared! From what my brain remembered - I realized that it was not reliable - she should have been there before kidnapping our favourite nun. If my ideas on how the Seaborn and Abyssal were created, I hope for my dear life it was correct and if not, correct me.
Or better yet...
to the amazing way to promote my discord server, join it so that you get more chapters that I still not posted and you can semi-influence me on my writing. I am literally a teen that does not know writing so I need all the help[ I can get.
So here's the link and hope to see you soon. I hope.
/JZ9AvR94Fa