Tom and Arias watched the horizon. They tried to see the island. They were close to it.
"I'm glad none of us got seasick. It would have been horrible here," Tom commented. There was nothing to help with that feeling. The boy glanced at the Elementalists. Most of them who were in the ship were of the water and wind element. The four members of the council were together and spoke for a bit.
"Right. It still takes a long time to reach our destination," Arias sighed, "The wind wasn't in our favor."
(It does appear that we are near the island. I hear everyone speaking about it from my jail,) Milla'inn spoke in their mind.
They waited for another our, before they saw the island at the horizon. Tom smiled a bit as he saw the tall mountain of the island. He looked carefully and could see a plain in front of the mountain. It was obviously habitable. He wondered if the mountain was a volcano, but didn't question anyone about it. He just observed it.
"We are almost there," the fire elementalist told them.
The two glanced at the member of the council. Arias grumbled, "We can see it."
"Please be discreet while you search for the fragment. It would be too obvious if you ask around the council will ask you questions," he warned them.
"We'll be careful," Tom replied.
(I won't be able to help you in any capacity for now,) the m'arrillian told them in their mind.
The two nodded at the creature and looked at the island, growing bigger and bigger by the minutes.
Chapter 74: The Seach For The Fragment part 1
The island didn't look that different up-close. They could see a small village where the elementalist lived.
Tom could see that it was a bit smaller than the island they came from. It was probably because the members of the council didn't live here. He glanced at them. He could feel the suspicious glance of the water elementalist. There was no way to change his mind about Arias. He was still the one who had to handle this mess.
He rested his arms on the side.
Arias sighed, "We need to be careful. We shouldn't do that immediately."
"Yeah. Wait and see," he agreed.
The ship stopped at the port. After a few minutes, the group left the ship and walked on the small port.
A few elementalists came out of the ship with some crates, surely containing recourses.
Arias guessed it had some preserved food and materials that the island might lack. With the mountain, he could see that it might lack woods.
The village itself was mostly made of rock. Mountain rock at first glance. The homes were solid and could obviously resist the fury of nature.
They wandered in the village. The creatures obviously came and met with Tom. They didn't see a human in their life and were honored to meet someone who came from the Cothica. Tom tried his best to reply, but was also intimidated with how many of them tried to talk to him.
Arias just made sure that no one tried to get too close or to take his hair or part of his clothes. He couldn't believe how those creatures reacted by someone from the Cothica. The rest of Perim didn't act like that at all. He didn't wish to know why they reacted that way.
"This is enough," the wind elementalist declared. He looked at the group and waited for them to realised he was a member of the council. He moved his hand, "Please disperse and let him breath. This outsider is looking at you like you lost your mind."
They looked at the overworlder.
(They kinda did,) Milla'inn commented.
Tom spoke to them, "Thank you all for welcoming this way, but this is way too much. I'm nobody special…" he nervously chuckled.
Arias rolled his eyes discreetly.
Milla'iin replied, (You are twice special Tom,) he remembered the boy.
(I don't need that pressure too. It just felt on me,) he replied to the m'arrillian.
(Right. Still, focus on your speech.)
He took a deep breath, "I am just a human who came here and…" he felt the pressure coming out of the council. Three pair of eyes pointed at the water elementalist, "and visit your tribe," he decided to give some slack to the council. The one who caused all of this was also punished anyway, "So please, just don't jump on me like that," he let out a small smile.
It wasn't a good speech, but they didn't care. They were happy just to hear the human spoke and also the very fact they paid him a visit. They also understood that he didn't like for their tribe to just come to him. They still wanted to talk with him, but it was less chaotic and left the boy with some breathing room.
(You should probably begin without Tom Arias,) Millia'inn suggested.
The fire creatures of the council approached him, "This will take some time. You might you should look around."
The overworlder nodded. He stretched himself.
(You can go,) Tom said in his mind.
Arias was thankful that the m'arrillian linked their mind and avoided trying to whisper to each other's. It would have been suspicious. With the member of the council suggestion, he left the boy, knowing he wouldn't be in danger.
He marched in the village and casually looked around. He didn't try to search for the fragment. He just needed to observe his surrounding and mentally made a map in his mind. He was a soldier and he knew battle tactics. That wasn't really that, but knowing his surrounding was vital as a warrior. Even more in war. Knowledge is power.
He still didn't believe that Bodal could beat a creature based on how much he knew Kiru city. That would made the little guy quite scary and intimidating if it was real. He just hoped it wasn't real at all.
He continued to explore the small village. He looked around and ignored a few glares aimed at him. He was an overworlder and wouldn't take offense. He knew their tribe didn't like the other tribes because of something of the past. He thought about it and didn't remember why. He should ask the member of the council a bit of an explanation and maybe it will trigger some memories in him. Maxxor dealt with them and might know more already.
He observed the small houses. They were solid and they could surely resist an attack, but the habitants weren't warriors. Most of them were just civilians. Their tribe wasn't like the others. They didn't live in constant fear or knowledge that a war could come at any moment. They showed sign of a peaceful life.
Arias looked at the mountain and was curious about it. It was quite tall and took a large portion of the island. The village couldn't develop a lot. There was just little they could still expand. He sighed a bit and hoped that the elementalist who had the fragment didn't live at the top of the mountain. That climb would break his back, since he knew, he would need to transport Tom on his back.
There was nothing else to explore and turned back. He wondered if Tom finished talking with the creatures. Once he returned, he saw that he finished talking with a few of them, but more were asking questions about his life on the Cothica. He knew it would take a bit before he was done.
It took an hour before the boy finished talking with everyone. He was sweating a bit at how nervous he was to handle every creature who just wanted to talk with him. He took a deep breath and cleaned his forehead from the sweat he had, "Thank you everything for welcoming me. I… I think I need to look around while we are here. I came with the council to explore. I…" he didn't want to mention about being a Chaotic Player. Not because it would be bad, but because it could mean nothing for the creatures. He wondered if he explained it in a terrible way.
"Tom is accompanying us as we visit the islands. The other elementalists will have the honor to meet him too," the earth member of the council replied before it started to get awkward.
Once it was done, the group dispersed and Tom joined Arias, "T-that wasn't easy. They had so many questions."
"I can tell you are as exhausted as if you fought for a while," Arias chuckled when the boy glared at him, "Anyway, this little village is quite ordinary. They just never had an attack from the Underworld or even consider that something like that could happen. There is almost no defense here," he told him. He sighed, "It's pretty much the same on the Cothica."
"Walls wouldn't stand for more than a few seconds," Tom replied.
"You could watch everything from the stars too," the overworld grumbled as he thought back what the humans could do. It was scary what they could do in the Cothica compared to Perim. Still, humans were much weaker in their constitution, even if Tom knew the power of light.
"Anyway," Tom didn't want to talk more about this, "We should look around. Did you see anything interesting?"
"Not really. It's just a small village that never knew the constant threat of the Underworld," Arias made sure their conversation couldn't overhear by anyone who shouldn't know this "I didn't see anything special. I just hope we won't climb to the top of the mountain to find that fragment," he pointed at it.
"They found the fragments somewhere. A creature surely kept it to himself. We just need to get it without causing any issues. Anyway, you can just show me around for now," the boy said. It was best not to do anything too suspicious, "We are here for two days. We have time to look around."
"The big questions are what do we do afterward? Because they are unlikely to let us go to find all the fragments of the Cothica."
(I could fly Tom around, but it is the ocean and my stamina isn't illimited. Are you Arias are too heavy to drag around with Tom,) Milla'iin commented.
The overworlder knew it wasn't about him being fat, but it still felt like he was insulted in some way. The ram creature focused on their mission for now, "Maybe the people will let us in and talk more. We could find the merchant who came and talked about it. I'm sure you can ask out of mere curiosity."
"Yeah. I'm not sure how I can even do that naturally, but I'll try," he replied.
The creature rolled his eyes, "You humans are always curious. I'm sure it won't be strange if you ask around and try to know about this fragment. I mean, we met the creature who showed and talked about it and it got us curious what it looks like. There is nothing wrong with asking that."
After he heard that argument, Tom had to agree. He was very curious what the fragment of the Cothica looked like and what would happen if he touched it. It wasn't a normal stone. He didn't see the one the humans possessed. He had no idea where it could be on his own world. So many questions. One answer will come soon. They just need to ask politely at the creature who talked about that before.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
The next part will come in three weeks. I take a pause of a week to play more video games and advancing my original stories a bit.