The fire creature frowned and waited for an answer. That answer didn't come, "I asked you… What did you do? There is a human right here and two creatures of two different tribes! Why are they here?"
The air creature commented, "You did something in our back," and didn't ask for confirmation of the obvious.
The water member of the council searched for the best way to reply without getting into too much trouble. He closed his eyes a little bit and decided to reply, "As you said, I obviously went on your back to make the other tribes pay for what they did! I did something and you did nothing!"
The other three glanced at each other's at that confession. They had no idea how to reply right now.
Chapter 46: What To Do?
The rock creature crossed his arms and calmly said, "We want a good explanation right now. We do not want something about the other tribes has to pay. You put our tribe in trouble with bringing two creatures of other tribes here and a human here! What will the humans do? They live in the Cothica and might end contact with us forever."
The fire creature calmly went on, "We will be no better than the other tribes because of your actions. You need to think before you act Aquarius."
Aquarius frowned. He was pensive. He needed the perfect reply if he wanted to avoid too much trouble. Thinking back, the creatures would be right, but the humans were cooperative and never threatened to close the portal at all. For a while or forever. Unless it was done on his back, "The humans accepted to let us bring Tom here with the M'arrillian for his punishment. As for this Overworlder, he shouldn't even be here."
"I'm here to protect Tom from any of you who have bad intentions. I know some of you might hate Tom and try anything against him."
"He is the guide of the Overworlders."
The wind creature grunted, "And you put an entire tribe against our back now!"
"He wasn't supposed to be here! We can kill him right now and-"
"No. None of you will do anything to Arias!" Tom warned them as his eyes seemed to shine a little bit, "And you won't hurt or torture Milla'iin either."
The elementalists noticed that. The earth creature determined, "You learned the way of the Guardian of the Cothica. We can see the power you have over the light."
"Yes. I learn it so I can protect myself and also my friends. I won't let you hurt Arias or Milla'iin," he warned them.
The earth creature asked, "Did you really came here on your own free will?"
"Yes. With Milla'iin too. Arias just followed us here."
"As I said, I will protect Tom from anyone who would dare to try and hurt him," he crossed his arms and looked in the eyes of the creatures in front of him.
Aquarius decided to try and negate the damage he caused, "Since he came on his own free will, we won't have any trouble with the Cothica. Milla'iin was the creature who invaded the Cothica and we will have to judge him. He caused damaged between Perim and the Cothica, just like the tribes did before."
The fire member of the council sighed as he rolled his eyes lightly, "And you still went on our back. It could end up badly. We still could have been in a big mess with the humans."
The wind creature grunted, "You are still an idiot! Maybe we should consider to replace you."
The water creature body expended for a few seconds, "What? Are you serious? Replacing me because I did what needed to be done when you just sit on your ass doing nothing!" he crossed his arms and glared at them.
The three other elemental creatures glanced at each other's for a few seconds, before they focused on the water creature. The earth one told him, "We should think about replacing you another time. We now need to deal with the presence of intruders," he raised his hand before the other member of the council could reply, "And we will not kill the overworlder We will not go against the desire of the human... What is your name?"
"I am Tom. Tom Major," he replied.
"We will not again stand against the desire of Tom," he concluded.
Aquarius grumbled, but relented, "As the human of the Cothica wished," he gave a hateful glare at the two creatures in the least subtle way possible.
Milla'iin asked, "What would be my fate among you," his tendril pointed at himself, "The humans accepted the exchange and be brought here to face my punishment."
"You are saying that after Tom defended you," the water member of the council growled.
"Would you even care what I had to say before he defended me?" the M'arrillian asked seriously.
Aquarius was certain the creature mocked him, but couldn't find anything that might show that in his choices of words.
"I am ready to face judgement again for my sins in attacking the Cothica. I will not excuse my horrible mistakes and the damage I caused to their world."
"Words are just words," the wind creature warned him.
"Of course. I intend to prove that, but I will be loyal to Tom's words too," he warned them.
The fire elementalist sighed, "We will make a decision soon enough. For now, we need to find a place for Tom and this overworlder to stay. He is surely not going to leave his side."
"Exactly," Arias nodded to himself.
The four members of the council looked at each other's and began to talk together about how to organise everything. They knew their tribe would want to speak with the human and to know what was going on in the Cothica. They didn't hide about the invasion, but they never said anything about the other tribes just visiting the Cothica. They knew that if the elementalists knew, they would want to see what the world of the Cothica looked like. Even if that would disrespect the Cothica and the humans themselves.
As the council spoke together Tom approached the M'arrillian and the Overworlder, "Arias. How did you even plan to follow us like that?"
"The plan was to charge and follow you here. That's it. Your mom knew," Arias replied. He raised his chest a little bit. He chuckled a little bit, "I couldn't let you handle everything alone and on your own Tom. I am here to protect you and I intend to do it until the end," he put his hand on the shoulder of Tom, "Whatever you are planning here, I won't let you do it on your own."
Tom lightly sighed, before he let out a small smile, "Thanks. There is a lot," he put his finger over his mouth. He let it unsaid that he would explain more later.
Milla'iin spoke, "It was still reckless. It might have cost you if you weren't lucky. This is the elementalist territory and you are on you own. It could have been a bloodbath."
"Like I will take those comments from you," he replied. The overworlder would never forget what the chieftain did before.
"He is right Arias. If they didn't listen to me, it could have been badly," he nervously scratched the back of his head. The human closed his eyes and sighed. He had a lot to discreetly explain Arias later on. He needed to wait for a while. He crossed his arms and focused on the four elementalists who continued to talk about what they should do.
They did give a quick glance at Milla'iin and seemed to agree to something meant that it was for the other two.
"I'm sure I'll be in jail very soon," the M'arrillian commented.
"Obviously," the other creature nodded and smirked a little bit.
The teenager couldn't disagree with the obvious. He knew the M'arrillian would be in jail and there was nothing he could do about it. He will try to visit him and made sure he was okay. He had no intention of letting him in there.
The two had a long journey far ahead and they were only at the beginning.
Tom reminded himself that he still needed to train and to get better with his power. He would need it soon enough.
Aquarius grunted loudly as he turned around and crossed his arms. He glared at the overworlder and seemed to curse the creature about something.
Whatever the members of the council seemed to agree on, except the water creature, it surely had something to do with Arias.
The fire creature glanced at the others. He saw them nod at him. He was the one who will explain everything to them, "We finally reached a conclusion. Since we never wanted this situation to happen and Aquarius acted against our back, we won't put Arias in jail with the creature who leaded the invasion of the Cothica," he furiously glanced at Millia'iin as he declared those.
The large eye of the M'arrillian glanced at the ground in shame. He still remembered how caught up he was by Aa'une's words and beliefs. He didn't defend himself. He was guilty of that. Still, he would atone for it. He got his chance and wouldn't waste it. His tribe still had a guide to the Cothica, despite everything he did. They had a better leader now, from what Tom told him.
Arias interrupted the M'arrillian thought, "And what would come of me?" he frowned a little, "As you know, I came here to watch and protect Tom."
"We decided that you can stay with Tom. We haven't chosen a place for you to stay while with made sure that everything is okay and we won't be in trouble because of him," his fire finger accursedly pointed at the water being who glared back, "Again Tom. We are sorry for this entire mess," he put his hand on his chest and bowed.
"Don't do that please," Tom was a bit embarrassed.
"Anyway. We will find a place where you two can rest together for the night and we will find a suitable location tomorrow. We have little time and I'm sure someone will let you stay while you remain here," he approached the teenager and whispered, "We believe Aquarius might try to get you again if you return to your home. Apologise for that," he took a few steps back.
"Good. I'll keep a good eye on you Tom. You will be safe from any of those weirdos with me," the ram smirked at Aquarius.
The creature clenched his hands into a fist. It looked more like a ball of water, but they knew it was a fist that just wanted to smash the smirk our of Arias.
"Milla'iin will be jailed of course. We cannot allow freely a creature who invaded the Cothica. I need to know more about the matter, since he came with you two," the fire creature asked them.
"He was arrested and judge in our world. With him asking to bring Milla'iin here, he is going to be jailed here… from what you said," Tom briefly explained as he glanced at the M'arrillian, "He was sentenced for prison to life on our world for his crime against our world."
The creature knew very well his judgement, made and recorded. It would appear to the public very soon, "I came here because of Aquarius demands," he forced himself to not go further an antagonize the creature too much. He looked at them in the eyes, "I won't make any excuse for what I did. It is a great sin and I have no excuse to why I've done it."
Tom wanted to protest, but a quick 'Don't' in his mind from the M'arrillian and he decided to respect his wish, against his will.
Milla'iin raised his tendril, "Bring me to your jail."
The council were a bit taken aback by it, but they didn't protest. They brought a few guards to bring the creature into his jail. After this, they looked into the boy and the creature, "It will take a while before we find a place for you to stay. You can stay here for now," the fire creature concluded. He glanced at the water being, "We have one last thing to settle."
Aquarius didn't like this one bit. Still, he knew he wouldn't lose his position. Still, he guessed his influence would drop quite sharply.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
Next: Explanation.
Tom explained a little bit of his other reason he came here.