Chapter 18: To Ask a Request

Saria: “Three months ago, a huge earthquake, shook the area. Such things are rare not unheard of, it was quickly put aside once the shaken had cease. If I had paid more attention, we would not be in this predicament. Not long after the earthquake, some of my sisters reported smaller lakes in the area had been completely dried.

Nathan: “Do the lakes in the area, ever dry up?”

Saria: “No, Lakes that at times would overflow, had all its water evaporate overnight. Tatia my sister in charge of the southern areas, informed me that many of our sisters had witness a boulder, with spikes covering its body, hovering away from sites, in which the lakes had dried.

Nathan started to form an image in his mind, at least what he thought it might look like.

Nathan: “And then you’d called for help?”

Saria: “No, not at first, I wanted to be sure that there was actually a threat, as I’ve told you, we don’t normally have any trouble within these walls, if someone told you a boulder, floated away all on its own, would you have believed it.

Nathan: “No, probably not, but didn’t anyone attempt to pursue the boulder, to be sure of its existence?”

Saria: “I did just that, the story was ridiculous, but there was no reason for any of us to lie in such a situation, I directed the water nymphs to repair as much as they can, while I follow

Nathan: “And you found it?”

Saria: “Yes, it was just as everyone had said a floating boulder, with spikes protruding from its body, silently hovering around, then it would open its eye, completely black, like staring into a void, pulling into the black.

Saria was noticeably shivering, Celes shook her a bit to snap her out of it. Saria smiled and patted her head.

Saria: “But the creature was different from how I imagined, not the way it looked, just how it acted.”

Nathan: “How so?”

Saria: “When I finally caught up to it, it was just hovering along, many of my sisters had flown right by it, one had even fell right in its path, but it paid them no mind, it just continued to dry up all the water in the area, as if we didn’t exist.”

Nathan: “That’s a good thing, it isn’t hostile.”

Saria: “Yes, but it still wouldn’t stop drying out the pond, in a matter of seconds it was done, then it just moved on. I immediately sent word to the Grassvalley Tribe, to ask for assistance, that was a nearly a month ago.”

Nathan: “Does it usually take this long?”

Saria: “No, never, they would usually respond within a few days.”

Anais: “Wait, something doesn’t add up, why didn’t the eye boulder, cast the same enchantment on all the other areas, as it did that one area, it wouldn’t have to keep drying up your water sources, right?”

Saria: “Yes, I wondered that as well, in fact nothing it does make sense, the directions it takes, the lakes it dries are ones that are stand alone, they were made by us, to make water more accessible in those areas. It avoids the larger lakes all together, except “Lake Vitae”, the largest lake in that part of the “Garden”. All the smaller lakes and ponds that we repaired, the eye just circled back around and dried them out, once again. It’s like it doesn’t want to leave that area.”

As the Anais and Saria converse, Nathan glanced over to Iris, she looks as though she wanted to say something, but Nathan signaled her not to. Given her nature, he could, pretty much guess what she wanted to ask, but it would most likely cause unnecessary strain.

Saria: “Nothing made sense, that was until you arrive.”

Nathan: “So, when I showed up, you were thinking something along the lines, I sent the creature to make preparation for my arrival, to make an area where I could rest or something, right?

Saria: “…………You have a very keen intellect, as if your reading my thought.”

Nathan: “I catch on fast, but what I don’t get is, why would, having Iris with me, bring about immediate assumptions, that I’m holding her prisoner, why would you think that?”

Saria: “Well, to be honest its isn’t normal. For any “Fae” creature to be so close to human, it is unheard of.”

Iris: “I was chosen to be the Hero’s Guardian.”

Saria: “Yes, but at the time we didn’t know that, Fae, especially Fairies are usually captured and made into slaves for humans and the like, seeing you with one, we had assumed the worst.”

Nathan: “What!?”

Everyone looked to Nathan, for his sudden outburst, he didn’t realize how loud he was being.

Saria: “I see, you really don’t know, Fairies are one of the few Fae who have a high Mana capacity, when they are captured, they are used as mana deposits. I’m not too keen on the details, but I heard that some occasion, we are used to, restore objects that need mana to be utilized.”

Nathan: “Are you kidding me!?”

Nathan was really surprised by this revelation, all the fairies he read about were always revered or allies of men. To think someone had the idea of turning them into batteries. The thought of that, really upset him.

Nathan: “Well, she’s not my slave, I can assure you of that and she never will be.”

Unbeknownst to Nathan, his declaration had cause Iris to turn red. She turned her head to one side, to keep from being discovered.

Saria: “I see, forgive me for my accusations.”

Nathan: “I swear people in this world apologize way too much, let’s get back on topic.”

Nathan, felt as though Saria constant apologizing, was a ploy. It felt like she was trying to get on the best of terms. She wanted to ask something of him and he knew exactly what that was. He would beat her to the punch.

Nathan: “Well, if the eyeball boulder, is willingly confining itself to one area, all you have to do is wait for your guardians to arrive and take care of it.” There is absolutely no need to provoke it, right?”

Nathan knew that they were planning to ask him to try and fight it. To be honest, half of him wanted to try and fight, it would be nice to help and it could give him a boost in Exp. On the other hand, he could end up getting completely outmatched, plus Iris and Anais would definitely follow him, completely ignoring his pleas for them not to go. The last thing he wanted to do is lead them into a slaughter.”

If only he weren’t surrounded by Fae, he probably could fight it. He noticed that it’s only the Fae that get entranced by “Origin”. Anais can feel its power, but she still completely coherent when he unsheathes it. Having them closing in on the blade while he’s trying to use it, would make it completely useless.

Saria paused for a moment.

Saria: “……………No, I guess there isn’t.”

Saria, looked down to Celes, who smiled back, she had lost her chance to ask for assistance, but it felt more like, he deliberately said what he said, to keep her from asking him to help. She wanted to reclaim her sister’s home as soon as possible, but she failed, asking someone to fight a battle that could be avoided, was ridiculous.

Nathan: “So, now that we’ve cleared all misunderstandings, I liked to ask if you can provide us passage to the exit?”

Saria was shocked, they were planning to leave right away, this was bad. She wasn’t sure when the Grassvalley Tribe would show, she could still ask for assistance, if worse comes to worse. If he left now and things change, she doesn’t know what they’ll do. Fortunately, she didn’t have to do anything, but tell the truth.

Saria: “………..I’m sorry, but I have no control over that.”

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Anais: “I you kidding me, a barrier, a wall, and now, a stupid door, that can only be opened from the other side.”

Nathan: “Nothing for it, we’ll just have to wait.”

Iris: “What if they try and attack us, once its open, should we fight back?”

Nathan: “I keep saying, we can’t take on a tribe, that’s why I needed to clear the misunderstandings with Saria, if she vouches for us, she can secure safe passage, but for now we’ll just have to deal with it.”

Anais: “Even after you deliberately avoided, her asking us to fight, we just might end up doing just that, this sucks.”

Nathan: “I’m surprised you caught on to that, Anais.”

Anais: “What, did you think I was only as smart as the books I eat.”

Nathan: “…………………………………Of course not.”

Anais: “WHAT WAS THAT PAUSE!?”

Nathan continued poking fun at Anais. He looked over to Iris, she was lost in thought, floating along in auto pilot.

Anais: “What’s going on with her, it’s not normal for bugs to be quiet.”

The remark snapped Iris from her thoughts.

Iris: “I would not expect rodents to understand, such complicated matters.”

Anais: “What did you call me!?”

Nathan stepped in between the two, as usual.

Nathan: “Calm down girls, Iris, Anais, is just worry about you in her own way.

Anais: “Yeah right.”

Nathan bopped Anais on the head.

Nathan: “Let me guess, you upset, that not once in that talk did they ever attempt to rid their home of the threat themselves, right.”

Iris: “It as you say, how could they be so incline to have others do a job that they could do themselves, they have all that power but they don’t even use it when they need to.”

Nathan: “Iris, they leave in a Paradise, until now every threat has been dealt with before they even knew, I’m pretty sure they still don’t know half of them, you can’t expect them to just suddenly take arms, when they never did so before.”

Iris: “I understand, but it’s just so infuriating, to think she was moments away from asking you to fight a fight she had no intention of fighting.”

Anais: “That’s what happens, when you live your life protected by others, you will depend on them for everything, you can’t blame them for how they handle situations, it’s not their fault.”

Iris: “Even, still.”

Nathan: “Don’t get so upset, wants that Grassvalley Tribe gets here, we can leave and you never have to come back, so for now let’s chill.”

The three decided to split up for now, Saria provided them each with there on housing plant, as Nathan suggested. Iris, didn’t want to be apart from Nathan, but Nathan was against sleeping in the same housing, it was wat too dangerous for him, to sleep in the same place as Iris, but he didn’t say that out loud. A reluctant Iris, gave in to Nathan’s demand after arguing for fifteen minutes and only if her plant could be right next to his.

After they all went their separate ways, Nathan rested for a bit. He couldn’t sleep as usual, but the flower bed was pretty, comfortable. He chuckled at his lame pun and pulled up his status screen, all his time he spent fiddling with it and he still didn’t understand half of it. Having such a perplexing Legacy made it twice as hard, there were lots of Passive abilities compared to Magic abilities, but a lot of them were cryptic or not explain at all.

The fact that he, could enter the enchantment and not even realize its effects on his body was scary. If not for his “Threat Detection”, he could stroll into an area and be completely unaware of the danger. It appears abilities, he would use most often were kept on main screen, while others were kept in sub screen and only make themselves known when there active. Though he had to be sure, it required experimentation and he knew exactly where to go for such exercises. Plus, everyone was right about the enchantment, why would it choose, only that spot to enchant. Maybe, he could find something while exploring that could give these girls, a little bit of peace, he’d be, killing to birds, with one stone.

He wanted to sneak out, but he had the sneaky suspicion he was being watched, by a certain Fae. He moved aside a pedal covering a window ever so slightly. And sure, as hell, Iris had her eyes, locked on his room.

Nathan: “Fricking, sentinel.”

Any chance of sneaking out was impossible with Iris watching his every move, but luckily, he thought ahead. Earlier that day, he asked Saria could she provide him with a bag full of seeds of all the plants in the area. Most of them were fruit and some rare flowers, but he struck gold with one particular, flower.

Lillaby Class: Plant

Lillaby, release a very soothing, almost undetectable aroma. When exposed to the scent, one slowly fall, into a deep slumber, completely unaware that they are. If ground into powder, its potent enough to instantly, put targets to sleep, for days.

Effects: Sleep, Refresh

All he had to do was plant a couple around her room, but with all the bustle going around him, he’d be instantly spotted. He needed to find a way to covertly plant them. He took another look over his sub-screens.

Nathan: “Oh right, let’s try that.”

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Nathan step out into the moonlight, the breeze felt good on his skin. He strolled the short distance to Iris’s room, careful not to step on the nymph’s asleep on the ground. His “Pollination” worked a little too well, he had meant for the seeds to be distributed around Iris’s room, instead, the wind carried them across the area. Now, all around him, naked girls, laid sprawled across the ground, completely defenseless. He knew he looked like a woman, but it was times like this, that he was glad he was a man. These were moments they dream of.

He peeked inside Iris’s room, she sat in seiza, positioned so she can see out the window. Soft breathing could be heard, as her head sloped to the side, indicating the flowers did its job. Nathan snickered, she was dedicated, even fast asleep she still held her position. Quietly, he strolled over to her, lifting her up and gently placing her on the bed.

Nathan: “*Whisper*Sorry about this, you can scold me later.”

He exited her room and casually headed away, enjoying the scene. The moonlight, made the scene, look like something right out of a painting. As he reached the edge of the area, he took one more look back, before walking away, disappearing into the night.