Monsoon

Hello! I’m Monsoon and welcome to my first contribution in this collaborative journal of our exploits and adventures. We left Ryciden two days ago and were now heading towards the third biggest city in Lithiyurn, Alucaya. Ever since our first week of camping out NoName has volunteered to take watch every night, this is because even when they are ‘sleeping’ they are still very conscious. But at some point most of us started to feel bad for them taking watches all night, so for the first hour NoName stands on watch alone, but every hour after we all take turns watching with them once. After our turn is done we go to sleep and someone else takes the person’s turn with NoName still there helping. I was on the first shift keeping watch with NoName, my shift was coming to an end so I went over to wake up the person who was up next: Corrin. I walked over to him but he was already awake, just staring into the night sky, so I did what any reasonable person would do; scare the ever living shit out of him.

So I quickly placed my hands on his shoulders and loudly whispered into his ear, “Hey Corrin watcha lookin’ at?”

In reaction Corrin jumped a bit where he was sitting and looked behind him and with annoyed look in his face and tone in his voice he said “My turn to keep watch already yeah?”

I just gave him a simple nod and motioned my hands in a forward motion, asking him to actually answer my question.

With a sigh Corrin replied “You know Ranon, my god, is said to pick two champions every generation, one to wield his axe that splits the sky and one to wear his mask that sees the stars. I don’t really get why you need Ranon’s mask to see the stars when we can see them so clearly like this though. I do wonder what it would be like to see the stars through that mask though.”

I’m not a follower of a particular god like Corrin or Kellen, so I don’t quite understand the reverence he puts in them but I just let him continue, as I was interested.

Corrin saw my face and continued, “Back in my monastery they say that each and every star up there is someone who was once a champion of Ranon. They also said that the star the shines the brightest, the north star is Ranon’s first champion Karell, watching over us guiding us so that we are always under someone’s light.”

I suddenly had a thought and asked Corrin “I know that Ranon is the God of The Stars and Sky, but what do they actually teach you in your monastery besides, things about the stars and the sky. And to add on to that what would they teach you if you followed Ranon’s siblings, Fafor: Passion of the Core, or Salos: The Ocean’s Wrath.”

Corrin took a second and wrote something in a notepad he had hanging on his belt before he finally replied and started talking at what seemed like a million words a minute, “Like you would think most of the teachings for the Gods born directly of Tethia: The Primal Bloom, would be about how their respective domains give us blessings. Along with that though they teach us about how our respective gods acted and how they lead by example and we should follow them. Fafor, the god of the flames and earth, is a less personal example for me and is depicted as hot-blooded and passionate, but that drive and passion is used to protect those which they care about most, their domain and their children. So people under Fafor are usually taught how to be passionate, how to protect others, and the burden and honour of responsibility, since Fafor is the one who holds the earth together. Salos is temperamental like the seas and storms are, calm some days, angry others, those under their domain are taught the importance of how to control their emotions. They are taught about why each and every emotion we feel is as important as the changes we feel in our life are akin to the tides and the storms. While my god Ranon, is depicted as the calmed out all of them, living in the moment and seeking joy above all else. So we under Ranon are taught the beauty of freedom as such, but are also taught not to confuse freedom with an excuse to be naive. We are taught that there are things that even the skies and stars would scorn and to not invoke their anger. So even if Tethia’s children may not seem to have the clearest teachings to outsiders, what are we taught is to understand and strive to be a person that could emulate our god’s will”

I tried to follow that and I mostly did, but Corrin was talking really fast, like he was reciting a super long tongue twister that he didn’t want to mess up. I got the general gist of it though and replied to him, “Wow I could barely keep track of any of that but I think I got the general gist, thanks for answering my question Corrin.”

Corrin then had a shocked look of realisation on his face, like he didn’t realise how fast he was talking. He looked a little embarrassed and then just stood up and went to find a place to keep watch.

I went back over to my sleeping bag and tried to sleep but just couldn’t, so I stayed for a bit. I decided that doing some experiments would be fun. I walked over to our cart, got my bag of supplies and stayed up for a few hours doing experiments.

⠂⠂⠂

I didn’t notice I was up for so long until I looked up and Liz was just staring at me right in my face.

“Hey Brain Coral, why are you still up? I thought your shift was before the Newt’s? And why does something smell burnt?” Liz said pointing to my alchemy kit.

I looked over at my kit then realised I let something on heat for too long. I quickly took it off the flame and placed it on something else and quickly cast ‘Frostbite’ under it, so it would cool off. Bad things would’ve happened if Liz hadn’t told me about the weird smell. I stared at Liz for a bit and said, “You know up close you’re a lot prettier than your abrasive exterior would suggest”

Liz gave me a quizzical look and said, “Heh? Thanks Brain Coral but I don’t think your sister would like you flirting with me.” she finished, chuckling.

I cocked one of my eyebrows and was confused for a second before I replied, “Oh, no I don’t mean like that I just mean objectively speaking you’re very attractive, though now that you brought up my sister I’ve been meaning to ask you, mainly because she won’t answer me.”

“Go ahead Brain Coral, ask away.” Liz told me.

And asked away I did, “What happened when you two had your one night stand.”

Liz gave me a hearty chuckle, like she expected but was still surprised I was so blunt, “Look nothing really happened with the Airhead, Monsoon. Plus it's not really polite to kiss and tell you what I mean, what if I asked you about a one night stand you had?”

“I wouldn’t mind, I’ve actually had one before, honestly it wasn’t the best and made me realise I’m not really looking for anything sexual in a realtionship. Don’t tell my siblings that though, the one-night stand part, they already know about the asexual part” I replied to Liz.

Liz looked a little shocked at my reply, like she didn’t expect me to have an example. She let out a light chuckle before replying, “I was kidding Brain Coral, but good to know you know yourself, I guess. But yeah generally it’s considered rude to tell people about your sexual activities without consent of the other person if possible. Don’t worry about the other part by the way, lips are sealed.” She finished as she tightened an invisible string in front of her mouth, meaning she would keep her lips shut.

I replied with a simple nod.

“Well I gotta get back on watch with NickName over there have a good time doing whatever you’re doing Brain Coral.”

⠂⠂⠂

So I did, I stayed up for a bit longer, I was about to go to sleep when the person next on shift Kellen noticed me.

“Monsoon? Why are you still up? I thought your shift ended like two hours ago.” Kellen said as she stared at me

I took a second to reply as I was still messing with my last potion, but when I did I said, “I just wanted to get some work in before I went to sleep, there’s been an effect I’ve been trying to get for awhile.”

“Well you should get to sleep, it’s really bad for you to stay up this late, you won’t feel rested enough when you wake up. If you have trouble sleeping I could help you, I’ve been helping Seethe with it for a bit since he told me he gets nightmares.” She suggested.

And the plot thickens, or so I thought to myself. I noticed my brother was a bit smitten with her but I didn’t know she helped him with his recurring nightmares too. If he’s not careful he might just fall for her, I let out a little chuckle. Kellen looked at me chuckling with a cocked head, before she quickly turned her head and sent a telepathic message into the head of NoName and I.

“I sense someone close, NoName come out of stasis but don’t act awake yet, Monsoon pretend like you’re going to sleep. We need to be vigilant, I think we’re being surrounded, I can’t tell by how many though.”

I saw in the corner of my eye that NoName’s glowing orbs flickered for a moment as they came out of stasis. I listened to Kellen, packed up my equipment and pretended like I was going to sleep. Before I was able to rest my head down though, a large crow came out of nowhere and swooped down flying in circles around our camp and kept cawing, which woke everybody up. Kellen grabbed her hammer and shield and while unarmored faced the direction of the person she had sensed before. This person came out with her hand extended and a bird handling glove on said haid, and the large crow rested on her arm. Slowly from the forest a pack of varying canine creatures came out and this person with a crossbow at her side, raised her arms up, signalling she didn’t want a fight.