The Scepter of Marahuyo

Chapter 052

Cold. I shift on my bed that’s made up of wood and dried leaves. We don’t have blankets, but we have our robes. It’s not enough in the early morning air, though. I know there should be a fire going, but it might have been extinguished already. I open my eyes. It’s too cold. I need to make a fire. I open my eyes, then blink.

In front of me is the tiny creature that Al had summoned. It’s staring at me with its silver, glistening eyes that are half of its body. I sit up in surprise. Ugh. I groan as I feel dizzy with the sudden movement. I massage my head. Al did not return the little creature because he couldn’t open his celestial ocean again. He says he needs to practice doing it. I look at the little creature again, who’s approaching my hands and looking up at me. It looks cute with its round body and huge eyes as it peers on me. Hopefully, it’s not a dangerous creature. I exhale. Al will need more practice to be able to use it. If I remember correctly, Al discovered it at twenty-one years old, which is just in time for him to use and practice it in the selection for another country.

The fire had used up the little wood we gathered yesterday. I sit close to it and watch the grayish ash. We need more wood if we are to take our breakfast. I search for Ethan. He’s sleeping soundly as he shares Al’s body warmth. Then—Wait, where’s Aicelle?

I look around the cave, which is easy because it’s a small one. I walk towards the mouth of the cave and search around. A foot above me is Aicelle hanging over a stone and looks to be trying to go to another cave on top of us. I frown.

I kneel for a while, activate my anito, and focus on the area I need to go to. Then, my blessing burst, and with it, the wind propelled me directly into the second cave. I go to Aicelle and offer my hand to her.

“Thank you,” she says and get into the cave.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I see an old lady.”

“We’re in the mountains. No human would get here.”

“Or at least, a creature that looks like a small old lady,” she corrects herself.

If she saw something, it might be a monster that looked like a human. There are a couple I can think of, and I hope that it’s not the dangerous ones that she saw. Since this never happened in my previous timeline, this event is entirely a blank slate for me.

“Let’s return, Aicelle.”

We’re lucky that we didn’t come across any monsters yet despite being in the northern mountains.

Aicelle glances at the cave and looks at me. She points at the inside of the cave, which looks to go on forever. Unfortunately, it’s dark, so I can’t see that much.

“Are you not curious?” she asks.

“No,” is my flat reply. Why would I be curious when I know that we would encounter nothing but monsters if we go deeper?

“Ah, you’re no fun. Fine, let’s go back.”

I sigh. Thankfully, Aicelle is easy to talk to.

I use my blessing to bring myself down to our small cave, then helps Aicelle too. Somehow, I am thankful that I’m able to use my wind successfully now. I can’t even imagine how I survived as a mage without tapping into my wind and rain blessings. I pause. Yeah, I only survived until I was twenty-two years old.

Aicelle wakes up the two guys while I stretch myself. The opening of the cave is behind me. The sun starts to appear, casting shadows into the cave. I felt the warmth of the sun, and I love how it thaws my chilled skin. I pause. I’m not the only shadow. There is another being with me. I whirl around and see a small old lady at the opening of the cave. She’s regarding our makeshift beds, the fire that’s died out, and our clothes.

“Young mages from Marahuyo,” she says. Then it opens its mouth, showing a set of teeth that’s unnatural. It looks to be carved to look like a shark. Its eyes look at us in a sinister way and then whisper, “Delicious.”

I forget to breathe for a while. But then, remember that I need to activate my blessing, in case this old lady is also a mage, probably a powerful mage to be able to get into the mountains.

I hear thuds behind me. I glance back and see that Al, Ethan, and Aicelle are having difficulty breathing. I look back at the old lady. What’s happening?!

“Hmmm,” the old lady mutters. She looks me up and down as if I’m a ware that’s to be auctioned off and says, “We got someone durable here.”

I take a step back. Bad. The old lady is a mage. I need to give them some potion to help them breathe. I glance back again and see the little creature on top of Al. A tear falls from its huge eyes and into Al’s mouth. Then it goes to Aicelle to do the same.

“What kind of monster is that?” the old lady asks.

I don’t answer because I don’t know either.

“Nevermind that. Hey!” the old lady calls on her side. “Who’s the girl you said you want?”

There is a trilling sound as if a chirping bird and then nothing.

“I only understood half of what you said. Come and point at the correct girl.”

And the creature comes out and shows itself to us. Now, there are two shadows in the cave. One is that of the old woman, and the other is of a—I study its features, it has bird-like qualities, feathers sticking out of its makeshift human clothes, reversed toes and fingers, a beak, and a colorful hat.

“A kibaan,” I whisper. It mimics the clothes of the old woman. Wrap-arounds in geometric shapes, sizes and colors--mostly red and orange.

“Oh! You know what this is? I didn’t know Marahuyo had an outstanding mage this year.”

The creature pulls on the hem of the older woman’s clothes and then points at Aicelle, who’s just recovering from the effect of the older woman’s magic.

“The tall girl? Why? Pick the petite girl instead.”

The creature shakes its head vigorously. I groan at the disbelief of the scene. Kibaans are high-level monsters who can communicate with other kibaans, not with humans. They are one of the few monsters who can use magic. Not the ones that came from the gods, but their own magic. Human mages can also develop their own magic, but require a god to give them the needed magic. It’s the same concept with my transportation magic. It’s not intrinsic to Anitun Tabu, but something that’s powered up by Anitun Tabu’s magic.

“Fine, the tall girl then,” the old woman agrees, which the kibaan seems to be happy about.

“Choosing me for what?” Aicelle whispers to me.

“His unrequited love.”

Ethan muffles a giggle, and Aicelle looks murderously at him.

“Kibaans are prone to fall in an unrequited love with women, have their hearts broken and then seek revenge for that misfortune,” I interrupt. “You can ask for its forgiveness though.”

“That’s crazy! It’s its fault it fell in love in the first place!”

Suddenly, the walls of the cave quake, and debris starts to fall around us. We need to get out. Then the Kibaan removes its human clothes and flies, taking the older woman with it. Its wingspan is huge, around ten meters in each, dwarfing its small body. With that width, it might be a powerful wing. I wouldn’t want to be hit by that.

Suddenly, the older woman uses a whip to take us from the cave--which got destroyed--and set us down at the foot of the mountain.

“Sorry about that,” the old woman says. “Every time I activate my blessing, it’s destroying the surrounding areas.”

I look back at the destruction of the cave. There is a small landslide that belies the fact that previously there was a cave there. If that’s the damage she can do with just the activation, how much more if the older woman becomes serious? I search for the little creature. It’s peeking from Al’s breast pocket.

“Let’s start then?” the old woman asks, in which the kibaan answers in a chirping voice.

To be continued...