Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 22 – Yellow Dotted Snails Quest – part 1

Outside the Guild, Byia signaled for the others to join her in an alley between two office buildings. She looked from the corner to the entrance and saw a group of four Explorers looking around, trying to find something. She made a frown and spoke to her companions in a low voice, “It seems someone overheard us. Lodon, where is that place you know that has the snails? It is far from here?”

“Not really; the entrance is near that small park where we used to play when we were kids. I guess there are more entrances in the City, but I know that one, and from there I can find the spawning place of those snails. I don’t know if everyone will want to enter because it’s rather smelly and dirty.”

Byia raised one eyebrow and asked, “I don’t know any place like that in that park, or you…”

She exclaimed with her eyes wide open. “No way! You are talking about that metal hatch to the sewers where you once trapped me and Guyi? It took me three days to get rid of the smell!”

Lodon nodded with an awkward smile. “Yeah, that’s the place, but it was your fault for trying to find another exit and swimming along the dirty water. You could have waited for me and my friends to go away, and you could get out.”

Byia poked his chest, making Lodon gulp. “I could if your supposed friends didn’t put a bunch of rocks and a park bench on top of the hatch. I wanted to kill you after that, but Guyi stopped me. I think he liked the adventure when we were searching for another exit. I agreed at that time because it was quite fun, but the problem was the smell and the trouble I had to clean myself up before my mother found out what happened!”

Lodon tried to change the subject because having Byia speak so close was getting to him. “We… Shouldn’t we go? You seemed to be in a hurry.”

Byia took one last peek from the corner and signaled for the others to swim in the opposite direction of that suspicious group of Explorers.

Lodon went to the front, guiding them through the backstreets and small alleys he always used when he wanted to go to that park alone without his friends knowing it.

He had a special spot where he always liked to go ever since he was young, where no one could see him cry every time his mother confused him with his unborn sister twin, and upon entering the Park, he inadvertently went straight there. Without even thinking, he went to a small cluster of tall plants and sat in the far corner, between a tall plant and a pile of rocks. Byia and the others kept following him, but when he sat on the ground, staring at the root of a plant in complete silence, a voice from afar took him from his thoughts.

Lodon looked up and saw Byia frowning at him. “What are we doing here? The hatch is nowhere near here! Hey, wake up, will you? You have a weird look… Lodon, are you listening to me?”

Lodon blinked a few times and saw everyone else staring at him with puzzled looks. He glanced around and tried to come up with an excuse. “Sorry… I got distracted… You are right, it’s that way…”

Byia placed one hand over his left shoulder to make him sit again and sat at his side. Guyi took the hint and signaled for the others to follow him, leaving them alone.

She waited a few seconds for Lodon to recover from the dead look he had and asked when she thought he was taking too long to recover to his usual state of ‘too surprised to contradict her’, “What’s the matter? You kept swimming all the way here without saying a word, and you came straight here when you knew that you were supposed to guide us to the place where you saw those snails. I am used to seeing your stupid smile or hearing you mock me, but it’s weird seeing you like this, especially after today, when I saw you smiling so much with your mother. What’s the matter? You are scared because I forced you to join the Guild, or what?”

Lodon made a slight smile and stared at his paws while speaking. “Yeah, sorry, I came here without even thinking. It’s just… kind of embarrassing.”

“More than wearing a couple of claw beautifiers and necklaces? Really? Come on, spit it out; what’s the matter?”

Lodon glanced at her and stared at his claws again. “Why the interest? Why do you seem so worried like that?”

Byia shrugged and played with a small rock near her. “I am not; I don’t care if you cry, laugh, slit your throat, or if a wild animal eats you. Well, for these last two, I am worried because your mother would be sad. I just want to get this over with so that I can go home before it’s morning, and my mother finds it weird that I don’t go eat my breakfast, comes to my room, and finds out I am not in my bed, and I was out all night.”

“Yeah… I guess I deserve this treatment…”

“What do you expect, Lodon? That suddenly I had magically forgotten all the times you hurt me, called me names, mocked me, threw me mud, or told lies about me so that every kid around could laugh and make me feel miserable? I couldn’t even fight back or take your head off together with the heads of those stupid friends of yours because I promised my father to never use his training to beat up someone who couldn’t handle all the pain I could inflict! Now, speak, why did you come here?”

Lodon fiddled with his claws and answered, “I guess… It was because you said I could use the money to help my parents. I was thinking about that all the way here, and then I remembered all the times I came to this park when my mother treated me as if I were my unborn sister. This is my hiding place, for when I am too sad because of my mother, or I want to think about everything I could be doing if my twin sister had come out of her egg.”

Byia frowned and pulled him up. “Let’s go before you start to cry again, you crybaby. We don’t have all night, you know?”

“Okay… You could try not to be so mean to me… Yeah, sorry, totally forgot…”

Byia tilted her head and snorted, “You are the last Water-Dragon that could say I am mean, you bully. I understand why you had to find a place for yourself. I have one as well, because of you. If my mother had the same condition as yours, I would need a spot like this one. I hope she gets well soon because I like your mother. You, not so much.”

Byia turned away and went to meet Guyi. After a couple of seconds, Lodon quickly cleaned his eyes and mumbled, “Yeah, she has every reason to despise me. This hurts so much… Even when she is angry, she is cute.”

Lodon quickly followed her to one corner behind the wall that surrounded the Park, where Sveta Roolyi was already pulling up the lever of the hatch. Cruvir was cleaning the edges to make it easier, and Guyi was puzzled while using a small dagger to open the hatch.

Lodon heard Guyi grumbling while scratching the rough edge of the hatch: “Why this stupid thing doesn’t open? There is a secret to this, or what?”

Lodon pointed to a small hole near the lever and placed a claw inside. A click was heard, and he smiled. “This was put here after the park guards found out that you were swimming inside the sewage pipes. It seems there is a warning system to warn them when the pipes get clogged, and they also changed a bit this hatch. The father of one of my friends is a guard in this Park, and he told me how to open the hatch and how to deactivate the alarms inside the pipes years ago. Let me do this; the holes that hide the switches are near the edge, but we need to open the hatch just enough for my arm to reach them.”

Sveta slowly pulled the hatch until Lodon told her to stop, and he put his right arm inside the narrow opening. When two clicks were heard, he nodded. “You can open it completely; the alarm is deactivated. Maybe it’s better if I go ahead. I know where those snails are, and these pipes are a little confusing.”

Sveta looked at the opening and frowned. “I don’t think I fit in this. The pipes are this narrow?”

“No, only the opening. The pipes are enough for two of us to swim side by side. You just need to squeeze yourself a little to go through this opening. Maybe we can push you a little to help you.”

Sveta didn’t wait for Lodon. She tried to enter head-first and used her front paws to push her body in, but she got stuck on her waist. Lodon approached the hatch and spoke to the inside. “Exhale as much as you can. We will push your butt to help you.”

Sveta shouted from the inside, but Cruvir was already getting ready. “No one dares to push my butt! I am a lady, you moron!”

Cruvir swam upward and pointed straight at Sveta. He swam down, front paws ready, and hit her right in the butt, making her go past the hatch with him falling on top of her inside the large pipe.

She pushed him away with her tail and spoke while rubbing her butt: “Stupid, I said not to touch my butt! Get off me! You didn’t even invite me for a date, so why are you touching my smooth chest skin like that?”

Cruvir stuttered, making Byia burst into laughter when she joined them. “I… just wanted to help… We couldn’t enter with you blocking the entrance…”

Sveta frowned and pointed at the pipe ahead that had a thin line of light coming from both sides near the ceiling. “Now you are saying that I am fat enough to block the hatch? I just entered in the wrong position! Let’s go before I take your head off, you stupid! Lodon, lead the way!”

Lodon did his best to hide his smile and swam ahead, with Guyi and Rodhy, right after him. Cruvir avoided one tail slap from Sveta, and Byia grabbed her while muffling laughter. “Pffft!… Let him go. If it weren’t for him, you would still be working as a hatch over there. Hey, it’s not my fault if you are so big! It would probably be better if you ate fewer cookies and biscuits; you are always eating during class. No wonder your butt got so big!”

Byia swam away as fast as she could, with Sveta trying to get her, and they bumped against the others at the front, making Lodon warn them, “Quiet, or the snails will hear you, and we will have a lot of trouble to get them!”

Sveta was squeezing Byia’s neck without making her stop laughing. She let Byia go with a frown and pointed a claw at the tip of her snout. “This doesn’t end here, you midget! I will get you on another opportunity and teach you not to laugh at me!”

Byia tried to bite Sveta’s claw and answered, “Anytime, you scary female! If it were me that got stuck, I bet you would be crying with so much laughter by now! It was funny, even if you don’t see it that way now!”

Sveta kept frowning for a while, but she then made a slight smile and said, “Yeah, maybe it was. So, where are those snails? I need to buy a new school bag, and the money from this Quest will help!”