Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 32.1 – Drezara's friends or rivals? – part 1.1

A loud bump called their attention, followed by a scream of pain. Paullu swam to get near Drezara, leaving behind Sozi Shield, speaking with one of her friends. “Yeah, neither of us had a shot with that guy. Remember when last Big Moon I bumped against that tall plant over there, and even with me screaming my lungs out, pretending to be hurt, he just frowned and covered his ears? He just came when you pulled him to go to me, and as soon as I was healed, he returned to his book without giving me a chance to say anything!”

The dark green female that was assigned as a bodyguard to Drezara spoke, “Maybe you can use the chance he gave you and try to make him interested in you during the study session today after School. You are a better match for Paullu than that weird Drezara!”

Sozi Shield spoke to the strangely smiling female. “That’s the difference between you and me. I would never hurt another female just because I wanted to scare her away so I could be with her boyfriend. I guess you didn’t learn your lesson. What do you say, girls? Shall we show her what happens to someone who tries to fool our friend Paullu?”

While Paullu’s classmates were surrounding a very scared female, he finished healing Drezara’s broken leg and heard a muffled scream from behind. He looked back, and Drezara grabbed his arm, preventing him from going to see what was happening. “It seems my strange bodyguard said something that Sozi didn’t like. Let them be. She will tell you what happened if she wants.”

“Shouldn’t I stop them? It could be a misunderstanding.”

A couple of muffled screams reached his ears, and Drezara spoke when the circle of females spread, and Paullu was staring at Sozi, who was signaling him to come while Drezara’s bodyguard was on the ground, with her arms, legs, and tail twisted in a weird way. “Now, you can go. You need to learn not to interfere when a group of females is ‘educating’ another female; you might become a target of their wrath. Unless I am the one being hurt, of course!”

Drezara swam up to join the game, and Paullu rushed to the broken female while asking Sozi Shield, “What happened here? I turned my back for an instant, and you all went nuts, or what?”

“Shut up and heal her, will you? But slowly, okay? I want her to suffer a little more. She was trying to convince us to go after you and set a trap, despite Drezara being your girlfriend already. We just wanted to make sure she understood that it was not a good idea to mess with you. After healing her, can you go to your usual place to read? Don’t mind the screams. I want to hurt her some more because I am still angry. I guess I am also angry with Drezara for being your girlfriend, but I can’t hurt her; she is so nice that I can’t do it. But this one, I can hurt a lot, and I will!”

Paullu asked while healing one broken arm, “You mean you are jealous of Drezara, and you want to hurt this poor female because of that? That’s a very mean thing to do, no?”

“Maybe I am a bit jealous, but I am also very angry with this stupid. She doesn’t seem to understand that you and Drezara are not to be messed with. Don’t worry. As your friends, we will all make sure this scumbag understands it, right, girls?”

The group of females stretched their arms and cracked their knuckles, getting ready for a beating and making Paullu rush the healing to get away as fast as he could because the smiles they had were too weird for his taste.

While Paullu was talking with his classmates and Drezara was playing the ‘Bane Dagnir’ game, Byia was also in recess, staring at the group of Rodhocetus in front of her, with the School’s driver speaking to her, “The Principal told me to give you a few pointers to deal with these guys. So, I told you that I have a Mental Link with this big one near me, right? And I tell him to do something, and he orders the others, right? There is also another way. You can say out loud an order to your Rodhocetus to make him do something, and then you can say the same order to the others to see if they understand what you want. It’s kind of hard, but you will eventually manage to do that. It can take some time or even Tides, but sooner or later, you will get the hang of it.”

Byia nodded and took a few sweet leaves from her bag. She munched one and gave another to Rodhy, who was l*****g his lips as soon as she opened the bag.

She showed her open paw with a few leaves to the other five Rodhocetus and mentally asked in her supposedly invented English language, “…||…Any of you want to try this? It’s very sweet!…||…”

The group of Rodhocetus looked at each other, trying to figure out if any of them heard that strange and funny language inside their heads, and they all slowly approached Byia’s hand, sniffing it. Byia put one leaf inside the mouth of each of them while munching her leaf. The five Rodhocetus munched for a while and frowned.

They all looked at each other, surprised by the sweet taste, and Byia grabbed a rock from the ground while speaking, “Alright, if any of you do this trick, I will give him another sweet treat, okay?”

Byia then threw the rock up and shouted ‘Fetch!’, making Rodhy swim at full speed to retrieve the rock and turn back, returning the rock to her. The other five Rodhocetus tilted their heads when they saw Byia giving another leaf to Rodhy. Byia threw the rock again, and when Rodhy returned it, he got a new leaf.

She then turned to face them and asked, “Get it? If you understand, nod your heads like this… If you don’t, shake your heads like this… get it?

The five Rodhocetus vigorously nodded, making the School’s Driver scratch his head. “Now, this is a first… They never answered me like that!”

Byia pointed to one of the five Rodhocetus and told him to fetch the rock. When he returned the rock to her, he got a new leaf to eat. One at a time, they all grabbed the stone with their teeth and return it to her.

The Driver was dumbfounded. He could never order any of them without his Rodhocetus’ help. He pointed at the leaf that Byia was giving Rodhy and asked, “What are those things that you are giving them? They seem to like it a lot!”

“They are just sweet leaves. There are a bunch of plants around us that make these leaves on the fences and the containers with their food. The trick is to use the Rodhocetus you are Mentally Linked and make him do something, rewarding him in the end with one leaf. Then, say the same order to another Rodhocetus and when he does it, give him a leaf as a reward. Well, I also spoke Mentally to them a little in the beginning, just to make them wonder what I wanted to do.”

“No way… Did you make a Mental Link with all of them? Do you know how absurd that sounds? No one ever did something like that! It’s very difficult to do a Mental Link with these guys, and you are saying you made it with these five? You are now Mentally Linked to six Rodhocetus, counting with the one you already have?”

Byia shrugged while rubbing the heads of the five Rodhocetus, one at a time. “I don’t know if I am Mentally Linked. I just asked them if they wanted to try these leaves by using a language that I invented when I was very little. I guess they like how it sounds inside their heads, making them more willing to learn.”

“That’s even more absurd! It’s already very difficult for a Water-Dragon to talk Mentally with one Rodhocetus and you are saying you just did that with an invented language? That’s… Well, I was going to say impossible, but seeing the way they are obeying your orders, it doesn’t seem you are fooling me!”

From behind them, a voice spoke, and it looked annoyed: “Like always, Byia gathers a lot of attention upon her, and she pretends not to notice!”

Byia turned back to face a very annoyed Nayima, with her two friends near her, looking worried. “Well, unlike you, I don’t need to get the approval of anyone, nor do I want to have a fan club. You were the one who was always trying to call all the attention upon you and look at what you have accomplished so far! To be near me all day, with Guyi working as your bodyguard so that no one dares to try to take your head off! I don’t care less about what everyone thinks of me. I am not running for Class Delegate or School Princess. I have a lot to worry myself about, like training to be a ‘Rodhocetus Trainer’ and earning my own money instead of depending on my family so much. I have been gaining money since I was two Tides old. What about you, Princess? I bet you never had a day of hard work or even worried about someone else besides you!”

Byia turned to face the Rodhocetus again, leaving a bright red female staring at her back, completely dumbfounded. Guyi elbowed Nayima and asked, “You really want to see how long it takes for Byia to break your tail again, don’t you? You could at least pretend to be smarter instead of opening your mouth to look like the stupidest female in this School! If you can’t pretend, at least don’t say a thing, geez!”

Nayima closed her mouth and glanced around, looking at the huge crowd that was at some distance, watching Byia train the five Rodhocetus. She mumbled in a very low voice, making Guyi slowly shake his head. “Why does she says she doesn’t care? Everyone is looking at her! She doesn’t mind that? She doesn’t like to have people looking at her?”

“Why would she like that? Do you think she would like to go anywhere she wants and do everything she likes to do with a crowd following her around? You like to do that? You are weird, Nayima. Do you like having people near you when you go for a piss? Or if you are crying out of sadness? Byia likes to be free, as do I, without giving any explanation or depending on someone else’s approval. I can’t understand why you like to have a crowd around you all the time, but if that’s what you want, go for it; I bet a bunch of those Water-Dragons back there would just love to bite your head for a while!”

Nayima looked at Byia again, who was ordering the group of Rodhocetus to swim around her and grab a few objects for her. “It’s just… She doesn’t notice the effect she has on the young males in this School? I would do anything to have so many males around me, trying to please me!”

“Yeah, she was always like that, ever since we were little. I once asked her if she didn’t want a boyfriend. She just shrugged and said she didn’t have time for that, and a boyfriend would just be a hindrance. She said she had a life plan, and a boyfriend would be in her way. Well, I then asked if she wanted a girlfriend instead, and she punched me a lot and called me a moron, just because I had doubts if she liked males or females.”

Nayima remained silent for a while and felt her heart skipping a beat with a sudden question that crossed her mind. She managed to speak, and stuttered a sentence, “You… love her… don’t you…?”

Guyi disguised a slight smile and answered, “It doesn’t matter if I love her or not. She is my dearest friend. I would die to save her, and I am sure she would do the same for me. Do you have someone you love as much? Or does anyone love you like that? You know, Byia and I came out of our eggs on the same day, in the same Nursery. I still remember seeing her being carried home by her mother, with her father waving at me as they left. Her father’s disappearance so suddenly was not only a shock for her and Paullu, but it was also for me. That’s why I swore to help her in any way I could. I know it’s weird for you to see us always together without caring a single bit about what other people think of us or our relationship. We are happy, but can you say the same thing?”

Nayima froze. Not only by the sudden realization that Guyi was so in love with Byia, but also by thinking about his words. He was right; she never loved anyone like that. Ever since she was little, she only cared about what other people thought of her, or what she could do to always get a compliment, or to hear someone say she was pretty.

Compared to the relationship that Byia and Guyi had, she felt lonely — lonelier than she ever felt in her entire life. At least until Guyi elbowed her and made such a gentle smile that she felt her heart-stopping. “Who knows, maybe by being around us so much, you change a bit for the better. You can’t become worse than you already are, right? Being the School’s enemy and all. Don’t worry, I might not like the idea of Lodon forcing me to be your bodyguard or Byia mocking me for that, but I am a very good fighter, and I seriously doubt any of those at the back can get past me to hurt you.”

Nayima slowly nodded while making a huge effort to slow down the noise of her heart. It was pumping so loudly that she was almost sure that Guyi was hearing it.