Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 33.1 – Assassination attempt – part 1.1

Byia was covering her head with both front paws, and the Shield alarm rang. Someone was knocking on it, and she opened the front door of her house only to see her grandmother, Isi Holl, punching the Shield Dome. Byia opened a round entrance in front of her grandmother with a simple Mental order to the Shield control, and Isi Holl rushed to the house, almost throwing Byia to the ground with her firm embrace.

She asked, with her voice trembling, “Are you okay? Teera told me you were attacked! Everyone at the Guild is searching for that dark transport that caused all that mess, and I just came to check on you. I am going to join the search Party and I will tear this City apart if needed, but I will find the ones who ordered it!”

“Hey, don’t destroy this City! I live here, remember? I don’t even know who caused all this!”

Isi Holl frowned and looked around. She swam at such speed straight at Nayima and made a weird smile when she had the tip of her snout touching Nayima, which made the young female start trembling. “Well, well, who do we have here… Nayima Fiet, isn’t it? I remember your name from that blunder your uncle made. I don’t know why you are so near my granddaughter, but I am almost sure it was you or your family who caused all this. Your uncle tried to have Byia expelled from your School and after the mess my grandson made at the Principal’s office, your uncle lost his position as the Mayor of this fine City. Do you know that there were always suspicions that your uncle was involved with a very dangerous criminal group? All that led me to believe that group was the one who tried to kill Byia, probably in a foolish attempt of revenge. I am going to pay a visit to your uncle one of these days, and I am sure I can make him spit out everything he knows. It’s probably better if you try not to annoy Byia, or she might get angry and punish you for what happened today.”

Nayima froze, scared to death and unable to mutter a single word. Byia approached them and explained, “Nayima was having some problems because someone in our School was spreading strange rumors about bad deeds she did outside School, and I know those rumors were fake because she was with us when she was supposedly doing it. As for her uncle, I don’t know, but I also want to ask him about what happened today and if he really is involved with a bunch of criminals.”

Isi Holl took one last look at Nayima, and she then hugged Byia again, saying, “Be careful from now on, or at least until I figure out what was all this.”

“I will, grandmother, but my father prepared me for this type of thing. I could easily sense the daggers coming at me, and I stopped them with a hard Water Wall. Even if the daggers go through, I always carry with me a tiny Shield Device that my father made for me.”

Isi Holl smiled and rushed out the door after making a slight smile to Guyi’s parents, and Byia almost didn’t have time to open the Shield Dome for her.

Nayima was still trembling, and Byia placed one paw over her left shoulder. “Do you mind taking a deep breath? I don’t want you peeing here. I know my grandmother is scary, but she means well. I guess she was only worried about me.”

Nayima nodded and mumbled, “Yeah… I was so scared... I thought she was going to take my head off! It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t do a thing!”

“Maybe you did, and you just don’t know it. If it was indeed your uncle who arranged all this, you are as guilty as he is. But let’s not think any more about it; let’s just relax for a while. It’s a pity because today I wanted to train a bit my Rodhocetus; he needs to learn some fighting techniques, but with this weird attack, I can’t concentrate on that.”

Nayima went with her two friends to help Guyi’s parents with the food, while Lodon approached Byia and asked, “You said to your grandmother that you had with you a tiny Shield Device your father made. What’s that?”

Byia pointed to a scale at the base of her neck on her left side and said, “It’s under this scale. My father made a small incision here when I was four Tides old and put in there a very small device that can create a Shield around my body. It activates automatically when something comes within two centimeters of my skin, travelling at high speed. I can also activate that Shield mentally if I sense any danger near me. I have extremely fast reflexes because of my training and my Gymnastics Skill, and that makes it very hard to kill me if my Shield Device fails for some reason. Guyi also has one Device. My father made one for him as well.”

“That means… every time I hit you with a stone when we were little, you could…”

“It was because of those stones that my father gave me this Shield Device. Perhaps I should have broken one arm of yours or sent one of your friends to the Hospital. That would for sure save me from a lot of annoying things you did to me, but my father would never forgive me if I did that.”

Lodon slowly nodded, feeling embarrassed by how foolish he was by always thinking that Byia didn’t react to his constant bullying because she was afraid of him when, in reality, she was just afraid of hurting him.

While Byia went to help Guyi in the kitchen, Lodon was put in charge of setting the table, which he skillfully did, making Byia glance at him occasionally, surprised by his experience.

When Guyi began to bring the food, Byia took care of creating more chairs for her guests. While pointing to a space near the table and at the Spell ‘Tòrr de fhìonaichean’, vine plants grew from the smooth ground, making a small pile of the same height as the four chairs, and before the dumbfounded eyes of Nayima and her friends, at each Spell, another pile was created, making enough extra seats for everyone.

Byia noticed the frown on Lodon’s and asked, “What? You never saw a temporary chair?”

“Not one being created in front of me so easily! How can you do that?”

“If you only knew what more I can do, it would blow up your mind! Take a seat and stop frowning like that! You look weird!”

From the kitchen, Enasha Mohryi called, “Nidi, come and get this bowl. Yako, move that big plate with blue algae to the left side of the table. We must make room for the rest of the food.”

Byia saw one of the sister twins swimming to meet Enasha Mohryi in the kitchen, and she asked the other one who was grabbing the platter, “You and your sister, you both are Nayima’s servants, or what? Why do both of you keep following her around?”

The young female jolted from the sudden question, and she spoke after putting down the plate, “No, we have known Nayima since we were little. It’s just… We both like the way she is: always so confident, always gathering a lot of people around her, all the males go crazy with her beauty... My sister and I could never speak to a young male so easily, but thanks to her, we are slowly becoming more confident. She is not bad, but her parents spoiled her. Probably we also helped, because we see her as our leader and role model, and we are always flattering her.”

“Yeah, you really need to meet more people to find a better role model. Well, it’s not my business; do as you like. I don’t care if the entire School follows her around as long as I can have some peace and quiet.”

Yako Endu grabbed the plate again and placed it on the left side of the table, glancing at Byia while doing it and thinking that Nayima was right in fearing that little female. She was very scary.

During dinner, they all joked with each other, doing their best not to talk about all the scary events that happened. Tivogno Mohryi even told some stories about Byia’s and Guyi’s blunders in their childhood, making everyone laugh and mock the two smiling youngsters.

After dinner and while everyone was cleaning the table and the kitchen, Byia went to her mother’s room to create a temporary bed made of vines. In her brother’s room, she took out the blanket that was on the bed and placed a new one that she took from a closet.

When she was finishing, Guyi arrived with the others. “My parents went home. They loved the idea of having Nayima sleep in our spare room, and they were going to prepare it for her. What about if we played one of Paullu’s games on his console? We can even make teams to play.”

Byia shrugged. “I guess, but I need to practice one of my Skills. You can take care of that, right? The console is right there. I am going to retire to my room, and if anyone needs anything, go to my room and shake me, because I will be in deep Meditation.”

She exited after a final wave to the others, and Guyi touched a few buttons on the console while speaking to himself, “So, what can we… Oh, we can create a Party and try a few Quests on the ‘Never-ending Adventure’ game! Paullu is still number one in the rankings, that annoying brat…”

Nidi Endu noticed one familiar name and pulled her sister to get near Guyi. She pointed at the first name on the World Ranking list and asked, “Wait a minute, Byia’s brother is the player ‘Death from Water’? For real? It can’t be!”

Guyi touched one button and pointed to the profile of the number-one player, saying, “Yeah, it’s him. It took him a while to reach that position, but it’s him. Why?”

“Because… my sister and I are also players in this game, but we are way below in this ranking. He is famous! Not only on this game but on several others! He always uses the same name, and we often watch him play from the sidelines. In this game, especially, the group that plays with him is also very good! There is a rumor that the other two aren’t Water-Dragons, but no one knows for sure.”

Guyi selected the profiles of the other two members of Paullu’s Party and smiled. “Yeah, ‘Death from Ground’ is Orhaj Lorem, a Surface-Dragon, and ‘Death from Above’ is Sare Andri, a Nayga. Maybe it’s better if you don’t tell this to anyone. I don’t know if he wants the other players to find out about this.”

Nidi Endu vigorously shook her head while caressing the gamepad on her paws. “Never, we won’t tell! Imagine having the chance to play on the same console as ‘Death from Water’! He uses this gamepad to play... So cool…”

Guyi opened a drawer from below the console pedestal and took out four gamepads. He gave one to each player, and they quickly created a Party to start their adventure while explaining, “We used to play a lot with Paullu when his father was here, but since his disappearance, Byia and her mother have lost their will to play. Paullu managed to find these two to join him, and they are often playing.”

After one hour of fighting other players and doing tasks to gain money and equipment, Nayima’s character died again, and she put the gamepad down to rest for a while.

She left the room and went to see what Byia was doing, and when she opened the door of her room, Byia wasn’t there. “That’s weird… She said she was going to practice a Skill, but she is not here! Strange…”

When Nayima turned back and was going to the door, Byia’s voice came from the left: “I am here, but if you didn’t notice me, it means I got the hang of this ‘Camouflage’ Skill. Cool!”

Nayima looked to the left side, and Byia was leaning on the wall with her arms folded over her chest and a big smile. “You were here? What is that ‘Camouflage’ thing, anyway?”

“Just the ability to blend in with the surrounding environment. It’s actually pretty hard, and I was having a lot of trouble figuring out how to do it, but I finally understood!”

Nayima opened wide her eyes and said, “No way... You can disappear like that? That’s… useful… Yeah, I can imagine a few situations a Skill like that could be used for.”

“Yes, but I am not going to use it to invade the males’ locker room, so stop thinking about that. I want to use this to catch a wild Rodhocetus.”

Nayima turned bright red. “I wasn’t thinking of using that Skill for that! But now that you mention… Argh, you are the worst; you made me think of such perverted things!”

“Hehehe! So, do you need anything from me? Or were you just missing me? Because I want to practice my ‘Create Screen’ Skill. I want to see if I can finally evolve it.”

“What… ‘Create Screen’? What is that? Another weird Skill?”

Byia gathered Magic on her paws and pointed at the wall behind her. The wall transformed into a screen, and Nayima could see a big and muscular Byia biting the head of a scared Nayima. She shivered and pointed at the screen. “What… is that?”

“Nothing much, just a Mental Image that I made by using my ‘Create Screen’ Skill. I recently found out that with Meditation, I can concentrate harder and create images with many details. See how the blood gushes out of your head in this image? Some time ago, I could do this, but without all that blood, and even the faces weren’t so accurate. If I keep creating Mental Images and each of them with far greater detail than the previous one, I will eventually get a new Skill even more useful than this one, like the ‘Hologram’ Skill, that allows me to create 3D images with no need for a screen. Imagine, if I can create another one like me, it will be so funny to see everyone wondering which one is the real me!”