Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 15 - First mission

After dinner, Byia remained at the dinner table, reading her book about training Rodhocetus while her mother and brother were tidying everything. When they all went to bed, Byia stroked her new friend’s snout and whispered to him to behave on the Farm, and she would be right back.

She remained in her room reading until her mother came to kiss her goodnight, and after two more hours when there was no more noise in the house, Byia carefully placed a pile of books on her bed and covered it with her flowered blanket to disguise it, and then she slowly opened her room window, closing it very slowly to not make a sound. She swam across the back garden while sending a mental order for the Rodhocetus to follow her.

Byia carefully went to the open street and saw Guyi waving at her from a shadow in the corner of their houses. She mounted the Rodhocetus, and he grabbed Guyi’s left paw to pull him. With a gentle pat on his neck, the Rodhocetus increased his speed, and in instants, they arrived at the centre of the City, and Byia signaled him to slow down, not to attract any attention upon them.

A few scattered Water-Dragons were swimming, minding their own business, and while some looked at them, wondering why two children and a Rodhocetus were in the streets at that hour, many others didn’t even bother looking at them a second time.

After a couple of minutes, they arrived at the main door of the Guild, and upon a last deep breath and a quick glare at each other, Byia and Guyi crossed the doors with the Rodhocetus following them.

They went straight to the Receptionist, without minding the whispering from the Water-Dragons inside. Guyi wondered why there were so many inside the Guild at that hour, considering that last time there were only two Explorers inside. The Receptionist was smiling, and she signaled them to wait.

A few seconds later, she arrived with the Guild Master who stood on the other side of the reception desk, and with a serious look, he handed them the Guild Cards, saying, “Welcome to the Explorer’s Guild, Apprentices! May your future achievements guide your future!”

The Explorers inside the Guild raised their cups and cheered for them. The Guild Master waited for the cheering to diminish, and he asked while pointing to the tail waving Rodhocetus next to Byia, “By the way, why is this animal here? You didn’t bring him last time.”

“Yeah, I got him today. I kind of made a Mental Link with him, and I was told that I could become a ‘Rodhocetus Trainer’. I am already studying what I am supposed to do, but he is well-behaved. He just doesn’t like it when a stranger approaches me.”

The Guild Master laughed and spoke to the Explorers around, “Hahaha! Did you hear? They even have this guy with them! Not a terrible deal, right?”

Byia looked around and wondered why everyone seemed to be evaluating her and Guyi. She asked the Guild Master while rubbing the Rodhocetus’ left ear, “Why do I have the feeling that there is some kind of weird plot around here?”

“Not weird, but I thought it would be better if you two joined a Party to protect and teach you two. That’s why these guys are here. They all want you two to join theirs. Everyone here knew your father, and they all wanted to have the honour of teaching the trade to his daughter. With that animal in the mix, it’s even better.”

Byia faced the group of Explorers and made a slight smile. “Thanks, but we can’t join a Party because we would have to go on Quests for several days, and our parents can’t know that we are doing this.”

One Explorer smiled back and answered, “We all know that, Byia! No one here sees that as a problem. If you choose to join my Party, I will make sure to teach everything I can to help you during your Quests, and if one appears that demands a journey for several days, you can be dismissed, or I will make up an excuse for your mother.”

Byia made a slight bow. “Thanks, but I am sure you can never fool my mother. The moment she sees an Explorer talking with her about me, I will be in trouble.”

Another Explorer, a muscular dark grey male, pushed forward a big dark green female that smiled at Byia. “I have the perfect solution for that. If you join my Party, that is. I can provide an alibi if the need arises. All these fools around are no match for me if they even think about enticing you two to their Parties because I have something they don’t have! I used to belong to your father’s Party, and my sweet daughter is one of your classmates! I am sure your mother will let you come with me on a voyage if my daughter tells her it is to visit some relatives. Oh, and this rude big guy that pushed me is the father of one youngster who is also your classmate. So, what do you say?”

Guyi Mohryi opened wide his mouth and said, “No way! You are the mother of that scary big female, aren’t you? The resemblance is astonishing!”

“So, you think she is scary… I wonder what she will do to you when I tell her… Hehehe!”

Guyi gulped, thinking about the way Sveta Roolyi threatened him on the first day while gritting her teeth. Byia smiled and looked at the pair of smiling Water-Dragons. “You are Sveta’s mother? And I suppose you are the father of that muscular young male that makes all the older females in our school stare at him!”

The dark grey male nodded and answered in a harsh voice, “If you are talking about my son, Cruvir Ignyter, yes, but if there is even one young male more muscular than him, it means I must increase his training! Ohohoh!”

The sound of his laughter resonated in the walls of the Guild and made Byia’s Rodhocetus cover his ears with both front paws.

The big green female slapped his head to silence him and tilted her head towards Byia, “I am sorry for this interruption, but this guy never learns how to stay put and let the grown-ups talk! By the way, I am the Party Leader Toraan Roolyi, and this thunder-laughing guy is Indeth Ignyter. We have two more members, but they went on a search mission. Despite what you may think, we never gave up looking for Sergge and Caddy.”

The big female spread her arms while looking around and continued, “That’s why there are only a few here to greet you both. Many of our members are on missions, and a big search Party is patrolling the Abyssal Pit, searching for answers. We always have at least two members of this Guild patrolling that area, trying to find answers. So far, we haven’t found anything, not even a scale from one of them; that’s why we don’t give up searching. If they were attacked by an animal there would be signals of a fight, but we even sifted through the sand and lifted every rock within a ten-kilometer radius. We won’t give up, ever, because we all know that Caddy and your father would never stop looking if any of us disappeared. I want you both in my Party mostly because I feel I owe it to Sergge to continue your training in his place. You see, I was in that same search Party that went after Caddy Doggu when Sergge disappeared, and I didn’t see anything. I looked up to a bright light similar to the moon, and when it disappeared, I continued looking at the ground, and two hours passed before any of us realized that Sergge was no longer with us.”

Byia nodded and spoke with a sad face. “I know about that because my mother told me everything… But I still can’t accept that my father disappeared just like that. Not him. No animal could catch him by surprise, and no Water-Dragon could fool him enough to knock him out and take him, not with all his Magic. I… can’t decide anything right now, I… I mean, we need to think properly about that. Tonight, we just want to take a Quest for our Level, and we will decide tomorrow or the day after.”

Toraan Roolyi nodded and glared around, warning everyone. “Of course, and I do hope none of these foolish Explorers tries to persuade you to join them because I won’t give up on you so easily! We won’t tell Sveta and Indeth that you two joined, but it would be better if you told them. They are often in this Guild, and sometimes they even go with us to some Quests or just the two of them. They are also Apprentices, just like you. I bet they would love to do a One-Star Quest with the two of you.”

Byia made a big smile. “Really? That’s so cool! We need to talk to them about that. Thanks!”

Toraan pointed to Byia’s Rodhocetus. “That guy is so unbelievably useful that you for sure don’t know how lucky you are to have one right there. There is a One-Star Quest on the Quest Board for several Big Moons, and even the high-ranking Explorers could not finish it. With him, I bet you two will pull it off! Guild Master, bring the Quest Form! Indeth, I know you have a few leaves of that plant with you! Give some to Byia!”

The other two rushed to follow her orders without hesitation. Byia and Guyi shrugged at each other, unable to understand why Toraan Roolyi seemed to have so much influence that even the Guild Master didn’t refuse to obey her.

Guyi thought it could probably be because of her scary size and mouth full of sharp teeth, but he didn’t say a word. Byia was reading the Quest Form and looking at the three leaves that Indeth Ignyter was showing her, and she gasped. “It says the leaves from these plants are used to make some powerful and very expensive medicine, but they are difficult to find. Sixteen low-grade leaves for eight silver-colored pearls, or sixteen high-grade leaves for sixteen silver-colored pearls? That’s a fortune, right?”

Indeth Ignyter put the leaves on Byia’s paws and spoke in his low and harsh voice, “Go to the outside of the City’s Shield Dome and make your Rodhocetus smell these. Don’t let him eat them! With his nose, I bet he will guide you to somewhere where you can find the plant that makes these leaves. Be prepared for several hours of searching or looking inside a bunch of holes, because those plants like to grow in the weirdest places.”

Byia carefully placed the leaves inside a pocket of her bag and saw the Rodhocetus l*****g his lips. She took a couple of sweet leaves from another pocket and gave some to her companion and a few to herself. She offered some sweet leaves to Indeth and Toraan, but they both frowned, disgusted.

She shrugged and continued munching. “Cool, more for me, then. Thanks for this, and if we find some leaves for the Quest, I will give some to you as thanks.”

Indeth smiled and pointed at Byia’s Rodhocetus. “Okay, but don’t get confused and give the wrong leaves to your pet! I don’t understand how you two can eat those sweet things, but everyone is entitled to some weirdness, I guess.”

Byia shrugged and continued munching. She waved at the Explorers and went outside with Guyi, and the Rodhocetus followed them.

Guyi pointed to a side street and said, “I think we can cross the Park if we go through this small alley and leave the City. We must hurry up because if we take a lot of time to leave the City, we won’t have much time left to search for those plants before we have to return home.”

Byia nodded and followed Guyi. As soon as they entered the Park, she signaled for him to hide behind a huge rock because she saw someone she recognized. She explained while taking out the leaves that Indeth Ignyter gave her, “That dark brown Water-Dragon works with my mother! We need to be more careful with these escapades. I totally forgot that a lot of people know us. Come here, you pretty thing, and smell this. Don’t eat them, okay? Good boy. That’s it. A few good sniffs. Maybe we get lucky.”

The Rodhocetus sniffed the leaves, and he tilted his head, surprised by the weird smell like some medicines the workers gave him at the Farm when he got hurt after another attempt to escape.

He stared at Byia, wondering what she could want from him, only to hear inside his head a mental message from her, saying, ‘Fetch!’. Now he understood. It was for him to look for that. He nodded and sniffed the water.

There was a faint, similar scent in the current near the soil, and he followed it with Byia and Guyi going after him, using the plants and rocks around to hide from the people in the Park at that hour. He continued straight ahead, sniffing the water once in a while and increasing the speed when the scent was stronger. Soon, they arrived at the Park Center, where the statue of Senpyia Calla, Byia’s great-great-grandmother, was placed on top of a high pile of rocks with many holes where a lot of plants were growing.

He used one paw to gently push to the side a cluster of plants, and he used the other paw to point to a very fluffy plant that had the same scent as the leaves his owner showed him. He then turned to the left of the pile of rocks and pointed to another fluffy plant. Near the bottom, another tiny hole had another plant hidden behind a big yellow plant.

Guyi looked around to see if someone was looking, and he almost couldn’t hold his enthusiasm. “No way! Three plants right here, and no one found them? Shall we take them all?”

Byia pointed to the better-looking leaves, the ones without any dents or holes. “It would be better if we took just the high-grade leaves and left the plants here, completely hidden. Like this, we can return in a few days to get some more. We can stay in this park for a while, playing with this guy. It will be suspicious if we return to the Guild so soon, and that will probably make some Explorers turn the city around, trying to find these plants. Remember them saying that a lot of Explorers already tried to find them and failed? Two kids like us and one Rodhocetus finding a bunch of high-grade leaves on their first attempt will be unheard of, I bet.”

Guyi nodded and tried to disguise the nervousness in his voice. “I… saw a seller when we were coming here… We can get some food and sit at a table under a group of tall plants and relax for a bit.”

Byia answered with a big smile while picking the leaves, “Oh, like if it were a date in the park? Cool, I am in! I read about couples enjoying a picnic in the Park in the moonlight, but I never did it!”

Guyi swallowed and mumbled in a very low voice while going to the other side of the statue to get the leaves from the plant in there. “Geez, this girl is going to kill me…”