There were a lot of things that pissed me off in life. Being compared to my mother, being held to different standards than my siblings for being her oldest daughter. When people mumbleed about my more round figure. I hated running out of alcohol for my flask, and I really didn’t like it when my dear little monkey was far too naughty even for her standards of the word.
However, the one thing I hated more than those things, was the destruction of ancient ruins and permanent scars that could never be removed from objects older than some people living now. Such as spray painting an old building or wall, I hated the people that carved their names into the great wall of China. However, right now my blood was boiling, as I looked at the broken shards of marple stone and pottery, a few ripped pages of old paper that probably held so much information on them. I could not remember the last time I had been so mad as we stepped onto the now ruins of A-5. Dr. Drakos granddaughter Thalia looked around with pure disbelief before jumping into a nearby hole to see what happened. I walked over and scanned some of the broken pieces of what looked to be a dirty white marple arm. There had been a statue that had stood here for so long, only just being distributed recently.
I heard poor Thalia let out a cry of pure august and agony. “What happened?!”
From what I could understand from another researcher. A pair of jepei users arrived here about what was guessed 20 minutes or so before the first group arrived. They had taken time in destroying what had been found so far and even seemed to be digging around for something else. “Why would two jepei users do this?” I questioned gripping the broken arm in my hand. Holding back my rage enough so I didn’t end up shattering this piece as well.
Dr. Drakos said, “what my granddaughter found was a statue dedicated to a woman that we still do not know. It was buried around 18 feet in the dirt and was around seven feet tall. We had been carefully digging it out, and that was where we discovered other pots and golden relics from the time. It was where we found some works of Adonis, some that we believe his late daughter buried here as a way to at least keep some information here.” He placed his hand over mine and I let him take this from me. “This was not my discovery, It was her’s, one she found by accident but took great pride in researching.”
I could only imagine the fury, sadness and even guilt that ran through that little girl’s head. My fists tightened into rocks as I pounded one on the ground leaving a decent sized hole in it. “Twenty minutes gives them a good headstart on us.” I said in a deep voice as my eyes narrowed into violent slits. “We could attempt to try and track them down and do something? Get answers by any means possible.” I had more than a few mean words for whoever was responsible for this.
However, Dr. Drakos responded. “If they share our gift, tracking them down now would be pointless, we both know that they can move faster than we could imagine, and if they have spirit animals that can fly then that makes it even harder.”
Xavier spoke next, sounding far angrier than I had heard from him up to this point. “They also could have jumped on the backs of their animal spirits making them even faster than what we have here.” He swore under his breath. “What on earth do we do now?”
“We dig,” Dr. Drakos said in a determined voice. “We set up camp here for a few days and do a dig as safely and quickly as we can. I doubt they just came to destroy whatever we found, perhaps they were looking for something and if that is the case. Than we find what they have been looking for before they can find it first.” Dr. Drakos began to shout out orders, his strong and proud greek accent acting like a rallying call to all of our workers. It didn’t take long before people began to get busy, moving broken lightings and shovels. Checking the two damaged ATV’s. Others slipped on gloves and masks to start collecting what was broken here to at least take count and if they were lucky, reassemble them. I rose up taking a glance into this large carved out hole. I could see a large stone base where that statue probably had sat safely on for hundreds of years.
Only to be destroyed for reasons I don’t understand.
I could see a sobbing Thalia with her head pressed against Daniel’s chest. The red-haired boy seemed a bit lost and was doing his best to comfort her. “I’m sorry, looks like our first day together is gonna start off good.”
“How can we help?” Xavier asked.
“Grab a shovel my boy.”
As Dr. Drakos called out to his granddaughter telling her words of encouragement. I turned to Xaiver. “I am gonna go see what I can find in the forest. It would be nice to make sure we are safe before doing anything else. Keep an eye on Daniel for me.” Xavier gave me a swift nod and then I turned over to the brick colored nine tailed fox spirit. “Flame, can you come with me and Victoria? I could use a good sense of smell to help track anyone down, and another set of eyes to see what we could miss.”
The large fox spirit closed its large red voids for eyes for a few seconds. “Daniel says it is cool, but you still owe him a beer.”
I rolled my eyes a bit. “Tell him if he works as hard as he can today, I will reward him with a nice cold one by the end of the night.” I took one last look at this camp before taking a few steps and leaping back into the trees.
Some people enjoyed running for miles on end, some like sinking into the waters like large stones, others soared on wings high above the skies. However, I found my comfort in swinging through the trees, that was where I was at home. This was the closest piece of home I had seen since we had left the island, some might consider the waters having the most natural energy in them. However, I disagreed with that statement, the most natural energy was trapped in the trees that used it to grow from small saplings into truly mighty towers. I had no idea where I was going but as long as I could be in this forest swinging like the monkey spirit I loved.
Then I was sure I was gonna find something.
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We had probably been going for about 30 minutes when Flame suddenly took a sharp right turn deeper into this forest. I grabbed Victoria and tossed her that way before giving chase, my hands and legs finding footholds and branches to grab with ease. It was second nature at this point, I knew from experience what would happen and the pain that would follow if I grabbed a weak branch or missed a hold. Flame seemed to have caught some kind of smell and was chasing after it. Now that we were in a forest, I had a good chance to actually look at this majestic fox spirit. It was around six feet at the shoulders, about five feet long but its nine tails made it seem even longer. Each tail had some kind of design on the tip of them, one looking like egyptian hieroglyphics, another seeming like an old greek symbol, the longest of these tails, held a symbol letter. D.
Flame finally took us into a small clearing that had a few small bushes with dark black maybe deep purple berries on them. That was not the most interesting thing here, rather it was the hastily put together camp that had caught my eye. An old looking fire pit that was missing a few stones, the flame long since out and the sticks cool to the touch. I dropped down from this tree stepping fully into the area. “Stay close,” I said to Flame and Victoria. The grass was patted down flat probably from a sleeping bag that had been placed here. A few bottled waters had been crumpled up and tossed to the ground without a care in the world. A few bits of equipment had been left behind such as a broken down tent, and what I knew was an outdoor shower. All you needed was water, a cloth of some kind, and a rope to make one. I dug around in this old fire pit finding it a mix of old and new wood, so they had at least been using this for a few days.
“Flame do you smell anything else?”
“No but you might wanna look at this.” I walked over to the fox spirit who was sniffing at the ground. I could see a few paw prints heading off to the east. These ones let off a small wave of deep orange jepei, and were much larger than any living predator in this forest could make. “I think we found our jepei users, I am guessing this was their camp.”
“Momma!” Victoria hung out of a nearby tree upside down. Her small hand-like feet held onto a large branch. “Over here!”
“Keep looking, and good job.” The fox spirit beamed up at me with a kind of smile appearing on his muzzle. It was truly night and day between Flame and Daniel. I walked over to where Victoria was heading and she seemed to have followed these tracks a good 15 feet into the woods. They curved around going deeper into the brush and if I was a guessing girl, that had taken this trail to swing around to site A-5. “Good girl,” I whispered affectionately, patting her cheek a few times. “So it looks like we have our campsite and by the looks of things. I think they packed up early this morning and went to A-5. Victoria, take to the trees and see if you can find anything else, any talon marks maybe for any creature that can fly. Flame used your amazing nose to see if we can track anything else down. I am gonna see if I can at least send a text to the others to tell them what we found.”
“Yes ma’am,” Victoria jumped off my shoulder and disappeared into the green leaves. Meanwhile Flame began to sniff around at what I assumed was the sight that they had taken their outdoor shower at. If there was a place to get a good scent it would be right there.
Meanwhile I took out my phone and climbed the highest tree I could find to get a signal of some kind. You would think that my mother could have at least gotten us new phones for this mission. I came to rest on the last few branches that could hold my weight, holding my phone up as high as I could to try and get a signal of some kind. However something caught my eye, a small flash of deep pink. As sitting on a nearby branch was a bird spirit, dark pink feathers with an even darker pink chest and head. However, that wasn’t what worried me the most. It was the scars that rested across this beautiful bird’s chest. Permanent scars that only one group of jepei users in the world would cause.
My fears were right.
That destruction was caused by members of the dark order.
My eyes were trapped onto what I now could tell was an Osprey spirit. Probably not in its full size but rather this smaller one to see if anyone had come to this campsite. Probably sending information back to its owner. “Hey,” I called out firmly. And the bird spirit looked over at me with a tilt of its head. It flapped its wings twice landing on the branch above me. Now that it was closer, the scars on its once beautiful form sent waves of anger and disgust spreading through my body.
“Well this is an interesting turn of events, and right when I was gonna fly away too.” The voice that came from its beck was female. A sour and smart voice that I couldn’t quite put my finger on but I was sure I had heard it before. “Now what on earth is the daughter of Lady Penelope Hearthstone doing so far from home?”
“You know me?” I questioned holding back the slight unease that was now filling my stomach. “How do you know me?”
“My mistress knows a lot of things and wants to know more. It is a shame you weren't a tiny bit quicker, maybe you could have stopped the destruction that we caused.”
“So you admit that you did that?” I questioned my hands tightening into hard fists. “Why?!”
“She warned that little girl to not dig there anymore and they chose not to listen. So perhaps a message would be much better, if we are willing to destroy priceless relics, than what are we willing to do to her?” The bird suddenly took to the sky, narrowly dodging out of the way of Victoria who had tried to grab her. “And now the little monkey princess is here as well. The spirit animal that wants to be human.”
“What?” I questioned turning to look at Victoria for a moment. My small money was currently holding her head from where she slammed into the tree in her missed attempt. I shook my head a few times ignoring her last statement. “What do you want?”
“I was checking to see if anyone had come to this camp, to see who would be foolish enough to try it. But don’t worry you are safe, my mistress and her comrades have long since left.” She flew a bit closer coming to rest on the same branch as me. “Though I am interested, why are you here? Of all places in the world why would you be here? Perhaps on some kind of mission for your dear old mom.”
I chose to not answer her question, instead asking her. “Where is your mistress? My business is with her.”
“She is not here, nor is it your business where she might be heading.” The small dark pink bird took flight circling over my head for a moment. “Why you are here is an interesting cog in our wheel, though it won’t stop what is happening. You are just delaying events that you have no idea are happening. So perhaps you save your anger not for my mistress, but for that fool of a professor since this is just as much his fault as it is that little girl’s. The sins of the parents will be passed to the child.”
That was the last thing she said before she flew high into the sky, heading not towards the city of sparta, but she seemed to be heading towards the large mountain range in the background. “W-What was-” Victoria let out a small eep of surprise as I scooped my child up into my arms. I was not ashamed to let the tears fall from my eyes. “Momma what’s wrong?”
“Listen to me,” I whispered. “If I ever and I mean ever try to leave permanent scars on you like that were on that poor animal spirit. You have permission to kill me.” I buried my face into Victoria’s shoulder.
If there was one other thing that pissed me off. Was how the dark order treated their animal spirits. They were nothing to them, not a brother or sister, or son or daughter. They were a tool to be used, a weapon to be honed in the fires of this world. They were beneath them from now until the day they died. That was why they left those permanent scars to remind them of their place, and if some rumors were true. To shatter what little humanity there animal spirits held inside of them. Once I had dried my tears, I quickly went back down to Flame, with firm orders that we needed to leave and head back to camp. This had gotten much more complicated than we could have imagined.
As we made our way back, my eyes were drawn towards Victoria. “The spirit animal that wants to be human” I didn’t know why that Osprey spirit said that but now it made me question one thing as I looked at Victoria in her dark brown pants and vest made from her own jepei.
“Why do you like wearing clothes?”
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The sun had begun to descend across the bright blue sky. Long rows of shadows from the army of trees that surrounded us began to spread across the ground. I hadn’t had a chance to really discuss what happened to me in the woods. Everyone had been so busy working when I came back that there was little to no time. I was able to inform the police that arrived on what I had seen but other than that I just jumped right in to help everyone out. Everything was being done at a fast but also very careful pace. Whatever those jepei users wanted or thought was here was our number one priority right now. I had a chance to head down into the tunnels that had been dug by Dr. Drakos’s large mole spirit. From what I could tell were digging out in two different directions to see if anything else had been buried. Each swipe of it’s long claws tore through the dirt like a knife through butter.
Now the sun had set and Dr. Drakos had called a much needed time to rest and eat. A few families arrived dragging in lightweight grills and the now the air smelled of burgers and hotdogs being made. A few fire pits had been dug and tents were starting to be set up. Dr. Drakos sat down in a circle with me, Xavier, and exhausted Daniel and a very annoyed looking Thalia. That girl was fine with working through the night to find what was here. Her eyes still hid hints of redness in them as often, I saw her crying to herself but she was quick to wipe her tears away.
I had finished the first beer he had given me about the same time I had finished telling them everything that happened to me in the woods. Careful to leave out one part about Victoria possibly wanting to be human? I had no idea why that spirit animal had said that but it was something that we would work out together. At first I didn’t want to tell the others about this, even thinking about playing along with what Xaiver had told me when we first sat down. He had suspicious that this might be the dark order and knowing what I knew about Daniel. I didn’t want to tell them, but I felt that I had an obligation to tell them now. My words seemed to hang in the air as Xaiver was slightly shaking his head in disbelief. Daniel eyes grew darker at them, and he was shaking from what I could only imagine was rage. “God damn it all,” Dr. Drakos spoke wrapping an arm around Thalia. “What could the dark order of all people want with this site?
“I’m not sure,” I answered. “I just know that if that spirit animal's words are to be held as fact. They have long since gone, so either they found what they were looking for. Or it is too much of a risk for them to be here for now. That bird flew towards the mountains if that helps.”
“So you mean to tell me that some evil bitch is the reason why my discovery was ruined! To send a fucking message!” Thalia snapped, each one of her words filled with venom. She stood from her feet pushing her grandfather’s arm off her. “Leave me alone!” She snapped as once again tears flowed down her round face. Daniel rose a moment later, taking the beer I had promised him the other night with him.
“Dr. Drakos,” I said looking at the older man. “What did she mean by sending a message, do you have any idea who this might be?”
The olderman sighed a bit and nodded. “Her name is Helena Masters, she has been here for about a month. Attempting to buy out the museum here and wants rights to do any and all digs in this area. She was there the day my granddaughter told me of this discovery. She had warned her that she should not be digging in the area without the proper permits. Or rather she wanted the right to search that area, and when my granddaughter stood her ground. I stepped in when she dared to try and strike her for her apparent disrespect.” Dr. Drakos took a long sip of his beer. “I suppose I can call her by her true name if this is all true or if she is involved. Helena Blackthorn might be her true name.”
“But what does the dark order want with this place and this site?” I asked, still trying to wrap my fingers around what possible reason they wanted with this place. “Unless they are also after Adonis works and if they are after his works.”
“Then perhaps there is more information buried under the dirt than we could have ever imagined.” Dr. Drakos’s answered. “Look,” he added in a serious voice. “This has gotten a bit more complicated, and I would not be offended if you decided to leave. This is a situation that is between me and Helena Masters or Blackthorn if she is truly a part of the dark order. You are here on a research mission so I would understand if you choose to leave.”
“We are here till the end, and an enemy of good jepei users are enemies of ours.” I answered, hoping I was speaking for everyone. “Besides, I know my friend Xaiver is dying to get back in the water.”
“That is true.”
Dr. Drakos gave us a small nod. “Then I look forward to working with you all a bit more, and I promise that if anything happens. I will be the first to fight and the last to leave, you are under my protection here, so don’t think you have to do anything alone.”
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After another few hours of talking and sharing stories around a campfire, as well as taking cute pictures of Daniel, and Thalia for his mother’s collection, I found myself in the tent I was originally gonna be sharing with Thalia, but the girl had chosen to sneak into Daniel’s tent for the night. Something that I was hoping wouldn't get them into trouble, if Dr. Drakos was like my father. Daniel might be dead tomorrow morning if caught. It was truly a relief that our introvert was making friends. If he could make new friends, then maybe it meant that he was making new changes in his life. I had a sneaking feeling that the boy was probably very much suicidal, but the way he saw it as long as he had one light in his life he would be fine. So maybe if he had two lights in his life, it would completely save him from the darkness. I think he forces himself in as punishment. I let out a long sigh as I took another sip of the very strong vodka Dr. Drakos’s had given me. The familiar burning in my stomach kept me warm on this chilly night, how this place could go from warm and sunny to horribly chilly at night was something I was still growing used to. “I have two guys that are stuck punishing themselves for past mistakes.” I lifted my flask up to my lips once more but this time didn’t feel like drinking. “And I am almost an alcoholic, I suppose we are a match made in heaven.”
A moment later Victoria came running through the flap of my tent. She was wearing an adorable onesies set of pajamas, pink in color with a white stomach. “Mrs. Lexia brought me pajamas,” she explained in an excited voice.
“And they look adorable on you,” I said, opening my arms as my small monkey child came to rest against my chest. I never knew how she could actually wear clothes or never even questioned it. Normally it would not be possible for animal spirits to wear clothes or rather they never needed too. Now it was normal to see children put hats and scarfs around their animal spirits when they were younger, but to actually wear clothes like a human was something different. “The spirit animal that wants to be human.” That poor animal spirit’s words slammed against my head once more. “Vicky?” I began carefully. “I am gonna ask you a question and I want you to answer honestly. Can you do that?”
Victoria looked up at me with a nervous grin. “I don’t know what Mr. Drakos is talking about, it wasn’t me.” I raised an eyebrow at her and she quickly placed her hands over her mouth. “You weren’t talking about that were you?”
“Talking about what?”
“Nothing… what were you gonna ask, momma.”
After making a small mental note to go talk to Dr. Drakos first thing in the morning. “I don’t think I ever asked you this before, but why do you enjoy wearing clothes?”
“Because they look really cute,” she answered with a smile but something was off about it. I knew her joyful smiles, I knew her sorrowful smiles, I knew her nervous ones, but this one was distant, carefully forced to avoid any suspicion. “They are comfortable even when I have to make them from my own jepei. They make me look like.” She again covered her mouth with her hands. “They make me look like I really am your daughter.” She quickly finished before burying her head against my chest. “Is that wrong?”
She wasn’t telling me the complete truth. I wrapped her tightly in a hug, my chin coming to rest on top of her head. “No, that is not wrong, if you find them cute than I am not gonna stop you from wearing them or anything like that, and you don’t have to wear clothes to be my daughter. You are my precious one, and nothing could change that fact, and nothing can come between us. You are my spirit, the best part of my soul. Even when you are annoyingly naughty each and every day.”
“I was good today.” She mumbled back to me.
“Well then you won’t stop me from going to talk to Dr. Drakos right now, will you.”
“P-Please don’t.”
I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that. “That is what I thought, you silly little monkey.” We probably stayed cuddled together like this for a few more moments before I broke our hug.
“What made you ask me that, momma?” Victoria asked with an adorable little pout on her face.
“Did she not hear what the other animal spirit said?” I thought to myself before replying. “Is it wrong for a mother to get to know more about her child's interests and likes?” She slowly shook her head. “Then that is your answer. I like to know everything that I can about my precious princess of all the monkeys. Even when she is a bratty princess.”
Her pout grew even bigger as she placed her hands on her hips. “I am not bratty, I am just curious and that sometimes gets me into trouble. That is what Uncle Conner says back home.”
“And your Uncle gets into more trouble for his curiosity than you ever could, so his statements are not gonna be taken into consideration.” I said as I fell back onto my sleeping bag bringing Victoria down with me. I was exhausted after today and desperately needed some sleep. “One more question, Victoria.” I thought back to a few weeks ago, when we first entered the library under the school. “Have you felt that bad feeling you had a few weeks ago?”
Victoria’s smile suddenly faded away and that distant look reappeared on her face. She closed her eyes before nodding her head. “Do you want to tell me about it now? Maybe I can help you.” Victoria went to open her mouth to speak about it but then just closed it and rested her head against my chest. I felt her starting to shake a bit and her hands tightened against my shirt for a moment. “Oh my poor baby,” I whispered, holding her close to my chest. “It’s okay, I’m right here.”
“I’m right here.”
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“Jesus Christ,” I mumbled as Xaiver finished telling us the story of what happened underneath the water. My eyes were brought back to the perfect preserved skeleton of Adonis’s daughter, Rhea. She was wearing a waterlogged dress that had long since lost its color, a band around her head that seemed ready to snap at any moment. In her hands was a dark purple and blue colored gemstone shaped like the head of a kraken. I looked over at Xaiver who was sitting on a bench nearby, his long dreads dripping with water and his once dark blue gemstone now had a small hint of purple in the center of it. “Are you okay?”
The boy looked up at me with a small nod. “Y-Yeah,” he finally lifted his head up. “I should be just fine, just a bit shaking after meeting one of Oscar’s past lives and a past user of the kraken spirit. A bit overwhelming.”
“I can imagine,” I walked over to him and placed a hand on his damp shoulder. His shoulders felt like pure stone, hell the boy looked like a sculpture hand carved him out of a rock and gave him lift. Looks like years of swimming have done him wonders. “I have never met one of Victoria’s past lifes or users, only read about them.”
I looked over at Daniel who was standing beside Thalia. The girl had summoned her netrix weapon, a long pointed dagger and was in the process of carefully cracking open vases. This was just the first of many batches of treasure Oscar was gonna be bringing up. “At least this confirms that Adonis knew more about the tower of babel than he let on, and soon we will have an idea of where he was going with all of this.”
Xavier nodded his head. “Yeah and from the sound of it, she was tasked with either destroying or rebuilding the tower. She just wanted to make sure that no one evil got their hands on it. Adonis was betrayed by someone, someone that wanted his knowledge but he would never have given it. I am guessing that the same person destroyed the ship.”
“But if this girl shared Oscar’s spirit at some point, how did she die? She couldn’t have drowned.”
“We can drown, Olive.” Xavier corrected. “If we run out of jepei we lose our ability to survive that much pressure and we lose our ability to breath underwater.” Xavier stood up and I followed him over to the skeleton. He pointed to the girl’s broken ribs and the large cracks on her skull. “That much pressure would start to crack her like an egg, so she either died from losing her breath or the pressure knocked her out and then killed her.”
I looked over this skeleton a bit more and also noticed a few other things. “Some of these marks aren’t from pressure. Her entire rib cage is shattered, starting from this point right here.” I said pointing towards the center of her stomach. “It would take a serious blow to do that much damage.”
“So she was in a serious fight, but the question is why?”
“I might be able to help with that,” we all turned to see Dr. Drakos’s stepping through the doorway with a few people armed with cameras. “Take pictures but don’t touch a thing yet.” He ordered. He had an older book in his hand, “from my own research I did find something, something found in the burial site of a former Spartan general, specifically in his wife's belongings. So I think I might have an idea of what happened that day.”
We gathered around the man as he opened his book up, flipping though the pages like he had them memories. “During the time of King Leonadus there was another set of jepei users that was in his court. The one we are focusing on is a woman by the name of Kalliope Blackthorn.” My stomach sank a bit at that one last name that stretched all the way back to the first families that found the island. The Blackthorn family was banished from the island and later created the dark order, anyone that joined took their last name. “She was one of the queen's closest friends and confidants during the time. She also apparently had a serious interest in history and knowledge, and had a very tense rivalry with Adonis' daughter that lasted until Rhea had died. I am talking about brawls that would last hours, fights so serious it would take the king himself coming down to stop the violence. When Rhea had gone missing it looks like Kalliope had made it her mission to gather all the information that Adonis had written down. She died later from what is know known as poison. However her last words spoken to her handmaiden were. It will be rebuilt and the true king will rule, The Blackthorns will never die.”
“Why now,” I thought to myself as I looked back at the body of Rhea. “Why are they after you now, just what information did your father have about this tower?”
Looks like I was just gonna have to find this tower to find out.
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