Chapter 38: 1-36: Beachside Story

I tied my horse to a tree and made my way towards the others who were gathered around Quaza while she demanded information out of the locals. 

"There was a shockwave a week ago, what can you tell us about that?"

"Yes. It was a week ago. We went out to investigate and there was a human passed out on the shore. We were taking care of her when a demon beast burrowed up out of the ground and started making a ruckus. The poor lass was pissed off she was woke up and somehow killed the beast."

"You're telling me a human washed up on the shore, and killed a demonic beast?"

"Yes."

"And where is the human?"

"She left after killing the beast."

"Well, that doesn't seem like anyone who is trying to cause issues but soloing a demon beast is impressive. Have you disposed of the body yet?"

"No. your highness. Bit too big. We were hoping it would be decomposing a bit faster, but it's been on the shore since she killed it."

Quaza turned to us. "It's on the way."

We followed the leader down the slight incline to the beach and to the left where a large snake-like body lay decomposing on the sand. It was probably five of me wide and seven of me long. It was something that I wouldn't want to kill by myself even if it woke me up. In fact, it would take a few cannon balls to even tear its body even at the magic residue sac on its chest.

Speaking of that, it was burst open like it had exploded from the inside. I wasn't sure if that was a result of overuse on the beast's part or if there was a magic that could do that, but if it could that would be dangerous. 

"Damn. I wish I could have fought this." Nox said kicking it. 

"I'm glad we didn't." Caela complained, "Look at this thing. It's gross."

Quaza shook her head, "This is going to be a bitch to get taken care of. I should convince mother to see if one of chefs could cook it up."

Hayli gagged, "I could just drag it into the sea."

"Its blood could be toxic to the sea life, Hayli."

"Oh, right. Forgot they can do that."

I walked a bit away from the corpse, a glint in the sand catching my eye. I moved towards it and squatted to pick it up. It was a long metal rod with a hollowed-out end and a trigger like trains had on their brakes at one end. In the middle was a glass vial filled with a small amount of an odd blue liquid that slowly sloshed around. Weird.

I felt Quaza's hand on my shoulder, "What you find?"

I held the object up to her. She looked at it and handed it back. "Is that like a potion injector or something?"

"I mean it could be like this one knife Vern has but the liquid isn't flowing like how potions usually flow."

"Try pulling the trigger. Away from me, and towards the ocean."

I held the thing and turned towards the blue hell that lapped up on the refuge of the shore. I steadied myself and pulled the trigger. There was a click and then a burst of something shot out of it and went flying into the ocean. I near dropped it out of shock.

"I think we found how the girl fought the beast."

I put my eye up to the vial inside. The liquid had gone down. I then walked over to the rocks and this time only slightly squeezed it. The beam was constant but manageable. I carved my initials into one. The liquid had gone down even more. "Neat. Not sure what's doing it but still."

"I take it that you never heard of a human weapon like this?"

"Nope."

"And I can't tell the magic type it's using either." She grabbed from me and placed in in a bag by her shoulders. "Well, mother would want to see it, so let's not let you waste it."

"I wasn't going to waste it."

She glared at me, "Terra, you ate half your food the first day on the boat and then threw it up."

We left the corpse and walked down the beach some more towards a cave that was just visible in a hill. It had what had once been two statues in the front of it, long since broken and weathered away by the elements and ocean air. Runic written was faded over the top, completely indecipherable to anyone alive.

We entered, and immediately went back outside to find a stick for Caela to burn so we could see anything. Once that was done it was easy to start looking at the walls. On them were mural paintings that while beautiful were labeled and covered in runic which meant the scenes shown we could only guess exactly what they meant.

(Okay, with future context some of my assumptions here are wrong. I'm not changing anything but to be fair everyone looked a little evil so the bad guy in any scene was just me throwing shit at a wall.) 

First up was a scene of tall figures and shorter figures boarding boats. A figure with a crown was on the front boat, point towards a sun with a human face. There were other figures on the shore watching them, with simple sad faces. This was followed by the same group landing onto a beach, and starting to build a camp to rest in. From the wood line, red eyes stared in ready to strike. The next was a battle between the two different groups of short people and the tall figures fighting with what looked like magic. The battle continued for a few until finally the tall figures left seemed to have a summit and put together what seemed like a peace agreement by the handshakes. The next showed the landing figures colonizing the land, and the slow decline of the taller figures. There was a small one of three of the native taller figures trapping another inside a prison and then one of two of the colonial figures killing others of their kind. Then there were the last figures that weren't those two using magic to apparently destroy them. Then it got weird. It first showed the island be destroyed, seventy times in terrifyingly identical carvings until finally the island was set in stone. Then there were figures who reached the imprisoned figure and by each one there was an hourglass. I assumed that it was to show each one was long after the other since the figures looked the same in the simple art style used. Then the murals became more faded and harder to follow. There was a knight and a few mages in battle with a horned figure and a girl, over and over. Then at the end the girl is sticking her hand into the dirt and then the island is destroyed once more and returned to normal. And then the two taller figures spirits who were destroyed fly across the ocean and the others are sent across the island except for the girl who seemingly disappeared.

"Hayli." Quaza called for the water dragon who moved towards her. "Any of these matches your religion?"

Hayli shook her head, "I think this is the migration to Magala. But the rest is bizarre. I guess the two here are the Twins but the rest is nothing I recognize."

Nyx scowled, "How would there be murals about what happened across the sea?"

"We are assuming that's what it is, we can't read the runes and half of it is destroyed." Hayli replied.

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"I mean the horns and being tall is clearly a sign that the Ancients are depicted."

"And how do you explain the apparent ancients on the island before they landed?" Hayli asked.

My sister smirked, "Why would we be the only land with ancients?"

Hayli gave that to her. "I suppose it would be reasonable to expect."

I walked over to Caela who was sketching the runes and figures into a notebook she had taken from me. Her art was really good, and her handwriting was legible without effort on the readers part unlike mine. She was going quite fast, getting what she thought to be the most important figures down so we could actually show them to people later. Not like anyone could read the runes anyways, but the figures might be recognizable to a historian.

"Terra, do you mind not looking over my shoulder?" Caela asked.

"S-Sorry." I backed away. 

"Don't apologize. You can still look it's just distracting to feel your breath on my neck."

I continued to watch her draw from beside her, while in the background Hayli and Nyx argued over the Twins and if they even left to Magala and Quaza egged them on. I should have gotten them to stop but I wasn't willing to take a side between Hayli and Nyx. And besides it was calming to watch Caela draw.

We walked further into the ruins into the required room where the cliche mysterious object lay. This was a statue of the Twins hands conjoined and reaching into the heavens. In their arms was another figure in which their blades were stabbed. Behind them was a locked door with a large rune painted on it. I refused to get near it since I was afraid of getting stabbed in the stomach by an ancient again. Quaza remarked that the twins' faces were ugly, causing Hayli to complain that Quaza was being disrespectful. Quaza of course only started to insult the statue even more. I grabbed my girlfriend and Caela and Nyx grabbed the princess and dragged them out of the ruins, mouths covered by our hands.

"That was a fruitless cave." Caela complained laying on the bed in the inn we had gotten board at.

"You expected something different?" Hayli said.

"I expected something different."

Hayli laughed, "And you, Terra?"

"I expected to somehow activate a death trap with my history with ruins."

Hayli rolled her eyes, "There's a difference between a tomb and a cave."

"Did you often have misadventures in ruins?"

"Caela, I had Quaza's grandfather fall on my sword."

"Besides that."

"I was nearly killed by an ancient right before getting kidnapped to the capital."

"Okay that's also bad but two accidents aren't a pattern."

"It is to me."

Caela shook her head, ponytail whipping across my face. "Hayli, you should keep a close eye on her in future ruins regardless."

"Already do. Trust me, ruins are the least of her worries."

"What do you mean?"

"The amount of stuff her brother and her got up to by walking in the woods or camping in them is astounding. She might be the most danger prone person in the world."

"Oh, a girl crosses the border on accident two times and she's danger-prone?"

"You were fifty miles from it, I still cannot fathom how that was possible."

"I was following Vern."

"Is he bad at directions?"

"Nox got all the smarts of the twins."

"She once got lost in our school building."

"I didn't say she was smart, just that she was smarter than Vern."

Caela smiled and yawned crawling over to her bed. "Please don't do anything." 

Hayli feigned shock, "Oh? You think I would do anything more than kiss Terra with you in the room?"

"Yes." She said tossing her blanket over her head and turning away from us.

Hayli kissed me real quick and dragged me under our own sheets. I ignored her stuffing her face between my boobs like she always did when we weren't spooning. (Heh, boobs- Hayli) I closed my eyes and let my thoughts fade. After all, tomorrow we would have to report to the queen and then get sent off to do something else depending on what advice she gave to her daughter on what to do next.

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