Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Two pairs of frog-eyes stare into the void and they see nothing but owls. Day three.

Hidden beneath the many layers of clothes that Hineni usually wears outside, beneath his coat, his hat, his scarf is just a man like any other. Hidden beneath Sockel’s exhausted, sleep-deprived face, which always seems to carry an unusually contrasting expression of ‘pleasantly worried’ is just a woman. Hidden beneath the fabric of Rhine’s expensive robe, hidden beneath the strands of long, wet blue hair, is a frog.

 

Hineni isn’t really too sure what’s happening right now. He thinks that he’s been captured.

 

By the time the world turned right-side up again, the water of the spell having dissipated, the door had burst open and he had been struck while he was on the ground. Everything still feels like it’s spinning. Someone is dragging him through the house.

 

Rhine betrayed them. Him. Is he with the frogs? Obviously. He has to be.

 

Something hurts inside of Hineni. It isn’t a broken bone or an aching wound or anything like that. It’s a new feeling, one that he isn’t really familiar with. It feels… twisty. It’s like something has grabbed hold of both his heart and his stomach and is currently in the process of moving them both to the spot in between.

 

“What do we do?” asks a familiar man’s voice. “Do we go back?”

 

“I didn’t think we’d actually get this far,” says a surprised woman. Hineni recognizes her distinct voice too. She’s one of the people from the adventurer’s guild. Wasn’t she some kind of healer or something? He recalls her asking him once to join up with him, right after he was accepted by Obscura.

 

“Is there anyone else here?” asks a calm, soft voice. Another woman. She’s speaking down, as if talking to someone much younger, much lower. “Where’s the owl, water-droplet?”

 

Hineni’s eyes begin to unblur. He fidgets with his hands. They’re tied behind his back.

You are reading story Weaponsmith : [A crafting litRPG] at novel35.com

 

Something blues shakes from side to side, a turning head. “N- no, mother,” stutters Rhine. “The owl-god left to find Mr. Beni a few days ago,” explains the boy. “She still hasn’t returned.”

 

Hineni lifts his eyes, staring at the tall, slender woman who Rhine is speaking to. She has long, flowing blue hair of the same color as Rhine’s, tied in a loose, soft braid that hangs over her shoulder towards the front. Her face is soft and kind and her left hand tenderly strokes the boy’s head once.

 

“Rhine?” she asks in a chipper tone, tilting her head, petting him again with a second long, gentle stroke.

 

“Y- yes, mother?” asks Rhine, literally quivering in his boots.

 

She nods, continuing to pet his head. “You did well,” affirms the woman. “You’re really growing!” she praises. “You’re going to be a strong man just like your father one day.”

 

The boy straightens up somewhat awkwardly. “Thank you, mother,” he replies, receiving his third pet on the head.

 

She smiles a proud mother’s smile, petting him a fourth time. The hand that is petting the boy’s head grabs a fistful of his hair down by the roots and violently yanks him forward. He yelps as she twists his head with a jank. A loud crack shoots through the room as her right hand strikes Rhine across the face.

 

---