10 Years Ago (02)

Mipha was not really unlucky. Its just that the strings of her destiny were entangled into a complex knot due to which her actions never ended with simple consequences.

- "But what are you doing here all alone ?"

Asked Val, finally relieved and away from the danger of beast.

- "M-me? n-nothing. I was...strolling an-"

Mipha turned her head away from Val as she made her excuses.

- "You snuck out from the city, didn't you?"

Mipha lowered her head after being caught by Val.

- "You know how dangerous it is to go outside. Y-You shouldn't leave the city."

Said Val in timid voice as he showed concern for her.

- "Hmph..you talk like my father. Anyways, what are you going to do ?"

Said Mipha while pouting cutely and crossing her hands. Val didn't wanted to go back to Kelnar nor that he could do so either. So after contemplating a little he decided.

- "I-I'll stay here"

- "hmmm, then.. Why don't we build a house for you?"

And with the coming of dusk, two 7 years old children build a small house out of sand using their magic. Mipha left after few hours with a promise to return the next day with food and Val left alone in his sand house as he sat silently while staring at the little bonfire.

Night was upon him but he couldn't able to sleep, thoughts about the beast from the forest kept revolving around his head. Scared to sleep, he kept drooping while fighting with his drowsiness. Later, the ocean became silent and a soft melodious humming reached into his ear.

It was coming from the forest, in a voice of a woman. It felt like a mother was singing lullaby to her child. As Val was already in half asleep state, the melodious humming washed away his worries and put him into a peaceful sleep.

[Humming Reference: Memories of Mother]

Next Morning, Val tried to catch some fish but he failed miserably in it. Few hours later, Mipha came with food which made him cry out of happiness while clinging to her legs. Val ate the fruits brought by Mipha while shedding tears and Mipha only watched him with a kind smile on her face, like a mother feeling happy for feeding her child.

- "We should gather woods and fruits for the evening"

Said Mipha, suggesting to go into the forest to gather resources but Val was reluctant. He only agreed when Mipha assured his safety and agreed to leave the forest if any monster would appear. They entered the forest with Mipha in front, she walked confidently with holding the hand of scared Val.

- "Oh look, that's a Hopuff tree."

Said Mipha excitedly as she pointed out to a tree of Hopuff fruit. Hopuff was like a large blue strawberry. When they got close, they saw a small nest resting on the tree and Mipha decided to not use magic for the safety of nest. Val stopped her but Mipha still climbed the tree to pluck out the fruits herself. She was just few inches away from the fruit when the branch below her snapped and she fell.

As Val saw Mipha falling, he instinctively moved below her in thought of catching her but she crashed into him. Mipha was safe as he cushioned her fall but his right ankle got injured.

- "A-Are you alright ?"

Said Mipha as she got up from Val

- "Y-Yes, I'm ...Ugh"

- "Oh God Triton, it's bleeding. Because of me... p-please forgive me"

Said Mipha as she cried after seeing the blood. She took it on herself thinking that Val got injured because of her. She thought that her misfortune was affecting him too.

- "N-no, I'm just glad that you're safe. It doesn't hurt at all, really."

Said Val, hiding his pain but Mipha shed more tears after hearing him. She knew how weak he was, how every little things scared him but still, there he was trying to act strong just to not make her feel bad. The fact that she was supposed to protect him not the other way around, made her feel more bad. Finally, she wiped her tears and removed a pendant from her neck.

- "W-What are you doing?"

Asked Val as he got flustered when Mipha put her pendant around his neck.

- "I don't know any healing magic yet but this pendant has a healing ability"

Said Mipha, after putting the pendant on Val. The pendant was consisted of a thin black chain and a teardrop shaped blue crystal which was held in a beautiful silver cover. Mipha created a small ball of water using magic and gently pour it on Val's ankle.

- "Oh! it's healing"

- "Yes, the crystal said to be came from the womb of deep ocean. It can heal any external injuries as long as you'll stay in contact with water."

- "W-Wow! it must be above rare grade then"

Said Val in astonishment while fiddling with the pendant. His injury was healed in less than a minute.

- "Yes, it is said to be a mythical grade item. A-And I want you to accept it as a gift from me."

Said Mipha shyly.

- "W-What? H-How can I possibly accept such precious item?"

Said Val finding it absurd. The pendant was appeared to be quite precious, not only in its rarity but also in its sentimental value. He tried to remove it but Mipha stopped him.

- "I-I don't want you to get hurt. If you want to give it back then become strong enough to not get hurt"

Said Mipha in her soft voice and both of them started blushing while looking at the ground. Later, they decided to exit the forest to take some rest. As they were walking toward the beach with Mipha in lead, Val heard some creaking noises behind him which were sounded similar to the bending of trees.

When he turned around, fear consumed his whole body as he froze on the spot. Val saw a 2-story tall forest beast, 150ft away from him, standing behind a tree, staring at him. It looked similar to a Wendigo but with bulky body and tree bark skin, back and head with several protruding branches, a tree grown out from its left shoulder and an asymmetrical menacing face with only 2 red glowing eyes in the same side.

'W-We are going to die, we both will die, we can't escape'

Thought Val as his face went pale and his heartbeat raced rapidly. He understood his situation but he didn't wanted Mipha to die with him. It took only 3 seconds, he quickly turned toward Mipha as she was still walking toward the beach unaware of danger and shot a strong wind force toward her. Mipha sent flying 80ft away from him.

Swoosh boom

In those 3 seconds, the beast was already appeared behind Val. The beast swung his right arm at Val, couldn't able to react, he was also sent flying to the right side. Val crashed into a tree and lost consciousness while Mipha rolled on the ground.

- "VAL !!"

Kraankkkk

Cried Mipha as she saw Val laid on the ground while lifting herself up. But the beast replied her with a roar as it turned toward her. Mipha froze on the spot, terrified by the beast. The beast started moving toward Mipha but then an explosion erupted on its right side and a burning tree fell in front of the beast, blocking its way toward Mipha.

Beast turned toward its right and saw Val standing in attack position as his both hands were enveloped in raging flames. Val was also in bad state as blood dripped from the corner of his lips but he endured the pain to buy time for Mipha.

Kraankkkk

The beast roared and started running toward Val and as the beast got close to him, Val spread the fire like flamethrower in front of him. The beast stopped abruptly when flames surrounded its face.

Mipha couldn't do anything as she was only better at manipulating the water element. She was thinking about how to help Val, when suddenly, she heard the sound of whale coming from the ocean and without hesitation she ran toward it.

Val kept spreading the fire in all direction of the forest in order to trap the beast and kept its attention on himself. He knew he was going to die but he wanted to do everything in order to save Mipha. The beast was weak against fire but Val's magic was too weak. Unharmed by the fire, the beast emerged from the raging flames in front of Val like it was nothing and seeing that, Val lost all hope. He fell to his knees in defeat and drooped with dizziness due to fear and excessive inhalation of smoke.

Boom

The beast swung its arm toward Val but before it could reach him, the head of the beast exploded, like got hit by something. The explosion was so powerful that the shock waves it released, extinguished the surrounding fire and made the beast's head disappeared completely. Val was not aware of the events which were happening around him as he was in half conscious state.

Thud

Val and the beast fell on the ground at the same time, few steps away from each other. Val lost his consciousness and the beast had died. Then, a mysterious black figure emerged from the smoke behind Val and walked slowly toward him.

Upon reaching close to him, it crouched down and caressed Val's cheek. Val was making frightened expression in his sleep but when caressed by the black figure, his expression changed into relaxing one and all his previous wounds healed completely.

As Mipha reached at the beach, she saw 3 man emerging from the ocean like they were walking on seabed. One was her elder brother Jeto, 18yrs old, the 2nd son of Supreme Leader of Ycluir and other 2 were the knights of Ycluir wearing a blue dyed armor and carrying a silver trident.

- "Mipha, just how many times you've told to not sneak ou-"

Jeto started scolding as he saw Mipha running toward him but he stopped in the middle of his speech when he saw the state she was in.

- "B-Brother, p-please save him, the forest beast will kill him"

Afraid, she begged and sobbed while grabbing the clothes of Jeto. He got flustered for a second after seeing Mipha sobbed so badly. He tried to calm her down.

- "Calm down Mipha, who are you referring t-"

boom

A sudden loud explosion was heard which made everyone flinched and turned toward the forest. Mipha went pale and tried to run toward the forest but Jeto grabbed her. Jeto gave a nod to a knight and the knight rushed toward the area of explosion while the other knight stood before both sibling in order to protect them.

Soon, they all arrived at the place of battle as they saw Val lying in front the dead beast whose head was missing. Mipha rushed toward Val while crying, she checked him and called out to him to wake him up. The area around them was scorched and strangely Val was not injured.

The knight reported to Jeto that it was unlikely for Val to kill that beast as he was a seedless but also when he first arrived at the scene, no one was seen beside them.

- "Mipha, what is the identity of this boy?"

Asked Jeto standing behind Mipha.

- "H-He is Val Kelnar, the youngest-"

Answered Mipha while sobbing but Jeto interrupted her.

- "It's alright, you don't have to worry about him, he is just unconscious. I promise I'll take care of him but you need to head Ycluir first. Father sent me to bring you back, we'll hear you in the city."

Said Jeto as he crouched down and patted her head. Mipha didn't oppose him as she trusted her brother, she started to move toward the ocean, in escort with a knight when Jeto asked her about the pendant.

- "Did you give him the 'Tear of Ocean' which, mother has given you as a gift this year ?"

Said Jeto without turning back as he was staring at the pendant around Val's neck.

- "Y-Yes, he saved my life even though he is weak. I don't want him to get hurt."

Said Mipha with sadness in her eyes as she looked at Val. After Mipha left with a knight, Jeto sighed at the kindness of her little sister, he didn't take the pendant back as he respected Mipha's wish. When Jeto heard Val's name, he got the gist of his situation. He knew about Val's existence, so the fact about Val being abandoned by his family not really surprised him.

- "Escort him back to his city, I don't want this sinful existence like himself close to Ycluir."

Ordered Jeto to a knight as he glared at unconscious Val with cold eyes. He didn't know who killed the beast and saved Val but he didn't wanted to know either. He didn't want Ycluir to get involved with anything regarding Val.

- "It'll be done as desired by your grace"

Said the knight while kneeling.

***************************************************************************

[ Back to Present ]

After the recollection of Val's memory. Theo woke up and greeted with burning pain as he was still laid on the floor by his side. But his mind was focused on only one thing

'Tear of Ocean'

Thought Theo. He knew that for his upcoming journey, that pendant was important.

- "Anyway, revelation or not, you can't survive outside the city more than a week."

Said Eira after calming down and glaring at Val. She wanted to know that if Val had gotten some kind of blessing or revelation from goddess as his behavior was changed quite significantly with the change in his mana signature.

She was checking the possibility of him coming back to Kelnar after leaving the city. But she found nothing, aside from the change in his mana signature, there was no change in his strength.

- "Let me tell you something, you can consider it as a first and last present from me"

Said Eira as she crouched down close to Val while looking at his face. He was laid motionless on the floor and half of his face was covered with his messy hair which made it hard to read his expressions.

- "That ugly pendant from 10 yrs ago which was stolen from you. It's in Zion's possession."

Whispered Eira before getting up and leaving the room. Nobody saw it but a thin smile crept up on Val's face. But because of the burning pain he lost his consciousness.

[ Next Chapter 010 - Awakened ]