Salamanders

"Each attribute can be categorized from levels 1-10. This is what I'm going to train you for," she said, closing down the book on her lap while we're seated in front of each other in the window bench.

We spent the whole day in my room, trying to finish as many lessons as we possibly could.

Von even visited one time just to glare at me and found the lessons boring so he just went outside to play with Lei while Fily slept peacefully inside her room the whole day.

"When will I start training?"

"Soon, maybe." Venedette looked at me with a faint smile, "I don't want to steal your childhood away from you by making you start your training immediately. You still have a lot to see and enjoy in this world that it breaks my heart to know how you couldn't afford to experience these things in your life before. You deserve to be happy, Gem. And I'm here you give you what you deserve. Training will come later, say when you're 14, perhaps?"

"I... I don't think I can last a day without fighting. I already got used to that kind of life and-"

"I understand. I was raised in duty too so I know how hard it is to let go of the kind of lifestyle that you're used to. But do note that if you ever want to rest, or have a day off training, you're free to do so, okay?"

"So you're letting me join training sooner?"

"If that's what you want then, yes. How could I prevent you from doing the thing you want to do the most?"

Upon hearing this, I jumped from my seat and hugged her so tightly that the book on her lap even fell to the floor.

I couldn't find the right words to say in response to her kindness. She's just too warm that her words managed to melt my heart just like hot chocolate.

This woman is more than just someone who's looking out for me because of the necklace, the tears in her eyes were screaming love and longing for something else.

"Why are you crying?" I was worried that I had offended her with my hug so I moved back a little bit but she held me even tighter.

"Sorry, can we stay like this for a bit more?" she gasped for air, trying hard to suppress her sobs that I sure can hear from behind.

After a few minutes, she finally calmed down and collected herself in front of me.

"Thank you," she said.

"T-Thank you too."

I was going to tell her that first! Slow Gem!

"Did something bad happen?" I asked.

As if on cue, her eyes began to fill with tears again that I almost slapped myself for asking that stupid question. Stupid Gem!

"I'll tell you next time. Fily will finish her weekly hibernation tomorrow so we've got to go to sleep early or we wouldn't be able to wake up early to hear the contents of that book!" she laughed, trying to hide the sadness that was still obvious in her eyes no matter how loud her laugh was.

"Okay, see you tomorrow!" I took the clue and smiled weakly at her.

It was only 6 pm but we were already done with dinner and with everything else, so I had nothing left to do except for reading books or thinking about what might happen that could make Venedette sad like that?

I guess it was something horrible for her to have a hard time sharing it with anyone, huh?

Maybe in the future, at the right time, or when she's ready, maybe she'll tell me what it is and I might understand how sadness works for her.

But for now, I still have a promise to complete and I'll do my best to pay her kindness back sometime in the future too when I can finally help her.

*tik tik tik*

I heard soft noises from outside so I glanced at the window but immediately fell on my bed when I saw a big shadow on the window, staring at me. I closed my eyes because of the horror as my breathing became ragged thinking, 'What in the world was that?' but when I looked at it again, it was gone!

I made my way back to the window where Venedette and I were just seated earlier and found an orange lizard sticking to my window from the outside.

But I'm sure the black thing that I saw was bigger than this lizard's shadow.

I shrugged the thought and opened the window slowly, letting it crawl inside my room.

"What are you doing here?" I greeted it.

This lizard looks familiar, it's one of the amphibians that I saw inside that chamber-like cave!

I really thought that the golden-orange light from the book was the reason they looked orange to me but it was really their color all along!

I tumbled off my feet when a battalion of them suddenly invaded my room.

"Woah! woah! woah!! There's a LOT of you!!" I exclaimed as I heard their slithery bodies crawl on all of the four walls of my darkroom, flashing faint glows that resemble their different skin colors such as green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, and pink before they went into a halt, all at the same time.

But among them, these seven in front of me had the brightest glow of them all.

The orange one, which seemed to be their leader, moved closer to me and handed me a key from its slimy tongue, which I took from it reluctantly, mainly because of curiosity and fear that if I don't do what they want me to do, they might lunge at me all at once.

I covered my ears when the rest of them on my walls started to move again. My hearing is very clear that even their small but million slimy feet could ring in my ear as noise.

The rest of the seven gave me each key from their tongue. Their glow became weaker after giving me the keys and when I held the seven of those in my palm, the gemstone necklace released weak cyan-colored jelly droplets that took the keys in seven separate drops and disappeared back into my necklace.

What the hell just happened...?

The lizards- 'Salamanders' A random word interrupted my thoughts as it popped into my mind.

"You're Salamanders? Like the gemstone Salamandite..?"

The orange one nodded to me as if it understood my words.

-which made my eyes widen and my heart beat faster than ever!

What in the world is this weird situation that I'm in right now??

As if satisfied, the Salamanders left my room just like nothing had happened. Leaving me with my gemstone's glow that became brighter than before.

'Did they just charge you or something?' I tried to talk to it, but it won't respond.

Instead, I felt the gemstone move a little bit in my neck, giving me an impression that it wanted to talk but somehow couldn't.

What did the Salamanders do to my wall?

Should I ask Venedette to go here now?

Did she know that Salamanders and the gemstones have a connection??

Out of curiosity, I turned on the lights to search for books about Salamanders.

And it said here, "Extinct amphibian species" which confused the heck out of me.

I was sure that I saw them, they looked similar to the pictures except for the colors! How are they extinct!?? I don't understand...

I looked at my walls, searching for the trails that they might have left, expecting it to be a slimy mess but there was nothing.

Was I visited by dead Salamanders? But what they gave me was real! The gemstone looked healthier because of the keys that they gave it!

I'm sure I'm not hallucinating.

I mean even if I was, how could I know how Salamanders look like if I haven't seen them before??

The Salamanders according to the books, were the first amphibians to be affected by a chemical reaction from a meteorite that landed on earth, evolving their species into a much more useful one that quickly became extinct because of the large demand for their energy slimes.

Energy slimes... the keys? It didn't look like slimes...

But what do they use it for?

There's no data here explaining where they use the Salamanders except for those 'energy slimes'. So what use does energy slimes have for the superhumans to want them so bad that they had to make Salamanders extinct even before the nuclear war??

My mind is so boggled right now that I just wish my necklace would tell me everything.

Or Fily? Maybe she knows something about these things.

Ahhh! I should just wait for Fily to wake up tomorrow.