(From Rosanne)
I woke up suddenly. I think I was having a nightmare, but the situation in which I woke up quickly made me forget all about it. I could hear heavy rain and thunder, and the carriage was shaking a lot. We must have been caught by a storm. We knew those formed suddenly in this ocean, and we had a plan for it, Adrian would swim towards the coast at the first signal of one. If it had reached us with such strength it meant that Adrian was aware of it for some time already, and we were on our way to safety. We just needed to hold on.
I looked at my travel partners, Lucius looked as if nothing was happening, and Maxwell seemed to be more worried about my safety, making sure I didn't hit my head against something. Ingrid was trying to look though, but I could see by how she was gripping strongly to her seat that she was worried and scared. I feel bad for dragging her into this crazy mission of mine. I was going to tell her something, try to calm her down in some way, when a loud noise interrupted me. It sounded like an eerie melody, something that reminded me of whales' calls, but not quite.
—What is that? —I asked, trying to look through the window.
Ingrid did the same, but we could only see darkness, until several lightning bolts crossed the sky. We saw a beast, swimming just 15 or so meters away from us. It was bigger than an Orca, with a hump in the back, and something that resembled tusks coming from its maw.
—Sea Boars! —Ingrid yelled, as she jumped back.
—Oh, my, this might be dangerous —Lucius added.
—Huh? —was everything I could add to the conversation.
—Sea Boars are terrible animals to encounter at sea —Maxwell explained—, they are extremely aggressive and powerful. An armored ship would have trouble dealing with one, but they are pack animals...
Another lightning allowed us to see that another two of them were swimming on our other side.
—Our only advantage is our speed. Adrian should be able to move faster for longer than them, but... —the doctor said, and then got quiet.
There was no need to finish his sentence, we all knew what he was trying to say. Adrian had been swimming for hours. There was no way he could pull such a stunt. If the Sea Boars attacked us, we were doomed.
But, they didn't, they were just swimming next to us. And we noticed that our vehicle wasn't shaking as intensely as before.
—Are... are they protecting us? —I dared to ask. By all appearances, they were using their bodies as wave breakers.
—It seems so, but that doesn't make sense —Lucius said—, there is no record of such a thing ever happening.
—No, they aren't protecting us. They are protecting YOU, witch —Ingrid added, throwing a glare at me—, just like you, those creatures have the blood of Tiamat!
—Tia... mat? —I asked.
—Don't play dumb. Lilith, your ancestor, is the mother of all dragons, but her mother, Tiamat, is the mother of all demons.
—Demons...
I looked at my reflection in the window. Certainly, with the horns coming from my forehead, I looked a lot like a demon. My head started to hurt the more I thought about it, so I tried to distract myself, and focused on listening to the song that the Sea Boars sang. The storm calmed down as dawn broke, and we came to a halt. We could see land pretty close, and the shallow waters had prevented the Sea Boars from following us, but they were still waiting for us. I could see them blowing steam from their nostrils and even jumping out of the water. Adrian came to talk to us, he was pretty shocked when the Sea Boars started to follow us, and more so when they didn't attack us, just like we had been.
—This must be a blessing from the goddess of the ocean —he said.
I wanted to ask if that goddess was the same Tiamat that Ingrid was talking about, but I didn't want to bring it up in front of her, so I decided to ask him later in private. After a brief rest, Adrian said he was ready to continue. We decided to trust the Sea Boars and return to open waters, but we'll be vigilant of any sign of aggression. They kept following us, always keeping some distance from us, as if to assure that they didn't mean any harm. I had opened the window when the rain had stopped, and at that point I got my head a bit out of it to listen to the song a little better. It had a weirdly nostalgic sound to it.
—Have I... heard this before? —I asked, as I started to doze off.
I heard a different sound coming from above, and when I turned around, I saw a single, white seagull flying over us. I slept for a few hours, only awakening when it was time to eat. The rest of the travel was quite uneventful, we stopped in a couple more port towns, and I got to test my disguise. It was an apparent success, as nobody seemed to even notice me. Those towns were quite beautiful, I had to fight my urge to try to explore them. Maybe in the future, once this was over, I could visit them with Violett.
The further we traveled north, the colder it became. We even started to find parts of the ocean that were frozen. Thankfully, the Sea Boars were still tagging along, despite us having traveled way out of their usual territory. With their tusks, breaking the ice was not a problem. Still, I was worried for Adrian, but he kept insisting he was fine every time he took a break. I could notice, though, that we weren't moving as fast as we had done in warmer waters. He pressed through, and finally, on the afternoon of our fourth day traveling, we found a river that would take us to the town near the radio tower. We had arrived to the northern territories.
—Thank you so much for helping us! —I yelled to the Sea Boars as we entered into the shallow waters, where they couldn't follow us anymore.
I saw them one final time, blowing steam and jumping. I had to admit, I hoped they would still be there when we had to make the trip back home. Maybe I could get to touch one. After traveling a few more hours through the river, we got into a lake, where we finally could disembark. The lake was sunk into a hole in respect to the rest of the terrain, almost as if a crater had filled with water.
—Adrian, thank you very much! We couldn't have gotten here without you —I told him—, you can rest now, but are you fine staying here?
—Yes, thanks for your consideration. The water here is quite warm, at least compared to how cold the ocean was.
—Huh, is it?
I removed one of the gloves that the doctor had insisted I wore, and touched the water. He was right, though it was barely hotter than "room temperature". Considering that everything around us was covered in snow, however, was rather comforting.
—I heard this area has some hot springs, perhaps some feed into the lake —Lucius said.
—Oh, is that so? —I said, while I added this place to the sites I would like to visit with Violett. It had always been a dream of mine to visit a hot spring.
We left the pier, and climbed some stairs carved in the rock to get to the surface. The air felt a lot chiller once we got up, but the shiver that I felt was for another reason. I had a realization when my eyes caught on the scenery of the town in front of us. Arthur, my late husband and the father of Violett, had died in a town just like this one. These houses, the forest covered in snow, these smells... they were probably pretty similar to what he had seen in his last moments.
—Rosanne, are you alright? —Maxwell asked, noticing I had stopped walking.
He was using a mask to protect his mouth and nose from the cold air. It reminded me a bit of the plague doctors of old times in my world.
—Ye-yeah, don't worry about it.
—Our first objective should be to meet up with the mayor or elder of the town —Lucius interrupted as we made our way into the town—, gather all the young girls, and have Ingrid test them as fast as possible.
—I am not a machine! —she yelled, which made some of the townsfolk notice us.
A man came running to us, surprisingly fast despite him looking a bit overweight.
—Thank the gods! We have been waiting for your arrival! —he said, coming directly at me and holding my hands.
—Wait, what is this about? —Maxwell said, trying to put himself between the man and me.
—Didn't the church send you to help us? We have been sending letters constantly begging them to help us!
—This is the first time we heard about that... —Lucius replied, sounding confused.
—We came for a different reason, but we'll help as much as we can! —Ingrid said—, what is the problem?
I smiled under my mask, despite her attitude towards me, she seemed to be a good person.
—Come, I'll explain it on the way! There is no time to waste! —the old man said.
Despite his weight, and the snow covering the terrain which made walking rather difficult, his pace was quite intense. I felt short of breath and my head hurt just after a few minutes following him.
—I am the mayor's assistant, Santicus. If you need something, anything, look for me. I end up doing most of the mayor's work anyway —he said while we were walking—, but to get to the point, recently people have been getting sick, they fainted, suffered convulsions, and their skin became darker.
—Lilith's Wrath! —I wanted to say, but Maxwell stopped me.
—That's the Curse of Calliope —he said—, it is a sickness that has been spreading through our nation as well. We came here for... related reasons. There is no cure at the moment, but I know a treatment to deal with the symptoms.
—That's... That's better than nothing. I hope it is still not too late. The first people that got infected started to get really messed up and aggressive, we had to restrain them, and keep them in this remote place.
We had arrived at a building on the outskirts of the town. It was a step pyramid that had an ancient feel to it, the winged snakes carved in its walls gave me the impression of it being built by a civilization that had existed millenia ago. That being said, it was quite well preserved, almost as if people had been taking care of it. I had seen a similar pyramid in my original world, but that one was already crumbling to dust, and was in a very small terrain, surrounded by houses and business.
This pyramid didn't have a staircase, and the steps were too tall for anyone to climb them, at least not without a big deal of effort. Instead, there was an entrance in the front, with an apparently more recent wooden door on it. Flanking it at each side, there was a statue of a lion with human heads and wings.
—You! —Ingrid yelled as she went to grab Santicus by the neck. She was a lot stronger than I expected, as she could pick the man without any apparent effort—, do you have an idea where you have brought us? This is a temple for Tiamat!
—And what would be the problem with that, young maiden? —a new voice spoke.
A man emerged from the temple, so tall that he had to hunch to pass through the already big entrance, and almost as lean as a running dog. His attire was as unusual, wearing a helmet and pectoral armor over what seemed to be formal clothes. In his right hand he was carrying what once must have been a lance, but now was broken, used as a walking cane.
—Who are you? —Ingrid replied, still angry.
—I am this town's mayor, Miguel Alonso Quejada. And the man you are threatening is my dear friend and squire, young maiden —he said with a smile, but a strong pressure could be felt coming from him.
Then he turned around and looked at me. A smile appeared on his face.
—Oh! Madame Dragonroot! And the Doctor Conrad, I presume —he said, despite both of us wearing masks—, we have been waiting for you!
—We have? Why didn't you tell me?! —Santicus managed to say, but the mayor ignored him.
—How do you know us? —Maxwell asked.
—Well, I suppose we have friends in common.