Muriel
"Morning." Raziel mumbled just as soon as I woke up and I chuckled when I saw him cuddling with me once again just like the night before. Yup, he really is a child.
"Good morning." I greeted back with a smile plastered on my lips and kissed him on the cheek. He did the same before we decided to stretch our limbs and rise off from the bed already since the sun was up just the same. If we were on Earth,I'd rather stay in bed till 10 am but this world just have so much to offer for me to just pass.
We fixed ourselves and did our own morning rituals before going to the dining room for breakfast, finding all of them seated already there around the table with another meal of mouth-watering food before them.
"There you are." Leo sighed in relief as we took our own seats around the table, some others yawning like they haven't got enough sleep and I needn't ask why when I already know what
"Nothing. It's just more fun to eat together as always after all of the quarrels going on around the past few days." Violet happily stated and I made an awkward face. Well I kinda feel guilty now.
But give it to the great Ryouta who managed to change the subject as soon as the ambiance around turned awkward. Man am I thankful to this guy.
"Hey guys. We're entering the most dangerous parts of the seas in a few hours. They said that a lot of monsters from the depths often surfaces there. Whose up for fighting them----"
"I." Almost everyone said in chorus and we laughed after a few seconds later beginning to eat the meal before us, everyone was chattering away excitedly and my interest was piqued by something that I heard.
"If we're lucky, we might see some merpeople out there." Violet excitedly said and my eyes widened in excitement at the word merpeople.
"Mermaids are real?!" I blurted out so loud that everyone stopped talking to laugh at me. Wow. How mean of them ganging up on me. Apparently, I'm human and grew up in the human world where such things don't exist.
"Yes Muriel. They are real." Raziel answered, a smile on his lips and I beamed in eagerness, wanting to see at least one for myself with my own eyes. It would be an amazing experience!
"Are they like what humans perceived them to be?" I soon asked with a frown, wondering about what the merpeople may look like since there's a lot of stories about them on Earth where their appearances vary from.
In fairy tales and a fair lot of other books, they were beautiful creatures, pretty and creatures to behold. They had tails instead of feet in those books, half human and half fish. In the Potter book series though, they looked so much different, they were portrayed as evil looking creatures of the deep and weren't anything near beautiful. If anything, they were haunting.
Okay? That didn't help much. I don't know if I'm excited about seeing the merpeople at all now. Geeez Muriel, you and your wild imaginations.
Raziel noticed my frown and it seemed as if he read my mind because he immediately cleared me off my doubts to which I was deeply grateful to.
"They aren't anywhere near the same. Humans may have portrayed them as beautiful creatures of the deep but they're more than that. You'll definitely love them." He stated, sounding so sure that I would and I took that as a promise. Because he said that, I must say that I trust that it would really come to that.
"I'll look forward to them then." I muttered, feeling excited again while the others nodded with amused looks on their faces due to my enthusiasm but hey! They couldn't blame me since I haven't seen a mermaid nor a merman.
Those were merely folklore and fantasy creatures or... Maybe it's just that the civilized world just don't believe those at all, thinking they weren't real and merely unrealistic due to the lack of proofs.
I wonder how humans will react if they learned though. But... I think that's not a good idea. It's not only mermaids that will shock them.
Fallen angels, demons, merpeople, archangels, the demon queen and a lot of other creatures that even I don't know off. It would give them heart attacks if that happened. I silently giggled at the thought, sipping something like a juice they had served this morning.
I wasn't actually sure what it was but it's appearance was enough to tell me that it was delicious. As soon as the liquid touched my taste buds, my eyes widened immediately in astonishment.
It was sweet, almost tasting like strawberries mixed with some taste I don't know off but really pleasant yet it smelled off something like... Flowers?
"What is this?" I asked, eyeing the glass of unknown liquid in my hands under my gaze. It's color was a pale purple, strange swirls of pink amidst purple, they were like oil and water, refusing to mix but unlike that, the swirls of pink didn't float at the top, it swirled beautifully inside the glass.
"That my sweet is the nectar of the rare flower, Belladona." Ryouta beamed, gulping his own glass of the nectar, looking delighted and contented.
"Belladona? Wow, kind of reminds me of the deadly nightshade aka atropa belladona in Earth." I commented thoughtfully before taking a sip from the glass once again and savouring the sweet nectar. It felt so heavenly sweet.
"Oh, you don't know but they're actually only one flower. The atropa belladona there is the same here, just as deadly and as poisonous." Mikael stated and I coughed, choking on the nectar due to the information before I reached out for Raziel's untouched glass of water and drank it down, my eyes widening in shock.
"W-what? B-but every part of it is poisonous!" I objected. I was horrified by their declaration and I couldn't believe that I just drank the nectar of one of the deadliest flowers. Are they trying to kill us or what?!
"Don't worry Muriel. It can be poisonous but given the proper care of handling the nectar and the flower, they remove the poison and add ambrosia to make things safe." Violet assured with a small amused smile and I sighed in relief. That gave me the scare though.
"It's just like the puffer fish on Earth. It's poisonous but if the chefs are professionals then they can remove the poison and make a delicious dish out of it instead." Raziel chuckled, making me nod my head in understanding for his further explanation about the nectar.
"But wait... Ambrosia what?" I asked, my brows meeting in confusion when I heard the familiar name. That one sure is a weird name for a flower. What I know is that it's the divine fruit of the gods, eaten by them to make them immortal. Was I wrong? Oh wait, I probably am since it's a myth by the Greeks.
"It's not actually the fruit that is written in myths and legends that the gods of Olympus were said to eat for immortality. No. However, they're abundant flowers from the west continent, known to heal wounds and known to fight off strong poisons such as the nightshade's." Raziel explained further and my mouth formed an 'o' shape from the explanation and additional informations.
I smiled, eyeing the glass of nectar juice from the atropa belladona mixed with ambrosia, a very sweet and delicious drink.
Well, I learned something new once again didn't I. This world is so full of surprises and I'm yearning more to learn. They're all fascinating so far.
I mean the beautiful wonders and truths, not those concerning troubling things such as the creatures of the darks or poisonous stuffs and those. No thank you.
But right now, I'm more interested and excited in seeing those merpeople that they had spoken off. I look forward to meeting them. However, we have to deal with the dangers just the same first. I am so not looking forward to meeting the monsters of the deep.
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We were all standing by each other's side and silently watching the sea while Captain Sparrow and his crew were busily preparing themselves and the ship for any possible attacks. They said they couldn't let us do the fighting and dangerous stuff ourselves so all we could do was nod and agree to them.
They were men of the sea who had their own pride to keep just like any human. My friends had gotten pretty close to them the good as well but it was Ryouta who was most close to them especially to Captain Sparrow.
Truth be told, I wasn't that comfortable with them at first since they looked like those scary pirates in movies instead of merchants as they how introduced themselves but I had gotten acquainted with them as well since they were all actually good-natured men despite their tough appearances.
Do not judge the book by their cover as they said it and I learned that real enough right now.
We had two more days before we reach Fantasia as they had told it, a little bit earlier than was promised but it was a relief to know that we'll reach our destination in two days. I was itching to walk onto land.
After the saddening conversation we had just Yesterday about our own memories and after Alfreed had fallen to the sea and remembered a few things, no one quite had any enthusiasm left to go and venture the island yesterday after our excitement spiraled into gloom.
Raziel told us that the only real mortal, the only real living person among us was Rex and the rest of us all had our own past lives. How frustrating.
And to sum it up, all of us didn't quite have the pleasant past lives we hoped for. We had our own dark memories just lurking at the end of our brains and waiting to be remembered once again.
I badly wanted to know what my past life was. I wanted to know who I was but at the same time, I couldn't stop the doubt and fear in my heart at the thought of learning about the truth.
What if I was someone evil in my past life? What if discovering the truth would only destroy me or confuse me?....
I didn't want to learn of my dark past but I don't have a choice do I? Neither of us has the right to choose anymore.
Rex was the only mortal but just as how Raziel had stated it, even if he was a mortal, he had his own burdens and we were there to know and discover what those were.
He comforted Cyan, the fallen angel even if the latter didn't know he was the same one he saved. Cyan had cursed him out of pain, regretting what he had done and yet, Rex had joined him in his pain. Right now, I am so glad that they are fine now.
Leirum had once told me that if it weren't for Rex who had told him of the truth, he wouldn't have known about Cyan and Rex fully. Other than that... He said that if it weren't for the second ranker, Cyan was an easy prey for the temptations of the darkness to take and I couldn't just imagine Cyan turning into a demon.
He's a good man. Kind and wonderful. Just the thought of him becoming a demon is making me shudder.
Then there's Mikael and Ryouta. Two Azerothians who died for their honor as noble royal knights of their king but revived from the death due to the mad scientist's plan to have the world bow down to him.
They were treated like lab rats in that hell hole filled with those men cloaked in white who were far too obsessed of taking power with the use of their discoveries.
Their memories were stripped away from them before Ryouta learned off the truth. And learning about him killing people in such a young age with his own bare hands...
I had seen it with my own eyes yet it was still hard to believe after all those days and weeks I've been thinking about it. To think that such an innocent looking and care free guy such as him to take lives, none who knows of him would believe it.
What's more? His past is just to sad that remembering his memory that I had seen always tears me up.
Raziel on the other hand whom I've thought of my brother was an archangel. An immortal being who was casted from heaven when he rebelled against God with Lucifer leading them.
He was casted to hell along with every archangel including Lucifer. Not to rule hell but to suffer it for the rest of all eternity.
Hell... Is true... And I didn't want to end up there when I die.
Antoinette was having her nightmares. Her nightmares she can't remember whenever she wakes up crying and in tears. Then there was Alfreed who was starting to remember her own memories and with the expression I saw, it was just as bad and as unpleasant as the others have.
I was scared for them. I just couldn't imagine what the sweet Antoinette had gone through or what the tough red headed third ranker experienced.
Rex would never talk of our memories nor who we were in our past lives. He refused to do so for it would only ruin the balance and who knows what will happen if we try to pursue that. Whatever balance he was talking about, we don't want to make things more complicated than they already were. We have too much in our plates to handle as of now. We couldn't risk things when we know that we have billions of lives on our shoulders.
I sighed in defiance and snapped from my unpleasant thoughts. What was I even thinking off? Putting myself down. Geeez. As if that would help at all.
"Let's go!" I suddenly looked up and was confused when I saw all of my friends up in the air and looking down at me. When did they fly? Was I that deep in thought to not even notice?
"C'mon Muriel! We need to keep the monsters at bay!" Violet invited when the others began to fly towards a certain direction.
"O-okay!" I muttered before I took off and followed after them. They stopped from at least a mile away from the ship and I flew towards them.
They were thirty meters above the surface of the waters and I stopped next to Raziel who was staring at the water below. I noticed that everyone else was looking and I did the same, pushing my earlier thoughts away while I collected myself together.
And that's when I felt the presence from below the waters. It wasn't ominous nor did it feel like those I feel from people but it was a little dark too but not sinister. It was quite different but I can say one thing clearly though.
The aura around whatever was beneath us had an intent that I could quite make out. It all belonged to predators who caught sight of their preys.
"What is it?" I asked curiously? Eyeing the waters below that began to swirl a little as if a small whirlpool brewing. And just as what I thought, the whirlpool began to become stronger and stronger, forming a large whirlpool below us that had at least a twenty meter radius.
"I don't know since I'm not used to the sea." Ryouta answered truthfully with a curious expression on his face and peered down, his pupils dilated in concentration but I couldn't quite stop myself from face-palming when I saw food on his hands yet again. Seriously?
"Glutton." Alfreed snickered when she noticed too but Ryouta merely ignored him.
"Back off!" Leirum ordered a moment later and we didn't need to be told twice before we flew higher with such speed after hearing his order.
After all the time we all had spent together with him, we learned to obey his commands the moment they left his mouth since his words alone were orders we had to obey at once.
My mouth hung open when I caught sight of the creature that was lurking beneath the waters a few seconds ago and my eyes widened.
I shrieked when I saw large, sharp rows of teeth on a gaping jaw that was at least the size of a whale!
The jaws snapped shut once again before the creature splashed back into the water and vanished again from our view but not before I could see what it looked like.
It was one of those mythical sea monsters that I read a lot in books and saw in edited and made up pictures. It had the toothy dinosaur face with it's body full of scales. Instead of four clawed feet of a crocodile, it had scaly fins. What the hell is it? A dinoshark or what?
"Tsk. Ryouta, Mikael. Go back to the ship to guard it. Antoinette you go along with them and support us from there. Raziel and Muriel, a mile to the north of the ship. Cyan and Rex to the East. Leo and Violet to the south while Shingu will stay with me here. Now go." Leirum suddenly commanded and before I could even protest, Raziel pulled me away. Are they seriously going to beat that on their own?!
"They will be fine Muriel. Now, stop worrying about them and start worrying for yourself. We have our own monster of the deep to take care off." Raziel calmly stated and my eyes widened when I heard a loud splash ahead of us which was north of the ship.
I gulped before I raised my head, my eyes widening in horror at the sight of what kind of monster we were to face in the other hand.
It was a freaking sea serpent! If the one from earlier is a dinoshark then this would be considered as a freaking serpent which was half dragon? The heck?
It had a long scaly body, it's jaws parted making me see it's sharp teeth as it roared mightily, two horns on it's head to make it look more mightier than ever.
"We're going against it. We can't kill it since it's forbidden and it would ruin the pact between the merpeople and us people above sea so we can only drive it away or keep it at bay. Prepare yourself." Raziel declared and my jaw completely fell.
"You've got to be freaking kidding me!!!!!"
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this chap had been cut off and I dunno why so I just took it upon myself to continue it again. Anyway, don't forget to vote, comment and follow!
-thebadgirl05 at your service! ^_~