Enter The Shallows

  Chapter 1/Life’s Not Fair:

  When one thinks about life three questions come to mind. Who am I? How did I get here? What comes after? Those questions about life cause people to writhe in pain as they torture themselves for an answer that never comes in mortal life. In a way the question brings about an insanity, because no matter how hard one might scratch that itch at the back of their mind, It tugs at them, pulling them ever forward toward those three questions.

  If one couldn’t accomplish answering those questions in a lifetime, could they perhaps in five or ten? How long would a concept like that take to understand? If they could travel the world and meet all the people that would ever live, If they could go to the places they’ve always wanted to go and live their life to the fullest, would they be able to answer those questions about life? If they could look and inspect every single cell of the world and follow that trail of breadcrumbs, would it be enough? Maeno wasn’t so bold to claim he knew everything as that would be the epitome of arrogance. He didn’t know if he’d ever figure these things out, but if he could become an Orlox perhaps he might.

  The memories of mortals was a fickle and unreliable thing. It is because of this fact, that it is inevitable their existence will be painted over. Maeno’s memory of his past was unreliable before the age of nine. He had a family, but they had been replaced by Ranna the Chief of Pola, Ritsuko his best friend and Octuse the Blacksmith that trained him. He knew he had a family prior, but to him, his real family were the people that cared for him in Pola. The ones that he interacted with, the ones whom he shared stories with, the ones that made him sad.

  Maeno wasn’t sad about the fact he could hardly remember his blood family though. He had lost them at such an early age, and they would not be coming back. Family was something he could make wherever he went, because family was those that were close to him. Family was the bonds that he made with people that made the world a little less alone. To walk the world knowing any day could be his last was a crushing thing and yet it was also a motivating thing. How could he sit and waste his life fearful of something he never had control over to begin with? It wasn’t as though Maeno chose this life. If he did though, it wasn’t like he could remember ever making that decision.

  One could take precautions to not die such as maintaining their health and avoiding occupational hazards, but those were not enough. No matter how careful one tries to be, natural disasters, diseases, random accidents, arguments or even eating could be the death of you. This wasn’t to suggest that anyone should live with careless abandon because death should still be respected, but he didn’t want to play life so safe that he never took risks. Life was supposed to be fun, cheerful and oftentimes sad.

  Orlox’s however, did not live by such rules. They were anomalies that lived longer than the average human did. They did not age like humans and as such they were not bound by the same laws of mortal life like humans were. The title of Orlox was something that every human strived for. A title only given to those who were the best in their field. A title that offered power, magic, an extended lifetime five times that of the average human. The only death that could kill them was the Celebration of Orlox, a ceremony where the current Orlox passed on their titles to the next generation and shortly after passed into the great beyond. There were only five years left until the Celebration of Orlox and if Maeno were going to accomplish his dream to explore every inch of the world he was brought into, he could only hope to do so by becoming an apprentice of an Orlox or discovering a talent that did not currently exist.

  Today, like every other day, he traced that fateful memory of his last moments with his parents. He followed behind Ritsuko; going through the scene in his head, reminiscing, like how one might run their finger along a scar, remembering how they got it. He was riding alongside his brother who was absentmindedly staring out the frozen window of the plain carriage they were riding in, into the blizzard that was raging outside. His sister had chosen to sit on the red rug picking at the diamond emblems embroidered on the carpet, instead of sitting in her seat. Maeno couldn't remember why they were heading to Dierstenel that day, but his father had important business to attend to, and he was talking about it with Maeno’s mother.

  Suddenly the carriage came to a jolting stop, throwing him abruptly out of his seat face first towards the floor beside Cheren. As he picked himself up, he saw his father glance outside the carriage and then gave Maeno that same determined look he always made when something serious was going on. “Maeno, Cheren” His father said, looking at them “I need both of you to get into the compartment under the carriage for me. Do it quickly, understand?” No sooner than he had finished his mother had ripped the rug back and opened the hatch underneath the carriage.

  “Maeno, I know you don’t know what’s going on, but please listen to your father. Cheren, keep Maeno safe, ok?” His faceless mother said, a tear falling from her eye onto the blue silk dress she wore. She ushered them into the small compartment and closed the door over top of them, swiftly covering it with a rug. In the darkness of that carriage, he didn’t remember much other than the awful screams and for hours he stayed in there afraid to come out.

  At some point during this time his sister had left or been removed from the compartment. He found her body outside the carriage with her neck twisted in a most awful and vicious way. His brother had an arrow sticking out of his back and his blood was frozen to stone he had fallen on. His mother, his mind blanked out aside from the endless red snow. His father, although unmoving from the beating he suffered even in death, had a stoic look about him. There was not even an ounce of regret on his face. He wasn’t able to process much after that, only lots of frozen tears as he stumbled down the mountain side, delirious from the biting cold. He walked for almost two hours down the mountain before finally passing out from exhaustion, and he woke up in Ranna’s house in Pola. The rest of his memories before waking in Ranna’s house seemed like a dream he had woken up from.

  After he recovered from his sickness and began to get better Ranna continued to allow him to stay with her. Ranna became his new mother in a manner of speaking and although she was a harsh lecturer, she was fair. At the age of eleven he met Ritsuko when she mysteriously stumbled into Pola one night battered and bruised. After she was treated for her injuries, Maeno found out she too was an orphan, and they became fast friends. They went on adventures together daily and one was never seen without the other trailing closely behind. When he got old enough that he needed to get a job, Ranna got him an apprenticeship under Octuse, who was considered to be a renowned blacksmith in the region of Evenel. He saved his money working with Octuse hoping that one day he would be able to travel the world and today was the first day of that dream.

  Maeno saw a mud puddle as he walked behind Ritsuko. He heard her say something in a harsh tone, but he wasn't paying attention. As he looked over at her, his face smacked a thick, low hanging tree branch and he fell backwards into the mud puddle. “I tried to warn you” Ritsuko sighed defeatedly before she looked away from him and snickered. He sat in the mud a moment dazed before he picked himself up and tried to get the clumps of mud he could off his clothes. As he did, Ritsuko's snicker turned to outright laughter. She tried covering her mouth to stop laughing, but it made little difference to muffle the volume.

  Maeno sheepishly picked at the mud on his clothes as they continued walking. “Yeah, yeah laugh it up” he said sullenly.

  “I’m sorry Maeno, but to be fair I did try to warn you.” She took a deep breath in and cleared her throat before letting out one final chuckle. She hid her lips inside her mouth with a smirk as she looked away, still clearly amused about his misfortune.

  “So, you were talking about Carlisle and the guild, what did you want to do?” Maeno asked, clearing his throat as he tried to change the conversation to what he presumed she had been talking about.

  “You haven’t been listening to this entire time, have you?” Ritsuko asked him with a furrowed brow.

  “We were talking about the guild again, and then you said…I forgot,” Maeno admitted sheepishly, smiling while he nervously rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

  “You’re impossible!” She said in a shrill voice and pressed her hand against her forehead as she looked down. “Do you even have a plan for what we're gonna do after we get to Carlisle or are you just going by the wind?"

  “I … hadn’t put much thought into it. I thought perhaps we would figure that out after we joined the guild,” Maeno looked away hoping she might follow his gaze and get distracted by something.

  “Do you still have the map at least?” Ritsuko asked, dismayed.

  “Uh yeah…. just a …sec.” Maeno rifled through his bag slowly. He dug through his bag until he found the map at the bottom and pulled it out. He slowly unrolled it and offered it to Ritsuko.

  “I don’t need it Maeno I’m just wondering what else you forgot” she said staring down at his belt, clearly hinting at his previous blunder of leaving behind his sword. Maeno took a deep almost painful exhale and let out the tension building in his chest. He wanted to refute her point, but she was right. Even if he did convince her that he’d just get a new one, the fact was, that as of this moment, she was the only reliable person for combat. Maeno knew how to fight with a weapon, however he regrettably hadn’t paid a lot of attention to hand-to-hand combat outside of learning the basics and Ritsuko knew that. A pocketknife wouldn’t hold up against real foes in combat.

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  Maeno continued picking at the mud on his clothes until he eventually gave up. He didn’t want to go to the guild looking like this, but he had forgotten to bring a spare set of clothes. However, if he complained about it, it would only give Ritsuko more things to pick at him for. He looked over a Ritsuko briefly and then set his eyes at the edge of the path. Just up ahead he could see a clearing where the path opened up a bit and a little further up the road there was a T-intersection where the road split off between the path towards Carlisle and the path towards Seven.

  He began to wonder about the guild, but before he could immerse himself in thinking again, Ritsuko looked over with a worried expression, clearly feeling some sympathy about him being caked in mud. “If you’re really worried about looking bad at the guild you can always call out Xemi and have her wash your clothes. We could make a small campfire to dry them off before we continue.” She suggested, trying to appease his desire for clean clothes.

  “I want to get there before sundown and it's not like we have a way of starting a fire,” Maeno pouted.

  “I’m sure there’s some way we can start a fire.” Ritsuko paused a moment deep in thought. “You still have that jar of milk Ranna gave us, right?”

  Maeno pulled the jar out and showed it to her. Ritsuko quickly snatched it from his hands and began chugging it. “Hey stop that. What are you doing?!” Maeno tried to grab the jar from her, but she yanked it away at arm's length revealing a pooling milk mustache that dripped down her chin.

  “I know we were supposed to drink this later when we had a chance to refill it but think about it Maeno. If we drink all the milk and then refill it using Xemi we can create a magnifying glass to start a fire.” Ritsuko explained.

  “I don’t think that’s how that works,” Maeno said in almost a mutter. He didn’t want her to throw another tantrum after all.

  “Let's make a fire in the clearing up ahead after we gather some twigs. It has more light from the sun so it’ll be easier to make fire. ” She said as she began grabbing twigs.

  Maeno summoned out Xemi, his pearl koi fish familiar. She chirped and swam in a circle, inside the water bubble that oozed out from the portal with her. Maeno instructed her to fill the jar, and she did, but with some resistance. Xemi requested Maeno give her food, but he had none to offer her so she demanded that he give her food the next time he could, which he agreed to. Xemi tried extorting a larger portion of food out of Maeno when he asked for her to drench his clothes, but before she could finish, Ritsuko threatened to cook her up in the fire. Xemi quickly did as instructed then disappeared for fear Ritsuko might be serious.

  Ritsuko held the glass jar of water for almost a half hour, but it would not set the twigs on fire. Ritsuko angrily shook the water, spilling some out of the container, frustrated it wasn’t working. Maeno thought about mentioning that the glass used did not have the structure to magnify properly, but she’d just direct the frustration at him. Maeno observed her watching her try various angles until she finally dumped the water out and sulked by the nearest tree.

  “Octuse said that with enough friction you could create fire using a small piece of rope and twigs. We’d have to twist it back and forth rather fast, but we could probably do it.” Maeno suggested.

  Ritsuko rolled her eyes in response. “By all means then genius” Ritsuko placed her bag behind her and laid down staring up through the trees at the sun before placing her forearm over her head.

  Maeno grabbed a piece of rope and thinned it out with a pocketknife as he did as Octuse had instructed him. He slowly started to gain a rhythm as the wood twisted back and forth until eventually a small spark happened just enough to burn the wood shavings. Maeno noticed this and let out a small cheer only for it to quickly extinguish. Ritsuko noticed this and silently padded over as she began pushing magic energy out to enhance the heat that was already there. Shortly after the shavings ignited and the fire started. Maeno fostered the flame until it roared. Ritsuko sat down without a word as she rubbed her hands together and put them near the sweltering fire.

  As they sat by the fireside, they put the gathered leaves on the fire. Maeno prodded it to stoke it on. Ritsuko took a deep exhale and said “Maeno, I know we’re going to the guild, but we really should think about pursuing a proper line of work. I mean, adventure is hard stuff, and we have to have a way to make money when we’re not doing quests for the guild.”

  Maeno nodded silently. He didn’t really have anything to say to her in response. Adventuring and blacksmithing were the only things he really knew how to do, and it was hard to do one without the other. He could make his own gear, which was cheaper than having it made by someone else, but he’d still need a forge and other materials to make it himself. Adventuring without proper gear was also foolish.

  Ritsuko continued “I heard there is a confectionery we could work at. It probably won’t pay too much, but it is right next to the guild so there will most likely be lots of customers.”

  Maeno tucked his knees to his chest, staring into the fire. He knew what confectionary she was talking about despite never having gone. It was the one his father always brought him treats from whenever it was his birthday. Ritsuko kept talking to him, but at some point, the words from her mouth turned into white noise. He could only think of the sweet treats he had gotten on each birthday and the emptiness it left in him now to think about eating them. They would probably be as good as he remembered, but the fact of the matter was if he ate them, he’d only have bitter memories of a family he could no longer see.

  “Maeno? Maeno?!” Ritsuko repeated in an annoyed tone. “You’re zoning out again.” Ritsuko snapped her fingers in his face.

  Maeno shook his head, dispelling the memories as he looked at her. “I’ll get a sword when I get to Carlisle, quit nagging me.”

  “You weren’t even listening, why would you assume I was nagging you.” Ritsuko asked, offended.

  “You’re always nagging me.” Maeno sighed.

  “I wouldn’t have to lecture you if you’d listen the first time.” Ritsuko folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not Ranna so I can’t be harsh to you, but that doesn’t mean you can just ignore me whenever you feel like it.”

  “Just lay off, ok? We’ll figure things out as we go. There’s plenty of time.” Maeno stood up stretching.

  “That’s a terrible plan.” Ritsuko said in a shrill tone. “Might I remind you that I’m the only one who has a weapon right now? If we were to be attacked by bandits, you would have nothing to defend yourself except me. That wouldn’t be an issue if you had planned ahead instead of packing at the last minute.” Ritsuko said irritably.

  “I have Xemi.” Maeno snapped back. “Xemi always has my back.”

  “It's always you and that stupid fish. When’s she ever done anything useful huh? She never does anything for free except eat scraps and she’s bullheaded. Just like you.” Ritsuko said, pushing her finger harshly into Maeno’s chest causing him to stumble backwards, kicking a twig from the fire by accident.

  “She’s going to turn into her Angile Serpent form one of these days. Mark my words.” Maeno swiftly retorted.

  Ritsuko laughed in a cold and sarcastic tone. “The day that your stupid fish turns into a useful familiar I’ll beat a Polta Wyrm. Actually, better yet I’ll transcend life and death. Of course, if that happened, I’d be pretty unstoppable.” Ritsuko grinned smugly. “Anyways-” Ritsuko paused as she noticed something out of the ordinary.

  All of a sudden, a gust of wind went by, and the trees grew dark. Before Maeno even had the chance to look up the fire from the twig he had kicked, caught a nearby piece of brush on fire and the shadow had already vanished. Maeno looked up but saw the same sky. He began panicking as he realized that he had forgotten to surround the campfire with stones to stop its spread. The bush quickly set forth and caught the nearby tree on fire. What would he do if someone had discovered it was him? He panicked thinking about all the trouble he might get into until Ritsuko yelled at him to snap him out of it. “Summon Xemi” She repeated frantically multiple times.

  “Xemi come forth.” Maeno raised his hand as the small white portal appeared and Xemi slithered out surrounding herself in the water bubble like usual. “Xemi put the fire out please.”

  “Did master Maeno forget his manners? Where is Xemi’s food?” Xemi asked haughtily.

  “Xemi this isn’t the time for that there's a forest fire starting.” Maeno said frantically.

  Xemi puffed her chest out gurgling. Xemi looked away from him pouting and said, “If Master Maeno can’t keep his promises why should Xemi?”

  “When we get to Carlisle, I promise I’ll get you more food just please put the fire out.”

  Xemi chirped excitedly mouth agape as the fish licked its lips at the thought. “Master Maeno promises?” Maeno nodded. “Xemi is proud of her servant” The fish said in a sarcastic tone.

  Maeno sighed and covered his face with his hand. He didn’t even have to look over at Ritsuko to know what she was doing. Even in this situation with the fire, she was gloating. “I’m proud of you Xemi.” Maeno said, trying to hide the sheer embarrassment his familiar was putting him through.

  Xemi giggled as she quickly began shooting torrents of water at all the nearby sources of fire. One after one she put all of them out including the campfire. Then out of spite she sprayed Ritsuko down soaking her head to toe letting out a pleasant laughter as she disappeared.

  “I’m gonna kill that stupid fish!” Ritsuko screamed as she pulled her matted hair out of her eyes. Maeno fell over laughing at her as revenge for the mud puddle incident earlier. “Well, there goes the fire” Ritsuko let out another sigh as she began wringing her clothes out. “Whatever, it's not worth getting mad over. Let's go” Ritsuko said as she continued walking down the path; wringing out her shirt periodically as she walked.