Chapter 8

Many believed in what the church had to say, and I respect them, they can believe and think what they want, but they shouldn't expect the others to do the same. After all, I won't force them to like the same food as I do, but I expect them to do the same in return. I will admit I did feel a drop of sweat follow my backbone as I saw that Rya had a snake like form attached to her necklace, it was the symbol of the church's followers, it resembled a snake, but instead of a head was an , the petals of the Fieela flower resembled the fire when it danced in small circle to prevent it to get out, the middle was orange and was the form of a square, but the petals were the same color of the fur of an arctic Duakn that had just played in the snow before flying high in the sky.

That necklace was always associated with an unwavering loyalty to the church, in other words, she would always put the church's needs before her own needs and responsibilities. It was mostly made with steel, but on occasion, if the person demanding it was of high aristocracy, they would insert a gem or two to insure that only those who demanded it could wear it. The gem would prevent the necklace from being stolen but would also prove the power of the one wearing it, because if anyone else were to try to wear it they would feel a burning sensation of pain starting at the neck and passing in every fiber of their being until they fall unconscious or take the necklace off.

As I was looking at the necklace, I heard Vreia calling us because she wanted to talk to us. While approaching, I tried to look and see if anyone had any other symbol I could recognize, I did see a tattoo on Masov left wrist, but it didn't look like any religious symbol, it was probably used to refer to an ancient tribe that was celebrated by some people that came from one of the secluded areas of Tryia, they usually saw them as heroes that saved use from war and from endless killing. To understand their point of view, I searched through every book my household held and even tried to find some sort of explanation in the Royal Archives, but the only thing I could find was that there had been an war about a century ago and that to prevent more killing, a group of friends decided to negotiate with some of the wilder werewolf tribe's to negotiate a peace treaty. Some were killed as they refused to cooperate, the group of friends gained influence and was able to obtain a piece of land that they developed with the help of the ones that had followed their leadership, they were known as the first aristocrats. The original leaders of Tryia. The origin of the name was unknown, as many more mysteries built our kingdom and therefore our history. The biggest of all the mysteries was still know as the Gemstones, they were the origin of the Gemsteps, but no one knew or rather remembered where they came from, and no one could explain how they came to be known.

People seemed to have forgotten everything about it, but some didn't, including the ones worshiping the ancient tribes. Through them, the legends live on and were told to younger children, they were the one that weren't influenced by the Church. Still, they were so rare that one could live a lifetime without encountering one of them. All of that made it even stranger for Masov to be one of them, and for him to have a tattoo exposed on the open for everyone to see. It was a rather closed community that only exposed themselves when they had a goal on their mind, but I guess most people wouldn't be able to recognize them as they wouldn't know anything about the ancient tribes.

As I turned my attention away from Masov's left wrist, I saw Khail bearing a proud expression, he looked as if he was a young child that had just changed for the first time. Clearly, I wasn't the only one to have seen his face as the whole group came closer and Geros started speaking with an amused grin spreading on his face.

"What is it? You finally discovered how to light a fire?"

He was probably referring to yesterday when Khail had tried to light a fire, but failed miserably and had made everyone crack in laughter as he proceeded to try to justify that it was the snow's fault because the small plants that he had found should've lit by now. That excuse losing all credibility after he had realised that the snow couldn't have gained access to the small cave that we had found for the night, plus we had used some lichens that we had found on some rocks of the cave to be able to light the fire, not small plants. Still, it didn't seem to bother Khail since he just laughted off and said:

"Nah, I'm still working on that... I just discovered a passage in the cave, and I'm pretty sure it leads to a waterfall! No more snow drinks!"

I couldn't stop myself from replying while laughing:

"Snow drinks?! That's what you call melted snow? Shouldn't It be just water?"

"Nope, water isn't supposed to be collected from the top of a mountain, and then transferred to bottles and then waited after for it to melt and be consumed."

"Were do you think our water comes from? A magical waterfall that resides by coincidence in your backyard?"

"I mean aren't the servants the ones that go and bring back some water from the waterfalls? "

A silence claimed the group, the only reason for him to think that his water came from waterfalls probably resided in the fact that it did. And the sole fact that it did, breached a part of his identity, the only ones that could drink water that came directly from the waterfalls and that didn't have to buy bottles of water in the summer to stay hydrated, or didn't have to collect water from lakes or rivers, were those who lived close to the Yual kingdom, those were the ones that had constant contact with the sirens and knew more about them that you could ever learn in any book offered in our kingdom.

Reain was the one that broke the silence with something that was probably a joke, but to be honest most of us were quite shocked by the news, since almost no one between us knew anything about the sirens, and that the fact that one of us probably knew some of them personally was strange, but also made us all curious to know more about them. Some would have probably tried to change the subject, but Reain didn't, he just continued with the same subject and said that at least the water was probably fresh. To that Khail roared out a laughter that took us all by surprise, he replied:

"It sure is! After all, this so-called water, I still think snow drink fits it better by the way, isn't hard to beat!"

I mean, he wasn't wrong, the snow drink, as he calls it, didn't have a great taste, it had a grey like color and didn't have the best of smell, but it was still better that dying of dehydration. But since Khail thought he had found a way to drink water directly from a waterfall, I guess we wouldn't have to drink that thing for long anymore. He showed us the way to his discovery, but to access it, we had to go to the end to the cave, and trust me it wasn't short, we then had to crawl until we could turn. When then had to crawl to the right and when we could finally get up, a smell that resembled, at least I think I had never smelled anything like it before, my assumption being based on what Khail said, to sea water. It smelled like salt that had just been brought to the market that I would occasionally go to at every full moon, as the merchants lined up along the square to compete against other merchants. It also smelled like a sort of animal that I never got to taste, it was called , it apparently lived in the ocean and had a strange like fur that looked fluffy. It was mostly the aristocrats that would come to the village to buy it but sometimes, a villager would be able to afford one and shared it with some lucky members of the village, but most would never be able to taste it. It was said to taste sweet but to melt on your tongue as if you ate sweet snow but that you could still feel the salty taste residing on your tongue. Leaving behind a mix of sweetness and saltiness that had only lasted for an instance, but that stayed with you for the rest of your life.


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