•|•|•

"An ancient being told by many a sailor at sea."

•|•|•

I MOVED TO STAND beside him releasing a deep sigh as I stared out into the dark space before us. Taking a large step back when I realized just how steep this cliff, we were standing on was, I glanced at Gravis.

"Careful," Gravis grunted, raising an eyebrow as I adjusted my position, breathing heavier at the height and the sight of the waves below bashing against the jagged rocks. When I was finally calm, I glanced back over at him, folding my arms, only now appreciating the cool breeze that was coming from the sea, no matter how chilly it was.

I wanted him to look back at me, so he could see me sign the questions I wanted to ask. So many things I wanted to know.

If he had summoned me, it must be for a reason. Maybe my Dad was here or Mom was finally awake. I could feel my insides itch as I stared at the side of his calm face in anticipation. Come to think of it, I had stared a good many times at that side of his face over the years.

Usually happened outside my father's office, whenever he had a meeting with delegates or other presidential visitors from different countries. I would stand for hours staring up at Gravis begging him to open the door so I can tell Dad it was time to weed my little garden and feed the ravens.

After all the ravens were his pets, not mine.

Over the years, I heard learned whenever Gravis looked straight ahead and not down at my pesky signings, he either wanted me to wait or simply to listen. Having had this lesson learned, I took a calm breath in, looking out at the ocean. The waves were restless tonight so it was impossible to see the reflection of the Stars on its turbulent surface.

"Your father sent word-" Gravis stated, immediately drawing my attention back to him. I could feel my heart softly hammer against its cage as I watched him. I wanted to know what he said, but patience is what I needed for Gravis to continue speaking.

"There was a Convert attack at the Summit, as was suspected," he said finally turning back to look at me. My eyes were already wide at the sound of this news, my breathing already increasing with each sound of a wave against a stone.

My hands signed away the question on my mind, "W-was anyone hurt? W-was he hurt?"

Gravis shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his features, "it takes more than a bomb to kill a man like your father," he slowly grunted, his hands clasping behind his back as he looked forward, "the outside world is in chaos little one," he huffed, his shoulders falling, "but it is not the first time the world has been through disasters, this too shall pass."

I released a shaky breath, turning back to the ocean. The sigh of it seemed to calm me down more. I couldn't imagine what was happening outside if the summit was bombed. I didn't know if it was terrorists or Rogue converts, either way, none of them were more desirable than the other.

"Your Father wishes you remain on Kingsland," Gravis continued, "it is safer for you and the Queen. It seems there are some converts who know of his identity as the King of Kingsland. They seek to destroy it," he muttered.

My eyes fell to the ground at the sound of this. I always thought of my Father as the greatest man to ever walk the earth, just because he was so wise and kind and just. I was disappointed he hid the truth about Kingsland from me to some extent, and yet I understood why it was essential it be kept a secret. I had only been on Kingsland for less than a week but all I had seen so far was the great things this place was doing for the convert population, Claire's story being of major inspiration.

If only there was a way to show the outside world that Kingsland was not the dark place they believed it to be. If only they knew what great and good things Kingsland was doing. I couldn't understand why my Father wanted it to be kept a secret from the rest of the world.

"Your Mother," Gravis began, glancing over at me, and I looked back at him with a mixture of both hope and anticipation, " is yet to wake," he finished, causing my eyebrows to arch, I didn't think she would be asleep for this long, was she going to be all right?

"With the injuries, she sustained during the fall, her healing had to be cared for by Miss Almulese," he stated. The name was familiar. I eventually realized she was the black woman that sat courtside by Mr. Ogustus and Gravis in the Inter-Colors Match as well as the previous match between the Reds.

"Your mother is going to look brand new when she wakes up, her body only needs time to heal," he eased.

I wasn't convinced immediately, I still felt rather uncertain about the whole issue, but Gravis was calm and collected and that made me feel a whole lot better than his words ever could.

Nodding softly, his eyes seemed to soften on my frame as I turned away, once again capturing the ocean and the night sky, silence falling between us again. My fingers felt the crunchiness of the plastic filled with roses I was holding tightly behind me, trying to calm myself as well as Gravis was.

That was the one thing I admired about Gravis. He was the bravest man I had ever come across. A military man, at the top of his rank, until he was personally recruited by Dad to become his bodyguard. I have known him for all my life so he had been with us for more than 17 years. I wondered what that was like when the conversion happened and he suddenly had all these powers.

Controlling Gravity. Gravis- Gravity.

A smile formed on my face for a moment. It was clever wordplay. I wondered if Gravis was his real name, or if he just gave it to himself when he developed Gravity powers. Could his name just be Herk? I glanced over at the side of his face frowning. Nope, he did not look like a Herk. That sounded way too nerdy for his trainer-like body, looking as if he was forged from rocks.

"H-have you enjoyed your stay here so far?" he asked.

His tone seemed a little shaky as he asked this and I honestly was a little thrown off. It suddenly sounded as if he cared about my safety. Don't get me wrong, I knew he did care, I always knew that.

His job description was to keep members of the royal family safe but you always had to kind of like read in-between the lines when it came to him. He wasn't very in touch with his feelings which was honestly perfect for me. I was way too introverted to be comfortable talking about my feelings.

But at this point, I wanted to say something to get my mind off of Dad and Mom.

As his eyes settled on me, I hesitated for a moment before casually signing away. It was slow at first but I ended up telling him of all that I had learned from Mr. Ogustus, well more of a summary, there were just too many things to say and way too many questions to ask. He chuckled when I told him about Ellie and how surprised I was to see a dead girl in the toilet and of course, I couldn't fail to mention Claire and her scary but loveable roommate Lira.

I didn't want to tell him about Daya and her notorious late nights.

I had this feeling he paired me with her because he thought she was the goody two shoes she seems to be. I couldn't say otherwise because honestly, she wasn't bad at all.

Apart from her snappy comments and the faces she liked to make whenever I did something unusual according to her, and of course her late nights, there was nothing I could say against her. She was never really around that much for me to get to know her, apart from the fact that she was a neat freak.

I ended with the Shadow Wolves that Mr. Ogustus had shown to us, my hands falling lifelessly to my side when I was done, a faint smile still on my lips at the rush of all that I had gone through in the last week which was honestly more than I had ever been through for most of my life.

He nodded along to my stories; a small smile was also pasted on his lips by the time I was done.

"Mr. Ogustus is...strange..." he trailed off and I chuckled at that, glancing over at Gravis, "but he admittedly is a great storyteller, he can create and weave anything that he sets his mind to," he added, glancing down at me with a twinkle in his eye at which I nodded along too, "all you need to do is listen, you can learn a lot from him. His knowledge of things unknown surpasses most, it will be good for you to learn. He can tell almost any story from any myth that has ever been told," he added, raising one of his bushy eyebrows as he talked.

I looked back at him as he said this in total disbelief. That was likely to be impossible unless he was some sort of archaeologist or anthropologist.

I guess there were a lot of careers that involved learning about old languages and myths to know more about the past and judging from what I've learned with Mr. Ogustus, he could be one of those with a passion for history.

Still, there were just too many myths from too many tribes of the world for anyone to know everything.

"You know long before the Shadow Wolves guarded Kingsland, this island had another guardian. It's the reason why no ship or plane or boat has been able to find it," he began with a slight shrug, his eyes trailing down to me.

My eyebrows furrowed at this as he nodded as if confirming something I was about to ask, though I ended up asking anyway.

'Another guardian?' I signed.

He breathed out, gaze staring at the ocean, "An ancient being told by many a sailor at sea," he explained, "a monster, a King of the sea. Kingsland was its home, its habitat," He stated.

I had no clue what he was talking about. A monster at sea. Was it the Kraken? Sailors told of tails of that beast in mythologies, or even David Jones and his ghost ship, and yet I had a feeling it was none of those two.

The wind racked in between us sweeping away the silence with its soft rustling as it drifted out into the dark waters.

"The Leviathan," he stated plainly, pulling further at my curiosity.

I looked behind us for a moment at the scenery of the Courts and the King's Crown left behind us in the distance unable to believe that this Island could have been the home habitat for the Leviathan.

"Legends and Mythology tell of a day the King of the Seas perished beneath the waves at the mercy of the new gods, and the fallen," he stated, "leaving behind his prized Kingdom, Kingsland. A place no man had ever set foot, where species that didn't exist anywhere else on earth dwelt, bringing in treasures from far and wide," he huffed.

I was mesmerized by his storytelling. I was a sucker for a good story. However, whether I believed in this tale or not was a whole other issue.

"It said it took a whole army of gods and men, and of fallen to bring the beast to his knees." He continued, relaxing his large shoulder, before glancing down at me, "They say his bones live in these very waters, laid in the deepest parts of the sea circling Kingsland, a magical barrier to protect it from those that seek to do it harm. A king in life as well as Death,"

I stared back down at the ocean with a newfound intrigue, looking down at the water, imagining if it was true that the bones of the great Leviathan were sitting there even after what I assumed was a millennium.

A being as powerful and as great, as the Leviathan was dead, sitting at the bottom of the ocean now only a myth. It was sad, that was the only feeling going through me as I looked at the ocean.

"There is another Legend."

My eyes found his, as he spoke, realizing his gaze had never left my face, probably having already seen every single emotion I had to offer, and now my face was probably telling him I wanted to hear it. Hear about the other legend.

"They say the Leviathan will rise again," he stated eyes still on me, "this time, he will rise in servitude, in the Age of Levi."

My eyebrows furrowed again at this, 'what is the age of Levi?' I signed.

He shrugged his eyes finally leaving me, "The Stones of the Earth, those that write the future foretell the Earth in ages- the Age of the Creator when man knew of The Designer, The Age of Sin- when the man turned away from all that he knew- The Age of Stars and Sea- of those that came from the sky and those that came from below- The Age of Man- the age that we live in now, the one we as Dilectus call the New Age. However, the Stones of the Earth tell of the last age of the first cycle. The Age of Levi."

My head swam with the input of so much information. Now they were ages? Who came up with this stuff and most importantly what were the Stones of the Earth? They seemed to know everything, note the sarcasm.

"It's only a myth," Gravis chuckled and at this time I realized he had been reading my face yet again. My face heated in embarrassment but that didn't wipe the smile off his face. After a few seconds, he glanced behind me.

"You should get some sleep princess, and keep your head down as you have been doing. Once again, I shall remind you it is of the uttermost importance that your identity is-"

"Kept secret," I signed, nodding with a slight huff, 'I know."

He grunted, motioning for me to take my leave. It was my turn to nod, before slowly glancing over at my roses, fumbling over the plastic. The day they had spent in my room had made me feel a lot better, I could only hope they did the same for Mom.

I handed it over to him, my eyes falling, 'C-can you-"

My hands faltered for a bit, feeling emotional as he took the plastic from my hand, "I know what to do princess, your mother will enjoy these," he reassured giving me an encouraging smile.

I gave him a weak one in return, before stepping away from him.

'Goodnight, Gravis' I signed.

He looked at me for a moment his eyes narrowing down on me, "Goodnight, Talanda."

A smile grew on my face at these words and I felt slightly better. I had said goodnight a thousand times to Gravis over the years but he had never said goodnight back to me, well not verbally anyway.

It was usually a grunt or a nod.

My smile widened and Iturned back, trudging my way off of that hill, running a bit as I reached theCourts. I was in deep thought with everything that Gravis had told me todaythat I nearly had a heart attack when I almost run into a dark  figure blocking my path- an English accent on each word.

"Why is it you enjoy the dark so much?" HE asked.

•~•
Enjoying the story? Please leave a comment! Let me know your thoughts on the chapter. What do you think about Gravis so far? Tap the star below to vote in order to boost this book! Thank you!
•~•