From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my p4tr0ns: Morpheaus, and RTB <3 <3 <3
Become a p4tr0n too and read up to FOUR chapters ahead!:
h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / t r a s h w i t h g l a s s e s
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Once we calmed off our agitated state, we noticed that on that same sand beach, there was a circular camp of many gray tents.
"Come on, I don't want to leave my friends waiting", the sleepy boy waved for us to follow him towards the camp.
And so, we did it, and soon we found ourselves in a place filled with men and women wearing the same black leather clothes with many pockets as Hyber, and they all hurriedly encircled the boy.
"Welcome back, Hyber!"
"The boys should be coming back with game soon enough. Are you hungry?"
"Bringing in new recruits?"
"Have you finally decided to accept my marriage offer?!"
Sighing, the sleepy boy raised his hands and tried to silence the crowd around him: "Come on, I just got back from the Bear Mountain with some friends. Give me a break…"
The crowd with matching clothes, did leave Hyber behind after that… But not exactly in a break, for they, like a stampede of bison, walked all over him, and tossed him from one side to the other to get to us.
"Hyber's friends? From the Bear Mountain?", one especially burly man raised a thick eyebrow up, looking at the three of us from head to toe. "They have potential!", He gave us a big smile, crossing his arms.
"Jeez, already thinking about fighting? Is that all that there's in your head?", a slimer man with many knifes and a giant spoon on a belt on his waist sighed, shaking his head towards the burly man.
"You speak as if you were any different", the man with thick eyebrows threw a side glance at the slime boy.
"It's totally different! My fight is one that no brawl could ever hope to match! My fight is against hunger itself!", the man looked up, flexing his thin arms, but with fire in his eyes. "Speaking of which, the boys seem to have gotten back!", he pointed a group of five people with the same black clothes as himself, but with hoods pulled up too. And they were all carrying a giant four-legged, tusked best thing! "It's time to start my fight again! Heey! Bring that to my kitchen!", he went away, guiding
"Wh-What's that?!", Spruce asked, pointing to the carcass with wide eyes.
"The beast? Our dinner. The boys just hunted it down", the burly man explained. "They have potential! Hahahaha!", he laughed with his hands no his hips.
"Wait, potential, like… us? Like… me?", he hesitantly pointed at himself.
"Of course! I can tell just by your physique, you have the potential for being a great assassin! If you want some training… we can start immediately! Hahaha!"
With wide, begging puppy eyes, the little person looked at Ike and me, and I shrugged: "Why not? Go ahead", I nodded, smiling to Spruce. And off he went, with his newest trainer who was already speaking about stealth techniques.
"Are you guys sure about that?", Hyber, with boot marks all over his body, asked us, pushing away on girl who desperately tried to kiss him. "I asked your help because the task ahead is really not easy. You may want to work all together for that", as he approached us, the rest of his friends moved away, all of them quite anxious for the meat being prepared.
"It's fine, Spruce isn't our best fighter actually", I explained as Ike was still trying to find catch some air after almost collapsing from all the attention we received just then.
"Aah… Well, want to go see what I need your help with, then?", Hyber asked, pushing the girl away and making her fall on her butt.
Ike, Cloudy and I were in a canoe, with the sleepy boy rowing us further away from the coast. The ocean barely had any waves that day, the air smelled like salt, and seagulls flew way up in the cloudless skies. It was beautiful!
"Welcome to the most dangerous place in the world, then", Hyber said while lazily rowing the canoe.
"…Uh?" Ike and I asked in unison.
"The primordial waters, the end of the world, a place that connects our world with the other one. The one from which magic comes from. The one from which dragons come from, the same type of creature that killed that huge bear that is now our school's foundation."
"What?!", once again, the awkward swordsman and I asked in unison.
"Wait, why don't you know these things too?", I asked Ike.
"What did you expect, I have never seen the ocean either! It's obvious I haven't heard much about it too!", Ike held onto my arm, going pale.
"I thought this was just a happy, fun place for taking refreshing baths!", I held onto Ike's arm, also going pale. It didn't matter how strong I was, there was no way I could fight against something that killed that huge bear! Heck, the bear itself could crush me with no difficulties!
"Don't worry, I haven't called you here to fight dragons, I'm not suicidal", Hyber smiled, scratching one of his sleepy eyes.
"And what about that other world talk? Does this task have anything to do with it?", I asked, not forgetting what he mentioned earlier: "I mean, didn't you mention that learning too much too quickly about the fundamentals of magic could make my head explode?"
"Ah…", The sleepy boy stopped rowing. "F-Forget what I said about the other world~ Don't try to reach out for it~"
"Heads ex- exploding?! Forget about it, forget about it, forget about it…!", Ike held his head between his hands, eyes closed.
"Hyber! You have to seriously pay more attention to what you say, man."
"Okay, okay, sorry… Look, we reached the place", the sleepy boy stopped owing again.
"But… I'm not seeing anything around here?", It was true, only the wide ocean, and the beach far behind us.
"Look below."
I did. And I saw a dragon.