Cool, soothing, soft, gentle. The words Evelyn used to describe the feeling she had not felt on her body in some time. Floating, she reached out and could feel dirt. She pulled herself to it, rolls over and pulls herself out of the pool she was floating in.
She opens her eyes and can see the clear blue sky. It was day. Where the sun was located in the sky, she could tell it was around low noon. She stared at the sun for a while as she thought to herself, "Did all that really happen? All that? It sure feels like it all happened. What could pinch me to see if all that was real?"
Evelyn turns her head and sits up quickly with her eyes wide. Immediately she became aware of her surroundings and her suspicions were confirmed. The '"pool" she had just pulled herself out of was molten lava of an active volcano she was at the summit of.
"ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!" Evelyn shouted in shock. "I asked myself for some proof, but this was NOT what I meant."
"Hello, is someone up there?" Evelyn heard a voice shout from below. "You heard that too, right?" She peeks her head over the edge of the volcano and could see a man in a brown jacket trying to climb up the side of the volcano and another one in a black jacket below him. She must have shouted loud enough for them to hear her.
She was thinking about something to shout back until her face went red realizing, she was indecent. "Well, I guess this shouldn't be surprising granted that I just pulled myself out of molten lava," she thought to herself. She looked around and to the side of the edge of the volcano looked like a plant with large leaves was growing so she quickly rushed over and pulled the leaves off and did the best to make a makeshift dress to cover her body as the men were finally reaching the top.
"Oh yeah, that's active all right. Now if I can just find my notebook," One of the men said until he noticed the woman. They stared at each other for a moment studying each other.
"JACKSON!"
"EVELYN!"
"Harry," The last man said, pulling himself over the top.
Evelyn's been blushing even redder for the first man she's seen in a while to be Jackson and for him to see her in this state she's in.
"Is this where you've been hiding?!" He yelled. "Do you have any idea how much hell you put us through when you left?"
"Oh, that's the famous Evelyn who put us through so much trouble," the man named Harry said. He was slightly taller than Jackson and had a shaggy set of black hair on top of his head.
"Woah. Hold the hell up. What are you yelling at me?" She shouts back. "Why are you so angry."
"You left and we had a shit show back on the island so yeah. I'm a little mad."
"You haven't seen me in what? Two months? Two months I've been gone, and this is how you react when you finally see me?"
"Two months?" Jackson replies in a low tone. "Two months?" he repeats getting a little louder. "Neptune's sack! The hell do you mean two months Evelyn? You've been gone for six damn months!"
Evelyn was about to yell back but with what Jackson had said but her mouth just went ajar as she started to contemplate what he had just said. Ran her memory back to when she left to her time in the temple. It doesn't track with her time in the temple. She looked at the volcano next to them. "I think Freya really did push me up from the volcano. Did it knock me out for a few months? Or did it take a few months to float to the surface?"
"She looks lost," Harry said.
"Yeah. Wait a second, how the hell did you even get up here Evelyn?" Jackson asked. "We couldn't get up here without proper equipment and you-"
"Dude, is that dress made out of leaves" Harry laughed.
"What the hell?" Jackson said.
"I don't have to reply to you with that disrespectful tone in your voice," Evelyn said sternly turning her head away.
Jackson and Harry exchanged looks and then Jackson approached Evelyn and when he was a few feet away her noticed the mark on her arm. "Evelyn," She turned to him. "What have you done in these past six months? You even have a tattoo now."
Evelyn looked at the new siren mark on her arm and said, "I'm not telling you."
"Telling us or not," Harry said walking over and cuffing Evelyn with handcuffs he had in his backpack, "We're under strict orders that if we were to find you by some miracle, you need to be brought back to atone for disobeying the laws."
"Really?" She said looking at Jackson.
All he could do was look down apologetically.
"Don't look at him," Harry said. "I know how he feels about you. But you know the laws. They rule over any emotions you have. That's why I say it's best to not have them," He paused for a moment and then continued, "Or at least marry someone who's life goal isn't to become a pirate."
"Wow. This jackass is really mocking me to my face," Evelyn thought to herself.
Jackson pulled a device out of his coat pocket and spoke into it, "Hey, Dennis. Do we have enough charge for two trips?"
"What? Are you serious? You guys didn't strike me as the lazy type. Y'all get to tired climbing up there you expect a free trip down?" The mane named Dennis said over the speaker.
"No. You'll be a little surprised what we found up here," Jackson replied.
"Can I ask you a question," Evelyn interrupted.
Jackson and Harry looked at her.
"Where exactly is 'here?"
Jackson's jaw dropped, and Harry began laughing. "You have got to be kidding me," Jackson said. "You're stranded up here, yet you don't know how you got here? Not just that, that getup you're wearing is telling me you were also naked not too long ago. Did you hit your head or something?"
"Oh only if you knew," She thought to herself. She spoke up, "Sorry but no. I don't know where I am and no I did not hit my head and-"she stopped herself for a moment and then admittedly confessed, "Yeah, I did just make this a moment ago."
At that moment a mechanized drone flew over the edge of the Volcano to where they were with a large cage attached. "Wow. You were right. Well, if it isn't the notorious outlaw of Gabuslma, Evelyn Black. Ha- Uh, what are you wearing?" Dennis' voice came from the drone. Evelyn could see a camera attached to it so it only made sense how he could see her now.
Finally getting control of his laughter, Harry said, "Was an outlaw. Now going back to being an 'in-law."
"That doesn't mean what you think it does," Evelyn said with her content face she gives people who say bad jokes.
"Just shut up and get in there," Harry says shoving her into the cage and locking it. "Send the next one up Dennis so we can extract some samples and we'll come down to go home."
"You got it," Dennis says. The camera moves over the Jackson, "You good boss?"
Jackson takes a deep breath and one last look at Evelyn in the cage. He looks away and sighs and says in a depressed tone, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just get the other cage up here."
Evelyn just stared at Jackson as the cage lifted up and carried her over the edge. From below she could see a ship off the island's shore they're on but more importantly the amazing island it was itself. Mostly a beach with a bit of a small jungle on one side, but the Volcano, it was massive. "Jackson and that guy Harry really climbed that monster?" She thought to herself.
Landing on the deck of the boat, a guy around Evelyn's height with blonde hair and a brown jacket like Jackson's starts to undo the lock on the cage and says, Nice to see you again Evelyn. Sorry we have to see each other again, and like this." The boy was Dennis.
"I know you," Evelyn said. "You're Dennis Hibitchi. You were the boy in my classes back in school that nobody liked because the teacher would always forget about homework and you would never fail to remind him in the last minutes of class."
"Ouch," He smiled. "Don't blame me for craving knowledge."
"You couldn't have done that on your own time? Instead, you just brought everyone down with you?" Evelyn rolled her eyes.
Dennis hummed to Evelyn's annoyance, "Maybe it is good Harry cuffed you before sending you down here." Dennis took out another pair of cuffs and attached Evelyn's cuffs to a railing at the back of the boat. "Now just sit here and look pretty until they get back. And stop saying mean things about me."
Evelyn watched him walk away and start looking at a screen on a monitor at the helm of the ship that see assumed was the communication device for the drone. She just passed it off, sat on the seat nearby where she was handcuffed, rested her head on her hand propped up and sighed. Then a screen popped up in front of her.
[Attention: Siren System Finished]
[Download – 100%]
[Congratulations. You are a Siren.]
[Ability: Volgma]
[Description: Light things on fire you pyromaniac]
"That's a dumb description," Evelyn thought to herself. "But I guess this is what Freya gave me. A system? I'm not sure I'm familiar with that." She looked over at Dennis and back over at the screen. "He's not reacting to the screen. I'm guessing her can't see it?" The screen's message changed.
[Name: Evelyn Black]
[Age: 19]
[Level: 1]
[Species: Siren]
[Class: Not selected]
[Title: None]
"Damn," Evelyn thought smiling. "This is kind of cool."
[Please select a class to get started]
"Oh, well it did say 'not selected' so I guess it's making me do that first."
[Brawler – Poleblade – Sword – Axe – Dagger – Bow - ???? - ???? - ???? - ???? - ????]
[Please select from the following classes.]
[Note: Once selected you cannot change your class until your character level has reached Level 25 and your class level has reached level 15]
"So, this is an important decision?" She thought to herself. "Do I want to be cool and do a Pole blade like Freya's spear. Freya looked cool with that bow as well. Maybe keep things simple and do a sword? And it looks like some of these are grayed out. What does that mean?"
At that moment, the second cage arrived with Jackson and Harry hanging on the outside and landed on the deck. "I can't believe that worked," Harry grinned.
"You oaf! You could have broken it. Let alone both fallen to your death," Dennis cried out inspecting the drone on top of the cage.
"What's important is we got the samples and we're back in one piece," Jackson said. He and Evelyn locked eyes and he just said, "Dennis, take us home."
"Alright. You got it boss," Dennis said as he crawled into the cockpit of the boat and said, "Anchor's away Harry! Pull it up!"
Harry, at the front of the boat, pulled the anchor up and said, "She's good to go!"
And they drifted away from the island's shore and then Dennis kicked the boat into gear and they started moving.
Jackson and Evelyn were still locking eyes and Evelyn thought to herself, "I would really like to punch you in your pretty face."
[Confirmation. Class selected: You are now a Brawler]
"Oh shit. Wait, what. No. Son of an Orc," Evelyn thought to herself looking back at the screen. She glanced back at Jackson real quick, whose expression had just went to shock and confused. "Oh hell. Now he thinks I'm weird." She could feel herself turning red, "Dammit. Why am I feeling embarrassed?"
Jackson then threw his jacket over Evelyn unexpectedly. He turned away from her and said, "You'll get a cold if you're not too careful. Don't say I never did anything for you."
Evelyn took in Jackson's sweet scent on his jacket and then looked up at him and thought to herself, "I'm filled with fire now. I could literally light you on fire. But I'll accept the nice gesture." She then looked back at the system screen and thought, "Brawler, huh? Well, this should be interesting." A message then popped up.
[Daily Quest: Light something on fire.]
[Reward: +5 exp]
"Neptune's Sack."