Despite the recent glory that Fajar acquired for deflecting Samosir's ambush army (in which the vent was named Battle of the Dawn), he was still a public enemy in the eyes of most the Kingdom citizens. There were so many rumors circulating about Fajar regarding his connection to Samosir recent attack. One said that Fajar was a sleeper againt that leaked information to Samosir, another one said Fajar was Samosir in disguise. Though to his relief, a small portion of them have accepted Fajar in their own way. An armor merchant "accidentally" dropped an arm guard and asked Fajar to pick it up, but said he could kept it because he "dirtied" them by touching them. Two Kingdom guards saved him from a angry mob while he was strolling in the city and told the citizens "the King needs to punish him while hes still alive". It made Fajarhopeful that he could win the citizens heart.
Days gone by and its been a week since the attack. The King ordered to heightened the security, changing the defense plan more quickly, but Samosir army always found a way to sneak its army to the Kingdom. Thankfully the troops were more prepared and in dire times, used Fajar's strategy, now named as the "Fajar Maneuever". One time Fajar suggested to use magically enhanced squid inks as an underwater smoke bomb to confuse the enemy and managed to stop the attack even from reaching the first barricade. Soon Fajar gained the King's trust and was invited for the first time to the war council meeting.
The meeting was set in a small chamber. The honorable five was all present, with the addition of Fajar, Marlee, Asthra, and a yellow octopus which hovered next to Krakto, surrounding a peculiar stone. Fajar noticed, it an oval-shaped basalt stone that can mold and shape itself. Groth commanded the stone to imitates the topography of lake Toba. Smaller pieces of figurine shaped like the enemy and ally were also made by other ocean stones. After Groth was done creating a miniature of the battle map, he shot a dirty look to Fajar, which Fajar avoided. Surrounding the table was the honorable five, plus Marlee, Fajar and Asthra.
"Thank you all for coming into this meeting, there are a few important agendas I'd like to discuss with you all today" King Regulus opened, "But I would like to start with something that we havent had the chance to address, was the help from our one and only landwalker among us, Fajar. Because if it wasnt him stepping up on last week's ambush, we would've lost a lot of people. He also continued to show his contribution through his battle strategy that helped us stop Samosir further attempt to take over our Kingdom, and to that, I would like to give my biggest and sincere gratitude to you"
Other than the King, none of the honorable five congratulated Fajar. Groth face looked like he tasted something sour, but didnt say a word and only Lord Paulus smiled approvingly.
"On to the next agenda, I wanted to highlight a grim warning. Though we have always won, we couldn't deny the fact that we've lost a lot of our kind in this war as well. As we know, Samosir wont stop until he gets his true objective, the Aquamarine" King Regulus ended with pointing at a medium sized figurine of white ball in the miniature.
They all agreed in silent.
"But getting his power back was just the beginning. I have come to believe he has come for much more sinister plan than just having a revenge on the sea-dwellers. We've seen Samosir have been able to connect with some of our old enemies, the Leviathan. Only the Sisters might know what else he had been able to communicate with. Though I really wish this is not true, I have come to believe that Samosir is trying to bring back the ancient one"
"Whats the ancient one?" Fajar asked to Marlee in a hushed voice but the room was too quiet that everybody could hear it.
"This is not a history lesson" Groth grumbled, crossing his muscled humanoid arms.
"I'll allow it" said King Regulus kindly, "Just like the Three Sisters, there was another powerful being that lived eons ago when human hasnt even yet existed. A visitor from an unknown realm outside ours, an unstoppable creature with only one purpose of its existence: to end all things"
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Manusia Air (Citizens of Water)
FantasyOn that fateful night, Fajar was about to end his life. Instead, a spark of hope, a curious mythical creature, and a secret underwater society changed his life forever.
