Mother of Monsters (Camp NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter IX

Areus wouldn't tell me anything else about my family. "Talk about with your father." He would shove me away. Every time I would bring up my family, he would hush me and bring back to the lessons he was trying to cram into my head before I would leave in the morning.

There were too many things being taught that I thought my rain would explode. There were more rules to follow when you were dealing with psychic magic, but they all had some sort of logic to them that I couldn't argue. Like, limit you're time in someone else's brain before the consequences take place. Don't go jumping from one brain to the next without a break. Stuff like that.

But there were also all these tips Areus were giving me. It all piled on top of the other until it was a cocktail, all mixing with one another. It was a shame I couldn't really practice all of this. Areus said that there's no way I'm experimenting on anybody here in the house, and I could agree with him on that.

I really tried to understand all this information that was dumped on me. I read the scrolls Areus collected during my bath, making sure not to get anything wet. I read them on my cot since I couldn't sleep. Then in the morning, I woke up with a scroll across my face. Thankfully, it wasn't covered in my drool.

I gave the scrolls back to Areus after breakfast. In return he gave me the gem he had yesterday. "It deactivates all the traps. Have fun back in Strago." A hint of sarcasm was in his voice with that last sentence.

Diokles and Elios were hugging each other, making everything more dramatic than it had to be by doing so. "I can't believe I'll never see you again." Elios cried. "You were the coolest guy I met ever."

"I'll miss you too. There's no way I could find a sword fighter as good as you." Dio responded.

"Could you guys hurry up? We're losing daylight over here." Milea yelled at them, tapping her foot.

"I have to admit. It was interesting meeting you guys." Areus smiled. He actually smiled. No wonder the apocalypse is going to happen soon. "But don't take too long getting my scry ball back. I expect it to be in mint condition when I see it again."

"Don't worry about that." I laughed nervously, not thinking about the fact that I will have to leave Strago again and go through all those city-states again. I'm getting a headache now thinking about going through Fos for a second time. No. A third time. The things I do for a world that hates me. "I'll have your scry ball in a better condition than when Ezenta stole it. And then you'll patch up my fate."

"Try not to do anything stupid that would make that impossible." The smile fell from his face back to his normal scowling look.

"I'll keep an eye out for her. I see her every move to make sure she doesn't become the world's biggest fuck up." Milea assured him. "You could put your faith in me."

Dio and Elios finally let go of each other. I have to be proud of Areus since he didn't bash in Elios's skull for holding Dio for so long. "Right then. Let's go." Elios ordered us. We said out final goodbyes and headed down the mountain.

The climb down the mountain was so much quicker and easier with the gem Areus gave us. We ran into little to no problems. Sure we took a shortcut here and there because we wanted to get to Strago before night fall (which would have been impossible if we didn't make a few cuts, even if there was a risk of breaking an arm or spraining an ankle, which we didn't have to worry about because of my dad's potion.) We made it back to the gates of Telikos in an hour.

Telikos hasn't changed that much. Sure the streets were more filled up now, but it's nothing compared to Agapi or Strago where you would be lucky if you saw the ground with the amount of people on the streets. We walked straight through the city-state, only making a turn when a guard warned us to move out the way because we were on private property.