"Come on, hurry up, we need to get off the boat." Baskia says, lightly pushing Raion. Raion stumbles forward, falling off the boat and landing on the sand.
"Hey, whyd you do that for?" He rubs the his lower back in agony. "I think you broke it." He winces in pain as he gets up.
"Its not broken stop acting like a little kid. We have important matters to attend to, if you havent forgotten." Baskia takes his glance at Raion, who now has this panic look upon him. He quickly gets up and tales a hold of Baskia's arm, gripping tightly, "Fourth! Baskia? Where did he go?" The panic in his eyes have turned to immense sadness. A tear slowly forms itself in the corner of Raion's eye, Baskia takes the back of his hand and wipes it away.
"Theres no time for tears..."
Right as Baskia was about to continue, in the distance a strange man is seen waving his arms and running towards Baskia and Raion.
"Stop! Who are you guys?" The stange man has finally caught up to Baskia and Raion, he appears to be an older gentleman in his mid 50's.
"Baskia! Look theres someone here, do you think he can help us?!"
"Its worth a shot in asking what he knows. I mean it seems like this island is surrounded by the Dusty waters. " Baskia stop for a moment and pans around the island, he steers his eyes towards a small selection of buildings in the far distance. "Uh I see, so we were lucky to land here."
In a burst of excitement, Raion takes a hold of Baskia's shoulders and jumps up in down, during Raion's outburst of joy, his hood had fallen off.
The strange man stares in disbelief at Raion. He begins to stutter his words. "You? You're a Shadow?!"
Raion and Baskia pass a quick glance at one another. "Ah, I'm just..", before Raion could finish his sentence, Baskia intervenes.
Casting one of his Mind Control spells. This particular spell, Baskia is able to pull out the specific intances of a persons memories and exchange these images for something else. The spell is called Mind Control: Imagery Extract.
"He's not a shadow, he's just a normal boy."
The mysterious man blinks and a second kater his memories have changed. "How could I have thought he was a shadow? My apologies. Now again, who are the two of you?"
Baskia reaches his hand out in earnest, "My name is Baskia.", holding it there for a few seconds, just then the guy takes Baskia's hand and shakes it. "My name is Theo."
Baskia points over at Raion.
"This is my friend Raion. We were heading towards the mountains. Our boat got caught in the storm."
"Yeah, we hit a rock! We lost Fourth!", Raion takes hold of the guys shoulders, shaking them. "Tell me, how do we get him back!?"
Baskia takes Raion off the man and pulls him closer to his side. "Fourth, our friend got pulled into the water."
" Calm down, just calm down. Let's just figure this out. How far offshore did your friend get dragged in?"
"Like ten meters out.", says Baskia.
"Yeah, he mentioned someone grabbing his shoulders, but we are too occupied with everything else. We should have been there for him, Baskia! It's our fault." Raion hangs his head in shame, staring at the ground, he then feels Baskia's hand rest upon his shoulders; Raion looks back up at Baskia, whos looking down at hime.
"Raion, it's none of our faults. We couldn't have predicted this would happen. We will find him." He smiles down at Raion, ruffling his hand through his pitch-black hair.
"Your friend is right. If he got pulled in, it means that there's something or someone down there." Theo scratches his chin and starts to wonder Could it be?
"But how do you know what those waters can do to you!" Raion's voice gets louder with each word.
"I know these waters better than anyone. I've seen the things it can do. I witnessed firsthand one of my shipmates fall overboard, and instantly he turned to dust."
"How long ago was this?", asks Baskia.
Theo stabds there, not uttering a word, he stares intently out into the dark lake, watching the tide of the waves come closer on to the shore line. What felt like an eternity he says, "Two years ago, last week."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Baskia solemnly says.
Raion returns the notion. "So am I."
"That is in the past. I have mourned him well. We must search for your friend. But even if he managed to survive, we still cannot go out there. We will need to wait till morning when it's cleared out." Theo motions for Baskia and Raion to follow him, leading the way as they head inland towards Theos village.
As the three of them walk, Raion still cant help to think theres more he should be doing to save Fourth. "Will he be alright, Baskia? Can we not just search for him now?"
"It's Fourth, he will be fine.As for searching, I too want to take that action, but it nightfall already, and where would we even begin to look?"
"I.. well, but.." Baskia stops Raion from speaking, dragging him closer into him he pats the top of his head, causing Raion to scrunch up his shoulders.
"I know you care deeply for him, trust me on this, will find him." Baskia removes his hand from top of Raions head, walking further ahead.
A few minutes had past, they all had reached Theo's village. The village itself was a tiny one, it consisted of all the basics that people of the village would need. It had a peaceful but omnious atmosphere, like it was holding onto some unwanted mysterious.
"Here we are, welcome to Drizaln. Please make yourself at home. Don't mind the people, we haven't had many visitors
around.
That's right, I'll have to use the wide scale mind control spell. This one really puts a toll on me.
Baskia pushedhis fingers through his hair, exposing his forehead, he tilts his head to the side slightly. Mind control: Mass Domain.
" Before Theo could tell them about his home, the villagers had already began to mumble and stare. Whispering among themselves as to whom these new faces were.
"It's alright, we're quite used to big crowds, aren't we, Raion?" Baskia turns to face Raion, who is eyeballing a delectable mouthwatering banana cream pie. "Raion? Are you listening?" yells Baskia, waving his hand infront of Raion's face.
"Yeah, huh, people… home." Raion zones out Baskia and everything else around him. He is only focused on obtaining that banana cream pie.
"Please forgive him, he seems to be hungry for that pie." He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at Raion, who is now walking over to the banana cream pie, in a zombie like state.
"I see, I see, would he care to have a slice. It's the best pie around." He said with a smile upon his face.
"Are you sure we don't want to intrude on our welcome?", asked Baskia.
"Nonsense, I insist. Please."Theo says.
Baskia turns to let Raion know that he is able to have a slice of the banana cream pie. "Raion, you can go… well, never mind, it looks like he heard us." Raion had already reached the merchant stand that was selling the pie and was now stuffing his face. The whipped topping
Theo laughs out loud, as he watches Baskia chase after Raion, shouting, "Don't you dare eat all that pie!"
In the distance, you can hear Raion yelling, "It's not my fault you're slow!"
"What did you just say to me?!" Baskia is just in arms reach of Raion, he stretches out his hand just about to grab Raion.
"You heard me." Raion says sticking out his tongue at Baskia. He quickly turns back around to grab the pie, but ends up tripping, falling directly onto the pie; thats placed on the merchants counter. "What in the world! How did this happen?"
Theo eventually catches up with the two.
"It appears that you ran right into the pie."
Raion lifts his head up from the merchants counter, the pie filling slowly falling off his face, a few slices of bananas landing on the ground. He takes his finger and wipes it across his cheek, licking the filling off.
"Why Raion, why?" Baskia asks
"I mean, it tastes delicious, and you want to know something else, Baskia?"
"And what may that be?"
"You didn't get to have any." Raion says snickering at Baskia.
Baskia runs over to Raion, picks up the remainder of the pie, and smacks it right into Raions face. "You want to say that again?!"
"No! I'm done!"
"Excuse me? But it seems like you two have made quite the crowd." Theo points over at the surrounding areas.
Baskia and Raion both slowly look up and see a bunch of people surrounding them. Some are in shock, while others are laughing.
"Who are these strange people?" A young boy asks, pulling on his mothers dress.
The mother of the boy, lets out a slight giggle and answers him. "He appears to be one of Theo's friends."
"Strange? Who are you calling strange? Do you see what you look like?" Raion start coming closer at the boy, who is now hiding behind his mother. Baskia kicks Raion as he falls foward, Baskia gives him a scournful look.
"My apologies for my friend here. He's a little exhausted from the long trip we had."
"Let's head in and rest from a long day."
They all head down past the merchant shops, following a beaten down path through a small forest of Ibinou trees,"The fruit from these trees are a delicious treat, perfectly ripe during the winter. Here we are. ", the end of the forest lies Theo humble home.
"Here we are. I hope everything is to your liking. " He leads them in through to the upper level to his guestrooms.
The room has one single bed, a beaten down arm chair, that has some form of stains on it, a desk with a lamp and papers neatly piled ontop of it. It gives off a slightly musky odor with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla; which could be coming from the candle that seemed have been burnt recently.
"Well, now that you mention it, these sheets seem a tad rough." Raion says, ruffling the sheets on the bed. Baskia then slaps Raion on the head.
"What he meant to say is no thank you, everything is perfect. Isn't that right, Raion?"
"Yes, sorry, it's perfect."
"Alright, I'll leave it to you guys. We will find your friend at daybreak." He leaves shutting the door behind him.
The room falls silent with the hint of that armoa, Raion plops down on the bed, laying his head on the pillow. Baskia sits next to him. "Baskia, what was that earlier?"
"What was what?" Baskia says, while rummaging through his satchel.
"When we got off the boat, how did you convince Everyone here that I'm not a shadow? Theo seemed to realize that something was off."
"It's nothing. Nothing to be discussed right now. Let's focus on rescuing Fourth."
Raion quickly gets up from the bed and stands in front of Baskia, glaring at him. Baskia still rummaging through his satchel does not take mind to Raion's small outburst.
"No, you both always tell me, save it for another time. This is happening now. How did you convince them?" He crosses his arms and stomps his foot.
"Raion, not now, I said!" Baskia, drops his satchel causing everything to fall out, he stands towering over Raion, trying to appear threatening, knowing that his magic plays no part on Raion any longer.
"If not now, then when?!"
Baskia sits at the edge of the bed. "Okay, I'll tell you, but it's just between the two of us, or I'll have to turn you into the High guards of Skala. Where they brutally torture you day in and day out, bringing in skin biters to gnaw away at your flesh. Until there's nothing left but bones. Of course, after we get you back to normal."
Raion laughs out loud, "You're hilarious, Baskia."
"I'm serious."
Raion sits quietly and stares at Baskia.
"Alright, the reason that Theo and everyone else don't realize you're a shadow is because I implanted it in their minds to see you as normal."
"How though?"
"Just as you have your ability, I have mine. Mine, though, is the only one around. I'm part of The Five, a group of people sworn to protect the rock of Angfel."
"Then why are you here?
"To answer your question, I'm going to see Wen just like Fourth and you. I had no means of knowing how I would find her until I met both of you."
"Why didn't you tell us that in the first place?"
"High guards of Skala remember. "Oh yeah, oh Baskia, last thing. How come your ability didn't work on me this time around? It's the same thing that happened with Fourth when he tried to turn me back. His ability didn't work on me."
Baskia lies down on the bed and shuts the lights off. "That I am not sure about."
Raion and Baskia both fall asleep