*Ring**Ring*
<
The girl hears a voice from the entrance area and before she could muster up the motivation to get out
of her seat, a second person storms in and starts a rapid-fire barrage of words.
< rainbow! Ahhhhh, so beautiful!>> While waving a shiny rock in front of her nose, this new, blonde-haired girl starts talking about how she could make all sorts of cosmetics out of this rock, while Elizabeth just sits there with a bored face, probably asking herself, how such an energetic person could exist in Jarabesa-Village. <<… and if I cut it into four, I could make us matching earrings! How about it, want me to make you my lifelong- >> < Claire got cut off. Lizy is a one-sided nickname for Elizabeth, that Claire came up with – Lizy does not like it. So in response to that, Claire goes behind the seat, that Elizabeth has taken a liking to and starts giving her bestie a massage out of the goodness of her heart. < < Strategy two: Elizabeth likes being called Big Sis by her friend, because she has a complex about her young appearance. It is not clear, whether she is the older or younger one due to both of the girls being abandoned by their parents – a natural phenomenon around these parts. < <<9>> < Elizabeth is not an idiot, of course. After realizing, that she is in an especially bad mood, she simply apologizes to her friend with a polite < who knows what. Silence. A Long Silence. An awkwardly long Silence. < Claire is the first one to break it. She grabs a startled Elizabeth by the shoulders and presses her own face against the latter. < Lizy – already intimidated by her – tries to respond < < < < This little exchange of them persists for a few more seconds before both start laughing while giving each other a hug. Originally, Claire suspected that Lizy exhibited symptoms of Anemia due to her chronic blood loss, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the case. Apparently she drank some alcoholic stuff, a guest had brought along with her, and she currently suffers from a major hangover. < damn poison of lust and liquor!>> Claire and Elizabeth. Family names: Unknown Age: Unknown Parents: Unknown Miss Margarret took these kids under her custody; Claire was taken 5 years ago for her body, Elizabeth was taken two years ago for her determination. Throughout their time together, the two of them have bonded together and are basically like real sisters to each other… < < < < < < < me anything, so pretty pleaasee?>> < out.>> They say opposites attract each other. If Elizabeth plays the role of the responsible sister, that works herself to the bone to achieve anything in life, Claire is the typical younger sibling, who has most things fall into her lap without ever needing to work. *Ring**Ring* *Ring* *Ring* <<< Both of them look at each other in confusion. Did Miss Margarret expect any visitors today? Claire decides to greet the visitors and gets up from leaning against her bestie, while Elizabeth simply enjoys her time on this comfortable seat. Of course, she isn’t simply doing nothing while waiting. < < *Swish* A lavender hue is emitted from beneath Lizy’s feet. As quickly as a flash of lightning, it spreads through the living room in a zigzagging line before appearing in the entrance section. Lizy simply waits a moment for her familiar to relay the news to her through their connection, but suddenly a shudder runs throughout her body. < ! The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Upon hearing a response Elizabeth immediately gets up and sprints to the entrance while recalling her familiar back. Somebody noticed Miss Violet. Noticing a familiar, that does not want to be seen can only mean one of two things. Either you have an extremely high perceptive ability. Or you are a monster. Elizabeth knows, that there has been a monster nearby for the last few days, so she is extremely on edge but nothing she could have thought would have prepared her for what was behind the entrance door, which she swung open in a single swing… In front of her there is a young boy with chocolate-colored skin, seemingly slightly older than her. The boy was brimming with charm ranging from his body to the way he clothed himself, like a rich kid, that just received presents from their family. This boy was currently being embraced from the front into the bosom of Miss Margarret and hugged from behind by Claire while profusely blushing in embarrassment. <<… >> … < < Just as her confusion reached a new peak, the boy swiftly freed himself from the double embrace and nimbly sprinted to her side. He only stopped centimeters before her face, before starting to talk in a bright smile. < All the while he is intensely staring at her. < Due to her intense confusion and already bad mood, pushes the boy away from her while taking a couple of steps back before complaining about his conduct. < The ‘rich kid’ in question is none other than Haja Altwald. How did this situation transpire, you ask? Simple, Haja is very talented at manipulating others around him. Shortly after Miss Margarret pulled him out of the Jarabesa-Village crowd, he realized her intention as a businesswoman to get money out of him. The young man did recently develop an interest in the other gender and as such he decided to role-play a bit. He played the role of an innocent boy needing to be babied by an older woman. Of course, reality and fiction were both really close to each other on this one, resulting in exceptionally great acting from the boy. By manipulating her through slight leaps in their conversation, this situation unfolded. After arriving at Miss Margarret’s home, Claire immediately took an interest in him due to his innate good looks and extremely expensive-looking clothing, resulting in her joining in. In other words: Haja used his inherent characteristics to manipulate those around him for his own pleasure. In other other words: Raylon Hawkinson thought it would be a good idea to take an emotionally unstable teenager Haja into the city of brothels and let him explore the area without any supervision. Great job, Teacher! Anyways, back to the current time and place, Haja is now sitting on the seat, that Lizy had been sitting on before, while being cared for by two beautiful women (according to Gaia’s current sense of beauty and morals) < < < < The atmosphere has gotten really strange and uncomfortable. Especially for the only other sane person remaining. Elizabeth simply watched from the sidelines, suspicion evident in her gaze as to what is going on. From time to time Haja would look in her direction and give her a movie-star-level smile. Of course, she wasn’t interested in it and slightly repulsed from disgust. But it seems that Haja is a stubborn child. After setting his sights on her, Haja tried various methods to get her attention. Maybe this was his first time being rejected or maybe he just is not used to being treated without favor from his surroundings anymore, but Haja does not stop his efforts in impressing her. He starts telling stories about his occupation and income, his physique, his studies and wits and even his connections to high-ranking politicians but no matter what he talks about, it all leaves Elizabeth as cold as ice. While one side remains cold eternally, the other is heating up like a growing storm of fire: The other two women become more smitten with him with every passing word. Lizy – seemingly disgusted with the situation – eventually excuses herself to take a walk outside. Haja follows her. … Haja apologizes for his behavior and tries to be honest with her. … After some discussion Elizabeth decides to forgive him and the two talk for a bit. … Haja is not used to Elizabeth’s street-slang and has difficulties understanding her from time to time. The two banter a bit and Haja asks her about her past. … Haja learns about her tough past and offers her to take her with him as a merchant’s apprentice. … Lizy is taken aback and mulls it over before thanking him for the offer and rejecting it. … Haja insists on her coming and talks down on her occupation and life. He insists that it is not too late for her. Elizabeth becomes slightly annoyed. … Elizabeth continuously rejects his offers and approaches and gets increasingly annoyed. Haja oversteps his boundaries and gets really close to her. He gets levitated from the ground and smashed down with a loud Boom! … Haja learned methods of strengthening his body and gets up and once again approaches her. Elizabeth gets extremely annoyed and she repeatedly smashes his head into the ground (13 times – an unlucky number in Jarabesa). She warns him one last time to stop. … Haja does not stop. Haja’s skin gets inverted into his ribcage, his bone structure is now visible. … Elizabeth breaks the first three sets of true ribs on his body, the last set of false ribs and the first three sets of floating ribs (Haja has 8 sets of true ribs, three smaller, but more tightly ordered sets of false ribs and 4 sets of floating ribs due to his racial characteristics) After hearing him scream 5 times and cry twice she takes his left leg and randomly breaks twelve of the 35 bones in his foot cleanly in half. Lastly, after slamming him into the ground another two sets of thirteen times, she takes his Pubic bone, Ischium, Tail bone and Sacrum out of his body. After breaking the thing attached to the front of those four bones and calling a wild animal to eat it, she starts healing Haja back up. Out of the 19 broken bones and other things she heals most of it so that Haja can barely survive and make it out of her house alive. As a final form of farewell she says this with a bright smile: < … < The man, who is currently laughing is none other than the Humanitarian Sage Rakdal. He is very close to dying of suffocation, making Haja the first one to possibly beat the almighty sage with laughter alone. Haja throws a couple of menacing glares in his direction from time to time before continuing to cry about it to his Uncle and teacher Raylon Hawkinson. … Uncle, Old Merchant, Sir, Veteran Raylon Hawkinson. Nothing could have prepared him for the challenging task of dealing with this situation… Nothing except for his best friend Hamish and his dating life. < <<*Sniff* Huh?>> And so, Raylon told the young boy a story. A story about the boy’s grandfather and one of his best friends. He told him a story of how Hamish Altwald managed to confess his love to his future wife Theresia Altwald. While it would be a bid much to just tell this man’s story right now, you can probably manage to imagine it for yourself. It was nothing as dangerous as Haja’s experience but who can truly compare the life of two people as to which is better. Trials and tribulations. Challenges. Power struggles, love triangles all dissolved in a tornado of youthful simplicity. A story about the will to never give up and dedicate yourself to your goal. It was a surprisingly detailed story, considering that it was told by a third person’s perspective. Haja was kind of reminded of his own confession(?). While Haja did the listening and Raylon did the talking, Rakdal was simply slurping a Jara-Water- Cocktail, while watching with an amused expression. < His whisper was silent enough that it drowned beneath the satiated voice of Sir Hawkinson and the shadows’ movement was covered by the radiant smile of Haja, who had recovered his spirit after hearing the story. < < their entire lifetimes! Every day I will train myself to be stronger than an army of 50 men! And every time my wealth and power increase by one, I will ask her one more time to come with me!>> ...It seems there was a misunderstanding after hearing the story from Haja. Haja is beaming on top of a table, Raylon is sitting while massaging his temples from a sudden bout of headaches and Rakdal… Rakdal makes his move. < Actually, he heard Haja’s name from Raylon but let’s ignore these details for now. < *Wink**Wink* Rakdal gestures for Haja to get down from the table and stand before him. After doing as told Rakdal starts saying something in Old-Ayrillian “An-Yar-Nar-Yan-Nar-Yarnn-Anyanar-Yan” Haja does not quite understand what he wants to say and even Sir Raylon has problems deciphering what was said. But Rakdal simply provides the answer by himself. < 1 Yar is only worth what the sole Yarnn determines it to be worth.*>> The room is silent for a while, during which Rakdal waits for a response, Raylon ponders over the idiom and Haja thinks hard on what it could mean for him. After a while <>, Haja’s slow voice echoes in the silence. < accompany me, but I won’t be as forceful with my actions. I’m sorry.>> < Raylon still doesn’t get it. Regardless, the time of departure has ome. Haja has decided the next destination on his own, while Raylon simply went along with what his disciple wanted to do. Rakdal bode farewell to the two of them. He would get back to Raylon at a later date. Their second meeting will not be mentioned in this book. Instead, the results of the meeting need to be talked about: The Urwald foundation Rakdal issued medallions depicting a new crest’s symbol to his different comerades all around Gaia. These crests act as keys for the people to enter a giant subspace, that connects them all together. Inside this giant subspace, the faces of all members would immediately get blurred and their voices would not be distinguishable from each other, resulting in complete anonymity in face and appearance. Talking was done through thoughts, meaning that even the physically challenged could participate in these gatherings. The original Project Urwald started with these Medallion-holders as the ‘Deep Roots’. Every Deep Root had the opportunity to create an organization of like-minded individuals, the so- called ‘Urwald-Atrap’. These organizations would typically be named based on a pun or lingual distinction to the original word Urwald. In other words: Project Urwald is the first globally active organization of Peacekeepers. Later on, it would come to have many names to the public. Schwarzwald-Organization, Schattenwald-Tree, Mother-Root or the Blood-Cult. Well, the latter is a totally different story but more on that at a much much much much much much later time. *Huff* *Huff* But enough about that. Hawkinson-Company prepared to depart to their next destination: Welkracht- Continent. But before they could truly depart, one last surprise waited for them. *Huff* *Huff* < *Yarnn is the word for the ancient Ayrilian king and after Ayrilia became a republic, it changed to mean the will of the State. State in this context could mean the literal state or a control center. It can be a metaphor for a person or the mind. An and Nar mean words for one, while An is outdated and Nar is more symbolic like the only one or the sole. Yar and Yan predate the currency and actually originate to valuable goods(Yar) and Worth(Yan) as very symbolic words.