In the village of Newfor on the Southern side next to one of the many small fishing ports of the island there was one house on the side of The Hill of 80, the name of the hill came from the inclination of the structure, the house built on it had at the very least twenty supporting wooden arches sticking out from it, and into the ground, it seemed like a temporary solution, but for the ones living there for decades, it was just one of the many jank solutions that they called safe on this isle. In this house in particular there lived the village's most energetic habitant a teenage boy around the age of 15 called Zeck. Everybody in the village knew Zeck as the most problematic villager, overtime it basically became an unwritten rule that if Zeck were to do something stupid in the vicinity of one of the adults from the island, they were to tell Zeck off and possibly punish him accordingly. Zeck did not have a father that was known on the island, but her mother Sophia took great care of him, he was a very caring child, but also quite a bit of a troublemaker.

He never refused any punishment or anger from her mother, but was mostly indifferent towards anyone else on the island, he was also greatly interested in going outside of the village, even though he knew it was against the only major rule of the island, and it was to protect its people.

One Saturday when the sun was brightly shining, Zeck had awoken early, whenever this happened to him, he would just go on one of the ports, and gaze at the sea as if he had seen something so important that he could not take his eyes off of it. This morning however he did not go to watch the waves go by, instead decided to have some fun for himself, hence, he decided to walk all around the city and wake everyone still asleep, this kind of behavior was the primary reason he was titled the villages most problematic inhabitant. He started off at the old Vilm’s house, he grabbed a big Greenglow-fish, and just tossed it at his window with full power, it flew into the window at high speed, and contacting it, it made a loud bonk sound. Vilm immediately woke up, and considerate to the rest of the village, he did everything in his power to suppress his anger, and not wake anyone else up unreasonably, he had an extremely angry face, and started chasing Zeck the moment he spotted him through the window. Zeck waited for him, to get dressed up somewhat, and then started to run, run to the next house where he pulled off the same prank again, this time he threw the Greengrow-fish carelessly, and didn’t realize that the window of the person’s house he was throwing his fish at was wide open, he accidentally hit someone while asleep, when he woke up, he made an extremely funny expression, it was filled with misery, anger and a clear lack of sleep. Zeck bursted out in laughter, while he was laughing Vilm who was still trying to catch up to him at this point pulled his back, and started to squeak in agony, Zeck felt sort of bad for him, so he decided to help him, he slowly approached Vilm, and offered a possible solution to the problem:

* I will help you up, and gather you medication for your back if you help me get some information on the outside world! That’s right, I am offering all my nicest services to you, just for the information you can’t do anything with anyway.

This would normally sound like a great deal, but it was actually an impossible request that Zeck made, since the information from the outside world that they got from Erik was both dated, and strictly forbidden to spread, it was an agreement made among all the adult villager, since that information could possibly influence the younglings to go and explore the outside world, but as all the adults knew, the outside world meant certain death to the Primals due to the curse.

Vilm knowing that started to think about the offer, and than answered calmly:

* You know what?

He started to speak much more quietly, and leaned closer to Zeck grabbing his shoulder to support himself.

* I will grant your wish, I will tell you about the outside world, and I will explain to you the knowledge we possess about the technology we were blessed with to the best of my knowledge, but don’t tell this to anyone on the island.

Zeck’s eyes were shining with excitement, he had never experienced such great news since his birth, he immediately started nodding quickly as he ran off while shouting:

* You won’t be disappointed old-man!

At this point the owner of the second building he has picked had fully woken up, and opened his door slowly in one hand he was holding the fish Zeck threw at him, when he noticed Vilm, he waved at him, as he saw Vilm was still sitting on the ground he made quick steps towards him to help him back up, and offered him a massage, Vilm willingly agreed.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

While massaging Vilm, Aln saw that the entire time since he met Vilm in the morning he hadn’t had his regular bad mood, and even had a slight grin on his face. He asked:

* Did something happen Old Man Vilm?

* Didn’t I ask you a thousand times not to call me old; I swear you never learn. Besides that not much has happened to to me this morning, as you can imagine I wa… augh…; Could you do the massage a bit less roughly?, Anyway what I was saying is that Zeck woke me up, the same way that he woke you.., well not exactly the same…

* Did you really have to add that last part, my face is still a bit green due to that little brat, I swear if I catch him…

* You know he doesn’t mean bad, it’s just you know, he is bored, there really isn’t much to do on this island for a lifetime from a kid’s perspective if you think about it. Besides he takes good care of her mother, nobody even told him that his mother is ill, but I am pretty sure that he figured it out anyway, he really cares for her a great deal.

* Well if you say so, you are the old one after all….hehehehhe

* Grrrr, if you really think I am that old, why don’t you massage my feet too, you know old people can’t walk that much and my feet need better blood circulation.

* ……

In the meanwhile Zeck was looking for the herbs he needed from the forest, when he found the first herb he realized that he had forgotten something very important, he tried to remember it, and then he realized, he forgot to help Vilm up, he had made a promise, but he had forgotten, he was utterly ashamed, and decided to go above and beyond on his collecting duty so that he can cover for his mistake. He found aloevera, mint, and jungle-poppy, there was only one ingredient missing from his super anti-pain and anti-soreness serum, it was the hardest to get since it required him to dive into the lake in the middle of the island. He approached the lake, and took a batch before entering, as it was common practice, since the contents of that lake were what all the villagers drank for survival, it was crystal clear mineral water mostly cleared by the bacteria eventually in it, but died out once the water had no longer had any impurities in it.

Zeck jumped in the water, it was beautiful, completely see through but in the meantime, it was also terrifyingly deep, it was at the very least 150 meters into the abyss, and on the bottom of it there was a very special fish, that seemed to live without consuming anything, this mysterious fish had a special kind of plant growing on it, this plant was the best medicine against aging known to the islanders, it was an almighty medicine good for soreness, back and body pain, good for replenishing stamina for weeks, and had a great taste too. The fish was called Rad, nobody on the island knew who named it, but there was only one of it, and it was most definitely ancient, the fish was about half the size of the island, it barely fit into the lake leaving a minimal amount of space for movement. It was also completely harmless, it never attacked, or seemed to care about the outside world whatsoever, the plants on it’s back grew back about a week after they were harvested, the scales of the fish under these plants was harder than diamond, and more durable than titanium, it also lacked one of the most important features for most of life, it didn’t have any entries on its body. Its survival was truly mysterious.

As Zeck dove under, he was thinking about the stories he was about to get his hands on from Vilm, while he was thinking he slowly went deeper and deeper, when he was at the very bottom of it, he was shocked to see someone admiring the fish seemingly not even keeping any air inside herself, since her mouth was very slightly opened.

Zeck being a good willed person, immediately swam in her direction to help her to the surface. He grabbed her hand, and started to drag her to the surface. He was surprised how heavy she felt, but he couldn’t lose any time since they are about 130 meters deep, and the girls had seemed to be cold too implying that she was dying.

When they reached the surface Zeck looked back and saw the girl standing taller than him, by around 10 cm and staring at him coldly.