"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author Notes-

Chapter 04: The Troublesome Boy

After getting enough rest, Zephyr left the house directly from the garden, without passing through the house.

His aunt and uncle were likely still sleeping, but there was no reason to risk it.

He knew them well enough to predict they would be in a very bad mood the entire day...to be fair, they were always in a bad mood, but the day after the Tribute was much worse. It would be better to avoid them for the rest of the day.

He went out into the town and started walking around at a calm pace.

There weren't many villagers around as most would remain at home on days like this.

He still got lucky to stumble upon one of the neighbors, who gave him a bit of food because she recalled it was his birthday.

He wasn't expecting to eat much today since there was no work, so this was an unexpected boon.

Zephyr then walked to the end of the docks area. Even on normal days, people would not come here.

But this was a special place for Zephyr. This was the place where he lost his parents. Every year, he liked to come here and look at the sea...it made him feel a bit closer to them.

In the past, the villagers would use these docks like normal, until sea monsters started to appear here more frequently and were forced to abandon them.

Normally, it would be impossible to go out into the sea from anywhere on the continent.

But the waters close to Varian village are a special case.

The Merfolk capital of Lemuria is just a few miles off the village coast, deep underwater.

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It is the only place the sea monsters avoid, and thus, is the only piece of the sea where it's possible to go out and catch some fish.

Unfortunately, once in a while, a sea monster will still appear on their shores and attack some of the villagers.

After the death of his parents ten years ago, there have been three more deaths and many injured.

The Celestial Merfolk could have probably done something to make the waters a bit safer, but a handful of human lives being lost every decade is not a big deal for them. They may just consider it an acceptable loss.

Zephyr was too distracted in his own thoughts to notice the ripples forming in the water near the dock where he was standing.

After standing there for several more minutes, the boy sighed and turned around to leave.

“I can't spend my entire free day here… let's go to the plaza.”

He walked away and the ripples on the water appeared to calm down.

Zephyr went on his way, completely oblivious to the dangerous creature lurking under the water.

The plaza was at the center of the village. It had a small fountain with drinking water and a few benches around it.

A beautiful silver statue of a Merfolk was placed on top of the fountain to make it clear this was part of their territory.

It was a great place for the villagers to spend some of their free time and a favorite spot for the youngest ones.

It was also used to sell fish and other items of necessity to the villagers and to the merchants who visited from the other human settlements.

As Zephyr approached the plaza, he spotted a small group of boys close to the fountain.

The first one he recognized was Bill, the son of a fisherman and one year older than him.

It could not be said they were friends, but they had talked a few times when unloading the fish from their boat.

“Oh no…” As soon as Zephyr recognized the three other boys, he immediately hid behind one of the wooden carts used to display the fresh fish.

“Thomas…” He lamented Bill's luck. Thomas was the worst person in the entire village by a long shot. He was the only son of their Village Leader.

There were three human settlements left on the continent. And all three were part of some Celestial race's territory, who ruled over the place.

However, Varian Village belonged to the Merfolk. That particular race disliked being out of the water for too long, so none of them wished to remain in the village and instead opted to name a human representative known as the Village Leader or Village Elder.

Despite being human like them, the Village Leader's authority was absolute since his words represented the Celestials themselves.

Now, the Village Leader himself was not a bad person and rarely abused his authority.

The same could not be said about his son… Thomas was always up to no good. He would take advantage of the fact that his father allowed him to do whatever he wanted and used his power to order everyone around.

The boys were too distracted in their own conversation to notice his presence, so he listened to what they were saying.

“Do it!” He heard Thomas scream. He appeared to be in a worse mood than usual.

The two boys at Thomas's side got closer to Bill, towering over him.

They were the twin sons of the village chief carpenter. They had massive bodies and possessed almost superhuman strength.

They always followed Thomas around and acted as his two servants.

“I told you to get on your knees and kiss my boots as an apology!” Thomas shouted as his frown deepened.

'What could Bill have done to anger Thomas so much?' Zephyr wondered. Not that one would need much to anger that boy, but still.

“I don't owe you an apology, you bastard!” Bill shouted back.

Zephyr had never seen Bill this enraged before and became increasingly curious about what happened between them.

Although knowing Thomas, it was probably something he did to either Bill or his family.

“You insult me again?... Fine, I gave you a way out and you didn't take it.” Thomas was seething with rage.

He turned to his two servants. “Teach him a lesson he won't forget!.”