3 Chapter 1 - Into the seas

Part 2

Morning came and the sun shined vibrantly in the East erasing the every trace of the ravaging storm from the previous dark night. I woke up hearing a hoarsely voice calling me. Apparently, it came from the same old man that gave me the brown basket with the brown jacket last night and now he was asking me a favor to go outside to lend some helping hands to turn the tides of the furious battle happening at the deck. He found me lying in the floor bending my knees wrapped with the jacket that he gave last night.

"Even though I had been paid, maybe you can lend a hand?" He said politely but his eyes somehow glower, which cancelled out his calm voice. Basically, he was not asking a favor. He was just threatening me help or else I would be thrown in the middle of the seas. At least, that what I though.

"A-About what?" I asked him back.

"Just pull yourself up and get going outside"

"Okay-dokie?" Before he was completely out of my sight, I added. "By the way, thank you for this"

Replying him in a slothful tone, the old man immediately turned back with his glare lingering on me and headed to clamber the wooden stairs.

The ship's course was now smooth. Young sun's ray went through in the blurry glass window and in every hole on the wooden ship. Sound of gentle waves somehow felt calming and soothing to the ears accompanied with the chirping of the sea birds. I unwrapped myself, there, Marikit was sound asleep enjoying the warmth that my belly offered to her small body. I tried to put her into my sling bag by gently lifting for her to continue to sleep but she was sensitive enough waking up even with the slightest movement as I lift her up. Nevertheless, I told her she can continue to sleep in my bag but she was also stubborn as me.

"No, I'll follow you. I could make myself invisible for the time being while following you upstairs"

Okay, if that is your wish.

Marikit could make herself invisible until she reaches mana depletion, and literally, she would be unable to move for a few days, which in return would be easier for me to put her in my sling bag because she's already dead by that time. However, I warned her not to push herself to her limit because I am not that bad, you know.

After Marikit's appearance vanished out from the thin air, I climbed up the wooden stairs and the Dutch doors creaked when my two hands pushed it to open. As soon as the doors opened - Ah! - The endless blues skies greeted with its brightest smile of sunlight. Judging the height of the morning sun, the time would be in mid-morning, a perfect time for breakfast. White clouds towered and floated from the corners of the blue skies along with the fleeing sea birds. Large white sails were hanging above with full sails. Like a newborn child trying to make his first appearance before the world, I made my first steps outside lightly still with my ethnic attire. I turned my eyesight from left to right like a hawk looking for a place to land, I discovered that everything was fine, and there were nothing to worry about except for the little inconvenience on the deck. After few steps, I was a little far enough from the door I emerge. Something slimy, I thought when something stuck on my right foot. The sunny morning scenery would be perfect plenary only if there's no brown seaweeds hanging in the sails and on the edge and scattered around the deck's wooden floor, however. The ship's crews were moving around cleaning busily the bothersome and foul-smelling seaweeds.

So, that is all about. I thought. The previous night storm's product.

"OOOOOO" A man was busily picking the seaweed and as he saw me, he demandingly pointed his finger in me like he was accusing an innocent young man like me of a crime I never did.

"OOOOOO!"

Another person poked the man's head with her wooden long brush. She somewhat chided that him for just talking while the others were busy cleaning.

Whew! That's what's you get… But…

Well, it was expected. All of them, including the old man were total foreigners. Perhaps it's the opposite, from their point of view I was the foreigner. However, the old man was -

"Here!"

Speaking of the devil, the old man tapped twice my back and casually handed me a brush. Then, he lightly nodded and glared pushing that I should go help brushing the wooden floor now instead of just standing while observing the crew as they moved around.

So, the ship managed to surpass its fateful end but not the seaweeds.

I sprinted hurriedly to brush the wooden floor and spend almost an hour basked under the morning sun so I could not end up as a weighing and good-for-nothing burden for the crew somehow. All of them were foreigners who could not spoke my language except for the old man who had spoken with me with my own native language and I don't not like the idea since it's possible that something might hit their head pushing them to think that it may be for the best to throw a useless baggage like me into the ocean.

Afterwards, a female crew happily called out my name. She only called out my name though, nothing more. Then she made a sign using her hands denoting it was time to eat breakfast.

Where did she know my name?

Our breakfast was meat and 'bread' what they called it. Well, sorry, this was the first I had eaten 'bread'. If you ask what kind of food I usually eat, it would be fishes from the seas and rivers. We hunted meat and gathered fruits, vegetables and crops from the woods and forest. We do have agricultural activities though but we do not have 'bread'.

I walked around the wooden ship searching the old man while splitting the bread into halves putting the half to my sling bag for the Pixie and eaten the other half for myself. Since the merchant ship was not so big to make my mind dazzle as I wander around, there I easily found the old man holding a horn-like device, which later I discovered it was called 'telescope'.

I asked him why he was able to speak in my language.

"It was necessary for Merchants"

I see. He answered at once without any other words.

Many days had passed after truly awe-spiring event, I found myself following the old man everywhere he goes like I was a dog devotedly tugging along with his owner. I become dependent enough to him that even he was doing his managerial matters as the Captain of the ship, I was on his right side as if I was his trusted right hand. I became like the pixie I depreciated so much for being too dependent to me.

Sure, I could mingle with other crew by using hand sign and pointing method and techniques but it would be a pain in the ass waving hands every now and then just to present the thought you wanted to express.

"Rope" a crew while holding a rope. Ok. I nodded.

"Sandal" while pointing his footwear. Ok.

I was ashamed feeling I reverted back to my good young days when Inang (mother) taught me various things. However, the sight of a young man being instructed like a toddler was somehow… weird and embarrassing. At least in my point of view.

The old man was the only one I could converse without worrying about the language barrier with the exception of some pixie. However, given the pixie's circumstances, I could talk to her only when no one was around. I had to be careful not to reveal the pixie or else. Even if I had put a trust to the Old Man, I still hid from him the existence of the pixie.

The thing was somehow the two of us, the old man and I, became close to be calling each other friends.

Friends, huh.

****

A month went by, and I was still floating on the oceans. Since when was the last time I had seen a land? Now, I realized being on the seas was practically difficult, not because of the ravaging storms periodically tormenting the seas or the pirates pillaging their targeted merchants ships or sea creatures famous for making shipwrecks, but because of the notorious boredom, which made a day feels long like forever. I was like that nearby floating woods passing the sails now, flowing along with sea current.

Of course, I had done chores like cleaning, washing dishes, and preparing food, etc, I had been learning new things since there was a lot time to spend but there's nothing to do. It even came to the point that the competition for the mundane works was getting intense. It became my daily routine to help inside the ship but apparently, life became dull, duller than the gray skies today.

"Whew, rain again."

Thinking this day would be similar with those peaceful and quite, yet arid days, I mumbled while hanging dying self to the ship's edge while setting my eyes to the far horizon. However, suddenly someone broke the peaceful sailing of the ship.

"Laum, Danger…" The pixie's head peeked to the sling bag. She was eating bread and as-if-I-care face, which would be mismatched while telling her warning. "A big creature's under the ship."

Nevertheless, Marikit's sense of danger could not be taken lightly. If she told danger was approaching, definitely it was. She could even foresee one week ahead if a big storm was coming with a calm and untroubled tone.

Without wasting another second, I dashed to the old man who was currently in his cabin doing some paperwork.

"Old Man, danger!" I came to him panting as ran with full speed.

"Calm down, boy" He stood up grabbing his slim rapier in the corner of his paper-filled disk and composedly approached the panting boy in front of him. "What danger?"

Everyone would be surprised when someone suddenly told something like this but this old man is my paragon for being calm as ever.

"I don't know yet," I took a deep breath and raised my eyes on him, "but definitely, there's danger."

"You seem so sure. How could you tell?"

"I just... Sensed it" I replied him reluctantly but my eyes never averted his old eyes.

"Hmm, sensed...?" he looked dead straight to me searching for something. He confusedly scratched his left arms mulling for something back of his whitish head. He must be doubting me. Of course, he was. "Sense? You seem to depend such thing too much, don't you?"

Sense and instincts, Of course, I do but I trusted much more the pixie's. However, I could not tell him directly that the warning came from a pixie that was always with me.

"Y-yes" I finally let go of his old eyes and averted to his slim rapier.

Sorry, Inang (mother), I have lied again.

It really shocked me the old man easily believed my wish-wash foretells. Well, maybe it was partly because he was thinking it was better to be prepared than to be sorry.

"I understand," He said.

He hurriedly walked out from his cabin and padded his way through the wooden hallway towards the outside when –

BOOG! –

A loud collision shook the ship. Something enormous bashed the ship's front. Yeah, pixies' intuition could not be underestimated. She was always accurate about pinpointing danger. Trouble, there it was.

We ran toward outside of the cabin and upon opening the door, large tentacles greeted us and our eyes became wide as it could.

"K-kraken" The old man muttered, tattering.

Screams and wails were on the deck. Crews flailed their sword toward the tentacles as larger than one's body. Some used their magic to defend the ship. Other exploded tentacles using fire magic, splicing them with water magic or slashed them with sailor's swords and other sharp-edged weapons.

"Based on its tentacle's sized, this one is young" The Old man quickly readied his sheathed rapier in his side and dashed to attack the tentacles.

Young? You mean this creature with tentacles as large as this is only on its early years?!

As his index finger trailed the sharp edge of his slim rapier, line of white light appeared. He slashed a tentacle smoothly as if he was cutting into the thin air. Then he cut another incoming tentacle and another. The tentacles wriggled violently on the deck scattering blue fluid from the flesh.

"White attribute: whites slash"

Hmm, light attribute huh? One of the rarest types of attribute.

Initially, I thought the old man's attribute was water or wind since he was a sea merchant.

"Boy! No time to watch" He shouted at me while he was busy slicing some tentacles trying to wreck his ship.

"Y-yeah" I evaded an incoming tentacle wiping towards my direction. "Whoops, not today squidy"

"Dumbass! It's a Kraken!" He shouted at me again without turning his head.

"I hear yah"

I grabbed a pair of arnis baston, which was sitting lonesomely at my back perhaps eagerly waiting for his owner to use, and then beating the sticks once to cast a transparent bubble barrier.

"Bubble attribute: bubble's barrier"

Bubble was my attribute.

Generally, my father bloodline's attribute was mainly water however I was differ from the usual lineage not because I was special but simply I was a product of cross-pollination. As my father married my mother whose attribute was air, I somehow end up with a hybrid attribute, Bubble. Though they say hybrids were so rare, which they mean the gods and goddesses must been appeased in me, I never saw myself as special. In fact, the dissimilarity made me feel uncomfortable and somehow telling me that I did not belong to the village. However, if someone would ask if which attribute was rarer, I would say hybrid attributes were.

Talking about attributes, Attribute means how your mana responds to a certain element. If a person's mana responds to a fire, his attribute would be – you got it right – Fire. If it responds to water, you are right again, no need to say, I guess. And so on and so forth.

However, how can you know your attribute? Since Attribute substantially follows the rule of heredity, one would expect he had the same attribute with one of his parents. Well, I did not know to myself for it took me almost seven years after my birth for my attribute to appear, hybrid attribute is surely hard to ascertain since hybrid attribute may combine all the attributes the blood have. Meaning, Hybrid attribute may a combination of your father and your great grandmother's attribute. To me, I just woke up one day realizing my attribute was bubble and then Eureka! That was it. I was still expecting my attribute was water or air since attributes my parents had one, however.

It was not unheard that some people could not use their attribute. As a matter of fact, almost half in our village were non-users of attribute. Why is that? The answer would lie to their mana pool, the mana they had in their body.

Mana is everywhere, in the middle of the seas and the deepest of it, on the top of the mountain, flowing along with the current of the river, literally, everywhere. Not even living beings were the exceptions. Mana, which as necessary as blood in the body, keeps the body functioning. If mana ran out to your body, you would not be dead immediately, but surely, you would suffer and succumb while you slowly crawl your own death as your organs will struggle replenishing the lost mana to the point that organs would burst. Mana depletion, that is.

One could prevent mana depletion by simply ensuring not to deplete mana, a common sense. Some people had extra mana to regenerate physical form of their attribute, but some had only enough mana to keep their body functioning and could not manifest physical form of their attribute. That's it.

Weird enough, people who could use their attribute could go down all the way to mana depletion. In a nutshell, People who could use their attribute were usually the only ones prone to mana depletion. People who could not use their attribute, fortunately, were not as susceptible like the attribute. However, mana depletion could happen to any living, as mana preside all life.

As enough Mana is required to become an Attribute-user, Attribute-user could increase their Mana pool by training his attribute and making himself physically fit. Attribute-using and fitness closely correlates with each other after all.

Well, why do I know all of these things? Nanang (Grandmother) would be the cause as she told me everything. EVERYTHING. However, I do not have to time to share to you what other things she had taught me as I have to

Dodge. A large tentacle swung towards me. Then – pissshk! – Blue blood and stuff flushed out as the old man did the slicing of the vicious tentacle that tried to smash me with his 'light rapier'. I groaned seeing the floor being stained with blue blood .

Another floor needs to be brushed.

Well, given that the old man's merchant ship was under attack by a misguided young kraken, bloodstained floor is far nothing compare to the broken ones in here and there.

The old man re-imbedded his slender rapier with light attribute again and prepared to slice some tentacles again. More tentacles were climbing the ship as I was explaining things to you, so I had to cover up for my slip-up.

"Is that what you got kid? Hiding out yourself in your bubble shell while talking to – wait, who are you talking with?"

"No one, Old Man. Though, you're quite underestimating me, aren't you?"

Now that you provoked me, I beat twice my arnis stick.

Seven red bubbles with a size of the cannon ball emerged from the floor. I controlled the red bubbles using my sticks and swung it towards the ascending tentacles.

"Bubble attribute: Seven stars of Ulfsaar"

Grilled squidy - I mean tentacles - splattered everywhere. The red bubbles bombarded almost all of the ascending tentacles.

"Impressive" The old man said as he went to the edge of the deck to follow a look the retreating tentacles that were trimmed by my skill.

"Back to you the Depths again, Squidy" I said with a boisterous tone. The old man gave a look at me.

"Great, that will buy us time. Gents, prepare for abandon ship anytime soon!" Old man shouted out to his crew while looking down again to the waters below.

"What? Why? Wait, should not we celebrate since we succeeded defending the ship?"

"No, the ship was done for already" He told me. After a while, he was busy pointing this and that to prepare the mini boats for some crew to escape.

"But?" I followed his back.

"…"

The Old man just ignored me and watched the tentacles retreating back on the seas.

Having heard the Old man's urgent instructions, the crews were jumping as they did what the instructions were. The ship was undeniably lively, driven by the fact that the kraken's was going to crash the ship in any given moment.

Old man said that, once a kraken spotted a ship, there was no way of escaping. All we had to do was to fight the kraken until death or abandon the ship. Knowing he cared his crew like his own family, the old man's intention was to create adequate time for the crews to escape while he was busily playing with the tentacles.

"Captain, two boats have been badly damage, only a handful of crews will be able to escape. Sir, you will go now"

One of the crew approached and tried to convince the old man, but -

"Never mind me. Just get everyone who's keeping his or her life and gather anyone willing to stay with me. You boy! Get moving"

"Aye sir" The steadfast crew made a quick graceful salute and left the old man with me.

"But old man – " I also attempted to convince him to save his self and to get inside the emergency boat already. However, he was brushing me off with his glare.

"Just obey my command, Boy. Get inside the boats now!" He said with such resolute.

To think that this old man was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the safety of his crews, he was such a good captain. As I was still following his back while he was still helping other crews to get into the emergency boats, it made me laugh somehow. It was the old man was looking down at my selfish self without turning his back.

To think he was the captain of the ship, the crews should prioritize their captain's life but the old man was too different from my childish thinking. Looking back when I was in the village, I wonder how my father felt when he decided to save his village in exchange for his own son…

"I am not a boy anymore" It took me minutes, but I finally replied to him.

"Then, get on the boat" His finger pointed with such boldness. He was very serious and his tone was very demanding, minding my precious little life.

"I see" I paused facing the old man's stern face. "The ship will go down with you then" I smiled at him. "Thank you so much, Old man…." I started sprinting as turned by back into him.

"Aye, so– hoi, where are you – "He tried to reach out my shoulder but I was too fast and I was on the edge of the ship to dive.

"Down there, kill Squidy" Turning to his surprised face, I said to him while wearing a smile in my face.

"What? "

"I rather die protecting someone than to be protected"

As the next in line, that was my grandmother always reminding me, which I fully understood only moments ago seeing the old Man. However, my chest still ached. He was my father after all. I devoted my life to be the next in line, after all. I had seen myself to be the leading the village but…

Splash!

Protected by his bubble barrier, a dumb-headed young man heedlessly dove in the disturbed waters. Not so deep, he saw countless large tentacles descending below preparing for finishing blow to the ship. With the help of the Bubble barrier, I could breathe and I was confident I could fight squidy underwater.

"Wow, twice as big as the ship. However, what's the plan. You are not planning to die in here, are you?" A pixie popped out in my face. Now that we were submerged underwater, she could let herself out again without worrying that there's another soul that could possibly see her. Except if, there was another crew idiotic enough to follow me and brave enough to face this young squidy. Fortunately or unfortunately, no one had the required compassion to follow my lead.

"What do you think?" I smiled at her as sat on my shoulders.

"knowing you, you've been itching for this to come." She poked my cheeks twice expecting that I would give her a nod. However, I paid no heed to her

"Hello, squidy" We went approaching the young kraken, getting a better view of the sea creature. It was swimming down deeper to the darker waters, which I had to follow if I planned to stop this kraken.

Young?

What if we stumbled a mature one, I wonder how big it is. Was it possible an island would be a kraken itself?

"Marikit, you go defense, Got it?" I firmly grasped my arnis sticks, commanding Marikit.

"Got it," She replied, succeeded by her quick nod.

"Then, let's go"