As time looms closer to the awaited sail, it's my birthday today, "Happy birthday!" I hear as everyone from the Windward Crew shouted in unison.
"Thank you all!" I respond as everyone is having the best time of their life. The party isn't big, it's just a small setup in the garden. A big table, able to fit around 15 people in the middle of the garden, with 8 white plates on top.
"It's your beautiful day!" Ethan shouts as he sits next to me by the corner.
"Open my present now!" Diane shouts across the table to the left, making a small ruckus. Almost breaking the table with her uncontrollable strength.
"Right, but calm down," I say, gesturing her to calm down with my hand. I look at the weak wrapped small present, as I open it, it is a small box, covered in a beautiful pattern.
A pattern of ropes of golden rose thorns covered by the edge of the brown-black box.
"What a nice box," I say before opening the small box, to see a bronze pendant with a green mana core embedded.
"Oh, what's this?" I ask Diane, looking at her with a curious face.
"This is a pendant which protects its wearer, I got this because I thought about your safety and for the child's safety," Diane responds while scratching her head a bit.
"Thank you, you're so considerate!" I say while putting on the bronze pendant.
"The pendant is made out of steel, painted with bronze with the dwarven style, the crystal is found within an elven dungeon we explored a while ago. I thought about how it would look, and I came up with a shield-like shape, with a triangle within a pyramid" Diane says, prompting me to study the pendant in more detail.
"The triangle represents the different races, human, elves, and dwarves, which you can see as the different edges are painted with the representation of white, green, and black. And with the shape of a pyramid, I thought it would represent strength and I coated it with steel. And for the shape of the shield, I thought it would represent what the pendant does, it protects its wearer. Within the triangle, there is the mana crystal, which protects the wearer for at least one year or one use, as the mana is limited" Diane announced with a proud face.
"You must have thought hard, thank you!" I say, quenching the pendant with my right hand. "Oh it's nothing," Diane responds, holding the back of the head, blushing a little bit.
"Aw, man I can't beat that," I hear Andrew comment, putting his palm on his forehead.
"Oh, then why don't you open Andrew's now?" I hear from Amber.
"Yeah, why not?" I hear Diane include, with a menacing look at Andrew.
"Fine, I won't shame anyone, any presents are welcomed!" I say while waving my hands in the air.
I look through the presents, the one I stumble upon is brightly red wrapped.
"Is this yours?" I ask, looking at Andrew.
"Yes, that's mine," Andrew answers, looking at the small present I have in my hands.
"Alright," I announce, before opening the present.
I opened the first layer of wrapping, I saw a red-brown, small box, and within it, there is a small white envelope. I took up the envelope and looked at it, it says: To Miss Aria, Happy Birthday. - Andrew.
As I read it I looked up at Andrew and he said, "Open it," with a grin.
I opened the envelope and started to read the letter out loud so that everyone could hear.
"Happy birthday Aria, a soon-to-be wife, and mother. I wish both of you, Ethan and you, to live long and happy. As time progresses further and further, skin can become frail and unbearable to any woman. And that is why I give you the opportunity to take anyone with you when you are going to the Crystal Cave. You may take anyone, between one to six people." I read before a small white card falls out of the white envelope.
The white card is decorated with golden vines, reaching all around the edge, and it reads. Welcome, to the Crystal Cave, Miss Aria, with a golden text.
The Crystal Cave is also known as, Life's Cave is a place where people go and take baths, a hot spring within a crystal cave. The crystals inside give a rejuvenated feeling, as if you are 10 years younger. It costs even a fortune to go by yourself, and it would cost even more for more people.
"How much did it cost?" I ask Andrew while looking at the beautifully decorated card.
"Oh, you don't wanna know," Andrew answers while looking at the ground.
"You can redeem it whenever you want, in ten years, twenty? It doesn't matter. You will still be granted access even if you waited for 50 years," Andrew includes while smirking at Amber.
"Can you top that?" Andrew remarks with a conceited smirk.
"In fact, I can’t beat you in creativity. But..." Amber responds, putting a red envelope, beautifully decorated with golden runes, to show its importance, on the big table. Leaving everyone's mouth agape.
“It's red,” I mumbled as I picked it up.
Envelopes are officially released by the government in a color grading scheme, first comes light blue, then blue, purple, brown, red, and lastly black. Which is often used to communicate with high-ranking officials or powerful influences, for instance, adventurers. I start to read the letter's content out loud.
"Dear Miss Aria and Ethan, for your courage and determination that you could have left unseen. You have been awarded replacement of all lost assets at the time you didn't think twice saving someone in need," I read out loud as a small silver slip slipped out of the envelope.
"2700 silver," I manage to say out loud before a forcible, confused look at Amber.
She put her index finger towards her mouth and whispered, "I pulled some strings," before winking her eye.
"2700 silver," Andrew whispered, with a distraught face creeping up, "2700" I hear before he looks hollowed from the inside. I look over at Amber, who is sneering at Andrew with dominance.
"Mine cost 2400," I caught the man-baby, weeping.
"Okay, moving on," I request before everyone starts to look at the man-baby. But I already feel that everyone is eying him.
"This is a present from me," I hear from the gentle giant, Fredrick.
"Thank you," I accept, receiving the present with both of my hands.
A weightless present, wrapped in a white wrapping paper with some small red dots on, with a small red bow on top. I open it to only see a transparent cube, with a small purple tint.
"What's this?" I ask with a perplexed face.
"It's the latest invention of communication, the "Void Cube" created by Chrono, And I got it from him, the first working one," Fredrick responds with a prideful face.
"Chrono? The prodigy of inventions, the now titled king of creativity? That Chrono?" I ask Fredrick who responds with a smile, "Who else?"
"You gotta be kidding me," I hear from the already dead Andrew, "He's super busy and only a limited of the inventions which go public are made by him. And only a few can actually replicate his inventions as the inventions are far too superior and complex. And the starting price is 1 big gold, 10000 SILVER!" Andrew yells before getting knocked out by Amber.
"Shut up you moron!" I hear her roar as she pounded the back of his skull. "Please continue," we hear as Amber is dragging Andrew out of the garden into the meadow.
"Now this Void Cube is filled to the brim with rune magic. It is also weightless as you probably have noticed, so it's easily transportable and it works with any communication scrolls, even with the oldest ones," Fredrick continued with a big smile, which shows how excited he is to talk about the invention.
"Oh, sorry, I am geeking out," Fredrick remarked as everyone was silently staring at his geekiness. It's nice.
"Open ours now!" I hear Reinna and Lilith shout in unison.
"Ok, ok," I respond, motioning with my hand for them to calm down. I look at the table and spot the last present, standing there, all alone, picked last. Sorry girls.
I stand up quickly to reach the present and put it in my arms. It's a rectangle-shaped present with a small bow holding the present together. I remove the red bow and the lid to find 12 Silver needles with 2 daggers, beautifully coated with vines.
"We got this for your protection," Reinna announces, looking into my eyes.
"We believe that your protection and accessibility for weapons is safety. So we got these 12 silver needles covered in treachery brown color, representation of roots, and the two steel daggers for the unison between you and Ethan," Lilith continues, looking at both me and Ethan.
I pick up the light-green dagger and inspect it further. I feel the blade by the tip of my finger and feel the coldness in the steel. I look at the handle which is covered with vines for a better grip, and at the blade, something is inscribed in it.
"Sun," I read out loud. It must be the dagger's name, and as I look over at the dark-green dragger it is inscribed "Moon".
"Why Sun and Moon?" I wonder as I haven't thought much about it.
"We chose Sun for you because you are something which holds Ethan down, and Moon because he can't exist without you," Reinna announces, causing Ethan to cough up the wine in his blue-tinted glass, his favorite one.
"How do you know that?" Ethan asks, wiping his face clean from the wine on his lips.
"Well, we asked Fredrick and Andrew how you acted about Aria when you are drunk," Lilith responds with a grin.
"Oh, I can't live without her, oh if she doesn't exist I would never exist too, oh if she ever gets hurt I would never forgive myself, oh-" Reinna manages to impersonate before Ethan stopped it, by covering her mouth and turning bright red.
"God dang it, it must be Andrew," Ethan mutters, as Amber gets back from dragging Andrew.
"What? "It must be Andrew" what did he do now?" Amber asks with a confused face.
"It's nothing," Ethan responds, walking towards the area where Amber dumped Andrew's body. As he left our vision we heard a faint scream across the river. We all prayed, rest in peace.
"Hey Miss Aria," I hear from a faint voice behind me, after leaving the medical center for the monthly check-up.
"Hey Chloe, how are you today?" I ask the little girl.
"I am doing fine, I have something to give or tell you, no give," Chloe corrects herself.
"Oh, what do you wish to give me?" I ask with a curious face.
"A list," she responds nonchalantly.
"A list of what?" I ask, trying to recount any lists that I requested.
"A list of names," Chloe relents, remembering what I told her in class last month.
"How long have you been thinking about this?" I ask with a surprised face.
"For a while," she responds looking at the ground, making a small circle with her blue left shoe.
"Can I see the list?" I ask the little girl, "Sure!" she responds with an eccentric smile.
"Here it is," she remarks, searching in her pocket.
"Ah there it is," she announces and gives the list of names.
I am quite surprised at how many names are written down. Names between A - Z. Abel, Adam, Aidan, Alan, Anthony, Archie, Arthur... Barry... Carl... Duke... Edward... Karter... Sparrow... Xander, Xavior, and lastly Zephyr.
"I personally like Arthur and Zephyr, they both have cute nicknames too! Art and Zeph" Chloe exclaims, almost shouting.
"Now why do you like Arthur and Zephyr, except for the nickname reason," I ask, with a curious face.
"I chose Arthur because it means bear, and I believe it's someone strong and reliable, and Zephyr because it means West Wind. And I did some digging, you were in a party called "Windward Crew" so I think it would fit!" Chloe remarks excitedly.
Both of them have a good ring towards them, both really quite cute names! I think to myself and look over towards Chloe.
"You did great, thank you," I exclaim towards the young excited girl, starting to squeal in joy and jump.
"Can I have this list and go over it with Ethan?" I ask her.
"Of course" she answers giddily.
"You did great!" I reassure, putting my hand on her little shoulder.
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