The sound of seagulls echoed throughout the entire beach, the shining water and the golden sands were glittering in the sunlight. The landscape appeared to be a scene from heaven, and at a bar from the edge of a low cliff stayed Samuel at a table admiring the beauty of the scenery. Just near the coastline there was a small village, it fitted so perfectly in that scenery, like a piece of puzzle.

Rumors have drawn Samuel to these lands. Rumors of a mysterious accident that happened many years ago. A group of scientists had established a base on a small isle not far from the coastline, the villagers knew of their presence but nothing of their doing. Upon some research, Samuel found out from an elder that small packages where shipped once in a while at that isle, and in a moonless night the sky was lit by a large dome of light from the sea, it was sighted in the direction of the isle. Now, how much reliable are those information is another thing.

Nhileing was sat at a bar, lost in his dark humor. He had to find a way on the Keyra's island (I've given it a name, just say if you already thought of one and I'll edit).

He was looking around, the scenery recalled him of the past, something he would have liked to bury forever.
The first thing to do was to find a boat, something that would lead him on the isle, but the problem was that none of the people here would accepted to go by themselves, meaning that Nhieling would have to rent a boat.

This wasn't a problem by itself, but the sea was treacherous by here, and he wouldn't use the little boat the locals used in the region alone, even by using his puppet to help him, he would need another pair of hand.

First he went to the cost, and went to little boat renting shop.

Hi ~ Do you have a little sailboat? The kind that can be used with the minimal amount of people.

The man, tall man, with a bear, just show him a little one, 3-4place at most, but with enough floater to make sure even newbie could use it.
Nhieling let the money on the desk, and just said he would come back later to use it.

Now.... He had to find mates, at least one. Since no local would go with him, picking a adventurer looking for some imaginary treasure on this old island would do.

He started to turn in the village, bar after bar, beach after beach. He end up finding a guy that was looking at the island. A little skinny hmmm... Bah ! This will do...

Then Nhieling approached him, with an affable smile, and sat in front of him.

It seem you're stranger to the area hmm? I saw you looking at the island, may it be that you're interested into it?

Samuel was a little bit startled by this sudden proposal, but thinking it through, he decided that if he could associate with another adventurer his chances of succeding in retrieving something of valor from the island, and this adventurer didn’t looked anything like weak.

”I might be… Are you suggesting a partnership?”

Nhieling offer him his hand :

Hi ~ You can call me Nhieling, actually I'm the owner of a little ship and I need someone to get me on this isle, but strangely enough, everybody here is afraid of going, ridiculous no?

With a slight smile: "I, for one, understand them. But tell me, what do you expect to find on the island?"

Maybe curiosity made Samuel ask this question, but from all the rumors he heard he finds it necessary to keep on guard against anyone and anything, especially when one does not know what lies ahead.

Without flinching, Nhieling answered : Oh, I'm after some family treasure that is on this island, I won't bother you, on't worry...

To make his lie more credible, Nhieling added, frowning : But I won't share with you.

Nhieling was now pretty sure this guy had no real idea of what was lying on this island, or he wouldn't have asked.

But what do you want of this island?

"Rumors mostly, I thought I could find something of valor, but if we happen to find your "family treasure" do not worry, I shall leave it all to you."

A kind of gamble, if what Nhieling is saying is true then there was nothing to worry about, but if he is lieing, then the worst case scenario would be betrayal and death. What kind of strategy would this be? What is Samuel thinking?

Perfect, so just follow me, we can go right now.

Crossing the village, Nhieling took the time to observe others : Local seemed calm, the region was peaceful, and, the earth here was rich enough to provide them what they could need.
The village wasn't protected by any wall, and people were swimming peacefully, meaning that none of the A and Ap kind of creature had flee.
This was already something good, but Nhieling still didn't know what were the creatures that would wait them on the island, following his computation it should be good... Maybe.

Then Nhieling looked at his mate. Tcch, hope he would be good enough to hold his own.

They arrived at the coast, Nhieling was a lot more tranquil now, looking at the water without any fear. It was actually the riskiest gamble to take, but this part was now cleared.

Mind taking care of the sail? I'll take the helm, since I know my way in the reef.

Agreeing with his proposal, Samuel took the sail whilst Nhieling took the helm. They both voyaged far into the ocean but after an hour or so, they sighted their destination, Keyra’s Island.

Wanting to be prepared early, Samuel quickly drew a magic circle on the ships’s deck. After finishing it, he began to chant: “ I summon you demon of the abyss, rise from your prison and... ”. Just as he was about to finish chanting, the boat violently shook, but luckily he finished the chant quickly and from the deck rose like a shadow Bathin, Samuel’s pet demon.

“Yes master?” the little demon asked in a squeaky voice. “Just be on your guard… Nhieling?” Samuel shouted for Nhieling. But the island was close so if they would sank then a little swim wouldn’t kill anyone, but maybe what’s beneath would.

Nhieling was extremely concentrated, they were now into right into the reef. The little boat was swinging because of the stream they were causing too.
Messing here would mean being throw into the water, and being drag to the deep of the sea.

Hoy, loosen the sail ! Fast, we'll... Nhieling could never end his sentence as a wave hit him straightly.

Spilling back the water he had just swallowed, he looked at their situation. They've got out of the difficulties for now, but this wouldn't last. The boat wasn't on his initial direction, and was now heading in a barrage of rock.

Shiiiiiiiii... Suddenly Nhieling got an idea : Tend the sail to its max !!!


As Samuel did so, the boat started gaining speed, and started riding on the water instead of floating.

Just before reaching the rock, Nhieling threw special explosive he had conceived, something able to explode under water, causing a wave just big enough for the boat to jump slightly.

This was enough for it to only hit the rock when falling, meaning the whole boat burst into a cloud of shard.

Both Nhieling, Samuel and his demon end up in safely in the water behind the rock wall, near the beach.

"Help!...Help!...(gasp)I can't swim...(gasp)"

Samuel quickly grabbed one of Bathin's skinny arms and put him on his back

"Try not to drown, I still need you."

When Nhieling and Samuel got safely on the beach, Samuel looked around and saw nothing but forests ahead. The trees looked perfect for Bathin to climb but couldn't help but worry about the matter of creatures ahead.

"We should scout ahead." Recalling the past event he queries: "Hey Nhieling, if you can see through that doll's eyes can't you send it ahead of us to scout? Sending Bathin out there could mean his death... not that he's irreplaceable but..." "Hey..."

Nhieling turned in the forest direction and answered : There is no point into scouting anymore, they've already found us.

He paused, gazing into the shadow.

For some reason, they don't send too much of hostility, meaning they are waiting. But waiting for what? That is the question.

The first thing I can find is they're waiting to see if we're a threat.
They may be waiting for us to make a mistake.
Or the worst scenario : They may be waiting for something stronger to move out...

Nhieling asked Samuel : What's your idea about this?

After a second of thinking, Samuel replies: "Well... the best way of not making mistakes is by not doing anything. And by going in there would mean exposing ourselfes to a big danger..."

Bathin looks both at Nhieling and Samuel and queries: "Why don't we just go... What choice do we have anyway?"

"He has a point... If we want to get something of valor from this island then we must face its danger"

Nhieling sighed : There is now point into staying here, but going forward is just too dangerous, so we'll do the only sensed thing : We'll follow the beach and search for another entrance to get to the center of the island. You and your... "partner" would just be mere food for them right now.

Nhieling didn't have any reason to disguise himself as something he wasn't, so he went straight to the point :

You didn't even budge when I spoke of the thing inside the forest, even if I hadn't spoken of anything like this before, this lead me to think you may know more that you said at first, tell me all the piece of information you have, Samuel, said him insisting one the name, since he was doubting this part too, and I'll choose what to do next.

"... Eh, if that's what you wish...". Samuel paused for a minute and took a look around, then he beckoned to Bathin to be on guard

"Rumors mostly, what I heard from the villagers. A team of scientists had established some kind of base on this island, and often the villagers would see small packages beeing sent to the island."

Rustles are heard from the forest, everybody stops and listens carefully.

"... As I was saying, after some time passed some villagers saw in the middle of the night a big light from the island. From that point on nobody has ever heard of the scientists again. My guess would be that it was a research base, and that small packages could've contain new tehnologies or artefacts, as for that light... I don't know, but if nobody has ever seen the scientists from that point then something has surely happen to them."

Samuel takes a break from his speech and looks towards the forest, then starts again: "If you want to lead... then go ahead, I'll guard your back"

Nhieling started thinking : At least he wasn't a fool, and this was what Nhieling wanted to confirm. Alone, he had already found most of the thing that happened on the island. Not bad.

You aren't stupid, at least, this is what I was waiting to confirm.

Nhieling smiled, affable : I'm not willing to take the lead. After all I'm only after some family treasure ~. I'll just follow you for now, and wait to get a chance to find it.

Nhieling paused, and then added : I can give you a little more of information though, the beach will get end on a river, if we follow it in the south direction. We'll be able to follow it in the north direction to get to the center of the island, past the forest.

*a little irritated* "Ok... first of all, don't judge a book by it's cover. Second, should I be curious where you found that piece of information?... Never mind"

After the two ended their conversation, they headed where the supposed river was and surprisingly they found it, maybe Nhieling could be of trust after all. They headed towards the center of the island always keeping an eye on the forest.

After a few kilometers, a creature jumped out of the bushes and attacked the two.

"Bathin!". At that moment, the little demon jumped in front of the creature and blocked it with a spiritual shield. Praise the gods that this thing didn't got out of the island, one of it's arms was more like a tentacle while the other one resembled like a human arm but it was strangely stretched. It's face was clearly human at some time, but now it grew horribly desfigured.

Nhieling look at the beast a second, and then sat.

This beast was only one of the lowest class creature, a D-Rank one. It was a G creature. Nhieling tried to remember some thing about this kind, looking at it, this creature was definitely a failed experiment, one of the on they get at first when the subject was rejecting the modification, and didn't merge with the additional DNA.
Even if it was far into the past, Nhieling didn't recall anything special about this creature, at first they only tried to build some creature of each class, A as aquatic, G as ground, S as Sky, and Ap as amphibious.
Since their experiment on the ground creature had progressed really fast, it mean this creature was either a descendant on the first one they made, or an ...Accident.

Nhieling focus his aura, realising it so that no one except from the beast could sense it. A pure aura of madness and blood lust, something strong enough for the creature not to attack him.

Nhieling just had to wait and see how his companion would deal with this thing... And the two others that were lurking behind them. It seem they were all of the same species, meaning that if Samuel couldn't hold his own against them, Nhieling wouldn't even need him to go further into the island

Samuel glimpsed at Nhieling, for a moment he found it weird that he smiled, but he realised that he wasn't looking at him.

"Bathin, quick, guard my back!". The demon looked behind and saw the two creatures behind his master's back. He then created a shield behind Samuel's back, but left himself unprottected. As the creature raised its tentacle to snatch the demon, Samuel quickly threw a Poisonous Arrow at it without chanting, but the spell was powerfull enough only to immobilize him for about three seconds. Samuel threw another arrow at the creature and finally collapsed to the ground.

Quickly, he rushed behind Bathin while chanting for another Poisonous Arrow, the demon then lowered the shield and Samuel took a shoot at one of the monsters. Quite slugish creatures, Bathin was able to cut the other one's leg, while the other one was slowly dieing, and then cut his head off.

Samuel turned towards Nhieling and asked ironically: "Weren't we supposed to help each other?"

Without looking at Samuel Nhieling answered : Yes, so first I needed to confirm if you could help me in any way.

Nhieling stand, and walk in one of the mutant direction, pushing it with the feet to look at it.

Hmm they seemed to be the result of one of the first experimentation... murmured him to himself.

Looking at its condition, he saw that the beast was still growing slightly, as the poison was taking over his body.

You should be more careful from now one, some of the things here probably have developed a poison immunity. Meaning you'll have to aim for the vital with your arrow or they'll be ineffective.

Nhieling throw one of his little cut at the beast throat.

If I can give you a piece of advice, if you fall in front of anything stronger than this D-Rank creature, you'll have to wait for an oppening. Use the fact they're intelligent against them, and you'll have understood the basis idea of fighting... at least fighting this things.

After hearing Nhieling's words, Samuel released a big sigh.

"... Well, my Arrow isn't meant to deal a lot of damage in impact, but intoxicate my target and die slowly. So I guess my Arrow isn't that useful anymore... It would seem I have to rely on you Bathin.". The demon looked surprised at Samuel as he said that.

Maybe Samuel got into something bigger than he expected, but couldn't go back now, out of all things he wouldn't want to make himself a fool in front of Nhieling. After the incident, they resumed their journey towards the center of the island, but Samuel couldn't help but wonder what will he do when something bigger will appear.

Following the river, they end up near an artificial lake. The lake was separated from the river with a barrage, preventing too much water from passing.

So it's the reason... Though Nhieling. If it wasn't for this barrage, the A and Ap-class creature would've spread in the sea, and on the coast.

We'll set our encampment for the night, I don't want to walk in the darkness with night creature around us.

Once they had prepared everything, and were eating their provision. Nhieling asked Samuel, with a smile :

If you don't mind, I would like to know a little more about you : Where do you come from, what do you do... Since we don't really have anything to do except from speaking.

Samuel didn't expected this, he thought about wether he could tell Nhieling about him, what could he possibly be planing... or is it just paranoia?

"I am from a village near Argyre, and... I'm just traveling.". The less he knows the better

"What about you?.". If he wants to chat then let's chat, Samuel thought

Me? I got to life in a place that don't exist anymore, I'm from a gipsy clan, one that was travelling the whole magic world.

Nhieling paused, searching what he could add : Since I don't have anything special to do of my life recently, I've been playing around a lot I guess. But I'm a scientist, I research in every domain, be it old magic, alchemy... Even if I haven't master a lot of them, I'm knowledgeable about nearly anything.

Recently I'm not really travelling... But I follow the flow, and just play a little with the one I find interesting.

"I hope he isn't refering to me" Samuel thought.

"... Well, that sounds interesting... If that's all then I suggest we sleep. My demon can stay on guard for the night, he'll alert us of any danger.", Bathin looks pretty annoyed hearing his masters words.