Chapter 496: Unreality
Hurricroak was silent as she tried to figure out the words necessary to explain what she meant by “wrong”.
It took a bit of time, but Frosttusk was patient.
He understood that something was strange as explaining one’s perspective on reality was…difficult to say the least.
The mammoth kaijin had plenty of time to read about the thousand or so conflicts that started over a difficulty to communicate ideologies.
Seems like things such as crusades and pogroms weren’t unique to Valresta…unfortunately.
“Alright…,” Hurricroak finally said after much deliberation, “have you felt hungry as of late?”
“Hungry…?”
“Yeah…hunger.”
“Hmmm,” Frosttusk hummed as he scratched his trunk in thought.
He didn’t have trouble finding the words like Hurricroak, rather, it was just a slower process.
“Not…really…but…I…remember…the…sensation…though…”
“That! Precisely that!”
“Huh…?”
Using Frosttusk’s statement as a springboard, Hurricroak dove straight into explaining what she meant by “feeling wrong”.
“I can…remember what it feels like to be hungry, but the way I can feel hunger now doesn’t match up with what I remember feeling. I remember what it’s like feeling thirsty, but I don’t feel thirsty anymore despite having not drink water for days now! I don’t even really crave normal food anymore like…bread and soup. I crave giant aether bugs now more than anything.”
“You…are…part…frog…and fox…”
Possibly ignoring his comment, or still on a roll, Hurricroak swiftly moved on to her next few points.
“I remember what it feels like to get hot or cold, but now I can plunge my hands straight into fire and you have blasted me in the face so many times with air so cold that I’m pretty sure you’d give most other people frostbite.”
“Thanks…?”
“I can still play and listen to music, I can still sing and dance, but…my moves no longer feel like mine, my voice doesn’t sound how I remember when I sing and whenever I pick up an instrument I was familiar with once upon a time, the sensation in my fingertips don’t feel the same,” Hurricroak continued.
“Even in this moment, my ass and back firmly planted against this fucking tree, I had climbed dozens as a child and I know the sensation or bark and wood, but…none of it feels as I remember it,” Hurricroak said as she rubbed her webbed fingers against the grain of the tree bark, a small hint of desperation and sadness in her voice.
“Every sensation that I had taken for granted, every memory of how something should feel, all of it is now wrong and disconnected to what I am able to feel now…None of it feels…real.”
At this point, Frosttusk understood exactly what Hurricroak was talking about, and he immediately connected a few dots that were presented beforehand.
“Is…the…fact…nothing…feels…real…to…you…the…reason…for…your…recklessness? Your…impatience?”
“…I…guess so…,” Hurricroak mumbled as she thought over the question for a moment, “but…that’s not the only reason.”
“Oh…?”
Hurricroak leaned further back into the tree, staring into the blue sky above her, her eyes looking wistful as she placed her hand where a heart would normally be.
“Somewhere in this world, right now, is someone who is …was…very important to me. Someone who’s life I saved but ruined all at the same time.
Someone who ended up saving me in the strangest, most roundabout way possible and brought me back from the eternity of death.
Someone who I so desperately want to meet again and hold and love…but I know I never can.”
“Why…?”
“Because…even if I knew where he was, even if I knew that distance wasn’t a factor…how can I suddenly come back into his life after leaving it so abruptly? How can I say I still want to be by his side…when I’m not even human anymore?,” Hurricroak quietly answered.
“All I can do now is just…keep moving forward despite any hardships or heartache…because isn’t that what [resolve] is all about?”
“Hmmm…”
Both Frosttusk and Hurricroak went quiet after this statement by the latter.
It didn’t feel right to say anything more after a statement like that, but there was a little more to it.
Hurricroak went quiet because at this point, she had spilled her core out and was emotionally exhausted after doing so. Meanwhile, Frosttusk was introspective at the former’s statements because a single question popped into his head during this whole affair.
What did it mean to be “human”?
It would take a long time for Hurricroak to find any closure in regards to her pain, it would take an even longer time for Frosttusk to find an answer that meant anything, to him at least, in regards to his question.
But for now, in the quiet, swampy depths of a place in the middle of nowhere, the two kaijin were content with just being…silent…for a while or two at least.
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“On the one hand, I am thankful that you and your sons managed to defeat those Ravager Otters, the Thunderscale Dragon Otter and even capture a bunch of them, it’s just…well…”
“The giant glacier we made in the process of freezing up the otters also froze most of our rafts, supplies and general goods?”
“Yeah, that.”
Immediately after the battle, the leaders of the caravan began to coordinate the necessary clean-up needed to free the fleet and continue on their merry way to the home kingdom of the main Zhen Clan.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done due to the (un)foreseen collateral damage that occurs when Aether Lords get involved in a fight.
To put it as bluntly as possible, it was absurdly messy.
Aside from the Ravager Otters getting frozen over, many of the rafts were trapped in what were essentially giant ice cubes, the contents inside them also being frozen in the same manner.
On the upside, many of the items that froze over had little to no damage done to them, but of the items that did freeze over, it led to some shocking revelations and/or new questions.
“How in the-this is a jar of Blaze Jaguar Fat! It’s used to melt snow, how the fuck did they freeze it?!”
“Dude. That’s a third tier aether beast byproduct and this is a glacier made by three Grandmasters and a Lord. Who do you think wins that fight?”
“Fair point, but still.”
“Uh sorry to interrupt, but that’s not Blaze Jaguar Fat. That is Ember Capybara Fat.”
“Wait, what?”
“Hey guys, isn’t this where we kept those weird looking gold ingots?”
“I think so, why?”
“Is it gold supposed to melt when exposed to extreme cold?”
“What in the contradictory fuck?”
“Huh…on the plus side, the caskets of wine we bought from Seedborough are still intact…on the other, I have no idea if chilled wine tastes any good.”
“Probably?”
As the caravan went to work in thawing everything out though, a troublesome realization came to them.
With everything being as frozen over as it currently was, the group either had to be really careful but eat up a lot of time doing so or if they wanted to keep on schedule, they would have to risk destroying some if not a lot of the commodities that were encased in ice.
Either option wasn’t ideal for the leaders of the caravan.
“The Zhen Clan will gladly compensate you for any damaged or broken goods that we end up burning in the process of melting the ice way. It is the most expedient method.”
“Hah! Yeah sure, for market price. Half of the stuff frozen over currently was going to go auction and would have definitely sold for at least twice their value. Y’all can take your time can’t you? I’m sure your elders will understand the situation.”
“That’s…”
This particular argument went on for quite some time between the Zhen Clan representatives and the Skyscales Company lead, but neither could propose a solution that could satisfy the other.
The long and short of it was that they needed a gentle source of heat to melt everything in an expedient matter, the only issue is that the only Ignati Aether wielder was Zhen Yan, who despite being a Grandmaster, many of his arts and abilities were more likely to cause a forest fire and explosions more so than gently melt ice.
However, just as the Zhen Clan representatives were about to just throw up their hands in surrender and just take the time consuming method, the sound of a hippo’s roar caught their attention, as well as the Skyscales company.
“Huh? Are we under attack again?”
“No, I think I know that roar…”
“I think Tiny is back.”
“And she brought a friend? Wait, isn’t that…”
“That’s the Geyser Hippo that started this mess!”
A bit further upriver, pass the glacier of rafts, otters and river water, several people could see the arrival of Tiny the Raijin Hippo, accompanied by the 3rd tier Geyser Hippo.
As the duo of hippo beasts approached the frozen caravan fleet, the caravan members all had the same question in their mind.
“Why was it here?”
