Chapter 51: Day Of

The following days after Jak and Makos initial arrival into ’Ard Araml were a repetitive set of nonstop sleuthing and laborious explorations. With the given task of allocating and eliminating the source behind the vegetative breakout and securing the safety for all of NorthClaw, the young Adventurers wasted no time following the tasks set out by Ontoki.

During the breaking hours of the morning, just when the dual suns were set to rise from the sandy horizons, the fiery redhead would go out with a makeshift team put together by Hunopil himself. Scouring through the seemingly endless sea of beige, Jak attempted to pinpoint any potential leads, no matter how small, that could point them in the right direction. Patterns in the unidentifiable plants, traces of magic left behind by the perpetrator, possible clues as to a hopeful reversal of the situation. Anything that could overturn the entire predicament, the small squad of Jak and other Aramlians would search high and low for it.

After the organized hunting, of which usually ended around midday to early afternoon, the young redhead would take the time to stroll through NorthClaws interior, learning some of the regions culture as a result. Religion, customs, etiquette, clothing. Though most of the Aramlians seemed to despise him at first, what with him being an Adventurer, they quickly changed their tunes after seeing Jak take even the slightest interest in their ongoings. It also helped that Ontoki himself vouched for them.

Among all the interesting things learned, one thing stood out to the youth as worth noting.

The residents of NorthClaw, and perhaps even ’Ard Araml as a whole, worshipped three significant deities. Desira, Yellenia, and Aweqōna. According to their history, it used to be six gods but, following the events of Ragnarok a millenia ago, 3 of those beloved beings were shunned and abhorred due to their betrayal against the faction of Heroes protecting all of Ornera and its various worlds. With that in mind, the three gods who stuck by all of existence were held in high regard. So much so that once per moon cycle, or about 3 months on the Ornerian calendar, a ceremony similar to a festival or ritual would take place.

During this event, known as the Shiìn Bredalik, an enormous bonfire would be lit at the center of NorthClaw and the whole Village would gather around it. The idea of it was to send the deities their thanks with food, song, and merriment. This type of honor was allegedly concocted by the gods themselves back when they wandered amongst the world’s before their eventual sealment.

From the sound of it, Jak assumed that they were quite the low maintenance and easy going deities. No sacrifices, no additional offerings, no unnecessary or ridiculous requests. Just gather and have a good time in the name of peace and continued prosperity.

There were a few other pieces of intel that sparked curiosity, but the Shiìn Bredalik was easily the biggest.

When Jak wasn’t caught up with all of that, he would check in on the others and see how they were progressing. At dinner, a point at which Jak, Mako, and Meru would congregate, they would all exchange their findings and information they had learned.

On Makos end, things were a bit more hectic, or so Jak was told during this short gathering.

Every day would be the same thing from start to finish. Wake up and set out to Piertend Lake. Clear out the problematic plants sucking up the decreasing water supply and search for any hints that would help the Village end the madness once and for all. According to Mako, a little more than half of the Lake was left, which was alarming considering just how massive Piertend actually was. Even with Mako using some of his own magic to conjure forth tons of fresh liquid, the water levels barely budged.

Once the group succeeded in clearing out a solid chunk of vegetation, the blue haired rookie would take the time to survey the Blood Guard and its various members.

By doing all of this, Mako was also able to garner some useful data, even if it was unrelated to the vegetation problem.

For starters, the Blood Guard, or rather BloodClaws as they called themselves, took their training very seriously. This was depicted nearly every day as time went on. Every morning before sunrise they would push themselves physically and magically, doing ridiculous feats that Mako could never hope to pull off at the current level. Sparring against each other to the near death, lifting and pushing an unknown set of weights so heavy the sand had basically solidified, working on various techniques designed to harness and hone their own mana control.

No matter the situation, even as one as dire as the current predicament, the Blood Guard members never missed a single day of proper exercise. Of course, it also made complete sense since they were the first line of defense that protected all of NorthClaw from outside threats.

At the same time, this meant they took their job seriously. Perhaps a bit too seriously. One of the few things that Mako learned when working alongside them was how deep their prejudice against Adventurers ran.

The very first day the rookie joined them on their excursion to Piertend Lake, the group had all but ignored him, even with Hunopil’s acknowledgment. This got marginally better as the days went on, but Mako was keen to mention that it probably would’ve been a lot worse had the Oxuon Chief and the Equenik Vice Chief hadn’t spoken up beforehand. It might’ve even lead to bloodshed at the worst case scenario.

Another thing Mako picked up, and one that Jak took a particular interest in was how a few of the BloodClaws would slink away after everything was said and done. While not that important, it raised a few suspicions.

Luckily, Meru’s time at work wasn’t nearly as dangerous or sweat inducing as the dual Adventurers had been.

Tasked with helping Kruger and the other scholars in the Parthenon, the young Water Spirit had only gone through various articles related to magical curses, various Artifacts that could prove useful if found, and the types of plants appearing around NorthClaw. Though interesting in their own right, nothing the girl learned was worth keeping track of.

Save for one scroll that Meru had had happened to open, a scroll mistakenly tossed in with the rest.

The creation and formation of ReguClaw as a whole.

According to the parchment, four factions had existed over two thousand years prior before inevitably coming together under one nation. Wing Tribe, Claw Tribe, Fang Tribe, and Talon Tribe. Though not at war with each other, these differing entities wanted nothing to do with one another aside from the occasional trades of goods and spices. Even with the help of the gods at the time, none of them could ever hope to unify the tribes and quell the intense hatred they had for each other. It was only until a lone figure, a Leonidas, appeared some 500 years later to unify all of them, forcing them into submission rather than simply asking.

Based on the scrolls words, the Leonidas in question was the grandfather of the last ReguClaw Chief, Rutrand.

To put it simply, it was an impressive piece of lore that Jak found quite amusing.

With all of that being said, even with the information learned, the days passed by with no significant headway made into finding the cause behind the ever growing jungle spreading around NorthClaw. Four days skipped by with not a single spec of information to be found nor any use as to where to begin the search for the one responsible.

It was only by the time the fifth day rolled around that they finally managed to get a surefire lead.

Around this time, the morale of those involved had been falling rather quickly, deteriorating faster than that of the rapidly decreasing water supply. More than half of the Village was on the verge of calling it quits, resigned to pack up everything they could find and simply leaving before fights over water and food became commonplace. With the Lake more than 70 percent gone, tensions were at an all time high and fights had begun to break out amongst the residents.

It was when Jak stepped in to break up one of these fights that he got his first lead. And he stumbled onto it by complete accident.

"Hey. Adventurer. There’s a fight going on at the Village Center. Can you handle it?"

The fiery redhead looked up from what he was doing, having been perusing a series of handdrawn schematics for some Aramlian-style clothing. Folding the pieces of paper up before stuffing it into his pocket, Jak gave the new arrival, a young Equenik similar to Hunopil, his full attention.

"Okay. Can you lead the way?"

"Yeah. Quickly."

Without any further conversation, the two of them took off in the supposed direction of the ongoing skirmish. Having not been to the Village Center a single time since his arrival into NorthClaw, Jak was unable to find the way on his own without getting substantially lost. However thanks to the guidance of the Equenik, he managed to arrive at the spot in under three minutes. There, he was able to quickly soak in the current situation with a single glance.

It wasn’t entirely clear how the fight started since the only things around were a dense smattering of trees and two juvenile Oxuons exchanging a flurry of bare knuckles strikes, but it was clear from the get go that they were both out for blood.

Wordlessly, Jak stepped into the situation.

Wham! Wham!

The problem was solved within moments of the redheads arrival. No words, no half hearted speech or useless questioning about who started the fight. Just a single strike to the very top of each Oxuons head, forcing them to kiss the sand and knocking them out as a result. Though seeming like an overkill on Jaks part, the redhead didn’t see it the same way as others would have. Instead, he saw it as a necessity and a good way to prevent further fights between the two.

Any sort of conversation would have proved a waste of time and energy, especially considering how hard the two youths had been going at it.

"Don’t be idiots." Jak shook his hands, a tad annoyed at how hard their heads had been. "Take your fights outside the Village borders if you need to."

"Did you need to be so rough?" The Equenik from before slowly trekked up to him, eyeing the fallen juveniles with an unknown expression. "You could’ve tried talking it out with them and making them see reason."

"Did you not already try the same thing?" Jak let out a smoky breath before stepping past the beastfolk. "Better off talking to a brick wall."

"If you say so."

It was right around that moment, a few seconds after Jak had started to walk away from the situation that he sensed it. It wasn’t really any sort of regular sense like sight, smell, or even in terms of sound or touch. Rather it was the resonation of mana through the bottom of his feet, an unknown pulse that sent tingles through his entire being every time he took a step. It was something he wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t barefoot.

At first, he wanted to write it off as something else.

Backtracking, Jak walked through the area a second time, attempting to ascertain whether or not he needed to visit some sort of psyche ward after everything was said and done. As fate would have it, he was most certainly sane, or at least some semblance thereof. The same feeling he had just felt, the one where some energy had pulsate through his entire body from the feet up, reared its head once again. This time though, it wasn’t in just one spot.

Taking Masamune from his side, the redhead began marking the area that made him feel the way he did, sketching roughly in the surrounding terrain. Everywhere the crimson blade touched was lit ablaze and burned until the sand was practically melted together. The Equenik from before only watched in confusion as Jak covered a full half kilometer in a sloppy and uneven circle as well as sketching out a few lines extending outwards from the same said circle.

"Um...Master Yanda...sir."

Jak immediately looked up, just as he put the finishing touches on his newly developed art project. "Oh. Meru. It’s just you."

"Yeah." The young Water Spirit looked vaguely confused, light hues taking in the redheads drawing. "You’re drawing?"

"Not quite." Jak eyed his creation as he slipped his katana back into its sheath. "Step inside the circle if you will. There’s something I would like to check. Barefoot preferrably"

"As you wish." Meru didn’t even question it, giving a small bow before slipping off her desert shoes and stepping over the line that separated the plant circles edge.

Jak said nothing for about half a minute, waiting to see if the girl would take note of the same findings as him. However, as time passed and she offered up no words, he could only scowl softly, forced to mull it over.

"Where’s Knox?" Jak immediately switched tactics.

Right on cue, the beast in question made his appearance, morphing into existence from the confines of Meru’s shadow. Though having been attached to Jak after the Mapel Subjugation, the Vox Lion had tagged along with Meru for the last five days, joining her within the Parthenons confines. Still having no idea why Knox was attached to them in the first place, Jak had allowed the Lion to accompany her as it pleased without the slightest objection.

The moment Knox phased into the area, he seemed to give a slight pause, as if taken aback by something. Before wandering over to Jak, the beast took a long look at the ground, lifting its paws up and even taking the time to scratch at the ground a few times.

"You feel that too right?" The redhead asked, kneeling down next to Knox’s face. "That sensation?"

Knox let out a small growl, as if agreeing with Jaks question.

"I want you to follow the path leading North from this area." Jak ran some fingers through the lions small mane. "When you come back, you can lead me and Mako towards what you find. There’ll be something in it for you if you do."

The Vox Lion let out a sturdy growl and a snort before tapping his feet on the loose sand. After taking some time to locate the path he needed to take, Knox took off in the given direction, speeding up into a fill sprint. Within moments, the beast had all but disappeared behind the scattering of numerous buildings and wild jungle.

"Come on Meru." Jak waved slightly, his cape flapping in the hot wind flooding throughout the area. "We’re gonna go and report our findings."