𝓞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝓗𝐮𝗺𝐚𝐧

Chapter #4 - Joley

Chapter #4 - Joley

After the day in the Forbidden Cities, and then Atlantis, Joley was admittedly proud of herself.

She had successfully recruited a human for the HRP!

Not perfectly, but she did it!

She had to tell her friends. Which meant it was time for Joley to make a stop at Mysterium.

Mysterium was another one of the places in the Lost Cities that had changed after everything that had happened. It was no longer just Talentless and elves with so-called "less valuable" abilities who worked there— now anybody could work wherever they'd please.

And after Dex Dizznee had started working in Slurps And Burps full time and created some incredibly clever advertisements, it had become a trend to make your stores colorful and quirky. The previously working class city was now livelier than ever.

Speaking of Dex, Joley was leaping to Mysterium to talk to his sons.

"We've officially found elixirs for every eye color!"

"I wonder what would happen if we mixed them..."

"Let's try it! I'll get the— oh hey, Joley!"

Joley waved hello as the door to Slurps And Burps made its standard belching noise. The twins— sons of Biana and Dex (the fact that they didn't face any scorn despite being multiple births was more proof on how much better the Lost Cities were)— were leaning over a table, examining some elixirs like they held the key to the universe. Or at least one of their hilarious experiments.

"Hey Walt, hey Axel. You won't believe what I did today."

"Ditched school?" offered Axel, with a questionable smirk.

Meanwhile, Walt, who was far more serious than his twin counterpart, looked genuinely concerned. "Seriously though, where were you today?"

She smiled, "I was in the Forbidden Cities, and I found a new human for the HRP! Her name's Talia Valencia— about our age, actually. Isn't that great? She's in Atlantis right now, getting situated."

"That's awesome!" Axel said.

"But isn't Valencia the last name of the human who was..." Walt hesitated, "killed?"

Joley nodded solemnly. She had been hoping they wouldn't remember that. "Yeah. She's... she's the daughter of him." The boys leaned closer, tossing their light brown hair aside.

"Did you tell her..." they wondered simultaneously.

"Not yet. But I will. I just didn't want to freak her out too much— after all, it's already a lot finding out that there's this whole hidden world under your nose." They nodded, though no one talked after that, and it made Joley wonder if not telling Talia yet was the right decision.

"Let me go get the red eye elixir!" Axel suddenly announced, which broke the tension. He dashed to the back of the eccentric store where the silhouettes of his parents and Kesler were visible.

Once he was gone, Walt asked, "Do you ever wonder about the elves who killed him? I mean, they're still out there, right? Do you think"—he gulped— "they're as bad as the Neverseen were?" Even though they weren't touching, Joley could briefly feel his worry, which rarely happened with any elves besides her mom.

Stories of the Neverseen's horrors filled her mind.

She may have been born far after they were defeated, but Joley had promised to herself she would remember all the lives lost— like Jolie Ruewen's, her namesake.

"I hope not," was all she could say.

"Me too..." He shifted in his seat. "Is it ever weird, being named, y'know, Joley?"

It was weird at times— being named after her mother's deceased would-be adopted sister— but she had to remember who she was honoring.

"Yeah. Though I bet it's nothing compared to being named Walt Dizznee."

For the first time that day, Walt cracked up. "Hey, I didn't ask to be named after a human movie thing! Thank goodness only you and Axel know about Disney, or I'd be teased constantly at Foxfillium." Foxfillium was the unofficial name of the school they went to, a merged curriculum of Foxfire and Exillium.

"Well, maybe by tomorrow I'll change that," she joked.

"You wouldn't dare," he retorted, grinning.

Suddenly, Axel walked in with a red vial in hand, eying them like he was going to be teasing his brother hardcore later. But as he got closer, he said words that, by the time she guessed them, Joley's ears would've already been pointy.

"Mom and Dad were just talking to me, and wanted me to tell you. Your parents have gone missing, Joley. No one knows where they are."