The Mergence: Book 1

Grass Is Greener

"You ok?" I asked, the questioned seemed to startle her a bit. She jumped ever so slightly before she looked over to me.
"I'm fine" she spat. Layla didn't even look at me, she continued to stare into the horizon, her knees lifted to her chest with her arms wrapped around them
"You don't seem fine" I half whispered, taking a seat next to her
"Just- a lot of memories have been brought up, I'm having a moment" Layla retorted. Her head tilting to face away from me. I knew she'd been crying, I could tell by the pain in her voice
"Do you want to talk about it... sometimes it's best if you're open about how you feel" I tried my best to smile but it faltered even though Layla wasn't looking.
"There's nothing to talk about. My brother is dead, I can't change that" Layla growled, her head snapping to finally look at me. Her eyes were painfully red from when she was crying and the trail of tears remained on her face. The sight made my heart churn.
"I know it's-" I began but was cut off by Layla
"No you don't! You don't know anything about me. You don't know what I've been through, what I've lost, hell you don't even know my last name. What could you do to help me!" She screamed, smashing her hands against her own chest to accentuate her point.
I was taken aback, my body subconsciously stepped back for me.
"I-I... I'm sorry, I only wanted to help" I sighed, my voice breaking a little, before I could make the situation any worse I turned my back and began heading for the camp. I knew this was a hard time for her, maybe she just needed space, I hope that once she felt better she'd come talk to me. But for now, I should leave her alone.

Once I got back to camp I saw Amelia observing a small crater, I noticed it was the one which Bennu and I had landed in when the ground turned to sand, once the sand turned to ash it quickly dissipated.
"What are you doing?" I asked
Amelia looked at me, then back to the crater.
"These isn't normal" she stated
"What a giant bird God that's almost immortal trying to fight us isn't normal" I laughed
"No that parts normal" Amelia informed me
"Then what do you mean?" I asked, changing my gaze from her to what she was looking at
"This" she began "this crater shouldn't be possible"
"I thought Bennu did that, before he became ash for a second" I added, hoping that I could help make sense of the situation
"Well Bennu turning to ash was normal, he is a Phoenix after all" Amelia said, "what isn't normal is the sand. That appeared before you two crashed, and once Bennu got out. The sand vanished and this crater appeared"
I could see her confusion. And what she said seemed to make sense, I'd assumed the sand was the first part of Bennu's revival process but if it wasn't then what could it have been

"I don't know, I'm going to read some book and see if I can come up with a conclusion" Amelia smiled then headed towards her hut before I could say a word.
I looked at the crater for a minute, there was not a single grain of sand or ash anywhere.
Thinning back to the fight with Bennu immediately made me think about Codrin, I hadn't checked on him since Dillon arrived, just thinking about his name sent a shiver down my spine.
I decided to go to the medical hut to see Codrin, once I stepped inside I saw Wulf writing on some kind of notepad. He was talking to Codrin who was awake which was a relieving sight

"Noah! Hey" Codrin greeted, before taking a sip of his water. He probably needed it, his voice sounded raspy
"Hey Codrin. How ya doin?" I asked then moved to sit on the bed
"Well my heads still all fuzzy and my side is killing me" he replied rubbing his side slightly.
"Well that's to be expected when a God tried to kill you" Wulf interjected
I laughed slightly
"Take this, then drink some water" Wulf ordered
Codrin did as instructed
"Better?" Wulf asked, Codrin tilted his head back and let out a relieved sigh
"Much better" he smiled, his familiar sunny expression lit up the dim
There was a silence in the room, nothing awkward or creepy, but just silence.

The only sound made was when Wulf clapped his hands "well, we should let you rest. It's been a long day. I'll come by and check on you later"
"Do you need anything? Food? Wat-" before I could finish I stopped myself when I looked at the bedside table, he still had a bowl of left over Skolopendra, and the water was completely full, as if Codrin hadn't drank once.
"I've got everything I need" Codrin smiled "I'll call for you if I need something"
I nodded my head and left the hut with Wulf
"Is he going to be ok?" I asked
"Yeah he'll be fine. He's a God after all, he'll heal" Wulf reassured, he placed a hand on my shoulder "now come with me, I need your help with something" he smirked, it was a boyish smile, one where you knew he was up to something but you couldn't place what. I decided to follow him, we walked to a small ridge just along the border of camp,

I looked around and saw small pieces of metal littered across the floor, all the grass surrounding the small silver trinkets was dead, almost shrivelling away
"What is this?" I asked, it was concerning the state of decay that riddled the otherwise green grass
"I just need some help carrying it to the fire. There's a lot" Wulf smiled
"I'm not going to die if I touch it am I?" I joked
"You'll be fine" Wulf said quickly, without a second to breathe

I looked past it, assuming that if anything were to happen Wulf would be able to help with his herbs and medicines.
I reached down, grabbing a small piece between two of my fingers, I felt a small shock of electricity jolt through me but I continued to raise me fingers, the metal shard was heavy. Heavier than anyone would've assumed, but I still managed to hold it with relative ease.
"Fascinating" Wulf said wide-eyed
"What is it?" I asked
"That metal" he began "it's the same of that which created the hammer of the God of thunder"
"You mean-" I was interrupted
"The mighty Thor... I suppose he's your half brother"

Wulf held out a basket but before he could put it down I dropped the metal inside it, within an instant Wulf collapsed onto the ground with the basket still in his hand, I cried out laughing whilst Wulf laid on the ground
"Don't just stand there help!" He screamed, I continued to laugh a little while longer
"Please" Wulf pleaded, looking at me with doe eyes
I conceded and lifted the basket from his arms, and placed it on the floor next to him before grappling more pieces of metal and putting it in the basket.

Despite the additional pieces, the weight was the same as the first piece
"What are we doing with this?" I asked. We began walking to the fire as Wulf said we would, I placed the basket over the open flame, allowing the metal to be engulfed in flames. It shimmered in the blaze as it slowly turned to liquid, I assumed the basket was also made out of a special material since it wasn't melting with the metal
"We're going to give your sword an upgrade, with the help of Amelia over there" he pointed to Amelia who was waking over to us.
"Put your sword in the fire champion" Amelia smiled
I did as I was told, throwing my sword in the naked flame. It floated above the fire, and nothing happened for a second, but then the flame began changing colour, from its vibrant red to an electric white, the liquified metal rose from the basket and connected with the sword, causing the hilt to look like steel and the black blade to have small engravings tattered along it.
The sword suddenly launched back towards me, and as an instinct rather than skill my arm blocked its path and my hand grasped around the hilt of the sword suddenly a jolt of electricity surged through me. A jolt my body couldn't take, I collapsed to the floor, my body shaking. I heard Wulf scream as he attempted to run to me but Amelia stopped him
"Earn it's keep champion" she ushered to me. I didn't know what she meant, as I closed my eyes I could see my body engulfed in lightning but I wasn't sporadic shocks, it was wherever I was thinking about.

I thought about my legs and the shocks circled them, I thought about my arms and they moved to run along the skin.
I focused my energy to the sword that I felt in my hand, and suddenly the lightning all converged into the sword.
All the shocks stopped, I felt in control on my body again, there was no pain.
"Name or champion, name your weapon" Amelia smiled, still holding Wulf by his shoulder, he had tears streaming down his face.
I pondered ideas on what to name the sword, but my mind could only really think about one thing
"fulgur virga" I replied without really thinking about it, it felt almost natural to speak in such a language, but I couldn't necessarily place which language it was.

"Noah... your hair" Wulf trailed off, I used fulgur virga's blade to show my reflection, and Wulf's reaction was justified, my once dark hair had a steak of white seeing though it.

"You've reached your first milestone as a champion Noah" Amelia smiled and patters my back.