Oken Rebirth: Tales of An Unknown World

CHAPTER 33: ONWARD

"Yes, about that, El's skill automatically disbands you from any and all existing parties that you may or might be a part of and leaves Priam." She looks over at El and then back at me. "And you, my dear number two, are now a Priam."

"What? What in the world is a Priam? And," I stare at the 'disband' option under Priam. "why can't I disband from the party?"

"That's the other thing. Once you join, there is no way out of it until you formally request to leave and-"

"Okay then, I formally request to leave," I say not wanting to hear any more of what she has to say. "I did not ask for this, I swore to be a Black Dragon in service to the Kingdom of Orion 'til death, not this-this Priam! I request to be removed from this party of yours sir El and be added back to the Black Dragons right this second!"

I look at Mihika anxiously, slowly starting to lose my cool.

Nia lets out a sigh.

"What's that supposed to be? Mihika! Add me back to the Black Dragons and you," I point at El. "disband me from this party of yours right now or I'll, I'll-!"

"I CAN'T DO THAT!" El snaps. "I... I just can't do that. If it was up to me and if I could, I would've removed you from the party the moment you were added, but I can't okay. I just can't. The skill did not come with this so called gift of yours from Elis. It's a curse I was born with." He says looking at me with somewhat teary eyes.

"What do you mean it's a curse?" Eve perks up, as one who is also cursed this is a topic that intrigues her every time someone brings up the topic. She's always holding on to the hope that someone might give her insight on how to either break her own curse or use it to her advantage.

El stares at the ground again which has me feeling a little bad now.

"He told me the story when we first met... after he accidentally did the same thing to me, but forgive him if he doesn't willingly share it with the rest of you. You see, El here is not a creation of the high god Knol like the two of you," She gestures at Mihika and Eve. "nor is he of noble blood like you my dear lizard and your sister over there."

Again with that. "If he is not human and obviously not dragonkin... then what is he?" I ask.

"He... he is of elven and giant descent, a rare hybrid of sorts." Nia continues to explain. Everyone exclaims except El and Nia (again). "Yes and because of his lineage he is somewhat cursed with more authority than he knows what to do with so the 'authority' does whatever it wants for him." Nia says.

A moment of silence.

She slaps her cheeks and stands quick to her feet pointing at me. "But my master is the greatest in the whole world, not even the gods, oh forgive me o-great gods, but not even they are as great as my master here so be grateful you fork tongued tick - you're in the presence of greatness!" I am startled, I didn't expect her to change moods so fast, but wow... that explains a lot.

He defeated a giant alone without even breaking a sweat, he apparently understands the giant tongue and as if that is not enough he is highly skilled in swordplay, has a high affinity for healing magic among other magic types... I can already tell my mind will steam up if I try to wrap my head around it all. He is beautiful, not handsome, but beautiful because for some reason even I am finding it really hard to look away from his breathtaking features... damn elves. Wait, his ears, where are his ears, shouldn't he have elven ears? He has normal looking ears.

"Where are your ears?" I ask what can only be one of the most idiotic question right now.

He lets out a weak chuckle and holds his hands over his clearly human ears and chants something in a foreign tongue which I can only guess is an elven one because it sounds a lot like vilosh, the tongue Nel and Bel use when they don't want us to hear what they're talking about.

When he's done he moves his hands and holy Axeran cows there they are, pointy full-blown elf ears. This does nothing but increase her, I mean his beauty. My gods how can a race be blessed with so much? Beauty, knowledge, craftsmanship among other great attributes. Can you at least throw us a bone once in a while Elis?

"Okay, I think I understand the situation," Mihika stands up and all eyes slowly turn to her, still fixed on El's ears. "it would seem that you have no choice, but to be a part of Mr. Asil's party, Dercaris. For the next twenty years, since you cannot leave the party, you'll have to tag along with him and Nia instead of us and believe me I don't like this idea no more than you do." She continues and walks towards El. "We are going to head for Orion at sun rise, will you come with us and explain this mishap to our king so we can have him decide and maybe pardon Dercaris from his role as a Black Dragon for his run as a Priam?"

El looks up at the obviously still shocked and slightly trembling Mihika, if I was to guess she probably got closer just to get a better look at him and at the same time she's trying her best to be a calm leader. "Ah..." El leaves his mouth hanging open.

"No," Nia cuts in. "we can't do that. We have somewhere to be before the next sun goes into hiding so no, we can't come with your lustful selves to your dreadful kingdom." Nia says looking at Eve, Mihika and me for some reason.

"Wait, what? Why? We need to formally deal with this before the-"

"Before the king right? Yeah, no, we'll pass. We have to be in Rola'ac in an hour." Nia cuts Mihika.

"What? Rola'ac is a nine day sail from here, how do you expect to get there before the next sun disappears?" Eve asks. "Orion is a four day sail from here so I don't see why you're bringing that up right now and you don't need to know how we're going to get there you forming ant hill chest having mortal." She glares at Eve smugly.

"WHAT?" Eve says taking out her daggers. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, flat chest." Eve's face turns red. "You-you're one to talk!" She shouts and attempts to push Nia, but Nia disappears in a green puff of smoke and appears on Eve's shoulders. "Get off of me!" Eve wails trying to shake Nia off of her until she trips and Nia disappears again leaving Eve to hit the snow face first.

Nia appears on her spot next to El like nothing happened while Eve gets up with wet eyes from slowly forming tears and charges at the flora spirit again. "I'll have your head!" Nia's eyes glow red and she grins.

Pressure weighs down on me and everyone else, I look up at Nia and see her in the same state, but her attention is on El. Eve and Mihika are both on the ground with Eve's mouth full of snow again, I look at El and his eyes are giving off a yellow glow, I look back at Nia's and her eyes are back to normal.

What-what is this? My body shakes and all the air in my lungs feels like it's getting heavy. What is happening?