Berganashio - Chapter 25

Kunya awoke to the smell of breakfast that included chai and cinnamon flavored hot tea.

"Good morning, Kunya!"

The two merfarie princesses, Pori and Villi, greeted her. They sat comfortably around a small table. The morning sun was shining beautifully through the window panes. For a split second, the sun glinted off of the small bottle that hung around Pori's neck.

"Good morning to you both! What a cozy bed this is!"

She sat up and rubbed the sleepiness away from her eyes.

"Come join us for breakfast! It was just brought in a few minutes ago!"

Kunya eased out of the bed. As she sat down, she asked, "What is in your lovely vial necklace, Pori? Oh, and you have one too, Villi. I see it now."

Pori answered. "They are vials of merfarie tears. We've always been told that they possess healing power."

Villi added. "However, we've tried using it on ourselves, for treating minor scrapes and scratches... but it never works."

"We also tried using the tears to heal Cotton when he was attacked by the horrid sea-wolfs but that didn't work either..." Pori, the eldest merfarie mentioned.

Kunya sipped some of the delightful tea. Sitting pensively, "Hmm. I was anointed with healing on anointing day but I've struggled to know what to do with this type of anointing..."

The two merfarie princesses looked at her with confused expressions.

Kunya picked up on their confusion.

"I'm sorry, let me explain."

She took a few moments to explain all about the meerbirds yearly anointing day and the rituals of the mob.

"What a fascinating concept," Pori noted. "Here, I want you to have this."

She removed the vial necklace from her neck and gave it to Kunya.

"Here take mine too." Villi took hers off and gave it to Kunya as well. "Clearly, they don't work, but if you like them, then they might as well both be yours."

Kunya smiled. "Thank you both for your kindness. I have nothing to give you. At least for now, but one day, I hope to give you gifts too."

Abruptly, their bedroom door swung wide open. In, rushed Larkin and Bry. Cotton followed behind them more gingerly.

"You didn't knock first! You brute!" Villi barked.

Larkin didn't skip a beat. "Sorry 'bout that, but I have important matters to share!"

"It's still morning! What in the world of Berganashio, do you have to share this early in the morning?" Villi sniffed.

Larkin sat down, helping himself to some of their breakfast. "What a night we had!"

"We?" Pori asked.

With his mouth very full, Larkin answered, "Me and Keenwai followed father last night."

Bry lounged on Pori, looking up at the bottom of her teacup that she was holding. "Yeah, just them. I fell asleep and Cotton did too."

“Followed father where?” Villi questioned.

“To the mountain range that we’ve never explored before… down in the valley.” Larkin shared.

Kunya glared at Keenwai, "So… you left without letting me know then?"

Keenwai started to defend his decision, but couldn't think of the right words to say. It didn't matter though because Larkin interrupted Kunya's question with the rest of the story and all that they had seen.

"A giant? Are you sure it wasn't just a large stone or something? Villi questioned skeptically. "I mean you went there in the middle of the night! How could you really see that well if you were at a distance?"

Larkin scoffed at Villi. "We both saw father's scales flash down onto the giant. It was a sleeping giant. All we could see was the head of the giant, but it really was there."

"It would make sense... now that I think about it..." Pori thought aloud. She looked at Villi now. "The reason it makes sense is because there have been several times when we wanted to explore those mountains on that side of the land but father always encouraged us to never go that way."

Villi nodded. "True... No wonder he always wanted us to go toward the sea instead..."

"Ya! All those times he wanted us to go visit Tilly the seahorse instead..." Larkin mused.

"...a way of distracting us." Villi finished her brother's thought.

Bry smiled at the thought of the seahorse. "Tilly is so... so... so... funny and silly! Can we go back to see him today?"

Larkin sat up. "We must go back today and see the giant in broad daylight."

Pori grimaced. "But how do we know it's a kind giant?"

"We'll never know unless we investigate though..." Villi's curiosity was growing.

With a serious face, Pori stated, "Father is hiding this from us... so there must be some good reason."

Larkin's jaw was set firmly. "We need to agree to keep all of this a secret for now. Father doesn't know we followed him last night. So for now, we cannot say a word about it... at least until we learn more about this giant!"

Before any of them could agree to keeping the secret, there was a rapid knock on the doorframe that silenced their conversation. There was a servant merfarie at the open doorway.

"Come in!" Villi responded. "See Larkin, he knows how to knock before barging in!"

Larkin rolled his eyes. The servant came in, stating plainly. "King Phineas and Queen Malka request for all of you to come into the throne room immediately."

The four merfarie children instantly followed the messenger. Cotton, the albino sea-wolf, and Keenwai and Kunya, the meerbirds, silently followed several steps behind them. They entered the throne room. The throne room felt colder than ever, and smelled mustier than usual. There were dark circles under the king's eyes.

The King cleared his throat, and greeted them, "Children and company! This alliance that you, so shrewdly, have developed with the meerbird creatures is timely."

"And Cotton!" Bry added.

The King nodded. "Yes... and the time has come to follow my dear deceased parents dying wishes..." He paused but then continued. "Which was to seek vengeance on their ingrateful... renegade... runaway... deformed daughter!"

The Queen nodded, with unflinching eyes. Her cold expression put a chill down Cotton's spine. He suddenly had a flashback to when he was onboard the sea-wolf ship and Captain Cragg was threatening him with death.

"In three days time, we plan an attack on the fairie villagers on the other side of the land. We need you... meerbird creatures to join us in this attack against them." He looked at Keenwai and Kunya.

Keenwai bowed slightly. "With all due respect to you, we are grateful to have been freed by your merfarie children from the sea-wolf ship, but if I may be so bold as to ask, what wrong have these fairies done to you? Have they ever made war advancements on your territory before?"

The queen scoffed and responded sharply. "All you need to know is that this merfarie kingdom has suffered in numerous ways from the severing ties that their fairie queen caused so long ago! We've been patient long enough! I dreamed that the fairies were growing bolder and migrating closer to us!"

"Which is cause for concern!" The king added, while resting his hand on his wife's arm. His motion, made it seem as if he were trying to calm a wild fire that was starting to billow up in the queen's flaring emotions.

"We will fight with the allied meerbirds, until the fairies are gone, if this is what you see fit!" Larkin declared with a very strong voice. His parents smiled proudly at him.

Pori spoke up now. "But father, the sea-wolfs… are they not more of a threat to this land, compared to the fairies that we've never even seen before?"

The king blinked slowly. "The sea-wolfs are a serious threat, no doubt... but for now, our aim is to rid the land of the deformed fairies first!" He looked at Keenwai and Kunya again. "You must go back to your other meerbirds and inform them of this war plan and in three days we will meet at the caverns of Mem to crush them once and for all!"

"In my recent dream, this is the location of where I saw them." The queen grimaced at the thought.

"This is all. You are dismissed!"

They all left the throne room, without another word. When the doors closed, the king and queen looked at one another. They laughed maniacally because their plan was falling into place. Fiery arrows of anger, hatred, and expletives jetted from their mouths, up through the sunroof, out into the atmosphere.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note:

To read chapter 26, follow the link below:

If you’re interested in reading this story from the beginning, the link below leads to chapter 1 of this story. The rest flows from there.