A loud, forced, shrieking and whining sound of a bird welcomed me as I entered right after Aramastus' pegacorn.

"Susvaagatam! (Welcome!)" A long-haired female (with a rather peculiar method of greeting people with a goose) hailed.

I stared wide-eyed at her and then at the goose in her grasp as she held it by its neck. She was smiling widely at me while chewing something. Her brown lustrous hair cascaded down her dark corset and ended at her waist. She was rather spritely...too jaunty compared to me as she kept on twisting her upper body and jumping from one foot to another.

"Lettice, may I beseech of you to put the poor goose down? It is rather inappropriate for us to be harming creatures of life such as that white-winged bird with a magnificent salamander orange-shaded beak," a feminine man spoke out as he waited by the entrance wearing a long-sleeved black dress which pooled down past his feet.

He was wearing a corset over the dress which portrayed his slenderness. His long black hair framed his ghostly pale face and his voice stood between masculinity and femininity.

"Must you overwhelm the newcomers with your intricate description Garrison?" an older male sitting at the far end of the stygian stone table questioned with a stern expression.

"Oh how charming!" Lettice squealed in delight when she saw Fenris.

The werewolf sat beside me and was then embraced by the woman. Fenris tilted his head back while staring at her rather awkwardly.

There were three sets of long tables in this gargantuan room. The ceiling was decorated with garlands of white flowers and luminous spoon-shaped objects protruding out of the ceiling  illuminated the whole room in a clear white light. The dark blue floor was smoothly polished and the wall was in a dark-gray shade of rough-brick stones.

"Bonne journée (Good day)" aniki greeted once he came up behind me.

He saw the goose that Lettice was holding and took it from her grasp before setting it free. The goose sprinted away in fear into an arched hallway where adventure awaits.

"What a splendid young man you are," Garrison complemented and sauntered towards me with much elegance.

He started to fix my cloak and brushed the strands of hair from my face before smiling kindly.

"Such alluring beauty you possess. Your pale skin glows ethereal yet not dead-looking such as mine. Your blue eyes shimmer like the ocean that would invite men to dive in not knowing the monsters you hide in your depths. Yet they shall be trapped not because of the deathly tides you bring but because of the waves of powerful love that will move their worlds and bring them peace in their own ghastly storms," he spoke out with much vigor in his tone and with much emphasis in the movement of his lips.

Was he mocking me? I was not taught by aniki on how to respond to such intricacy. Was he sniffing the same herbs as Aramastus was?

"Alright that's enough Garrison. My brother doesn't need your three days speech for each organ of his body," my brother brushed him off and wrapped his arm around me before hauling me to the middle table.

"And you!" Garrison now referred to Fenris who instantly broke free from Lettice and came running to my side.

The tables were filled with happy-looking people possessing amicable reactions as we made our way through. Aramastus disappeared somewhere leaving his pegacorn together with Argo. He just seemed to like to depart from every social event and get scolded because of his absence. Why did he not take me with him? Such selfishness.

Lucius brought me to the man at the far end of the table. He appeared to be the type to intimidate others with his stern gaze, unruly orange hair, and scarred arms. His beard and mustache were of the same shade. He was wearing rugged-looking dark clothes with the darker sleeves unevenly cut out into a diagonal which showed most of his arms. There were golden seams running along in a triangle on his chest and the robe ends in three slits. He was also wearing dark bands on his wrists and a black bandana was tied around his forehead.

"Lucian this man is Laeroth. He was one of the first ones who joined the Scums along with Ikesha, his wife," Lucius introduced.

I bowed at him to show my respect. "Domo (Hello), how do you do? You have a funny beard," I greeted and earned my brother's suffocating hand and Fenris' warning bite on the hem of my shirt.

"Lucian that is not nice!" Lucius scolded in a trembling tone. It would seem that he was failing to hide his laughter.

Laeroth cackled out at my commentary and rose from his seat. He was gigantic. I had to look up to be able to see him properly.

"How about now, does it still look funny?" he challenged.

"I beg your pardon Sir but your beard while sitting down and your beard while standing up does not make any difference. Am I missing something?" I asked.

The table we were in was suddenly filled with laughter and cheering and Laeroth took me into a welcoming embrace.

"Ah I like you already son! Not even intimidated in the slightest!" he praised.

"Forgive him Laeroth, my brother can be dense most of the times but believe me he has his intelligent moments," Lucius chuckled.

At least I was not a criminal.

Laeroth landed firm pats to my back. "Not at all, he seems to be a pretty witty lad," he commented before looking at Fenris. "And welcome werewolf. Please make yourself at home."

Ah, he was nice to my pet friend. I approve of this man.

Fenris took that with much positivity and nodded with a wide smile on his face. I was relieved that Fenris was comfortable with all the ancients surrounding him.

"Lucius is back," a gentle voice of a woman entered.

Her long blue-hair with streaks of white was tied into a high ponytail. She was armored with metal and the clinks of her boots made sound as she walked towards us. My eyes narrowed at the sight of a circular blue tattoo under her eye which reminded me of the tattoo of the Higher Order although I have only seen Segreth's and my previous mentor's. When she got closer I saw that she was numbered as III.

She was a part of the Higher-Order?

My heart sank to my stomach and my body automatically responded by grabbing hold of aniki's sleeve.

"It's alright Lucian. Ikesha is no longer a member of the Higher-Order," Lucius assured.

The woman gave Lucius a smile and an embrace and she presented me with the same greeting but with much more caution and not the same closeness.

"Greetings," she stated. "And welcome," she added and acknowledged Fenris with a nod. "You must be the infamous baby brother of Lucius here. My name is Ikesha Snowscream."

"That's her old name. Now she's Ikesha Humbleshout," Laeroth intruded which agitated the laughter of everyone in the room even Fenris who hid his head under the table and began to shake with the force of humor.

"Gets me every single time," Lucius cackled out. Ikesha's cheeks were reddened with embarrassment.

"This is why I don't like introducing myself when you're around," she sighed before beaming at me. "Well that's me...Ikesha Humbleshout. I am the wife of that idiot half-dragon there, how do you do?" she asked.

"We took longer than expected because Aramastus had a hard time getting the ippótes off our tracks," Lucius informed them. "But I have retrieved the Wicket. The guards were rather lacking in training so I was able to knock them down as quick as I've retrieved my brother from their possession," Lucius proudly boasted.

He brought out a golden ring from his pocket and slipped it into his middle finger. Once he had raised his hand, a resplendent golden sphere rose up from one of the bags that Argo was carrying and instantly latched into my brother's palm.

The sphere or as they called it as "Wicket", had three rectangular bars which showed the number XXI. It had a horizontal slit underneath the three rectangular bars and a small golden button was situated beneath the slit. There were also four diagonal lines connecting to the three rectangular bars plus two horizontal ones.

Lucius handed the wicket to Ikesha. The woman began to observe it earnestly and she then gave it to Laeroth.

"With this we can finally distribute the power of the ancients equally," Laeroth spoke.

"Ooh fancy!" Lettice snorted and snatched the wicket from Laeroth's grasp.

"But it needs the Tokens of Blessings to work," Ikesha muttered causing Laeroth distress as he clucked his tongue. The mood started to go south.

"Let's take this down to the office," Ikesha sighed.

Lucius looked at me and cupped my cheek. "This is a lot to take in but I am sure that you are probably tired from our long travel. I shall explain everything later. I'll have Garrison escort you to a room and provide you a meal alright?" he cooed.

"I would like to listen," I requested.

I would like to understand and be involved in whatever they were going to talk about. Perhaps I can be of some help.

Lucius looked at Ikesha who pursed her lips and at Laeroth who seemed to be seething for some reason regarding the Token of Blessings. He returned his gaze to me with an apologetic expression.

"I am sorry otouto but I would not like to have you see an argument that would only clutter your thoughts. Rest your body and mind and enjoy the feeling of...this," he spoke and referred to the entirety of the Boonies.

He looked at Fenris and patted his head. "Please watch over him."

Garrison ambled towards me with his hands clasped together in front of his abdomen. "Let us go to your sleeping chambers, sweet child!" he chirped.

Aniki gave my cheek one last touch before heading north with Ikesha, Laeroth and Lettice. Garrison led us to the west of here which led downstairs wherein the entire interior was different from above. The walls were made of glass which was filled with water and creatures swimming inside. Fenris was very much delighted as he ran forward and checked everything new to the eye and indeed everything was foreign to me. How can they breathe in there?

"As you can see there is a difference between the interior of the third floor to the fourth; while the fourth floor showed brilliance of growth and the beauty of living and flourishing, the third shows the humble power of water. Water is such a subtle element but it shows diversity. It has no definite form yet once it is placed in a specific situation it can be turbulent or stagnant and it can be dangerously deep or be in underwhelming shallowness much like a living creature but water knows how to react to what it is presented to it. It adapts. It evolves. It rises when it is shaken but once the storm calms it doesn't keep rising instead, it humbles down and continues with its life of either moving forward or staying stagnant. Water teaches us so many things. I am particularly fascinated by the ocean. The sky is its limit. It keeps rising in an intimidating height when a tremor awakens it and it consumes anyone in its pathway."

He had such complex thoughts that he was fond of sharing. It would have been fine if it was a short piece but I get lost after five seconds. Fenris was much easier to understand and I might be able to tolerate Aramastus more than him.

"Such a destructive force is it not?" I intruded. "I beg your pardon but if you are to rise and to trample down on anyone innocent I do not find it marvelous," I deadpanned.

Garrison smiled at me before saying: "Ah that is where the swimming part comes in. Though water may consume you it gives you a chance to fight back."

"But what if you do not know how to swim?" I questioned.

I guess the ocean will be my grave.

Garrison stopped in front of a white door with golden ridges and slammed it open while bearing a stern face causing Fenris to jump back.

"Then you are doomed to die," he responded at me firmly with a grim gaze before smiling. "Here is your room, sweet child. I shall have food delivered to you right this instant," he fussed before hurrying back with excitement in a brisk walk.

The room that Garrison gave us had a lectus in a giant shell object with the other half of the shell hanging on top that made me believe that it might shut us in if we made a wrong move. Fireflies kept in glass jars were scattered on the floor to give the room lighting and I had to stop Fenris from getting on to the bed because we had to bathe first.

"We are still filthy. Let's clean ourselves first," I told him.

Fenris let out a whine but nevertheless, showed his obedience. The bathroom was a little small for the two of us so I decided to bathe Fenris first in the squared tub in which the werewolf disapproved of because he quickly hauled me inside with my clothes still on.

The playful wolf had his wide grin in place and I scrubbed the scent of rot he had with the scented substance provided in a small jar. It had a soothing scent; it was earthy and not obnoxious.

Once Fenris was done, I set him out of the tub and he shook his body left and right, shaking off the water from his fur and running off. I changed the water in the tub because of all the fur in it and peeled off my own clothes. Fenris stood watch by the door like a dutiful ippótes and once I was done, I dried myself with the provided towel and wrapped it around my waist.

"Thank you for guarding me," I murmured and petted Fenris' head.

The werewolf relaxed his tensed stance and rose onto his four legs before following me out of the bathroom. I slipped on the light and loose white shirt and pants and further dried Fenris with the towel.

"There you go, the bed is all yours," I signaled him in which he happily obliged.

He jumped up on the bed and rolled on to his back, savoring the soft lectus underneath him. I can only imagine the length of time he went through sleeping without a lectus while I was stuck in one for years. Fenris deserved a well-rested night.

As I began to sit on the floor, Fenris was alarmed and he groaned as if he was saying "No". He lightly bit onto my shirt and tugged me up.

"Ah however, I would like you to have the bed for the night. You deserve it much more than I," I explained to him.

Fenris whined and swayed his head in disapproval. He scooted and left half of the lectus empty. My chest swelled from his thoughtfulness.

"Then if you don't mind..." I accepted and lied beside him. This lectus was very soft and the feeling of exhaustion suddenly washed over me.

"Fenris, I am very...glad that you are here with us," I murmured. "If you were ever left back there I would not know what to do."

I would have been so restless and Lucius would go bald from my persistence.

I gently stroked Fenris' neck and gazed at his amber eyes which stared back at me. The werewolf inched his nose to my own, closed his eyes and slowly, his breathing relaxed and he fell asleep. I continued to run my hand on his fur and my eyes blurred with tears of sleepiness.

"Good night Fenris. Sleep well..." I whispered.

This was the first night I slept without Lucius by my side. He must have slept in another room and didn't bother to awaken Fenris from his place seeing that the wolf was slumbering deeply.

The night went by peacefully except for the frequent snores that Fenris was making. His warmth hushed my earlier worries and in one odd yet short awakening, as my eyes opened and as my mind perceived it as a dream, a man possessing the same amber eyes as Fenris lied beside me;  watching me, observing me, as he ever so gently stroked my face with his thumb.

His presence caused fluttering in my stomach but the comfort I gained from his arms lulled me back to sleep.

"No matter what the length may be, no matter where the road takes me; I will follow you wherever you go..." he whispered. 

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A/N: Wattpad is being a bitch again. I hope this chapter turned out alright.