Dire Wolf

Chapter 16

"So Bliz, you said that your father worked as a liaison of the Imperial Family to the Tsardoms, right?" I asked as we rest in front of the campfire that Sothea made for our group as we decided to call it a day after several hours of walking.

The burly teenager nodded at me, "Yeah. He works for the Imperial Internal Liasion Office, to be exact. Why?"

"Oh, I am just wondering if he mentioned something about meeting anyone from my house, is all."

He leaned back on the tree behind him and shook his head that made a little sad, "He does know the existence of your house, Keenan, but he never meets any members of it at all. Their identity is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the House Faulken that even high-ranking elected officials are not privy about."

"I see. But if I might ask a personal question, how did your father meet your mother, Lady Chione?"

Bliz chuckled and stopped mixing his protein shake and gave me his full attention, "Well, the way he said it, he was on a skiing trip at the mountains of Moskva when he meets this beautiful and cold, sorry for the term, girl when he is just sixteen years old. At first, he thought she is just another tourist like him, but after several years of yearly meetings, he finally realized that my mother is really something more than what meets the eyes when he got lost in this nasty blizzard, only for it to stop abruptly when he thought that he is finished. He then saw her in her divine form, and he got me."

I chuckled a bit when I heard his story that ended rather oddly.

Sita and Sothea joined my laughter as Bliz blushed a little.

"What?! That's how he ended his story. Anyways, me and Sothea here have it easy because our parents work for the imperial princess, or the grand duchess in her case, rather closely, so when Her Highness caught me building a snowman in the middle of one summer day at the back of my father's government building office, she just asked me if I want to be with the other kids who are special like me. I agreed immediately," he continued on as if reminiscing something fun and nostalgic, "My father thought that he will lose his job, but Princess Kady just melted my snowman with her flames without so much as batting an eyelash. The same thing happened to my girlfriend here."

The daughter of the goddess of the sanctuary just smiled lovingly at her beloved before speaking, "Well, it is not "that" action-packed like my boyfriend but, how can I say it, nothing less than magical for my father, who is the best friend of Bliz's. You see, my dad is a bit of a skirt chaser. Not a consummate one, thankfully, but with his Riksentian good looks and carefree personality, he left hundreds upon hundreds of sighing men and women in the Barony of Karts when he was relocated to Laroost and work directly under the Grand Ducal Household."

"Yeah, I always hear dad saying that he is thankful that you only inherited his face, not his attitude and behavior. Too jovial and good looking to a fault, he says," her boyfriend said that made her giggle a little.

"Indeed, my dear Bliz. Well, he finally got himself in a mess when he decided to flirt with my mother pretending to be a security guard back then to observe humans out of boredom. She fell for him and began appearing to him in his dreams until he finally gave up and accepted that he managed to hit the proverbial jackpot and caught the attention of a goddess and an infrequent one at that."

Sita heaved a sigh and look at Sothea before winking at me, "Soteria is among those hugely unknown and almost unheard of deities in the pantheon. Sothea's father here is fortunate because she never has any lovers ever, mortal or not."

"That's what my father always said to his best friend. He never looked for love but found one in the most unusual way possible," Sothea agreed before looking at Sita rather sadly, "Though we can't say the same with your father, eh, Sita?"

The daughter of Demeter nodded her head woefully, "Indeed. With an Olympian mother that I have, things didn't go so well for my father. Well, I can't blame it on my mother completely but on myself. As I already told you, I was sent here by Tsarina Olea herself since I almost singlehandedly crashed the entire economy of Holst in one harvesting."

"Whatever did you do to even make that happen?" I asked curiously as she just heaved a sigh and tossed more wood to the campfire.

"You see, my father owned this rather small piece of arable land at the edge of the tsardom that he bought when he decided to be a farmer instead of an office worker after finally saving enough money. Everything was doing okay for a few years. It is small-scale farming, so he earns enough to feed himself and slowly recuperate his money invested in it. Well, until the goddess of agriculture happened. He just minded his own business, tilling his field early in the morning when my mother appeared as a vision to tell him that she really admires his personality and dedication towards everything she represents, and as Bliz has said earlier, he got me."

The son of Chione laughed a little when she said that before allowing her to continue her story.

"Well, I was born, a healthy baby girl, and everything was fine and all until I was eight years old. You see, this severe drought happened, and those who are small-time farmers are the ones affected the most, especially our farmland, which is not connected to any irrigation facilities at all. Then he got terribly ill and have to be hospitalized. He needed expensive treatment, and we cannot afford it. Unconscious and slowly dying, I was sent home all alone. You see, we have no relatives left to care for us. He is the family's black sheep, and nobody cares if he lives or dies at all. Then, I decided against better logic and reasoning to continue farming. I tilled the soil, planted the seeds, and watered them with as much water I can possibly have to the point that I have to use a single drop of liquid per seed..."

Rex arrived from the nearby river carrying pails of water together with Surt, who continued what she is saying because she is getting too emotional to go on.

"Lo and behold, with the potent power of the Olympian Goddess of Agriculture wielded by her daughter, the plants thrive, yielding produce hundreds of times the scientifically possible allowed. The plants she has taken care of just keeps on churning out products, the farmland of Sita's father singlehandedly fed the entire empire throughout the year," he said in awe that made Sita smile a little, "My own father is an investigative journalist, you see. No matter how outlandish, fantastical, or impossible news may seem to be, he will force his way to the bottom of the truth. Thankfully, he is the only reporter who managed to uncover the reality that the Tsarina of Holst is trying to cover up with her scientists by declaring that there is a geological and soil anomaly or something that happened and helped cover up the truth."

I inclined my head to him curiously, "Cover up the truth? And here I thought journalists are supposed to expose it?"

"Well, he saw a girl the same age as me and born from an immortal as well doing everything she can to help her mortal father even if it means using powers beyond mere mortal comprehension. Besides, it is against his moral conduct to expose an innocent underaged child who clearly has no malicious intent," Rex replied seriously that made Sita look at him gratefully.

"My father and I will be forever thankful to Rex's dad. He really did save me from further embarrassments. Well, I still have Tsarina Olea to think about. After I earned enough money for my father's operation, she visited us in the hospital and begged me on both knees to stop growing anything on our fields, and in turn, the state will shoulder the costs of our living expenses and send me here in this island. Turns out I am producing so much, I am driving the prices of agriculture products to the ground," she said before finally smiling a little as she looked at the son of the goddess of force, "Well, I think Rex has the more "normal" story among the rest of us, eh, my friend?"

He nodded as Surt barked out joyfully at him before shaking his head exasperatedly, "Normal, you say? Well, maybe more mundane than all of yours, I can give you that much."

"Your father is an investigative journalist, if I heard correctly earlier, right, Rex?" I asked tentatively as he accepted the bowl of soup from my boyfriend, thankfully.

"That makes him sound like more important than what he really is. If you think he is a media bigshot, then perish the thought, Keenan. He is nothing more than an overly ambitious columnist in a small, insignificant Maharlikan red top tabloid, specializing in gossip, scandal, and sensationalist news. I bet Sita's farm will be more productive if she uses the papers from the media outfit my father works in as manure."

He then proceeds to laugh at his own words so loud, several birds flew away from the treetops.

The five of us sitting around the campfire looked at each other rather awkwardly since we don't know what to say at all.

We are saved by Surt, who managed to say something after a minute of awkward silence as Rex continues to laugh to himself, "I wouldn't doubt his capabilities to find the truth since he is intelligent enough to uncover the truth about the immortals all by himself. However, I do doubt his career choices. Why is he even working at a tabloid paper when he can easily make it to any respectable national broadsheets with that skills of his."

"My man, Surt, you really are too pure for this world of ours," he replied patronizingly as every one of us except my boyfriend got what the son of Bia is trying to say, "If you are good at finding out the truth then you have no business writing for broadsheets."

Surt looked confused by his answer, "But why?"

"That's just how the media and journalism work, Surt," Sita answered simply that made us nod in agreement, "Reporting the truth is, no pun intended, just their press release. What they do is misguide, misdirect and cover up the blushes of people of interest all the time or lead people far away from the reality of truth."

Sothea sighed and looked at the grinning Rex with her eyebrow raised, "My father said that Grand Duchess Kady intensely disliked your father ever since the war has ended. He is really, really, nosy and a constant headache of not just the Grand Ducal Household but the empire's, the kingdom's and his very own Maharlikan Press Moguls."

"Indeed, my Sothea. Dad said that it is Rex's father who first raised hard-hitting questions about the origins of the Gugnir, the Colte Military Facility, the existence of the superweapons, and the rumors about people with unbelievable capabilities running around," Bliz agreed as he threw Rex an annoyed look, "Your father really made his work harder than ever with his relentless snooping around."

"And he is proud about it, Bliz. I can tell you that much. He still has the headlines of his stories laminated and framed on our living room walls proudly. Well, he admits to himself that he can be rather forceful when it comes to fact-finding to the point that he attracted the attention of the goddess of force herself, and as what Bliz has said earlier, he got me. Well, he said that no one has ever managed to shut him up, not even my mother, aside from me. My very existence forced him to play along with the government officials, for now, that is."

This time, we all laughed out loud with him after he finished the story as Rex gave the spotlight to Surt, who happily shared his own family story.

"Well, I think I am the luckiest of us all here. We, Ogawarans, together with the Yekaterinians, are somewhat more open to the divines long before the truth slowly came out. In our province, particularly in the wilderness, our forefathers and mothers before us have encountered, communicated, and safeguarded the rustic deities who call our province the resting place of their consciousness. Why there are a lot of Ogawaran demigods running around there and here, and no one in our province bats an eyelash at our existence."

I nodded in agreement as I just learned from Ms. Peregrine something absolutely shocking yesterday, "I was just informed recently that Chief Ren's predecessor, Old Man Ogawa is a demigod son of the god of old age, Geras and even Chief Ren himself is a demigod."

"Yeah, fittingly son of the god of criticism, Momus," my boyfriend followed quickly as he nodded at Bliz, "Even your own Tsar of Yekaterin is a demigod, though I forget who his father is."

The son of Chione smiled warily before nodding slowly, "Oh, he is a bit more than a demigod. You see, he is the son of a Titan of rationality, and we all know that the titans are a different league of their own, so he is a tad more dangerous in his own right."

"No arguments here, Bliz. He is the feared Warlock of Yekaterin. Not a single monster can get past his territorial waters ever," Rex said while raising both of his hands to show that he agrees wholeheartedly, "Anyways, you mentioned you have a sister, right? Three years older than you?"

"Four. She is a successful career woman now at Nunat," Surt answered quickly that made the girls in our group sighed dreamily.

"Sothea and I met her once at Nunat a year ago, and gods, she really is something else! Alumni of the Hellenic Citadel."

The daughter of Soteria quickly nodded in agreement, "Truly, Sita! A strong, beautiful, and independent demigod who can integrate herself well in both worlds. She has complete control over her powers, herself, and the ones she deals with."

"Does she transforms into a dire wolf as well?" Bliz asked, but my boyfriend shook his head.

"Nope. She represented the other sphere of influence of our mother. If I have powers over ferality and rage, big sis has absolute control of madness and frenzy. If you are going to ask me, she is the scarier of us two by a wide margin so much, I wouldn't even dare to compete."