The Unreached Duchy

Chapter 20

Roughly twenty minutes later, every raft was accounted for in the Bazen and everyone was safely in the surrounding cave system. The Antero Vipunen and the Jentil races usually live in the caves at the base of Mount Avesta Mountain Range, along with anywhere else in Makara that caves are in abundance, except for the Bazen. No races are allowed to inhabit the Bazen.

The Brazen are naturally made wading pools located at the heart of the Anthesterion Island. No one knows what made them and there is no real mention of the Brazen in the legends. There are natural waterways that connect the Brazen to the sea, but the MerWay was also constructed to connect to the Brazen so that Merfolk could travel to the interior parts of the island for safety and business reasons. Holiday trips were also added to the list of reasons eventually, making trips to the Brazen was regular occurrences for all races including humans.

Titian had stayed on the raft with Namtao’s Trident until the Colo colo caught sight of the Hoplite helping to rearrange the rafts and tie them together. Titian used one of his claws and threw the Trident into the water before shape shifting into a water serpent, wrapping the lower half of his body around the Trident and swimming over to Namtao.

“Hey there bud.” Namtao said as he picked up Titian and putting him onto the raft. “I’ll take that back from you. Gratitude for keeping it safe,” as Namtao took the Trident from his familiar, “now you can happily shift back into your natural form and give us a helping claw to get these rafts tied together.”

Titian hissed before happily shape shifting back into his natural form of a rat-bird hybrid and flapping his wings in response. From his new perch on the raft, Titian could watch Namtao and the other Hoplites tie the rafts together; they rearranged the rails as they went in order to make it one continuous raft and extending the area for the citizens on the ground.

In the Brazen, the Merfolk were getting more anxious with each wave that was rougher than the last one. They huddled together in the deepest pools that they could get to farthest from the island shores. The Trirmeme automatically started taking turns patrolling the MerWay, looking for stranded Merfolk heading to the Brazen from the different pathways coming inland.

The Yilbegan had taken to the air and flew up to their volcano homes, the only Yilbegan to be seen were the Trirmeme that were flying up in the air and reporting to the Trirmeme on the ground what they were able to see; what they were able to see of the storm was nothing good. No one was sure what was causing the storm and the general fears among the populace was that Mount Avesta had caused it by the eruption or that Arausio was upset with them for some reason so he was using the sea to take his revenge on the peaceful nation.

There was a slight disturbance among the Trirmeme and some of the citizens up on the land closer to the caves. Namtao climbed up on the land, transforming into a human with robes that had the same coloring and designs of his scales in the process, tapping his Trident on the ground as he walked to help him remain steady on his land feet that he was not used to.

“What is the meaning of this disturbance? We cannot afford to have anyone not following orders with this storm bearing down on us.” Namtao stated sternly with Titian now standing between his feet snarling and baring his teeth to make sure people knew the usually sweet tempered Colo colo meant business at the moment.

“Hoplite, there is no disturbance. Just some of us Antero Vipunen and Jentil are asking for an explanation about why we cannot use the caves here in the Brazen for shelter? Surely Avesta would not mind us seeking shelter in them.” Responded an Antero Vipunen that slowly stepped forward through the crowd, “we do not mean to sound disrespectful to the Trirmeme.”

Namtao recognized this Antero Vipunen as the one who refused to leave his tools out of concern for the safety of everyone else. “You are the one who refused to leave his tools on the beach when the orders to evacuate were given.” Namtao stated in an authoritative tone. “Why was that?”

“Well sir, even though my tools are in a chest it does not lock properly. This wind would make quick work of lifting the lid and removing tools. Some of the tools are heavy even for Antero Vipunen to lift, so if someone like a Yilbegan, Kabouter, Merfolk, or anyone else got hit with a flying tool from my chest; they would be gravely injured. I feel it is my responsibility to keep others safe around my tools.” Kahaku replied.

“Indeed.” Namtao said, still using his authoritative tone. “Gratitude for taking such responsibility with your tools and the safety of others. As for not taking shelter deeper in the caves, you must be unaware of the fact the Brazen Caves fill with water during storms and high tide.”

Looking rather surprised, Kahaku stated “I was unaware of that fact, yes sir. Gratitude for informing me of it. That being said, is there anywhere else we could use for more shelter?”

Namtao thought for a moment before responding because the Trirmeme Hoplites had been asking and wondering the same thing, including Namtao. “I honestly do not know if there is or not. I have not received word of it being safe for us to venture to other parts of Anthesterion or traveling to the other islands. So for now, we stay in the Brazen. The Yilbegan are being sent to check on things at Lemuria and Pyanepsion. When they return, if this storm has not let up, then the Trirmeme will start evacuating people to other places and using the safest travel routes possible.”