Oh boy, a second one about heirlooms?
*Thinks back to prompt #33*
No, never mind. That one was about jewelry, and *I* was the one to make it about a magical heirloom.
Whatever. I’ll make this prompt a continuation of #89.
“No. F******. Way.”
Rausuhen’s (Rah-su-hen) two childhood friends only grew more impatient for the explanation behind his mysterious new power. Beads of sweat began forming on Owospa’s (O-wo-spa) forehead while Tumiso’s (Too-me-soh) fists clenched. Rausuhen’s response to his Status Page couldn’t mean anything good. Had a hex been cast on him? Had he carelessly equipped a cursed item that granted the new Skill without first checking for any negative effects?
“Come on, out with it!” Tumiso blurted, the suspense killing him faster than the Skeleton’s knife to his gut would have.
Owospa clearly felt the same as the Rogue, but managed to keep herself under control, harshly staring rather than yelling.
The Warrior who was previously under the assumption that he was completely and fully human instinctively opened his mouth to explain, then paused.
“Uh, I…”
A thousand questions popped into the boy’s mind and raced around in chaos, all bringing up reasons he shouldn’t mention the strange description besides where his race was displayed on the Status Page.
Would there be any problems with letting others know of his true identity? Were there enemies after those of his blood? Would his friends be in danger if they knew? In fact, why was it a secret from even himself? Were his parents aware of their bloodline? Were…were they even his blood parents?
Rausuhen’s tongue fumbled about, producing mumbles and half-words as he internally debated whether he should tell his best friends of the truth. On one hand, the three of them had known each other for the entirety of their lives and they would very likely stay together until their eventual deaths. On the other hand, the information didn’t have to be presented to them yet, as he still needed to find answers before he could spill his secret with peace of mind.
Thankfully for him, the Dungeon they had invaded decided his move for him.
The clacking of bone on stone echoed through the spacious Dungeon corridor, immediately causing the three young Adventurer’s heads to face the darkness at the end of the hall they stood within. Owospa backed up until she had Rausuhen in front of her, who had picked up his sword and shield and took a protective stance with the shield covering most of his torso and face. Tumiso, who previously leaned against the opposite wall, had somewhat faded into the darkness and equipped his daggers before making himself as flat as possible against the stone in the hopes of blending in further.
The next second, a humanoid figure turned the corner ahead of the trio, their entire body magically constructed from only bleach white bones. As the Skeleton entered the corridor, it suddenly stopped in place, recognizing enemies.
It turned around and bolted.
“Damn! It’s a scout.” Rausuhen hissed in frustration, lowering his shield and glancing behind him to check if anything had sneaked up on their Party.
“I’m on it!” Tumiso assured his friends, activating a Skill that increased his movement speed and darting after the Dungeon monster.
The Warrior and Healer duo too slow to do anything about the monster simply repositioned themselves and kept eyes on either side of their hallway. Being a member down because their Rogue went after the Skeleton scout, neither spoke to the other, leaving the odds that something would catch them off guard at the minimum possible. The scout may have first appeared to be fleeing in order to notify its swarm of the intruders, but the monster could very well have been part of a rouse in order to separate the Party, in which case the three invaders could be picked off more easily. Rausuhen would normally have cursed their situation, but he was presently thankful because he could use the threat of monsters as an excuse to shut up until they exited the Dungeon.
A more difficult task than expected, because somehow, the Warrior knew that the girl behind him was still peeved at not being answered. He could sense the tension building between them but couldn’t do anything to resolve it. Revealing his bloodline couldn’t be done thoughtlessly…even at the threat of a disapproving Owospa.
Soft footsteps approached and the two teens relaxed. Their Rogue would not have allowed his steps to be heard unless things had gone according to plan.
“Target eliminated.” Tumiso announced with a dazzling smile as he confidently strutted towards his friends. “Though, now that we’re all Level 10, we should haul our asses out of here; that scout was on its way to the boss room, which I think is filled with monsters around Level 12. Given our current states and supplies we could stick around for a while, maybe enough to reach Level 11, but…”
Tumiso turned towards the enigma with an accusing look. “Someone here clearly has some things to think over, and it might be the best call to come back on a later date when we’re not distracted.”
Owospa harrumphed. “And when we can trust each other.”
“Ugghh…” Rausuhen whimpered, lifting his shield to hide behind it. “You guys…can’t you wait a little bit?” He gulped. “I’m, uh, still trying to figure it out.” His words came out a bit softly towards the end.
“Lies.”
“Agreed.”
The Warrior whimpered again.
……
Verdant plains stretched on beyond what the naked eye could see, grass swayed in reminiscence of the ocean, and one humongous tree sat in the middle of it all—its roots taking hold of the land far beyond the shadows its crown created.
The glorious oak, despite how its grand form seemed almost immovable to the extent that the wind couldn’t manage to shake even one of its branches, suddenly began to rumble. From deep within the earth beneath it, a force shot its way upwards, causing the magnificent tree to violently convulse.
For but a moment.
The tremors stopped as abruptly as they began, and a grouping of roots at the tree’s base previously entangled quickly untied themselves, revealing a dark space hidden underneath…from which long, bony fingers appeared.
And Tumiso lifted himself out of the hole.
“Bwaah! Finally!”
The Rogue, covered in loose dirt with a sword and shield strapped to his back, frantically gripped at the surrounding roots and grass as he struggled to exit the Dungeon. When he managed to get a foot on the surface, a hand reached up from below him, then pushed upwards, throwing him the rest of the way.
Without waiting for Tumiso to scramble to his feet, Rausuhen effortlessly dug his fingers into the ground and pulled himself up, his chainmail jingling with abandon, before he turned around and reached back into the Dungeon exit.
“T-thank you.” An exhausted voice sounded from the dark space as Owospa accepted the Warrior’s hand and allowed him to pull her up.
“Don’t…don’t thank him. He still hasn’t….hasn’t told of us the thing.” Tumiso groaned between breaths.
After Owospa found a spot away from the dreadful hole in the ground and caught her breath, she replied, “You’re right.” Then turned to face the Warrior. “Rausuhen?”
Rausuhen paused from untying his weapons from their Rogue’s back and sighed, “Yeeess?”
“F*** you.”
“Yeah, f*** you, buddy.”
The Divine Beast descendent merely stuck out his tongue at his Party members before equipping his gear and standing up to face away from the Dungeon.
“Since you two have enough strength to curse me, shall we begin our trek back home?”
Two voices rose to beg mercy from the smiling devil who had already begun walking.
……
The sky slowly exploded into a kaleidoscope of warm hues by the time the party of three were within sight of the guards stationed atop their town’s border wall. The Party crested a hill to be met with the sight of a tall and simple stone gate, above which were stationed archers, one of whom Tumiso waved at.
“DAAAAAAAD!” He yelled, the power of his lungs taking his word to the guard station.
A surprised and questioning grunt came back as a gruff man with a fluffy beard seemingly just awoke from a nap.
“No monsters following ye, right? I’ll open the gate!” Tumiso’s father called back. “Make sure to tell me all about yer Dungeon run at home!”
The giant reinforced wooden doors that acted as the South Gate began moving, loudly creaking as they slowly opened.
“You’d think someone would have fixed that by now.” Owospa softly commented as the trio entered Junistua (Joo-knee-stew-ah) under the proud gazes of the guards. Once within town borders, Rausuhen spun on his heel to face his friends.
“I’ll head home from here, and I trust that you two can sell the monster parts on your own.” The Warrior pointed at the large backpack Owospa carried before continuing with, “Look …I have a lot of things I need to ask my parents about. You know that I’ll tell you all about what happened if I think it’s, uh, safe. So, yeah. See ya. Ya know I love you guys.”
As Rausuhen turned to jog off, the Rogue and Healer duo sighed.
“You always make it awfully hard to stay mad at you.” Tumiso complained.
“Mhm. But what can we do about him and his ways?” Owospa shrugged.
……
Shadows stretched far over the stone streets by the time Rausuhen arrived at the doorstep of an ordinary two-story home nestled among many more similar-looking buildings. The teen didn’t even pause before reaching for the doorknob and giving it a jiggle.
“Really? Again?” He groaned with a roll of his eyes.
Impatient and stressed, Rausuhen didn’t bother with being polite to his neighbors and began banging his balled fist against the door just hard enough so that the deep sounds echoed throughout the entire building without dealing any lasting damage to the wooden frame.
Quickly enough, a lithe figure appeared from the house’s depths in a hurry. Rausuhen watched from the front door’s little window as the clearly apologetic man grimaced upon noticing him and speedily opened the door for him.
Before Rausuhen could get an exasperated word in, the man bowed his head, saying, “I’m sorry! You’re right! Whatever you were going to say, you’re right! If I weren’t home then you’d have been forced to wait outside, find either your mother or I, or search for an open window! Please forgive me, because I was baking and cooking a feast for your return from the Dungeon!”
By the time all his words spilled from his mouth, Rausuhen’s father, Lasognei (La-soh-oong-yay), needed to catch his breath.
“No shi-“ The teen began, but was interrupted.
“Please…just come inside and eat some cookies to cool off. I won’t forget…to unlock ever again.”
Another eye roll and the boy lost interest in admonishing his father for his forgetfulness and refocused his attention on more important matters.
As soon as the door closed behind Rausuhen, he looked his father in the eye and asked, “I need the truth…so, answer me: am I adopted?”
Rausuhen’s expression resembled what he looked like when he confronted and fought monsters—deathly serious. His father responded in kind.
“Did you hit your head too hard down in that hellhole?” Lasognei asked with an expression overflowing with terror, grabbing and pulling his son’s head closer to inspect it.
The Warrior remained placid as he grabbed his father’s wrists and shoved them back to their owner.
“Be serious. No, I did n—” Rausuhen paused for a moment as he recalled the events of his Dungeon run. “Well, I did hit my head, but those were light scraped of the helmet. Anyway, something happened in the Dungeon and I need to be absolutely sure that you fathered me and mom bore me.”
The terror transitioned to confusion and worry as Lasognei took in Rausuhen’s words.
“Son, your mother and I were so excited to have you that we had your birth recorded. Did you…forget?”
He pointed down the house’s main hall towards a fist-sized crystal that sat upon its own pedestal where it caught the sunlight from a window and shined brilliantly.
“I didn’t forget, but, like…” Rausuhen fumbled with words for a bit before he shook his head. “There’s no real evidence that the baby mother birthed was me. I could have been switched with another, or something. Tell me! Was I?!”
“Of course not.” Lasognei scoffed as though the idea were inconceivably stupid. “You’re as much our son as the sky lamp is the provider of life to our world. Please,” the man begged for the second time that day, “tell me what happened to make you reconsider your entire life.”
Rausuhen closely inspected his father for signs of deceit, but found none. Unless his lie detection skills were inferior to his father’s acting skills, the boy determined that Lasongei’s deeply concerned expression and slumped shoulders could not have been faked. Maybe.
He sighed yet again, pondering about how much he should admit.
“Y’know how mom and her father were passed down that Hidden Skill from birth? Well, uh…” Despite his ardent resolve to learn the truth, the doubts just kept building up. But, he’d already said enough to make his father worry further and decided to press further. “It’s like this: That Skill unlocked during my Dungeon run and revealed itself to be Hide Status, Lvl Max, which was hiding…gosh, how do I word this?”
Rausuhen let go of his father’s wrists and placed his hands on the man’s shoulders with a firm grip.
“There is a peculiarity with my Race. I’m a Human, but…I also have a special bloodline.”
Now, Rausuhen was absolutely sure that his father had not lied to him, because the thin man’s face changed faster than the wind blew in the stormy Autumn. His eyelids and lip muscles seemed to contract almost randomly for a good few seconds before he settled on curious with wide eyes.
“Really? Elaborate!”
It was Lasongei’s turn grab his son’s shoulders and shake him around a bit, urging him to stop leaving him in suspense.
At this point, Rausuhen had enough reason to believe that his father knew not of the bloodline and that he should go to his mother with the questions while revealing too much to his old man, but…
The boy mentally shrugged and hoped for the best.
“Apparently…I have,” he lowered his voice despite their house’s walls being quite thick, “a Divine Beast’s bloodline.”
Again, the man’s mouth formed an “o” and his eyes threatened to pop out of his skull.
“Do you know anything about that? Did mother or her parents ever mention anything regarding Divine Beasts?”
But Lasognei did not respond, instead releasing his son’s shoulders and falling out of Rausuhen’s grip, falling to the side so that the hall wall caught him. He leaned there for a moment, shocked.
Then, he whooped.
“WOOOOO!” The man jumped, throwing his arms above his head and shouted in elation. He danced there for a few moments before embracing his son. “ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT THAT MEANS, SON?!”
It was Rausuhen’s turn to freeze in shock.
“Uh, I, father, um…” The boy stuttered, untangling himself from his father’s arms and unsure of how to react to the opposite of what he’d expected to happen. “You… Do you know what this means?!”
Lasognei vigorously nodded, saying, “Are you dumb, child?! This means that you’ll be more powerful than I ever dreamed you could become! Imagine the magnitude of the Skills that Divine Beasts earn!” He paused, seemingly lost in thought for a second before asking, “Wait, does your Status Page specify what Divine Beast your bloodline originates from?”
“Err, it just adds ‘Divine Beast Bird Bloodline’ next to ‘Human’.”
Lasognei’s eyes twinkled at the information.
“And it’s a BIRD?! My, how lucky we are! Me for having a son with limitless potential, and my son for having limitless potential! This is amazing! Bird-type monsters, beasts, and whatnot are notorious for their amazing mobility!” He danced around for another while.
“But, father, didn’t you consider the possible dangers related to our family having Divine Beast blood in our veins?!” Panic tinged Rausuhen’s voice as he considered the worst possibilities.
“Dangers? Again, are you dumb, child?” Lasognei rebuked with earnest. “What do you mean ‘dangers’?! So what, a bird-type Divine Beast got frisky with one of your ancestors from your mother’s side—how does that put us in any danger? All we have to do is keep silent about it! If people become suspicious about where your bloodline Skills come from, just claim to have a special Class! And if anyone tries to investigate your Status Page, son, you literally have the Hide Status Skill at the maximum Level!!! Nothing short of a god can read your Status Page correctly. Just hide the Hide Status Skill, your bloodline, and your Class!”
Lasognei was panting by the time his words finished spilling from his mouth, excitement still very evident on his face. Rausuhen suspected that his father might pass out from the ordeal.
“But, but, father!” The Warrior continued. “You’re not taking into consideration what my ancestor’s relationships might have been with other supreme beings! What if enemies of my ancestor target their descendants? If my ancestor had lots of enemies, or those of their blood are really valuable, or if—”
Lasognei put his hand up as a sign to stop, cutting Rausuhen off.
“If, if, if, if. Boy, if nothing!” The emphasis on that last word was particularly strong. “We can speculate horrible results of having the gifts you do aaaaall day, but we can’t confirm them. Just hide your Status, keep consistent false claims about your Class, and don’t tell anyone you don’t trust with your life about your special blood. Got it?”
The man, who was not only thinner and shorter than his muscular Warrior son, stared deeply into Rausuhen’s eyes with a no-nonsense look.
Not entirely convinced, but tired of arguing, the teenager just nodded along and hung his head with a sigh. His father had a point, but how could expecting the worst do them any harm?
“Hmm, now that I think about it…” Lasognei began. “You did say ‘Divine Beast Bird’, correct? Because…”
The man had a finger to his lips as he looked around the hall, seemingly looking for something. The next moment, he let out a soft exclamation before darting upstairs to the second floor. Rausuhen heard stomping from the area where he remembered his parent’s bedroom was located, then a long pause before the stomping resumed and Lasognei returned with something cupped in his hands.
“Okay, so, I’m not actually supposed to be messing with this, but…you get the idea.” Lasognei admitted with a grin, unfurling his fingers to reveal a small, jade figurine. “Your mother said that this figurine of a Divine Bird was passed down by her grandmother, or something, and that’s it’s very fragile, so…handle it carefully.”
Tension built as Rausuhen understood the significance of what the little idol represented when taking into consideration his newfound bloodline. He accepted the exquisitely detailed statuette of some kind of small bird from Lasognei and carefully held it in his hands, making sure to let it lie on his palms rather than put any unwanted pressure on it with his 32 Strength Points.
It immediately crumpled into a pile green dust.
The two men’s faces lit up with terror at the unexpected event.
“No way…” Lasognei whimpered.
“Are you shitting me?” Rausuhen muttered.
“This can’t be happening…”
“But it did happen.”
“Maybe it didn’t? We could be high on hesulians…”
“I take no pleasure in such drugs, father. The statuette broke.”
“I might have really pressured you into taking them?”
“Father! Let’s not waste time and try to best word an apology before mom comes home!”
Lasognei only nodded, still looking at the pile of green dust sitting in his son’s hands as he imagined the torture his wife would subject him to. He couldn’t even find solace in the fact that it wasn’t him who broke the figure, because there was no way Jeenka would blame their son for the heirloom when Rausuhen was simply searching for answers regarding his newfound bloodline.
“Son,” Lasognei said, closing his eyes and hanging his head, “my will is written on a folded sheet of paper hidden in one of the old, yellow books somewhere on the family bookshelf.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Rausuhen played along, stifling a laugh.
“Just in case I go missing after your mother takes me outside for a scoldi—”
“Dad!” Rausuhen suddenly interrupted, his tone shaking Lasognei out of his self-deprecating mood.
“What is—” Lasognei began, but stopped after seeing what startled his son. Within Rausuhen’s cupped hands, shifting the statuette dust, was a small creature of sorts. The sight of the itty bitty bundle of feathers shook the father son duo, who had no idea of what to do.
“I’ll just..”
Eventually, Rausuhen’s nerves gave out, and he crouched low to set the pile of dust and mysterious little creature onto the floor.
“That wasn’t there before, right?” Lasognei asked, pointing at the bird that was very clearly identical to the figurine that shattered.
“Of course not.”
The two silently watched as the bird looked at them, then itself, then at the dust lying around it, before it bent down and ate the green dust.
“Should we stop it?”
“Nah. It’s not like we could rebuild the heirloom from its remains. Plus, now that a bird popped out of it, the situation has changed. Your mother can’t place any fault on us if we just say the sculpture transformed into the bird.”
Roughly a minute passed until all the powder was gone, at which point the bird gave a satisfied chirp, looked up at them again, and…
“Which one of you did I sire?”
Greeted them.
