Book 4: Chapter 7 (1/2)

Vur munched on what he suspected to be part of a sheep and looked around. There were a bunch of people who were sparsely dressed. He seemed to be at a party, but for some reason, it was oddly quiet. Maybe they were all mute; they didn’t respond when he greeted them. Instead, they stared at him with glittering eyes. One person knelt to the ground, then the rest followed, the group of people slumping down like a wave.

“Psst, Vur,” Stella said and poked her head out of his chest. “I think they’re worshipping you.”

Vur nodded and swallowed while tossing away the long bone in his hand. “Looks like it.” These people were behaving exactly like his sheep-people subjects did before Alora ate most of them. Vur swept his gaze over the crowd. His companions were nowhere to be seen. Well, Sung did say they’d most likely be separated; all he had to do now was raise a big-enough ruckus for Tafel to find him. How should he do that? Well, first things first, he had to get rid of the smell that was bothering him. “Mistle and Zilphy, clean up that pyramid over there.”

At first, Vur wanted to land on the pyramid while he was falling from the sky, but upon smelling it, a wave of nausea washed over him. It smelled like when Sera forgot to freeze his bears for him when he was younger; they rotted and the stench was unbearable. The pyramid smelled even worse by at least a thousand times. What exactly were they doing on it? Pooping? Weren’t they self-conscious? To poop in plain view of everyone, these people sure were brave.

The two elementals didn’t say anything, but a pillar of water rose out of Vur’s back and flooded towards the pyramid. It crashed against the black rocks and, with the help of Zilphy, scraped away the top layer of unknown material, revealing a white surface underneath. Some of the natives screamed, some of them worshipped even harder, but one thing was for certain: they weren’t actually mute. Vur just couldn’t understand anything they were saying.

“Hey! You missed a spot! Send some water over here.”

“Don’t order me around.”

“Don’t approach my husband!”

Vur poked the brown rune on his arm. “Are they still arguing?”

“Well, nothing’s changed, so yes,” Diamant said. “Do you want me to catch those people that Mistle washed away? They seemed pretty important.”

Vur rubbed his chin. “Yeah, catch them.” Maybe they were the rulers of these people. If that was the case, then if he beat them up, he’d be the new ruler. Wouldn’t it be extremely easy for Tafel to find him if he conquered this land? Eventually, news of this would reach her as long as she was in the same region—unless she couldn’t understand anything the natives were saying either.

While Vur thought of a way to catch Tafel’s attention, five people were brought in front of him via a giant earthen hand. One of them was better dressed than the rest of the natives, and he said something, but of course, Vur didn’t understand a single word. The two stared at each other, and the well-dressed man lowered his head. If he weren’t suspended in the air by the earthen hand, his forehead would’ve touched the ground.

“I feel stinky.” A green rock materialized on Vur’s shoulder. “But the place does smell a lot better now that I transported all that crud elsewhere.” Zilphy blinked at the well-dressed man. “He’s saying something. I can hear the wind whistling through his lips.”

“Can you understand him?” Vur asked and raised an eyebrow.

Zilphy thumped her sticklike arm against her rocky body. “Of course!”

“Really?”