Chapter 16

Apparently, I was a kami now. Or at least, a sentry of some nature kami, long foretold in the prophecy of the trove. Be impressed I even remembered these many words when I had no idea what half of them meant. 

"How do you feel to be in my presence and aid me in such a holy cause?" I teased smugly. Toliz just glared at me before rushing forward as if trying to get some distance from me. I frowned. I was merely joking and she had been the one to offer her assistance willingly so I couldn't tell what I had done wrong. Nax nudged me on the leg with his warm body and when I looked down at him hoping to find some male camaraderie over the workings of the female mind, I found exasperation. Even though it should be physically impossible with his animal eyes, he rolled them at me before he huffed and ran up to Toliz. "Traitor" I whispered between gritted teeth.

My close relationship with the rare wolf that the Keepers had dubbed a deity just because they felt like it, I mean they hadn't even seen him complete some incredible feat or anything so I was once again confused at how religions and belief worked, along with the perfect timing of the thunder, made them see me in a different light as well. I was no longer the stranger they couldn't trust nor was I just a mere oathbound brother. I was something of a kami myself, free interpretation since they had basically implied I was the servant of the white wolf kami, and I was brought to them by some kind of prophecy or sign from Mother Nature to change the harmful ways of humans once and for all. 

Granted, that made the rest of my temporary group look worse. In their attempts to make me look better and justify my actions, they conveniently forgot I had been the one to actually stumble upon the Evil Willow-seriously they wanted to defend a tree named like that?-and was the one who had tried to cut off his roots. In their revised version of the story, the others were the ones that had corrupted or even kidnapped me to exploit my good nature when I was trying to find the Keeper Camp, Elodi M'ghoh. As you may have guessed, we are just gonna call it the Camp from now on because that name is a mind twister.

I had vouched for them not wanting to bring them even more trouble and the Keepers had decided to let them go free if I would just go into this adventure to fullfil the prophecy. I was pumped about the mere prospect of this, especially when Toliz named herself a volunteer, and I had readily agreed. I was a little sad that I hadn't been given the chance to say goodbye to the others but I was sure we were going to bump into each other again in the future. I knew they were going to be relieved they didn't have to take care of me anymore and that they would be free to do as they pleased so I wished them all the best. 

"Sooo, where we off to?" Seeing as my attempt at teasing hadn't worked, I tried to be more friendly and straightforward. She still looked uncertain of if she should trust me and I got that but everything had happened so fast that I literally had no clue. "Are you denying your kami?" I try to boom but my voice sounded comical.

"Last I checked, you were just his servant" She jested while side-eyeing me and patting Nax's forehead. 

"Yeah, as if that asshole needs any more attention to his needs. His head's already a balloon" I pouted but she turned to fully look at me perplexed. I backtracked at my words trying to find what I had said wrong now.

"What's a balloon?" She cocked her head. I smiled. She didn't know stuff from my world as much as I didn't know from hers so I didn't have to feel like the idiot! We could learn from each other.

"It's a spherical thing that you fill with air and then tie it so that the air doesn't leave. It becomes so light that it flies into the sky!" She looked at my excited gestures with one furrowed eyebrow and the other cocked but she couldn't hide that amazement from me! "I'm just saying. He's an airhead" I blushed and Nax nipped my fingertips in retaliation. "See what I'm talking about?!" I showed his sour expression with both arms but she just chuckled and continued walking.

"You two seem more similar than you think" I scoffed."How did you meet such a brilliant specimen anyhow? Don't get me wrong, I don't believe he is actually a kami like the rest of my people do. But I have been in these forests since I can remember and I've never seen such a white wolf before" She looked him in the eyes and reached out to pet him gently once again. He became putty at her hands and I could swear I saw his tail wag. He was useless.

"He's not from here. I came across him in the Frozen Wastes. He was such an asshole to me at first, let me tell you! He sent his whole pack onto me but then we kinda bonded over my suicidal tendencies....He's still an asshole! But he's my asshole now and... What's wrong?" I had been so caught up in my rambling I hadn't noticed how utterly frozen she had become and the look of terror and fury she was sporting. Uh oh. No matter what I had done before now, this time I had messed up bad. What was it with me constantly having my foot in my mouth? I always kept stepping on landmines.

"Frozen Wastes? You were in the Frozen Wastes before coming here?" She talked slowly as if she was deliberately trying to be calm.

"Ah eh, yeah" Did they have a feud with that territory or something? I hadn't met a single person over there. Well apart from the one that made me go diving into the stone cold water.

"But now you're here" I nodded not knowing what else to do. Why were we stating the obvious? "How are you here?" She mumbled. I wasn't sure if she was speaking her thoughts out loud but I still replied.

"We swam" She lifted her head so quickly that some hairs got freed from her ponytail. Her look was so intense it was starting to disturb me.

"You swam? All the way from the Frozen Wastes to the Verdant Shard?" Well, when she said it like that I sounded out of my mind but I hadn't actually thought it through and I knew it was somewhat crazy. To a degree. "You are either magnificent, stupidly lucky or the most outrageous person I've ever met" Likewise was my instinct reply but I held it in.

"Why is it so weird that we came from another place though? I've seen multiple islands close to each other around this one. Don't you have a connection? A means of transport? Surely, you haven't stayed in the Verdant Shard forever." I asked defensively and she looked at me like I was the crazy one.

"Oh, there is a means of transport, if you could call it that but yeah, we've never left the Verdant Shard" My eyes bulged. But the other islands were so close! Was it an NPC thing like what Adriana tried to tell me? But they sincerely looked like real people! From the whole nature cult thing, this was the one piece of information I couldn't stomach.

"But why would you limit yourselves like that? Aren't you curious about the rest of the world out there? It's so close and so magical!" She crossed her arms.

"You better not talk this nonsense back in Elodi M'ghoh" Oh, so that was how this was pronounced. "You swore an oath now. You must follow this."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"The Keepers. Our mission is to seal all the portals to other Shards. Until you mentioned swimming, the only known way of transport were the portals. We thought that was why you were attacking the Wise Willow yesterday. He holds the key for the portal to the Mirror Shard . We believe since the Shards are separated from each other, it is a form of punishment for the way the people destroyed and broke the world. It needs to be kept that way. If nobody can connect the Shards, nobody can open the Ark Gate and unleash all Hell into what's left of us." She sounded like a robot and I didn't like that one bit. "And you're one of us now. That's what we are headed to do"

And now the locked gate icon made so much more sense