NOVEL NEXT Chapter 106: Sky Eater
The monster cages were lined up behind the big show tent. Many of them were veiled under large cloths to keep prying eyes away. The darkness also kept the monsters calm.
“Where’s Lina?” Marmar twisted her head clockwise and counterclockwise.
“Are we going to wait for her?” I was tired and could’ve used the break.
“Hmm… We’ll feed the chimps. We don’t really need her for that.” She was holding a bucket labelled FrutoVega. “There isn’t a lot in these; try lifting it.” She placed the bucket on the ground.
“Okay.” I tried and failed.
“Never mind, fucking magicians.” She pushed me aside and lifted the bucket. “I might fill out the contents into a barrel, then you can roll them.” She thought up future plans. Plans I planned to avoid. And she went on to explain, “These buckets are filled with fruits and vegetables for the herbivores and omnivorous. Reem will send someone over with the meats. If she forgets, you’ll have to go remind her. But usually, she knows we need the leftovers for the monsters.”
“Ah, I see.” I nodded along.
“Hmm…” I followed her through the aisles of veiled cages to the unveiled ones, among which were the chimps. There was a lion’s cage beside the chimps’. The lion licked its lips when it saw me. “You can feed the chimps and the giant tortoise. Leave the lion for later.” She placed the bucket in front of the cage filled with chimps and pried open the lid for me.
“Oh, okay.” I shifted my gaze between the sleepy-looking tortoise and the excited chimps.
“Okay, you feed them. I’m going to go see what’s going on with Lina.”
“Oh… Ah…” Before I could say anything, she was already gone, leaving me alone to feed the tortoise and the chimps. The lion licked its lips again. “Don’t get any funny ideas,” I told it.
So, I tossed in the fruits and vegetables. Most of the leafy stuff I threw in the tortoise’s cage and gave the fruits to the chimps. The chimps were fast to grab and bite. The nectar of the fruits leaked down their chins. Mangos, papayas, bananas… The tortoise was slow… at everything… Watching them made me hungry.
After I had thrown them enough, I put the lid back on the bucket and sat on it. Chin in hand, my thoughts turned to my future plans. I needed to get close to the twins. I made a poor attempt at searching for their trailer by turning my head here and there, only to realise I was surrounded by cages. With a sigh, I felt up the bracelet on my forearm… “Will it work…?” But it didn’t matter whether it worked or not. I could follow the script if it doesn’t, just as I did with Samson. I needed to get the potions I hid in the cellar.
I listed out the plan in my head. One, I needed to get the potion and erase the slave mark on my butt… Two, seduce the twins and get their points. In the game, I needed to erase their slave marks to win them over… I had enough tattoo removal potion for 4 people. Half a bottle for each person. A bottle for them, half a bottle for me, and another half for emergencies. After I had their points, it was a matter of climbing over the wall and running away. You could also choose to help them escape to the next city and get an extra kiss.
“Who told you, you could sit!?”
I bolted to my feet and turned to the screaming voice. Marmar had returned with Lina. “Ah…” I was at a loss for words.
“Hey,” Lina greeted me with a friendlier tone.
“Ah, hey.” My eyes shifted to the buckets in their hands. They were carrying buckets of raw meat. “Those are for the…” My eyes switched to the lion.
“No…” Marmar shook her head. “We’ll feed the lion later. You want to feed it right before the show, so it doesn’t feel hungry when the performers are around it.”
“Oh.” I understood.
“These are for the monsters. Come on, we’ll show you how to feed them.”
“Yeah, for the most part.” Lina shrugged.
“We’ll feed the snake first since we really need you for that one,” Marmar remarked to Lina.
“Okay.” Lina agreed. Disgruntled chirps came from the mockingbird on her shoulder. “Ha ha, she won’t do anything to you.” More chirps, and Lina added, “She’s just joking. She’s playing with you. She’s not so bad when you get to know her.” The bird did not sound happy to hear it. “No, we can’t let her starve.” She shook her head.
I activated [translator], unable to hold back my curiosity, but I only managed to catch the end of it. “Then I’m out! I don’t want to see her!” The mockingbird flew off fuming.
“You can talk to it?” Did she have the [translator] spell too? I wondered. Or maybe another type of skill that allowed her to talk to animals.
“His name is Paramosio.” She corrected me.
“Ah, sorry…”
“No worries.” She smiled. “And no. I can’t ‘talk’ to animals, but I can communicate with them using my basic Tamer skills. Which allows me to convey my emotions and understand theirs.”
“I see… So you can kind of talk to it…” I mumbled. When I played as a Tamer back in the day, they simply obeyed my commands… At least, that’s what I could remember.
“Emotions are the root of all language. Every sound, every fragment of a sound, carries an emotion, and each emotion is linked to another. And since I’m a tamer, I can parse them.” She explained. “I might not understand if he tells me, ‘that is orange, and that is blue.’ But I understand when he says, ‘I like oranges and hate blueberries.’ Then from there, I can understand, ‘that is orange, and that is blue.’ Perhaps I might need to ask him, ‘do you hate blue?’ And if he replies ‘no’. I can be sure from the double negative that he means to tell me a fact and not an opinion. My tamer skill allows me to see the emotional connections and the multifaceted tones attached to his chirps, so I don’t even need to ask him the extra question. I can parse the double negatives and positives that lay deeper within his chirps and understand their true meaning.” She smiled. “Does that make sense?”
“No, not really.” But I didn’t really care. “You basically have a skill that lets you talk to them.”
“Ah… that’s not what I said.”
“But basically.”
“Ah… I guess,” she sulked.
“Enough, jibber-jabber, help me with this.” We were at the end of an aisle of cages, and stretched out on the ground was a rubber sheet. Marmar yanked out a nail that was keeping the rubber sheet pinned to the ground. Lina pulled out the nail at the other corner of the square sheet. “What are you waiting for!? Pull it out!” She pointed at another corner. I quickly ran around and tried to yank it out, only to struggle, unable to even budge the damn thing. “You can’t do that either!?” She ridiculed while yanking out another pin.
“Let me help you.” Lina smiled and pulled the nail out for me.
They pulled the sheet off and revealed the cage underneath. I looked through the black bars and saw the creature which lay coiled at the bottom of the pit. “A Sky Eater,” I gasped. Sky Eaters were powerful monsters, said to have come into this world through the first dungeon. Legends say it could fight dragons, though that might be an exaggeration. I activated [look-a-look]. It was level 42, almost as powerful as the ringmaster. “How can…?” I turned to Lina, and just as I thought, she was only level 18. So, how was she able to command this beast? I wanted to know.
“Huh?” Lina was confused by my expression. “Is something wrong?”
“She’s just surprised to see a Sky Eater.” Marmar tried to explain. “You’ll get used to it.” She walked on the bars to the middle of the cage, placed the bucket on two bars, and unlocked the hatch. The hatch was big enough for it to slither out of. I was worried. “You don’t want to get too close,” she warned. “Only Lina and Silva can control it. If you’re by yourself, don’t even do what I’m doing right now.”
“Yeah, don’t get too close to it if I’m not around. Even Silva can only threaten it and keep it from eating her.” And gazing into the pit, she added, “She only listens to me.” She then stomped the metal bar and yelled, “Hey, wake up!”
“Hey! What are you doing!?” Marmar ran away from the hatch and got back on solid ground.
Lina laughed and cheerfully walked along the bars to the metal hatch. She placed her buckets next to the one Marmar had left, took a seat on the edge of the opening, and dangled her feet into the pit with careless comfort. “Come on, Nona. It’s feeding time.” It slowly uncoiled and rose… I glimpsed at the blue-nosed monster. All its scales were black except for the few near its nostrils. It opened its mouth, and for a moment, I thought it might grow wider than the whole pit. Though I was nervous she’d be swallowed whole, she wasn’t. She sat there smiling and tilted the bucket into its open jaw. Its mouth quickly filled up with meat…
“Don’t give it everything! We still need to feed the other ones!” Marmar reminded her.
“I know.” She sulked.
“Okay, I’m gonna go deliver the mermen their meals. I’ll be right back.” Marmar informed.
“Can I deliver it!?” Lina got excited. Though she was already feeding the Sky Eater, it seemed she didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to get close to the mermen. Which was understandable.
“Lina… You know Silva doesn’t like you getting close to the boys after what happened with the twin.”
“Twin?” I was curious.
“She doesn’t own them.” She muttered.
“Hmm…” Marmar frowned.
She tried to change gears. “Plus, she doesn’t need to know. It can stay between us.”
Marmar ignored her proposition. “She owns everything in this park, Lina. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.” She was serious. It was the wisdom of an old woman who’d given up a long time ago.
“I’ll never accept that.” She grunted.
“Oh, Lina,” Marmar sighed. “Well, I’ll be right back,” she told me and walked off to feed the mermen.
“Hmm…” Lina moaned.
After she finished feeding it, she hung down with her legs hooked on the bars and pet the beast. I was shocked to see a level 18 Tamer play around with a level 42 monster.
“It looks pretty powerful” I poked around, hoping some answers would come out.
But, “Yeah,” was all I got out of her before she returned to talking to it in hushed tones. I was using [translator], but I could only hear a few words. “Chance”, “years”, “same”, “do”, “be patient”, “tired”, “free”…
When Marmar returned, she shouted, “Come on!” Which interrupted their whisperings. “We still have to do all the others. You can play with it later!” She wasn’t fazed by their friendliness at all.
“Play with it…” I mumbled.
The Sky Eater flared its hood at Marmar. “Your master has work to do!” She shouted back.
“Alright, I gotta go.” Lina patted the Sky Eater’s head and lifted herself out of the hatch. “I’ll talk to you later.”
***
It was well past lunch when we finished feeding all the monsters. So we had a late lunch.
Just as I put the last piece of my lunch in my mouth, Marmar said, “Okay, now we have to do the cleaning. The monsters can leave a mess after they eat, and it’s our job to clean it up.”
“Oh…” My heart sank.
“Don’t worry, we use magic scrolls for a lot of it. Especially for the monsters, since it can be tough to get into their cages without Lina.”
“And… where’s Lina going?” I looked at the cue ball that’d finished her meal.
“I have to go prepare for the show.”
“Yeah. So we’ll be doing the cleaning on our own.” Marmar nodded. “You said you could use telekinesis, didn’t you?”
Oh god, I thought, I’m going to have to clean up poop using telekinesis. “Ah, yeah…” It was then that I decided not to reveal any more of my spells to them.