Chapter 5 – The Vastaire Ruins

Chapter 5

As time flew by, the shackles of infancy fell away, granting Mat freedom and enough distractions to fill his every waking hour twice over.

No one expected anything from him, he was only a child. Having to worry about having fun all day may get boring eventually, a point he was far from reaching.

His long list of unanswered questions wasn’t forgotten, there was simply no one to protest if he took his time.

In his previous life, his childhood had been cut short when he got diagnosed with a heart condition that put his life on a timer. He couldn’t remember when he started floating along, like a passenger to his own life. It happened long before he died, that much he was certain.

Then he got a second chance. Mat—more precisely Kai—was born. And without realizing it, he fell into his old habits.

It was time to fully take advantage of his second chance at life and stop looking from afar.

Waking up to the smell of the sea, enjoying the sun and waves, running around Yatol with a group of children that shared his passion for exploration. The last part hadn’t been planned. He was minding his own business when the other children joined one by one.

At first, he thought it would be annoying to have a bunch of brats in tow. He tried to ignore them, hoping they would get bored and go away. That worked most of the time, except some pests were more persistent than others.

Ana was the beginning of the fall. A little girl with an apple-shaped face, big green eyes and cascading dark brown hair like most people in the archipelago. She was adorable and naive, like only someone who solely knows the sweetest side of life could be.

If she demanded his attention or made fun of him like other kids, she would have been easy to ignore. Instead, she asked if he would play with her with those big eyes of hers, and his fate was sealed. His mind could not conceive saying no to her.

It was all downhill from there. Before he realized, he had a small following. Who could say no to those round chubby faces? He didn’t have the heart to deny them such a perfect role model.

After he took advantage of his innocent child card against his parents, it was truly karma to be defeated by the same blade.

Babysitting a clutch of little ducklings had not been in his plans, but their cheerfulness almost made up for the headaches they caused him. Kai never got tired of their looks of pure wonder when they discovered something new.

He liked his family, they just didn’t know the whole him. There was no one to freely talk to. With his little band of misfits, he could do or say anything, and no one would question it. Besides laughing at his antics.

Thus, he resigned to his new role. He never thought he would feel so carefree and happy in his life.

Kai made sure the entrance to their secret meeting place was clear. A wall of lush bushes hid a small clearing from the main path, forming a C-shape against a camp of critterbane.

The insidious plants made sure no one approached from that side. Kai didn’t know its scientific name—if it had any—but the thorny bramble with urticant properties was grown around important plantations by farmers to keep critters at bay.

It wasn’t dangerous to humans, if you considered a week-long burning itch not dangerous that is. One way or another they had all suffered it. When you told a child to stay away from something, somehow it never worked.

Making sure no one was looking his way, Kai walked to their super-secret entrance. He pushed aside a few strategically positioned branches and squeezed through a small opening in the tall shrubbery.

The clearing was no more than five meters across and not much longer. There were better places, but nothing could beat the feeling of accessing a secret corner of the world that was only theirs.

Two of the four members of his fearsome band were already present, sitting on some logs which had been brought here at no small cost.

Ana, being one year older than him, was the second youngest of the bunch. She was showing her collection of seashells and conchs to Lou, who silently listened to her ramblings and rearranged them by color and shape.

Lou had a hard time interacting with other people, and Kai could relate to his awkwardness, having always been the odd one out in his previous life. Unfortunately, no one could be as mean as innocent kids. Even if they may not realize they were acting like jerks, a child’s words stung the same.

Quiet and calm, he was the easiest kid to have around. Kai was forever thankful for him. With him, there was no need to talk and no awkward silences.

He joined his companions in admiring the new additions to Ana’s collection. If they were back on Earth, these shells would have belonged in a museum or an art installation. They had a thousand shades of reds, blues, yellows and purples, and an even more diverse range of forms.

Every time Kai thought he had seen them all, a new seashell was pushed to shore by the waves or revealed by the tide. The fact half of them were as big as his head had become so ordinary, he hardly noticed anymore. He focused on admiring the spiraling shapes and patterns.

Poorly suppressed laughter announced the arrival of the last two members of the group. The twins, Uli and Oli, emerged from the bush, chuckling.

Their curiosity and mischievousness were only matched by their inexhaustible energy. They were seemingly unable to stay still for more than five seconds.

For all the time he had known Lou and Ana, they hadn’t exasperated him a tenth of what the twins did in a day. No matter how many times he wanted to strangle them, he couldn’t stay angry at them.

“What are we waiting for? Can we go now?” Uli said, or at least Kai thought it was Uli. They wore different braided bracelets, but they switched them so often Kai had long given up trying to tell who was who.

“Kai, you promised to show us the ruins!” Oli continued.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

He indeed made the unforgivable mistake of mentioning that his father had shown him some of the ruins left by the Vastaire civilization. The group pestered him for weeks till he promised to take them there.

The Vastaire were the original inhabitants of the Baquaire Archipelago. Rellan hadn’t told him much apart from what little was known about them. They disappeared around 8000 years ago, leaving behind several scattered ruins around the islands. It wasn’t even known if they were a distinct sapient race or a subgroup of another known race.

The human migration to these islands ‘only’ happened around 800 years ago. Apparently, any stretch of time shorter than a millennium wasn’t considered much.

The current inhabitants of the archipelago were probably on the losing side in one of the wars on the continent of Talthen, seeking to build a peaceful life on a land most considered worthless. That was until 51 years prior, the Merian Republic decided to magnanimously annex the archipelago. When the Republic arrived with an army there had not been much of a discussion.

For better or worse, the thin mana of the archipelago only produced natural resources of little value. The presence of the Republic only consisted of the governor in Higharbor and not much changed since.

To stop the twins from pestering him, Kai decided to get going. It wasn’t a coincidence he chose today. His mother told him there was going to be a particularly long low tide.

The shallow water around the shore retreated for miles creating a vast stretch of white beach. It was ideal for traveling along the coast. This way they could avoid a three-hour-long trek on a dirty path and cut the journey to two hours.

Kai remembered the first time he walked up to the sea and found a completely different landscape. The crystalline waters were pulled back to reveal a white expanse filled with wonders.

Crabs and other crustaceans skittered here and there, hiding in seaweed fields and hunting for stranded fish. They were in turn all hunted by seabirds who came to take part in the feast.

Countless seashells of all shapes and sizes laid around like spots of colors on a white canvas. You could easily pick them up, but some of them ran away when you got too close, reminding you they were the homes of tiny inhabitants.

His eyes raced between all the wonders demanding his attention. And they had not yet gotten to his favorite part. The seabed was mostly flat, with deeper areas here and there. During a low tide, they transformed into small biomes full of life. They housed all sorts of sea creatures that thought swimming back and forth was too much of a hassle. It was like treasure hunting in an aquarium. He never knew what kind of fish or mollusk he would find next.