After the hearty breakfast he was told to wash up, after stalking his brother who along side him was told to wash themselves he got to know where bathroom was. Looking at himself in the reflection of the water he could see a young boy with black hair, black eyes or eye, one of the eye the right in particular was covered in an eye patch. He knew about the eye patch when he was eating, after he settled down he finally realized that he had subconsciously been twisting his head to take a good look at what was happening on his right side, he grew suspicious, then he felt the eye with his hand only to see an eye patch covering it.
"Marius I know you like sulking but could you go sulk somewhere else, you are not the only one who needs to use the bathroom".
"In a minute". Eclipse finally realized why this Marius was a sulker according to his sister, that girl is a chatterbox, she kept on talking and talking, he even wondered if she was related to them at all cause no one in the family was as restless as her. Just hearing her talk was enough for anyone to become depressed in anger.
After his bath and the glare he received from his sister he got dressed, he threw in a brown kimono and went to meet his father and little brother who was outside waiting for the two women in their family.
He kneeled on the soft rug beside his father as he took in the street, the houses were basically the same structure as their house no exception with a few people greeting them as they passed.
"Son, I can't begin to tell you how proud I am". With a sigh the middle aged man turned to his left and with a soft smile urged his little son. " Why don't you go stay with your mother I got something to say to your brother".
The young boy wasn't a talkative so without asking questions he left, leaving Eclipse and his new father alone.
"Like I said before am proud of you but not because you went to the gorge, that was beyond stupid". Turning to look at him he said. "I am proud of you , you brought back the news and saved the family and the whole community as a whole, for that you are a hero but a foolish hero, and your foolishness caused has caused you your eye and a friend".
The man who he had come to know as Timon cast his gaze across from their house staring at empty space as if looking far ahead as silence settled in each lost in their own thoughts.
'The gorge, that's the place Marius lost his right eye, I wonder what it looks like, is that why I get this feeling of fear whenever I hear or think of the gorge'. It seems Marius had a trauma every time he thought or heard about the gorge he will become restless and fearful.
'wait did he just say a friend'. This time Eclipse was confused, he wanted to ask which friend, but he didn't know their stance on being possessed. So with that he laid the matter to rest.
After some time in silence Timon spoke up.
"There's something important that I am about to tell you, so don't panic". Without waiting for Marius to speak he continued in a somber voice.
"This are dire, ever since we got here, the generation of my great grandfather in particular, the goddess has gone silent all of the attempt to communicate with her failed".
'That means we are in the period after the eclipse era, the Golden age but I reckon we are still at the beginning of the Golden age else he wouldn't be somber about how the goddess didn't answer them, the gods rested during this era'.
"After years and years of trying many lost hope very few still believed in the goddess, some of them even turned to the goddess of Strom praying for her to save us, and recently they had a breakthrough".
Eclipse was confused, they were looking for some god to help them now that a goddess answered them shouldn't he be happy.
He hesitantly voiced his opinion. "Isn't that a good thing".
His father let out a sigh.
"It's not necessary a bad thing, but there is a bond that binds us to our goddess — loyalty".
"Loyalty".
"Yes loyalty, she have been looking over us for a very long time now we can't just go and break her trust just because she haven't answered us for over a few centuries now, we all know due to how slow we are our goddess usually go to sleep to quench her boredom and this time it isn't different, she's just taking a larger nap to enable us gather our bearing before moving on but humans, humans really are impatient".
'judging from the silence they got from the goddess and her being bored I am hundred percent sure the goddess is the goddess of travelers and lost soul'.
"Sorry about my rumbling, the problem is we all are in trouble and I won't sugarcoat it, we all may die, ever single one of us. Although you managed to bring back the news of a stain crawling out of the gorge but it's too late, after a recent probing at the gorge we noticed the stains in the gorge have become more restless and are even actively climbing up. This have given the fraction of the goddess of Strom an advantage, according to them, the goddess had decreed. For everyone to flee towards the mountains, but the other fraction which is us opposed, now that they have this advantage they would stop at nothing to presude all of us to move".
'i don't get what he's saying, staying here meant certain death, and running away meant certain changes of surviving, I don't see why the problem is we should just flee'.
"They might be a confrontation during or after the festival, the festival is just to delay time for me to find the pearl of the goddess and with it we will Baptize our people back to our goddess and rain ruin on the stains".
'confrontation, don't tell me they would be a fight'. Frowning his face as he thought of a certain fight, they was no way he was going to be of any use, hell if he survived it would be a miracle he didn't know how to his exousia worked and was sure as hell no matter how good he was as fighting he could be at Aether powered Human while still clueless on how to apply Aether on his attacks, fact— theory is way different from practical.
Turning to look at his son increasing frowning face, he sighed he could tell what was bothering him.
"Son you must be wondering why I am telling you this". His son, Marius was quite but he didn't bother him it was a lot to chew on, if he was a kid even he would have panicked, hell even now he was panicking thinking about what was going to happen to this family.
'No matter what it takes I must prevent them from harm'. But that was easier said then done, the pearl of the goddess is a treasure wielded by the apostle of the goddess. Although only the apostle could wield it, it was too treacherous of a journey, so a candidate was groomed from a young age to retrieve the pearl for the apostle.
The pearl would always disappear after the death of his previous owner, after a new apostle is chosen he would receive the power to discern the position of the pearl, then a candidate to retrieve the pearl is chosen and groomed into a loyal prawn. The elder council had urged him to retrieve the pearl but he has always been delaying it, if he was before he had a family of his own he would have already gone but it was different now he had a loving wife and three children he didn't want to be separated from them as going after the pearl, death was almost guaranteed.
One day after an intense argument with the elders basic disregard for his life, he went home still angry only to see the foolish son of his causing trouble, he lashed at his son in anger even going as far as abusing him physically, but the useless son of his didn't react just kept looking at him with that dirty grin on his face. It was then he recalled what his son hated the most — being called a child. When he was called a child all his reason will fly out of the window, he would suddenly become an irrational animal, then in a serious voice he said to his son. "Grow up". Those two simple words was all it took for the unfilial son of his to rally his friends together ready to journey to the gorge, but his friends were fearful and rejected the idea but one of them Andrea stayed by his side and journeyed together with him to the gorge, result— one dead the other on the other, managed to somehow escape to tell the story but was never the same again. Not only that, due to the depressed look on his face and his constant sarcastic remarks of dying everywhere rope in the house have been hidden least he committed suicide, fact— he did commit suicide if not for timely assistance his son would have been with his friend journeying together to the Depth of Tartarus.