Free Web NovelChapter 45: The Ghost Grandpa Was Too Friendly
Ikarus shook his head. "No, nothing like that."
Maeve felt slightly relieved. At least they weren’t about to stand in a circle and start chanting mysterious words.
"The souls of our ancestors are always watching over us," Ikarus continued. "But they become stronger when they are close to their tombs."
Axan nodded. "That’s why we had to come here. In this place, they can help us more easily and acknowledge you as one of our people."
Maeve frowned as she tried to process that. "So you’re saying..." She pointed between herself and the surrounding coffins. "They’ll come and help me on their own? Even if we don’t perform any ritual?"
"Yes," Ikarus answered without hesitation. "The older a soul is, the stronger it becomes. Since our great-great ancestors have been gone for so long, they can appear much more easily than younger souls."
The moment those words left his mouth, Maeve froze. Her entire body went still. A cold feeling slowly crept into her hands. "What?"
Ikarus blinked several times, meanwhile Maeve stared at him. "What do you mean by appear?" Her voice came out much higher than she intended.
Cerus tilted his head. "Appear?"
"Yes, appear!" Maeve repeated. "What exactly does that mean?"
The three brothers exchanged confused looks. To them, the answer seemed obvious. To Maeve, however, it absolutely was not.
"You know..." Cerus said. "They show themselves."
Maeve felt her soul leave her body. "THEY WHAT?!" Her voice echoed throughout the chamber.
At that moment, all she could think about was one terrifying fact that she was standing inside a room filled with dozens of coffins. And apparently, according to the triplets, the people inside them could still show up.
"They aren’t dangerous?" Ikarus said calmly.
"That doesn’t make it any better!" Maeve looked at him in horror.
Maeve was about to say something else when something strange caught the corner of her eye.
For a brief moment, she thought she was imagining things, but when she looked again, she realized she wasn’t. Thin wisps of white smoke were slowly rising from the coffins scattered throughout the tomb.
At first, the smoke was so faint that it almost blended into the colorful lights around the room. But as the seconds passed, more and more smoke began to emerge.
Instead of disappearing into the air, it gathered above each coffin, growing thicker and denser after a moment.
"What..." Her voice trembled slightly. "What’s happening?"
For the first time since entering the tomb, genuine panic got into her voice because she had a terrible feeling she already knew the answer, and she really, really hoped she was wrong.
"Damn it!" Maeve cursed the moment the smoke began to take shape.
First, it formed a face, then a neck, and then a body with arms and legs.
Even so, Maeve could easily tell they weren’t living people because their figures looked pale and slightly transparent, as if they were made from mist instead of flesh and blood.
A few moments later, white smoke started pouring out of Takra’s coffin as well. Compared to the others, the amount was much greater.
The thick smoke kept rising higher and higher, reaching the ceiling of the chamber. It continued to gather there, twisting and swirling in the air until it finally began to take shape.
Takra’s figure was much larger than the others. He was even taller than any alien Maeve had seen in this world, probably because the air in the past had been much better than it was now.
"Just let me go home," Maeve whispered to herself.
"Welcome to our home, my dear children," Takra suddenly said. His voice echoed through the chamber, causing the walls to tremble slightly.
Even though his body was transparent, Maeve could still clearly see his eyes. They glowed with a beautiful mix of gold and orange, like sunlight at sunset.
Unfortunately, the beauty of his eyes did nothing to calm her down.
His gaze stayed on Maeve for so long that it felt like he was trying to stare straight through her skull. She wasn’t going to lie, he truly scared her.
He was even scarier than the cartel boss who had thrown her into the ocean!
"Is... is he mad at me?" she whispered to Axan, keeping her voice as low as possible. The last thing she wanted was to anger a powerful ghost like Takra.
Before Axan could answer, Takra suddenly moved as fast as a gust of wind, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of Maeve.
At that moment, Maeve nearly died on the spot. Her soul practically jumped out of her body, and her heart almost stopped beating.
For a brief moment, she was convinced that Takra was about to scold her, or worse, yell at her for stepping onto the sacred grounds of the Azuryn ancestors.
But all of those terrible thoughts vanished in an instant because instead of looking angry, Takra suddenly broke into a wide smile.
Then, in a cheerful voice that completely caught her off guard, he spoke. "My goodness!" Takra exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "You actually brought her here!"
He was so cheerful that Maeve couldn’t help feeling a little confused. After all, whenever she thought about ancient ghosts, she imagined angry spirits holding grudges for hundreds or even thousands of years.
But Takra was nothing like that. In fact, he looked like he didn’t have a single mean bone in his body.
Well... not that he had a body anymore. A single mean soul, then.
Honestly, he looked more like an overly excited grandfather meeting his grandchildren than a powerful ancient ghost sleeping inside a tomb.
Not long after, Ikarus stepped forward and spoke. "Leader Takra—"
"Oh, don’t call me that." Takra waved his hand casually. "The moment I died, I stopped being your leader. Just call me Grandpa Takra."
Maeve slowly tilted her head and looked at him with disbelief written all over her face.
This ghost was way too chill!
Ikarus cleared his throat, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere that had settled around them.
"G-Grandpa Takra..." he began. The word still sounded strange coming out of his mouth. He coughed lightly before continuing. "We came here because we’re hoping that you and the other ancestors can help us save our mate."
As he spoke, his gaze naturally shifted toward Maeve. "She is pregnant right now, but my child is putting too much strain on her fragile body," Ikarus explained patiently. "Because of that, I want to infuse my blood into her heart. However, for me to do that, I need your help to lessen the pain she will have to endure." freewebnoveℓ.com
"She means everything to us," he said gently. "That’s why, we don’t want her to suffer any more pain than necessary."
For a brief moment, the concern in his eyes was impossible to hide. It was clear that, if given the choice, he would gladly take all of Maeve’s pain and carry it himself.
Takra’s cheerful expression slowly faded, replaced by a much more serious one.
"It has been a long time since the Azuryn people brought a mate from outside the tribe," Takra began. "But this is the first time someone has brought a mate from another world to me."
Maeve let out a small gasp. "You know that?"
Takra let out a soft chuckle. "My dear child, anyone with eyes can see that you do not belong to this world." He looked at her from head to toe before adding, "You are too fragile, too small, and far too pale for this world."
Maeve opened her mouth, then closed it again. Well... he wasn’t exactly wrong.
Compared to the people of this planet, she really did look delicate.
That last comment probably would have caused a huge argument if someone had said it back in her old world, but here, it was simply a statement of fact.
"The Sky Mother never fails to surprise me," Takra said softly.
He fell silent for a few moments, as if thinking about something far away. Then a gentle smile appeared on his face. "But don’t worry, my dear children. The others and I will help you."
His voice was calm, but there was a firm certainty behind his words. "This world is slowly dying," Takra continued. "So knowing that the Sky Mother has sent a savior here feels like a breath of fresh air after a very long time."
His gaze shifted toward Maeve. For the first time, there was something almost reverent in his eyes.
"I will do whatever I can to protect her precious life," he said. "After all, she has welcomed our offspring into her body and is carrying the future of our people."
To be honest, Maeve had felt uncomfortable about it in the beginning.
The idea of becoming the mother of their leaders’ child had never sat well with her. More than once, she had worried that people would only see her as someone meant to carry a baby.
But after spending time in this world, she slowly realized that none of them had ever treated her that way.
