Chapter 15: Snake Island (II)
Inhaling the fresh, oceanic air, Apolo let out a sigh as he gazed into the horizon.
Now adorned in old, worn-out fisherman clothes that could barely fit him and a fisherman hat, he stood at the ocean coast, lost in thought.
Then he blurted out,
"Allison, when is your grandfather coming back?"
To his side, Allison was busy playing with molded sand, but when she heard Apolo, she twitched her nose and frowned, then looked at the horizon and replied,
"He should have come back by now."
Shaking his head, Apolo replied,
"Maybe he got caught up with something else."
Finally, Allison stood up and walked closer to the water's edge. Looking at a distant green glowing island, she replied,
"There's nothing that can catch my grandfather's attention when he's already set to come home. Let's go and look for him at his fishing spot."
"We...?"
Apolo was momentarily at a loss. He'd been thinking that after Allison's grandfather returned, he would thank him and then disappear from here—he didn't want to bring harm to their family.
But now going to look for her grandfather meant exposing himself too soon.
"What's wrong?" Allison asked, frowning, then giggled.
"Are you going to run away now? Or have you forgotten your promise?"
Sighing, Apolo spread his hands and said,
"My promise is still valid. And besides, this isn't what I promised. Let's just see this as us strolling to your grandfather's fishing spot."
"Alright, let's go!"
Allison shouted and immediately dove into the water, signaling for Apolo to do the same.
"Since Allison and possibly her grandfather don't know about the bounty on my head, it's very likely I'm far away from my parents' kingdom," Apolo thought as he prepared to dive into the water with her.
But then—
He stopped. The memory of him hitting the same ocean surface appeared in his head again. That bone-crushing sound, blood splattering on the surface like hitting a concrete floor—it all filled his head again, making him take a step backward in horror.
"Hey, Red Scale! Knock it off! This is just the shallow part of the ocean, and besides, we're going to that island."
She pointed to the green glowing island ahead, over a kilometer away.
Taking a deep breath, Apolo stepped into the water little by little until he was now floating.
Immediately, what his father had told him resurfaced: "Face to face, water is your friend. It is soft. If you are smart enough, you can use it for protection. But from afar, it is your enemy and can be harder than lathirium, the hardest metal known to man."
One of the things that set hybrids apart from humans—aside from their beast transformation—was their physical attributes.
Hybrids had insane amounts of endurance in their human form, which would then spike if they transformed. Just a hybrid toddler could be two times faster than the best human athletes and almost compare to the strongest humans in strength.
These were some of the things that started making people ask: "Can hybrids be considered humans?"
For centuries, the answer had been no, but people were unwilling to believe that. Some believed hybrids were the future of human evolution, but then there were also certain groups that believed hybrids were cursed, that they were monsters who could cause the destruction of humanity.
Apolo closed his eyes, feeling the cold sensation of the water as he reminisced about some of the conversations he'd had with Allison earlier.
Swimming across over a kilometer of ocean was nothing. Within a few minutes, Apolo and Allison were already at the slope of the island.
Scratching his head, Apolo suddenly had this feeling that Allison had just been slowing down because of him. If she'd wanted, she could have crossed that ocean in a few breaths.
"Hey, Red Scale! Be very careful. Like I said, no landmark in Snake Island is safe. Everything has hidden dangers."
Allison called out to Apolo as she watched him scratching his head and walking unrestrained.
Nodding his head, Apolo became more conscious of his surroundings.
The island was eerily quiet. No birds sang. No insects buzzed. Just the distant crash of waves and the rustle of leaves in the wind. It felt... wrong.
Then he remembered something Allison had told him:
"Snake Island is home to many smaller islands—or landmarks, as they're called by the locals.
There was a rumor that centuries ago, this entire Snake Island was a country on a continent called Europe. During the first waves of chaos beasts attack, this country was reduced to nothing but these islands formed by smaller ones."
Clearing his mind, Apolo asked,
"So Allison, where's your grandfather's fishing spot?"
"Oh, at the other side of the island! Let's run—don't be left behind!"
Allison responded as she turned into a blur and disappeared right before Apolo's face.
"Indeed, this girl is not as simple as she looks," Apolo thought as he chased after her.
The island wasn't that big—just a few tens of kilometers. So a few minutes later...
"We're here..."
Allison replied but paused as she stopped running.
Apolo also came to a halt behind her.
Looking at her troubled expression, he asked,
"What's wrong?"
With her eyes already turning red, Allison replied,
"These are my grandpa's fishing hooks and fishing bait. Why would he leave them here?"
Frowning slightly, Apolo looked around.
There were fishing lines scattered on the ground, a basket woven from palm leaves which contained a few fish—but they'd long since died and had started decaying.
The smell of rot hung in the air. But the ground didn't have any signs of struggle, as if someone had been attacked.
He then looked at Allison, but was speechless because currently she was—
"Sniff... sniff..."
Her shoulders began to shake. Tears welled up in her eyes, then spilled over, streaming down her sun-tanned cheeks.
Her breath hitched as she tried to hold it in, but her voice cracked when she spoke.
"Why would my grandpa just disappear like this for almost a week?"
Her hands trembled as she picked up one of the fishing hooks, clutching it tightly against her chest.
"Woooo..." A broken sob escaped her throat. "He didn't even come home to me..."
The sound was raw, small, and utterly heartbroken—like a child who'd lost the only person left in the world who cared.
"Allison, please be calm. Maybe your grandfather went somewhere very important."
Apolo tried to calm her down, but the result was—
"Where is more important than me?" Her voice rose, sharp with pain and desperation. Tears streamed freely now, her face flushed.
"Ever since I lost my parents, my grandpa has been the one taking care of me! He's never disappeared like this before! Something is wrong! My grandpa can't just disappear like this!"
She collapsed to her knees, clutching the fishing hook so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her whole body shook with silent sobs.
Confused and exhausted, Apolo started investigating the area, giving her space to grieve.
Five hours later, he came back to the same spot and saw Allison laying on the ground with a half-dead expression. This pained him greatly in his heart.
"Allison!"
Apolo called out gently.
Wiping her swollen eyes, Allison struggled to sit up, looking at Apolo expectantly.
"There's no clue that suggests your grandfather was taken by someone. Maybe he might be at home. How about we go back?"
Apolo replied calmly.
He then stretched his hand out, waiting for Allison to grab it and stand up. But the moment he did so—
"WHOOOOSH..."
From the corner of his eye, he saw something green striking. Hurriedly, he pulled his hand back, dodging the strike by a hair.
Apolo looked up and saw a green snake over two meters long coiled up in a tree opposite him. The snake kept making warning gestures as it opened its pitch-dark mouth, exposing its black forked tongue.
"A green mamba? How rare," Apolo thought as he looked at the snake.
A snake whose venom was highly potent against normal humans but more of a vomiting agent to hybrids.
Ignoring the snake and its hissing sound, Apolo grabbed Allison and dashed toward their wooden house.
But on the way, another disturbing piece of information he'd received from Allison during one of their conversations replayed in his head.