Questing System - Chapter 8：Siren of Destiny

Icarus came to again and immediately realised that something was different. He didn’t feel as warm as usual. That was also when he realised something was…sticking to him. ‘Wait a sec. Am I about to be born?’ He still couldn’t move his body but he felt tremors happening around him. It was a special and weird moment as his body began sliding out. Even though he couldn’t move his limbs or any specific part of his body, he still was able to shift his centre of mass. Rolling on to his belly, he made sure to position himself correctly. Being born feet first was an actual birth complication which would require an operation. Icarus didn’t want to have such a difficult birth so he oriented himself head first, at least according to him, and crossed his fingers.

The constant tremors that he felt all around him made the whole experience somewhat disturbing to say the least. Finally the cold stabbing air on blew his skin and he realised that he had officially entered the world. That was also when the ringing sound went off.

Special Quest: First Cry

Cry (make it an epic one)

Reward: +0.3 Constitution, +0.3 Power, +0.3 Agility, +0.9 Dexterity

Penalty: Death (by suffocation)

Time limit: 00:02

‘Oh my god!’ He freaked out as soon as the time limit of the quest appeared on the screen. His behaviour for the next minute was akin to a headless chicken, panicking and trying to figure out how to make a noise from his mouth.

Slap!

That was when he felt it; a heavy slap on his ass. ‘God damn, thats not going to work!’

Slap! Slap!

‘You seriously think that a slap would make a newborn cry?!’

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

‘God damnit you better stop! Its actually starting to hurt.’ He felt something begin to build up inside of him.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

‘Waah!’ It actually worked. Icarus was extremely surprised when he felt himself crying. He heard a ringing sound and the numbness all over his body rapidly recede. At the same time, he was dropped.

‘What the hell?! After all that?’ His heart stopped beating for a second as weightlessness overcame his whole body. Feeling a disparate depression taking over his mind, everything turned grey for a moment. After all that suffering, was he really going to be killed by being dropped?

Just when everything seemed to have been lost, he felt strong arm wrapping gently around him. They seemed to slow his down and gently bring him into an embrace, covering him in warmth. Icarus had no idea exactly what had happened or how it had happened. He opened his eyes for the first time and his blurry vision cleared almost instantly to reveal a huge face, smiling at him. The face was fair and extremely handsome with brown hair and a thick beard.

‘I-I am so sorry my lord!’ He heard another voice echoing in from the background.

‘Thats all right Martha, it wasn’t your fault to begin with.’ He smiled in a certain direction before looking down towards Icarus again, ‘you cheeky little bugger, already making mischief when you’re just born!’ The man gently rocked him as he caressed his tiny nose. Icarus had no idea exactly how he had made mischief but he didn’t care at the moment. Partly because he was just happy to be alive and partly because the gentle rocking was actually causing him to slowly but surely fall asleep.

‘Honey, can I hold my child now?’ A sweet voice echoed from somewhere else as he felt himself being passed off. He was drifting in and out of sleep at this point so he wasn’t exactly sure about the process but he soon found himself in the arms of a beautiful woman. Her complexion was fair, her lips were cherry red and her eyes were hazel. Her beautiful black hair was flowing down to her shoulders in an umbrella shape. The visage was enchanting to say the least. If she didn’t look so weary, he felt that he would have been blown away by her beauty. ‘Look at my baby, you are so beautiful I feel that you might be trouble for the girls when you grow up.’ She smiled at him as she rocked him. It was the most gentle and sweetest smile he had ever seen, feeling just like cotton candy. As he finally fell asleep his last thought was about his face and the fact that he might actually get the face of a ladykiller with such handsome and beautiful parents.

Daedalus watched Sana gently rocking their son in her arms. He had been to the four corners of the world, seen great pillars of water rising into the sky, watched great warriors fight, been to the most lush and verdant green forests and even to the most barren and dead lands. In all his life so far, in all his experience, this was actually the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He knew that this scene would be the most beautiful thing he will ever see. Feeling the wetness around his eyes, he rubbed them a bit before going to sit beside Sana. ‘He’s beautiful isn’t he?’ She asked whilst looking down at the babe.

‘Yes, he certainly is.’ Daedalus looked down at him. The little guy was sleeping peacefully, snoring with a chubby face. He had tufts of baby hair which were dark brown and would go well with his beautiful hazel eyes. Daedalus had a feeling that this guy would actually become a ladykiller with his looks.

‘Honey, his first cry…it was…the legendary Karmic Destiny Siren.’

‘I know, we already had the prophecy from uncle Felix, his first cry confirmed it.’

‘This chubby little babe will be an emperor some day…can you believe it?’ Sana looked at Daedalus.

‘I can’t.’ He replied, concern heavy in his voice. Sana knew that Daedalus didn’t care whether their son was an emperor or a farmer, all he wanted was that their son be safe. She knew because she wanted the same, but they both also knew that being emperor and being safe were about as far apart as they could get. She sighed and stood up, taking the baby with her to the next room. Daedalus, whilst still in thought, asked Martha to clean up the mess as he followed after Sana. He found her lying on their bed, right next to their son, caressing his forehead. ‘I was thinking, do we have to tell him.’ He asked, just hoping, in vain, to hear a no.

‘Its not in our hands anymore, we both know that.’

‘We have enough karma to alter his path.’

Sana looked up towards him, ‘then lets alter it towards a better pathway, not a worse one.’

‘How could we possibly decide that?’

Sana looked towards her son, ‘we can’t, we don’t have the right to. So we let him.’ Then she stared intensely at Daedalus, ‘but for him to make a proper decision, he has to have all the facts. We need to tell him.’

Daedalus walked towards the bed and sat down right next to them. He looked at his son, and felt fear for the first time in his life. Telling his son about his past, he would rather face a dragon, heck a group of dragons, on any day. Daedalus knew though, in order make sure that Icarus will be happy, he had to get past that. Taking his son’s happiness away from him with his own hands, that was even more mortifying. ‘Very well. We will tell him when he is five, like we agreed.’