Return to Jorgaldur Volume IV: Reunion

They'll do

When Eldi left the room, no one was there. As Diknsa had told him the day before, he walked down the hall to head towards the dining room, when a door opened. A rabbit-vampiress came out of the room. She had some resemblance to the one called Coinin, the one he remembered from the game, and who was sleeping when he arrived.

Next to her, there was a muscular man with bluish skin and dark blue hair. No one would say that he was the same starving child that Gjaki had encountered many years ago, and who was now a vampire.

"Are you Eldi?" Brurol asked, incredulous at what his eyes were showing him.

"Of course he is! Haven't you seen the videos?" his wife reproached him. "Welcome! Are you going to have breakfast? Let us accompany you!"

They had heard a lot about Eldi, and had even seen videos in Gjaki's secret room. To their enormous surprise, the day before, Gjaki had called saying that he had returned, and the news had hardly taken long to spread to every corner of the mansion.

However, they didn't know that he had been invited, so it was unexpected to find him there.

"Yes, I was going there. Are you one of Coinin's sisters? I remember you much smaller. Cuina or Kalnin?" he thought he recognized her.

"Cuina! Ha, ha! I still have the necklace you made me. As you can see, I've grown a bit," she said with a huge smile, while with her hand she pointed her height.

Cuina was already extroverted and sociable. That he remembered her had excited her. The girl that she had been remembered him as a hero. Meeting Goldmi had already been fascinating, so now she was delighted.

"He's Brurol. I don't think you know him, he wasn't with us back then," she introduced her husband.

"It's an honor to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Brurol greeted him.

Although he hadn't met him in the past, he couldn't help but feel admiration for him. In fact, the bluish vampire used an axe, and some of his skills had been copied from Eldi. Often, he would watch the videos in which Eldi fought, to learn. The high human had turned into something of a teacher to him. He admired him.

They didn't have much time to talk, as they soon reached the dining room. There, they found a dwarf-vampire playing a card game against a dwarf-vampiress. The first one was frowning, and seemed angry. The second one smiled from ear to ear. It was clear who was winning.

"You must be Eldi, right? You woke up early. Cuina, Brurol! Will your children come today?" the dwarf woman asked, while her opponent was cursing his cards. He also looked at the newcomer with interest.

"Maybe at lunchtime. My grandchildren had school in the morning, and their parents are working in the store. Bruina... You already know that she's unpredictable. Who knows when she'll come back, or where she has gone this time," Cuina explained.

"Ha, ha. The girl has always liked to travel. It was very smart of her to find a job so suitable for her. Travel and write travel guides! She isn't like her parents!" the dwarf man cheered up. Messing with his friends was one of his favorite pastimes.

"Damn grumpy old man. Play at once" the dwarf woman scolded.

Eldi couldn't help but admire the intimacy with which they interacted. They certainly behaved as if they were family, even though their races were so different.

"Hello, Eldi," Diknsa interrupted them. "Sit down, breakfast is ready. Gjaki will arrive a little later, she has gone to see Espi."

It didn't take long for most of the mansion's inhabitants to appear, including Chornakish, Coinin or Kalnin. Everyone looked curiously at Eldi, and many greeted him like an old friend. Most of them had met him in what to him had been a game. While they might not have interacted much, they certainly remembered him.

Besides, most of them had some memory of him, something he had make for them. They could be earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, a ring... All with certain bonuses, although over time, they had become outdated. However, they kept them as a precious memory.

Those who hadn't met him, as was the case with Brurol, had undoubtedly heard of him, and seen him in one of the videos. In a way, it was like seeing a mystical being, an animal that was believed to be extinct.

As always, it was the children eyes the most curious. If it hadn't been for their parents, they would have bombarded him with questions.

He had barely finished eating when Gjaki arrived, which caused Eldi's interrogation to pause. She approached him, and handed him two small vials of blood.

"Will they work?" she asked.

Although she tried to hide it, she was nervous, impatient. For years, she had been searching for a clue about the cure for her friend's husband. Now that they were so close, she felt anxious.

"Yes, they'll do. I can make it now, if you want," he offered.

Eldi could sense the anxiety in her recovered friend, and he himself had begun to feel nervous and impatient. On the one hand, he wanted to see what that potion was like. On the other, he felt the pressure, the fear that it wouldn't work, that something would go wrong.

It was something that wasn't new to him. In his years as a scientist, it had happened to him on many occasions, and in many, the experiments hadn't turned out as his team had wanted. Now, however, he couldn't afford to fail.

"Chorni, can you accompany him? Gjaki still needs to have breakfast," Diknsa intervened, and gave the vampiress no chance to reply.

Diknsa knew that if she let her daughter be, she would miss breakfast, and she wasn't going to allow it. Gjaki wanted to protest, but at the stare of her adoptive mother, she sighed, shrugged, and sat down at the table. It wasn't like there was much she could do either.

Chornakish nodded. Besides, he wanted to be alone with Eldi for a moment. It wasn't until halfway that he made up her mind to ask.

"How was Gjaki like in what you call a game?" the man-panther asked.

Eldi was surprised for a moment by the question, but he immediately smiled.

"Daring, brave, impulsive, even reckless, though she could be surprisingly serious at times. At first, she was a bit introverted, but she ended up being the most cheerful, the one who dragged the rest of us along. Above all, she was a good friend," he explained.

Chornakish smiled. That description matched the Gjaki he knew.

"You know, she sometimes messed up too. Has she told you about...? No, I better not say anything, she would kill me. Ha, ha," Eldi changed his mind.

"Oh, come on, tell me about it," Chornakish asked almost as if he were a child. He couldn't help but want to know any detail of his beloved.

"I don't know if I should..."