On a Gas giant, in a small solar system, lost in a seemingly desertic galaxy.

A civilization thrived with great luck, by a grand turn of events, a moon that was orbiting this planet broke apart, letting its remains fall onto the surface of this planet. It led to the creation of islands that floated on top of a sea of gas.

By strange means and uncomprehensible luck, life was able to form and survive on its surface. The ice that had previously been formed on the surface of the moon dropped on the surface of the planet with others remains.

The melting ice created water that then created lakes and rivers on the multiple islands that were floating on the surface of the gas giant. By then making life able to be created on them. Quickly, creatures were populating the islands and creating a strong and complex ecosystem in them.

Later those same creatures were able to adapt to the extreme condition of the outside world and were able to survive outside of the islands. They lived in the sea of gas, where they formed an even more complex and unimaginable ecosystem, where the farthest you go from these islands, the more extreme or dangerous species survive.

This sea was and is mainly made of extremely dense but soft gas, it can lift big and heavy objects on its surface not letting them sink. But it also has the downside of allowing small and light objects to sink into the depth of the sea.

Deep beneath the first layer of the surface of the planet, you can find where the more thin but heavy fog-like molten gas is trapped. It is so heavy that it is crushing everything that comes down at this depth. Except for the rare species of creatures that evolved in a way that made them able to withstand this weight and pressure.

Even deeper into the sea, below the fog-like molten gas, there is the inner core of the planet consisting of dense and extremely heavy molten gas created at extreme temperatures that are always crushing on itself.

And on a not-so-small island that floated on this sea, was a small city of eleven thousand residents. The main source of food for its residents was the occasional fish or other creatures the citizen hunted outside in the sea or the fruits or vegetables they harvested from the farms on the island.

"Yori! Detach the boat, please. I'm gonna hunt some Tigerfish in the West, next to the Giant Alexandras Rock."

A man in his late twenties was marching on a wooden path, it was floating twenty feet above the sea. The man was equipped with strange gears of various means, but all had some things in common, they seemed deadly and made to catch creatures mainly fish of various sizes.

He was wearing a fisherman's vest stuffed with a small steel plate, below his vest was a white shirt reinforced with leather. He also had jeans that were customized to not bother his movement but to also allow him to be able to protect his legs from any cut.

In front of him was a small hut with a red-tiled roof, this hut could be found at the entrance of any docks. It was the hut of the docker in charge of the maintenance of the dock.

Inside the hut, a man was looking at him. He had a face full of scars and seemed to have been in some fight recently proved by the multiple bruises on his face. He was well-aged but looked like he had not lost the strength gained in his young days. His skin was slightly darker than the others people because of all the time he passed on the dock below the bright sun.

"I note your destination and I'm coming to detach your boat, Markus. Go ahead and prepare yourself. It will take me five minutes to finish what him doing."

"I'll see you there, then."

Markus continued walking down the wooden docks toward his boat, it was parked far from the entrance of the dock because it cost less money. It was a new boat that had cost him a fortune to be built because he wanted it to be well-engineered and assembled by a local professional boat Builder.

He also wanted it to be customized to suit his needs, making it able to survive a hunt with big and dangerous creatures that could easily break a regular boat with their sheer strength or numbers.

The boat was equipped with a steel-reinforced mast, a thick sail to resist the strong wing. The baseline looked like a boat, but the hatch was made to resemble a submarine.

And for a good reason, that is. It was because the boat was equipped with a special plan in mind. It had been made and equipped with the last invention of the Boat build. It can retract its mast and sail to activate two propellers on the backend of the boat. Allowing him to navigate inside the sea and resist the pressure of the foggy liquid in its depth, abling him to hunt creatures that were not reachable before by his traditional boat.

It was also armed with multiple nets and other weaponry, like harpoons for small or medium-sized fish or cannons to use against big creatures or pirates.

Not too long after Markus had started preparing his boat and checking if everything was all right, Yori arrived, walking towards him.

"Have you finished your check-up ?"

"No. Give me five minutes and him done with it."

"Cool, I'll wait a bit hear then."

Yori leaned on a nearby pole to wait a bit. He needed Markus to finish checking everything up before he could untie his boat, and release him to the sea.

"I'll tell you, Markus, I don't want to be too personal with you. But I think you could consider accepting the proposal from Yunika. She's a good girl, and probably a great wife. Yes, she has some small problem with her personality, but I'm pretty sure that you only need to accept her proposal, and she will happily fix herself for you. She's not even proposing to you for marriage. She just wants to be your girlfriend. And pass more time with you. Why are you so against it? I don't understand."

"I know. I know. But I don't have the time for those things right now.  I need to repay my debt to the city. I also need to make enough money so that I can survive this season. Another debt to Jockie, the local professional boat builder. I also need to go to Kratarakt to find some fishermen for my crew... I don't have time to develop a relationship right now. And it's too dangerous, I'm sure someday I will die while hunting some things in the sea. I don't want to make her sad."

"She will be even sadder if you don't accept her before you die. Trust me, I know more about women than you do. But I understand your point of view, it's dangerous to hunt. Have you never thought about retirement?"

"...Anyway. Do you remember? This week is a great week to hunt Flamingdomous, they will be surfacing in the grand rift region to dodge the gas geyser. They're on their way to the seaweed bed to lay their eggs."

"You could also search in the north of the frost region for some Jumping Crabs its the time of the year where there the more active for the next three weeks. It's their mating season, so be extra careful."

"I'll note that. Thank you, Yori. I'll see if I have a change of plan. I could go take a look later. Maybe scoots the terrain in the north, to see what to do this season. It's pretty rare to have this good of weather at this time of the year. It's normally impossible to hunt anything at this period of the year."

"Yeah, apparently it's because of the sun. I don't understand all this scientific stuff, but apparently, the sun is acting strange and people are scared. But it's good for the business, and that allows us to hunt some rare species and bring home some good food. So why bother with it."

"Even if there is something wrong with the sun. What can we do against it? Fly to it and fix the problem. Hahahahaha. We will just burn to death. Hahahahaha"

Yori Laughed loudly at his own jokes making peoples from all around the docks looks at him before returning to their business. It was not an uncommon thing to see him laugh out loud at his jokes.

Will Yori was laughing at his own jokes. A girl with pink hair sprinkled with white flowers approached him from behind, before completely ignoring him and continuing walking toward Markus.

"Markus! You're leaving me here? I want to go with you. Take me on board!"

"I'm Sorry, Yunika. But I can't take you with me. I'm gonna hunt some Tigerfish. It's too dangerous for you."

"So it is too dangerous for me but not for you! That's what you're saying!"

"Yes."

Yunika closed her eyes in anger at Markus for not letting her follow him. She loved him from the bottom of her heart. The only thing that she wanted was to be always at his side and to see him succeed in everything that he does.

It upset and scare her to not always be next to him. She is always scared of him disappearing or someone assaulting her and defiling her. Making her lose every right of deserving him, causing him to disappear from her life.

When she was little, some guys from the upper class of her school found it funny to try to play with her body and defile her. When she was going out of school to return home they grabbed her by the hair and dragged her alongside a river to a nearby cliff leading to the sea.

They wanted to play with her before dropping her off the cliff in the sea. But the only thing they didn't know was that Markus was fascinated with the outside world and the sea. From a young age, he would always sit on the ledge of a cliff near his house, legs swinging over the sea.

And that day Markus was at his usual spot. He ran here after school to once again look at the beautiful view., but the only thing he saw arriving at his spot was three guys beating a small girl, trying to tear her clothes apart.

He considered turning around for a split second, acting like he didn't see anything. Before his common sense hustled him to make a sense of himself. Maybe, he could have turned around, if it was only a murder scene, and the girl was already half-dead. He doesn't want to risk his life for someone he doesn't know.

But it was not a simple murder scene, the girl was vigorously fighting back and they seemed to want to do more than just kill her. They wanted something that disgust him. So he rushed toward them while trying to make the least sound possible.

On his way toward them, he picked up a small rock the size of his hand. Once behind them, he smashed it against the side of the head of one of the guys who were on top of the girl.

"Watch out!"

One of his friends had seen Markus running toward them and managed to warn his two friends. But it was already too late, the guy on top of the girl only had the chance to turn his head around before receiving a rock on the head hitting him directly in the temple. His head started to bleed profusely, he reached with his hands toward the bleeding and tried to press it to stop the bleeding, but he could not manage to do so.

He screams at the top of his lungs. The pain was not so bad it was more the choc of so much blood coming out of him that made him scream. His mind was stunned, the hit managed to damage his brain, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground next to the girl.

Seeing this much blood come out of someone's head scared the little girl, but she was even more scared of them. So she quickly took advantage of the situation and crawled on her back to escape the guy that was assaulting her.

The two friends of the guy quickly charged toward Markus who had already started backing away from them, in the prevision of their revenge.

All the while, he did not let go of his grip over the small rock in his hand, on the contrary, he strengthened his grip around it. Ready to land another hit on someone's head.

The two friends seeing the menace of his weapon, and with their previous experience in street combat quickly made up a plan in their heads.

One of them aimed toward his upper right body, where he was holding his rock. The other one aimed toward his waist to tackle him onto the ground.

Markus guessing their intention turned himself sideways to dodge the incoming tackle, or to try to soothe his balance for when the tackle will come to him.

The first guy tried to tackle him from the waist but ended up hurting his right shoulder, Markus slightly flinched from the impact and squeezed his teeth together to ease the pain coming from his left waist.

The other guy grabbed his left arm and tried to land a punch on his face, but Markus ducked his face down, leaning forward toward the guy chest.

Unfortunately, he did not manage to dodge the punch, but it only touched him on the back of his head, reducing the damage that it could have made.

He then proceeded to hit the guy that punched him. Using his rock, he hit him in the waist at the same time as the punch was landing on his head.

The guy flinched and twisted his face in pain. It seems that Markus had also broken one of his ribs. He then grabbed his right arm to prevent Markus from further hitting him. With the help of the adrenaline, the guy manages to continue to fight, despite having a small disadvantage.

The other guy didn't let go of Markus, he continued trying to tackle him onto the ground. His two arms are now held by one of the guys, while the other one is pushing on his waist, trying to tackle him to the ground. Markus is now starting to lose his chances to come out of this fight unbruised.

In a small moment of despair, he decides to spit at the face of the other guy that is holding his arms. He succeeded with little, to no effect, other than angering him even more. With the strength of two people combined against him, Markus finally loses his balance and falls to the ground.

Will dropping onto the ground. He proceeded to tilt himself on his left side, while slightly moving to the right to try to fall on top of the guy who was tackling him. He also tried to free his left arm from the other guy who was holding it, by pulling the other guy with him onto the ground.

He manages to free his left arm from the other guy but doesn't manage to fall on top of the guy who was tackling him. This guy then proceeded to try to grab Markus's left arm, and get on top of him to hold him down to the ground and beat him up.

In his struggle, Markus manages to get his hand near the face of the guy, he stuffed his finger deep in the guy's left eye. The guy even with his adrenaline rushing through his blood back off a little from on top of Markus. Leaving him with only the other guy to deal with at the time.

The other guy is trying to open his hand and pick up his rock. Markus takes his left hand and grabs the arm of the other guy. He tries to pull himself off of the ground by taking support from the other guy's arms.

The guy who tackled him comes back on top of him with more anger than before. He seems to have been blinded in his left eye, bloody tears sliding down his face.

Markus already struggling to get up, drops the other guy's arm and starts to hit the guy who tackled him. He hits him multiple times in the chest with his elbow. The guy is in a lot of pain and is struggling to breathe, but he doesn't stop fighting, adrenaline doesn't stop kicking in, and everything goes extra fast. Markus's mind is racing to find an escape from this hell of a situation.

The guy grabs Markus's left arm and starts rapidly punching him in the face. Markus let go of his rock to try to defend himself from this rain of punches.

He also slides his legs in between the guy's legs and hit his balls with his knee. The guy stops punching and back from the top of Markus. He's grabbing his balls in agony, it seems that something has been broken down there.

The other guy seeing his friend in agony picks up the rock that Markus dropped and tries to hit him in the face with it. Markus tried to roll away from him, but can't because his right arm is being held firmly by the other guy.

Luckily for him after only two hits from the other guy with the stone, he hears shouting coming from his right side. Looking at the source of the sound. He sees the little girl with a big rock on top of her head coming towards them.

The other guy quickly stands up, looks around, lets go of the rock, grabs his friend from below his arms, and helps him move around. He takes a quick look at the third guy who is lying on the ground with a big pool of blood beside him, before running downhill toward the city.

The little girl drops the big rock that she was carrying, before running towards Markus. He was trying to stand up but did not manage to do so. Leaving him, sitting here on his ass. With blood dripping from his face.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry. it's all my fault. I'm useless."

The little girl was crying next to him. From the time she escaped these guys, she wanted to help him fight them. But she didn't know how to do that.

She didn't want to run away and left him alone with them. But she also had nothing else to do besides just watching him be beaten up by the same guys that wanted to defile her not too long ago.

"It's alright. I'm not going to die already. Don't be sad. You helped me make them run away. Don't worry, it's not your fault. You were not useless."

Markus patted her head and smiled at her. It would have been quite charming if not for his bloody teeth and lips, his black eye, his broken nose, or all that blood that was dripping onto his shirt.

When the little girl looked at him and his broken face, she couldn't stop crying, it was all her fault if he ended up like that. She could have done something sooner.

He had been beaten up to a point where his head was bruised from all sides. And even with that, he managed to force himself to find the strength to smile at her. That's the first time where she knew, she, maybe, loved him.

Yunika opened her eyes and stopped daydreaming about her past.

"I'm a trained hunter. It is my job to hunt and bring back food to this island. I know the risk of my job, and that I could potentially die while doing it, but I don't have a choice. I need to do it to stay alive."

Markus was looking at Yunika with determination, he didn't want to let her come with him. It is dangerous of a season this year, too much unknowns to be careful about. It would also be too difficult and stressful to protect her from every danger on the way.

"But..."

"No!"

Yunika's eyes widened before slowly becoming teary. It's rare for Markus to be so stubborn and aggressive in his rejection. But she truly wanted to follow him this time. She has had this very bad feeling of anxiety lately. She genuinely wanted to go with him, she don't want to lose him. And even if he died on the sea, she would be more than happy to go down with him.

Markus seeing her starting to tear up felt bad for her. He too wanted to always stay with her, letting her follow him on his boat when he leave to hunt. But he cannot do that.

Just the thought of letting her follow him and making her face the same danger as he always does is upsetting. He cannot do that to her. He cannot let her die with him.

"Yori, I finished my check-up. You can detach the boat."

Markus had finished speaking and checking all the stuff he needs for this long trip far away from home and his love.

Today he will hunt some Tigerfish. A fish that looks and has the same size as a reef shark, but it is colored like a Tiger. It's a jaw and its big teeth are capable of easily reaping an arm off of someone's body, breaking into pieces some bad quality iron, or even bending good quality iron.

It was a really dangerous hunt but was worth the money. If he hunts one and finds the good people to sell it to. He could get a huge amount of money and be able to buy a lot of food, allowing him to last the next three months without going on a hunt.

With a single shark, he can survive for three months. Imagine what he could do with multiple of them. He could probably skip the next hunt season and not be in a crisis of some sort. He could also gain some of his time. Instead of preparing for the next hunt or hunting. He could pass that time with Yunika.

Yori was fast at responding to Markus. He untied the boat and prepared to drop it down into the sea. It was suspended in the air by multiple ropes, each tied to a pole fixated on the docks, allowing it to be maintained above the sea.

"Be ready! Here we go! Dropped!"

Yori releases the last rope holding the boat above the sea. It is now being untied and released from the rope holding it. The boat quickly dropped onto the surface of the sea. Making a huge splashing noise.

"Goodbye!"

Markus waved at Yori and Yunika before quickly disappearing on the horizon. Leaving a tearful Yunika alone, once again.

 

***********************************

03/05/2022

Author Note:

(Little information: I did some searching on the web and if this Gas Giant is the size of Saturn, which it is. It will take, ten hours to do a single rotation. So that means that the day only lasts for 5 hours and the night for 5 hours too. This means that the people living here work with a sleep schedule of 3 to 5 hours of sleep when it's dark or night-time, to 6 to 8 hours of awakeness* when it's bright or daytime)

*I don't know which word to use there. Can't find something better than awakeness.

 

17/03/2023

Author Note:

Reposting this story on this site because. Why not?

I don't entirely know if I will continue the story. It will probably be the only part posted.

I think I improved at English, but I don't remember what plot I wanted to go with.

Plus if I reread everything, I will not be able to resist the urge to rewrite everything with proper English, leading me to lose all my motivation.

if in one week nothing is posted, it means that I have abandoned writing the next part.

 

Nonetheless.

Praise The Emperor of Mankind!

For he is Absolute!

 

(Helsreach, fan movie fucking slaps.)