The Lost Blazes of Fire

The Lost Arc: Chapter 1 Act 2

Part 2

"That is the whole story on why I am here. It is pretty noble, isn't it?", she says to the person who helps her slip in to the borders and even assist her to search for a dine-in hotel around the area.

"As thanks for your help I will tell you my name. My name is Matilda Rhobium and you are..?"

"..."

"Wait, where are you going?!"

"..."

"I am one of the heroes who defeated the Evil King Gareth, you know?"

"Yeah, keep those lousy tales of yours to yourself. I am not a fool. We have a doctor near here, you can go to him when you're sane."

Matilda rose up to her feet in anger and shouted, "I am telling the truth!"

The kid left for the door as he silently ignores the stares on him. He is already embarrassed by keeping her company and cannot stand claims of an unknown traveller.

Let us go back in time before Matilda is left with her mouth wide open and standing while being stared by the people around her in this inn.

She actually did not slip in. She stand in front of the gate with the guards staring down at her from the tower. In fear of being labeled as a trespasser, she stand there in wait. No matter how long she waited, no one tries to attend to her. She do not get any treatment nor she is being ask on what she is doing there. The guards patrolling the borders only stare her as they go outside and inside the borders. No one dared to tell her anything and allowed her to stand there as long as she is harmless.

She did not do a thing as she continues to stand alone at that place. She is starting to think that she is looking like a fool but she did not flinch and did not even dare to make eye contact on the people around her. She already understand that she is a stranger at this place. A lady wearing a long damaged hood and a huge backpack at her back. She can only be a person of suspicion. She cannot blame them for making them think that she is outlandish.

She can feel her face burning red from shame. She tries to resist the urge to touch her face and continue on looking down. She is like a statue there as she continues to wait.

"If Frieves is here, he will surely laugh at me", she thought to herself. After travelling so far, she immediately cowers before a gate and stand there without moving an inch. She is aware how ridiculous what she is doing right now.

If she is given the chance to bury herself in a hole, she will immediately do so. After all, she is still a coward.

A voice brings her back to reality.

She turns her head toward the voice and saw a kid standing before her.

He is barely reaching her waist and looks so young. What makes her curious though is the color of the lad's hair. It is the color of the night that she had admired. The radiant hero possess the same kind of hair color.

"Hey Lady. What are you doing here?"

"M..me?"

Out of all the people who was around here, this kid is the only one who approaches her.

"Who else? You are the only person here."

She turned her head left and right to wake up from her daze in imagining the radiant hero on the kid. She immediately told him of the thing that has been on her mind since the kid approached her.

"What are you doing outside? Isn't it dangerous for you to be alone in this place?"

The kid did not answer. He scratches his face with a finger before diverting the topic. He ask her this: "Hey, do you want to enter our country because you seem lost." The kid highlights this point by looking at the backpack on the lady's back.

Heat rises up in her immediately in Matilda's thoughts as this was pointed out to her. She can feel her cheeks going red from thinking that this kid is asking her. On another thought, she can sense that this heat can also be said due to the kid's uncanny similarity to the radiant hero.

A bright smile in anywhere he goes. Hair colored with the darkness of the night. Skin blessed with fairness that can be compared to a woman. Eyes bearing the depths of the ocean. A built so ample that the muscles he built up is matching his physique as a young lad. And most of all, those small scars around his body from the battles he had gone through around his body. This is the appearance of the radiant hero that she had known. She can almost see his shadow in the kid that she cannot help her heart from beating fast.

It took her long enough before she compose herself to answer the boy's query.

"..m-me? I am..". Even before she finished her words, the boy held her right hand which is going up and down as she explain herself.

Warm. She can feel the heat from the boy's hand. She do not understand what is going on with her. She do not even know what to do next but that hand of his was able to calm her down. He is like a light. A candle that can warm you up.

At this point, she do not know what to do but this boy was able to lead her to where she should go.

"I'll take you to our village. You seem lost."

"I ain't lost."

"Yeah, so you are standing there you know."

After entering the country's gates, she realized that this is not as strict as she thought it would be. The guards did not ask anything of her and simply had her name enlisted in their records. The boy explained the situation to the guards. This takes the burden of proving her identity with them. Basically, the kid did all the procedures so she can swifty enter the borders. Matilda felt ashamed of herself on letting the kid handle all the matters and even helped her find an inn. To show her gratitude, Matilda treated her to a meal and told him of a special tale of her being a part of the band of heroes.

And now we can return to the present. To the point where Matilda is standing in surprise after the kid left her alone.

She cannot understand why a young boy like him is not interested in her tale. After all, it is the story of a hero and her grand quest to search for the radiant hero who suddenly disappeared.

She can feel the gazes of the people around her so she sit down. She sat normally like nothing happened at all. Once she can no longer feel that she is being stared at, she immediately grasped her head and unconsciously hit the table as it earned the gazes around her again.

She no longer care how the people around her views her. The thing on her mind right now is how to earn the boy's trust.

She is feeling something weird about that boy. If it is possible, she also wanted to know more about him. She simply hopes that the kid knows something about the radiant hero.

As she lowers her head in embarassment, her reputation continues to lower as she slowly became the talk of the bar.

Part 3

The Village of Stargazer. Country of Thron.

Apparently, the country of Thron is consisted of two villages only. One is the Stargazer while the other is Rockedge. Both are independent villages that has live apart on their own despite belonging to the same country. Between the two, the village of Rockedge is the farm and livestock focused one while the Stargazer prides themselves in having the military might. The soldiers stationed here is fewer than the other countries and is mostly consisted of females as most of the men left for war and hasn't returned. In fact, news of men returning from war rarely happens in this area. It is also rare that a body ever returns which is why the Stargazer village considers a person a dead one once they left the village to go to war.

After resting for a night in this village, Matilda was able to procure this information. She tries to get a wind of any news about a young man that has similar characteristics of the radiant hero. She ask everyone she meets and tries to probe them on what they know.

She continues til late afternoon and continues to walk. She stares at the bricks consisting the steps and the houses around the area.

"This village is the only one whose homes and streets are made of bricks. The road is made of concrete while the lamps are made of metal."

That is right. Between the two villages, this one is further developed. It is a stark contrast to the agricultural setting in the village of Rockedge wherein the houses are made of wood.

"There are only two villages here yet it looks like I still cannot find him here."

She decided to look around more as she thought of what to do next. Compared to her attire when she had first arrived, she is now wearing a red dress reaching her thighs and that has light armor on her chest, arms and legs under it. The only thing that is showy about her is the red scabbard hanging on her belt with her beloved sword which she named Phoenix. The name is from an undying bird which she had known from tales back in her country.

"I wonder if I am too shameful yesterday that he does not want to meet me again."

She thought about the actions she had done yesterday. She remembers waiting aimlessly outside, the stares from her shouting and the rumors that she is mentally ill from the people in the bar.

"I guess I am too ugly for him to approach."

Using the standard of beauty, Matilda can be said as a beautiful person. She has long, luscious fiery red hair and red eyes. She has a fair skin that clearly comes from being a royal to the Kingdom in Astra. She has thin lips that is pouty enough to match her elegant face. She is simply degrading herself as she indulge in her own thoughts.

It would seem like that being hopeless makes her think too much about things.

As she walks the alley back to her inn, she notice a small figure entering a house. She is someone she met and she is sure that it is him.

She once more saw the boy who resembles the radiant hero so much.