A Road Block
2328 Words
Joan and I were left to rest on the couch leaving everyone else to pack and prepare things for our trip a few hours from now. Still disturbed by the dream, I laid my head back and blankly stared at the ceiling. I still haven’t thought about what to do when we get to Alda or the first thing I should look for. Inside, a battle of revenge and tenacity for answers boiled my gut to acid. Will leaving Redville be wise since all assassins came for us belonging to that world?
Galdore had mentioned that I will be losing a lot more. Not just losing people but something else he said that it’s important to me. For now, the most important is to protect Joan. Her bowl’s already full. Any minute she might burst and spill quite a mess. But I should say something now before I lose her to her grief.
“Joan?” I softly called. She didn’t respond but I know she heard me so I kept talking. “Listen, I don’t know how you feel right now. I mean, all I know is that you’re as shattered as a glass. Anyone who had witnessed that would have but, you see, one thing that he loves you the most is your strong personality.”
I paused, afraid that I might’ve gone in further than I should. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind. So I press on, “I will not say that it is time to move on. That will mean disrespect to your feelings, but, what I’m trying to say is that I am here. I will never leave you, no matter what happens, I will always protect you.”
“Just for his sake,” I stopped as Joan suddenly glanced at me with watery eyes. She’s not mad, nor irritated. She’s more sad and devastated. “For his sake, Joan, keep strong.”
And with that, she pulled me in for a hug. She poured out the rain to me, wailing and moaning Alvin’s name. Right now, she needed me. Especially that we’re about to go to some place we’re not familiar with.
“I just missed him, so much!” Joan cried. Holding her till she released me, I realized how heavy a burden I’m carrying now. This journey we’re about to take, I had a feeling there’s a lot more of it than what I’m expecting. I’m scared at the same time, creepy enough, excited. Excited to see the land we came from, to know who we are and to meet the people behind all these suffering.
I swear I’m going to put an end to this. They will pay.
About a few hours before dusk, we had a short discussion regarding the journey. Logan instructed us on what’s going to happen.
“Alright, two nights ago, I opened a portal so we could dive into Alda,” he started. “But I was interrupted by an attack and the portal I opened consumed a lot of energy I have. Travelling when night falls is a bad idea as our powers are weaker. So, to avoid a repeat of that, I will be opening a portal which is directly below an enormous energy source.”
“Few years ago, when I was studying the geography of this town, I found out that there was a huge energy reservoir beneath this town. I traced it back to an old nuclear power plant a few miles from the Sanctum. About thirty years ago, that power plant had a huge explosion. Its entire residue was sucked up by the ground creating a change in the flow of energy the earth has. Lucky, the residues weren’t toxic, hence they were organic. In some reactors, it should go off and blast this town off of the map but it didn’t. So, here we have a vast source of energy just beneath our feet.”
“So, you’re going to use that energy to power up the portal?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he said beaming with pride. He walked towards the entrance of the living room and leaned on the wall. “This whole frame is the portal.” Suddenly, he pulled a portion of the wallpaper off and revealed writings on the wall. They were exactly the same as the writings I’ve seen on the parchments and rocks the other night. I can’t believe we have a portal under our noses.
“Before we go, I want you to put these on,” Fanthia handed us a dark green cloak and a sheathed short sword. “It’s going to be a long journey when we arrive at Alda.”
“She’s right,” Sharhea said. “When we arrive, it will take us days to reach our destination.”
“Where?” I asked. “Where is our destination?”
“Why, Jenny, the Kingdom of Caltamere of course!”
Right. I’m quite nervous about this journey. I’m not sure what to think of. Revenge for the death of my friends and put an end to this mess, yes, but now that the time is nearing for our departure; I don’t know if I can do it. What awaits us at the other side of the portal? I have no idea.
I sat back staring blankly on the cloak Fanthia handed to me. It’s made out of a starchy cloth and looks very warm. On the other hand, the sword with a handle that glistened in ruby white caught my attention at most. I unsheathed the sword. My lungs ceased to breathe. The blade is elegant, fierce with gold entwined lines decorating the middle. Joining the hand guard with a round ruby gem wide enough to block the hand from cutting itself from the blade, surrounded by a structure made from ivory and cobalt as their colours marbled on the surface stretching three inches each from the ruby, creating a craft with such elegance and art. The edges are thin enough to cut through skin but thick enough to cut through metal. Glimmering in soft white light, the metal’s smooth, heavy and yet has this perplexing characteristic at which I will have to discover when I use it for battle.
Fascinated, I made a few swings to try the sword and surprisingly, despite its heavy metal, it moves at a frequency that could penetrate solid armour. Whilst my grip on the sword is just too perfect, I deliberately wished I won’t use this for a while. I find battles exhausting. Particularly the battles we’re about to face and have faced.
Joan seemed to be quiet, again. I’m getting worried about her. I’m worried if she can get out of this grief. Sure I haven’t, but I have to. Despite the fact that every year, I would be reminded of the three souls that were lost because of me, I had any choice but to get on. Alvin’s death took a lot of toll on Joan. It is definitely worse than a breakup.
“Jenny?” she suddenly spoke. I glanced at her, waiting for what she’s about to say. “Is leaving really wise?”
Funny, I asked this few hours before myself and technically, I didn’t have an answer. How am I supposed to answer her?
“Joan,” I thought I could just say something then. “I haven’t the slightest clue on what’s waiting for us on the other side. Staying here was already dangerous and cost us a lot of grief.” I paused and noticed Joan flinched.
I continued, “We still have questions, Joan. They keep saying we belong to another world which, if we’re ordinary, will sound pretty insane. But, recent event told us that we’re not. We’re someone more than ordinary. I can’t understand it, but maybe leaving will get us some answers.”
Joan pretty much took my point and she fell back to silence. I observed her for a while and can’t help but wonder what’s going on inside her head. She’s gripping the edges of the cloak too hard and hadn’t even tried to touch the sword.
“Is something wrong? I mean, despite everything else.”
“Everything is wrong,” she said. “I just don’t feel like leaving. It feels like I'm about to embark on a quest that I’m not even sure it exists.”
“I’m scared too, Joan.” I said. “But we’re in this together. I won’t leave you.”
“I know that but everything else seems wrong for me. I mean, why are we involved in this kind of mess? How are we involved? It’s not by chance that the both of us are connected. There has to be a reason which is why I’m so reluctant.”
“I’ve asked that too. But they only said that we will know our involvement once we get to Alda.”
“If going away will help us answer our queries, so be it.” Joan submitted with a different tone in her voice. It seemed like she had found her resolve. She wanted answers as badly as I do. She’s now taking steps to use her grief as her strength.
It appears like our excitement has yet to be interrupted, a loud blast that shook us out of balance jolted me to alertness. I felt all my hairs standing up as I sensed a cold vibration around me. My gut’s doing butterflies and immediately pulled the sword out from its sheath. Something big is coming our way and it won’t be the same as the creatures we had faced. I am overly recalling the enemy names Sharhea shared last night. Praying none of them, a shot of red beam from the ceiling blasted a hole on the floor. It left a huge crater and smoke that blinded our vision.
Fanthia, Sharhea and Logan all came back with weapons on the ready. Standing in front of Joan, I anxiously tapped Fanthia to ask something. She didn’t ignore me but her eyes painted with annoyance, I know exactly why. She needed full attention to this battle. Who could attack us now?
Then another blast boomed the room. This time, the quake was stronger and it made everything stand to stumble. A slow footstep echoed through the hall. Anxious to meet who we’re about to face, I clenched my hand on the hilt too hard that I winced. Logan knocked an arrow on his bow and took aim to the approaching visitor.
The visitor walked amongst the shadow cast by the fallen debris he blasted off. His slow, lazy walk quite terrified me. Soon afterwards, he came to light. What we saw is not a monster or any creature of the night, but a man.
He’s as tall as Rick but with this disturbing character. From toe to head, he wears nothing but leather. His topless torso embellished with nasty scars from long years of battle. Tracing from his chest down his bellybutton, a long gash scar with thick stitch marks, covered by belts used to sheath two sabers on his back, added up to his disdainful appearance. Wrapped around his body were several holsters for several kinds of blades. His heavy boots feel like there are far more features than it looks. A tattoo caught my eye on his left arm. A detailed drawing of an eagle perched on top of a skull with snakes crawling through the holes. The tattoo showed as much as it should be, intimidating.
But what terrified me the most was his eyes. Sunken dark eyes piercing through me as I study this new character, it sends frightful electricity down my spine. People say that the eyes are the windows of the soul. And yet, his eyes are windows of contempt. Tightening his jaw, he drew a long grin in his face, amused at his theatrical entrance.
He snorted and said, “I never thought that the Princesses would be this pretty.”
“Watch your tongue, Raaul!” Fanthia hissed.
“Tuh. Such an inhospitable gesture to a visitor. How amusing.” His vile tone has shaken me.
“If you’ve come here, then, the other two are here,” said Sharhea of who didn’t show any sign of fear.
“Oh my, we didn’t expect you to be here, Sharhea. No matter, my brother can. . . what you say, duel you?”
From the corners of where we stood, another jumped in. He wears the same tunic as Raaul has but he’s not as topless as him. He has fuzzy black hair and a look that tells he has screws loosen in his mind.
“Raaul! You didn’t tell me she’s here!” he said. Astonished to see two of them, I wonder if they are twins. They look exactly the same.
“If I did, I wouldn’t come here barging in, now, would I, Raaun?”
“Ha! Fine! Well, at least you could have told me so I could have my vengeance!”
“Who are you?” Terrified as I may sound, but I couldn’t take a risk not knowing who my enemies were. They seemed well acquainted with Fanthia, Sharhea and I bet Logan too, but I sensed disturbing aura coming from them. Ever since, I’ve been able to sense auras of which I have no clue on how.
“Ah, seems the Princess has not been told about us.” Raaul said. He glared at Sharhea and I noticed her fixing a gaze at him.
“Be careful, Raaul.”
“Of course!” he turned to me with a smile that sends every hair in my body to stand. I clenched my fist harder to prevent it from shaking.
“My name’s Raaul. This is my twin brother, Raaun,” he started. “And we are Nar Gmetr Jimdu.”
- Writer
