Levishia: The Prophesied Quest

Chapter 5: The First Destination

ZOREN

I tied my horse's leash to a nearby tree far from where I heard the suspicious noise. I was in the middle of crossing a forest to get to the land of Giraen when I heard rustling and a few thumps of bodies colliding with the land.

I slowly sneaked up to the noise, roaming my eyes around the forest. I tightly gripped my sword while making my footsteps as light as possible—a trick I learned from intensive training.

When I saw movement, I quickly hid behind a tree and poke my head out.

"Where is she?"

A man covered in a coal-black cloak pointed his sword at a man on his knees in the coarse dirt. The kneeling man wore a ripped tunic and chain mail pants, his hair and beard unkempt, and was visibly sweating cold bullets.

"I-I dropped her off in Giraen's royal palace," the man stuttered, his lower lip shaking.

My brows furrowed. I looked around the scene and saw a broken chariot on its side. The chariot looked like it was owned by an aristocrat, no less. Though, my eyes squinted at the emblem on the gate. The Ralentian royal family's emblem.

"I told you, I'm only a c-charioteer."

There was only one chariot that was in use during this time, and it was the Princess'.

Needless to say, that's Levishia's chariot, and that man is her charioteer.

Then who is this cloaked man? As if on cue, the cloaked man looked around in alarm.

"Silence. Someone's here." He roughly silenced the trembling charioteer.

What sharp senses for a rough man.

I left the shadows and brazenly approached the two. Wearing my iron-clad armor, I confidently yet carefully strutted toward them. The charioteer's eyes widened upon recognizing my face.

I focused on getting a glimpse at the cloaked man's face but he lowered his gaze and pulled his hood. Enough with the mysterious act. It does not suit him. Really.

"G-General..."

I signaled the charioteer to shut up and asked the cloaked man. I figured he was asking where the Princess is.

"The Princess is safe in Giraen, why were you wondering?" I curiously asked him.

He shook his head and sharply turned around, retorting with a clipped tone, "None of your business."

With another step, he vanished from thin air. My brows rose curiously at the unexpected escape.

I was even more curious as to what he did and where he went but I heard the charioteer's weak grunts.

I looked over at him and saw him clutching his right knee. I quickly crouched to him and examined his wound.

There were glass shards on his knee. Where did this come from?

"Are you okay, Sir?"

He shook his head and asked for assistance to stand up. I sighed and quickly led him to my horse. My chase to the Princess might be a bit delayed facing this unprecedented situation. I have to go back to Ralenti to let our healers tend to his wound. I helped him ride my horse and made my way back to Ralenti.

Levishia better avoid any danger before I arrive.

☫

LEVISHIA QUINTESSENCE

"This is your first destination."

Our head strategist who introduced himself as Fiore, one of the King's advisors, pointed to a spot on the map of the four kingdoms. He's a bearded bald man with a maroon cloak, who's a few inches smaller than me.

After informing us of our first location, we followed him as he led us to the palace's weaponry. The wide room is filled with traditional and also newly developed weapons. Swords, maces, and bows filled one side of the room while the other side was filled with new and bizarre weapons, some things called guns and bombs.

"Take as much as you can," he instructed. I silently obliged and surveyed the weapons.

I'm not really in need of weapons but I am interested in the explosives. I grabbed just enough bombs with different varieties. They were similar to my bow as they were also long-distance weapons.

"What's this?" I grabbed a small golden stick and inspected it closely.

"Don't put it too close to your face, Levi. That can leave a scar," Fiore warned and took the stick from my hands.

"What is it?"

"This is a laser stick," he directed the stick to a nearby dart board and clicked something on the side of the stick. A red, beam-like light instantly came from the tip of the stick and hit the dartboard, burning a small hole in it.

My mouth parted—both in shock and terror.

He clicked the side again and the beam of light (apparently called a laser) disappeared.

"This can pierce through metals, and worst, dragon scale."

I nodded and very carefully stored the golden stick in one of my pockets. I also grabbed a gun that electrocutes (the inventors dubbed it the taser gun) just in case. I didn't get to see what the boys took, but I know I took mostly all of the explosives.

"Are you all set?" Fiore asked. We all nodded and went out of the weaponry. We went down a few flights of stairs and not long after, we came across a vehicle with four wheels.

Hmm, I have no doubt this new contraption was imported from Framiese, the most advanced among the four kingdoms.

"This is a G-Wagen, from Fort's kingdom—Framiese. This is customized to store other heavier weapons."

Fiore ushered us inside and Ard took the wheel. Fiore said he won't come with us and just handed the map to Ard. And a few moments later, we were off to our first adventure.

A few hours into the trip, my yawns frequented and sleep was winning over me. I was about to close my eyes when the vehicle abruptly stopped and I almost bumped my head with Sin's seat.

"Bloody h—"

Sin butted in before I could finish my expression and explained why we had to stop.

"We almost fell off a ravine," he said, calmly, as if our lives weren't threatened.

My eyes widened as my body forgot all of my proper conduct lessons as a Princess.

"BLOODY HELL?! What did you just say?!"

My gaze dropped to our driver. He noticed my expression and elaborated.

"The map said to turn a harsh right and when I did, there was a ravine that didn't show up on the map. And estimating this, in the middle of this ravine is the red 'x' mark."

"You mean if this ravine wasn't here, we would've been on the location? Let me see." Fort grabbed the map from Ard and examined it. He even took turns looking at the map and at the ravine in front of us.

Then he sighed and combed his hair out of frustration.

"That's the dumbest map I've ever encountered," he nonchalantly blurted.

I ignored them and opened the door near me to further check the ravine. It's near a rainforest, and when I took a peek at what's on the bottom, I saw darkness—no shock about that. The other side of the ravine, though, is a roofed forest. Hmm. The ravine had fog on the bottom so I couldn't fathom what was on the bottom that caused a gigantic crack in the land.

The boys followed shortly after and also took a peek on the bottom of the ravine.

"I think this ravine is newly made," I assumed.

Fort combed his hair. "Why is that?"

I sighed. "Because if this didn't show on the map, it means this was just recent. Or, the one who made that maps wasn't aware of this."

Ard's brows furrowed, clearly not getting the point.

"So?"

"Maybe this is it."

The three boys looked at me.

Sin squinted his eyes and raised his left brow. "But how are we going to search for it?"

I chuckled.

"Of course, we need to go down there." I pointed to the dark pit of the ravine.

Fort took a deep breath and yelled, which shocked us. "Is anybody down there?"

Oh gosh, you have got to be kidding me. This guy has really gone nuts.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him.

"Asking for someone's help. They might give us tips on how to go down there safely." He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes as Sin cracked a smile.

"f*****g genius," Ard mumbled sarcastically.

Fort looked over at him. "Come on, you got a better idea?"

"Yeah, just go down there right now so we won't waste our time," Ard replied.

I shook my head and pulled out a stun grenade.

"Woah there, Levi. Why pull out a grenade?" Fort stopped my hand from throwing it to the cliff.

"So I know how deep it is? And if ever there's civilization, we'll know," I answered the obvious.

He was hesitating on letting go of me but still did. I pulled the grenade's safety and threw it on the bottom of the cliff. The four of us went to the edge and watched the grenade fall. A few moments later, we saw white smoke from below and a faint sound of an explosion. Luckily, we didn't hear any human grunts so my grenade didn't stun any human sense.

"So there's no people down there. And it's likely around a thousand miles deep." I assumed the ravine's depth.

"Do we need to do this today or just wait until the morrow?" Sin queried.

Personally, I agree. It's easier to wait for the morrow, really, since it's nearing dusk and it'll be harder for us to search at night.

"Can the lot of you sleep in the vehicle?"

We nodded to Ard's question. The vehicle was big enough to fit three of these bulky men and my petite build.

"Alright, then we'll search this ravine tomorrow."

We all turned to the vehicle, ready to sleep this out when a sound reached our ears.

I had hoped it was just my ear playing tricks on me, but when I realized all of us froze, I knew it wasn't just my hallucination.

The deep, guttural roar was real.

We all froze and looked at each other. The roar didn't come from somewhere in the rain forest, it came from the bottom.

There isn't any human down there, but there is, an animal.