RECOVERY

THE OUTER REALM: IN THE BEGINING

Raven opened his eyes and discovered to his greatest shock that he was drowning in a pool. He swarm up immediately and caught his breath, then continued to the shore where he saw some clothes neatly folded by the side of a tree around the shore. He looked around but nothing made sense at all. He tried to think but the last memory that he could muster was paddling towards the isle of bones in a canoe with his friend Pavalon, in their attempt to escape some bounty hunters. “Pavalon!” He called out to his friend but there was no response. More fascinating was the reality that the isle of bones which he was heading to with his friend had suddenly disappeared. Fearing that Pavalon might still be in the water out of which he had just come, he took a deep dive and strained his eyes inside the pool but saw nothing. He called out a few more times to his friend but there was no reply except the echo of his own voice.

“Okay. First things first.” He decided, then got himself dressed. Everything was strange. From the clothes he now attempted to put on, to the very air he was breathing. Things started to get real when he raised his head to see riders chasing after a man who was carrying a small bag. Raven concealed himself with the perfect cover that the large tree provided. The man was a fast runner but was not able to outrun the riders as his pace was quickly covered and he was captured. But before his capture, he had tossed the bag into a pit and Raven saw this. Whatever was in the bag must be really important, because from where Raven was watching, it seemed like the man having been caught, was trying to explain to the riders that he did not have the bag. When the riders finished searching the area as much as they could, without finding the bag, one of them drew his sword and drove it through the man’s stomach.

The shock made Raven move and some tiny particles of rocks rolled into the water he had just got out of. The riders turned in his direction but, suspecting it to be an animal, turned back, mounted their horses and rode off, leaving the man lying on the ground. Raven waited a little before coming out of his hiding place and ventured very carefully to the place where the man was lying all the while looking around cautiously. He found the man trying to apply pressure to his bleeding stomach with his hands that had already grown weak. There was nothing Raven could do for him and the whole scene just added to his confusion.

As he bent down to have a close look at the man, he picked up these words on the man’s lips just before he took his last breath. There were – “take… the…bag…and…run”. “Excuse me?” Raven bent closer and asked him, but the man was dead. He closed his eyelids and moved the body away from the road. Then he walked towards the direction of the pit he had seen the man toss the bag he was with before his attackers came upon him.

Pavalon, Dexagon and the two sisters opened their eyes following the voice of the priestess. The tall buildings they saw were unlike anything they had ever seen anywhere. The top or end of the buildings could not be seen and there were a good number of them scattered all over the horizon as far as their eyesight could reach. There were people everywhere going about their various businesses. When they recovered from their shock, they discovered that they were and had been for some time, standing and had blocked the way of an old man pulling a cart behind him. “Out of the way maniacs”. The man screamed angrily at them. But they did not understand what he was saying. They were only able to when he yelled at them again because of his gesticulation and the fact that they were really standing directly in his path. The language he spoke was completely strange to all of them except the king of Zorak.

When the man got through, Pavalon alerted the group that he had just arrived in the outer realm, that he was off to find his friend Raven. “Wait…we have to stay together”. One of the sisters (Rips) called out to him. He turned dramatically and told her, “Sorry sweetheart, not today”. Then he walked away. “He is right, you know,” Dexagon began to say to the sisters, and they looked at him intently. “We are here for very different reasons. His’ is quite obvious.” He pointed at the direction that Pavalon had dashed towards. “But I am yet to figure out why the priestess sent you here with us. But know this, if any of you get in my way, I will not hesitate to kill you.” “Are you not the troublesome king that has enemies everywhere in the outlands?” Rips asked him. He gave no reply, only glared at her. “Yes, he is the one,” Tsan answered her sister. And added confidently, “I’d love to see you try.” He smirked, nodded his head and took the opposite direction Pavalon had taken.

One thing never occurred to any of them – that was the fact that the priestess never told them, and none of them cared to ask how they were to return to the outlands after their business was completed in the outer realm. Pavalon was consumed by the desire to find Raven his friend, so he forgot about every other thing. The king thought he could find his way around and Rips imagined that her magic would be enough to see herself and her sister through everything they were to face in the outer realm. How wrong they all were and soon enough, they would begin to understand that events around the outer realm are closely monitored.

Shortly after their separation, Dexagon noticed a crowd not too far away from the most magnificent of all the buildings he had seen in the outer realm. He went closer to take a look and what was not his surprise, when he saw two familiar faces lying lifeless in the pools of their own blood. It was the sisters Tsan and Rips. “What happened?” He asked an elderly man in the language the man with the cart had spoken to them earlier. Because that seemed to be the official language of the place as it was spoken by everyone. Wherever the king learnt it from.

The man answered the king, not knowing who he was. “Well, it appears these young ladies tried to break into the Keepers' Den. I believe that one” he pointed at Rips “had magic of some sort”. Dexagon did not need to ask. He deduced correctly that the Keepers' Den was the name of this magnificent structure. “But why would anyone want to sneak in there? Please pardon my ignorance.” The king said and let out a convincing smile. “That is because my ignorant friend, the Breath of Kings is inside the Den.” Dexagon lifted his eyes and admired the building. “And who might the ‘keeper’ be?” But by then, the man had walked away. He looked around but the man was gone. He followed the building with his eyes up again until he could see no more. He looked down at the sisters and muttered “what a waste” to himself, turned around and walked away. He never imagined he would find the location of the Breath of Kings so quickly and for that, he was grateful to the sisters. He expressed this with an evil smile.

Pavalon kept wandering alone and hoping he would find someone who could understand what he was saying or perhaps for him to understand what they were saying. As far as he could tell, these people, whoever they were, obviously had their own language which the priestess never mentioned. He estimated that the earlier he found someone who could understand him, the better and bigger his chances of finding Raven and returning home. It was at the advent of this thought that it occurred to him that the priestess had equally left out any instructions on how they were to return home and his fears increased.

Raven, who was some distance away from where Pavalon was, just got himself into serious trouble. More so, because he did not know this yet. He had retrieved the bag which he saw the man toss, opened it and discovered that it contained what he knew back as home as the Killer Tooth.