“Enough with the wakeup calls, Marina,” said Vaeludar, shaking his head. “I know you want to spare yourself from getting everyone up, but we are in the wilderness. And we don’t know if there are any evil creatures lurking here. Any sudden noise will attract any unwanted attention, and I don’t want to be fighting any other creatures today or tomorrow. I want to get to our without taking a tooth to the body.”
“Alright, all-powerful leader,” said Marina, mockingly.
“And don’t mock me,” he complained. Vaeludar exhaled smoke from his nostrils.
“Ok, I’ll remain silent.” Marina grabbed the bag of fish and dropped the two other bags and walked away.
“Why did you save her when you first met her?” asked Galvin.
“I was twelve back then. I kept my distance away from human life. Back then if I would do something heroic like the White Knights or Valverno did, I thought I would have welcomed by any society.
“But when I found out Marina was a Siren, a species with a bad reputation, I would have been hated by the villagers. However, I rescued her because I wanted to have people around me instead of them looking at me.
“When I was four, I went to go play around with other kids and dragon youngsters. But what they saw wasn’t a playful hybrid, they only saw the hybrid. In all my life, people were judging me by my appearance instead of my actions. I had remained far away from human society until I killed the Minotaur.”
“So rescuing the Siren you thought would bring people to like you?” asked Wonomi.
“In a way, yes,” answered Vaeludar. “But the only witnesses were Geraldus, and King Uragiru. There were no other eyewitnesses to witness me saving her. About a year later, the witches and the Fluting Piper came in. After that incident, I was moderately accepted. From there on, I managed to thrive, but I was still an outsider.”
“I thought you grew up as a hero,” said Monico.
“You thought wrong. I was not a hero nor am I. The only time I was hailed as a hero was when I killed the Minotaur. Now I just want people to get to judge me better than just having being stared at.”
“What better way to waste time talking here than moving on,” said Galvin. “Enough talking about outsiders, outcasts, and pasts. Let’s get a move on.”
“I agree with Galvin,” said Vaeludar. Vaeludar stood himself on a high rock to get everyone’s attention. “I want to be going to the next five minutes. If you’re not ready, I won’t be waiting for you. I can tell our destitution is over there.” Vaeludar pointed at the distant mountain ranges with glimmering fires miles ahead of them.
“If we go that way, hopefully,” Vaeludar contiuned, “we could find a non-dangerous village by day’s end and get some food supplies. The few bags of food are all that we have left. We have enough for a day’s journey. That is it. The bag of meat and firewood are long gone, drowned in the river. We only have my fire breathe and the bag of blankets to keep us warm. So be ready to leave in five minutes.”
Vaeludar jumped off the rock and walked to a very weary Naìra.
“But it’s still dark,” yarned Naìra.
“I know,” said Vaeludar. “We are in lands I know nothing about. The dark lands here are going to be different than our homeland. The sun is not going to show itself because it is behind the clouds. Just get ready.”
Vaeludar told Flavius to look after Naìra before walking to the bag of fruits. He picked it up and heaved it around his shoulder. His wing curled up the bag that way it won’t slip off his shoulder. He tightened the strap of the scabbard because it was loose.
With the bag curled in his wing, Vaeludar strapped it tighter. He knew the sword was a powerful (if not the most powerful weapon) he didn’t want to lose. Keeping this weapon would prove useful if he ever came across another the Shadow King again. Once before, Vaeludar met the king in his Spirit form at the island’s capital city. Then as a hallucination, which wasn’t the king but only the Banshee’s voice sounding like the Shadow King, in the fog.
When the five minutes passed, everyone was ready to move out. Naìra was still tired from moving on, so she was piggybacked on Flavius. Everyone was ready to go.
Then they were on their way towards the black mountains.
All day they traveled with no stops or breaks. For they were lucky, they walked a flat terrain stretching out for a hundred miles. Dead plants with long branches grew no leaves. The air wasn’t foul but smelled like a frog’s breath for miles around. No animals such as squirrels and rabbits were seen. No sounds of a single bird were heard. The lands were very quiet, but for a small gush of wind blowing in the travelers’ faces.
The group passed a few ruined towers along the way. They looked like remnants of watchtowers posted every two miles. There was one point where they saw a ruined wall connected to a ruined watchtower. They had appeared to be a wall built to protect the land from an invasion. The watchtowers would have fire beacons to bring a warning an army was coming.
Or so thought Vaeludar when he gazed at them.
The light above the everlasting clouds showed it was around midday. A perfect time for lunch. So they stopped at a ruined watchtower and devoured most of the fruits and part of the fish. Vaeludar
