Five Days: an adventure (A Fantasy Adventure) Page 8

  Since the villa had an enormous garden, no one could stop chilly winds, which was as good as a stream of cold water on his head.

  ‘This is where he lived.’

  ‘Aurisca? But he was born in Dark City I suppose.’

  Tiana swung her arms again and Gleaming-Alicia dissolved into a bright Aurisca with bright purple outlines and same evilness on the face.

  ‘He was … there had always been a competition between princes to have the crown of the emperor of Dark City (The surrounding turned bright and something like drama stage formed before them. There were four masculine brothers carrying someone very close to death – he was bleeding, every region of his body was carrying deadly curses and Derek couldn’t deny he felt as though he was watching a 3D movie in an open ground). He was not so strong, his brothers attacked and left him to die.

  (The four men kept him beside a river and went back … for ten seconds the movie was fast forwarded until darkness had appeared in the region but the injured man had made no movement. Derek, against his wishes, was feeling pity for Aurisca … then, someone tall, someone young stepped into the frame … he caught the sight of the dying boy and hoisted him.)

  ‘Gwarllow, the village head, found him next to the lake … there was no chance he could be saved … but he tried (They were in the villa now, Gwarllow kept Aurisca on the bed and brought a bowl of a sticky liquid, perhaps medicines … he applied it, days were passing, Derek could see it through the windows) … and succeeded (There was a young Aurisca hugging Gwarllow, he looked to have no clue about himself.) … he loved him as his own son, raised him and trained him. Everything was going right until Aurisca discovered his true identity. (Aurisca was holding a newspaper, which indeed was flying in air on its own but the headlines were still visible to Derek –

  YOUNGEST PRINCE WAS THE FIRST TO BE KILLED BY THE ELDEST BROTHER

  And his own photograph was, sort of, hypnotising Aurisca – Gwarllow entered, he stopped for a moment and looked at the situation, took a deep breath and tried to put his hand over his so-believed son’s shoulder – but Aurisca protested – he whispered something and their conversation was turning into an argument.)

  ‘He, a prince, a banished prince – he wanted revenge but Gwarllow didn’t support him … his mind was very eager to have power, secrets of Darkness and conquer the world – but Gwarllow was standing between them and he couldn’t attack him … he was his teacher …

  (Aurisca was sitting on a chair, the evil he was rumoured to be was visible on his face, he looked to have been waiting for someone, clenching something in the hand not visible to Derek – Gwarllow’s wife entered – ‘Son, breakfast is read—’ – a purple flash and Auriscsa knew he was free.)

  ‘But his wife – she wasn’t so lucky … he slewed her and stormed into the Dark City on the coronation ceremony of the last son … He destroyed everyone, including his father and was the new king.’

  ‘Gwarllow adopted him?’ said Derek, as the bright stage before his eyes dissolved into thin air with a pop sound, it took him minutes to react and adjust himself to reality – but he was not surprised of another “Aurisca’s horrific tale” plus, he couldn’t help ignoring the fact that Gwarllow had once been kind.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That’s why Gwarllow doesn’t like outsiders, does he?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But why does Gwarllow trade with Dark City even when Aurisca killed his wife?’ he said looking into her eyes.

  ‘Gwarllow may have been very furious with Aurisca but when his own student went more powerful than him, he had nothing but to cooperate with Aurisca to save his town. He loves it, he loves the people who live here.’

  Derek kept quiet. His head was full of information and he needed time to analyse everything he heard or saw, moments ago.

  ‘But – hey – how would this help me?’ he said quietly.

  ‘I didn’t say I will help you … his past will.

  ‘The moment he slewed Gwarllow’s wife who was like his mother, he contaminated himself. He cursed himself. He destroyed himself. No one could deny he was powerful but was hollow, coreless. So his sword has the weakest flash – violet.’

  ‘Violet? Is that the weakest?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Hey – but Christin, the emperor of Sana has the same, isn’t he?’ he said remembering the night when Sana was attacked.

  ‘Has he?’

  ‘Yeah, I saw it when I and Anna sneaked into the castle.’

  She wasn’t surprised but calm. He was scowling at her response, she should be surprised. But then something unbelievable entered his mind.

  ‘Could this happen – er – if Aurisca and Christin are related to each other.’

  She looked at him. ‘It is possible.’

  Derek frowned – even if he himself had suggested that but it looked very far from the truth and honestly, he was expecting Tiana to wave his suggestion away.

  ‘Christin was there when I was exploding Dark City.’

  ‘What?!’

  ‘Yes, he was very far from me though. But he was watching I could say. I thought he was there to stop me from committing anything stupid … but …’

  ‘But?’

  ‘He didn’t stop me … he didn’t even try … perhaps he cared about the destruction of Dark City more than anything.’

  Derek knew Christin wasn’t a kind man but he could’ve stopped her. What if she hadn’t planned anything and died.

  ‘But he might have been there for some other reasons too?’

  She smiled gently, rolled her pocket out and gave something like a photograph to him. ‘Ever seen this?’

  Derek scowled but accepted the photograph – his eyes popped wide in surprise.

  There were two men embracing each other like brothers – One who was shorter, had an evil like expression with a French beard and very much reminded him of a prisoner in the county. It was Aurisca,

  The second, had purple eyes, a handsome face and muscular physique – Christin.

  What the hell was that! Christin said he hated Aurisca, Sana hated Aurisca then … what was he doing?

  ‘They used to be great friends,’ said Tiana, pointing at the wall where Aurisca and Christin were embracing each other.

  ‘Used to be?’

  ‘For some unknown reason, they parted and were enemies ever since.’

  Derek was in the ocean of confusion – Why would Christin be friend with Aurisca? Why would he deal with someone so horrible?

  ‘Strive for what you want …’ she said without any warning. ‘And she will come to you … I didn’t survive the attack, I lied … I am here as a ghost, serving the purpose as a daughter, teacher and enlighter … thanks for trusting me and you will have her if you truly love her, her – Alicia.’

  There was a violent wave of air and she was gone.

  There was only her whisper – You’re right … there is something, there is someone in the forest who should not exist … you’ll know … you are brave …

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Execution Of A Beast

  For hours, Derek wondered what had happened previous night – had there been someone he talked to. And that someone was a ghost?

  He stayed there for an hour, trying to convince himself – yes, he saw it, he saw it all. Then why was it looking so unrealistic?

  He went to Muriel’s somehow retracing his path and was relieved to see Anna sleeping at 4 in the morning. Facing a round of question would really have been too much for him.

  He went to his own mattress and covered himself in bed sheets. The fire had already gone out and now it was last remains of burnt wood dimly lighting the room.

  Resting his head on the soft pillow, he stared at the wooden ceiling – Tiana’s words were still echoing in his head.

  Aurisca and Christin were friends … their picture …

  Their picture!

  He adjusted under the sheets and rolled a picture out of his pocket, how had it left there?
>
  But it was not as bothering as watching both of them embracing each other like brothers. Hours passed – and it was the time he realised the blue illumination of moonlight had changed into golden …

  Sun appeared in the sky and he, ultra-tired, hadn’t taken a bit of nap when he needed the energy to bring things into effect.

  But he himself couldn’t ignore the fact he had limited days on his fingers and had no idea about the location of Dark City. How would he reach to Alicia, how would he penetrate the defence of the city? (‘You took a second to say “creep in” but it will take you a century to get into the Dark City. Their defence systems are one of the best in the world.’)

  ‘C’mon children, get up, breakfast is ready!’

  It was Muriel’s call that brought him to the present world –

  He woke Anna up and they were having bread sandwiches in their mouths after ten minutes.

  Derek, who was very hungry until he went to sleep last night, felt nothing like space in his stomach. He sat still on his chair, staring at the wooden wall.

  ‘Why aren’t you eating?’ said Anna, looking worried.

  ‘Nothing – um’ – should he tell her? But she’d not believe him, would she? – ‘just nothing.’

  Muriel was looking at him, too.

  ‘You must be very brave to go that place … we here, don’t even dare to talk about it,’ she said.

  He stared uncomfortably at her. Did she know her child was a ghost?

  ‘Muriel!’

  A loud bang on the door almost made Derek and Anna jump off their chairs. A man rushed in, breathing hard as though he had been running and his face was somewhere between pale and delight.

  ‘We got him, we got the dragon!’ he shouted as though he’d die of shock.

  ‘Did you really … he’s been a trouble for everyone … but how did you catch him?’

  ‘Trapped him … didn’t have brains. He’ll be executed in an hour in the central square. Get on time,’ he added before rushing out of the house.

  ‘Yes, my dear boy,’ said Muriel, getting back with her cup of tea. ‘So why are you playing with your life?’

  She said so simply as though she had asked him if he liked a Mango or an Apple.

  ‘Oh,’ struggled Derek. ‘It’s someone important to us.’

  Muriel shook her head, Derek felt she’d not believed him and was thinking they were trying to be brave. It was comfortable.

  There was silence in which Derek looked at Anna and she turned to Muriel, the very same moment. ‘What was he saying about a dragon?’

  ‘He has been ruining our farms, burning farmers alive … been searching for this particular one for a year.’

  ‘This particular one – you mean there are more?’ said Derek who was now used to hard-to-believe fairy tales.

  ‘Of course, there are – in the Jungle of Shadows … a whole lot of them.’

  Derek exchanged a worried look with Anna. ‘Why don’t you take them down? If they’re giving you so much trouble.’

  ‘It’s not easy as having a pie, my boy. There are dragons bigger than the tallest building in this place and quite large in numbers, too – we tied up with other villages, who are suffering like us and kill one-dragon-at-a-time.’

  It looked so horrifying as well brave that nothing came next to him and Muriel completed. ‘Stay here, Gwarllow – village headman – wouldn’t like you there. I should be off.’

  She stood up and went to the door, after putting her coat and hat on again.

  ‘And yes,’ she stopped at the door. ‘Check the shelves if you want more cookies.’

  And the door was closed.

  ‘Hey where are you going?’ said Anna.

  Derek had got to his feet and was heading towards the door.

  ‘I think something is wrong,’ he said as Anna joined him and they got out together. ‘Follow the crowd they must be going to the same ground.’

  There were small groups of people following a specific less-snowy way.

  ‘Wrong?’

  ‘Yes, there were human footprints around the place, no sign of a dragon. And why would dragons attack humans, which are danger to them, for food that is easily available in the jungle.’

  Anna had to jog to keep up with him. ‘But what if it’s dragons?’

  ‘They have no proof, they are just afraid of them.’

  They turned left towards the road, leading straight to the ground of execution.

  ‘But they won’t listen to us and Muriel said that Gwarllow is not very good with outsiders.’

  ‘But that doesn’t give him licence to kill an innocent.’

  The ground was visible now, a big crowd of people was surrounding a gigantic red figure: Derek never knew he’d be seeing a mountain of flesh roaring and spitting fumes from his beak-like mouth. Anyone could tell the dragon wasn’t happy with his imprisonment – he was roaring and flapping his wings in protest but was unable to break the iron chains that had been used to tie him.

  ‘We don’t know if he’s innocent or not!’

  ‘We’ll find out,’ he said grabbing Anna’s wrist and steering her right into the forest, abandoning their way to the dragon.

  ‘Where are you going?’ she said, shocked. ‘The dragon is there.’

  ‘Just believe me … I know he’ll be here today …’

  ‘Who?’ she said, dodging a branch of a tree.

  ‘I spoke to Tia – someone last night and she told me there is something wrong in the forest.’

  ‘But what?’

  Derek didn’t answer until they jogged thirty meters and the crowd was visible again through the last row of trees.

  ‘Him …’ he finally said, pointing at a boy (who hadn’t noticed them at all) sitting behind the last row of bushes and watching, rather enjoying, the execution.

  ‘Who is he?’ she whispered so that the boy wouldn’t hear them.

  ‘He was here that night when we encountered Desria. He has been hiding.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Look at that,’ he pointed at the black circle filled with burnt wood and coal. ‘I saw that when we were talking to Muriel. He wanted to trap the dragon.’

  ‘Trap? But why?’

  ‘I don’t know. But he’ll tell us if we get a hold of his neck.’

  ‘What if there’re others with him?’

  ‘No there aren’t. He’s alone … now listen to me …’

  The boy looked ready to dance anytime, he was grinning wildly at the crowd.

  ‘Hi,’ someone called behind him and it was probably enough to drop the bottom of his stomach to hell.

  He spun around so fast that he almost broke his back. ‘Who are you?’

  He said looking at Anna.

  ‘He’ll tell,’ she said, pointing towards his left.

  But he never knew who was it as a jolt of pain streamed from his head to entire body and everything went dark.

  ‘Wake up!’

  Derek was slapping him hard on his face and he felt, sort of, great when the boy blinked like a fool and opened his eyes.

  ‘Who’re you?’ he whispered.

  ‘You killed those farmers, didn’t you?’

  A muscle on his face twitched.

  ‘DIDN’T YOU?!’

  The boy remained still, not saying anything.

  Derek slapped him again. ‘ANSWER ME!’

  ‘I can tolerate even more than that,’ he said, smirking demonically. ‘You’re a rookie I can tell. It’s your first time, torturing, isn’t it?’

  ‘Come here,’ called Anna from the bush line and her white face wasn’t relieving him a bit. ‘They are preparing to execute him.’

  ‘They will …’ said the boy, laughing. ‘You can’t do anything.’

  It wasn’t good at all, he had to hurry, if he didn’t the dragon would be executed. But he didn’t know why the hell he was being sympathetic to a dragon? Why couldn’t he just walk back to his road towards the princess of Sana? But where the hel
l was the princess of Sana?

  Then suddenly, from somewhere, an idea popped in his mind. He didn’t know if it was good or not but it was the only thing he’d really got.

  He took out his phone from the pocket of his jeans. The boy had also stopped laughing and was staring sternly at him.

  ‘Ever watched a horror movie?’

  ‘What?’ he said as though Derek was speaking an unfriendly language.

  ‘You know …’ said Derek in a cold voice, tapping the screen of his phone. ‘I have got some friend of yours in here, my private prison … they were just like you, fierce, brave … but they never learned to use these qualities … or more precisely … when to use these qualities.’

  He played the movie that had stolen his week’s sleep and raised the volume so that his enemy didn’t miss all the fun.

  And, after fifteen minutes, his man was as terrified as he wanted him to be.

  ‘It was me!’ he shrieked when the woman was a step away from the witch. ‘Please! Save her!’

  ‘Agreed.’

  He pocketed his phone and stared at him. ‘I’m waiting.’

  ‘Derek! They are doing it!’

  ‘It was me … and a hundred soldiers of Aurisca, he ordered us to do this.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He wanted us to make people mad at dragons – I don’t know why – I honestly don’t know! I swear!’

  ‘Derek, they have lit the torch.’

  From the corner of his eye he, against his will, confirmed she was telling truth. Now it was really hard to see Gwarllow standing beside the dragon with a torch flaming in his hand.

  ‘C’mon go! He won’t tell us more,’ and they shot out of the bushes. ‘But we had to ask him, he would’ve fled after the execution and we could never know what had he been planning …’

  ‘Is she safe?’ called the boy behind them.

  ‘Yeah, she is in New York.’

  ‘Stop!’ screamed Anna. ‘The dragon hasn’t done anything!’

  But the crowd was singing a horrible song which looked to have been increasing Gwarllow’s enthusiasm and he was bouncing on his feet after every step or two.

  His torch was an inch away from the grassy platform … when Anna jumped to her feet by a yell, resembling thunder.