For the first time I turned in my sleep and there wasn't an ounce of softness in the bed I was in. No in fact it was the very opposite, everything I touched and soon enough I hit an evenly cold wall. The memories of what happened before I got knocked unconscious came rushing back to me jolting me awake. I sat up almost instantly immediately regretting myself as vertigo from getting up too quick hit me. I took some time to recover before taking in my surroundings.
"He finally woke up," I heard a voice say.
I couldn't remember being able to understand a thing any of the people in this strange land. A quick inspection of my surroundings told me I was in a dungeon of some sort. Probably a prison where they kept criminals in this place. I was still not positive if I was in Armensia because I still couldn't use my magic. The room I was in was just one of several cells that had been simply enclosed by metal bars. I seemed to be the only one in the dungeons which didn't say much except that if I didn't get out of here, I would be bored without a single inmate.
The entire room was a bit dark with only a few fire torches to light it up. I looked for the source of the voice I had just heard and came face to face with a rather young fellow. I was actually surprised to see him as he bore no qualities of a warden as per his appearance. He looked too young for the job and didn't even have a single scratch on him. I was about to compare him to the races in Armensia when I realised he looked human. In fact, all the people who attacked me looked human. I tried finding a dwarfish attribute about him since they were the one race in Armensia that actually resembled humans but this guy looked completely human. "Finally, someone that speaks a language I understand," I spoke back.
"Does that mean you can finally understand us? That's good news. I'll be right back, wait here," he said before running out the main door. 'Great, it's not like I can go anywhere,' I thought. I looked around and noticed how clean this place was for a dungeon. If anything, I could say I was probably the first to see the inside of a cell in this place for a while. It made me wonder, did this place have no criminals or did they simply choose to kill everyone who broke the law in their land. I closed my eyes and took a look at my internal clocks only to see something I did not like. The earth and Armensian clocks were ticking very slowly. That only meant that I could not hold my spell on earth for much longer. Whatever was going on was not ideal for me right now. I needed to get back to Armensia or home for that matter but this was not helping.
On looking at the new clock in my head, I noticed all kinds of odd things, like how it ticked a hundred times for one minute and how an hour had one hundred minutes instead. The day then spanned out into fifteen hours. I wasn't even sure if the seconds were the same as those on Earth and Armensia. Regardless, I needed to get back home as soon as I could. I waited a bit longer before I heard footsteps and the clanking of metal against metal. I watched as three soldiers dressed in similar outfits to the ones of those who captured me. "And you're sure he could understand you?" one of them asked facing the same young boy that I had taken a while to notice.
"Well, he seemed to like it," the boy said.
"Can any of you help me get out of here? It was never my intention to come here," I said.
"Of course, it wasn't. Who would ever want to come here?" one of the soldiers spat, "the only reason you are here is that this is where you are supposed to be."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are trying to mean," I said.
He turned back to the boy, "I thought you said he can understand us."
"I can," I interrupted him, "I just didn't get the meaning of what you said. Is there something I should know about? Where am I? Why do all of you speak my language now?"
"Enough," the man said raising his hand for me to keep quiet. For some reason, it felt like this guy had no right to order me around. It felt wrong in many ways, but I wasn't going to start being bossy when I was on the wrong side of the bars. "This is a waste of time." The man began walking away even though his fellow soldiers did not follow him.
One of the other soldiers stepped to the bars with keys and unlocked the door to my cell. "Get up," he said. I got up and got closer to him, enough to take in his features. He had blond hair unlike me who had black. They all started walking out to the main door. This had got to stop happening. Once again I was in an unfamiliar land trying to stay calm when all my surroundings were new. "Sorry about him. Most of us have just lost hope, that's all."
"Lost hope in what?" I asked him.
"Your questions will be answered soon," he said before leading me out of the dungeon. The main door led straight to a large flight of stairs that led straight upwards. I guessed that we were underground. I followed the three men through corridors and tunnels which were all well cleaned and scrubbed. The whole way was lit by only a few torches which meant there wasn't much to see. I couldn't help but wonder what a structure such as this one was even for.
"What is this place?" I asked as we neared what looked like the actual exit from how wide the hallway was and how gigantic the wooden door was.
"These are the dungeons. We used to keep prisoners here a long time ago, but in these times, no one can afford to even look after criminals. We have more important things to worry about," he said.
"Then why was I put in the dungeon?" I asked.
"Considering you couldn't understand us when we first apprehended you in the Dark Woods, we figured you might be an enemy. If it weren't for the queen, you would have been executed immediately. She says there's hope that you could be the one to lead us out of this," he said.
"I honestly see nothing special about him," the grumpy guy from earlier spoke up. We finally came to the large door. I wondered who in the world was going to push open such a large door. It easily stood up to five metres or even more and was almost twice as wide. I didn't even understand the purpose of its odd design.
"That's one huge door," I said hearing chuckles from the soldiers at my exclamation. One of them just walked up to the door and pushed it open. The sound of the hinges groaning against each other as it swung open only proved how heavy it actually was and this guy still made it look like it was nothing. Light came spilling in making me cover my eyes with my hand.
"Welcome to the Kingdom of Serif," he said. I took a moment to myself thinking over the name but chose to ignore it anyway. Perhaps that wasn't even a word here. The air was cold against my skin and the first thing that caught my eye was the gigantic palace that stood high and mighty on the hill ahead. It took a while t notice that we were standing on the side of a hill or a mountain at least. Before us was a large town built entirely out of stone. It was clean down to every last detail. The buildings were beautiful, but all that was missing was the happy bustling about of townsfolk seeking ways to go about their day. This great and mighty town was quiet as a graveyard. The people that one saw were not in any way happy or making any noise in the slightest. Soldiers lay scattered throughout the town as we walked through. They waved at us as we walked by. I noticed each soldier held another one of those weird weapons that were used against me as I was being apprehended. This wasn't that fun to watch. The place was clearly not going through any kind of famine or depravity, but yet everywhere I looked, there was no sign of cheer. Everyone was gloomy like it was some kind of rule.
"Take a good long look," one of the men I was walking with told me.
"What happened here?" I asked.
"All these people live in constant fear for their lives each day. The Darkness is merely toying with us," he said.
"That's enough, David. We don't want any trouble to befall us than it already has," another spoke up. I still had no idea where we were going. So I took a stab and asked.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To meet the queen, didn't you see the palace?" he asked. The palace could no longer be seen from where we were since the buildings of the town obstructed us.
"Wait, the palace, but that was miles away. Are we going to use a carriage or something?" I asked.
"See what I mean, the runt can't even handle a simple walk and you expect me to believe that he's going to save us all," the grumpy guy said. I had come to learn that he was the one they called David and it was taking everything in my being to keep myself from simply calling him Grumpy altogether.
"Enough, David, you don't want to go against the Queen's judgement," the overly cautious one said to him.
"I know Morgan, but in my opinion, the Queen herself may not be what she used to be… she is over eight hundred years, remember," David said back.
"You are bordering towards the edge of treason David. Watch your mouth," the third soldier said. He had remained quiet the entire time we walked. He seemed to be a man of very few words.
"Always a stick in the mud Joshua as always," David replied.
"Joshua is a man of few words, sir. Don't you think you might have gone a bit overboard, sir," the young boy spoke up.
David was visibly frustrated by the attitude his comrades were giving him at this point, "I just don't get it. Why won't the Queen just step down and let her daughter take over the throne? And to make matters even weirder, the princess has done nothing to demand the throne from her. I'm just saying, there would be an uprising if this keeps up," David said.
"Did you say eight hundred years?" I asked him.
"Yes, I did," David replied, "what's on your mind, runt?"
"People here don't age that fast, do they?" I asked.
"No, when we reach our primes, we stop ageing, but we are not immortal," he said, "the longest is a thousand years, but even that is pushing your luck. The Queen is mostly lucky because she is a royal so she gets a boost from that."
"What's so special about royals?" I asked.
"Okay, I'll kill this kid myself," David snapped only to be held back by Joshua. "Let me go, Joshua. Just how clueless does the boy have to be for you to all realise he's just a worthless piece of trash."
"Stop it, you're going to cause a scene," Joshua warned him.
His eagerness to kill me was frightening, to say the least, but I also found it highly disrespectful, even though I found that reaction also weird in itself. The rest of the trip to the castle continued in silence as I did not want to cause any more trouble for Joshua and the others. Soon enough we reached the palace gates immediately prompting me to look back where we came. I was surprised we had walked such a long distance in a short time. I looked back and could finally make out the mountain in which the dungeons had been built. The palace gates were opened by soldiers who waved at us as we got there.
I followed David's lead as he led us straight to the front door and through the gigantic hallways. We seemed to be heading straight inward. My guess by the way we went in was that we were headed for the throne room. They were usually built in the most central place in the castle that the architecture could allow, well according to the way I noticed it in the Artarak. Soon enough we came face to face with huge wooden doors reminding me of the ones that were at the entrance of the dungeons.
The doors swung open and we strolled into the luxurious-looking throne room filled with tapestries and luxurious looking items on pedestals. At the very end of the well-designed plush red carpet at our feet stood two huge thrones that were just as equally designed in detail. In the throne to the right, a woman who looked to be well in her twenties stood up upon our arrival. She was dressed to the nines in a white gown and covered herself on a red cape that flowed down to her feet. Her husband who I assumed was the king stood after her from his throne.
Unlike her elegant attire, the King was dressed in armour and wore a similar cape that went down to his feet. They looked serene and beautiful like they had been plucked straight out of a fairy tale. "So her finally woke," the Queen asked.
"Yes, he did," David replied quickly dropping to one knee and bowing down to the queen along with the others. I remained standing despite my efforts to bow to the Queen. This was the first time I had ever done anything similar to this. My knees just wouldn't give way so that I could also display the same respect the soldiers had.
"Insolent fool," the King's voice boomed.
"No, Michael," the Queen said raising her hand so he might stop, "he merely doesn't have the capability to bow down to me."
"How did you know?" I asked.
"I was guessing, but now that you have confirmed it. I know beyond all doubt that you are who I thought you are," she replied.
"I thought we agreed we shall through him on the Royal path if we were to prove that," the King said.
"Oh we shall still do that, and I know he will survive it," she said.
"What is the royal path?" I asked only to notice her signalling to someone besides me. I looked to my side and saw David retrieving a rod from his waist belt. Once it was off it grew longer and expanded, the sound of metal echoing through the throne room until it took on the form of the spears they were all holding earlier before I was caught.
I heard similar sounds from the other two soldiers. They started surrounding me. "What's going on?" I asked panic beginning to set in my system along with something else. Anger, why was I angry, was it my place to be angry at these people? But I couldn't help it, their actions were pissing me off. I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand prompting me to turn around and duck the back of the spear that was once again being aimed at the back of my head. They wanted to knock me out again, but that wasn't happening this time, I tried telling myself. Unfortunately for me, I could not use magic. The ground immediately rose around me restricting any further movement.
"I'm truly sorry about this, but we have to do it if we are ever going to survive," the Queen said having walked up to me.
"How does this have anything to do with me?" I fumed struggling against the rock that had me confined.
"I promise you this. It has everything to do with you," she said right before I was hit hard at the back of my head. 'The nerve on these people,' I thought right before I passed out.