I woke up hoping to smell the sweet scent of Lavender. The same scent that followed Jade wherever she went. Instead I woke up to the smell of dust and clay-- nothing like what I was hoping for, but for some reason it felt right.
I sat up on the side of the creaky bed and took in my surroundings.
It looked like I was in a small circular room, almost like the same room where Jade and I slept in last night. The only item inside the room besides the bed was a large wooden chest positioned near the entrance.
As I stood up I felt a jolt of pain on the left side of my ribs. I placed my hand over it only to feel the tingly sensation of a bright orange leave wrapped around my abdominal regions.
For some reason I give a sigh of relieve to find that my pants were still on. I quickly stood up and stretched to discover which parts of my body was still injured.
Instantly, I felt little jolts of pain on the right knee-cap, a soreness on my entire left arm, and of course the intense pain of my ribs which caused me to stop stretching immediately. I give another sigh of relieve knowing that nothing was out of place or broken.
"You're awake already?" a soldier asked right when he entered the room.
He was one of the soldiers that came along with us, he looked to be some what older than I was, probably eighteen or seventeen. He looked like he wasn't much of a fighter by the figure of his body and the way he was standing.
"We'd thought you be out for a few more hours." He placed the things he was carrying on top of the large wooden chest.
"Where am I?" I asked the soldier even though the answer was starting to form at the back of my head.
"At the village infirmary," he stated. "We found you face down in the sand and brought you along with some of the supplies back here."
Ah that's when it all started flooding back in.
I remember how the bandit kidnapped Jade right in front of my eyes, how I failed to rescue her, and the last thing I seen before passing out. "Did you see a tornado?" I asked hoping that I didn't dreamt it.
"Two of them actually," the soldier replied back. "The one that took out the cart you was on, and the other one that took out another cart."
His answer stunned me for a second. That explains the reason why all of a sudden we were sent flying in the air like that, but how did the tornadoes appeared and vanished a second later.
"Also we seen the bandits knock off the G.W.B off your cart but somehow you even went faster. It's like you had your own personal wind blowing against your sail," he finished.
I guess the G.W.B was the thing on top of the carts that gather winds and blows it against the sail. I knew I heard a clank, and I did started to slow down almost to a complete stop. The question that was hammering against my head was how did I manage to catch up to the bandits and where did them tornadoes came from?
"What's your name?" I asked the soldier.
It seemed to surprised him, "My name is K'rhan." K'rhan went to the supplies he placed on the wooden chest and took out a shirt which he then tossed to me.
"Let's go rescue Jade," I said as I placed the shirt on. The gloves been on me for a while now that I completely forgot I had it on. I took a step out of the door before I felt the hand of K'rhan on my shoulders.
"Do you really plan on going out there again without a plan?" he said as he removed his hands. "I'm sure you don't even know where the bandits base are, or what you're going to do if you just so happened to stumble on it by luck."
Even though I hate to admit it but K'rhan was completely right. Was the urge to save Jade blocking out my ability to think and planned ahead. I needed a map of some kind, so I could at least figure out the direction they went and what lied ahead.
"You're right," I said. "Can you get a map and tell the rest of the soldiers to meet up somewhere."
***
I spread out the map on the dusty table as the soldiers filled up the seats around it. It was a map that starts from Zenal and ends at the entrance of the Ronan Empire. I scanned it and found the small village where we was currently at.
"Okay we're currently here," I said motioning a circle on the map with my index finger. Looking at the map I was finally able to see how small the village really was and how big Zenal really was. I never knew that there was a lot whole area behind the Colosseum. The village on the other hand was no bigger than a plaza.
I studied the map more to tried to figure out which direction the bandits went. "Let me see, they arrived at the village entrance just like we did," I whispered to myself but out loud for the soldiers to hear. According to the map this village is southeast of Zenal.
"The bandits left the opposite direction they arrived from and continued straight forward," one of the soldiers said.
He was a dark skin guy probably about thirty years old with veins popping out from every section of his bulking body. He looked like he was probably somewhat over six feet tall and the newly scar across his right biceps was probably from earlier today. He must had been one of the guys the bandit leader took out before leaving.
"If they left the opposite direction then that would mean they continued going southeast," I ran a finger a long the map. Southeast from here was covered with mountain ranges from the looks of the map. Southeast is also the direction where we were headed.
The soldier who spoke earlier stood up and took a look over the map. "Seemed like the only reasonable answer is that their base is somewhere in the Armer mountains. Probably around this spot here," he pointed at a little spot on the map.
"How would you know that?" I asked a little concerned.
"I been a soldier for fifteen years now," he replied. "I was around these mountains for about three years. There's no way you can get through these mountains or over them. The only option is to go around them, and since these bandits started from this village it would take a day even on a cart. But the Armen Mountains are full with hidden caves that all leads to one place. Its mostly likely that their base is in the center of the mountain, which as I pointed out is this spot right here."
I thought about it for a moment. It seemed like this soldier knew what he was talking about, even on the map the mountain range looked too wide to go around within a matter of hours and it was probably too high to climb. Also if there really weren't any secret passage between these mountains then the bandits are probably hidden somewhere within it.
"Now that we have an idea where their hide out is, we need to devise a rescue plan," K'rhan said. "They probably might be expecting us and are preparing as we speak."
"A plan for what?" one of the soldiers asked. "You really expect me to go into a bandit's nest just to save some girl I don't even know, and as far as I can tell she been completely useless...."
I ran towards him and grabbed him by his shirt. "I dare you to finish your sentence."
He pushed me off, "why are we even taking orders from a child like you. As far as I know you beat Clover by mere luck that's all. I'll be damned if I'll put my life on the line for a couple of dumb kids like you and your girl friend."
He took out his sword and swung it which I dodged completely. Right when I was about to swing the big soldier managed to separate us.
"Calm down Stell," the soldier said.
Even though I was completely mad I decided to let it go. Saving Jade was more important than fighting with a low rank cowardly soldier.
"I'm going to go save Jade whether you guys are coming or not," I announced. "I don't expect you to follow me." Not like they ever did anyway, the only thing they was good for was coming when the fights over or getting their ass handed to them. "If I don't come back in twenty-four hours you guys can return back to Zenal and tell your king whatever benefits you."
The soldiers thought about this for a second before giving up.
"Look we can't let you go alone," K'rhan said. "Also King Arpo said you and that girl could restore Zenal to its former glory. I rather take the chance of Arpo word then let my own cowardliness take over."
The rest of the soldiers cheered in response, even the one I just had a quarrel with was hesitant at first before changing his mind.
"So whats the plan General?!" they asked in unison.