I sat on top of the basmil tree a few yards above the forest and stared at the lights in the distant horizon. They said Arga was there. The beast of the forest. They said men dwelled there. A lot of them. They said women were there too. Beautiful, and… different. Looking like me but not really like me. I wondered what they looked like.
I heard they didn't have muscles nor a lot of hair on their faces. But they had two mounts of flesh on their chests that was soft. I wondered what it was. How they looked and I promised myself I would go there one day.
Dad said my mother was one of them. Maybe I could see how my mother looked like.
"Andre!" my father called from the cave down the mountain. "Andre!" he called again so loud I bet every living thing in the forest could hear them.
"I'm coming!" I shouted back and sighed before I jumped down from the tree and ran back to the cave. It took me a count to four thousand to get there at my fastest speed. Even with the speed I ripped from a cheater.
"Took you long enough." He said as I fought for my breath at the entrance of our yard.
Yeah, right, I just ran two miles and that's all he had to say?
"what do you want?" I asked after catching my breath.
"Sit down and have dinner." He said taking the better half of the cheater I killed yesterday off the fire.
"I ate yesterday."
"just sit down and eat." He growled "I made you dinner, dont let it go to waste. please!"
I did as he asked. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. We ate in silence the sour and a bit bitter meat as we sat around the fire.
"You've been looking at the city a lot these days." He commented as he cut himself another piece of the cheater's chest.
"I've been looking at the stars." I lied. He chuckled and looked at the sky. "Arga sure does shine like the stars these days doesn't it?"
I looked up. Shit. I should have lied better. There were clouds in the sky. No stars were visible tonight.
"you know, Arga is way more dangerous than the forest here." He said taking a bite of the meat and kept on talking. "there you won't know what wants to kill you, here you know what wants to."
"so you've said," I responded eating my share.
"You will go there one day, i know you will," I looked at him and I saw him studying my face. "but right now, it's burning asunder. A dragon came down from down south."
"I'm not going to challenge a dragon." I barked at him and got up from the ground. I should have known this was coming.
"I'm not going to ask you to." He said looking calm and relaxed. But I didn't believe him. "You are not strong enough to fight it, even the shield and armor you've been making, nothing in this forest is strong enough to withstand a dragon punch. so I really hope you won't fight it, or cross paths with it. But sit down, there is a story I have to tell you."
I sat down again and listened to his story of guardians, the most powerful of all gods, and their war with the gods that at the end of it, four hundred years ago, led to the citizens of the fallen Aragu, the kingdom between the land of the gods and that of the guardians, into this land thanks to the grace of the guardians.
If only I'd listened to that story in its entirety. If only I'd known that was just him saying goodbye and he was already in the tummy of the dragon. If only…
I shook my head off the trail of thoughts and stared into the fire in front of me next to the dead bodies. the guards' blood was turning the room red and full of the stench of blood. the beasts within me awakened. been a long time for them without blood. they grew excited.
I took a breath and... I need to start thinking. seriously. why the fuck did I add the nauseating scent of blood to the already stenchy situation I was in? and the light!
I blew it out and closed my eyes again as soldiers opened the door to the jail.
"you really are cold." someone calmly said in the cell and I looked around. I wasn't expecting that. besides, I couldn't feel him. no matter how hard I tried to look around for him, I didn't see him in this darkness.
I looked around and realized I was in a canteen. but not the canteens I was used to. a different kind of a canteen. classy kind. just not our royals or anything I was used to.
this one was well lit with rods in the ceiling that glowed white. There seemed to be glasses of odd, different shapes. perfect glasses that looked like frozen ice. clear ones. were they made of ice? the temperature of the room disagreed.
the wooden tables were flawless. so was the entire interior of the canteen. wooden, but of a class, I was yet to see. a class better than that of royal handy ware.
"I see why he likes you." the voice said again from behind me. i turned back to the helper. He was behind a counter with bottles made of... gems? beautiful, different gems that looked precariously as the crystal coin did.
was this where the coins were mad... no it can't be. the crystal coins were made in punt thousands of years ago.
was this...
"you are just like a judge but you're different." he continued.
"excuse me?"
"Khumat, the one who gave you the coin, he seems to think I can trust my people with you and... hmm, you don't see faces. A swan fold and you can't see faces, huh, and i thought I've seen I've seen it all."
"what?"
"I'm sorry, where are my manners. King Argos Of Uriel. At your service. Want to drink?" he picked up a cup and waved it at me, then he corrected himself. "Oh right I forgot, you can't drink, we're inside your head so this would be a bad idea."
I blinked, thinking, did I hear him right?
"And I also can't drink." he looked at his hands and then up. "It's been a few hundred years since I died. plus you have to wait two thousand more years to be in this room, with me. damn. problem with the loom of fate. time is... a bitch."
"I cant incarnate yet because I'm not called forth, and lets be honest, my body is floating somewhere among the stars. and the godkiller is freaking... on vacation. I mean, what's the use of having an army when... do you catch my drift?"
"king Argos?"
"oh, you can call me Joe, Uriel, anything up your alley."
"do i seem like i care about your problem or any such?" i asked him. "cos last time i checked, i dont!"
"sorry, i... I should have been clear. I want you to send Princess Ariana to Punt. I would give you anything you want."
"I'm done working for people."
"there's this witch, Raga, she knows who killed your mother, i can send you her way."
"I dont give a shit."
"Look, Andre, you dont have a say, you seem to think you are in charge. but you are not. you killed my dragon and ate its soul. and for ten years, you've been fighting it for control." he approached me, his aura, his... something, scared me. like that dragon. "i can skip the details of how you will lose that fight if you think you can go against my word. but, you can stay the fuck here for seven thousand years, because that's how long regal dragons live, as it takes over your body or you can do as i say and I'll let you be in control and think of ways to make the dragon yours. your choice."
I looked at him. not knowing what to think. i caught the threats, just not the rest.
"oh you have until the end of today to decide, now, how about you get yourself out of this freaking mess outside?" he waved me away and it felt like i was thrown out of a bar. I flew out of his bar and saw its exterior. A wooden cabin made of perfectly clean logs in the middle of the forest.
I hit something and opened my eyes. I was still in that cell. surrounded by soldiers. might have dreamt that. The dragon inside of me that once wanted to break free was sitting still this time. not fighting for control or anything.
"Andreana, you really are a pain in the ass you know that?" Raoul started staring at me in front of his men. I looked at him and then at the floor of the cell i was in. "how did you kill them while you are tied?"
i guess i didnt go anywhere.
"did you have to kill them?" he asked again.
"they disturbed my sleep, now you're doing it too. wanna die?" I asked. his men stepped back but he didn't move.
"think you can kill me?" he asked and I didnt have to say anything. he knew i could do it. "you must really like being called a monster dont you?"
I closed my eyes and lowered my head. "get the fuck out of my cell or I would show you how a monster behaves."
"leave," he told his men and they hurriedly left the room. after a minute of chaotic and hurried march, the prison was emptied out except for me and him. "you know that he really is going to kill you, right?"
"seem like i care?"
I heard him breathe deeply before he calmly added beneath his clenched teeth. "he hired a group of assassins to kill you should you try to escape tomorrow. maybe you may have heard of them, the nightcrawlers."
the masked ones. i knew them. met them one time.
"I've heard of them."
"then you know if you dont escape today you are never going to right?"
"why dont you worry about yourself," i told him and pretended to snore.