"Wake up Liam. Wake up."
"Oh you again. Who are you? Why am I here?"
"You will get your answer in due time, however you must wake up now, Liam."
Attempting to lift his hand up to this figure once again, he was shot back to the real world. Liam jolted up from the floor, holding his head in pain right after.
"What the...?", Liam mumbled to himself.
"It's good to see that you are okay, Liam, you have been out for some hours now", Adira looked at him concerned.
Looking around the place, Liam could not help but feel digusted at the sight of the place they was in.
"Where are we?"
"We are in an underground dungeon", Adira answered.
The floor of the place was disgusting to look at as it was filled to the brim with skeletons and what looked like dried blood and guts. Each breath he took in was torture on it's own as the air here had an unbearable stench. It was hard for Liam to imagine how Adira reacted when she first woke up here. He was already feeling nauseous just few seconds in here.
"Are you saying we are in a castle?"
"My point exactly. Apparently they brought us here to meet with the king", she seemed a little bit upset about it.
Liam couldn't understand why the soldiers would attack them only to bring them to their king. Even though he didn't understand what was going on, he knew that a meeting with the king would be terrible in every possible scenario.
"Am sorry Adira, this is all my fault. Because of me we are in this mess."
"Don't say that Liam, there was no way we could tell what they were planning. Besides you told me something was wrong before we even got attacked, that alone shows that you were looking out for us."
Hearing her words, Liam could not help but smile mildly. Her words seemed to be the only good thing in this ugly dungeon.
"How long have we been down here?", Liam began an inspection on the prison ceil.
"I would say we have been here for about three hours."
Looking through the small window hole of the ceil, he saw three shining moons high up in the sky. Liam didn't need to be a genius to know that it was already midnight. Looking at the iron bars of the ceil, Liam punched against it hard causing him to grasp his fist in pain.
"Ouch!"
"That looked like it hurt", Adira chuckled lightly. "They wouldn't put us in a ceil we could break out of you know."
Liam looked at his now red knuckles before rubbing them. He didn't understand why she was so calm, especially since she reacted the way she did when she arrived in this planet. Whatever the reason was, he was glad that she was handling herself well.
"Yeah, you are right. If my 55 points of strength didn't break it down, there is no way we can break out of here. It's best that we sleep and see what happens tomorrow."
Adira nodded her head in agreement to this idea. It wasn't the best, however it was the only thing that they do at the moment. Finding a comfortable and less yucky place to lay on, Adira and Liam both ended up laying down next to each other. With their eyes locking for a brief moment, they couldn't help but giggle and blush.
The rays from the two morning suns crawled through the window, eventually landing on Liam's eyes. This woke him up instantly as he made an attempt to cover his eyes.
"Huh? It's morning time", he rubbed his eyes softly.
Looking at Adira who was still sleeping, Liam felt the urge to leave her be. That didn't matter however, as five guards came to the front of the metal bars.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The sound of a metal sword riding along the metal bars woke Adira from her peaceful sleep.
"Wake up filth? The king has ordered us to bring to him. You best behave yourselves before the king or we will kill you on the spot, not that I have any problem with that", the soldier laughed in an irritating manner before snarling at them.
This was the same man Liam had seen the day before with a totally different armor from his men. He couldn't quite understand if the man was a general or not, however he was sure of one thing, he didn't like him one bit. Feeling Liam eyes on him, the soldier looked at him enraged.
Clink!
The soldiers rushed into the ceil subduing both of them with force even though they didn't show any signs of resistance. They put restraints on their hands while they did this as well.
"I don't like the way you are looking at me", he walked up to Liam in slow steps.
Swinging his fist hard into Liam's gut, the man smirked widely in content as Liam dropped to his knees gasping for air.
"Liam!", Adira shouted worried about his well being.
"That will teach you to never look at me like that again. Take them to the king!"
The soldiers dragged Liam and Adira forcefully out of the dungeon and through the castle halls. Eventually they were brought to the throne room were they were tossed on the floor like rag dolls.
"Bow before our king!", A soldier from the side commanded.
Rising up into a kneeing position, Adira and Liam did as they were told. Looking around the whole room, Liam could see gold colored curtains all over the throne room with the king's wife, son and daughter sitting by his sides. There were also about twelve old men standing by there sides, six on one side and six on the other with a dozen soldiers in the room. A pouncing Lion's image seemed to be the symbol of their kingdom as it was imprinted on each curtain and even behind the throne.
While he inspected the place he came to realize something he was unable to with the armored men.
'Tails, paws, fur, fluffy ears, weird noses...? Don't tell me that everyone in this kingdom are beastmen!', Liam thought to himself.
"So, Ezekiel, these are the spies from the human nation I assume", the king asked the soldier who had punched Liam's gut previously.
Ezekiel stepped forward, standing at attention before he spoke. "Yes, Lord Erza."
Their king had the traits of a lion just like the rest of his family members. The mane, tail and even sharp fangs gave it away. Heck! They looked like real lions walking on their legs.
"Spies!?", Liam exclaimed.