In front of us was the village, the walls surrounding it were impaired. From the looks of it, you would without question assume it was raided by sea creatures. I caught Holkin's facial expression became sorrowful.
"Are you feeling okay?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, yes. I'm just downhearted on what happened to Cavoir, our village."
"The issue of this country will be solved in no time, you need to have faith." I then gave him a pat on his shoulders.
"I appreciate your concern, let us proceed, shall we?"
I nodded.
Holkins began to move, so I followed. Seeing the state of Cavoir, it was similar to my hometown back then. Everything was left a mess— I deeply felt what the citizens of this village were going through. As we were walking, I got into an eye to eye contact on some of them, and I saw their eyes. The eyes of hopelessness were there, filled with sorrow and despair. As someone who was once a victim of the incursion of those sea creatures, I wanted to confront those people and consolate each of them, but I couldn't. So I left them be.
Out of curiosity, I asked Holkin's on where our destination is to, "By the way, where are we headed to?"
"If you wouldn't mind, I would like to stop by my house for a moment." he replied.
"You have your family waiting for you there, right?"
"Family? No wife and children. I just want to pack some of my belongings that I need before we go to the mayor."
"I suppose we're both maiden less then, hahaha"
"No plans in having a woman at the moment. I am fully focused on my path of being an alchemist."
We then both went straight an alley, full of residents roaming around, nowhere to go because their house were destroyed. But as of now, some carpenters are already doing their job to fix the residence of each individual. Reaching the end of the alley, there was a mossy stone staircase leading down on another residence area.
Down there was a place where you could feel the atmosphere was different. The walls were all covered in moss, every corner was where the sewages were located. Structures above were covering the area, so no sunlight can be seen if you're down there.
Bypassing everyone there, each of them greeted Holkin. It was because there were only a few place of residence down there and every people living at that area probably lived as neighbors ever since.
After sometime, we've reached Holkin's home, it was located at the very end of the residential area. In the far distance, deep down at the end, I sighted a structure in a form of a cell. There was someone being kept there, and there were several locks. I believed it was a dangerous human that was being kept there, I wanted to ask Holkin but I heard a creaking door behind me so I turned. It was him opening the door.
"It's now open, although I had a hard time finding the right key." Holkins said and he chuckled.
"I see, you may get your belongings now and I'll wait here outside." I replied.
"Alright, I'll be quick."
Holkin went inside and I was left outside. I couldn't stop my curiosity on what was being kept at that cell, so I slowly walk towards it. As I was getting there, a screech was heard and a loud noise of chains inside were rattling. I realized it was no human, but an unknown enraged creature.
I got closer and was a meter away from the cell. The creature inside then moved further away from the door. I had no vision on what was there since it was pitch-dark. It became silent all of a sudden, and then the yet to be known creature leaped at me. Crunching the metal door, the creature was enraged. I saw its identity, and it was a fishman. One that was scarlet, its eyes were amber and scales seems rougher than the others. I backed off caused by fear, it was an aggressive being, trying to tear down the metal door with its fangs. Luckily, it was sturdy enough to hold the creature off.
"What is this thing doing here...?" I mumbled to myself.
"It's the only one we managed to capture." an unknown person replied, someone who was staying at a narrow corner that I didn't notice at the first place. I was cautious at that time as I had no expectation someone would be actually staying at this area.
"Who are you? Are you the reason why a fishman is being kept here?" I asked.
An old standard man who was the same height as me then came out the corner, he was drunk and had two knives at each one of his pocket. "I'm the one who's supposed to ask that question, who the hell are you? I haven't seen you before, eh? are you an invader or what?" he replied.
"I am here bec—"
"But first, what's your height, eh? Are you 6'0 or 6'1?" I was then interrupted by him.
"Huh? I am 6'0. Why'd you ask though?"
"No reason, now what's your purpose here?" He then brought out his pairs of knife and pointed at me.
"To help you folks out. I need to assist all of you on stopping the cause of this incident, that way, I'll be able to get out of here and continue my journey."
"Is that so? A mere person like you will help us with the complication that's happening?"
"There's nothing wrong with what I said. I believe I at least am capable when it comes to combat."
"Are you fucking with me, kid? How about we test your skills right now? I bet someone like me is superior than you. "
He was excessively arrogant, and I was not a fond of a person treating me with that kind of an attitude so I put my hands up on a fighting position. I had my left foot farther in front of the right foot, having my right arm tucked on my chin while my left hand was out to reach. I charged at him but before I got to land my punch, he dodged and stabbed the knife through my arm. He then held my stabbed forearm and went to uppercut my chin with his right arm.
That punch got me concussed and I was down on my knees. I pulled out the knife that was impaled through me and I tried to get up. That time, I couldn't feel a thing and dropped down on the ground. My whole body went shut down all of a sudden, "What happened...?" I asked the old geezer.
"I forgot to mention, there's a herb imbued to that knife, that's why you are paralyzed. No worries, boy, the effect will last at least 5 minutes. You can see, you didn't meet my expectations, very funny." He then looked down on me and guffawed.
"What is going on over there?!" Someone screamed at a distance. I recognized its voice, and it was Holkin.
"Aston? Garadu? What are you both doing here? Why is there blood scattered around?"
"Holkin, you're finally back, and out of nowhere you are saying that this commoner is with you?!" The old man yelled.
"He is no commoner. As a matter of fact, he's here to help us fight against Noora."
"You mean this person that I defeated is going to help us? Are you out of your mind?"
"Look, he has no equipment at the moment, and you on the other hand has a pair of knives. You can't call that a fair fight, how about you let him prove himself before you look down on him, Garadu?"
If he'll just be a burden to our group then I'll be the one who'll kill this junk." Garadu then picked up his knife that was on the floor and he proceeded to go back to the corner he was staying at earlier.
Holkin injected me with an antidote and wrapped my injured arm with a silk cloth, "What's wrong with you? Going here and fighting Garadu? You could've died but I came. Tell me the reason why the two of you fought?" He questioned.
I stood up and replied "All I said was I would help you all but he doubted my intention and attacked me."
"You shouldn't be careless, Aston."
"I wasn't, I just went here because of the noise I heard, and then I saw this fishman."
"This scarlet fishman? Yes, we caught this creature for us to analyze its weakness and strength—this one is unusual compared to the others, that's why we decided to capture it and not to execute it."
"I see, it's my first time too in seeing this kind of fishman."
"I notice you keep referring to them as "fishman". Well, I got a book here about the different kinds of species, and these creatures are called Locathah. The characteristics matches them perfectly, they have firm scales covering their bodies that range from olive green to ochre in color commonly although their stomach scales instead range from sea green to pale yellow. They have fish-like heads with large eyes, sharp fangs and small fins where ears would normally be. Instead of hair, they have a dorsal fin and flukes."
Holkins pulled out a lantern after reading about the Locathahs, and reached it out in the pitch dark cell. Both of us got a view on the scarlet Locathah, sitting in a humane posture in the far corner of the cell. It was observing us, the stare of that creature gave a chill down my spine. At that moment, I realized that it had a sudden change in behavior. Earlier, it was wild and aggressive but what I was seeing after Holkins came, it changed to a more silent and observant behavior.