After that brief encounter with the man we were told was called Oni, the town head, we went straight to the temple. The earlier we met with Aida, the faster we would leave. This place looked gloomy and it lacked that air of freedom and happiness. People here weren't happy.
When we got to the temple, we did what a normal worshipper would do. We removed our shoes at the main gate, bowed, prayed and all then waited for our chance to see the priest.
The priest was a short bald man who seemed to have seen the better of this world - the beautiful and the ugly and he had reached that place of peace. He looked like there was little that could wow him. His gaze seemed like he was starting straight at ones heart.
After paying our respects and sitting down, he looked at us with a smile and spoke even before any of us could.
"Welcome. It took you long and I have been waiting for you," he said with an air of mystery.
"You know who we are?" Adrian asked the question I also had in mind.
He laughed softly as if it was funny that we thought he wouldn't know who we were. "Aida is also expecting you but you have to pass a test first. You are Alphas for a reason. And centaur, (this to Adrian), there is a reason you were paired with a Griffin. You are both favoured." Of everything he said, all I heard was the test. What test?
"Er... Excuse me sir, what test are you talking about? We thought we would come, see the priestess and then leave. Weren't we told that our world needs us? What if something happens and we aren't there?" I asked now all worried.
"Yes it does need you. But Aska needs you even more. This town has been run to the gutters and if this continues, we are all going to perish. The faster you save this town, the faster you return to Zor alpha. And the gods know and see all. You are here for a reason. Good luck," he said then stood up and left.
He just left! Fuuuuck! We didn't sign up for this. Was this all a joke? We didn't know our 'saving the world' part will start with a place we don't even know.
Anyway, we had to do it because we had already decided to do our investigations even before we were asked. These people needed a better life. They deserve a better life.
After leaving the temple, we went to the chief's home as promised. It was the best house in town and one wouldn't miss it. It was a two storied mansion made of brick and a tiled roof. This was a far cry from how the rest of the population lived.
We were told he had gone out but had asked us to wait till he returned. We decided to take a tour of the compound as we waited.
One thing we realised was that people here were overworked and ate little, very little. It was lunch time but the portion of food they were getting couldn't even feed a toddler and it looked more watery than water itself. We tried talking to one of the workers but she scurried off in a hurry and she was trembling like a blade of grass on a windy day. It was clear that she was afraid. Of who or what? We needed to know.
We also realised that people brought rations to the chief's house and as the workers returned to the farm, there were armed soldiers that would best them and force them to work. Talk of slave trade in the chief's own town! This wasn't how a leader should treat his people. This was wrong in all the senses of the word.
When one man came carrying things in a sack, they were inspected by a soldier and his name was written down and he left. We decided to follow him and see if he could talk to us. When we caught up to him, he was reluctant at first but yielded but it wasn't before Adrian assured him that he was royalty. Also, it wasn't before making us promise that we won't mention his name to anyone because he didn't want to die and had children to take care of.
"Our chief, aaah!" He started as he shook his head, "he's a beast in a human skin. Literally. He's the worst. I have never seen a worse centaur. One, we are forced to pay taxes to him every month and if a family is unable to pay, they are forced to give one of theirs to
work in his farms without pay. We also have to give food to him every two months and he doesn't care about a person's status. If a family is unable to pay, they are either forced to give one person to work for him or be exterminated.
He also doesn't allow us to cultivate above a certain level. That's why there are soldiers at the gate. They have to record where you are going and for how long. This is because he doesn't want us to go far and buy spirit stones because he believes that if we become strong, we will overthrow him. He is thus the strongest among us. We don't know how he does it but he taps all the spiritual energy that should be flowing freely in the air for our cultivation.
Another thing is he takes our daughters and wives by force. If a woman doesn't want to be with him she's killed. If a husband or a father disagrees he is killed. The situation is getting worse every day and we don't know what to do," the the man finished with a sigh and to say that we were flabbergasted would be an understatement.
That was when it dawned on us that we hadn't even smelt a sniff of spiritual energy on a place that was full of centaurs. It now all made sense.
"But what about the royal family? Don't they help?" I asked because from the little we had gathered, there was a royal family in Aska that controlled everything.
"We only hear of them and Oni says that the King approves of his leadership. How would we know because none of us has ever been to the capital. We can't afford it and it's many many miles from here. We went to the priest but he usually tells us to be patient because our savior is coming. It has been so long and people here are almost giving up," he finished and excused himself in a hurry lest he got caught as he put it.
This was unbelievable. We went back to the chief's home to see what he would say or what we would find out. We at least had a starting point and we were already devising a plan on how to overthrow him.
One, we could just kill him but we didn't want the people to see us as monsters. We needed a plan that would give the people a new leader and free the slaves and all those women and leave them safe. This, we first needed to know if it's true that the royal family approved of what he did.
How would we find out?
Ah! Such a headache!
And what's worse is we had to do this because we didn't even know how to open a portal back to our world.
Aida was the only way and this was our ticket to Aida.
Oni, better cooperate.