Save The Dragon! - Chapter 6 "Mysterious Sword"
Republic of India, Mumbai, Unspecified Airport
A young man of pure Indian descent wearing a stylish business suit could be seen walking casually with one hand dragging a yellow suitcase and the other holding up a phone to his ear.
"Where are you, Rama? I've been waiting here for half an hour already!" Prahan complained in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Jahahaha, You've been in the west for too long Prahan, remember this is Mumbai the Capital of Busy traffic! Jahahaha" Rama, Prahan's old friend from university answered back.
"Busy traffic? well... Guess it can't be helped then" Prahan sighed as he started thinking whether it was a better idea to just get a taxi.
"It really ca- WOAH LOOK OUT!" Rama suddenly shouted.
"Rama!? What is it? What happened!?" I asked in a panicked tone.
"Damn... I'm fine Prahan but I think you should get a taxi now... A car crash just happened down the road and it's blocking the path..." Rama stated.
"A car crash? Damn... Those have been a lot more common now" Prahan said as he recalled the numerous car crashes he witnessed this year.
"Not just car crashes, but accidents, in general, seems to be going on a lot more frequently now," Rama said over the phone.
"This year alone I've seen way more wars, famines, plagues, and just death overall than my entire life!" Rama said worriedly.
"You need to be careful now Prahan, the world is going to shit right now and even the animals can feel it" Rama advised.
"Yeah, Yeah, I get the sentiment but you need to stop being so paranoid Rama, It's just a bad year but hard times happen occasionally. It's not like the world is gonna end, right?" Prahan said with a carefree tone.
"I'm not being paranoid Prahan I'm just being cautious for the future" Rama replied.
"Ahh, same thing" Prahan replied.
"Tch, whatever... You should get a taxi now wouldn't wanna miss the pizza rolls me and the boys bought, right?" Rama said.
"Pizza rolls!? No way! you're such a bro, Rama!" Prahan praised.
"Save the compliment for Ajay, he's the one who came up with the idea," Rama said.
"Yeah, yeah... anyways, see you soon," Prahan said as he left the call and started looking for a taxi.
As this was an airport in Mumbai, It was quite an easy task so he got in on the taxi car and told the driver his destination.
Which was the Bizhar hotel since the family home was quite far away, Rama and the boys were also staying there...
But as he got comfortable in his seat, he felt a weird rod-like object touching his leg from the side... Wait, that sounded a little wrong...
Anyways... Was this some kind of sword?
Prahan reached out and picked up the sword with his right hand and started inspecting it.
The sword was sheathed but he could clearly see that the blade had an immaculate design, The hilt was seemingly made out of metal... but it felt weirdly comfortable in his hands like he was holding a wool rod. Engraved on the sword's grip was "IGNIS PENITENTIAE" written in bold English... alphabet that is, it was clearly some other language... probably Latin or something
The sword felt... weird to say the least, First of all, it was quite hot for some reason... illogically so
The sword felt familiar but Prahan knew for a fact that he had never even seen such a blade on the internet much less encounter it in real life. It was pretty uncanny...
Regardless, he asked the driver why there was such a peculiar weapon inside the car in the first place.
"SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS, PLENA EST OMNIS TERRA GLORIA EJUS" Was what the driver said.
".... Pardon?" He asked again.
"SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS, PLENA EST OMNIS TERRA GLORIA EJUS" The driver repeated yet again.
"I see..." He didn't see it.
"SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS, PLENA EST OMNIS TERRA GLORIA EJUS" The Driver must have just left the asylum...
"Yes, yes... I get it" He decided to just end the conversation there and move on with my life...
Maybe He should have picked a taxi that didn't have a literal ceremonial cross attached to its top.
... Oh finally, there's the hotel.
"Uhm, sir that hotel is my destination... how much did the drive cost?" Prahan asked.
"IT'S FREE" The driver answered with a robotic tone.
'Wow, so this guy can actually speak normally?' Prahan thought.
"Urr... are you sure?" There was quite a distance between the airport and the hotel so Prahan had actually expected an expensive drive... not a free one.
"AFFIRMATIVE" The Driver responded.
"Ugh... Okay..." Prahan responded.
"HAVE A GOOD DAY" The driver said.
"Thanks" Prahan responded as he got out of the car.
Maybe the driver just wasn't a fluent Hindi speaker which made sense considering he looked middle-eastern... But this still doesn't answer why he was speaking like a robot... Or why he was speaking... Latin, 'I think?'
Because of his profession, Prahan naturally knew how to speak a lot of languages... But Latin wasn't one of them... Though he still vaguely recognized the dialect as he had occasionally read up on the Latin literature back in Italy when he was researching the Romans.
Anyways, Prahan got out of the car and quickly headed to the lobby.
"Ayyy, There's my boy!" Rama excitedly said as he finally saw Prahan again after years.
"Well, someone certainly had a glow-up," Prahan said as he shook hands with the old friend.
It was certainly true, back then Rama was actually a rather socially awkward kid with a skinny-fat physique, But the Rama in front of him looked like he had just crawled out from a Bollywood film shooting.
"Yeah, and you're bald now" Rama replied with a cheeky smile.
...That was unfortunately true. One day, All of Prahan's hair just fell off for some reason and now his head was as hairless as an egg and as shiny as a marble sphere.
"It is what it is" Prahan responded.
"Damn right... Let's you a room, why don't we?" Rama said.
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Sorry for the long delay, y'all.
My cat just straight up died and I was just not in the mood to write... But I'm back now
Stones, Y'all?
Word count: 1065