"More importantly, why did you come back?"
"Eh?"
Shiva went dead silent, the sound of his breath grew noticeable with the silence conjured between them.
"The goblin raid has destroyed the entire prison. You and the other prisoners are now free. You have got what you wanted," Leif added. It might have sounded a little unwelcoming, but Shiva remained undeterred.
"You might be right, yet those monsters who did it are still looming around here," he answered back to Leif.
"True... They are and will be around here for as long as their voidgate isn't deactivated." Leif replied as he headed towards the set of cabinets at the walls of the room. Shiva put down his chains at the table and trailed him behind.
"How do you deactivate it?" he asked.
"Every gate has its guardian - commonly the leader of the whole raid party."
"So I take it that... Once that guardian is killed, that voidgate-thing would also be deactivated?"
"Exactly - but it's easier said than done," affirmed Leif as his hands scrabbled around the contents of the cabinet he faced. Shiva watched him in silence at the back as he did his antics.
"You act like one now," he said.
"Like what?"
"A thief - criminal."
*** The Unexpected Visitor ***
What Shiva told him made Leif stop what he was doing. His hand grabbed something on a tray nested inside the cabinet and threw it at his back to where Shiva was. Shiva noticed it and his hands moved faster than his mind could think. As he caught that thing between his hands, he felt it roll around his palm. Slowly, he opened it and saw a dry prosthetic eye inside.
Surprised, he immediately let go of the eye.
"Not thievery - This be called 'maximizing my survival' from now on," Leif said as he turned his back again to continue his searching. Feeling wronged, Shiva let out a deep sigh.
"I wanted to become stronger. That's why I came back to you." he then said - his profound dedication can be felt in his words.
"Hmm... I see. But I can't do the thing that's on your mind," Leif answered back.
"What? But why not?"
"What you may want to ask me is how to obtain the power of an irregular, don't you?" Shiva paused for a moment as his intentions were exposed from the get-go.
"You got it right... But why couldn't you help me with it?"
"Because this power was just granted to me. They call it an awakening inside of a dream - some even say that it is a divine intervention. Aside from that, I don't know of any other ways... to acquire it," explained Leif.
"I see..." Shiva sighed in disappointment.
"If that's the case, then what happened with your dream?" Shiva's question made Leif stop to think.
"Hmm... In my dream, a leaf appeared - floating in front of me. Now that I remember, it does look like Milena... but much, much smaller."
"Milena... The name of that leaf you're using?"
"Yes."
"I see. So a leaf appeared, then... that's it?"
"No - I ate it right after."
"You ate what?"
"That leaf. I ate it."
Shiva, whose wits couldn't keep up with the randomness of the other guy he was talking to, couldn't utter a single word back.
As Leif finished dealing with the last cabinet, he brought out a sash belt with a small bag on one side. A sheath was sewed below it that contained a short knife commonly used by hunters for pelting animal skin. He placed it on the table and then went back again to the opened wardrobe.
He next brought out a bunch of things - a jacket made of brown fur, black pants, and a pair of boots.
"A trapper's gear - too bad their bow isn't here," said Leif.
"What's this all for? Your loot?"
"Moron, it's your gear. I wouldn't want you to follow me around empty-handed... with only those ragged, bloody-dirty clothes protecting your body."
"But I thought you wouldn't help me?"
"I did say I can't help you become an irregular. But you do realize that being an irregular isn't just the only way to become stronger, don't you?"
Enlightened, Shiva realized how narrow his thinking was. Blinded by the brilliance of Leif's mystical power, he forgot to trust his potential.
"I... entrust myself to you then." Shiva, with a big smile on his face that bore his new resolve, swore to Leif.
"Likewise, I'll be counting on you - Shiva."
With their exchange of words, the both of them built a hopeful acquaintance.
"Go get changed now. I'll go to the other room, and see what I could still find for you," said Leif as he went out of the door.
A few moments passed by. Shiva was now geared with their looted trapper suit. It gave off a new feeling around him, like that of a novice hunter. Leif walked back into the room. His endeavor failed as he returned with no new item in his hand.
"Empty vials, dusty books, and more spider webs. There were a few broken tools and... meh, we don't need those." Leif said. The disappointment can be clearly seen written all over his face.
His right hand took the compass out of his waist bag. It has a silver, circular casing with a strap of thin, silver chain attached to it. Shiva, as he saw Leif, took his chains off of the table and approached him. "Where to?" he asked.
The compass revealed its blank interior as Leif opened its cap - no markings nor directional symbols were written on its circumference. Only a tiny red arrow violently rotated around at its center.
"What a strange compass..." said Shiva. The both of them kept waiting for the arrow to settle down. A couple of seconds passed but the arrow didn't show any signs of stopping.
"Does the arrow naturally point to the north?" asked Shiva as his bewildered face kept track of the spinning arrow in the compass.
"No, it doesn't." Leif disagreed.
"Then... that's practically broken now, isn't it? A defect... or maybe the guards broke it when they took it away from you."
"Not either. It's still intact, and does its job well right now."
"Eh? If so, what does it show you?"
"SHIT!" A muffled voice of someone came from outside of the room they were in.
Both of them turned their head toward the direction of the cave as that was where they felt the origin of the voice was. Suddenly, the compass also pointed towards that direction. Leif and Shiva noticed it and made both of their thoughts aligned with the curiosity it gave them.
Silently, their feet unanimously moved towards the open window of the room. Leif positioned at the left edge of the window while Shiva did at the opposite side. Behind the dusty glass panes, their eyes peeked outside.
It was the warden - his upper body was still naked despite the chilly winds brought by the night. Down on his knees, both of his hands were placed above his head. He's clearly devastated as he bore witness to the sorry sight of his prison. Behind him were five of his officers and two city guards who were also confused about their current situation.
"DAMN IT ALL! WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!" Again, his voice echoed throughout the vicinity. As he shouted, the officers behind him behaved a little differently. They started to point their hands in the opposite direction - notifying the warden of something towards the gate.
"YOU! ARE YOU THE ONE WHO LED THESE GREENSKINS HERE?!" The warden shouted in the direction of the broken prison entrance. Strange - it was as if the warden was talking to somebody else.
"Hey, Shiva. Do you see someone on the opposite side?" Leif immediately asked his partner.
Shiva nodded back at him. "A stranger... Black cape, I can't see its face because of his hood."
Suddenly, Leif could feel the weak sensation of shaking from his compass. He decided to back away from the window momentarily to check it out. As he opened it, the wild rotation of the arrow came to a halt. The direction of the arrow on the compass has changed from earlier - now it also pointed towards the prison's gate.
Leif felt a little unnerved by that sudden change.
"Is something amiss?" Shiva asked him.
"Yes - we might be in some kind of trouble here." He answered before peeking back again at the window. Now he saw the stranger in all black that Shiva identified earlier.
It seemed that the warden was talking to that stranger, but their voices couldn't be heard from the position where Leif was. Their exchange lasted for a few seconds... until the warden decided to break the peace.
"YOU'LL REGRET THIS!" he boldly declared as he commanded his guards to make a formation in front of him. The stranger, however, wasn't fazed by this. He was overwhelmed by his opponent's numbers, yet he just silently stood there among the corpses of the dead.
When the warden and the guards began to slowly push their way towards him, the stranger lifted his hand. An orb in the hue of light blue suddenly began to emanate in his palm. Several ghostly fumes of the same color began to creep out of the orb. The fumes swiftly found their way towards the dead bodies around the stranger. What commenced right after was something... enigmatic.
Several corpses around the stranger began to move and rise from their eternal slumber. Both dead humans and goblins were awakened, their bodies showed signs of decaying flesh from their battle scars. Their eyes glowed in pale blue as their mouth rattled in unison. The ravens who feasted on them earlier began to fly around in circles at the top of the whole area.
All of the approaching guards were immobilized at this horrendous sight. The sense of doubting can be felt on the warden's face as he and his allies slowly took a step back away from the risen undead.
"I can't believe it. Another irregular is here?! And... the dead..." Shiva said as he also stepped away from the window.
"So that's what it was... The power over the dead - was it?" Leif muttered to himself.
"What did you say?"
"You're right, Shiva. That is definitely an irregular, and I may have an idea of why that guy is here."
"You mean that stranger is here for some reason?"
Leif subtly wiggled his head to disagree. "Not just for 'some' reason... He might be after 'that' thing that we found here earlier."
Shiva paused for a moment - his eyes grew wider as his thoughts realized what Leif was talking about.
"The black flower?"
"Exactly. "
"Let's just leave it here then."
"No. We can't do that."
"But why not?"
Leif didn't answer back as his focus was entirely set on the unfolding battle in front of him.
"We really are in serious trouble then," Shiva said - his wits have already accepted the fact that Leif won't leave the flower back.
"Not if we do something now," Leif responded as he also backed away from the window.
"So, what's your plan?"
"Simple..." Leif said as he looked back at Shiva.
.
.
.
"We run."