The princess is seen at the parlor she was left at. Ever so patient waiting for the return of Mr. Grey. The village had already recovered from the slight startle of the bandits earlier, and by now had already gone back to the general order of their day. It took maybe an hour and a half for the bar attendant to come forward to ask, "I know this is rude of me, but would like it if I could recommend anything while you wait for the two men", "No thank you, I'll wait. But I want to ask, what happened that made everyone go to the gate of the gate" the princess asked. "Oh, it's nothing, I trust they would've finished taking care of business by now. Oh, look at them right now", the attendant said as she pointed in the direction of the three men as they made their way through the village. You would expect men that seemed to have been through hell, but instead we have 3 men approaching the bar as three friends would. There were a few scrapes and splatters of blood on their clothes. But nothing to suggest that they had just been in a fight against 50 men. Roan walks a little faster than the others. As he appeared before the princess, he gave a thoughtful rejection, "Your majesty, Mr. Grey already broke it to me, I would love to come with you and save the kingdom, but I can't, so no". The princess was taken aback, many would pray for the opportunity to distinguish themselves, and to recognized by royalty, work directly with princess and save the kingdom, with all these he still rejected it. "Well, while I'm here, might as well eat out, AUNT REI!!!", Roan yelled the bar attendant, who let off a warm smile in return. "The usual for the most unusual customer, right?", "You know me too much aunt Rei". The village head made orders for all those present at the table. There was a bit of a fog of silence as they ate. All but the two indigenes of the village felt its unease. They just happily ate their food in silence, until the princess had to speak up that is. "Why won't you come, honestly, I never expected you to be the one the Grey would choose, but to abandon your responsibility to your kingdom and hide out in a village like this. Only a coward and a traitor would choose such a way of life", "So you expect me to leave my village to fight one of the strongest kings we've ever had. You expect the only farmer in the whole village to leave his people to starve. You expect me to leave my home at the drop of a hat. You expect me to break the number one rule of my family. You know, I did say that I would love to go with you, but I can't, I am really sorry. Since I'm being offensive, I'll leave you to your meal, your majesty. Til we met again, I guess. Bye old man Yusha, see you around". In anger the princess asked to be excused, leaving the shrewd men to their devices. "Mr. Yusha, forgive my forwardness, but I have but 2 questions to ask. First, what is this 'number one rule' that Roan speaks of, and secondly, while narrating his tragic past, you made no mention of what became of his brother", Yusha looked back at Mr. Grey that broadly nostalgia and a bit of pity. "It is a very simple rule, as my family and that of Roan's are tightly intertwined as the founders of this place, we have one responsibility in the past 800 years. At any given time, there must always be a member of Yusha and the Iriyu family in the village. The crux of things is, Roan is the last known surviving member of the Iriyu clan. It also makes it a big problem that Roan has seen no girl in the village that catches his eye, we can't have his family die out with him", "That proves a problem, is there no way to exempt him from this rule, this is a matter of the state of the kingdom. I'm sure his ancestors would understand", "Of course there is. The only person that can tell Roan to break this rule is me. I alone, being the current head of the Yusha clan have the right to break any of the rules placed on any family in this village. And as what became of his brother, my father created a makeshift corpse from dead animals and presented it to Roan. It wasn't until I was 18 years old that I understood the reason behind his actions that day. Don't worry, Roan will follow you, be ready to leave by tomorrow". "Thank you so very much sir Yusha. I will go and ready princess Ayesha"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Yusha went to speak to Roan while Mr. Grey went in search of the princess. On his way he noticed that he was not met with the same number of inspecting eyes as he had been the day before. It seemed as if the villagers had been put at ease with the village head giving his approval about his presence. He looked around the village but eventually found his liege behind a tree facing the westward side of the village. No questions needed to be asked about her thoughts, which gave Mr. Grey joy as he had brought good news to alleviate those thoughts. "Miss Ayesha, you must not fret over the small things. I have discussed with Yusha. The matter will be resolved, but I imagine Roan will need time to part with his home. The only one that he has ever known". Amidst the Mr. Grey's good news, Ayesha found herself crying lightly in broad daylight. "Why the tears my liege. Are you still unsatisfied with my choice of warrior", "No, it's not that Grey. I was just wondering why, Grey, why. What did my father do to deserve his death. What offence did he do to deserve this. Now, I don't even know the condition of my sisters, my brothers, what will become of us". Mr. Grey let out a thoughtful sigh, he ruminated carefully over his next choice of words, and the impact it would have on she that could possibly become the next ruler of their kingdom. Eventually, he settled with this, "there are many things that are undeserved by many people. Kindness repaid with treachery, and love paid back with hate. Nevertheless, we must find it in our hearts to never give up. Shadows cannot exist without a sun to cast it, and what kind of bizzare light casts no shadows. It is entirely possible that it is our own efforts of kindness that brew evil, but still, we must not give up. For as so long as what we do is what causes a child to laugh or an elderly to smile and pray, we continue our good work. That is what it means to a ruler my liege, at least a good one". Fortunately, the message was received as meant by Mr. Grey. "May I be alone for a while Grey", "Of course my liege".
The princess was deep in thought, her back pressed against the back of one of the wooden houses in the village. What happened was a little more than what she could handle. She had been pampered all her life until the night that Bimro attacked. Her mind going back and forth on how to control the emotions swimming in her body. So, this was what her father had constantly gone through while on the throne. It became apparent that there was nothing left for her to do than to man up to the situation and figure out a way out and suddenly she saw hope in the young boy named Roan.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Back with our dearest Iriyu, he had already made his way back to the farm and was on his way to clean up as the fight had really kicked up dust on him. Then as usual, without looking, he noticed his familiar friend Yusha. "Roan, how are you", he said as he shifted the brown stained tunic cloth serving as a door to the silo side house and proceeded to find a proper sitting arrangement. "Everyone's all right sir. Hope those troublemakers have fled far off by now. Well, considering you're around, even if they don't, it won't be any trouble", "You flatter me too much Roan, you're the only one here with the eyes that could have read the leader's moves, I saw you", as if caught off guard, Roan pointed an accusing finger to his village head and retorted "Ah ha, I knew you were, it was too suspicious that you wouldn't know anything happening here.", "Fine fine, you got me. I really just wanted to show you off to the princess and her butler", "Why, it's not like I'm leaving, I'm the last Iriyu, remember", "How could I forget, I rummage my head every day on how to get you a suitable wife", "I've never actually had an interest in women, and you know that". "Sure, I do, but there is something else that I'd like to say", "what?". "You remember the night that your parents died right?". No look was needed, anyone could tell that Roan was displeased with the thought of having to discuss that night, so Yusha proceeded with what he wanted to say. "It was only a few of us that know of it – the truth. That even you know that your brother wasn't killed that night. My father told you to wait right. Well now I'm telling you, GO. This is where you search for him". At the mention of that last word, Roan's eye widened to expose a murky blue sea underneath his eyelids.
He let out a chuckle, and covered his face with a spread palm with a wide grin behind it, "Thanks Yusha. I've been really patient all this time, so don't expect me to go holding back". Although he tried to hide, it was almost obvious the steady stream of tears coming down from his eyes. Old man Yusha smiled as he anticipated the things about to happen. Roan had accepted that this fight had become his own.
A few hours later, the princess Ayesha accompanied by old man Grey made their back to meet their host awaiting them with dinner already made. "Come on, let's eat, the food will get cold", "Why thank you our good sir. We cannot express how grateful we are for your accommodating spirit all this while. We also hope that you have had time to reconsider our offer", Mr. grey said with a very convincing tone. "It's not like I need to consider anything, old man Yusha asked me to follow you two. What can I do about that", Roan said as he raised his hands in the air as a sign of defeat, even though he couldn't wait to get out and start out. "But first, I have to know what this is about, what started it and what caused it. My grandpa Baxter always said a man with plan into something is no man, and a man who can't follow the plan is mad. What a great old man, he liked yelling at me when I didn't do what I was told though. I asked Yusha but he said (mimicking Yusha's voice) 'The princess and her companion should have a plan, if they don't, you must make up your own'", The princess and Mr. Grey were happy that they had another member to their team, and were glad that their journey that seemed to be an unending trail of trials and tribulations would finally come to an end and it was evident from the drawn smiles on their faces.
And so, Mr. Grey began to recount the tale of the fateful night in which their beloved king was stolen by the forces of evil in a terrible coup, and he also began to tell how things proceeded to explain how things went from that time forth. After the night, Kuret Apotri Dert the fifth, the second princess' fiancée, harbored for a little while until the remnants of the previous household could get back on their feet. They later started covertly gathering up a resistance, over the course of the 3 years after which the coup had taken place, the princess had organized a small army ready to help them when the time came. What they went out in search for now was the main unit of the army-a spearhead, if you will-, of course the princess had international connections that could help, but direct involvement could lead to political complications. Such complications could be easily taken care of it approached correctly, but it would invite unwanted attention from forces far, far stronger than them or even Drusan or Mikea. So, the best they could ask for is indirect involvement, which meant they would bring together a group of the strongest citizens and train them to become the strong enough to possibly stand up to the kingdom's military force. At first, it seemed like a fool's errand, but the results had been surprisingly positive, and new found hope was spiked by young Roan. Now that the makeshift team of 5 had been assembled. It was time for their appraisal. They would engage in bouts of combat in the presence of the five masters put in charge of training them prior to that time and the team leader would be chosen.
With all these put in place, all that was left was the journey for Roan to meet his teacher, the one-slit snake. While the princess and Mr. Grey explained it all to him, what came so unexpected to the both of them was Roan's silence. He sat on the ground with his hands and legs crossed facing them all the while, at some point he faced the ground and began to think. When Ayesha and Grey were done with their brief explanation of the plan to take back the country. Then, as if in a surge of gentle eureka, Roan calmly stood up and said to his guests, "It looks like it's gonna be a long and hard road, so let me ask you this. Do we have a chance?". Ayesha looked away sharply with a slight grinding of teeth while Grey's gaze simply lowered as he answered, "We have no idea. We might just be grasping at straws". Finishing this sentence, Mr. Grey had already started formulating an inspirational speech that would convince this young boy to leave the place that he had called home and lived in peace all these years for potential death. "Doesn't matter either way, old man Yusha said I should follow you guys, whether you think you have a chance or not. Now my job is to make sure that our chances get a little bit higher". Ayesha and Grey looked more optimistic than they had the months that had passed. "But I have to ask, who is the one-slit snake that you guys are saying is going to be my teacher", Roan asked ignorant of what was set before him. "He is a man of many names, one who has seen many a battlefield, one with more secrets than he has clothes. He will be the perfect teacher for you, don't worry your mind at all. Rather, since you have agreed to leave with us, we should decide on the time to leave".
Roan looked outside and without a second thought said, "A week after tomorrow, I have some things to do and some people to say goodbye to, plus I have to teach everyone how things work on this farm. Leaving them alone would destroy the entire food supply of this whole village", "You don't mean to say that you are the only farmer this village has?", "Of course, I've been taking care of this place since I was a kid". Even the princess Ayesha couldn't contain her surprise at this, "why on earth would the whole village leave a child to tend to such a big farm. I never the people of this village would be this cruel", "Hey calm down Princess. They didn't abandon me or anything. Usually, the families change up a bit. If I remember correctly, the third generation of Iriyus became blacksmiths, but we usually became farmers. So, I guess you could say it runs in the family. Plus, when I started, a bunch of old people came from all over the village to help". (A.N.: I'm thinking of a way to add that Roan's a good cook). This somewhat calmed the princess down, even though she had a lot of questions, she couldn't bring herself to ask. They had just gotten Roan to come with, at least till when they were safely on the road, she wasn't going to do anything to upset him. So, she held whatever reservations she had on the matter. Mr. Grey looked on with a light smile on his face, the princess did not know it yet, but the ability to curb one own's anger to reach a generally beneficial goal is something that very few leaders lack. She was steadily paving the way to becoming an admirable leader.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The following seven days went by in a blur. Ayesha and Grey spent some time in Roan's hut, strategizing the path they would take so as to lead him to his new teacher, planning the movements of the resistance and other related activities. They took some quality time to enjoy their short time of rest. They discovered that the village was one big family, quite literarily. Some families have been with them for hundreds of years. Apparently, apart from the Iriyu and Yusha family, the oldest family there is 740 years old. So, there is a common knowledge of each other there. Some do go to the big capital cities and travel around, some do come back after a while, while the rest end up changing their last names or end up adding a second last name to themselves to show that they are of that family but have settled outside of the village. The 'Grova' section of Roan's name is to show that he is of the original Iriyu line. Mr. Grey, upon hearing this asked about the whereabouts of the other Iriyu lines. It was quite unfortunate, Mr. Grey thought, when he learned that even before the time of Roan's parents death, most of the other Iriyus that they still maintained contact with suddenly stopped all lines of communications. It was quite possible, that in fact, Roan was the last Iriyu. All these facts made even Mr. Grey wish that he get married quickly, even if it was just for the sake of the village head.
Apart from that, Roan spent most of his time explaining to the villagers how things work on the farm, saying goodbye to his favourite people and having the best nights out with his fellow villagers. It was a rush and at the same time something very slow and savory. On the day they were meant to leave, Roan had finished explaining the last of things he thought would be useful to the villagers to know how to do things on the farm. He felt more reassured from the fact that there were one or two men among them who knew their way around a field. On the fourth day, his little hut was already being demolished and renovated to accommodate the new multitude of people that would be living on the farm now. Mr. Grey and Ayesha had already told him that they would leave the village before high noon, so he should have prepared to go. After some hours with his comrades, he made his way up the slopy hill-like plains to meet his two travel comrades and told them, "I'm just about done, but there's one more thing that I need to do", Ayesha said I reply, "Hurry up with it, we wouldn't want to reach our destination by nightfall, that wouldn't be good for anyone besides bandits", "No problem, we have Mr. Grey and me, they won't be able to lay a finger on you miss". "Just hurry up". Within seconds, Roan was out of sight and on his way to wherever it was that he wanted to go. "Excuse my liege, but I must take a minute to ease myself", "No problem". As Mr. Grey proceeded to ease himself, Ayesha waited for what felt like hours to her, even though it was just a few minutes, she figured Grey would be off doing something else, he wasn't the type to take long in doing anything unnecessary, so probably was tangled up in a talk with the village head or something like that. So, she decided to go check on the dear Roan. Luckily, she had used her eyes to follow his path before he left and wasn't very good at concealing his tracks. Coupled with the fact that the princess had been living some of her life now on the run, concealing and taking note of tracks became an added skill to her. She followed the road up a mountain that seemed to be at the boundary or even outside the village grounds, she wound around so many paths that she was shocked that they all connected. Another thing she noticed was how strange the path was, if could even be called that. For a regular path, there are usually no plants growing on it because people, caravans and usually step on it and the vegetation would be crushed on the constant pressure. But this was a path that barely had any signs of human activity. The only thing she could track was the bent forage and little impressions of Roan's foot on the sand. She followed the path through so much forage until she came to a slopping valley.
She tried peeping from behind a tree, seeing as the trail ran cold and the pacing of the steps became smaller suggesting that he had slowed down, in other words, reaching his destination. She looked around and sure enough, she saw Roan, but couldn't get close. She saw him with his feet crossed, head bowed, and body slumped. His body was supported by his two hands which in turn were on his crossed legs. It was a very unusual posture for the fun loving and energetic Roan. In front of him were stone slabs that had several writings on them. Each one had different growth around it, showing that they had all been put up at different times, although not too far apart. They were graves. Roan was making his final goodbyes to his most loved ones. In front of the majority of the graves were 3 slabs that particularly stood out. Two of them were planted in the soil and rather close together, they were one of the first ones there, and the last one, a stone slab not planted in the ground. It lay flat on the ground as if waiting for the body to be put under it. All of a sudden, she felt a forceful hand slip through her hair and cover her mouth, if any other person had done so she would have resisted to the best of her ability, but she instantly realized that the person holding her steady was none other than Mr. Grey himself. He gently released his hand and walked calmly out of hiding. "Good afternoon, Mr. Iriyu, pardon our rudeness for sticking our noses in your business. If it would also be okay with you, permit us to also pay our respects", "No problem, the more the merrier", he said with his usual lackadaisical smile with a smudge of yearn. An expression befitting one in the presence of the ones lost to the other land. Grey and Ayesha walked slowing and respectfully toward Roan. At this point in time, she was not aware of Roan's ubiquitous eyesight, which is why she thought she could avoid being caught, while Mr. Grey already knew that someone of the princess' skill level couldn't sneak up on Roan. It would only be disrespectful to peak on someone in such a situation. SO the best thing to do would to be join in the pleasantries.
Once she was close enough, she could see some writings on the stones. She bowed her and made a peace sign with 4 fingers. In their land, they would use the 4 longest fingers and spread it with two on each side and the thumb curled inward. It is the sign of respect to the dead and also a prayer that they enjoy peace on the other side. Good afternoon, grandpa Turin, grandpa Yuso, old man jekins, Mr. Yiopa,...(bunch of grandpa's names). I'm about to leave the village. No. I don't have a son, old man Yusha said I could. He told me that it might be my ticket to actually finding that thing. So I'm going to be leaving for a while, I'll be right back so you don't have to worry about me. I'm still eating well, and I remember all the stories all of you told me. I might even try to be part of that greatest dish uncle Trexen. Thanks so much for all your help, thanks for the stories, thanks for all the company. And goodbye, I'll come back, even if it's the last thing I do". At that time, a conviction resonated within Roan that was easily noticed by anyone.
After the visit to the graveyard, Roan paid his respects to the dead and began to make his way home. On their way, Roan thought to himself, "HMMM, let's see what we can do to make this night a great send off for us". "Mr. Grey and our princess, I want to make a special dinner for us today, do the both of you agree. It's an old dish one of my grandpas used to make. It's called a bata", "Of course. We would be honored", Princess Ayesha answered irresponsibly. She was still sympathetic towards Roan after the scene she just saw. It was only Mr. Grey that reasoned properly. This was the man who had making all their meals and now he asks permission for this specific meal, was that not a questionable, well, QUESTION???". So they got home that morning and Roan set to work. There wasn't anything much of kitchen in the hut to be begin and now that the villagers had been making renovations to the hut, the three soon-to-be travelers had been sleeping in the silo and they had been cooking outside. That night, Roan brought as many ingredients as he could, he began mixing, dicing, stirring, frying, cooking, filling, folding, kneading and mincing all of them. At some point, even the princess Ayesha was too scared to look, as she would only regret her decision to agree to Roan even more. It took him almost four and a half hours to cook the whole thing, and by the time it was done, a monstrosity against food would be an understatement for what was made. Even badly made food would have a consistency to it, but this food seemed to be the borderline of food that looked bad and tasted good and food that just plain looked bad and tasted bad. The princess looked at what could possibly be the worst thing that she might have put in her mouth and then at Mr. Grey, in hope of maybe a miracle to deliver her from what was put in front of her. Unfortunately, Mr. Grey had already resigned to fate and was already taking the brave first step and scooping up a spoon already. She sharply looked towards hers and thought, maybe it wasn't that bad. She then resolved to take her bold step as well. She took a spoon as fast as possible in an attempt to get a quick taste, whether bad or good, she would only get a sliver of the taste. oh How wrong she was. It wasn't something that tasted so bad as something that felt shouldn't be put in mouths. It felt slippery and slimy, sticky but coarse, it had as much taste as salted water and felt like it was alive and swimming in the mouth. She tried to grab a glimpse of their host and to her surprise she saw him chewing happily away at his food (A.N.: how he is able to eat it, I have no idea). She was quite baffled, thinking that, maybe it wasn't only physical but stomach training that could make one strong. "What an amazing dish Roan, your grandfather must have been a great cook", she said with a contoured face. "Princess, are you sure you're feeling well, cos this food tastes terrible, it's absolutely terrible, plus, my grandpa Trexen was a terrible cook, thanks to him, I realized even water can taste good". The princess cringed at it. She thought that maybe the food would be an acquired taste or something like that. "Why would you cook something that even you know is terrible and serve it", "Of course I would never do something like that, I just didn't know it would be terrible", "How wouldn't you know that it was terrible", "That's cos the bata itself is an experiment. My uncle Trexen would add a bunch of weird ingredients and cook them in different ways. He always wanted to make the greatest dish. He was once a traveler and he learnt the journey of the bata from someone and he passed it on to me. I never took it seriously, but I still try. This isn't even the worst I've made, some of the other ones tasted a lot worse than this, this one just tastes weird in the mouth.", "An admirable quest Mr. Grey, I wish you luck on your quest". (A.N.: This goes to anyone reading right now, so I just resumed uni recently so I haven't have been able to write as much as I used to, and right now I'm even hunching my back to write right now, so I'm going to start being more liberal with how I write. Like just now, I won't necessarily state who talked at the time, I believe there is a clear distinction between how Mr. Grey talks and how Ayesha talks, so good luck on trying to use you discretion).
(A.N.: And so we are back in Ibadan due to ASUU strike, and so we resume work in the earnest).
They all set aside their food after several attempts but reached a final decision that that version of the bata was invalid. Eventually, they ended eating the back up meal that Roan had made. Apparently, another one of uncle Trexen's quotes was, "Never cook the bata alone, cook a backup, so you won't go hungry". They all had a sound sleep that night after a light hearted conversation of the days ahead, except of course, Roan. He sat on the roof of his house. It was his favourite place since it was where he could see the stars at night so clearly. "Old man Yusha, what's up", and we see the village head Yusha behind Roan indeed. He had gotten there without disturbing so much as a mosquito, as silent as the wind one, one would say. "I always try to sneak up on you, you know. But every time you find me out. One of these days I actually might. So, have you made peace with leaving.", "Sure thing, I've finished up just about everything I wanted to do around here. It's going to be a great journey if even you're telling me to go". "It will be long, you will go through a lot, but you can get through, I believe in you". Just as quietly as he came, he disappeared. Roan took one last look at the stars and took a deep breath, as if to seal the truth of the journey. His heart had already accepted it. It was now time for his journey of a thousand miles to begin from his first step. (A.N.: Please, to anyone reading this, give me a comment, I feel like it's getting boring)