The next day's sun was barely out, but they were gone already, and Lover's Den was now unoccupied.
"What's East really like?" She thought to herself as he held onto her black scarf to shield the raging rays of the sun.
Vegas only knew the word; however, her father, Raymond, was born and raised in the East. He was part of the boar hunters growing as a teen, and then on a fateful night he stumbled upon Liana, with her white scarf, ever prettier than her daughter. A flower begging to be plucked, a moon yearning to be gazed at, was what Liana was like.
Young Ray threw his life away for her. He fled from the East and married her. Ray and Liana were young and drowning in love. But he had no money to feed her or the one that was growing inside her. "If you die, I will die with you." She promised, her eyes fierce as a warrior. But those aren't the type of words that should come out of a pregnant woman. "Lia! Don't you ever say that again!" Ray was heightened with anger.
And so Ray went on to serve as one of the village guardians. Serving the north. Serving complete strangers who worship the moon and offer weird combinations of liquids.
Years flew by, and Liana and Ray had a baby named Vegas, aged five.
But as everyone knows, a flower eventually withers, and the moon disappears after the night.
Ray grew addicted to mead. His kidney was loathing him, and he was loathing the village he served. Their sick and twisted rituals brewed wars and battles. He was tired of it. One night, Ray snuck into the village leader's hut and killed him. In return, Ray was brutally stabbed by half of the villagers for betraying him, and they exiled his wife and daughter to the Plateaus, snatched their white scarves, and cursed them.
But the two of them were wholeheartedly accepted by the black scarfs. There were posed with no ill judgments or discrimination. They hugged them like family, and Liana and Vegas had a new family. The Black Scarfs of the Plateau.
…
"Is it really hot over there, as they say?" Neilus broke the silence of the journey.
"Sands and dirt. That's all there is." Lars answered firmly.
Yin walked in the front with a decent pace, unaffected by the wind or the burning weather. Juno was beginning to slow down Vegas. Colt and Neilus walked behind Yin like a herd of sheep behind its shepherd, and the metals from their bags clashed and collided, and Lars heard it.
"Hope the flowers don't get hurt."
"It won't." Colt assured, and Lars felt at ease.
The ring tingled on his finger. Like an irresistible itch. It made him look at it repeatedly.
He was hearing voices—voices that came from within the ring.
"LAAHHHH!" A screech of a tortured soul, crying and pleading. It sounded like a tyre coming to a forced halt.
"LAAARRRRSHHHHHH!" It cried again, and it echoed in his ears.
"Is anybody hearing this?" His body shook in fear.
He made them group closer in a circle and reached his arm in front of them.
"No."
"I can't hear anything."
Colt bent down to place his ear near the ring.
"Maybe only the user of the ring can hear it." Colt assumed, but that was the most logical speculation.
"Maybe…" Lars agreed, and he kept hearing it.
"LAHHRHH" There were a thousand voices.
"What's it sayin'?" Vegas asked with just a speck of excitement.
"I think it's... I think it's calling out my name. I don't know."
Yin stepped closer, shut his eyes, and started swaying his head sideways, like a little kid.
"It is, Lars. You were right. It's calling out your name." He confirmed and began marching again, casually.
The three of them shrugged at Lars.
…
An hour or two could've easily passed, and Vegas's belly growled. She unzipped her satchel to a view of hundreds of berries. Black, red, and blue. Underneath, some were terribly squashed, but surprisingly, the other bunch on top were fresh as new and were waiting to be devoured. She did not waste another second, and so her unwashed hands dug and grabbed onto the first load of them. She squished some on the way to her mouth and stuffed it in with both hands, clumsily and noisily. The blood of the berries trickled down her white sleeveless top, and some even stained her black scarf with darker patches.
Lars eyed her as she battled with her audible hunger.
"Wha?" The berries made her sound like an owl.
"Wha? You want some? Here." She tossed some into his open hands.
Lars ate one berry after the other, slowly and steadily, with care.
"Yuck Vegas! Can't you eat with some manners?" Neilus threw a comment.
"Shut up! If you want some, just ask." She didn't even look at him.
"EHEHEH! My… Sincere thanks." Neil surrendered and shamelessly put out his hands.
She dug up more of the squished ones and flung them at him.
"Hey no!" Neil locked his sight on the dead berries in the air and stretched his arms to catch as much as he could. At last, he had two in his hand. A blue one and a red one, neither of which was his favourite.
Vegas then hopped over to Colt.
"Want some, Captin'?" She handed it out.
"No thanks. I'm not hungry." He replied.
Vegas pouted and jogged to Yin.
"My king. I have some berries for you." She handed it out with a wide smile that revealed her sharp, catlike canines.
"Thank you, but no thank you." He held his hand in front of her face like a stop sign.
Vegas pouted again, and her brows dropped to raging.
She slowly lifts her right leg and
POW!
firmly boots his ankle with intense speed.
"Ow!" He opened his mouth to the sudden pain.
It was the right opportunity, and she grabbed it.
She quickly transfers every berry from her left hand, fists it to her right hand, throws a devastating punch directly into his open mouth, and crushes all the berries on his tongue.
"Ah!" Yin coughed and choked.
"You are insane!" He sighed with a mild burst of anger.
She laughed hysterically.
And Neilus laughed.
And Lars chuckled.
But they still kept marching. There was no slowing down.
…
Vegas maintained and kept up with Yin's pace, though she didn't want to, and momentarily she kept looking at him for every ten steps they took.
"What?" He side-eyed her.
"Um… You've told me about Mei. But what about your family?" Her voice carried concern and intrigue.
Yin walked with his head down.
"I told you about her because I didn't have anyone else." Yin's voice softened, almost husky.
Vegas was shut down by that, and she had no response for that.
Yin quickly glanced at her one more time before continuing.
"My mom and dad... They died during a virus outbreak. But that never bothered me. Because they would simply drop me off at my grandmother's place and leave me there. She was everything to me. Grandma Nina was my everything. To be honest, I don't even remember my parents faces. I didn't talk a lot to them. Mom would tell me to take care of myself, and my dad wanted me to be successful; he told me to pick a sport and master it. And that's when I found out about Fencing…"
"Hen-sing? What's that?!" She interrupted.
"No. Fencing. It's a sport of swords."
"Woah! Like Joustin'?"
"Um, yeah, but without the horses and a shorter sword."
"That's a sport? Don't y'all die?"
"No. We wear special armour and masks."
"That's so cool! Don't they have spears?"
"No, not really."
"Hah! That's what I thought; I would've been the greatest in ya'll Realm with Juno!"
"Certainly." He ended sharply.
"Go on, go on." She wanted him to continue the unfinished narration.
"Um, after that, my grandma got ill, so she had to stay with us at our place, which really didn't feel like home, because I knew my way around Granny's house more than my own. Hah! She would tell me the scariest stories to put me to sleep, but one day, when I walked into her room, she was gone. Just like that. I didn't know what to do. And then, a few years later, the virus broke out and almost wiped out a quarter of our population. My parents were both infected, and my fencing master, Master Li, helped me admit them to the hospital, and then one day I got a call about their demise. They were no more. Just like that. There are no good memories to live with and no regrets to die with. They were strangers to me." He ended.
"Ug! That sucks. I would've killed them myself for this."
"Instead, I just thought about killing myself for all this."
She stopped and squinted at him.
"Thankfully, I didn't. Mei saved me, and I saved her. And I will get back to her no matter what." His voice grew bold with each word, his fist clenched.
Vegas rolled her eyes.
"Look out!" Lars screamed.
In front of them were two watch towers, with two archers guarding the giant gate.
Both the archers simultaneously stretched back their strings, aiming at their targets; the arrows had a ball of fire lit on them on the pointy tip, and they released it without hesitation.
"Die! Ya filthy trespassers!"
Vegas casually ducks and dodges the arrow that was meant for her, and the arrow dies on the ground.
The other fiery arrow went straight through Yin's heart.
...
He looked up at them with a gentle smile as he plucked it out.
He stood there, unharmed and unmoved, as usual.
"O', we're fucked." The guards gasped.