Thunder struck in the sky above. Rain poured down on Lili as she rode a horse on a dark forest road. The horse just like the clothes she wore were all black, even the much smaller sized rider next to her was completely covered in black with a black hood covering his head so that she couldn't see who it was. Despite the other riders small size, his two-handed sword that was on his back was absolutely massive. It was almost as long as the boy himself and wider than the boys own muscular looking upper leg muscles, which were nicely visible through his soaked black pants that hugged his legs tightly.
Looking at this she couldn't help but notice that the black stallions they rode on seemed unnaturally large and muscular. Not only this, she also seemed strangely large and her surroundings small.
She couldn't help but wonder why did she look so tall and strong? Why was she covered in all black? What is that light in the distance.
Looking towards the light in the dark distance she then started to speak in a deep, rough sounding, manly tone of voice as she said.
"The village is already burning, we are too late. It's best if we head back and return in the morning with the others."
Despite saying these words straight out of her own mouth Lili could feel that these were not her words. She felt like a spectator in a first person movie as she then head the younger sounding boy next to her say.
"It hasn't been long since sundown, there's still a chance that those villagers are alive. Right now at this very moment they could be fighting desperately for their lives, hoping and praying for help to come. We can't turn back now. I'm sorry teacher. I know you always tell me to think rationally, but right now I can't. Not when my people are in need of me."
With that the boy drove his horse forward into the distance. The man Lili was observing, this teacher fellow huffed and shook his head in annoyance as he increased his horses speed and followed the boy.
In the distance the sight of the burning village soon came clearer. Parts of the villages simple wooden walls were smashed as was it's large wooden gate that had been brought down and broken into pieces. Behind them they could see the villages many wooden houses with their straw covered roofs burning.
Coming closer they could see the villages gate guards laying dead on the road behind the gate and after that there was a trail of corpses. Sings of a desperate battle could be seen all around. The people had fought their enemy at the gates but it was no use. This enemy had clearly been too strong for them as there were no corpses of the enemies left to be seen anywhere only dead village men, but luckily no women or children.
Riding past the gates the horses then mercilessly rode over the corpses of the villagers, crushing their remains into minst meat.
Then they spotted it. In the distance a single large stone house stood, there was luckily no fires to bee seen burning there only the screaming of the women and children could be heard coming from inside of there.
And there around the building they finally saw them. A pack of at least 30 werewolves were running in circles around the building trying to find a way inside. The main door seemed to be well barricaded as the werewolves were clearly struggling to break it down. They could see the remaining men of the village using makeshift weapons to fight off the werewolves as they attempted to enter the few windows of the building and as they attempted to break through the wooden roof.
Riding ahead of the teacher the young boy spurred on his horse as he pulled out his massive long blade. With just his right hand he held it on his side ready to cut whatever came upon it's path.
Seeing this the teacher did the same as he too pulled out a massive sword from his back. Both of the swords seemed so large and solid that she couldn't help but guess that they probably weighed over a 100 kilogrammes.
With amazing speed they rode silently through the rain, with the werewolves seeming completely oblivious to their approach.
In the distance she could see a large, almost 3 meters tall of an werewolf seemingly giving out commands to the others as it was growling and pointing to the other werewolves. On its side stood two regular sized werewolves as it's guards.
Then as the boy rode in closer to their backs, he pulled his blade back and swung it sideways towards the three of them. The force of the swing was so fast that it seemed like a blur to her eyes and it was so strong that it cut through the first werewolves tough hide like a knife cutting through paper, and, it didn't stop there as it sliced through the two others also.
The three werewolves didn't even seem to realise what had just happened as they made no sound, but the wet splat as they fell to the wet ground dead. From there the boy moved further onwards cutting the werewolves with amazing ease. He seemed like some unnatural force of nature that even the mighty werewolves seemed powerless against.
One of the werewolves standing on the roof noticed the boys advance and leaped down towards him. The boy didn't seem to notice this incoming danger. Lili wanted to scream in warning to him, but this teacher fellow said nothing as he too joined the fighting uncaring of this.
From the corner of her eyes Lili then saw the wolf almost upon him, but then just at the last second the black stallion as if being aware of this danger all along simply kicked the werewolf away.
It's kick was so devastating that the werewolves chest could visibly be seen being caved in, followed by the werewolf being sent flying away as it then limply fell to the ground dead.
Almost as if the teacher had known this outcome would happen all along, she noticed a smile form on his face as he spoke to himself and said.
"Truly there ain't no stallion quite like Bruce."
Hearing the man say this, Lili couldn't help but cringe at the name Bruce. To hear that someone had actually given her previous lives name to a black stallion just felt odd to her. Why would anyone do that, she thought to herself?
After saying this the teacher fellow just like the boy rode around the stone building striking down werewolves with his sword. Their tough bodies were sliced and diced into pieces with ease and yet they continued to come at them.
Then he noticed one of them leaping down from the roof, straight towards him. She could feel his eyes widen in shock as he saw it's absolutely massive hulking figure. The black werewolf coming down upon him was unlike another of the werewolves around them.
Quickly just at the very last moment he jumped off of the horse and away from danger. As he landed on the ground with a sloppy roll he could hear his horses pained cry behind him.
Turning to look he could see his stallion on the ground under the hulking creatures sharp claws that were digging painfully into the horses side as it attempted to get up.
As their eyes met the hulking werewolf seemed to smile as it pointed it's thick and long beastly finger at him and said something in its beastly language.
"Nussi se, paska!"
Then he saw 5 werewolves on the roof let out beastly growl's as they jumped down and charged towards him.
His companion, the boy was somewhere on the other side of the building slaughtering the werewolves. This time this teacher fellow would need to face these beasts alone, but despite this he didn't seem worried at all as he lifted up his sword in preparation of the coming enemy.
Like a baseball player he held his big ass sword and as the first werewolf came into range he let loose. The werewolf was immediately cut in half as it had attempted to lunge at him.
Blood from the beast sprayed all over him obscuring his vision as it's corpse fell to his side. Then without stopping he swung his club like sword again from his left side.
The next werewolf had tried to go low as it had charged at him on all its four limbs, but all it managed to do was get it's head chopped into two as it too fell limply on the ground in front of the man.
The third was too close for him to do another wide swing, so he stopped his sword in front of his body and brought it straight down on the beasts head. Blood exploded from its body as it's head and spine were cut in two.
Then through the fountain of blood he saw a clever one coming at him from his left side. It seemed to be smiling at him with not a single hint of hesitation to be seen even after he had just killed three of it's comrades as in that moment it then turned and charged straight at him.
With no time to loose he lifted his sword off the corpse of the dead werewolf and pushed towards the incoming werewolf.
Just then he heard another one coming right up behind him.
With this in mind he watched as the 4th werewolf kindly made his job easy as it rammed itself straight through his sword.
Then he got to his knees sword in both hands, lifted the impaled werewolf up into the air and tossed his sword along with it up a few meters into the sky.
He immediately turned around and grabbed a hold of the last werewolves jaws as it attempted to bite him. The force of the impact caused him to slide backwards, but the moment didn't last for but a few seconds as his sword came falling back down with the other werewolf still impaled on it and then as it landed on the final werewolf the both of them got impaled on it.
Looking at the now dead werewolves face the man let go of it's jaws and smiled victoriously until he noticed the hulking werewolf coming straight towards him.
Quickly he grabbed at his sword and pulled on it, but immediately his eyes widened in shock, his sword was stuck.
With no time to lose he jumped with a roll past the impaled werewolves and out of the hulking werewolves path. From his side he then pulled out a long knife and turned to face the hulking werewolf who looked to him and said.
"Vittu ma aion tappaa sut!"
Without any hesitation the two of them then charged towards one another. The ground trembled under the hulking werewolves charge as it kicked the ground and send itself flying towards the man.
Seeing this as an opportunity the man dropped to his knees and he let his motion carry him onwards as he slid on the ground and right under the werewolf. There he dodged the werewolves arms and managed to stab his knife into it's throat, but just then he felt it grab a hold of his black cloak.
The hulking werewolves grip was strong and so he was pulled along with the werewolf. It landed with an sloppy roll and as it did so it pulled on the man's cloak and sent him flying past it to the wet ground.
Falling upon the ground with his face in the wet grass, he looked up and saw the hulking werewolf coming straight towards him, with his knife still in it's neck.
Quickly going to the push up position he pushed himself up back to his feet, but was immediately tackled hard. The two of them went crashing through a small wooden fence and landed into a small peasant house courtyard which was covered with wet mud.
Luckily for the man the mud cushioned his fall. Then he noticed the werewolf trying to bite at his face. Noticing this the man used his left hand to push it's face a side as he also moved his head to the right, barely managing to dodge it's attack like so.
With the werewolves face so close to his, his right hand quickly found a hold on the knife that was still implanted in the werewolf. With a quick push he moved the knife even deeper and then started to saw off it's head.
The werewolf tried to pull back, but the man quickly wrapped his legs around it and held its head in place with his left hand.
Despite the hulking werewolf being a absolutely massive creature, the man holding it was also quite massive and so the two were capable of holding their own against one another in a contest of strength.
But then as the werewolves head started to be cut off it moved it's massive hand from the man's side and onto his face. No more was he trying to push it's self away from the man, no now he dug into his face and clawed at it.
Feeling his skin being peeled off his face the man yelled in pain and desperation as he continued to saw at the werewolves head.
As the man felt his face being peeled off Lili couldn't help but also start to feel a familiar stinging pain coming upon her face.
The werewolves claws managed to move all the way from the top of the man's face, over his left eye and down to the chin and then it stopped and went limp as it's head came clean off.
The man held a hand over the left side of his face as he roared to the rainy sky in pain. He could feel the left side of his face bleeding heavily and through his right eye he then saw the dark hooded figure of the boy riding up next to him.
The boy hopped off his horse and easily like kicking a can down the road he kicked the hulking werewolf off of the man as he then crouched down next to him. Then he pulled his hood back revealing a familiar looking youthful face. Lili seeing what the man was seeing couldn't help but feel a bit shocked. There right in front of the man was the face of the boy named Art.
His face was almost the same as before when they had met but just a bit younger.
Art just held a slight smile on his face as he spoke calmly.
"Damn teacher, looks like he got you good. Please let me help."
After saying this the boy placed a hand on the man's face and then the man's whole vision was consumed by a brilliant golden light.
***
Then the vision came to an end and Lili's one good right eye shot open. Immediately out of instinct her left hand went upon the left side of her face. In her mind she felt like she should be screaming out of pain, but then she realised that there was no pain. Her face was scarred, but unlike in the dream where the scars went from top to bottom, hers went from left to the middle of her face.
Shaking her head she couldn't help but feel confused at the dream or whatever it was that she just had. What had she even just then witnessed?
Then she felt a gentle hand come upon her shoulder and she saw Robin there sitting next to her laying figure. He looked down upon her with a face that seemed to be full of sadness and grief as he said.
"Are you ok, Lili?"
Seeing his mouth move she knew that it was he who had just spoken to her, but her ears were telling her otherwise. From his direction she could also hear many other voices.
Looking around she noticed that she was laying on some bags of something hard, maybe grain. Above her there was a cloth sealing and taking into account the swaying she felt and the sounds she could hear, she figured that she was most likely on a wagon.
Listening to the sounds around her Lili felt like her mind was at a drift in the middle of the sea. There was a constant echo and a slight ringing in her left ear. She found it extremely hard to focus on any sounds or make out their origins, all she could do now was rely on her eyes as she looked around.
To her right there was Robin and further away next to him there was two other faces of men she had never seen before. The same could also bee seen on her left, there 3 men sat and chatted happily amongst one another.
Despite looking directly at the men on her left, Lili could only hear them on her right, which was extremely confusing. She felt like there were men speaking to her right even though she could clearly see them speaking on her left. It seemed that the damage to her left ear was quite bad.
All the men wore green cloaks with some visible metal armour beneath it and green pants. They were also armed with axes on their sides and they had shields under their feet as they sat there.
Rubbing at her one good eye Lili could also see the backside of the wagon which was open. There she saw the blinding light of a warm summer's day and looking closely she could see another similar wagon following close behind their wagon.
In the other wagons front she could see Whimsey Warbler and the thin man happily chatting as they drove the two horses who were pulling the wagon onwards. The thin man and Whimsy Warbler were both dressed casually in cloaks and medieval style clothes, both also seemed completely fine, although Lili could see that the thin man was still holding on to his other hand. Because of the long sleeves she couldn't see it clearly, but the man was probably still quite hurt.
But what really caught her attention was the scenery around the other wagon. They seemed to be travelling on a massively wide, white stone bridge, with a gray cobblestone road underneath. To her eyes the colour of the gray road mixed in with the white stone of the bridge seemed quite fitting. Everywhere there were people either walking, pulling carts with goods or other wagons going by. The bridge was full of people and their hustle and bustle.
In the distance where the bridge began she could also see a city with many tall buildings build out of white stone and a tall white wall surrounding that city.
To her this was seemed completely unreal. It was like a scene straight out of another world, no it was like a scene straight out of heaven or the image she had of heaven. She could hardly believe her eyes, how could this world have such a sight in it.
So far all she had seen was either typical medieval style small towns and forts, mixed in with villages that seemed like they were straight out of the Dark Ages.
In wonder she turned to Robin and said.
"I think I am ok, Robin. But where are we? What is this place?"
With a pitiful smile Robin looked at her and said.
"Well, right now we are traveling across the bridge called Arthur's Crossing. It's a bridge that connects the mainland of Albion to the island of Wight where Camelot is located. This crossing point is also surrounded by the magnificent white city of Arthuria. Behind us is what is called the Northern City of Arthuria and where we are going is of course the Southern City of Arthuria. After that it's only a short journey until we reach the Great White City of Camelot."
Hearing all of this Lili couldn't help but think that this Arthur person was probably quite a arrogant man to have so many things named after himself. If she had to guess this was probably not the last thing around here that was called Arthur. But there was something else that was bothering her as she then asked.
"Then, what about those monsters that attacked us? What happened to them? Did we win? We won right?"
Robin put his hands together and looked at his feet as if recalling something painful when he then looked back at her and just said.
"I'm sorry Lili, but after you passed out the boss ordered me to leave you be. He wanted me to go and help the others in the still ongoing fight. And so I did. In the heat of the moment I completely failed to see the wounds you were bleeding and instead I chose to fight like the blind fool I am. I'm sorry Lili, if only I were to have stayed by your side then maybe."
Lili noticed his eyes constantly looking over the scarred side of her face and then back again at her one good eye. Clearly the boy was blaming himself for the scars that had been inflicted upon her by the werewolf which was something that she failed to agree with. It was not his fault, but her own.
Lili took hold of Robins hand and then said.
"Stop it Robin. Do not blame my scars upon yourself. They are my own and solely my own. What happened, happened because I knowingly chose it to happen. Now please tell me what happened, how long was I out?"
Robin seemed saddened by her words as he then looked downward and said.
"Well, the battle was fierce, many of our brothers died and only two more of those monsters were slain. In the end you could say that we won as the remaining 3 of those monsters retreated back into the forest, never to bee seen again. It was only some time later when I came to your side that I finally notice the wounds inflicted upon you. I manage to stop the bleeding, but..."
He paused for a second and then continued to say.
"Well, after that I have watched for over a week as you have just layed there in a deep sleep, fearing that you might never awaken again."
Hearing his words Lili felt a bit stunned. Had she truly been a sleep for that long? She sure as hell didn't feel all that bad at least. Sure her left ear was damaged and she was blinded in one eye, but other than that she felt almost completely fine. She definitely didn't feel like she had been a sleep for as long as Robin had said. Although, she did feel maybe a bit thirsty and her muscles might have been somewhat stiff.
Then she heard Robin continue as he said.
"Oh and Lili. Be sure to keep your distance to the boss. His not happy after what you did to his wagon."
Raising an eyebrow at his words Lili pulled on Robins hand managing to get him to look at her again as she said.
"What? I saved us, right? Whitout me burning that wagon, we would have been left completely in the dark to fight those things."
Robin looked away as he just said.
"I'm sorry Lili."
Looking around she could see the other men now looking at her questioningly. She wanted to say something and went out her frustration, but she held her tongue. It would be no use to speak further about this with Robin. She needed to have a chat with the thin man to find out why exactly he was mad at her.
Letting go of Robins hand Lili just layed back down and sighed out of frustration.
After that the rest of the ride was quite silent as Robin for whatever reason didn't seem to be capable of looking at her for too long as he instead just kept looking at the scenery, which was quite strange. By now Lili had grown quite accustomed to his gaze being constantly upon her, so now to have him not look at her or speak to her one bit was extremely odd. Even the other men in the wagon seemed to hold no interest in her as they just looked somewhere else.
Sitting there alone Lili just drank some water and ate a little bit of bread that Robin gave to her. She couldn't help but feel a bit distressed at this new situation. Had she actually now become so hideous that no-one dared to look at her? But more than anything she was bothered by her hearing and vision.
She wanted to listen upon the men's conversations and learn some more from them, but all she could hear was an incoherent mess of noises coming into her one good ear. If she focused hard she could make out some of the voices closest to her, but anything further than a few meters away was hard to make out especially in this city full of noises all around.
All she could now do to find some piece of mind was to place a small piece of cloth into her one good ear and just lay back and relax as the wagon moved along the white, cobblestone bridge.