Arat opened his eyes, the faint aroma of burnt wood clinging to him, he rubbed his eyes. Yawning to come to his senses, he lifted his upper body up and pushed away the fur coat he used as a blanket, he didn't recall when amidst his sleep he had took off the coat and wrapped himself in it.
He glanced the now white pieces of charcoal buried beneath a layer of ash, they were still slightly warm. Yawning once again Arat tossed the fur coat to the side and rose on his feet, still a bit dizzy. Changing his sleeping pattern to stay awake at nights and sleeping during the day had marked its effects on him, feeling a constant lack of energy.
His eyes drifted at the two corpses at the end of the cave, were a pungent smell now came from, it was different than the previously meaty smell of flesh and blood, it reeked of urine and feces. Thankfully, his mask covered his face well. He only needed to block the small hole near his nose to keep the smell at bay.
I still wonder why I was unaffected by that poison, it would really be horrible if all three of us died inside the cave.
Arat turned his head to look at the veil of falling water, sun was still shining from behind as rays of light pierced inside the cave illuminating the area near the entrance, After a quick analysis, he sighed.
It's only about two to free hours in the afternoon. Great, now I have to somehow figure out how to entertain myself for the next ten hours.
Arat unsheathed the steel sword that belonged to the female night and weaved it in the air a few times, unable to resist the thrill of owning a real weapon. Despite witnessing his grandfather getting wounded like that and seeing three people die in front of him, having a sword made him happy. Like many boys his age, he was captivated by knights, armor, and swords. Just as simple as any other human boy.
After practicing for half an hour, sweat dripped from his forehead he paused rest, As his breathing steadied, he realized he was making a mistake.
I have to conserve my energy for the walk to the mountains tonight. If I tire myself out now, I'll never make it before the sun comes up.
Realizing it was a mistake to practice his swordsmanship now, Arat reluctantly returned to sitting in silence, leaning his back against the stone wall. He couldn't engage in any physical activity, and he had already examined all the illustrations in the books and had no desire to sweep through them again. What he truly craved for was exploration and adventure, not being cooped up with books.
Unable to find anything to occupy himself with, Arat pulled out a necklace out of the leather bag. The centerpiece was a smooth scarlet ruby, surrounded by silver embellishments and attached to a matching chain. Intricate patterns were carved into the silver bail and chain, giving it an air of craftsmanship so apparent that even Arat could recognize upon first glance.
Maybe this works like the iron slab that Mr. Stranger can through, when I hold it in my hand I feel nothing, should I talk with it? Maybe someone is on the other side and if I say something they will answer me just like Mr. Stranger.
Arat gulped down, afraid of what the interesting object might do.
"Hey, is anyone there?"
Moments passed by but he received no response.
I don't think this one works like the iron slab, maybe this is something else.
I shouldn't play with it, last time I got some dangerous feelings from Mr. Stranger, this item may very well be something similar if grandpa had put it inside the chest.
Still holding the necklace Arat was wondering what it would do, after he let his imaginations run wild he put it back in the leather bag and took out the three books once again, after a while he was bored by the same illustrations so he picked up the forth book that was smaller and had a different writing language, he hoped that maybe he could find an illustration that he had overlooked last time.
To his disappointment nothing was drawn in it as Arat checked all the pages. He noticed that one page was thicker than the rest, he held another page and measured its thickness with his hands out of the leather glove and compared their thickness. he became certain that his intuition was correct.
Hmmm, weird. Why one page out of all them should be thicker? Is this a way of making it obvious that what's written on it is important? Maybe they made it so that whoever took hold of this book would realize that they had to read this page. Well I can't read it by myself. I have to find someone who can read this one day.
Now all Arat could do was to wait till the sundown and darkness of the night, his allay would cloak the forest keeping him hidden from the eyes of his peruses. After several hours of impatient waiting, he sensed it was finally time to move.
Arat grabbed the sword and dagger, securing them to his leather belt, slinging the leather bag over his back, he exited the cave. Carefully climbing down the stones, casting one last glance at the waterfall, Arat knew he would never return to the cold cave to spend another night there with those creepy corpses. Without looking back he kept walking.
Once on top of the hill Arat started observing the Area he saw the watchmen standing guard on the towers, then his gaze swept across all the parts of the village that he could see, all the houses had a source of light inside them.
Good, seems the search party is inside the village. Well their families are in the home too, but let's hope they are here too.
Arat descended the hill to reach the wheat field, he navigated his way to the small pile of dried grass and wheat he had prepared the night before, this time he didn't hold his sword in his hand since he realized that if he was in an open area, moonlight would cause the metal to shine and reveal his presence. His iron mask was rusty and not very reflective, so he didn't need to remove it.
Arat removed the leather bag from his back and took out the leather pouch out of it, taking out the flint stone and the iron cylinder he struck them together other, creating sparks, after several attempts finally a small flame flickered to life , Arat carefully coaxed it, blowing gently until the flames grew stronger.
The gentle breeze started spreading the flames to further, Arat hurried back up the hill to observe the area, ready to move the moment he spotted villagers approaching from the guard posts near the mountain.
Soon the fire spread enough that one could say the fields were ablaze, the sound of horns echoed in the distance. The watchmen, noticing the fire, alerted the villagers. Faint lights appeared behind the windows, growing brighter as men with torches emerged from their homes, gathering at the village entrance by the two watchtowers. From his elevated position, Arat watched as the wind fanned the flames, scattering the fire across the field even more.
One by one, men and women emerged from their homes, rushing toward the village's entrance where the watchtowers stood. Each carried a long wooden staff or anything they could use as a weapon. Some were armed with swords and spears, while others took up their bows. They thought that a pack of demons were about to raid the village.
Arat observed them carefully, noticing a horse man leaving the village and rushing at the direction of the forest, a smile appeared beneath the rusty iron mask. The villagers had called for the others at the post guards to come and help them.
Luckily the wind is quite good tonight, they won't have a easy time stopping the flames even if all of them were here. I think most of them are guarding the mountain, it takes a lot of people to cover such a wide area, as I recall there were more than ten smoke pillars back when.
Waiting patiently Arat saw all the villagers rushing toward the flames starting to drag out the wheat to make a wide line separating the filed in to two parts, stopping the flames from destroying all their crops. Arat watched them, the scene was quite similar to the drawing, in the book.
If they send someone to tell the guards to come over and help them, they will pass across me in the forest, with that in mind I should be careful.
If someone mounted rides directly toward the mountain from the village not from the cave thats a lot further, they will be there in an hour, considering they can't see that well with a torch. The other villagers most likely don't have horses, so they will be here in two to three hours at best. Should I play it safe and wait for when they arrive? Or should I go in the jungle and try to get to mountain as fast I can while I avoid them?
It's midnight, after about four hours I can go in the jungle safely. Then it will be almost the time that the sun comes up, if there is anyone left in the guarding camps they may notice me, forcing me to go back inside the cave, this means all my efforts are wasted.
After a logical decision making, Arat concluded that it was no big deal to stay away from a large group of men with torches while he could easily spot them in the night, he left the poor farmers who were desperately putting out the fire.
Arat continued walking until he felt the ground slope upward, signaling that he was near the mountain. He spotted smoke in the air and a fire in the distance. Fortunately, he hadn't encountered anyone along the way, he approached peeking ahead. Before him was a campfire surrounded by three small tents, with various items scattered around. No one was standing guard, and from what he could tell, the tents appeared empty.
Seems like they left in a hurry. My bright idea worked.
Arat was overjoyed a wide smile appeared on his face covered by the mask once again.
After he made sure no one was really there by throwing three stones to make some noise, he ran toward the mountain, passing by the campfire and tents he used all his stamina to climb up the mountain as fast as he could, half way through he stopped and took out the leather water flask out and drank the little water that remained in it from walking all the night.
Once he reached the top, he could barely breath. Arat was panting, his hands on his knees his body crouched, he was recovering this continued for ten minutes, when he finally started running again. Not soon after he heard a soft feminine voice.
"You seem to be in a hurry."
Arat froze in place and started looking around to find the source of the sound, he drew his sword and held it with both hands prepared to fight for his dear life. He was terrified and shocked that someone had remained here. Not in the camps but at top of the mountain itself. Without making a sound or anything that he couldn't recognize her.
It was still dark, and no ray of sunlight was anywhere to be seen only one thought came to Arat's mind
The other people with devil powers can see in the night just like me!
A woman that seemed to be around her forties appeared, wearing steel armor full of scratches over it, carrying a metal mace on her waist she placed herself between Arat and the other side of the mountain blocking his path.
Arat instantly realized that the woman was not as simple of an opponent like ordinary humans, she had long elegant hair , pale skin and a pair of crimson eyes, her face was cut and she had a small chin and narrow eyes. Arat removed his bag, he knew he couldn't run from her, his only option was to either injure the warrior woman and make a run for it, or kill her if he had to.
He put down the bag with one hand as he didn't lower his guard and kept the tip of the steel sword toward her.
"That sword is not yours, keep your filthy hands off of it."
Terrified, worried, and aggrieved, Arat feared her, but he also wanted to hurt her for what she and her comrades had done to his grandfather. His courage began to swell as he recalled the pain from the arrow lodged in his chest and the image of his grandfather coughing up blood from his wounds.
Arat finally looked straight into the scary narrow eyes of the woman, directly at her blood red irises and vertical pupils, his eyebrows clutched on to each other and small tears had formed in his eyes from remembering all those painful memories.
The warrior woman took out her mace and spoke with a sarcastic tone
"It seems he has trained you well, he was the Iron pillar after all."
Arat's tears dried in his eyes as he adjusted his stand slightly, he yelled out in anger and frustration. He knew that the other female knights called his grandpa by this title.
"Why do you want to kill me? I haven't done anything to you."
The woman was momentarily stunned.
"Your kind are the root of disaster, you devil scum have turned this world into hell."
Arat responded sharply.
"I haven't hurt anyone not even once, I only defend my self when on want to harm me, you need a better reason to kill me, your word is meaningless."
The woman chuckled.
"What a sharp tongue you have, you talk like you are the innocent and we are the bad guys."
"You, you attack me, shoot an arrow in my chest and kill my grandpa, of course you are the bad ones."
Arat shouted.
The knight then lost her temper.
"You and your kind are a disease, you should only be eliminated no matter if you have ever harmed a person or not, you will certainly lose control and will do so in the future."
Arat couldn't argue with such a logic that the female knight had used just now.
She then continued.
"In the name of humanity, in the name of church, I, an angle of humanity shall cleanse all evil that threatens the lives of the weak and innocent. Abiding by this sacred oath I shall eliminate you here and now, for if you live you will bring disaster and death to this world."
She swung her iron mace that she held in her right hand toward Arat.