For a split second, they saw darkness and then a bright blinding light which almost blinded their eyes. They were then dazed and…
THUD!
They fell.
Rhett, Ash and Haicor were face flat on the floor, their heads throbbing with headache and their faces twisted into a frown from the pain. Raising their heads up slightly, their eyes scanned their environment.
It was deserted and the ground was covered with lush pinkish grass. They all stood up, Haicor rising first, Ash following and then Rhett who actually staggered up.
"Woah, where's this?", Haicor asked, looking around. The sky was also pinkish in colour with pink clouds that looked like balloons instead of clouds.
Ash hit his hands repeatedly on his body, dusting himself.
"This is the Pinkish lands", Ash said.
Rhett's face contorted into a grimace. "Pinkish lands?".
Ash sighed. "Yeah, pinkish lands. I wish we were back at the dragon slayers village, there's a map of the Slayer's domain there and I'm sure it'll be useful in our quest".
Rhett suddenly turned backwards, staring at the place in surprise. Laying on the grass, its body glistening, was a pink Knight's armour. Rhett walked over to it and crouched, he touched the body.
"A pink Knight's armour?", he asked. "Well, I'm shocked".
Ash came over to Rhett and Haicor followed, their feets treading delicately on the grass.
"It wasn't pink when it was first here. Things that stay more than a week here turn pink, including humans", explained Ash.
Haicor was alarmed by this as her eyes were now wide open, staring at the Knight's armour in shock.
"Then we better be out of here soon", she blurted. "Hell!, I don't wanna turn pink!".
Ash smiled. "Relax, in less than two days, we'll be out of here".
Rhett threw a questioning stare at Ash. "Less?, I thought we'd be out of here P D Q".
Ash lowered his eyebrows. "What's P D Q?".
"Pretty damn quick!", Haicor replied.
"Oh!", Ash smiled. "This is actually a village and the people here are all pink because basically, they grew up and have lived here their whole life".
Rhett stood up. "Then we need to get out of here!".
Haicor took her eyes off the pink Knight's armour and stared up ahead. It was basically deserted and there were no signs of houses or even life apart from a big pinkish rock.
"We have to journey to Dhamsel for help", Said Rhett. "She's a dragon slayer, I bet she can take us to her kingdom and we'll look for help from there".
Ash nodded and stroked his beards. "But how do we meet her?".
Rhett sighed. "You forgot she said we should come to that spot anytime we want to see her and hit our swords on a tree".
Ash looked upwards and smiled. "Oh yeah!, I've remembered. The place we met her was not far from the sword lands, just a forest from it".
Rhett took a step backwards and turned around. "Now we journey to the forest", said Rhett. "Ash, lead the way".
Ash stepped forward and they followed him, their heads still moving sideways, examining their surroundings. The wind fell to the left and soon it was falling on the right, small drop of pinkish waters drifting past them. Soon large feathers began to fall on their heads and looking up they saw albatrosses, about seven in number, heading west.
Haicor paused and gazed intently at the sky. Rhett and Ash, who had covered quite a distance, were quite surprised with her actions.
"What are you doing Haicor, stop acting like a kid, we've got a long way to go", said Ash.
Haicor made no reply, she simply did as if she didn't hear anything, as if an ant was speaking.
"C'mon Haicor, quit the act, you promised to do well", Rhett added.
Haicor ignored Rhett too and that made him somewhat furious. He thought about when he was still a kid and living with his mum. He dared not go against her words or play defiance to her corrections. He had tried to do so quite a number of times and his mum had not hesitated to use the whip on him.
Now, standing and looking at his kid who was trying to act ignorant, he wouldn't mind finding a whip and smoothing it on her body.
"Haicor!", Rhett called from where he stood, about some feets away.
She made no reply but simply, with a very slow move, bent down on the floor, her face focused, her eyes shut.
Rhett took a step forward but Ash held him by his left hand.
"Let her be", he said. "It seems she's up to something".
Rhett stopped and shrugged, a frown on his angry face.
"And if there's no reasonable explanation or something she's about to do to be meaningful, I'll use my portal ability and send her back to bizarre earth", Rhett said.
Haicor suddenly hummed softly and inhaled deeply, so deeply that for a moment, Ash thought she was not human.
The wind swirled around her, a bright, pinkish light radiating from the skies onto her body. A gust of wind broke south and then north. A more fiercer wind breaking west and east and then…
…the albatrosses stopped flying and paused in the air, not falling either as Rhett had expected.
"Ok, ok, Haicor, what are you doing?", Rhett asked, smiling.
Haicor opened her eyes and shockingly, it shone pink, pinkish flames actually, shining very brightly.
She quickly turned her neck left, to where Rhett and Ash stood, amazed and she said, with a tone that was clear and somewhat sonic:
"I earlier told you that I don't only slay birds but control them instead, I make them my servants, I make them do what I bid them. Normally I don't slay birds and have never done so. My old grandpa, before he died told me that they're monstrous birds, birds that are evil and cause trouble, that's the birds I'm meant to slay and use them to level up my abilities".
Rhett and Ash, staring at her, with shocking eyes, concluded that Haicor was powerful. Indeed, she didn't know how powerful she was and even they too, didn't.