Chapter 2

Far away from the World Fair, on a half-empty road on the other side of Melfis, a servant girl in dirtied clothing had just turned the corner into it and was running with all her might. The cause for her haste was made clear when two soldiers with weapons drawn ran past the street, one yelling out:

“Get back here, you wench!”

The woman ignored the endlessly repeated sentence and kept running, focused on not running into a path where she wouldn't be able to escape. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she ran past a pair of young, unwashed men with surprised faces, one of them appearing to her like he was about to yell something. The girl used her momentum to fling herself at him, throwing him backwards into a pile of sacks on the ground and causing him to roar in pain. Ignoring the commotion she had caused, she sped off into the next street. Her ears caught the sounds of people moving in large groups, which could only indicate the World Fair being nearby, and tried to orient herself by that sound alone.

However, she soon found herself running down a dead-end surrounded by tall wooden houses that offered no safe climbing opportunity. Turning around, she suddenly found herself face-to-face with the guards that were chasing her. Their faces were mostly covered by the slim face guard extending from their helmets, but it was apparent that they were soaked with sweat and at the end of their patience. One of them shifted forward while the other one held guard at the rear before both began moving slowly towards the servant girl. One of the guards snarled at her with a hungry grin:

“Right, love, this is the end. Now just stay quiet and give up so we won’t have to get rough with you..”

The girl threw her head back and laughed, her short dark brown hair plastered to her skin. She raised her voice and uttered with a tone of disobedience:

“Yeah right, like that would ever happen. I know what you Melnior guards are capable of when it comes to capturing helpless girls for your “beloved” king.”

Shaking herself free of her servant girl clothing as much as she could, the guards realised that she was armed. Underneath her servant disguise she was wearing light brown leggings that seemed far too short to be appropriate for a woman, her legs ending in black boots with long grey socks visible through the top. Her top consisted of a loose, green tunic with a black undershirt being visible from beneath. A sword was visibly hanging off a belt on her right side, its beaten, black scabbard and non-decorated hilt not showing any known factions or nobility that are required for a person to wield a sword.

The guards began approaching her at a faster pace, ready to strike. The woman slowly drew her sword with her left hand. Simultaneously, her right palm, facing up towards the sky, began to shimmer with a red light, the air vibrating akin to a hot summer day. A small ball of light began to gather in the woman’s palm, shifting shape rapidly before coming to a searing red sphere that she ignited into a large fireball with a snap of her wrist. The fireball spurred one of the soldiers to pull out a small, silver whistle from his lips in panic. As the whistle approached the guard’s lips the woman prepared to fire the flame in her hand.

Right then, a soft, fist-sized object crash into his mouth of the guard in front with such force that he nearly swallowed it. As he fell to his knees fighting, the guard in front of him turned to see what had occurred, when he felt a massive weight hit him in the back of his helmet. The weight was enough to knock him out instantly, collapsing him over his comrade. They fell onto the ground in a pile of limbs. The girl stared incredulously at the sight of a weaved basket half-empty with lemons embedded in the soldier’s helmet and lost her concentration, letting the flame in her hand disappear without a trace. Before she could react, she felt a shadow creep over her and give her a firm hit over the head. Her world growing dark momentarily, she barely caught herself and plunged the sword into the dirt, her legs trembling. A familiar voice resounded in her eardrums as she recovered:

“Just what was that supposed to be, Dria? Don’t go using magic around others, especially the military. Were you trying to cause mass panic here?”

Having recovered enough to stand, Dria stretched herself and stared up at the figure of Alex glaring at her. He had his arms crossed in front of his bulging pockets and was glaring at her unabatedly, which only made her own anger bubble up.

“Just what did you expect me to do, Alex, let myself get captured? They’re Melnior guards, you know what they do to people who don’t listen to their demands.”

“That doesn’t excuse you from using magic. You saw how close you were from being identified. Had I not showed up, you would have had the entire city against you. Next time, just...”

Alex was interrupted by the sound of the guard with a rotten lemon in his mouth attempting to recover from his near-death experience. Giving one final glare at Dria, he moved swiftly to intercept the soldier. He moved his hand slowly across the soldier’s forehead and the soldier slumped backwards, unconscious. Shifting the two bodies to make space, he grabbed a head with either hand, his thumbs and little fingers placed on either of their temples. Strands of twisting white light began to move from his arms into the heads of the soldiers, pulsing in tandem. He turned his head to Dria and continued speaking while performing the process:

“Anyway, I’m just glad you’re alright. Going by the scene you caused, I’m guessing you uncovered something?”

Dria wiped her sword on the ruined servant clothes and sheathed it.

“Exactly what you predicted. The mayor of this city is deeply roped in with the underground slave trade. I was able to sneak and catch him talking with some traders regarding a new shipment of slaves from Melnior to Etraros in about three days. Unfortunately, one of the traders was a sensor and discovered me, which forced me to leave quickly. Good thing as well, in my opinion. That mansion reeked of dirty secrets and filth. I wasn’t sure how long I could pretend to be some sweet, harmless girl.”

By the time Dria was done with her report, Alex had finished up the process and propped up the two guards against the wall, wiping his hands on their clothing.

“Etraros? That’s the capital of Etran, directly south of Rang. They would have to move across nearly their entire kingdom and half of Etran just to reach Etraros. By the way, did you remember to bring me the papers from the city treasurer?”

Dria sighed, handing him scrunched up pieces of parchment from her pocket. Alex took it from her with a small grimace, straightening out the parchment to decipher the information listed on it. Dria, still confused by the items she had procured, asked him while he busy reading:

“Can you explain to me why you wanted me to get that for you? It wasn’t exactly easy to get, what with the paranoid security measures they put in place. I was forced to simply grab whatever I could find and stuff it down.”

“Oh come on, don’t look so sour.”

Dria gave a groan, which prompted Alex to smirk at her before continuing:

“Picking out random pieces often brings the best results. And it’s a secret.”

Alex gave her a wink while he browsed through the papers. Dria felt like kicking him to gain some answers, but decided to focus instead on the news of the shipment:

“In that case, tell me why the delivery would take such a dangerous route when there are more profitable, safer alternatives closer to home? This isn’t the first slave escort we’ve intercepted. I wasn’t able to catch anything other than the people they were transporting were of the utmost importance. It's not like they would be made of gold or anything.”

Alex raised his head from the parchment and scratched his head, apparently trying to come up with a reasonable answer, only to give up and answer in a dismissive tone:

“Well, that we can ask ourselves that later. For now, it’s not safe for you to be hanging around here. If they really had a sensor, then it’s safe to say that they will be doing sweeps around the city for anyone with your signature.”

Dria nodded, before pointing to the two guards who were beginning to stir on the ground.

“Did you make sure to make them believe that I had been dealt with?”

Alex smiled wide before answering in a sarcastic tone. “No, of course not. I actually inserted memories into them of a beautiful prince on a white horse who came, grabbed you in his arms and rode out…”

Alex doubled over as Dria’s kick hit straight and true into his shin, shutting him up and making him go down on one knee as he wheezed in pain. Dria sighed deeply while making her way out of the alley, completely uncaring for the pained sounds behind her. She noticed the sounds of the streets she had run through beginning to increase in volume.

“If you’re quite done making stupid stories up for your own amusement, then we can make our way out of here. I don’t want to be here anymore than a rat wants a bath.”

Alex smiled back at her as he continued rubbing his shin. Dria was a stubborn young woman who had little experience with being reserved around others, it being partially his fault for her upbringing. Nevertheless, she was a person with high personal morals and beliefs, her faith in her ideals either serving her well when dealing with others or proving her greatest obstacle.

Alex stood up quickly, as if the kick had had no effect on him, and came up from behind and wrapped his arm around her, giving her a gentle hug.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it. I’ll make it up to you, how about it?”

Dria’s expression softened a bit. She grabbed his arm and moved it from her.

“If that’s so,”, she said, ”then I guess you won’t mind treating me to something edible? Those lemons looked ready to be fed to the pigs.”

Alex grinned and produced a gleaming object from his satchel. It was a clean, bright red apple, its skin shining with healthiness. It didn’t take Dria longer than a moment to realise that he must have procured it at the fair. He threw the apple towards Dria and grabbed her shoulder as she caught it. The wind around them began to tremble and twist as the dirt obscured their visages from any passing eyes, forming a small spiral of brown dirt. When the wind had died down, the two of them had disappeared from sight, the alley beginning to echo with the sounds of soldiers running towards their previous location.

As the soldiers reached their unconscious comrades, none of them realise that their role in the play has already been fulfilled, their usefulness but a fleeting memory that nobody will appreciate for what it was. And so, the play has finally begun to move forward, with Dria and Alex set to move towards a new destination in their lives. Whether their travel remains safe from danger or fraught with it remains to be seen. However, one rule will always remain constant throughout the story, one that is not dictated by a person, animal, or nature itself.

Nobody is selected by fate to be significant, but rather brought to recognition through their actions, whether for fortune or tragedy.

Reviews

[aj milton]

My first love as a reader is fantasy (even though I tend mostly to write other genres). I enjoyed this part of your 'play' which moved well.

A couple of critical comments: WritersCafe is poor at formatting when you paste. It makes it more readable in this online format if you go back and add the extra lines between paragraphs and dialogue etc. Also in Chapter One you changed to present tense a couple of times whereas most of the story is in past tense.

[Xanderia]

Thank you for you reply!
I agree, the lack of space between the paragraphs was making it difficult to stay on track. I've gone ahead and made the changes already. I will make sure also to check out the problem with separating present and past tense.

[aj milton]

Changing tenses is not necessarily a bad thing, if you are emphasising or doing some sort of flashback or similar, but I couldn't quite see that. Also, I am most certainly NOT the worlds expert line editor! I always need other people's eyes to check my own work. So anything I say is just friendly feedback