Alcingeria Volume Two Chapter Five: The Journey Onwards

The group finds themselves in a tavern near the Vulrock-Yutsa border, where they hear a rumor that cloaked man with a strange accent passed by recently. Could it be their old 'friend' Ignacio?

Chapter Five The Journey Onwards:

Saturday July 17^th 1690

            “Hey Walden, when we were back at those ruins, you said that it was the ‘biggest one of them all’. That means that there’s more ruins, right?” Robert asked.

            “You kiddin’? There’re more ruins in Alcingeria than scars on Macalister’s face!” Walden cackled.

Macalister growled at Walden’s joke. Walden’s expression became one of nervousness as he shied away from Macalister.

            “Well how about we go to some of those ruins? Now that we’re out of the castle, we might as well seek some adventure!” Robert said enthusiastically.

            “That sounds great!” Tabatha exclaimed.

            “And there will be ancient texts down there!” Erin squealed in joy.

            “And monsters to fight.” Macalister said menacingly.

            “Maybe there will be spell books, maybe some scrolls!” Tabatha giggled in anticipation.

            “And treasure! Gold, jewels!” Stella exclaimed as her blue eyes lit up.

            Everyone shot her a look.

            “… And ancient texts and adventure and other stuff…” Stella moped.

            “By my estimates, it will be an hour or two until we reach the nearest town.” Erin observed.

            “Besides Valgate and Riverguard, what are the closest towns?” I asked.

Erin shrugged.

            “It’s hard to say, but I’ve studied the geography of Vulrock. There aren’t many towns. The majority of them are big like Valgate. There aren’t a lot of small towns like Riverguard.” She explained.

            “Well, the sun in passed its highest point. That means its setting. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Since we’re heading away from the sun, we’re headed East.” I noted.

            “That means that we’re headed towards the border between Vulrock and Yutsa.” Walden observed.

            “Yes, but the Southeast portion of Vulrock that isn’t near the border is pretty undeveloped. I’d say it’s a few hours of travel until we reach the border, if we decided to go to Yutsa.” Erin said with a shrug.

            “Walden, do you know of any ruins near us?” Tabatha asked.

            “Well, there are some ruins in Yutsa, but it’ll be dark by the time we reach the ruins. Plus we’ll be tired from riding, so I suggest that we stop at a town before we go.” Walden suggested.

            “Agreed. Let’s head for Yutsa!” Don said with an enthusiastic grin.

            “Onward! To adventure!” Walden exclaimed.

With that, we kicked our horses into a run and started heading Eastward, towards the border.

            “I sure hope we find some magic things down in the ruins, I can’t wait!” Tabatha squealed with excitement.

            “Yeah we’ll find ya some witchy things to play with.” Walden said with confidence.

            “And we’ll find you some fancy little magic things for fairy folk. Emphasis on ‘little’.” Tabatha said with a smirk.

Walden glared at Tabatha, she just smirked back at him. Walden then grinned, regaining his composure.

            “Y’see Tabatha, us fairies don’t need spell books, scrolls or any other hocus pocus that you witches rely on. Y’know why? It’s because fairies are just naturally better at magic.” Walden boasted in a tone that only served to get Tabatha angry.

            “You want to see whose better at magic? Come over here and I’ll show you.” Tabatha threatened.

            “I already showed you who was better at magic. Back at the bunkhouse, remember?” Walden asked condescendingly.

            “That was one time you little fairy!” Tabatha shouted.

            “Little or not, I still beat a witch who is…? What? Twelve, thirteen times my height?” Walden asked thoughtfully.

            “Shut up!” Tabatha demanded.

Walden cackled wildly, immensely enjoying making Tabatha angry. Erin started laughing too.

            “Hey Walden, remember when you made Antoinette mad? How did that end for you?” Erin asked.

Walden opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, thinking about what he was going to say.

            “Yeah, well Antoinette’s actually good at magic. Contrary to Tabatha here.” Walden said with a huge laugh.

            “Repel!” Tabatha shouted, pointing a finger at Walden.

With a yelp Walden fell off of the horse he was sharing with Robert. I snapped a look to Tabatha to see her grinning, her burgundy hair flowing in the wind. Seconds later, Walden flew up to us and retook his position behind Robert on the horse.

            “Antoinette could have done it harder…” Walden mumbled.

            “What was that!?” Tabatha shrieked, glaring at Walden.

Walden let out a terrified stammer, but nothing coherent came out. We all just laughed as Tabatha glared at Walden, staring him down.

            “Walden, won’t you ever learn your lesson? Making witches angry is a bad idea!” Stella asked.

Walden looked up and raised a finger to scratch his chin, pretending to think about her question.

            “Nope. Probably not.” He answered.

 

***

           

Saturday July 17^th 1690

After a few hours of riding, my legs were starting to ache from gripping the side of the horse. Even though we all had saddles, neither of them has foot rests. That meant that we had to squeeze our legs to the horses in order to stay on. Gradually, the forest gave way to rocky, more barren terrain. At last, a small village came into view.

            “Well, here we are!” Walden exclaimed as we rode up.

            “Are we in Yutsa?” Macalister asked with a confused glance around.

            “Nah pal, just ‘bout. We’ll head to an in then set out for Yutsa first thing tomorrow.” Walden announced.

            “First thing? Can’t we sleep in?” Stella whined.

            “Do ya wanna be missin’ out on the adventure?” Walden shot back.

            “If it means a few extra hours of sleep…” Stella trailed off.

            “First light it is then!” Walden cut her off.

Stella’s shoulders sagged but she didn’t complain further. We rode into the village. It was about sunset, so we had some time before dark. This village didn’t have any walls, which worried me. A vampire could easily come through here and kill someone at night. Looking around warily, I followed the others down the street. We saw some people sitting on their porches. They gave us strange, lingering looks. They must not get many visitors.

            “There’s an inn up ahead.” Robert said, pointing to a building with a sign out front.

The sign read ‘The Valorous Titan’.

            “The Valorous Titan. Quite the name.” Erin remarked.

            “What does ‘valorous’ mean?” Stella asked.

            “Courageous or brave in the face of danger.” Erin told her.

To our left we saw posts that we could tie our horses to. There was already rope tied to them, so we dismounted and walked our horses over to the poles. We tied our horses up, making sure our knot work was adequate. We then walked up the steps of the inn and walked through the door. The room was dimly lit. Ahead of us was a bar that stretched three quarters of the length of the room. The last quarter was made up of a staircase leading upwards. That must be where the rooms are.

            “Nice joint.” Walden said, impressed.

            “We still have some time before dark. How about we hang out down here for a bit?” Tabatha asked.

            “That sounds good.” Don replied, giving Tabatha a kiss on the cheek.

We found two empty tables, dragged them together and sat down. The eight of us sat together.

            “Y’know, I’d say we order drinks, but adventuring and hangovers don’t really mix.” Walden said with a laugh.

We all joined him. After all, this was the first time we’d had the chance to take it easy ever since we robbed the Haywood Estate. Wow. Almost three weeks had passed since then. To be exact, twenty seven days had passed. So much had happened in that time. We robbed a nobleman’s estate, got kidnapped by a vampire, found our way to Vulrock, met The Vipers, found the ruins, opened that door, brought the dark magic jewelry to Queen Yuka, and through a series of unexpected events, prevented a devastating war.

I was lost in thought for a few minutes. My friends sat talking and laughing. They joked around, shouting and having a good time. I joined in after I rejoined reality. I came back in the middle of a conversation.

            “So are you meaning to tell me that fairies were never burned at the stake?” Tabatha asked.

Walden shook his head, although with no cockiness. Seeing Walden not cocky was like seeing a chicken without a beak. Then again, I suppose that this was a touchy subject for Tabatha.

            “Nope. Although we were kept as pets or stored in jars to be used for our magic.” Walden admitted.

            “Who wouldn’t want one of you little guys as a pet? You’re so adorable!” Stella teased, poking Walden in the chest with her finger.

            “I told ya before! I aint cute!” Walden protested.

Stella giggled at his apparently feeble attempt at preserving his pride.

            “Hey Walden, just out of curiosity, do you still have that ring imbued with dark magic?” Tabatha asked in a low voice.

            “Sure, why?” Walden asked.

            “Just wondering. It’s something I want to keep track of. Dark magic, you know?” Tabatha asked.

            “Yeah. But like ya said, there isn’t enough of the stuff in there to hurt anybody.” Walden brushed her off.

            After that, we all went back to joking around and laughing. Just then, Stella stopped us all by raising her hand.

            “What is it?” Robert asked in a whisper.

It was then that I heard two men talking.

            “Those men behind us. They’re talking about a man who passed through here a few days ago.” Stella whispered back.

            “So?” Don interjected.

            “Listen.” Stella ordered.

I strained my ears to listen in on their conversation. I couldn’t make out any distinct words.

            “I can’t hear them.” I admitted.

            “Neither can I.” Robert responded.

            Everyone else shook their heads. Except for Stella, that is. She hushed us all and listened.

            “They’re saying that a man came through here a few days ago. A man who wore a black cloak, they’re saying that he had a strange accent.” Stella said carefully while listening in on the men.

Halfway through Stella’s narrative, Robert shot me a look of fear. He shared it with Don and Macalister.

“Are they saying anything else?” Robert asked.

Stela listened for a few more seconds, then shook her head.

            “No, that’s all.” She sighed.

Robert looked to us all with the very same look of fear he had a few seconds ago.

            “I know of only one man fitting that description.” Robert told us, looking us all in the eye.

It couldn’t be. He was dead. We had killed him. He died in the explosion at the vampire mafia base. Or did he? Robert had said yesterday that no one saw Ignacio die in that explosion. Could it be possible that… He was still alive?

Author's Note

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