The Dragon's Gift

Chapter 18

The trip back to camp was uneventful. I decide to walk around the city after getting back. We were given a day off while the leaders and officials planned. Kai really wants to go back to the city, and I decided that going back could be fun. As Kai gets ready, I see both his swords at his side.
"You don't need those," I say.
"Why not? I'd rather be safe than sorry," he says.
"Okay, but only take one, you won't have enough space to swing both of those around," I reply. Heeding my own advice, I grab a sword knowing that if need be I wouldn't be able to use my glaive in such small areas such as an alley or even just in the city. It's been so long since I fought with a sword. I swing it around a few times to get used to it again. We arrive at the city in no time. Without a doubt, the first thing Kai does is find the nearest restaurant. Instead of having an indoor seating area, there's a large courtyard filled with seats and tables.
"What is that?" Kai asks as he points to something someone was eating.
"I think it's some sort of sandwich," I say.
"Oh, well I've never seen a sandwich longer than my arm before," Kai says. Rolling my eyes, I give the guy behind the counter a silver coin. A few minutes later he hands us both a plate of steaming food. I dig into mine, stomach growling. Kai just poked at his, not knowing what to make of it.
"What the heck is this?" he says before stabbing an onion.
"Have you never seen an onion before?" I asked disbelief written on my face.
"That's an onion?" Kai asks with the same disbelief in his voice.
"Yea," I say.
"Well who in their right minds would cook an onion?" he says.
"Why wouldn't you cook them?" I ask.
"I don't know, but I'm hungry," he says before eating it. I finish mine a few minutes after he does. We walk around a little before Kai decides he wants to look at the weapons.
"Where are the swords and sharp objects at?" he asks.
"This way," I say as I start to walk off in the direction of the weapon district. The cities are all divided into districts, with each district consisting of numerous sections. The Shopping District is made up of the clothes section, food section, weapon section, and then the armor section. The Residential District is made up of three sections, the rich, poor, and average. The other districts are just government and enforcement. Now we're at the weapons. Kai darts into the first shop he sees. Several different kinds of swords are being displayed. I look at one. It looks really cool.
"Kai, look at this," I say while running a finger along the sword's edge. It was curved slightly and had an indention on the top of the blade. "It's a cool sword," I say.
"Sword? No, this is obviously a falchion. How do you not know this?" he asks.
"Oh, my bad," I say. I put it back and look at some other swords. I'm about to find Kai before I realize he's already moved on to the next store. This one had all sorts of pole weapons. The selection ranged from glaives to pikes to spears. If it had a pole, it was here. Kai looks completely overwhelmed, like a kid in a toy store. Then I find myself in a ranged weapon store. There were bows and throwing knives and some strange throwing disk with blades on the edge. I decide to stop in at the armor section. I hadn't gotten a chance to get some new armor, and I was getting tired of fighting in some leather suit. I look around. Soon, I find a comfortable suit that was an emerald green. It was made of some kind of fabric that was extremely durable yet felt like leather. To prove it to me, the woman selling it to me tried to cut it with a sword and only scratched it. She gave me another one of the same color. It came with gloves that matched as well as boots and pants, all of the same material. The gloves were supposed to help keep a grip on my sword or any other weapon, and the boots were supposed to have a lot of traction to keep me from slipping, even in wet conditions. Lastly, I received a green helmet. It had a black visor that somehow folded within the helm so that you can't see it when you're not using it. The visor started at the top of the brow and ended in a point at the bottom of the mouth. It had a futuristic feel about it. Kai found the same suit as me, but he picked out a midnight blue one. I had forgotten one thing. The price. It was a whole three gold coins for each! That's a small fortune for me. Kai takes out three gold coins as I do the same. I wasn't about to pass this up. I change right after paying, putting everything on except the helmet. I put the helmet in a bag and left. Kai did the same. As we're walking out, I here a noise. I look in its direction only to find nothing. Maybe I imagined it. Kai taps me on the shoulder.
"Here," he says as he thrusts a sword to me. I grab and examine it. It has a straight blade, its hilt was golden and simple. Just slight curve to the hilt. The handle was black and the pommel was the same color as the hilt.
"Why'd you give me this?" I ask.
"The lady I bought the suit from gave it to me free with the suit. I tried using it while you were changing but it wasn't balanced in my hands, I figured since you have longer arms than me, it would probably be pretty balanced in your hands," he says.
"Oh, thanks," I reply. He was right, it felt lighter than a feather and he could swing it with ease. The blade was a little longer than my forearm.
"How'd you know it would be balanced with my hands?" I ask.
"Trust me, I know a lot about weapons," he says confidently.
"Okay." The sun was already setting, and I didn't want to walk back at night, knowing that that was when the dirty and thieving people came out. Having lived in the city and country, I knew my way around places, where you wanted to be and where you didn't and at what times. I decided to take a shortcut, hoping to get out sooner. Yet, from where we were, we got stuck in the alleys, and the sun just went down. Relying on the small blue fire I held in my hand for light, we kept going.
"It's cool how using elements has become normal so fast," Kai says.
"Yea, to think that about a year ago we would've never thought this could be possible, much less happening," I say. We walked pretty peacefully for awhile. Then, I realized something. You can't walk to long in the alleys at night without seeing a shady character of some sort. Something was up. I held out a hand to get Kai to stop walking. Just before beginning to walk some more, someone jumped in front of us. I tried to run the other way before I saw more people behind us. We were trapped. We draw our swords. The figures before and behind us, all of which were masked and dressed in all black, did the same. I lunged at one. He was ready. He blocked the swing easily. I had gotten a good night's sleep, and I wasn't going to be an easy opponent in any way. Following up, I kicked the figure in the chest. I spun and slammed the pommel into his head, sending him flying. Adrenaline pumping, I ignite the next guy and he bursts into flames. Then the air is knocked out of me as a hard punch to the gut knocks me on my back. A sword is brought to my throat. I kick his wrist and stab him with the sword. I find a guy holding Kai by the throat. I pull him back with four water arms. Kai then breaks the guy's neck with a well placed kick. Just as another charges me a sudden blast of wind trailed by a blue ripple hits him. I slit his throat in one clean motion. I leap as I find my next target. A sword is brought down on my shoulder. No sooner had I tried to attack again than did I see Kai unconscious moments before I myself were struck on the head and seconds before I blacked out. Consciousness came and went as random images I saw from the time I was awake went through my mind. Kai, sitting with his hands bound and eyes closed. A beautiful forest. A gorgeous castle and a lot of elves. Darkness. A deep and twisting cave. Cell after cell filled mostly with elves. One cage with a human in it. I'm brought back to full awareness as I'm thrust along with Kai into the cell with the third human. The ties on my hand as well as Kai's are cut. I look down to find a strange looking bracelet on both of my arms. Kai had them too. They were silver with strange runes and symbols I couldn't make sense of carved into them. I tried to melt the cage door with fire only to find that nothing, not even a puff of smoke came.
"Silly human. You can't wield with those eravi on your wrists," she says.
"Well, I guess I have to look at your hideous face some more," I say as I spit at the queen's feet.
She gasps. "How dare you disrespect me like that? You ought to have more sense than that, you stupid human," she spits as she talks like I'm some dumb animal.
"Chill out you idiotic hypocrite," Kai replied.
"You little," she trails off into a long line of insults. Kai just throws a pebble at her.
"Are you done yet lady?" he says.
"Lady? Lady?! You just earned thirty lashes for that, speak to me in that manner again and I'll have your head," she yells.
"Anything to keep from seeing your ugly face," Kai responds.
She storms off. A man unlocks the cell and comes for Kai with a whip. A punch him hard in the face. He stumbles back. Kai spins and slams an elbow into the guys face. He crumpled, obviously out cold. I'm about to make a run for it when an elf shuts and locks the cage door. Great, we're trapped again.