Tales of Lost Souls | Mia's Journey

CHAPTER 6 - voices of a distant me

The stranger fought with the people that tried to follow us but he disappeared shortly after we were out of reach. "What is up with those villagers? Why in the world would they attack us without a reason?", I looked down on Nodachi who ran beside Aoibhe and me.

"Humans feel anger and let it out on innocent people. When they see easy targets, humans use their superiority to crush weaker ones with their strength.", that was the answer Nodachi gave me. I had no idea how to respond to that... He spoke about 'humans' like he isn't one himself. Should I ask him about that? Better not... Maybe he is still mad about earlier this morning.

Nodachi seems to have noticed my strange look and sighed before getting slower. "Is there a problem? Did I say something that upset you? I tried to give you a good answer but-"

"No! Your answer was fine. Please don't worry about it, I was just thinking about the stranger."

While my response wasn't entirely true, I still said it to not make Nodachi upset again. Our relationship was already unstable enough as it was.

We heard a whistle and a brown horse showed itself, allowing the stranger from earlier to get up. They quickly caught up with us. "We need to go. Get up your horse and go, go, go.", the man on the brown horse commanded Nodachi who followed the words and got up on Aiobhe behind me. "They have fast animals so run as fast as you can. Follow me!"

The stranger and his horse galloped in the direction of a forest. The villager appeared in sight, screaming at the stranger and calling him a thief. Nodachi decided to follow him. As a former knight, maybe his sense of justice kicked in, wanting to return the stolen goods even after the villagers tried to attack us.

Monsters appeared out of nowhere between us and the villagers. It was just like in the village before, so maybe the stranger had something to do with those.

As we caught up with him, the man jumped from his horse's back and so did Nodachi. "I'm glad you followed me, those guys would've ripped you two into pieces. They weren't human anymore but possessed by a mind-eating monster.". His voice was pleasant to listen to.

"They still called you a thief. What did you rob them of? Possessed or not, stealing is not okay," Nodachi crossed his arms and stood in front of the man, "Give back whatever you stole please."

The demand of Nodachi caught the stranger by surprise. "Thief? Nah. I am just a wanderer taking stuff people don't need anymore, oh and that is my horse Sayu. Those people can't be helped and instead of killing innocent people, I take the things I need. I heard you were a thief too once. Huh, Nodachi? A former Sapphire Knight and a former thief..." The stranger smirked.

Do they know each other? No... Nodachi talks like he doesn't know him. So why does the stranger knows about my companion's past?

"Oh. I should Introduce myself. My name is Tashken and I am a normal traveler. The village I 'robbed' is my hometown I think," he said while moving his head in my direction. How can he see with those bandages over his eyes... or is he blind maybe? "I see you are confused because of the pretty accessory in my face, right? Well, I have problems with my eyes so I like to keep them away from sunlight. Nothing for you guys to worry about;" Tashken continued as if he had read my mind.

Nodachi pulled me away from the brown-haired man and began to whisper, "We shouldn't trust him. I have a bad feeling about this." And so did I. But what could we do in that situation?

He can help me.

Tashken can activate my magic.

Our origin will be uncovered thanks to him.

I should trust him.

Nodachi is trying to keep me away from a good opportunity.

Follow Tashken.

Suddenly voices appeared in my head. They sounded familiar, a little bit... like my own voice, and way too many to listen to at once. Getting louder and louder, the voices began to scream at me and I tried to cover my ears. It didn't help. Nodachi's screams sounded far away and were drowned out by my own.

Until everything went silent again.