Tales of Lost Souls | Mia's Journey

CHAPTER 5 - a lady and her servant

The next day I woke up when the sun had already long set. I slowly left the tent and rubbed my eyes before looking for Nodachi. He was sitting on a fallen tree and seemed to clean his armor. "Good morning." I greeted him and Nodachi looked up to see me.

He nodded and waved shortly. "Good morning Mia. I hope you slept well." Nodachi put his armor back on upon talking to me. He reached into his bag and broke a piece of bread in half.

I thanked him for the food and we ate together. "So," I began, "How long have you been traveling alone?". Since Atlas' words yesterday, I wanted to learn more about my new companion. All I knew is that he was a knight. If that is true... I felt bad for becoming wary of Nodachi but there was nothing I could do against it I thought.

"Is it because of what Atlas said earlier?", the white-haired man shoved me out of my thoughts with that question. I tried thinking of a good response, but Nodachi sighed while continuing to speak. "Thought so...", he said with a sad undertone in his voice.

Without a word, Nodachi started to dismantle our resting place and stored everything on his horse's back. We should've had another horse by now but the attack yesterday prevented us from getting one. The atmosphere between the two of us had changed greatly but for the worse. So I tried to thin the thick air around us a bit. "Look, I'm sorry Nodachi. I... It wasn't asking out of bad intentions. Just interest in you.". But he still ignored me. Great, I thought...

"Let's go. We still have a long way to go." Nodachi started walking towards a road and I followed him quickly. He seemed grumbling while looking at me. Should I have left with Atlas instead? Both of these guys were pretty difficult to be around so it wasn't easy to decide. But I still stayed with Nodachi for the time being.

As I noticed the rusty sword I gave him yesterday on Aoibhes Saddle, I began to ask myself what he needed it for. But I didn't feel like asking because I wanted to leave him alone for a bit.

What felt like an hour of just walking finally passed and the three of us arrived at a village. Nodachi stopped and command me to get on his horse's back. I didn't ask questions and just did it. He gave me a grey cape to put on and quickly cleaned his armor a little bit. "That village is a strange one. Please keep quiet and let me do all the talking. We need to pass the village to use their bridge over the river. So... Just stay silent please."

He grabbed Aoibhes reins and led her slowly into the village. Being up on the horse was a great feeling and I used the situation to look at the village and people. The houses were built out of wood and they didn't smell as bad as in the first village I arrived in. But the people... Mostly old men were out in the street and gave us disgusted looks.

What in the world is wrong with those people I thought...

They started to come closer and Nodachi drew his sword. "We just want to pass your bridge. My Lady and I have an important meeting at the capital.", Nodachi began but was quickly shut down.

"We don't care! How dare you let yourself be degraded and then expect us to let a lady's servant with his dear beauty through. Hahaha, you are so stupid!", the villagers stood in our way and even blocked the way back. There was no other way out than fight, or was there? A young man with bandages over his eyes 'watched' us from a corner.

He pulled out a card deck and burned one of the cards. A monster appeared out of nowhere attacking the villagers. Nodachi took the chance and ran across the bridge with Aoibhe and me.