Blades Of Magnaterra

Chapter 4: Tourmaline

To think that the ox of a man would go down to mere arrows, is he even alive?! I checked his heart. It seems fine. I remember the deep hole Nist created from the crash. I begin dragging Nist's body towards it.

"You! Stop dragging the body or we will attack once more!" The soldiers shout. I arrive at the hole. I throw Nist down the narrow circular crater. I see a wave of arrows fly through the air. I grab an armful of dead sticks and thrush then fall through the deep hole. I just have to wait until the soldiers leave, right? I hear the soldiers digging through the ground.

The sound of their footsteps were only a yard away before it became feet, then a stone throw away as I held my breath in trepidation and recall those glamorous but gloomy halls of the castle. A speck of sunlight goes through the thrush and I close my eyes starting to pray to god to let us go.

"Hey, there's nobody here!" the soldier shouts as he stands up and leaves. 

Hearing their footsteps move away from us, I breathed a small sigh of relief before taking a peek through the dead thrush. When I see the soldiers enter a cave in the side of the mountains, I push out the dirt and climb out dragging Nist's body with me. I continue pulling him along with his arm around my shoulders uncomfortably through gravels before I could find what looked to be an unmaintained plot of farmland until I find an abandoned barn. I gave the tarnished barn door some lousy kicks before it finally gave way that I body-slammed it open and continue dragging him through the hay. For a man in his early 20's, he's a stack of bricks. I cover Nist's body under two stacks of hay hoping that he'd hold out till I find a professional healer for him. 

"Ye got some real guts for some noble gal!" a boy's voice echoes through the barn. 

Shocked and bewildered, I look toward the door with a shudder. Was it the farmer?

"I'm Worra, I lead the Domian rebellion here."

The shadow figure before the light came into the dark of the barn with a gleaming smile on his face, but I didn't know whether to feel relieved or intimidated by the display and I tried to cover Nist's wounded figure behind my back.

"I saw you and that man escape from those soldiers!" a boy said much to my pathetic attempt. The boy was in ragged clothes and a bow and quiver strung to his back. I took a deep breath in fear. What does this man want with me?

"Don't worry, I saw how you two flew through the sky like birds. I'm not willing to pass up an opportunity to get that kind of beast into our ranks." Worra says cheerfully as he strolled past me as if brushing aside my last-ditch effort to protect my only chance to everything. However, pushing aside the hay, he plucks the arrows from Nist and bandages his bareback with clean bandages as I stare at him in suspicion.

"Are you by any chance... trying to kill the royal court?" I ask hesitantly.

The boy froze when he heard my words and spit out a laugh, "So that's it! Lady, calm your head. I'm just here to stop the unnecessary taxes and death around Ankai. Who the hell said anything about murder?" 

Hearing his words brought a small sense of relief to me, yet I didn't want to let my guard down and it was difficult not wanting to trust him either. The boy's demeanor was relaxed too, but with a tang of insecurity.

"Is the guy usually this strong? He clung onto something on the way here, right? I didn't see any flying animals here" the boy asks, "Unless he sprouted some invisible wings and charged head-on into our land."

"How do you plan to use his overwhelming strength? There's times when he's full of pride or scared, but he did get overwhelmed by a wave of arrows.

"I left my army to help him fight the military base. How else would you have got past them?" He replied in a strange accent.

"Do you have a plan to assault the military base? If you want to liberate Domus, you'll need a plan" I asked.