Dawn- An age of Darkness

Unsatisfied, he grinded his teeth. "Don\'t play dumb!"

"Sorry but I don\'t know what you mean," I said. I tried my poker face as best as I could.

"You son of a-" He came straight at me with a fist. He was close.

"You\'d hit an injured man? How brave!" My voice came out a little bit more provocative than I thought.

He had a sword and he looked quite strong, so provoking him this way to get out was possible- and I had nothing better. Besides, I was already in a bad mood.

He stopped, grinded his teeth again, and spat on the ground. "Tch! Just get the hell out of the town. We don\'t need you to bring another calamity. I\'ve heard rumors about you. No matter where you go destruction follows. Moire was the only city of men that wasn\'t breached for the last ten years; until you happened to be there!" He pointed at me, pretty wildly.

My eyes sharpened up. I knew he was right but I didn\'t want to give in to his taunts. And were my stories famous or something? How did people know about me when even I wasn\'t aware of?

"That\'s a rather bold accusation! What\'s your source?"

"That\'s none of your business," he rammed his fist on the nearby tree. Lots of leaves fell on the poor guy. But that only fueled his rage. A rage that had nowhere to go.

"Unfortunately, if it\'s rumors about me, then it is my business." I sighed. I still didn\'t know much about this world anyway.

After glaring at me for a little while, he left: he didn\'t even bother telling me anything. I didn\'t really mind his words though. He was right after all. And trying out magic out in the open despite the old man\'s warning was entirely my fault.

The autumn air blew past me. it was a little cold but still pretty comfortable. This wind really reminded me of the journey at the sea. I did miss some of those days. But I had to move on sooner or later. Maybe I was being hasty.

But one thing was for certain. I need to get stronger!

***

The next morning the old man and Jowy came. Both of them had food in their bags. Plain bread wasn\'t that enticing and didn\'t taste even the slightest bit of goodness. But it was better than starving.

"What happened to Alisa?" I said.

If I remember correctly she-

"The thing is-" The old man stopped.

"She wants to come with us," Jowy said.

"Huh? Even after seeing that?"

That was surprising. I couldn\'t understand why someone like her would want to come with us, even after seeing what she did.

"She thinks if she wasn\'t there then it could have been avoided. She thinks that Brenda died because she was behind her and clinging to her from behind, and-" Jowy didn\'t want to finish.

But wasn\'t she unconscious?

"Perhaps she hallucinated?" I said.

I said what came to my mind. I wasn\'t thinking straight but it was weird. Why would a child want to come along on such a dangerous journey? She must have had a reason- and I didn\'t think she had a good intention.

"Daarc." The old man finished Jowy\'s sentence. Were they in sync or something? "She\'s just a child what more could you expect?"

"Common sense, what else?" I grinned.

"Daar-" The old man was about to shout again.

I sighed and didn\'t reply.

"So what do you suggest we do?" The old man said.

Hmm… I need to know what she intends to do and why she wants to come along... But I promised.

"Don\'t let her come… I don\'t know what her game is. I want to know it but…" But I couldn\'t let her be harmed. "Besides, I already promised Brenda that we\'d keep her safe. So not letting her come with us would be the best thing to do. Anyway I\'d first like to know her reason then let her join-"

"If that\'s what you think then I won\'t stop you but I wouldn\'t stand for it if you endanger her life," the old man said.

That was expected. He had a soft spot for kids and that was evident. But I wasn\'t that soft and I had doubts beyond that of an ordinary man. And besides, I was thinking about the brat\'s safety too. Did he even hear me?

That girl seemed to know something about the monster. Maybe…

It was just a hypothesis at the moment, and that\'s why I needed evidence.

"Never mind. But these breads are horrible. Jowy\'s one\'s are still edible but these-" I tried to change the subject. The whole stupid conversation was leaving a bad taste in my mind.

"Hey! I made them you know! Have some respect!" The old man looked at me with a lot of mixed emotions.

I chomped on the bread and stared at the old man blankly. "No wonder."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Me and Jowy laughed. Seeing so, the old man also laughed, albeit for different reasons. It wasn\'t a situation for a laugh but we didn\'t care. Why should we?

The old man cleared his throat. "I know you just woke up but we need to leave today, as fast as possible." And out of nowhere he just dropped a bombshell on my head.

"I assume it has something to do with my being alone in this house?" If things were okay, then they wouldn\'t come to see me like this like I was some sort of criminal or something.

"Something, like that," he said.

"My stuff?"

"I sent the equipment for repair and the sword is still with me."

"What about the knife?"

"I have it," Jowy said. He promptly handed me over the knife.

"I suppose we should get ready then." I didn\'t have any reason to stay in this city anyway. Brenda was buried and I had a pretty good reputation as the city wrecker so, I really didn\'t have a reason to stay, and I certainly didn\'t want to stay.

"Alright then, let\'s go get that armor first," the old man said.

We went out. The pain was still there. But I didn\'t care. There wasn\'t even a point in caring anymore. It had to be done and I needed to grit my teeth while doing so. That was all.

"By the way, there are rumors about me?" I started.

Jowy just walked on and didn\'t turn back. The old man winced but he didn\'t answer either.

"Might I ask why there are rumors about me?" I put a lot of pressure behind the question.

Nervous chuckle filled the air and both of them walked faster.

"Hey!!!"

At one point they\'d started to run. I did eventually catch up to them, but they never told me anything. I guess they were the reason behind all this rumors if nothing.

The city was bustling with activity. It was a city in every aspect one would expect a medieval city to be. The buildings weren\'t as fancy as Moire\'s but definitely not bad. The streets were made of cobblestone as usual and felt weird to walk on.

On our way, lots of people glared at us, particularly at me. I could imagine what could be their reason but it was still a little jarring. But then again, was me- my face, really that famous?

We got back my armor and now it had weird fillings instead of a seamless body. I didn\'t mind it though. If I didn\'t look like a total bandit before, I most certainly looked the part now. My former prince-like armor was now reduced to a complete bandit one.

Damn like I\'ve got…

"When are we leaving?" I asked. Now I had another reason to leave as fast as possible.

"Afternoon," the old man said.

I won\'t get to recover my wounds huh? "So what now?"

"Let\'s go get the little missy." The old man led the way.

"Alright."

Alisa was at the old man\'s abandoned home.

When we arrived I was kind of surprised. The house wasn\'t as dusty anymore and looked like an actual house for once.

"Wow, you did a good job," the old man said.

"Thank you." Alisa smiled.. I guess she really did deserve some praise if she could pull all of this up.