by Lan Dang
Chapter 15: Another Exit
He couldn’t sleep much last night. He thought he was hearing voices but when he opened his eyes, there was no one in the room. It led him to suspect that the voices were probably from his dream. He returned back to sleep and heard loud noises out in the hallway. These voices sounded more realistic and less dream-like. It sounded like an argument. Out of curiosity, he got out of bed to check what the commotion was about. He cautiously opened the door to peek outside the hallway. He saw two Questors gathered around a short, stocky built man with blonde hair dressed in a silk robe. The man was clearly upset and distressed.
“You guys are supposed to keep order around here. What a shoddy job you guys have done! Wait until I go and tell the Elders about what a bunch of idiotic servants they have working for them.”
“Please sir, please calm down. I am sure we can sort this out amongst ourselves. Just tell me what happened.”
“I just got robbed. That’s what happened. You idiots weren’t doing your job and someone came into my room and stole something of mine.”
“Sir, that’s not possible. We guard the entire castle and make sure no stranger comes in and out. There must be a mistake. Are you sure you just didn’t misplace it?”
His already loud voice rose an octave higher. “Do you think I’m an idiot now? Of course, I checked my room and yes, it is missing. Now, how about you guys track down the thief that stole it? And punish that bastard.” He was breathing heavily up and down, apparently upset.
“Sir, it’s not that simple. Because if what you are saying is right, then the thief is one of the guests or one of ….” The Questor paused briefly before continuing, “us, which is difficult to believe.”
“So then go check everyone here. It should make your job even simpler if the thief is still here and hasn’t run off yet. Just go check everyone’s rooms.”
Both the Questors looked at each other. They looked back at the distraught man and asked, “Can you give us a description of what exactly was missing from your room?”
They watched curiously as his face turned slightly red and he lowered his voice almost to a whisper so that Eric could barely hear his answer. “It’s a scroll, bound in a gold band, and placed inside a wooden chest.”
The Questors glanced briefly at each and rolled their eyes when they found out what was stolen but they managed to remain professional in order to calm him down.
“Very well then sir, we will do our best to recover this object and return it to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, please keep this a secret to help our investigation. We don’t want to alert the thief.”
The man grumbled something unintelligible. Both the Questors nodded their heads to him and glided off while he stood in the hallway, shaking his head in dismay. He eventually disappeared back into his room, two doors opposite from Eric’s own door.
Eric closed the door quietly behind him and thought over what he had heard. Apparently, this place was not as secure as he thought it would be. He was too hungry to think any further and devoured what was left on the table. He decided to go outside to search for Emmers to see if he knew of any other door outside of the Guilden Kingdom, a door that was preferably unguarded.
When he emerged outside, the sky was overcast and cloudy. It looked rather ominous, just like before a rainstorm. Eric was in a hurry to frantically look for Emmers, so that he never saw the horse-drawn cart coming. It was going at a rather quick pace and before he knew it, he was in the middle of its pathway. He immediately leapt to the other side for safety and landed hard on the floor.
“Ouch! That hurts.”
He rubbed his knees which had absorbed most of the impact.
“I wonder what idiot tried to run me over. Not like I don’t have enough problems as it is.”
He got up and watched as the person on the cart tried to slow the horse down. The horse eventually slowed down to a trot before making a complete stop. The person on the cart got off and walked towards him. Now that Eric got a closer look, the person on the cart was a boy around Eric’s own age. He had dark brown hair, tanned skin, and a slightly crooked nose. The expression he had on his face was not a friendly one.
“Are you freaking blind? Can’t you see where you’re going?” He was not the least bit apologetic and Eric wasn’t in the mood to be nice either.
“At least I’m not the idiot racing down the streets trying to trample people over with my horse. You should be more careful next time, you idiot.”
The boy looked furious. “What did you call me?”
Eric sneered back. “What? Are you deaf now? I called you an idiot. Apparently, you’re both deaf and dumb.”
The boy bit his lip and his eyes narrowed. He walked, threateningly, towards Eric and Eric stood firmly, waiting for the first punch. A crowd of curious onlookers had gathered to watch the fight.
The boy lunged at Eric but Eric was much quicker. He jumped to the side and dodged him. It was Eric’s turn to attack now. As the boy turned around, Eric took a swing at him and hit him squarely in the face. The blow caught the boy off guard and he staggered back a bit. He did not fall down though and when he had recovered from the blow, he immediately kicked Eric in the right thigh which caused him to shout out in pain. Eric was furious now.
He threw several punches at the boy who managed to dodge most of it and the boy, in turn, threw his own punches. One of the punches caught Eric on the right side of his face and he winced back in pain. At that moment, another boy, appeared just in time to stop the fight before it got any worse. The other boy was taller, bigger, and looked older. He shared the same facial features as the boy he was fighting. It made him suspect that they were related.
“That’s enough. Both of you guys stop it. Especially you, Rommus, calm down.”
“He started it first. That piece of crap almost made me fall off the horse.” He pointed at Eric.
Eric took a couple of steps back, ready to fight both of them at the same time if it was necessary.
“Just forget it okay?” The older boy patted the other boy on the shoulder and then, he turned around to face Eric.
“You got some nerve messing with us. This is just a warning but next time, if this happens again, you’re going to get it not just from him but from me as well. So double the trouble.” He rolled up his sleeves showing his muscular arms, littered with tattoos.
Eric gulped nervously but he did not back down.
The older boy stared at him. “Wait. I know you. I think you were the guy who went through that main entrance. Yeah, no wonder you look so familiar. So that’s why I’ve never seen you before.”
He looked him up and down. “You’re different, a freak. You may have changed your clothes and have the Elders protecting you but you still can’t fool us. You will never blend in. Come on Rommus, let’s go now. We don’t want to associate with people like that. They’ll just dirty our hands.”
Eric watched as the two walked back to their cart and drove off on the horse. The crowd was already dispersing when he saw a familiar face among the crowd. He walked over towards him.
“Hi, Emmers.”
Emmers’ face was flushed a deep red. He looked embarrassed.
“Hi, Eric. I hope you won’t get mad at me, but I really wanted to help you. Really, I do.”
He looked at the ground. “It’s just that no one messes with their family. They’re very wealthy and powerful here.”
Eric shook his head. “It’s okay. I know. They look terrifying too.”
Emmers glanced up at him. “They’re always getting into fights with other kids and they never lose. That’s because they kind of have their own gang. I would stay out of their way next time. It’s less troublesome.”
Eric smiled. “Thanks for the advice.”
Emmers grinned, grateful that Eric did not blame him for just st
anding there and watching the fight, without helping him.
“To be honest with you, you’re a pretty good fighter. You stood your own against Rommus. That’s incredible. He’s very aggressive. I had a little bit of a conflict with him before and needless to say, I ended up all black and blue. So, where did you learn to fight like that? It was pretty impressive, I must say.” He looked at Eric with admiration.
Eric winced. He had forgotten about the painful punch to the face until Emmers just mentioned it.
“Oh, I was just lucky. My dad taught me how to defend myself as a kid. You know, for self-protection. He told me that he couldn’t always be there to protect me.”
Emmers nodded his head. “I wish my dad would teach me that.”
“Well, if you want, I could teach you how to fight sometime. Then, you won’t get bullied by Rommus anymore.”
Emmers smiled. “Thanks man.”
“So who was that with him? The older kid, I mean.”
“Oh, that’s his older brother, Giles. He’s a jerk too but smarter and more mature than Rommus. He, at least, can be reasoned with. But I still won’t mess with either of them unless I have a death wish.”
It was quiet for awhile as the two walked together. Eric had almost forgotten why he wanted to see Emmers today until they had almost approached the main entrance.
“Hey, I kind of have a question I want to ask you. Do you know of any other door, besides that one, that leads to the outside?” He pointed at the main entrance.
Emmers just stared at him. Instead of answering his question, he asked his own, “But why would you want to go outside? It’s dangerous.”
He continued, “The force field and the stone wall are all the defenses we have against any of our enemies. If we go outside, who knows what would happen to us?”
Eric sighed. He had a feeling that Emmers wouldn’t understand him. It was quiet for awhile.
Eric watched Emmers who was avoiding his gaze for some reason. It was as if there was a question that he wanted to ask but was afraid of asking.
Eric asked, “Is something wrong? Do you need to get something out of your system? You know if you keep things all bottled up inside all the time, it might explode, like a volcano.”
Emmers laughed. Eric was grateful for that broke the silence between the two of them.
He finally met Eric’s eyes and asked, “Is it true then what Giles said about you? Are you really the one who went through that door, a door that hasn’t been opened since our previous king passed away?”
Eric met Emmers’ questioning eyes. “I don’t want to lie to you because I consider you a good friend, one that I can trust with my secret. So yes, I did come through that very door but would you believe me then if I told you that I arrived here by mistake? That I don’t belong here and that’s why I have to leave.”
Emmers looked at him for a long time and finally nodded his head. “I believe you. But wait a minute, so that whole story about your parents dying when you were little and you being taken in as a Questor, is that all a lie?”
Eric bit his lip and with an apologetic expression on his face, he tried to explain. “I’m sorry about lying to you and your family. But I meant well. I figured you wouldn’t believe me if I told the truth so I had to say I was a Questor.”
To his surprise, Emmers was grinning. “Why that’s fantastic. We can be friends then. Dad just hates Questors but if you’re not one, then he would be okay about our friendship.”
He stared off into the sky for a bit. “But why are you staying in the castle? I don’t understand.”
Eric sighed. He didn’t want to lie to his friend especially since he looked so happy before but he just couldn’t reveal his identity. It was too dangerous.
“I’m a visitor from another planet so the Elders thought they could keep me as a guest to learn from me. So far, they haven’t given me a hard time.”
“What planet are you from?”
“The planet called Earth. Have you heard of it?”
“Yes, actually I’ve even studied it before. It’s a very interesting planet, very similar to our own. But how did you exactly arrive here?”
“I honestly don’t know. One minute I was in my room and the next minute, I was here.”
Emmers looked back at Eric. “I see. But wait, you don’t want to stay here. You want to return to planet Earth, right?”
Eric nodded his head. “Right.”
“Well, I do know of another door that leads to the outside. But the thing is I’ve never seen this door myself. I read in one of the library books about an ancient door that exists where the graveyard is.”
Eric stared at him. “The what?”
“Graveyard. You remember the day you helped me and my dad clean out the horse stables?”
Eric nodded his head.
“Well, the horses were grazing in the pasture and the hill lies beyond that pasture, sort of as a borderline. Beyond that hill, is the graveyard. It’s considered to be very sacred. Only past heroes who have died, fighting to protect this kingdom, are buried in it. These include knights, guards, and noble citizens. It’s kind of our way of saying thank you for their sacrifice. That’s why we’re not allowed there.”
Eric waited impatiently. Clearly, there was more to this story.
“And also because that graveyard is cursed. People who have stepped foot there have gone missing and never returned. We believed that it is their souls that are taking people’s lives. You know as punishment for disrespecting their graves. Apparently, they don’t like being walked upon.”
Emmers rolled his eyes.
Eric asked, “But where is that door?”
“Oh right, the door. That’s the thing. It just says the door is somewhere in the graveyard but it doesn’t exactly say where or even how to open it.”
Eric muttered to himself, “Oh great. How am I going to search for it?”
It was silent while Eric thought about how best to go searching for this door which would be the ticket to his way back home. Emmers walked quietly alongside him before he spoke.
“Don’t get upset with me but why are you so keen on going back home? Don’t you like it here?”
Eric shook his head. “No, it’s not that I don’t like it here. It’s just that it’s not my home here. I have friends and family back home. I feel like I haven’t seen them in a long time even though I probably have been gone for only a couple of weeks but I really miss them.”
He sighed. As they were walking together, Eric saw a pebble on the street and kicked it until it ricocheted off the wall of one of the shops and landed near a dog that was napping. The noise woke the dog up. The dog looked at the pebble and started barking loudly.
Emmers asked, “But you don’t even really know how you arrived here in the first place. Even if you did find the door in the graveyard to leave the Guilden Kingdom, you still might be stuck here, right?”
Eric nodded his head. “You’re right. I still might be stuck here whether or not I find that door.”
“The only people I can think of who can help you leave this place for good are the Elders. Do you want to try asking them for their help?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want to owe them any favors. They probably know about where that secret door is located as well as how I can go back home but if I ask for their help, I will be in their debt.”
“Yeah. That’s not exactly a good thing either. Who knows what the Elders would want in return.”
Eric didn’t tell Emmers the truth that the Elders would never help him. If he left, who would rule the Guilden Kingdom? The Elders already made it clear to him that they were just waiting for his fifteenth birthday so they could depart with a clear conscience. It was not in their best interest to help him return to his own home. No matter what happens, it seemed as if Eric couldn’t escape his own doomed fate.
