by Brian Nyaude
10
9
Yes, good fortune had saved us for the time being, but now another problem had appeared in our way. Could we escape unnoticed? It was obvious Katarina knew how we were moving. Most likely she had a treasure dog with her.
“Is there a way into the next city in Okaya beside this small road?” I asked her waking up Dashe roughly.
That stubborn bunion wasn’t budging a bit, but snoring hard. The cold chill I had been feeling was getting a lot stronger for some unknown reason. It felt like I was wearing nothing in bare snow and I didn’t like it one bit. I quickly grabbed my sack and took out the cotton cloak. I didn’t care if people laughed at me or not. It was too cold and I didn’t want to freeze to death.
“So you didn’t throw that rag away after all,” Dashe laughed, he was barely awake although that was good enough for me.
I told him the situation and helped him back on his feet. The whole time he was giving Suzanne the mean eye. I guess he was still mad at her over the food and for slapping him. I felt his body tense as his fist clench. Most likely, he wanted payback. She wasn’t bothered by his glares at all much less paid any attention to him. She paced around her bar peering through the windows cautiously.
“There is a back door at the end of the storage room. You should be able to see it if you leave now,” Suzanne said with a little smile.
“Thanks! You have our gratitude.”
I couldn’t thank her enough for what she had done for us; however, I wouldn’t thank her for the food. Now that was a nightmare I didn’t want to go through ever again. I got up on my feet and tensed my body steadily to the ground trying to shake away the fear.
“Here,” Suzanne said handing me some paper written in a language unknown to me. “Take this paper with you to Saza. Go find a place called the “Jafounds” and find a man called Sam. He will help you if you have made your mind to go to Danyen. Hurry and go, we’ll hold them off for as long as we can and don’t worry we’ll meet again soon.”
With that she turned around and vanished like a shadow. Her presence completely vanished into utter nothing like an abyss. The rest of the girls followed suit quickly exiting through hidden doors all through the inn. Surprisingly, the customers had already gone too leaving the place looking like a deserted inn. It was all quiet now with nothing, but the wind howling through the open windows.
“Phew we dodged a bullet there,” Ogana spoke wiping away some sweat from his head. “The last time I came here they made me it that junk and I felt sick to my stomach when I left. That’s how I was caught by those creatures you fought. I love Suzanne and the waiters; they are all good friends of mine; however cooking is not one of their greatest strengths. If you hadn’t come when you did, those creatures would have eaten me for dinner.”
“I can believe that.”
Now I understood why we found him in chains in the first place. It was impossible after all for a tree giant to be caught so easily like that without putting much of a fight.
“Let’s go now!” Dashe interrupted out loudly.
Dashe was already half way downstairs heading for the storage room. We all realized there was no time waste and hastened our pace. Quickly we followed him to the storage room and closed the door behind us. In an instant, Dashe stopped moving and started looking aimlessly around the room. Just like I had the first time I saw this wonderful place.
“Whoa,” Dashe said in amazement. “What is this place? There are so many unique weapons in here. I could just get lost in this room checking each and every one of them.”
Agreed!
Oddly, my cold shivers seemed to get worse with time. It felt as if my own body was getting numb. I took the cotton cloak and put in on to feel some warmth. Trembling for a minute, but then I didn’t feel it again. I felt ridiculous and stupid, but there was nothing I could do except burden myself with the humiliation. It was either get warm or feel the wrath of the cold. Not a hard choice I may add. I heard a rattle of metal and turned my attention towards it. Dashe grabbed some weapons as much as he could carry and Ogana followed suit. It was stealing and I felt bad to do it to Suzanne. But I was also a thief and not likely to start judging others for their crimes. I didn’t say anything to them as I quickly looked around the room to find the backdoor Suzanne mentioned. It wasn’t really a backdoor, more like an entrance to a cave underground. I walked by it and examined its structure carefully. Rather remarkable craftsmanship was put into its construction. It blended well with the walls, almost making it hard to notice on first glance.
“That’s the backdoor?” Dashe said sarcastically. He moved closer and stopped at the mouth of the door observing it coldly. “It looks more like secret passage to me, much to my disappointment.”
Typical Iyenkan man! Never a good thing ever came out of his mouth. Would it kill him to say something positive for once? Oh well, whatever it was that didn’t matter, we needed to get out before Katarina came. As we were about to open the door, I noticed something appealingly interesting. I could not see it but I felt it somehow like it was calling out to me. It was under some mysterious tools inside a wooden box. I pried the boxes away carefully and opened the mystery box quickly. There was was a piece of string barely arm length in length curled up inside. It didn’t look useful at all. However, something made me grab it and put it in my sack as I ran moved towards the others.
“We need to work together on this,” Ogana said with sweat dropping out of his forehead. “This door is a bit harder to move than I assumed.”
He was right, it was going to take all our strength and more to budge open this secret door. We struggled for what seemed like a long hour and barely managed to open it enough for us to slip past it. Beyond it were stairs leading down somewhere. We had no choice, but to follow the passage straight to wherever it led us. Without light wood barks to use for light, we had to rely on the few candles mounted everywhere on the wall. The light they deemed was low; however the path was not hard to follow.
“How long is this cave?” Dashe said complaining again. “We’ve been running for several minutes and I can’t see the exit.”
His attitude and rudeness was even frustrating me too though he was right. We had been running for a long time and yet there was no sign of the exit. Even with the enhanced eyesight scouting ahead, I only saw nothing, but darkness. All we heard from behind us were what sounded like earthquakes and tremors.
“Now that you mention it does feel strange though,” Ogana said drinking some booze from a bottle he had.
Strangely I had not seen when he had taken it while we were still in that bar or place. It was amazing to see how much he could drink, I wondered if all tree giants were like him.
“Well let’s just keep moving,” I said taking the lead and running even faster. “There is no point thinking about it now that we’ve come this far.”
I trusted Suzanne completely and I knew she wouldn’t betray us. Deep down I knew it was my deranged and one-sided affection towards her that kept me from rationally thinking through the situation. Dashe looked at me funny, he wanted to say something, but he decided to keep it himself. After that, we continued to run in silence following the one staircase down that seemed to stretch into infinity
Hours went by before we saw the exit. We stopped and took a rest as we could now see the city clearly within a few miles. Saza looked much more crowded than Rigudaya and Yogo. There was a whole lot more things going on than my eyes could see. Merchants and traders covered the roads with vast array of goods and weaponry. There were hordes of people coming into and out of the city periodically in broad daylight.
“We’ve rested enough,” Ogana spoke readjusting his new spear. He walked towards the mouth of the cave to peer through the city much carefully. “It’s already noon so let’s be on our way.”
We all rechecked our inventory to see if anything was missing before heading out from the cave towards the city.
“Well that can’t
be good,” Dashe commented pointing towards the mountain.
I paused in my steps and turned my attention towards the smoke coming down from up the edge mountain. I strained my eyes a little to get a better look at it. I was shocked completely beyond belief. The smoke was coming from Suzanne’s place. Her presence had completely vanished along with her inn. All I felt was a huge sinister feeling that felt cold and hollow. This dreadful feeling was maddening and frightening enough to sent chills down my waist. My throat dried up at the thought of what this feeling was or who it might belong to.
No way!
There was no mistake about it. It had to be Katarina Fox and no one else. The impurity and magnitude of this energy was beyond my comprehension. Had she finally come for me? Facing her now only meant certain doom.
“Don’t worry,” Ogana sighed looking towards the smoke. He turned around and began walking towards the city slowly. “Those girls can take care of themselves, and we’ll meet them again soon. They knew what they were getting themselves into when they interfered so don’t wallow in the past.”
His words were reassuring, but they still didn’t bring peace to my turmoil. The chances of them escaping her were certainly not that great. For now all I could do was keep moving forward and not waste their sacrifice to buy us time. I knew what I had to do now, but the odds were not in my favor. I was scared and fearful for my own life. Getting myself killed by those terrifying villains was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. I wanted to survive long enough to return back to Rogue and prove my innocence. Although, that was an impossible dream to aspire for. My only option was to get stronger and face them without fear after I mastered my new power. Oh, what am I thinking? It would take ions to acquire enough power and courage to face those dreadful monsters on equal footing and time was one thing against me.
Although….!
Could I really master the gauntlet and rescue my friends? All these questions puzzled me into an unbearable agony. Suddenly, I found myself entering the city and my mind fell into wonder. The city was even more astonishing and great, far much more than I had perceived. Saza was full of life, the people looked happy and there was a lot of activity going on. Aside from being controlled by Katarina Fox these people were managing and getting by so well.
“I never get tired of seeing this city,” Ogana smiled looking around the city like an excited child. “It is amazing beyond belief isn’t it?”
“Yes, that we can both agree on,” I replied and walked a little faster to catch up to him.
“So where to now?” Dashe asked looking around, he now looked different.
He still had that mean looking eye on his face, but his tone had changed a little. Far a little pleasant even for him, but that was much as anyone could expect from him.
I just hoped his rude attitude could change too. One could only hope after all.
“Suzanne told me to look for a guy named Sam.”
I showed them a piece of paper she had handed me before she left. “She said he would be at a place called Jafounds.”
“Are you kidding me? Look around you Rid! We won’t be able to find that place without some sort of miracle. If I were you, I would have asked Suzanne for a map or directions before we left,” Dashe rattled and grinded his teeth in an irritated manner.
“You are probably right, but it’s too late for that now.”
The city was so big we didn’t know where to start, just looking around was a waste of precious time so we asked around. Some of the people didn’t even answer us as they fled quickly whenever we approached them. Their faces were cold and pierced dreadfully down whenever we approached them. Not even one person among them pointed us in the right direction. I had an unnerving realization of impending doom in my gut. I think Saza was just a front after all to attract people to visit. Deep down there was something beneath, a hidden secret. I was frightened when my eyes wandered towards the ground. What was this place? Just what were we getting ourselves into? Gigantic metal gears and machinery grinded beneath the city. I was fearful and yet fascinated by this discover, very strange. The sheer power and sophistication of the machinery was way beyond our time era, it was far too advanced.
“Hey Rid,” Dashe said in a low cautious voice. He cautiously looked around our surrounding unsheathing one of his sword silently not to attract any attention. “Do you notice anything strange about the people and this town?”
I did actually; I couldn’t feel the presence of half the city for some unknown reasons. It was as if they were masking it or for some unknown reason my senses were not working. I was getting bad chills from just being there. It felt like something was stalking us from the shadows. I looked around and all I saw was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Don’t draw attention,” Ogana nudged Dashe who looked uneasy and ready to strike. “Even Saza can become a very dangerous place if you start trouble. Remember that we are in the enemy’s territory now, and the last thing you want to do is attract unwanted attention.”
Dashe looked mad as he took his hand off his weapon and followed behind. I still didn’t know what his motive was to come with me when he learned I was from Rogue. Maybe he felt obligated to help me after something that Ken had done for him. That had to be it because a Roguean and Iyenkan working together was as rare as finding a diamond beneath the depths of the ocean. My uneasiness when he was around me did not dissipate; however I certainly couldn’t afford to be picky when it came to travelling companions. We walked quietly through the city crossing a few streets and observing a few signs along the way.
“Is that the place?” Dashe pointed to a huge store next to a zoo.
It was certainly not hard to miss no matter where you came from. There was a sign that said, “Welcome to Jafounds” in big bold letters.
Odd enough, it certainly drew a lot of attention because everyone on that street couldn’t resist looking up at it as they passed by. This definitely looked like the place we were looking for.
“Only one way to find out,” I said leading the way.
The door was a mystery to me because it opened by itself. I jumped back quickly while observing what sort of trickery this was. It was unheard of for doors to open by themselves. The door had to be enchanted or something so I wasn’t going to drop my guard down at all.
“You idiot,” Dashe laughed out loudly and walked through the door. “If the door wanted to kill you I am sure it would have done that.”
I followed them shaking my head in disbelief and shock. My fast beating heart slowed down, but the sweat didn’t stop pouring down my forehead.
Saza was becoming more and more fascinating each minute. My curiosity seemed to take a jump as I wanted to know more about how Saza worked and what secrets it hid. As we kept walking we were astounded by what we saw inside. Everything was made from plastic and metal or ran by some sort of mechanical energy. There were devices I had never seen before in my life. So many people, this place was certainly busy. Now I knew why Tye wanted to come to Okaya, robbing this place certainly meant great fortune for us. No more eating out of the trash or sleeping on the open streets. Although I wished they had been here with me to see this marvelous city. I mean the mechanism in this place was far superior to any craftsmanship of Rogue or Iyenka. What sort of sorcery could produce this type of illusion? My eyes could just not stop looking at everything filled with wonder and amazement. I wanted to touch everything and examine it firsthand to see how everything worked.
“So what’s next?” Dashe folded his arms letting out a slow sigh. He was obviously bored and wanted to do something else with his time.
“Well don’t look at me,” Ogana waved him away.
I certainly didn’t know too. I had figured Jafounds was a lot smaller, but this was just ridiculous. Where do we even begin to look? There were sections on sections that housed inventions in the millions. Looking for Sam certainly wasn’t going to be easy as making pie.
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