By the time they arrived back at town, it was barely past morning. Hiiro was still yawning with obnoxious sounds of fatigue and the vain on Pulpa's horned head was sticking out with extreme agitation. It had been a long ride after traversing from the vast desert like plains from where Hiiro had tried, at least, to hone his sword skills. Not like he was going to admit he wasn't any good, though he always told himself he was the best regardless. He simply had no time for other cares of what didn't matter, and that was one of them. His thought process was cut short however when Giruu had stopped without warning, in front of Hiiro. Hiiro had been tailing behind for a time and didn't even realize that anyone was in front of him. He made a slight grunting noise of disapproval and backed up slightly. That was like walking straight into a brick wall!
“Hey? What's the hold up Giruu?” He rubbed the side of his with a sour look due to a lack of sleep, though he had slept more than anyone when he had gotten back to camp. He didn't like to think he was lazy, then again, he wouldn't admit that either.
“The matter, Hiiro is,” a man walked by looking at Hiiro with almost a fearful like awe and continued to stare as he walked past. Hiiro was quite perplexed just as the man grabbed him by the shoulders and looked feverishly excited, “oh boy.”
“IT'S YOU! YOU YOU YOU!” The man seemed to not give a damn about Hiiro's personal boundaries and continued to shake him in a frenzy. Hiiro's head literally looked like a bobble head after Giruu finally managed to yank the man away from the boy.
“Calm down! Get a hold of yourself man!” Said Hiiro with a dazed tone of voice.
“HEY EVERYONE, NARBE IS HERE!!!' The man seemed to shriek as if gone mad, though no one seemed to really give any second glances. “DO NOT IGNORE THAT WHICH WILL SAVE US!” Giruu stood between Hiiro and the obviously drunk and alcohol rank fellow.
“What is all that racket?! Can't anyone get some peace around here? Drunken idiot. Just walk away, we must find ourselves lodging.” Palpa said as he continued to walk past the scene in annoyance. Though the demi-human dragon was rather squat for his size, his attitude was nothing short of spicy. Palpa put a stubby nailed finger in his ear hole and waggled it about as if to dislodge a bothersome bug inside it.
“Yes we should.” Giruu nodded as the man continued to prance around like some kind of deranged show horse. Though the drunkard was liquored up beyond any doubts, the strange clothing he wore seemed to make him seem to stand out even more so. A strange necklace of some kind of symbol bounced up and down his puffed out chest and caught Saraato's eye, which startled Hiiro as she seemed to appear beside him without warning.
Even though Saraato had only become human not that long ago, she still retained some of her more unnerving traits like not being noticed, which tended to land Hiiro in hot water when she questioned why he acted in the reaction he did. Despite that, she quickly didn't seem to care at his displeasure, or at all. Hiiro simply felt like he was being scrutinized, not that he actually was or anything, he was just self conscious for the most part. Giruu then promptly moved forward as he handed what appeared to be a small poster over to Hiiro's still rather wobbly stance. He felt totally disorientated to say the least and yet he regained his poise without much effort.
“Just ignore him Hiiro. He's just so happy to see you it seems.” Saraato nudged him along to move forward as it seemed the idiot drunkard had gone on to fall to the ground and start praying in some weird babbling sounding language. If it could be called that, as it was heavily slurred and ecstatically warbly. Meanwhile, Palpa directed the group into a tavern and Hiiro took a glance at the flier that was given to him as they walked inside.
As his eyes adjusted from the bright light outside, he noticed something that outright made him scream quite loudly. “THE HELL IS THIS?” He said without concern to those whom may be watching.
“Not so loud, let us get a room first. Just contain yourself until then.” Giruu said with monotone vagueness.
“This is...this...is...outrageous!” Hiiro went on to say through clenched teeth. Then as soon as the tavern owner gave a dead eyed fish glare, they were on their way to the room that Palpa had so nicely found for the rest of the daylight. Though that was the last of his interests being what the flier and all, the fact Giruu had reacted so nonchalantly further irked Hiiro as it was a totally uncalled for as to what was being said on the paper.
As Hiiro continued to silently fume Saraato snatched the now very crumpled article from Hiiro's seriously shaking hands. “What is so bad? All it is saying is you're some kind of Daemon Prince that's going to be the savior of all mankind?”
“EXACTLY. WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS CRAP??” He said in a hushed rampage of words.
“Get in here already for the love of-” Palpa snapped as he was cut short.
“Whoever wrote this heaping pile of nonsense is going to get their head popped off!” Hiiro blurted in a fit of irritation. Hiiro continued fuming as Saraato quietly pushed Hiiro to move and nearly sent him flying from her sheer strength. She was like Palpa in the sense she was small but extraordinarily powerful. Though on second thought, Palpa was weaker than most so maybe that didn't count not as it stood right now it seemed.
“First of all,” Giruu untied his traveling cloak as Hiiro paced around, with Saraato looking on with a totally unphased smile, “Calm yourself. It's not that big of a deal. So some fool decided on making you a target. I hardly think anyone even cares from the way people around us seemed to shrink away as that strange man acted out as. Besides, have you made sure to check your pockets?”
“Wha-?” Hiiro stopped in his tracks and patted himself down. Nothing seemed to be missing at least.
“Looks like he took nothing, or anything of importance it seems.” Palpa noted as he made himself comfortable on a nearby bed. He laid outstretched his small scaly legs and kicked off the heavily worn leather boats that were covered in all sorts of more or less unneeded to be unspoken dirtiness. The demi-human had a tendency to be shrewd to the point of being bothered to spend a coin on anything that wasn't convenient or for the long haul.
“You're all acting like this is some kind of nothing to mind about?!” Hiiro was somewhat over his yelling, but continued to pace as they others sat down on their respective beds. Saraato merely crossed her legs and cocked her head in a way that made Hiiro think of a parrot. “Who is this Narbe?”
“It's pronounced 'Narbah' not 'Narby”, Hiiro, and it means 'scar'. I'm not totally sure what language it is, but I've seen the word and heard of it before. It's nothing to get worked up over. That I am led to think it means you.” Giruu said with straightforwardness.
“Who cares what it means! Why are they, if it's what they say, calling me a Daemon?? And a savior? Who'd believe that crap in the first place? Not like anyone knows who I am anyways.”
“Precisely. If that strange man was so enthralled by your mere being, then someone is spreading some sort of strange rumor I would assume no? It's not every day someone simply runs up to a total stranger and tries to worship them, essentially what went on there.” Palpa seemed to pick at his sharp teeth with his pinky and looked over at Hiiro who seemed no further convinced of the weirdness that occurred was related to him. “So if I were hazard a guess, someone is trying to do something of no good purpose. That and they know exactly who you are. It's not like we exactly are the most obscure of folks, you did defeat both that wretched arms dealer and the evil dragon Dagon Zot without much of a fight. Not like the three armies of the kingdom weren't there or anything either you've got to consider someone might take your actions a little too heavily.”
“Yeah but, this is insane. Why me? I swear someone is just using that as a plot device or something.” Hiiro muttered under his breath.
“You're talking nonsense, but besides that, if you're so worked up about it, what do you intend to do?” Palpa said in return.
“Simple. Figure out what that symbol he wore around his neck belongs to. Normal folks don't tend to just ware gaudy things like that for no reason. It looked familiar but I just can't seem to pinpoint where before.” He rubbed his chin as his scar twinged slightly, that was located on the left of his shoulder. He paid no heed to the sensation and hung his head while applying both hands to his knees. “It's no use. I've no clue.”
“Well don't just give up yet, we'll figure something out!” Saraato said with a enthusiastic smile. Hiiro cringed slightly but still sighed as he knew this was going to take time to figure out.
“Well if nothing else, we should discreetly ask around town. Just because that guy was open about it doesn't mean everyone will be, should it be a bigger deal than we're thinking.” Giruu folded his arms and looked at Hiiro. “We need to ascertain this matter with a clam state and figure out why they're targeting Hiiro first of all. Then, we can go from there I would presume.” Hiiro shrugged half willingly and half dreading the outcome. Yeah, Giruu was right. He was always right...
