The commander and his company of soldiers rode their horse towards the fort that he and his men were using as a forward operating base in this region. Something was bothering him for some time, the capital city itself shouldn't have fallen so easily as it did before his exile, he knew that there were many safeguards put in place to ensure security. If his memory served him well, there should have been several magical barriers that surrounded the city and dozens upon dozens of traps and magical traps placed in and outside of the city, but from what his men could find out from their scouting mission that wasn't the case.
He had been an exile in his own kingdom for a near fifty years now so he expected that a lot of things could have changed since the last time he was in the capital, but for the kingdom itself to suddenly become lax with its defences just didn't sit right with him. He wanted answers, turning to the girl he figured that if anyone had any sort of idea of what happened during the siege it would be her, however, he also knew that it would be a long shot to get any satisfying answer as the girl was nothing more than a common citizen in his eyes.
"Nare, beus kan pun eyupu renwa ro det oyu naji?"he asked.
"Su ko beus yan seton eyupu wanon" the girl answered shaking her head, memories of what soon followed started to flood back and all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry herself to sleep and to forget those horrifying scenes that she witnessed in the capital. Seeing her reaction the commander decided not to take any further action regarding the questioning any further, for a moment, he glanced at Takeshi wondering if the boy would be able to shed light on what happened particularly involving that involved the Azov Kingdom's part in all this.
His companion looked to his commander seeing him deep in thought which made him wonder what he was thinking about. "Nin ni en Ruhoni?" directing the question towards his commander.
The commander glanced over wondering how he should put it across, "Pareyu ci yan igo nunyan, gi ranbu..." he pasued for a moment trying to think of a reason for something that he originally thought to be fail-proof suddenly wasn't "...en ni nuban ga ke kokenu an ro nukyo tyr he u ro neruen"
The companion looked at him his head positioned in a way that showed that he didn't quite believe what the commander was suggesting. "Wedu kan tani kevi nau tyr tri yu un ro neza?"
"En ni pot yan pa ton ro zonan ni ranbu ko xi yo" the commander responded bleakly. Even though he was pretty certain of what he suggested might of happened in the capital, that still left the question of as to who or how it all transpired he couldn't quite fathom it. He needed more answers and the only way he was going to them was out of this boy which meant that his survival was paramount to the commander's mission.
After travelling for many miles, in the distance, they could see the outline of the fort up ahead under the night sky of the full moon. The fort itself was made out of solid stone with at least two high standing walls surrounding the structure itself. The group continued onwards towards the main gate which was being guarded by a group of their own comrades.
The commander stopped at the gate, as the men in his unit continued onwards inside the grounds of the fort itself. He looked towards the guards standing at the gate before jumping down off his horse.
He turns back towards his horse where Takeshi was still hunched over unconscious. "Edan en kan ro nuzni." Pulling Takeshi off his horse he gestures towards the soldiers guarding at the gate to take him away further into the fort itself.
The soldiers, however, weren't so chuffed with the idea of caring for a soldier that they were at war against. "Ka hiraku en ni nun ro neruen"
"Zongo ni oi napen..." the commander didn't seemed to care for his soldiers' objections "...ba ra nyatsa." The soldiers looked to one another still somewhat hesitant, but they accepted their commanders' orders carrying Takeshi towards the castle centred in the middle of the grounds of the fort. The commander stood there reflecting on the mission that they had just been out with so many unanswered questions and variables to everything that had happened a bad feeling was starting to well up inside of him.
***
Takeshi was slowly waking up feeling confused and lost, after a few seconds of gathering bearings of his surroundings he looked around to find that he was resting in a king's size bed it was oddly reminiscent of the ones back in the Azov Kingdom. He was surprised to realize that the bed itself was similar to the one you would expect members of royalty to use which confused him as to why he was in one in the first place. It only became apparent that this bed was one you find in royalty due to having met one of the crown princesses of the Azov Kingdom in their own quarters one time.
"Where the hell am I?" Takeshi looked around albeit cautiously his memories were all jumbled up he specifically remembered different events happening before passing out, but now everything he thought was coming into doubt even whether he was transported to a different world in the first place. He wasn't sure whether everything was just some elaborate dream he had the night before.
He swung his legs out from under the covers of the bed looking down at himself wearing simple cloth-made undergarments that were common for many people in this fantasy world. Jumping out of the bed his feet landed upon the wooden panelled flooring making his feet sting slightly as the brief cold attacked the skin on the balls of his feet.
"I guess this is real enough, but that doesn't explain the stuff I dreamt up from before" Takeshi walked around on the flooring trying to make certain that nothing was out of the ordinary, and with each step, he looked somewhat satisfied with the idea that this place was as real as it could be, at least for now that is.
"Yet everything, before I fell unconscious, felt so real like I actually lived it." When Takeshi saw the shadow go past the large stained glass windows many of which depicted important cultural events and people in the Azov Kingdom's history, he had the sudden urge to move towards the door throwing aside all logical thinking.
Swinging the door wide open the gentle warmth of the room behind was suddenly overtaken by the uncomfortable cold touch of the corridor that snaked past the room. Where the bedroom was lit up and vibrant to the eye. Everything outside was colourless and ripped of any life that it once had.
The eerily quiet surroundings made Takeshi feel anxious and it was at that moment he knew this wasn't his reality, but something else entirely. Terrible thoughts started to flood his mind, and couldn't help but feel scared as his chest began to get tighter by the second. Flashbacks of his dream with Ren started to return to the forefront of his mind. With his mind so preoccupied, he hadn't noticed the squeaking floorboards down the corridor behind him.
When Takeshi finally heard the foreboding noise creeping up behind him he suddenly whipped his head around to see what it was, but to his surprise, there was nothing there. Feeling the sweat profusely run down his entire body his heart rate increased tenfold to what had been just seconds prior.
It was then that he suddenly felt a cold breath brush against his shoulder followed by a low sound that was a mixture of hissing and growling. Takeshi could feel something soft and slightly scaly brushing against his neck, but its temperature was below freezing. The uncomfortable prickling sensation crawled up his spine like thousands of fire ants biting at his skin repeatedly.
Takeshi didn't need to be told not to move, just feeling the sinister aura from this thing that it was letting off he knew that if he even moved an inch he would be dead in an instant.
Standing completely still Takeshi hoped that if he waited the thing would leave, however, he sensed the thing towering above him leaning far forward just enough that Takeshi was able to see four elongated lips with razor-sharp teeth accompanied by two tendril-like snake tongues both of them dripping in saliva as white as glue.
Feeling the urge to bolt Takeshi planted his feet to the ground not wanting to give away his position. He was determined to wait this out no matter how uncomfortable or terrified he felt at the end of the day. What felt like hours to Takeshi suddenly went by, the creature without warning started to move sliding back down his back before moving away from him.
Takeshi didn't turn around, but he could hear the heavy shuffling across the wooden floorboards as it gradually got more distant with each passing second. It wasn't long before whatever this thing was barely audible down the corridor. When he felt it was safe enough to look he slowly turned around.
He was only able to catch a small glimpse of whatever this creature was before it rounded the corner at the end of the corridor. All he saw was the pointed scaly tail tip being slowly dragged across the floor around the corner. His heart still racing, Takeshi could feel the hairs on his skin standing up.
Dazed by what had happened Takeshi had lost all sense of what was happening around him to even notice any change. So when he felt a slender hand grab his shoulder his body suddenly jolts slightly from the shock. Turning around to see who it was he was surprised to find that it was a girl that seemed to be slightly older than himself.
Her long hair was a mixture of darkened grey and white, but Takeshi got the impression that this wasn't her natural hair colour as he could see the discolouring at her roots. Her eyes were concealed by a metal brace that went around her head completely. And the only bits of clothing he could see on her was a thick heavy black cloak covering everything except the laced arm coverings and her bare fingertips.
Before Takeshi could properly take in what was happening, the girl lifted her free hand up into view for both of them to see. A second later, a ball of ghostly white and blue energy emerged reminiscent of that of a small fireball that he had seen plenty of times in role-playing games.
"You're not supposed to be here..." the girl spoke, Takeshi took a step back "...now is not your time, your turn will come soon enough"
Before Takeshi could even question her, the girl gently blew the residue of energy from the palm of her hand into his face. As she did so it hit Takeshi square in the face, he could feel his eyes watering as the stuff slowly started to irritate and make his eyes sting. On impulse, Takeshi started to rub at his eyes, but to no avail, as his vision got cloudier by the second.
The last few seconds that he was able to see was a hazy image of what little he could remember of the girl's face besides from her hair and the metal brace before collapsing to the floor.
***
In the underground levels of the fort, the priestess was hard at work tending to Takeshi's wounds as he laid motionless upon the long wooden table that he was set upon. Normally she wouldn't be wearing her current attire, but due to circumstances, she had no choice but to proceed with the procedures dressed in her shrine maiden's clothes. Apparel that disturbingly resembled those back in Japan.
"Kora beus kan yunyoten kan teson zu kekui, Saki?" A soldier standing guard by the entrance to the room had a spear in hand ready to deal with any sort of trouble that may arise.
"Go ranru en zongo nunyun, no ranbu, en ku Nare" the priestess responded as her hand slowly hovered over Takeshi's bullet wound. A bright yellowish light emanated from the palm of her hand reflecting in her pink eyes and bleach white braided hair. She looked to have been a similar age to the girl that Takeshi had saved from before.
"Go nero ne san sugyu en kan hakyo esu u ro zani" the soldier looked on in disdain. In a way, he looked to have been disgusted by the thought of one of their own scared priestess' treating an enemy's wound. It was almost considered on the level of making one's self impure, and because of those ideals, many priestesses were ostracized among their people.
"San roi ruhoni Yubon nendi" the girl replied as she continued to examine Takeshi's wound. The soldier, on the other hand, didn't see the point in continuing to argue his point before deciding to go for a little stroll outside the room to take his mind off things.
With the priestess now given some peace and quiet, she put all of her attention back into treating Takeshi's wounds. With all of Takeshi's armour still fitted to him, there wasn't enough time to remove it, the priestess had no idea how much time he had left before he was well and truly dead. If this was a recent injury she would have the luxury of time somewhat to examine his wounds a bit more.
Shaking her hand briefly, the light that was once emerging from said hand flickered out after a few quick shakes of her hand. She then placed both hands together like she was making a prayer.
"Konessia Xira, rusohyo kapuni ko ro banta ton danran kubyun" the priestess' body started to become surrounded by many glittering miniature particles.
This was then followed by the appearance of claws over the tips of her fingers which had a similar yellowish colour as the light coming from her hand from before. The claws looked to have been made out of that very same light by being condensed into a solid object which in this case was the claws themselves looking oddly familiar to an animal prying its claws open.
Once she had finished the prayer she began operating on Takeshi's wound, one hand being used to diligently slice at any cloth undergarments that was otherwise in her way, and the other was used to grip around shards of metal embedded into his skin as to slowly leverage them free without causing to much damage to his body overall.
What felt like hours soon went by in a matter of minutes, the priestess after a lot of delicate procedures eventually was able to remove most of the metal shards around and inside the wound. Once she felt that she had done the best possible job, the priestess stood up breathing heavily feeling the stress of having to work in such strenuous conditions.
She quickly shook her hands and the pincers covering the tips of her fingers disappeared leaving nothing but a dust cloud of light particles. Again she brought both her hands back up in front of her in another prayer position this time chanting a different incantation.
"Konessia Xira, rusohyo kapuni ko ro banta ton donan su" after she had recited it she then moved her hands hovering over Takeshi's wound. The incantation was shortly followed by the appearance of bright green energy pouring out from her hands forming thin tendrils. The tendrils started to slowly repair the damaged skin and muscle.
Didn't take long for the incantation to finish repairing the area that was damaged. Once it had finished though, the priestess let out a sigh of relief having saved this boys' life knowing herself that this was her fifth time actually performing a surgical treatment which was already enough pressure as it was for her in the first place. When the priestess looked down at her own clothes she noticed all the splatters of blood that covered them including her bare hands and forearms.
Walking to another table at the edge of the room she dipped her hands in a bowl of clean water scrubbing off the blood that was mostly on her hands and forearms. Whilst she was doing this, she was unaware that Takeshi had just started to stir awake from a dreamlike state.
Takeshi having just come to could barely see properly out the grated metal covering of his helmet he wasn't whether it was the helmet itself or his vision. Although he could tell that he was in a rather well-lit area he still wasn't quite sure where he was. When he tried to move an immense aching pain coursed through his entire body and he tried to groan out in pain he realized that his throat was too dry to do such a thing.
The priestess having just finished washing her hands and forearms turned around to be so suddenly surprised to see Takeshi moving so soon after just having his wound treated and healed so recently. She rushed over to Takeshi's side who was trying to move off of the table that he was currently laying upon albeit not successfully.
The priestess grabbed his right hand as a way to comfort him. "Ninyon san kan wedu ibyan" she gently tried to tell Takeshi.
However, as for Takeshi, he was still on edge not knowing what was happening around him and he felt claustrophobic with his helmet still on that he slowly started to panic. Wanting to get his helmet off Takeshi tried to reach for the strap under his chin, but grunted as the aching pain returned restricting him from doing what he wanted.
"Bapo an ko kuga edan en ahon hi kan." Having realized what he was trying to do, the priestess decided it would be better if she did it for him instead. She reached for the leather strap on his chin slowly undoing it before taking the metal helm off setting it aside on another nearby table.
When the priestess got a good look at his face she was taken aback by just how refined his facial features were compared to that of other Azov nationals. His skin was naturally softer than a typical human she had known, and his light brown short slightly unkempt hair was clearly well looked after. True it was slightly ruffled, but it seemed to be more a personal choice compared to outright negligence.
"W-Where am I?" Takeshi stammered slightly as he soon realized that his vision was in fact blurred. In vain his eyes tried to adjust to their surroundings albeit slowly.
The priestess knew a bit of Azovian having started to learn it at the temple before the outbreak of the war, however, she was unable to say more than a few basic terms of dialect when it came to having a conversation with said people, and even then he still couldn't quite pronounce those words properly.
"Kan wedu kozonpa Kinseran newa" the priestess tried to explain, but it was soon pretty clear that what she was saying wasn't getting through to Takeshi. He tried to move off the table against the priestess' advice, she attempted to try and hold him down which started to cause a commotion in the room as Takeshi was becoming more adamant that he wasn't going to stay still.
Hearing it from outside the guard rushed into the room spear drawn and pointed towards Takeshi. "Usu ahon, ba!" he shouted.
The priestess put a hand up gesturing for him to stop. "Nui, en ni dosoken gon nasoki..." she once again tried to hold Takeshi down with both hands "...peupen ko guzu en bezoro!"
The guard ran over to the other side of the table placing his spear against the stone wall before grabbing hold of Takeshi to try and stop him from moving.
As for Takeshi, he was still trying to thrash around more violently than before as if he was some animal trapped in the corner trying to escape from a predator.
"G-Get off of me!" Takeshi shouted out as he continued to try and wring his arms out from under the priestess and guard's tight grips.
"Go kingi den peupen!" the priestess shouted out.
The guard turning to face the doorway called out another guard came running into view, "Ki ro ruhoni, ze kin kusu pupari!"
The second guard nodded before running off. As for the priestess she tried to think of something to do, but the only thing that came to mind was using a soothing incantation. She told the guard to hold him down tightly while she tried to prepare the incantation itself.
Putting her hands together imitating that of prayers, she started to chant the incantation. "Konessia Xira, bako kapuni ko ro banta ton poru yapuri."
After reciting the incantation her body was enveloped by bright white glittering orbs tiny in size that flowed down towards her hands. She then moved her hands hovering over Takeshi letting the orbs slowly cover his entire body as said orbs entered his body. As seconds went by Takeshi's rash and abrupt jolting was starting to subside until he eventually returned to a calmed state of sleeping.
"Ko rinun en ni dan wenun?" the guard asked letting out a heavy sigh from all the strain it took for him to hold the boy down.
"Y-Yanbu, en nero ni dada wenun..." the priestess feeling weak and hot throughout her entire body suddenly collapsing upon her buttock. The sweat was visible across of all of her exposed skin, and her breathing had become short and quick.
"Saki, wedu kan dan?" the guard rushed to the priestess' side who had fallen into a deep sleep, he held her in his arms almost like comforting a weak child. A few moments went by when the peaceful silence was suddenly interrupted by the voice of a boisterous aged man.
"Haha, I see the sanbon finally spent all her mana"
The guard gritted his teeth knowing something was said about the priestess, "Naru puku kanon nun!" The guard turned around facing a man holding onto a wooden staff dressed in a refined and almost immaculate cloak and garments of vibrant colours showing he was from a prestigious background.
The old man stroked his beard which was long and pointed under the hood of his cloak that still had patches of black hair indicating that he wasn't a native of this kingdom.
"Oho, got quite the tongue nokan, kihyun pungin na zapa" the old man replied sarcastically. The guard didn't bother responding to the comment instead just ignored him altogether before returning his attention to the priestess.
"Anyway, I don't need your assistance here..." the old man cleared his throat "...i ro sanbon kan pan sua"
The guard took a few moments to decide on whether to take up the old man's offer, after deliberating with himself he decided to do what the old man told him somewhat reluctantly. He picked the priestess up in his arms who was still fast asleep and carried her out of the room.
Once the two of them were gone the old man walked up to the side of the table leaning in close towards Takeshi almost as if he was examining a test subject for one of his elaborate experiments.
After a few seconds, a small chuckle left his lips. "Well, well, well...out of all the people she could have chosen, she chose you of all people..." the old man stroked his beard once again "...I'm not one to judge, but...it sure as hell will be interesting to see how all this turns out" you could see a small glimmer of a grin under the hood of this old man's cloak.
