Leo may have tried to dodge the self-invite Padrig made for the sleepover but for some reason, he felt Padrig would really come with the wife and it wouldn't just be for a night.
Padrig always had a jaded personality and loved to spread and share his misery with others.
"I'll have to stack the guest room with noise cancellation runes. No that's not enough, I'll have to get Arc to reinforce them. He is better at this sort of thing and he is also stronger than I am. Just incase I don't know if I'll have to order the sleep medicine Padrig was talking about and use it on myself. If it's powerful to knock out a 9th-tier knight like him for 24 hours it should have some effects on me," Leo silently thought with clear worry written on his face.
Dyr was laying comfortably manakish in hand with a self-satisfied grin unaware of his father's woes.
"The manakish I just snagged from Dad's bag tastes sweeter for some reason. Did Mama Aziz add something to his?" Dyr muttered as he happily took another bite carefully eyeing the last manakish in his dad's bag.
After debating for a short while he decided to do the reasonable thing and be true to himself. Dyr sneakily tried to grab the last manakish as Leo was currently making countermeasures for Padrig's visit in a week's time. He successfully managed to snag the last manakish as he carefully stuffed the empty bag with some of the blue wool he was lying on. He wiped his hands on it for good measure to ensure the smell would be retained. Once he was sure he had done everything well he smugly closed the curtain as he rolled over his wool enjoying his freshly gotten bounty with a smug look.
He had just taken a huge bite when he heard Leo's voice.
"I knew you'd try and steal some manakish from me like the glutton you are, so I put a little something in the remaining two manakish. You should start feeling the effects of that little something in a few hours," Leo said as he lightly chuckled.
Dyr who was already mid-swallow, choked on it before he hurriedly pulled apart the curtain to the coach seat.
"Dad, you what did you put?" Dyr hurriedly asked
"A few herbs here and there to help make you grow big and strong and also make an honest person out of you," Leo said in an innocent tone as he joyfully took in the sites of Dyr's sweaty face.
"I'll tell mom," Dyr said as he decided to use the one card he had that never failed him yet.
"You could tell her but in as much as she is a good blacksmith, a prodigy even, she can't match me when it comes to herbs and various oddities. No matter how much she threatens me, I'll deny doing anything to you to the very end or I can run away for a few hours and come back. Your only hope is to get help from your uncle but he won't be back until late and by that time…..well it would be too late by then," Leo made dramatic pauses in his speech for good measure and rile Dyr further.
Dyr tried to speak but no words could escape his mouth. His body started feeling hot and itchy all of a sudden which threw him into a panicked frenzy.
"Didn't I have a few hours? No, knowing him he may have lied about the timeline," Dyr thought as fear of the impending effects flooded every part of his body. He slumped over dejected, aggrieved, and with a little hope his mother may know how to detoxify him. However, he knew those odds were slim but if nothing else he would tell on Leo so he would suffer together with him.
Leo took in Dyr's paling face with strides.
"Serves you right little one. Dyr, Dyr, Dyr you may be smart but sometimes you overthink things too much. Hehehe and that part of you played in my favor today. Watching you agonize over nothing is a treat and your look later when I reveal there was nothing in the manakish as I slowly eat them. I couldn't think of a better ending," Leo said as he even wiped a single tear from his eyes from pride at how masterful his plan was.
The journey half an hour in was still as uneventful as before when they were making their way to Bremdal town. Leo was in silent meditation while Dyr was tossing and turning as he eyed the manakish like friends who had betrayed him. Some part of him wanted to just risk it and eat it all since he had already been dosed with whatever his father had put in them however there was another part that worried if he would get more adverse effects from eating more.
Maybe his dad had banked on his gluttonous nature ahem Passionate epicurism nature taking over and multiplying the effects every time he ate more. Reason and caution took hold as he carefully threw the manakish on one side of the cart as he turned his head to the opposite side. For good measure, he even tried to cover his nose. Out of sight out of mind.
Boom
A loud explosion sounded. Kel started to nervously neigh as Leo hurriedly opened his eyes with Dyr sneaking his head through the curtain.
Leo saw a massive blue light and the direction it came from made his pupils shrink. How could he not when the general direction of where that blue light came from was his village?
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A couple of more explosions resounded each more powerful than the previous one. Birds were nervously flying all around. The ground was shaking as if it was under tremendous strain.
Kel was in a horrible state as even his transmorphed state disappeared and he was in his normal kelpie form. He kept neighing, head nervously turning sideways refusing to even take a step forward. He seemed keen on turning around and running back in the direction of Bremdal town. It was only because Leo was around that it didn't follow its natural instincts for self-preservation.
"There there Kel, take a breath," Leo said as he exited his seat.
His palm had a green-blue mist around it which he placed on Kel's head which helped soothe it as it stopped neighing loudly and tromping its feet.
"We need to hurry home Kel. I know you're afraid, I'm afraid too but we need to hurry home. I need your help Kel, please," Leo whispered.
Kel was silent for a minute but then moments later as if it had been doused with dragon blood it neighed loudly as it raised its body while shaking its head a couple of times as if trying to shake away the bouts of fear that had been assailing it. It was uncertain if it worked as it looked valiant but the trembling knees and chattering teeth said another thing. It looked at Leo before it stared ahead to the village.
"Thanks," Leo said as he smiled and petted it once more, and went to his seat. He was in the midst of seating down when a massive blue dome appeared where the blue lights and explosions seemed to be originating from, his village.
The moment the blue dome appeared, Leo distinctively felt the air was different. It felt drier. His look turned grave as a deep crease appeared on his forehead as he stared at the blue dome. Two round golden dots appeared in the dome and with it came a terrifying wind storm that traveled so rapidly fast that Leo who was 10 miles away saw a massive sandstorm almost upon him.
"Dad," Dyr asked nervously as he couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening.
"Dyr, cover your head, firmly lie down, and don't take make any movement unless I say otherwise," Leo said as he removed his shirasaya blade from his waist still sheathed.
He raised his blade sheath pointed upwards and muttered,
"10th Tier spell Earth turtle sanctuary,"
A massive golden-red image of a turtle appeared around them with its shell having five runes that rotated in a clockwise manner. With each rotation, the turtle would get more distinctive before it fully formed into a solid golden-red earthen turtle. The glyphs got buried beneath but one could see faint golden lights as the turtle got thicker.
"I hope this will be enough," Leo silently muttered as he stared up. They could no longer see what was out there as they were completely surrounded by the turtle dome.
Bang
The dome got hit and soon started shaking with the vibrations never stopping. Chunks of cracked earth fell from all over the surrounding earth shield but it never broke apart as Leo kept charging his mana into the rotating golden glyphs.
This went on for a couple of minutes with the winds threatening to break in and Leo shoring up the defenses. The subtle balance soon broke off as the winds eased and turned gentle which Leo took as a cue to dispel his spell.
He used his cloak to cover his mouth and nose as he waited for the dust cloud that was in the area to settle. Kel had a thin layer of green water film surrounding it which helped it block the dust. The blue dome that was the source of all this had disappeared however its absence didn't calm Leo's nerves one bit.
"Kel we need to hurry," Leo said as he pulled a lever by the side of his seat. All kinds of magic circles lit up around the wagon, spreading to every part, even the wheels. They then melded into the carriage and disappeared. However, there were flashes of different colors appearing intermittently on the wagon.
Kel as if on cue blasted ahead without reservations that the ground even cracked beneath its hooves.
A green dot could be seen speedily flashing through the dust cloud as it headed towards the direction where the clouds were thickest.
[sorry for the chapter delay. My brain is still in holiday mode.]
