Solsae Kingdom - Part 8

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Episode 2: "The Devil Hood"
Laughter bellowing, cheering and wooting, singing old Solsae folk songs like, ‘the land is burning’ and ‘wroth and Sil’ and chanting cheers and praises of the Phoenix King’s new ‘wings', of how Solsae would take flight and shoot like a star.

 

It's so bright, it looks like the sun is even out - but it's just the soothing light of one grand and beautiful bonfire who’s glow embraces all of the town square - from the food stalls and the caterers crying out over the squalor, “primeeeee minotaur sausages here, get your primeeeee sausages!” to the fat fellows dancing around the flames, their belly-faces swinging and Laughing and the crowds that laugh with them, from the ethereally beautiful dancing girls swaying their hips in tandem with the tongues of the bonfire, to the roasting whole cockatri, impaled on a massive spit. I sniff the air. The aroma is delightful…

 

The people here are so happy. So content with life. It makes my tiny heart flutter just seeing this. Compared to Seluna, this land is heaven. No imposed martial law, no segregation, just people who overcome pain to gather and live in happiness.

 

Rex and VyeBlaze are chatting away. I can't help but eavesdrop a little. They swap tales - grand, Amazing tales that almost seem unbelievable.

 

With his sing-songy voice, VyeBlaze preached his tale to any who would listen: “it was a mighty perilous journey to the top of Mount Burn but once I reached her summit, my quest was rewarded grandly when from the flames of the lava lake came not the Dragon that rumor says makes a nest there - but a fair maiden, flickering and shimmering as though made from the very flames she had rose from, and she announced, “I am the lady of the lava lake. You the worthy one, have made it this far - you are the chosen one, the one who can change the balance of the world, for better or for worse. Please accept this gift I beseech unto you - my precious heirloom, the legendary sword Excaliburn, and change the world. My chosen hero, VyeBlaze.”

 

“I was chosen. That's how I took ownership of this legendary heirloom - this demon-rending blade unlike any I have wielded before, forged from the fires of our world herself, and tempered through generations of battle against Demon kings and mighty dragons, now once again destined to be wielded by one who will steer this world to the light!”

 

VyeBlaze wipes a tear from his watery eyes. His chest swells with pride. Rex pats his back with a heavy hand, congratulating him on his pilgrimage. They both take a gulp of Beer - this time Rex telling a story of how he defeated overconfident space rabbits with his bare hands.

 

“When you left on that pilgrimage of yours, I seem to remember you announcing “I may be far away, but should Solsae be endangered, I'll arrive quick as a bolt and save the day! That is the oath of a hero!” or some crap. But no, the king had to take care of the trash while the ‘Hero' was galavanting ‘round the world doing who the #@?¥* knows what!”

 

VyeBlaze merely let's out a boisterous laugh, wide mouthed, chin in the air, “I knew you had it all under control, My Liege - that is why I chose not to fly back posthaste - too many cooks burn the stew, my most noble sir! Uwhahaha!”

 

I sigh, a nervous smile upon my face and flop into a chair, closing my eyes. “So he is supposed to be the protector of the realm? A Real pair of walnuts right there, but that might just be why this land works so well” I smile thoughtfully, praying my knowledge and guidance can help the people of Solsae the way I hope it can. Truth be told, it's a bit nerve-wracking.

 

All of a sudden a gush of cold wind blasts past me. “woah… I think I just got spooked by a specter” I joke. Rex and VyeBlaze don't quite get it. It must be a Selunian phrase, I smile awkwardly when screams, followed by a stampede of the panic-stricken streak past us. VyeBlaze is quick to his feet.

 

“What manner of evil doth haunt us this morrow?!” he cries.

 

“I-it… really is a ghost” I comment, my eyes bulging at the sight of a demonic figure, hooded in a black streaked, abyssal blue cloak that billows out in the icy cold “absence-of-heatwave”. three monstrous claws protrude from each of his ethereally flowing, long baggy sleeves - almost like portals to a claw-dimension.

 

My jaw unhinged, I shriek and fall faint. VyeBlaze catches me in his burly arms. The ghost rushes straight towards us and then… disappears, through me. So cold…

It's like he reached inside of me and pulled out all of the warmth. My breath is like ice, and just like that, I pass out...

_______________________________________________________________________

 

When I come to, it's to the sound of clanging blades and ringing of steel. The green armor I so graciously buried myself in… VyeBlaze is still holding me…

 

“p-put me down” I ask. He obliges me, and I shakily regain my footing. My blurred vision comes back into focus.

 

“What happened… How long was I out?” I ask VyeBlaze.

 

“My fair lady, you were unconscious for nearly half an hour. The knights arrived at the scene, we learned from the fleeing civilians that this fiend had stolen various valuables - Jewels, metals, swords and shields… He just stuffed them inside a sack that didn’t swell - No Matter how much was added to his inventory!”

 

“Wow… Some kind of magic?” I ask, then realizing that he swooped past me too. I check my breast pocket.

 

“Its not there!” I cry out.

 

“What’s not there, miss?” He asks.

 

“My… My quill. The one I received from the lady in my dreams, the one that wrote the message and gave me the courage to become one of Rex’s Wings… It’s gone!”

 

“Good heavens!” he exclaims in response.

 

Rex responds with anger, “We’ll get it back rabbit. Mark my words. Nobody attacks my Solsae, steals from my people, and ruins my party, and gets away with it!”

I nod in agreement. He is right. We have to worry about the problem at hand. I survey the scene. Both Rex and VyeBlaze have been watching the battle intensely. A good dozen or so knights are combating the clawed spectre. I notice the knights who brought me to Rex at the start of what has to be the most influential day of my life fighting bravely on the battlefield. I can't help but feel a slight appreciation to them now. And also fear… for their lives. A fat, stocky knight with a nose as round as his belly charges the spectre, his hammer overhead, his back curled. He leaps to the stars like he had springs for feet, and smashes it down, but like a ghost, it slips straight past him, through him, and strikes the ground heavily. The Phantom slips behind the Knight who I know as Mahza, and with a chop to the back of the valiant warriors neck, rends him as a heap on the ground.

“No armour can protect against a creature that passes through you like that…” I say feebly as he takes a dirt nap. VyeBlaze is shuddering. So Even he gets scared…

 

His fingers curl around his sword. He speaks, in a tone unlike his usual carefree gallance. “Rex… I must!”

 

Seething anger. Not fear - he is furious.

 

“Not yet, friend.” Rex says, gripping his sword hand and holding it firmly in his Royal Gauntlet.

 

Another knight collapses to the ground in a heap.

 

“No… Not McClaud too…” VyeBlaze wimpers.

 

Rex… we have to help them” I utter wearily.

 

“Pay attention to the fight. It will be our turn soon. If Solsae’s bravest can find us the opening we need to protect their town, their families, - even at the cost of their own lives, then we are obliged to let them fight to the last, and do their service!”

 

I nod tearfully, wiping my eyes and turn my ruby red gaze back to the brutal conflict.

 

“It’s not killing them” I gasp. The Spectre deftly avoids a massive haymaker from a gargantuan knight, slips through, kicks him down to the ground with a low roundhouse and then knocks him out cold with an axe kick to his tree-trunk like neck.

 

A third knight - petite and slight, with a helmet fashioned with ears like my own is tossed like a harpoon by another more muscular knight wearing a scarf, a single, huge pauldron and a crossbow at his hip. He strikes a pose, pointing at the ghost, yelling “Ssssstrike!” It's all in vein. The slender knight passes through and knocks down the front door of a home. The residents inside shriek and flee, and the knight comes barreling out of the building.

 

With blistering speed, the ghost then slips behind the scarf-clad knight and knocks him out as skillfully as he had the others.

 

“You’re Right. It doesn’t kill them. And what does that suggest?”

 

“It’s merciful…?”

 

“Yes that, but what else?”

 

“I see… You mean to say It’s like us. It has a heart and compassion. He is a man - not a monster…”

 

Rex pats my head, a bit degradingly actually, I think.

 

VyeBlaze seems less tense now too. He gets riled easily and probably didn't understand why Rex was holding him back until he explained it to me. Rex notices this and releases his grip on his friends sword.

 

Two more distinct Knights, one with pointed ears, a plate-armoured drooping hat and a fancy ornamental kilt, and the other with a lithe, feminine armour and a tinted glass visor, her massive crossbow fixed to her armors gauntlet, shot vollies of arrows from the tops of roofs. A third knight - no, some sort of military armoured Ork charged, managing to avoid each shot from the hail of arrows and ramming straight for the spectre - through the spectre, crashing with ferocious force and incapacitating itself in the side of a bar.

 

The spirit looked from the skirted knight to the lithe knight, and they seemed to collapse into a heap.

 

“what did he do to them..?” I utter.

 

Rex recapped, “it was some sort of blown dart. He spat three of them. The first Struck Ling through his helmet, A second bounced from the glass visor covering Sam’s face, but he calculated for that, and the third slipped between the armoured plating when her head was knocked back.”

 

He darted between the remaining Knights with blinding speed. One, two, three, four… they all fell each after the last until only one remained.

 

He wore a green flag on his back. His knees were knocking together, and his head pointed straight down, his helmets peak obscuring the menace who dismantled his friends from his tear-stained eyes of pure fear. The spectre charged.

 

“dodge!” I cried out. He was a brave soul. So scared, but still able to put his life on the line. He tried. Bless him, he did, but he stumbled.

 

“Waaahh!” he cried comically, as the rush of blue charged towards him. He bashed his head on the wall, his helmet falling off. His flailing fists struck a burning torch, hurling it into the clearly superior fighter. He conked out, smacking his head on the step, his helmet landing on his rump. We all gasped.

 

That skit wasn't enough to distract us. The hooded phantom yelped in pain where the flames ate at his cloak, revealing a malformed yet indeed human arm burned by the flames. He disappeared like a flash. But we saw it! He was hurt!

 

“H-he found a weak point” VyeBlaze stated in utter belief. “ Luiez found a weak point…”

 

I run towards his fallen body, a heap on the ground, and crouch down besides his bloodied skull propped up by his tomato-sized nose. Gently, I pull down his eyelids, my own, puffy from crying. He had the most peaceful smile...

 

“Thanks to you, we will be able to save Solsae from this menace… Thank you so, so much...” I say with a tender smile. His fingers are stiff in a peace sign. I can't help but smile, yet tears stream down my cheeks. It's so sad… This man...Luiez… gave his life for us.

 

So that we might live.

 

So that Solsae might succeed where he had not.

VyeBlaze places a hand heavy with the burden of the loss of his friend and comrade upon my sunken shoulder.

 

“he was a gallant man” he adds.

 

Rex is smirking to himself. How can he feel nothing at a time like this…

 

“he wouldn’t want you to be sad, Amami. Just remember him in your heart.” Vyeblaze mustered his most reassuring smile.

 

I nod in silent agreement. Rex, on the other hand laughs, “Huhuhu… Bwahahahahahahahaha!”, roaring out like flames spewing from a volcano.

 

“You have something to say, Rex!?” I yell, raising my hand and slapping him. He eyes me wearily. Now that I look at him, his usual golden eyes are gone - Replaced with rectangular pupils and crimson orbs.

 

“You’re making a big deal out of the craven… But I can see his heart beating within him. I can see that he is alive. Now both of you, calm down!”

 

A wide smile slowly creeps its way across my sunken expression. “You mean… He’s all right?” I ask again, wide eyed and hopeful.

 

“Yeah. I see his pulse, the heat within him… We know the foe's weakness. And we know he wanted to make a point - Not kill us. And with these eyes of mine, I can stalk him no matter how far he flees.

Amami, VyeBlaze, suit up! We leave at sunrise!”

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