Turns out the whole thing was a test, the king never planned on killing him. “ We knew that Cleo would one day return with a new host, I just wanted to make sure your intentions were right,” the king says chuckling. Akira manages a smile, despite what he thought was a near-death experience he was able to calm himself, the guards removed the cuffs on his hands and allowed him to stand. The king returned to his seat, “ I am Taro, chief of Helmic village, this is my wife, Anne. I can only assume you being here means that you are going to find the heart yes?” Taro asks, Cleo reappeared next to Anne, who Akira assumed was the chieftess, who still glared at him menacingly, he smiles awkwardly hoping she drops the act…if it even is one. “ I would take Akira to the heart but I transferred into his being all wrong and my memories regarding the location are still being cleared up so I need some time,” Cleo explains taking a seat on Anne's shoulder, “ But I'm sure we can find it easily, I mean how much can a desert change in just a few years?” Cleo seemed to remember the desert itself well, hopefully, something can jog her memory when we go, Taro however had this look on his face, Akira knew all too well that what he was about to say could not be good. “ I'm not entirely sure if it's cause of the heart but strange things have sprung up around the desert, I think it’d be easier if I just showed you,” Taro says, making his way to the exit, the people that had been watching were gone. The village was decently big, around a quarter the size of New Frandhenvens capital, the buildings were more old-fashioned, built using a mix of concrete and sandstone, while the buildings in New Frandhenven are purely concrete. Taro led him down the path through the village, the people seemed to be very fond of him, they would greet him as he passed by, he would greet them back, and they would also greet Akira normally, he tried his best to respond but it was mostly just smiling and waving. This was new to him, he thought they would give him weird stares as if he were an alien. Most people back in the city looked at him like that anyway so it was something he became accustomed to, so it was nice. They eventually reached the end of the village, the whole place sat elevated as opposed to the rest of the desert, it wasn’t too high up. The view, however, was amazing. Akira had never seen anything like it, even though it was just a desert it was still mesmerizing, there were a whole lot more trees and plants than what the books say, not too far from the village was a lake, he could see people down there. It took him a while to realize that the village didn’t end where he stood, it merely went down. Akira was taking in the view, when something off in the distance drew his attention, something struck the ground hard, kicking up a dust storm…Akiras eyes blew wide open when he finally saw what it was, a dragon. A long scaly dragon roamed the ground as it walked around, its bluish-green scales glinting under the sunlight. “ It's just a personal theory but I think the energy from the heart began leaking into its surroundings, creating things like that,” Taro explains, it makes sense, these things were either always here or something made them… “ When you say “Things” you mean there's other monsters like that?” Akira asked a little nervously, he’d rather fight a Seraphim than one of those dragons…well not really he’d rather not fight either of them. Taro merely laughs. “ Yes, there are other monsters out there, but Suzuki over there is on our side,” He says, “ This one here was named after the scientist who made the heart, Dr. Suzuki. She's probably one of the oldest members of the village, a really long time ago one of the older chiefs formed a pact with her, she now acts as the village guardian keeping anything else from getting close,” He says, how reassuring. Now he has to watch out for the Union, the Godless faction, and now monsters. We headed back to plan an expedition, When we had returned there seemed to be a new face in the room. Standing next to the chieftess was who Akira assumed was their daughter, she was dressed in gear like she had returned from an expedition of her own, she was like a mix of her parents. She had dark red hair like her mother, and light brown skin like the both of them. Her eyes seemed to be a mix of both her parent's eyes, dark red and orange. “ You're staring,” Cleo thinks to him, he wasn’t. But to move things on he averts his attention back to the chief, “ We should probably leave soon, the Union might have already discovered the breach in the wall, I’d like to keep the headstart on them,” Cleo says, “ We also have to watch out for the godless faction, if the storm barrier was disrupted then there could also be a chance breaches have appeared in their side of the wall,” Akira mentions, Taro had sat back down next to Anne, The ground begins to shake. What Akira assumed was an earthquake had hit then, it was very brief and it didn’t seem to be anything as nobody bothered to say anything about it so he didn’t raise any questions, “ I’ll have everything ready for tomorrow, my daughter will be joining you as well,” He says gesturing to the girl standing, who was also glaring at him… “Hmm?” he wasn’t sure if he heard him right, “ Lily, shes been around the desert numerous times now, she’ll help you find the fragment, for now, a guard will escort you to your room, I’ll call you in the morning,” he says, reconfirming what Akira thought he misheard, a guard motions for him to follow, which he does. Akira had assumed he would do this by himself, himself and Cleo. Oh well, let’s just hope everything goes well tomorrow. Before he can sleep a knock sounds on his door, it was Taro, he merely gestures for him to follow, and Akira does. He brings him through a hallway he had never been through before, he's only ever been through one hallway. They eventually reach the end of the hall, it just kinda ends, Taro activates a mechanism in the left wall by placing his hand on a certain spot, the wall pulls away to reveal a set of stairs that lead down. At the bottom of the stairs was a small circular room, the center had a large crystal sitting that reached and covered most of the ceiling like tree roots, the things gleamed a dim blue illuminating fractures that ran all along it. “ the desert grounds have a natural energy running through it, this crystal acts as a channel keeping it all flowing, it acts as a pillar holding the entire desert up, we need it. The energy leak from the fragment is overloading the natural energy within the desert, the crystal can’t keep up and its slowly breaking. The quake you felt before was because of that. Please, gain access to the fragment and remove it, that's all I ask,” Taro asks, Akira nod in silence. He was now more determined to find the fragment, with a new resolution set he returned to his room.
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