Volume 1 Chapter 13 the Journey Began

Chapter 13 the Journey Began

I

At midnight. The village was immersed in peaceful tranquillity, only some insects were humming gently out of the windows. The bright moonlight was shining white like frost of the winter on the ground.

Both Yanni and Floria failed to fall asleep, and since the moonlight had illuminated the whole room, they could see each other's face fairly clearly.

Knowing each other to be still awake, Floria and Yanni shared a smile.

“Sis…” called Yanni gently.

“Umm …” Floria looked at her little brother affectionately.

“I’m afraid,” whispered Yanni.

“What are you afraid of, Yanni?” asked Floria.

“Our life, our vocation, our choice, the upcoming future, and everything else,” drawled Yanni.

“No matter how mature you are in front of others, you are always a baby in front of me,” giggled Floria tenderly.

“Clearly, we could have chosen another path. We could have ignored the crimes committed by Master Mortis, accepted the rewards he gave to us, and lived happily ever after as a rich ones. If I really did so, the world would burn because of the Cube of Necrus, but since you and I could be safe and attain felicity, nothing would matter,” speculated Yanni.

“But doing so would make Aislina leave us. Both you and I love her heartedly and both of us cannot bear to lose her,” argued Floria.

“Is Aislina the reason why we have been involved in all these stuff?” questioned Yanni.

“I don't know. There are many reasons why we're on this journey, but they all don't matter. What matters is that we're here together, and we have each other,” encouraged Floria, stroking her brother’s hair lovingly.

“Yes, that's true,” agreed Yanni.

Clock was ticking, but those thoughts and worries were thrashing inside the brains of them and stopping them from falling asleep.

“Are you still afraid of nightmares, Floria …” questioned Yanni quietly.

“No, I don’t fear those dreadful dreams anymore, because sometimes reality is even worse than nightmares,” Floria responded, half-asleep, “Have a good sleep, Yanni, a long night is waiting for us.”

“You have a good dream too, Floria,” blessed Yanni, holding his sister’s hand.

Finally, heavy sleepiness commenced to flood into their mind.

Yanni sank into the world of dreams.

At first, he found himself walking in an endless city, a metropolis. High buildings made of necrite stood everywhere, which spread in this world like some kind of plague. People walking on the street looked numb with strange things which looked like a small glowing brick held in their hands.

Their eyes fixed on those brick-like things as if it had fully drained their souls. The whole world was ugly and grimy, but civilized and fully developed. Everything looked regular and set in some sort of rules. There were disciplines in people’s heart and all the people walking on the street looked the same.

There were no differences between individuals.

Suddenly, this scene faded like a turning kaleidoscope. Yanni found himself standing at the centre of pure wilderness. This was a green world without humans. Trees and flowers were growing everywhere joyfully, with the fragrance of flowers filling the air. Few animals were living in this world, except some peaceful herbivores.

However, this world didn’t have a soul too. Though it was a world without necrology, without war, without lies, without hatred, without misery, without despair, and without wickedness, it was also a world without love, without hope, without emotion, without meaning, and without souls.

Yanni travelled in this boring and single-toned world for several hours, after which, he heard someone calling him, “get up, Yanni, the breakfast is ready!”

It’s the voice of Floria. Yanni woke up and stretched.

“You look cute when you’re stretching,” giggled Floria, “come on, let’s eat the breakfast, we’re about to set off.

II

After a simple breakfast with some bland milk, eggs and bread with butter, they set off on their destined journey against necrology.

It was early morning and the sun just rose up from the east, shining weakly upon the village. There were some dirty dewdrops on the brown grass shining under the newborn daylight, though finally they would evaporate and turn into nothingness, they were still there …

Flying between the trees, birds were twitting joyfully, celebrating a brand new day, or maybe they were mourning for the upcoming possibilities of the reign of evilness and shadowiness. No one knew the language of birds, so no one knew what they were actually speaking.

Some grey smoke was coming out of the chimneys on the houses of the village because people were cooking breakfast. Though there were smoke, the air in this village was still fresh and sweet.

Looking to the west, the moon could still be seen blurrily. It was still hanging in the sky and watching over the world of morning though its vocation of guiding those lost souls of the night had already ended.

On the land, the world functioned in the circle of life but in the sky, the world functioned in the circle of sun and moon, as well as day and night. The wheel of the rules of nature would always keep turning, guarding the sacred balance of the world.

Clouds of miscellaneous shapes were gathering high on the sky. They kept transforming, sometimes looking like some animals, while sometimes looking like other unnameable things.

Before leaving this Starshine Village, Mister Berg took them to the stable. it would take them an unimaginable long time to walk to Infernal Mountain, but if they rode horses, it would take them less time to finish their journey.

“OK, there are two horses in this stable. Though these two horses aren’t high level horses, riding horses are faster than walking on foot anyway,” advised Mister Berg.

“Yeah, that’s true. Anyway, thank you for sending us those horses. Our journey will be dangerous and as you know, the horses are ordinary horses, unlike us, they haven’t been physically enhanced by the Spring of Sylvana, they may die in the journey” expressed Floria gratefully.

“I don’t merit any thanks, after all, I betrayed you four and put you four in extreme danger. Yesterday, that horrible Sir Bellum nearly killed Yanni,” apologized Mister Berg.

“I have already forgiven you, Mister Berg. You’re a man with real wisdom,” Yanni tapped on Mister Berg’s shoulder.

“There is only one problem,” Starsha pointed out.

“What problem?” asked Floria.

“I don’t know how to ride horses,” answered Starsha.

“Neither do I,” added Aislina shyly.

“You don’t know how to ride horses? Come on, Starsha, you’re a barbarian girl of Wildshadow tribe,” giggled Floria.

“Umm, I have fully dedicated myself in music, so I have no time to learn how to ride a horse …” explained Starsha embarrassedly.

“Well, since that, Yanni will ride a horse and I will ride the other. Who want to be with Yanni and who want to be with me?” questioned Floria.

“Can I be with Yanni?” inquired Aislina bashfully.

“For sure you can, Aislina. Yanni is not my personal belonging so you don’t need to ask for my permission,” Floria smiled and announced, “Since that, Aislina be with Yanni, and Starsha be with me. Let’s go, friends.”

“Bon voyage, kids, goodbye,” blessed Mister Berg.

“Goodbye, Mister Berg,” returned Yanni.

II

Five minutes after, two horses zoomed out of the village, on the back of whom were the brave travellers making their way to Infernal Mountain for its lava which could possibly destroy the Cube of Necrus, the wickedest thing in this world.

Sitting behind Yanni, Aislina threw her arms around Yanni’s middle and hugged him. Her face was reddening when her hands touched Yanni’s abs. It was extremely bumpy on the horse ride and Aislina had to hug Yanni tightly.

Her soft body was seemingly melting into Yanni’s like milk and water merging with each other and she could feel that all her organs were throbbing, quivering and burning with a spicy feeling running through her nerves and veins.

She could feel the temperature of Yanni’s skin was rising slightly too. Rosy thoughts commenced to haunt her mind and this was a nearly new feeling to her. She was afraid but finally she needed to accept her emotion.

“Floria,” called Starsha quietly.

“What’s up?” questioned Floria.

“Look at your brother and Aislina,” suggested Starsha, her finger pointing at Aislina and Yanni.

“Umm, I’m looking at them,” replied Floria.

“They looked good together. In fact, I think Aislina likes your little brother and maybe your brother likes her too,” giggled Starsha.

“What? Aislina and Yanni? That’s ridiculous!! Aislina is not even a human!” Floria frowned.

“Wow, you must be jealous,” purred Starsha.

“No, I’m not. It’s just … You’re really an imaginative girl, Starsha, anyway,” Floria flushed.

“I am an insightful artist, Floria. My gut seldom made mistakes If you don’t believe me, you can ask Yanni. He always shares all his secrets with you, doesn’t he?” inquired Starsha.

“That’s true, I’ll ask him if I have a chance …” breathed Floria.

“If it is true, I’ll …” announced Starsha.

“Shut up, Starsha, please! If you continue wisecracking, I’ll throw you down the horse,” warned Floria.

“That sounds horrible, I’ll shut up,” Starsha obeyed.

“If you want to be useful, help me read the map please, which will also make you quiet and stop talking nonsense,” suggested Floria.

“OK, now I’m looking at the map, wait, according to the map, if we want to go to Infernal Mountain, we shall climb through Svartalfaheim Mountain first,” said Starsha.

“Svartalfaheim Mountain? The mountain where dwarves dwell? Do you still remember that dwarf in the mini dungeon of the Grey Factory?” asked Floria, dipping down her face.

“Yes, for sure I do remember him,” Starsha nodded, the expression on her face becoming seriously.

Master Mortis told every humans that dwarves were monsters and a ruthlessly cruel race, which Starsha believed firmly until she met the dwarf locked in a small dungeon inside the Grey Factory.

The dwarf was tortured by Doctor Plague, a mysterious deputy of Master Mortis, who tested his new invention - an apocalyptic plague to dwarves - on him.

She didn’t trust him so she didn’t save him at first, and when she realized that dwarves had been stigmatized and she had been deeply brainwashed by Master Mortis, everything had been late.

Before the dwarf died, he told Starsha his death wish that he wanted to apologize to his brother with whom he had had a great quarrel …

Finally, drowned in guilty, Starsha shut up and Floria could enjoy her temporary quietness for now

III

Two weeks after.

To be honest, this epic adventure wasn’t as exciting and dangerous as they had thought. Because in these two weeks, they just kept cruising in the no man’s land of Normania.

There were brown grasslands as well as withering forests. Though they were still parts of the world of wilderness, they seemed barren and sapless because of the pollution ulcerating in this world. It was as if the land were turning into barrens or deserts gradually.

Anyway, in these two weeks, they didn’t encounter any danger because this no man’s land was rather vast and it was nearly impossible for the Grey Factory to find them.

Dusk was coming and the twilight was seemingly emanating an aura of tiredness. The horses became tired and so did the riders.

Aislina and Yanni set up a campfire together and the four sat beside the bright campfire, beginning to chat.

The light of the campfire was illuminating their faces, on which some kind of extreme fatigue could be seen. They needed a real rest instead of sleeping in the grassland which was far from comfortable.

One lucky thing was that Aislina could use her magic to create a fragrance which could dispel those bloodsucking mosquitos.

Aislina was sitting beside Yanni. After these two weeks, Aislina had gotten used to the intimacy with Yanni when they were sitting on the same horse, but she was still having those feelings for Yanni.

She wanted to talk with Yanni about this but she hadn’t gotten a chance. Sometimes she would look at Yanni and wonder if he was having the same feelings for her as well.

Finally, Floria’s voice broke her rosy thoughts.

“According to the map, the Svartalfaheim Mountain is blocking our path ahead and the fastest way to go through this mountain is definitely not climbing past the mountain. According to my knowledge, this Svartalfaheim Mountain is over three thousands kilometres tall and there’s even snow cap on the very top of this mountain. Luckily, the Dwarves had dug a tunnel called the Mirk Tunnel which stretched through the mountain.

“But the dwarves are far from friendly to humans, thank to Master Mortis’ actions of genocide,” Yanni pointed out.

“However, I also know that dwarves are reasonable. We’re enemies of the Grey Factory, and so are the dwarves. You know, it’s kind of like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Maybe the dwarves will align with us regardless of those racial hatred stuff,” argued Floria.

“That’s cool, perhaps there will be a new member in our adventure team. Maybe he will be a handsome dwarf. Wow, that’s exciting,” commented Starsha.

“Anyway, let’s take a good sleep tonight. I guess we’ll arrive at Titan Forge the dwarven capital city tomorrow afternoon. All of us know almost nothing about dwarves so we shall act extremely carefully and prudently,” suggested Floria and the others nodded in agreement.

Day changed into the starless night once again, but in the company of each other, they wouldn’t fear the darkness …