Captain Haras

The buildings that he once knew were no longer recognisable, different colour with different shop signs hanging outside the front entrance. Even some of those familiar faces of those buildings were all strangers to Arim. As he took a closer look at a clothes shop, he noticed that many of the Beast-folks were very cautious, some even show fear in their eyes, all were staying far away from him. While a group of female humans noticed Arim walking around and stared at him in awe, like bees attracted to honey. One of the female humans even took the initial to ask of Arim’s name and would like to take him on date. It was an unexpected request from a stranger that they only met a few moments ago and it made Arim uncomfortable. Without replying, Arim pulled up his hood to avoid any more attention and quickly dashed away from the group of women. Immediately, he slipped into a narrow alleyway he was familiar with, knowing that was the path to the Beast-Folk Sanctuary and a shortcut to his house.

Just when he arrived, he saw a person in military uniform was standing at his parents' front door.

“You do know that you need to hand me a list of names for the tournament and it must be ten. I want ten, not nine! Otherwise, we take it you want to forfeit the game and we, humans, will take the championship like always”, the captain pointed his finger at Allak’s chest. “But then again, what’s the point? You’re going to lose again so in my opinion, you might as well give up. There’s no chance you could win”, the captain smirked as a second soldier walked up to the door.

“Captain Haras! Champion E-sor and his lordship, Nead want your immediate return for an urgent meeting”

“Understood, you can send words first as I will be there shortly”, Captain Haras commanded the soldier as he continued to stare at Allak’s eyes. Seeing no fear, Haras turned around and started walking off with a chuckled laugh.

At this point, the soldier got back to his horse-like beast strapped in shiny metal plates from head to tail, only the legs were expose as he looked at Arim walking up to him. “Hey you, state your rank. Only Captain Hara’s soldiers are allowed in this area. Who sent you?” But the soldier never got a single word before he was knocked out cold without seeing a single movement from Arim’s hand gesture.

Haras stopped laughing once he saw his soldier was knocked to the ground without seeing it too. “Who are you? I command you to state your rank?” Haras shouted in fury as he quickly burst open his capsule; his steel red claymore appeared in his hands. Arim didn’t say a single word and dashed forward and soon, a claymore appeared from his hand. Since Arim got immersed in strength, he was able to hold and swing the claymore using a single hand. Once the two claymores made contact, Haras could feel the strength of the impact; his claymore shattered along with the bones in both his arms. Haras was sent flying on the ground and knocked down unconscious as the household of Allak and T-rab came rushing out to see the commotion of a fight. All they saw a young man with a green robe, holding a large claymore had knocked down a soldier and a captain outside their house. The only thing they could not believe was that a human was fighting another human that could result in military discipline and could strip off all benefits as a soldier.

But for Allak’s first glance, he saw something familiar about the young man with his large claymore quickly disappeared. He walked up to the soldier on the ground and shook him awake. “Take your Captain home and never set foot near this place again. Or else it won’t be a slap the next time I see you” The wounded soldier quickly nodded and carried his captain onto the horse-like beast. Without wasting more time, the soldier cried at the beast to move, quickly leaving the scene as the young man turned to look at Allak and T-rab.

Immediately Allak ushered all the people back to the house as he grabbed Arim by the arm and quickly entered the house. “T-rab my dear, could you organize with the cooks in the kitchen for some food and drinks for this gentleman”, asked Allak. T-rab was quite startled by Allak’s sudden request, but she left to the kitchen anyway. Again, Allak gestured the young man to his study-room and immediately closed the double doors. Allak turned around and gave a hard stare at the young man as he observed the figure from top to bottom before he finally had the confidence to say, “Arim? Is it really you?”

Arim quickly gave his father a tight hug with tears in his eyes, “Yes father, I have returned. I’m sorry it took me so long to get back home” Allak returned with a tighter hug as he too began to weep in happiness to see his son return after nearly two years. “So, father, could you please tell me what happened after I left?” asked Arim after releasing his grip and looking at his father, clearly showing a few more greys around his chin and ears.

Allak sat down to his wooden chair as he leaned his elbows on the dark brown moon-shaped desk. Slowly Allak told Arim everything after they found out the scout lost contact with Madam Ava and her group. But without hesitation, Lord Nead send another team of Beast-Folks to scavenge the items on the Engineer’s list and successfully completed a nine-month long expedition. Soon enough, the absence of Madam Ava and her group slowly faded away; nobody talked or cared about anymore.