Chapter 7: Neb, Zull, and Taen, a squad of questionable loyalty.

The man who knocked me started tying up my hands. I try to resist with my greatest efforts, but this guy is just too strong. I barely move him.

“Get your dirty hands off me!” Ellie shouts next to me. She’s fighting even more than I do, but the man holding her is as robust as mine. There's little we can do other than flitter like fish out of the water.

“Come on, guys,” says the man who cast the water whip. “Let’s bring these naughty kids to the wagon.”

With a single movement, the man lifts me from the ground and gets me on my feet. To my relief, they also take our backpacks, and we all start walking back into the forest.

I look back at Ellie. She looks distressed. If i were a girl, i would react the same to a strange man invading my personal space.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine,” I say, trying to soothe her. “They’re cops, Ellie. They won’t do anything bad to us.”

“Rin-chan” Ellie mutters. “What are we going to do?”

“We can…” I begin saying.

“Ah!” Water whip man shouts. “No talking until the interrogation begins.”

We stay quiet and keep walking through the forest for a few minutes until we reach a road. I guess it's the same road we were looking for on the map.

If there’s something good out of the situation is that we’ve made it to the road.

A covered wagon awaits us on the road. Horse-like creatures with color-changing scales instead of hair stand still next to it.

The creature's shine is so eye-catching that i almost trip a few steps away from the wagon.

“What are those?” I ask, intrigued.

“For real?” asks Water whip man. “Are you not from around here?”

“No,” I say. “We’re from a place called Japan. It is far away from here.”

Ellie looks at me with bewilderment, reading my thoughts, seemingly aware of what I’m about to do. I've been going over it in my head for a while. How could lying possibly help us? We already screwed up.

“I’ve never heard of such a place,” says Water whip man. “Have you? Zull,” says, turning to the man holding me. Zull shakes his head.

“Taen?” he asks the man holding Ellie.

“Not even once, Neb,” says Taen.

“Well, you certainly don't look from around here,” says Neb.

They sit Ellie and me on the back of the wagon with Neb. Zull and Taen go to the front and begin driving.

“Okay, aloud me to introduce me,” says Neb. “My name is Nebulord; I’m an official of the Empire of Abhag. So I'm going to ask you a few questions.”

We nod.

“What exactly were you doing back there?” asks Neb.

“We were practicing with our weapons,” I say.

“Kids are all the same,” Neb says, looking at our backpacks and taking out the bow and the sword. “Are these the so-called weapons?”

I nod. Neb starts inspecting them.

“Impressive. These are dragon-forged. Do you know how weird and valuable they are?” Neb asks. Ellie and I shake our heads.

“Then. How in the world did you get them?” Neb says with disbelief.

“They were a gift from a friend,” Ellie says. She’s going along with telling the truth.

“Why would they gift you weapons? We’re not even at war,” Neb asks inquisitively.

“Well, she wants us to release her friends. She said the weapons might be helpful.” I say.

Neb looks at us skeptically, then at the bow and the sword, and finally, at our necklaces.

“No way!” Neb says, covering his mouth. He rushes through our things until he finds the map. He unfolds it and analyzes very carefully every spot Ignis has marked. A smile draws on his face. “No way!”

“Hey, Guys!” Neb says as he turns to show the map to Zull and Taen. “I think these kids are trying to release the ancient dragons!”

They all burst out laughing. I look back at Ellie, confused. This was not the reaction we were expecting. Back at the front of the wagon, the trio keeps laughing hard.

“You’ve been scammed, kids!” Taen yells.

“There’s no way they are serious about this,” Zull mocks.

“Guys. Give me a minute. I need to hear it from them,” Neb says as he returns with us.

“I need you to tell me everything,” Neb says.

We tell them everything. To my surprise, they don't seem surprised that we come from another world.

“If there's someone capable of doing that, is that old dragon,” Neb said.

We go on about how we met Ignis and the mission she entrusted us. Why we tried to run and how scared we were to be imprisoned by the empire for attempting to release the dragons. They all laugh at every detail as if we were some kind of comedic duo.

“Why is it so funny?” I ask. “Aren't you going to arrest us for the rest of our lives?”

“Neb takes a breath and says. “Maybe eighty years ago when Abhag the First reigned. But since Abhag the Third took the throne, the most we can do i to give you a pat on the back.”

Neb tells us the story of how delusional Abhag the First was and how drained the humans of his reign were. One day, his son, Abhag the Second, dethroned him and began reigning like in the old days.

Nowadays, the title of Empire of Abhag is just a formality, and all the kingdoms in Roagua live in peace and balance. The current king, Abhag the Third, has declared sacred all the places where the dragons were sealed. That’s why Neb and his friends arrested us.

“So trying to release the dragons is no longer illegal?” Ellie asks.

“It’s as legal as breathing,” Neb says.

“Then why are the dragons still imprisoned?” I ask confused

“When Abhag the Second took the throne, they even rewarded anyone who could break one of the seals. And many tried for years, but no one could. As years passed, people stopped trying, and the tasks were deemed as impossible.” Neb says. “Unfortunately for you, those dark wizards did an amazing job.”

“But they need to try, Neb,” says Zull from the front. “Otherwise, they won’t get back home.”

“We can drive you to Emtwon, the closest village to the seal of Jernlegeme,” Taen offers.

“So you’re not arresting us for vandalizing the sacred forest,” Ellie asks.

“We’ll do as nothing happened there,” Neb says as he takes a few golden coins from my backpack. “And we’ll take you to Emtown. I’m curious if a pair of outsiders are capable of breaking the seal no one could.”

Ellie and I look at each other with sheer disbelief. This turn of events changes everything, and we’ll save a ton of time traveling.

“By the way. Do you wanna learn how to use those?” says Neb, pointing at the necklaces.

“Of course!” Ellie and I exclaim.