Shadow Claw
By Blue Dragon-sy

Chapter 3:
Rogues

It was a long trip from Yurhosha to the nearest town – it took a whole day to arrive at the entrance of Dawnstone Pass, three days just to get to the other side of the mountain, and five days northwards.

Goran was a medium-sized town with small stone houses and shops arranged neatly along a huge rock of stone, looking as though waiting to welcome someone or something important to pass by on the road. Even though this place looked very different, it seemed peaceful here, and that reminded Rapheon of home. He didn’t dwell on that feeling too much though – he was tired from the journey here, and he knew that even though his elder brother didn’t show any signs of being tired out, Camus was too. It was, after all, their first time on such a long trip.

They remained silent as they wandered around town in search of an inn, though the younger of the two found it interesting to look at his surroundings. He was so busy looking around that he didn’t notice Camus entering a building, until Camus realised and came back out to call him.

“Oops, eheh…”

Rapheon grinned sheepishly as his brother gave that what-do-you-think-you’re-doing look – which Cecille used often – and then looked up in search of a signboard on the building exterior. He found a lightly-decorated one that said “Goran de Inn”, and even though he didn’t know what “de” meant, he concluded that this had to be an inn.

Inside was the busiest place Rapheon had ever seen – on one side of the room, next to a staircase leading upwards, a woman stood behind a counter and chatting away to another woman, sometimes yelling something to the other end of the room to someone else, and several round tables were arranged around the room. There were a lot of people sitting around those tables and drinking what he recognised as ale, something he hadn’t been allowed to touch back at Yurhosha.

Even though this might have been an interesting new experience compared to Yurhosha, the young boy felt uncomfortable just being there because most people at the tables had this menacing look about them, and one of the especially meaner looking ones – a lone man – was eyeing him. He had a long scar across his left eye and short spiky black hair, and his clothes were all black. He wasn’t looking at the blue-haired boy directly, but he kept glancing at him with one hand fingering the hilt of his sheathed sword. Rapheon looked at him suspiciously, but didn’t say anything to his brother.

Unlike most of the customers, the middle-aged woman behind the counter had a nice and cheery looking face, framed by long brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail.

“Good evening, gentlemen!” she greeted cheerily when the Sarphoenix brothers came up to the counter.

Camus cleared his throat and spoke, “Um, we’d like a room to stay for the night.”

“That will be twenty Gorul, please!”

Rapheon felt surprised, and then half-wanted to smack himself. Of course, why shouldn’t they be using Gorul too? After all, it’s not like the outside world is like another country…

He tried to recall some of the things Garlen made him read back at the village, something about the outside world… if he wasn’t wrong, Gorul was the currency of the continent of Sargora, where they were in now, and the other country had their own currency as well – such as Danar as the Deyrune Continent’s currency and Yagor as the currency of the Kerique Continent. But Iceland still preferred the barter system over the currency system.
 
While Rapheon was feeling surprised again, this time because of the fact that he actually remembered something he had read, Camus counted the Gorul coins and handed them to the woman who, with a nod, pocketed it and led them upstairs.

“This way please!”

It was much quieter upstairs, completely empty in fact. The woman led them to the third or fourth door from the stairs and opened the door to let her two customers in. The younger sibling saw that the room was simply decorated with a cheap painting on one wall, but neat and had enough furniture for the guests. It had two beds, a cupboard, a table and two chairs, but no lights. Since it was already dark outside, the dim lantern that the innkeeper gave them was the only thing that lighted the room.

“This is your room, good sirs,” she told them as she began to move towards the staircase again. “Good night!”

“Goodnight,” Camus replied as both he and his brother entered the room and closed the door behind him. Then, after pausing for a while, he threw himself on one bed and stretched. “Whoa, I really missed the soft sheets of a bed!”

Rapheon forced a smile as he sat on the other bed. “Yeah, I guess what they say is right; you don’t appreciate things until you don’t have them…”

“Huh? Raph, what’s wrong?” he asked and sat up.

He shook his head. “No, nothing much, I just feel a bit uncomfortable, that’s all.”

“What do you mean?”

Rapheon sighed as he slowly un-strapped his swords from his waist. “The people downstairs… one of them was eyeing us.”

“Hm… well, he probably got interested in us, particularly you. Remember what Master told us? He said that the Sora-Ryuken fighters are quite rare among swordsmen.” He paused, looking at his brother, and then went over to his side and slapped his back lightly. “Ah, don’t worry, Raph! I’ll make sure nothing happens to you as long as I’m here! Just forget it and rest, okay?”

For a moment he stayed silent, and then smiled. “Yeah, you’re right.”

 

Later that night, Rapheon found himself tossing and turning in bed long after Camus had fallen asleep and started snoring loudly, even though he was rather exhausted from the day's journey. He assumed that it was around midnight since everything was silent, except for the cry of a faraway wolf and the hoot of an owl in a tree.

He sighed. “I guess a short walk wouldn’t hurt.”

Even though the lantern in the room was out, he was able to see well enough to move around without crashing into things, so he took his double swords and strapped them around his waist before quietly walking out of the room. He didn’t want to wake Camus out, and he didn’t want to go out in this town alone without a weapon when a lot of them had that mean look.

When the boy arrived downstairs, he saw that the innkeeper was still awake and was packing some things behind the counter by the light of the lantern. He approached the counter and was about to say something when she noticed him and stopped.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked, still cheerily.

“Yeah, kinda,” he replied as he sat on one of the bar stools. “Am I interfering with your work?”

“No, no! Not at all! I was lonely anyway!” She smiled at him. “Say do you want some orange juice? On the house!”

“Really? Thanks!”

The woman laughed, filled a clean glass with some juice and handed it to him. “Drink as much as you want! It’s good for your health!” She sat down beside him and poured some juice for herself as well. “I noticed that you have two swords, I don’t see many people with two swords around! Is it really hard to use two swords like some people say?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s hard for me… I mean, I’ve always preferred using two swords, but my brother caused quite a bit of trouble when he tried to use two swords!”

“Really? It sounds like my dear son, my, such damage he caused with the explosions!”

“Well, I know how it feels!”

Both of them laughed for a while, then a fond look came to the innkeeper’s face. “My son went to Delhana to join the Imperial army months ago, but he hasn’t come back since… at least he’s happy by the sound of his letters, but I’m worried they might overwork him there.”

“I see…” He took a sip from his glass.

Suddenly, gunshots rang in the air and followed by a man’s scream of pain, surprising Rapheon so much that he nearly choked from the drink. As he coughed and spluttered, the woman groaned and went to the window next to the door to see what was happening outside.

“Oh dear, the Rogues are at it again,” she said without turning.

When he recovered from the coughing fit, the young boy went to the window to see as well, standing beside her. “Rogues?”

She nodded. “They’re a bunch of crooks with a hideout in the cave at the outskirts of the town, and they’re the one who made this town known to the other cities as ‘the town full of thieves’. That’s why we don’t get many visitors.” She shook her head. “They come here every evening and normally don’t cause trouble, but if they decided to attack us at night… at least one house is burnt, and someone always gets hurt or killed.”

Rapheon felt himself burning with anger, but he tried to hold it in. “Didn’t anyone fight back?”

She sighed. “So far the Rogues haven’t been defeated, since they’re skilled swordsmen and one of them a skilled gunner. We don’t have the power to fight back, or the money to hire mercenaries.”

At the word ‘gunner’, Rapheon vaguely remembered what his master had said about guns – these weapons required an extraordinarily high amount of concentration and spiritual energy, perhaps even more than the required amount for using magic thousands of years ago. Because of these harsh conditions, luckily there weren’t many gunners left in this world, almost none.

“Travelers hardly come by here as well, so we couldn’t ask for help,” the innkeeper continued. “We sent Samuel – that’s one of the townspeople – to Baycross or Delhana for help weeks ago, but since then he hasn’t returned.”

“I… see.”

Then there was another loud scream, this time a woman’s. The innkeeper, whose usually cheery face turned pale in shock, quickly exited the inn with Rapheon following behind him.

Outside, the people were gathered around a burning house. Evidently, they had been shaken awake by the screams and gunshot as well, as most of them were in their sleeping garments, though a fair few of them had managed to grab a cloak or something to wear. They were looking at a man was lying on the ground near the wall of flames above the remains of a house, wounded and unconscious, and a woman – probably his wife – was kneeling next to him.

The attackers were just five Rogues wielding torches, but Rapheon recognised one of them… the one in the middle was the dark-haired man who was eyeing him before. He was laughing heartily and holding a small crying girl hostage by the back of her shirt, and by the way he did things with a certain air of authority, he seemed to be their leader.

The woman turned from her still husband and faced the Rogues, despite the utmost fear that showed on her face, and pleaded with tears sliding down her cheeks, “Please! Please release my daughter!”

“You want me to return this kid to you?” the dark-haired leader asked in a sneering way.

“Please! Have mercy!” she pleaded again.

He laughed again, joined by the laughter of his four men. “Mercy? You think I’d bother with some lousy thing as that?” He pointed at the woman and glanced back at the rest of the Rogues. “All right, guys, you can do whatever you want with her!”

“No! Please!!”

The four Rogues behind the leader slowly approached the woman, each with an evil grin on his face, and one of them let out a hyena laugh while another licked his lips as if he was seated at dinner with a giant steak. The crowd stared at them in horror, but no one rose to help.

Why? Why isn’t anyone helping?! Rapheon thought angrily, clenching his fist, but then he tried to calm himself down. No, they don’t have the power to do it; I don’t think they ever trained to fight…

“STOP!!” he yelled and forced his way through the crowd, drawing his swords out as he stood in between the couple and the Rogues.

The leader blinked. “Hey… you’re that boy I saw earlier.”

When he gestured to his four minions to back off, the four Rogues immediately walked back and stood behind him. Then, he pushed the little girl roughly towards her mother – who hugged her in tears – and drew out his katana.

“What's your name, boy?” he asked.

“...Rapheon,” the blue-haired boy answered, his glaring green eyes focused on the leader.

He grinned. “Well, Rapheon, when I saw your two swords this evening, I knew that I must fight you, a Sora-Ryuken fighter.” He raised the katana, swung it once and pointed it at Rapheon. “I, Matt Gunner, will challenge you!” He glanced at his men again. “Don’t interfere with this, understand?”

The four of them nodded as they stood back. Even the crowd of townspeople took a few steps back, leaving Rapheon and Matt about twenty feet of space around them.

“Now then,” Matt said, bending his knees a little. “En garde!”

He lunged towards Rapheon, raising his weapon to strike, but the boy drew back just out of range and swung both his swords, one to block the katana and the other to attack, only to be evaded as well. It happened several times; all attacks thrown by both swordsmen were either avoided or blocked, and Rapheon felt that he simply couldn’t use the Dragon’s Fury skill because it might hit the surrounding people. Worse still, he felt his strength waning, as he was exhausted to begin with.

“Feeling tired?” came his opponent’s voice. “Oh, I forgot, it’s waaaay past your bedtime, boy! Go back before your mama catches you!”

Once again he felt that rush of anger inside him, and it gave him energy. He charged forward, slid beneath the katana that came sideways, and swung both his swords together with all his might, strong enough to knock Matt’s weapon out of his hand. The katana went spinning into the ground nearby, startling some of the people, and even its owner was knocked into ground with a blade pointing at his neck.

Rapheon had risen in triumph, and the crowd was cheering loudly for him.

However, that feeling of triumph was short-lived.

The sound of gunshot rang into the air once again, though this time he didn’t have to wonder what had happened. His mind was only filled with utmost pain, focusing on his right shoulder, to the point that it seemed to shut down. He fell to the ground with a cry, dropping his swords, and his white shirt was already beginning to turn a crimson red from where he felt the stabbing pain.

He just stayed there, unaware of anything but that stabbing pain.

Seeing nothing… hearing nothing… remembering nothing… and then the pain was gone.

Everything had turned black.

 

Rapheon ran through the darkness as fast as his legs could take him. He didn’t know where he was or why he was there in the first place, but he knew that he must get to his brother as soon as possible – Camus was in danger.

A menacing laughter echoed through the blackness, sending a chill down his spine, but he kept running anyway.

“Fools!” a familiar voice boomed, filled with utmost hatred. “No one can escape from the darkness!!”

Suddenly, the black scene turned into a barren land that seemed to be filled entirely with death – dark clouds covered the sky completely, the ground was cracked and filled with so much blood that it looked like a crimson sea.  Even the moon shone deep red.

But no, Rapheon continued to run.

He had to keep running, for Camus’ sake.

Suddenly, he caught sight of his brother’s familiar figure standing still in the middle of the barren land, his back facing him.

“Camus!” he called and started to dash towards him, but Camus’s words stopped him.

“No, Raph! Run!” the elder brother yelled as he turned around quickly, fear showing on his face. “Get out of here before–”

He never got to finish his sentence.

His eyes suddenly turned glassy as the fear became a blank expression, and his body went limp – something had pierced completely through his chest from the back, something that looked like a dark claw.

“CAMUS!!” Rapheon exclaimed.

Camus was surrounded in a strange dark light and then disappeared away into a cloud of black mist that slowly faded away to reveal the person who was behind him.

Kryden.

“You are next…” he said solemnly and approached him. The boy saw that his long right sleeve was torn off, so the dark purple and black arm was revealed for all to see.

He had struck Camus with it.

“Why?!” Rapheon yelled. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Why? It’s not a question of why, Rapheon, but a question of when.” He stood right in front of the young boy, who had suddenly found that he could not move at all as if a rope bound him tightly.

“K-Kryden!”

Without a word, the lone warrior raised his right arm and thrust it through Rapheon's chest.

“Ugh...!!” Rapheon felt another sharp pain in his chest, which was a lot worse than when the metal demon that attacked his village hit him. He also felt cold all of a sudden, as if he was surrounded by ice and snow.

“You will die!!” Kryden yelled and roughly pulled his right arm away, while a large shadow of a demon grew behind him as the dark clouds covered the bloodstained moon. The shadow grew large and larger, and then it charged through Rapheon, killing him with one shot.

“Argh!”

Startled from the dream, Rapheon sat up quickly but the sharp pain in his right shoulder made him recoil back onto his pillow, gasping from the impact that only caused him more pain.

Camus, who was facing the window at that time, immediately turned around and came to the side of the bed. “Whoa, whoa, take it easy!”

“Oh, thank goodness he’s all right!” the innkeeper exclaimed and came to the side of the bed as well. “I don’t know what we’ll do if he had died from it!”

He looked at her. “Um, maybe you’d like to go out and tell the others that he’s awake, they’re worried.”

She rubbed a stray tear. “All right, I’ll go tell them. Oh, I’m so glad!” With that sentence, she went out of the room and closed the door softly behind her.

After a short moment, Rapheon relaxed his tensed muscles and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. As he slowly raised a hand to wipe the sweat away from his forehead, memories of the Rogues’ attack came flooding back to him, and he found his right shoulder heavily bandaged when he gently touched it.

“Holy geez, you shouldn’t wake up like that… though I’d think you’ll learn your lesson from this,” Camus said half-jokingly, pulling a chair towards him and sitting on it.

The young boy grinned sheepishly. “I most certainly did, although I doubt I’d remember the next time…”

He grinned. “Haha, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Then his grin faded, his eyes narrowed in concern. “How’re you feeling?”

Rapheon smiled a little. “I'm fine, don't worry about me.”

“Okay, your wound isn’t hurting at all?”

“Only a little when I move, but really, I’m fine.” He sighed softly. “Camus, how… long have I been sleeping?”

“About two days.” He reached out for a cup, filled it with warm water and handed it to his younger brother. “I managed to chase the Rogues off and they made their appearance scarce ever since.”

The young boy remained silent as he sipped the water. He wanted to tell his brother about his most recent dream, since he felt that this wasn’t an ordinary dream and shouldn’t be kept hidden. However, the other side of his mind told him to keep it quiet.

Camus looked at him in concern. “Is something wrong?”

“There's something...” Rapheon’s voice trailed off, and then he shook his head. “Never mind.” Even though he had decided to tell, somehow or rather he could not seem to get it out. Perhaps when he was ready, he would tell him about it.

The older Sarphoenix didn’t ask further. “Oh, okay then. Anyway, you should rest for now. Even though the bullet in your wound had been taken out, you still need to rest.”

The young boy nodded a little.

“Sleep well.”

“Goodnight.” He settled down more comfortably on the pillow and closed his eyes. He had just thought of the dream for a moment before he fell into a dreamless sleep.

 

After what seemed like a short nap, Rapheon woke up in the middle of a night at the sound of a loud gunshot that echoed in the dark sky. His brother, who was sleeping on a chair next to the bed and was also shaken awake, hurried to the window. What he saw outside made him gasp.

“Raph!” Camus called, turning. “The Rogues are at it again!”

“What?!” the blue-haired brother exclaimed, sitting up. “What are you waiting for?! Let’s go!”

“What about you?”

“Forget about me! The people’s lives are at stake!” He grabbed his Ryuken swords from the table and rushed out of the room before Camus could say anything else, forcing him just comply silently.

 

When the two brothers arrived outside the inn, they saw that every house was burning and the people were scattered all over the town – some had already been killed and some were badly injured. This time, the number of Rogues increased from five to fifty, and they were causing havoc everywhere.

As soon as the Rogues caught sight of two brothers, they stopped whatever they were doing and moved to form a circle around them. When they were surrounded, Matt was the first to step forward.

“You won the last time, but I won’t lose again!” he yelled furiously.

“Hey, Matt,” a Rogue called from his left, a man with a shining bald head and a large earring through one ear. “You mean you lost to these two? Are you kiddin’?!”

“You know very well that I don’t kid!” The dark-haired leader raised his katana into the air. “All right, men! Don’t let them off, you hear me?! I don’t want either one of them to get away!”

The Sarphoenixes stood back to back to each other, facing the whole lot of Rogues as they drew out their weapons.

“So… what do we do?” Camus whispered. “We’re outnumbered by fifty to two.”

“Um, I don’t know,” his younger brother admitted. “I suppose all we can do is fight.”

“…we’ve no choice, I suppose.” And when the Rogues lunged forward, he yelled, “Get ready!”

Camus charged forward, but someone made Rapheon stay where he was. It wasn’t exactly a binding force, it was more like something was making him stop… he suddenly realised that his swords were glowing brightly, and then there was a flash that he felt only he could see. Everything around him slowed down, gradually getting slower and slower to the point that it took Camus more than three seconds to swing a sword.

What’s going on…?

As if to answer him, another flash of light came from his swords, brighter and more intense than usual, and he shielded his eyes against him. At that moment, though, he felt a rush of power inside him, surging in his veins and aching to be released.

“Imprison them,” a familiar voice filled his mind.

It was a while before he realized that it was the same voice that told him the verse for the skill ‘Dragon’s Fury’. He obeyed the voice, focusing his thoughts on the power surging inside him. As he let out a yell, the power burst out of him in a blue beam in the form of a serpent-like Dragon, emitting a brighter light than the swords as it charged towards the Rogues. When the white light dimmed and everything returned to its original state, each Rogue was imprisoned in an energy prison of semi-transparent deep purple light in the shape of a spinning polygon.

“AAARGGH!!!” an over-reacted Rogue screamed as he tried to punch the energy field, but later rubbed his sore fist.


“What the hell?!” another exclaimed.

“Get us out from here or else!!” a third Rogue yelled.

Another went hysterical, “Waaaaaa! We’re STUCK!!”

One got to his knees, seeming as if in prayer. “Oh no… God, I’ll be a good boy this time, so PLEASE!! SAVE ME!!”

Every Rogue started to panic as Rapheon fell to the ground in a sitting position, breathing slowly but deeply. The effect of that supposed spell had weakened him completely, but he was stable enough not to faint.

Then, he felt a gust of wind, pulling softly at his low blue ponytail, and looked up. When he did, the beam in the form of a snake-like Dragon hovered before him, its coiled serpentine body shining a bright blue light. Since this was only a beam of light, nothing but its outlines and bright green eyes was clear, the gust of wind circling around it and ruffling what looked like its whiskers almost as long as its body and thick mane. Its claws on its only two legs were sharp, like talons belonging to an eagle.

For some reason, he felt calm in the presence of the Dragon spirit. As he stared at it, the Dragon spirit slowly uncoiled itself as it glided gracefully around him, turning into sparkles of light that slowly disappeared. When he was finally aware of his surrounding, he realised that his brother was kneeling next to him, calling his name.

“H-hey, hey! Raph! Are you okay?!” Camus asked frantically.

“Camus, calm down, I’m okay…” Rapheon said, trying to reassure him.

“That’s good, I’m glad…” For a moment he calmed down, but then he got excited all over again. “Do you know what you just did?!”

A puzzled expression appeared on Rapheon’s childish face. “What? What did I do?”

“What did you do?! I think you’ve just cast a spell!”

“A… a spell?”

“I mean magic, Raph! MAGIC!!”

At that point, realization hit him like a thunderbolt. “What?! I did?!”

While Rapheon was just started to get excited, Camus was beginning to calm down.

“Look, Raph,” he started. “You’re obviously a lot more tired than I am, you should rest. Besides, you still got that gunshot wound.”

Once again he looked surprised. “Gunshot wound? What… oh, that one. I totally forgot about it.”

The elder brother slapped his forehead. “I don’t believe it.” He then stood out and reached out a hand. “C’mon, let’s get you inside.”

Rapheon nodded and took his hand to help himself up, but the moment he did, there were roars and several flying dinosaur-like creatures – with fire tails that glowed a bright red light every few seconds – appeared in the dark sky. All of the uninjured townspeople talked among each other and pointed at those creatures that were landing in the middle of the village.

From the back of those creatures, about twenty people dressed in white and blue, or white and red, or white and green robes. They did not seem to carry any weapons at all, except a certain few who carried a staff, but all of them had that surprised look – they certainly didn’t expect some people to be imprison in floating, spinning magic polygons.

Their leader, however, remained calm and spoke with a voice of authority, “We are the Imperial Mages of the Sargora Empire, sent here by the Emperor to deal with the Rogues.” He looked around. “Who did this?”

The townspeople knew that he meant the energy cages, but none of them knew that it was Rapheon’s doing as they were too busy trying to escape to pay attention to what happened. The crowd spoke among themselves, creating a bit of noise.

“What is an Imperial Mage? What are those creatures?” Rapheon asked.

Camus shook his head. “I don’t know…”

The innkeeper, who happened to be behind them at that time, heard them and explained, “The Imperial Mages are like the Imperial soldiers of the Empire, but they use magic instead of weapons.” She shook her head. “What they’re using isn’t the magic we used to know thousands of years ago, I heard that they’re using artificial magic created in those rings they wear.”

“Those creatures?”

“Those are Wyverns. I think they’re rumoured to be cousins of the legendary Dragons, and I heard only Imperial Mages could control them…” She smiled. “I only know so much because my son is in the army.”

“Who did this?!” the Imperial Mage leader repeated, more impatiently this time.

The young boy was beginning to feel nervous… what if they found out it was him? No humans were able to use magic since thousands of years ago, and if they learnt that he did something that looked like magic without the help of the rings that the Imperial Mages had…

“It’s… uh, Arselius,” Camus lied loudly, and everyone including his blue-haired brother turned towards him.

Camus?!

“Arselius, the White Dragon?” one of the Imperial Mages asked with a note of surprise.

The green-haired man nodded. “Yeah. He came and imprisoned those Rogues with one go.”

“Hmmm…” The leader did not say anything, but it was clear to everyone that he did not believe it.

“Yeah, I saw it!” one man exclaimed. “The Dragon that looked like a snake!”

“Me too!” a small kid piped up enthusiastically.

Rapheon looked at the crowd that had become noisy from discussing the strange appearance of the White Dragon, silently thanking his brother for coming up with the idea.

“Sir,” one of the Imperial Mages called. “What should we do?”

For a moment the leader remained silent, but soon gave the order, “Mages, we’re taking these Rogues to Delhana with us.”

“Yes, captain!” the Mages saluted.

At that moment, Rapheon suddenly felt the exhaustion that he did not notice before this. Before he could even utter a cry, he just fell forward onto the ground, and, the last thing that he heard was his brother yelling his name in surprise.

 

When he woke up again a few hours later, he groaned a little when he saw that he was in his room at the inn. Fainting twice times in three days in the same town was a little… too much. What would Camus say about this?

The older siblings shook his head, seated on the chair beside the bed once again. “Raph, you really should take it easy, you know. You still have that dark wound, that spell thing worn you out, and then that gunshot wound…” He paused. “Wait, I take that back.”

Rapheon blinked. “Huh?”

Camus rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, how to I explain this?” He paused for a moment and then took a deep breath. “All right. Don’t be too surprised, okay?”

“About what?”

“Your gunshot wound. Earlier I was checking it to see if it had gotten any worse, but I found nothing.”

“What?”

The boy reached a hand to his right shoulder, but found that it was true… he felt no bandages, only bare skin, and when he looked, there were not even a scar from the wound. It disappeared overnight…

Camus shrugged. “It’s just as mysterious as how you manage to cast that spell.”

“…” He didn’t know what to say.

“And that Dragon… do you think it’s Shoreaden?”

The younger brother shut his eyes and shook his head slowly. “…somehow, I don’t think so…”

 

Camus had insisted that they stayed another day there so that Rapheon had more time to rest, and the innkeeper, being her usual nice self, insisted that they stayed there for free. A lot of people came over to thank them for saving the town, and they gave them various things like fruits, medicine and even money for their journey.

When they were finally ready to leave, the two brothers were greeted with a scene nearly similar to their farewells in Yurhosha. The townspeople all came to see them off as though they had stayed there all their lives.

“Have a great journey there, kiddo!” a man yelled out.

A woman smiled at them. “May good fortune be at your side.”

“Thank you again for saving Goran,” a little girl said shyly.

Rapheon blushed and Camus sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as they passed through the crowd of people – they had never been publicly thanked before, not even in their hometown. When they were about to leave the town, the innkeeper gave them some information.

“I heard that you’re searching for Nagerilna so I think this will help you,” she said. “Nagerilna is a sacred village that only exists in legends, but I heard that it’s located in the middle of the Arganes Sea, so you should head for the port town of Loreadia at the other end of this continent. You should stop by Baycross City first; it’s about three days north from here.”

“Really?” Rapheon replied with renewed enthusiasm. “Thanks a lot!”

She smiled. “You’re welcome! Whenever you’re nearby, be sure visit us, okay?”

“Definitely!”

With their final farewells to the townspeople, the duo turned around and headed north, towards the river city of Baycross.

 

Pronunciation guide once again! =D


Goran = go-run
Sargora = sar-go-rah (‘sar’ as in sardine)
Arganes = ar-gar-ness (‘ar’ as in ‘art’ without the T, ‘ness’ is like ‘nest’ without the T)
Loreadia = low-read-dee-ah
Baycross = I guess you know how to pronounce this one! =P