"So, what are we looking for?"
Himora had asked as we walked away from the dwarf and his cart.
"A gift...that my mother had given me. It's my favorite keepsake, and I hate myself for ever taking it off."
We walked in silence until we reached the charred remains of my hut. I chuckled a little remembering the similar hut that the brute had kicked me through.
What a memory.
As I reached out to open the door, It fell over and broke in two in front of me. It was heavily burned, and broke rather easily. I just stepped over.
Himora spoke first.
"Man, this...is crazy. I still can't believe this is happening...with every passing second, I can swear that I'm going to wake up..."
He was very right. It was unbelievable...and sometime, when he wasn't looking, I would pinch myself to make sure that I WAS awake. The pain was real.
It was all real.
I walked to the place where my door had been, and made my way to the burned palate which at one point had been my bed. It all seemed so far away. I wanted to just lay down and go to sleep. Forget all of the pain and sorrow that had just hours ago occurred.
I looked about from one side of my small room to the other. There was nothing but black and white ash now where once there had been so much more.
"let's not linger in the past, man."
Himora's voice came from behind me.
"I know it hurts...but we can't just give up and cry like babies...we're men now, and that's all there is to it."
Himora was right.
We both were essentially the last of our kind.
My people had just been taken off of the map...
And Himora's had been done away with too, more than once actually.
At the moment though, he was in better luck than I was, for I was sure that his home was at least still intact.
"Himora...what became of your...home?"
The question came out very awkwardly, and it probably wasn't the right time to ask such a question, but I had to know. Where would we go from here? From the next town over?
"It's...It's gone."
I can't say that his answer shocked me, because for some reason I was expecting just that...
"I'm...sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up right now...and I shouldn't have..."
No, I hadn't known, but I felt both horrible and horrified all the same. He hadn't said a thing to me about this.
"Hey, don't sweat it man, I would have and should have told you anyway...It was about a week ago. I was out by the river meditating, when I heard a large explosion. The explosion was almost exactly like the one that destroyed Leafaria's defenses...but their fires were not aimed for our gate, for we have none. They launched an all out attack on our main camps."
I had never been to Himora's village, so I had no clue on what he was talking about.
"What do you mean 'main camps'? Aren't your homes all in one location, as ours are?"
Himora explained to me what had happened as we stood among the ashes of my life.
His father, a man named Batowsai Himora, was once a great General under Shicato forces, but he realized what Yatsimoto was doing, and joined forces with my father and the other original three legendary warriors who opposed the Shicato way.
One the final war was over, and the five heroes went their ways, Batowsai began to build his village home. He was also the first to settle down with a spouse in a small valley called Dunderturff. Batowsai formatted a 'perfect' design for his village which would make it possible to exit at will, but impossible to enter without the right state of mind.
The mind of a Watherian.
The Watherian's were a race of water-living beings who practiced sword and water moving/healing techniques. Their minds were very advanced in so many ways that...well, in short, the barriers of the village were very effective.
Watheria was broken into three sections.
One was the main camp where the water mist spirit lived, along with Batowsai and his closest family and friends. The other two were housing and shops where the villages main body lived.
'So, how did the barriers work?
Was my first question.
"The Water Spirit. It protected all who would do it's wishes."
He said, a slight frown gracing his face as he put his sword away and crossed his arms over his chest.
I took the opportunity to ask another question.
"It's...wishes? What was that, like work or something?"
His head swung my way.
"Yeah...something like that."
Himora said with a small smile.
"As long as we trained daily with the water nymphs, and memorized our sword techniques, he had vowed to protect us with his water mystical power. The mist surrounded our village and would paralyze any who didn't have permission from the spirit to enter. This permission came in the form of possessing a Watherian mind."
My next question was ready.
"So if I were to enter...or try to enter, well...I couldn't...could I?"
Himora looked kind of confused, but he thought it through and said:
"I am guessing that if you were with me there wouldn't be much of a problem...but now we will never know. The Shicato army had some kind of device that they called a catapult, which launched huge balls of fire and steel over our barriers, and into the pit where the Water Spirit stayed..."
I guess it was an elemental thing with the Water Spirit, because the way I saw it, what could a little fire do to harm it? Himora went on:
"The Spirit had vowed to protect us just as long as we did his wishes, and never came within arms-reach of him. He had always said that he hated being touched...by ANYTHING. So, when the fire balls nearly did just that, he grew distressed and left."
That explained it all.
"So, with the Water Spirit gone, the mist became all but ineffective, and Watheria was left defenseless."
Another question popped into my head, maybe a dumb one.
"Your guys did fight back...didn't they?
Himora was almost offended, but he kept his cool and answered my question.
"No, we didn't just sit back and let them kill us...or at least that's what I was told by one of the very few survivors from my village. I never made it back in time to witness the battle that took place that day...in my absence."
It had to hurt knowing that you didn't make it in time to help or possible stop the one thing that took everything away from you, and also took so many lives...
Himora was a lot stronger mentally than I had given him credit for. Maybe even stronger than myself.
"Did your father fall to Yatsimoto too?
At that, he uncrossed his arms and rubbed a single tear from his eye just as it began to absorb into his skin.
"Yeah...the bastard...well, no actually...He...He sacrificed himself to protect the people of my village. But in the end his efforts were useless, and almost everyone fell anyway. I just wish I could have been there to do something...anything."
I suddenly felt as if the loss of my own village was nothing in comparison to his. At least I can say that I had gotten the chance to try and help do something. Yatsimoto hadn't even given Himora a chance. Perhaps that's why he had fought so hard to protect mine. At that moment, I promised myself that we would be best friends forever.
No matter what.
At anytime I would give my life for his, as I was sure that her would for me.
Himora cleared his throat and went on.
"As Yatsimoto raised his great axe for the final blow, they say the very earth opened beneath him, and hellfire flowed out in great and terrible waves. Waves that were heading right toward my village...That's when my dad stepped forward. Hundreds of Yatsimoto's soldiers were dead, and he couldn't risk losing more, so he needed to finish the battle then and there. But my dad stopped him. As the flames reared their ugly heads, my father jumped into action, summoning all of his power for one last stand."
*Batowsai speaking
-I MAY DIE...BUT I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!...IF NOT FOR THE SAKE OF WATHERIA, AT LEAST FOR MY SONS!-
"Those were his last words as he opened his very soul and his full power spilled out, extinguishing all of the flames, freezing Yatsimoto in place, and...taking his own life."
This was so much to take in.
" I'm sorry...Himora. I was selfish all this time, thinking only of myself and my pain, while all along we both have felt very nearly the same...I-"
"It's alright."
Himora cut me off.
"It's my fault for not telling you. Don't let it stress you. Well, anyway...the attack failed, and Yatsimoto finished off my people. The handful that got away found me but 20 yards away in the forest...I had collapsed in my efforts to make it back, of pure exhaustion."
It drove me crazy to think about how Yatsimoto could be so evil...What was his reasons? the five legendary warriors?
Who were they?
The answers were soon to be had.
We had to get away from this place first, and then maybe we could both find a shard of peace to start from.
I finished digging around, and found what I had come for.
A small, silver chain with a soot-covered silver star on it that my dad had made for me. Around the top of the star was a silver ring that my mother had made. It was all that I had left now.
So with my spear in hand, my best friend at my side, and new questions, I headed for the cart and a new adventure.
The first part of my journey was over, and I guess it was time to start the second.
We made it back to the old dwarf and he finally introduced himself as one Traggs Hammersmith.
From there, we began our trip immediately.
It would be some time until we reached the next town, the seasoned traveler had told us, so Himora and I made ourselves as comfortable as we could amongst his belongings and quickly fell asleep. It was the first sleep that we had gotten since the attack.
All night we rode. Traggs said that he didn't need sleep, for her was only rock.
Weird...
Himora had fallen asleep with his sword in hand, just in case, and me?
I hadn't fallen asleep right away...
I lay on my back and looked up at the stars.
For once, I felt calm.
Free from the chaos and pain and violence.
I felt...happy?
My young mind couldn't understand it.
I think I was just burnt out...
I let sleep take me.
I needed it.
The stars weren't going anywhere.