Wilson and Dale quietly rode on. Wilson in the two-wheeled carriage and Dale sitting in the front holding on to the ropes used to keep the horse-like beast in place. They travelled on day after day using the man-made roads used to connect the villages to the city, without them seeing any other person, covering a bit of distance each day before stopping to rest at night. They barely spoke with each other. There was nothing to speak about anyway. A full week had passed before they finally arrived at the next village. The first thing Wilson noted was that the village was larger than the one he grew up in. It could almost qualify to be called a city.
‘Maybe in a few more years’ Wilson thought to himself. “We will stop here tonight!” Dale said as he slowed the beast down to a stop in front of an inn. They entered the inn and saw a lot of people in a bar. Some men were drinking quietly, some people were singing and many others seemed to want to pay for rooms as well, struggling to get the receptionist to respond to them quickly. Wilson grimaced at the thought of him having to struggle to get the receptionist’s attention, so we was glad when Dale told him to simply sit at an empty table.Dale looked around, taking in the scenery and walked towards a closed curtain that separated the bar from another room. Several minutes later, Dale was still in that secluded room doing god-knows-what. An old waitress served Wilson a huge plate of meat and vegetables and left without a word. Wilson looked at that plate of food for a long time, salivating and trying to remember if he had seen such food before. After another fifteen minutes or so, he began to wonder if it was alright to eat all alone. His mom had always waited for him to arrive before she ate. She would never eat before he got back home and was ready to eat no matter how late he happened to be. So, he decided to wait some more time.Twenty minutes passed. Then, another twenty minutes. Then, another and another and another. By the time Wilson gave up on waiting for him, he realized that he had been drooling for a long, long time. Long enough to have made a pool of wet, sticky drool on his trousers. He made a decision, “I cannot wait any longer, I have done my best! I wonder how mother could do this, waiting for so long. She must have been starving all the time! Mothers are really the best!” he muttered to himself.And without further ado, he sank his teeth into the meat. Eating like a starved carnivore. People around could hear him eating and turned around to see a particular boy eating. The entire bar was soon quiet as every single being in it looked on with apparent looks of disgust written on their faces. Wilson didn’t look up and so, did not see their faces. Neither did he notice that the bar was suddenly quiet because even he could not hear beyond his own eating voice. He ravished the meal while talking to himself and praising the meal. Not minding the drool that slipped out of his mouth as he chomped and chewed on the meat completely ignoring the vegetables. “From the looks of it, it’s like watching a pack of hyenas eating from the same mouth!” A man muttered to himself.Nobody said a word aloud as if they were warned not to, while watching on. Too disgusting to look at and yet too intriguing to look away. Nobody could muster up the courage to look away first as their faces were glued to this scene.Wilson finally finished his meal, drank some water and looked up, away from his plate, to see a large number of people quietly watching him. He was confused. He could see a lot of facial expressions, some faces were blank, some amused and most faces exhibited disgust, pain and pity for the piece of meat.He looked back down at his plate and finally understood why! There were bits of meat and vegetables as well as signs of spittle everywhere. On the plate, the table, his clothes and on touching his face he noticed a few bits of it. He remembered everything he had done and immediately and rightfully guessed that they saw him as an animal. An ugly, disgusting animal. With a shameful look on his face, he left the bar to look for a place to shower and change. He did not return to the inn after that and instead slept on a wide, thick-branched tree some distance away from the inn, close to the carriage he had gotten used to.*************Dale woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed. He finally had a good sleep last night. He got up, took a long bath, dressed up and headed out of the inn.As he headed towards his carriage, he heard people giggling and speaking in hushed tones. What were they talking about? He had no idea! It wasn’t his business anyway. “Dale! Are you leaving already?” Walter, a co-merchant and friend of Dale’s called out. “Yes!” “Alright! I will meet you there!”Walter was supposed to travel along with him to the city but changed his mind all of a sudden. He wouldn’t say the reason but insisted that he was not going anywhere anymore.Dale did not think too much about it as he quickly saddled his Hor-sen, as he called the beast. He paid the man who took care of his beast the other night and prepared to move out. “Dale!” Wilson called out. Dale looked at the caller and he had to think things through before it finally clicked. ‘I had totally forgotten about this kid! Good thing he arrived in time! If not, he would have missed me!' Dale felt that it was very funny that he could never forget the smallest of his goods but he forgot about a whole human. Old enough to be his father’s youngest son. “Hurry! Come on in! Time waits for no one!” Dale and Wilson both settled down and were off on their way again.As they approached the outskirts of the village, Wilson promised himself to never starve again to avoid another scenario like that of last night.Dale and Wilson once again continued their journey. They came across many more villages and small towns. These towns had flying vehicles, large towers and buildings, were very populated and the hierarchy was apparent over there. Wilson marveled at the sight of these vehicles and buildings. Dale sniggered.“Wait till you get to the city of your dreams! This is nothing compared to that.” He said as he heard Wilson praising the beauty of these towns.A month after they started their journey, they entered a city that made the previous towns they had seen look like toddler towns. It was filled with the characteristic hustle and bustle of a city life, even at night. There were guards everywhere. Cars, carriages, Buses, Communication devices, various types of foods, inns, hotels, bars, people shouting and displaying their wares, some loud music was being played at a corner where some people were gathered watching a man and his three-tailed albino monkey dance. A
It has been two weeks since Wilson got to Forest City. He had not seen Dale throughout those two weeks. Dale got and paid for a room for Wilson in a moderately inn and told him to keep training in preparation for the tournament. Wilson was given enough money to last a month. He bought new clothing to blend in as a commoner in the city.“I will be back in a few weeks before the tournament begins!” He remembered Dale telling him the last time he saw him. He made no friends and did not socialize. He was here with a goal in mind, not for trivial matters like; ‘Hi, nice to meet you….’ and stuff related to all that unnecessary nonsense. Wouldn’t it be better if he spent all that time exercising in order to stay in shape and improving on the few moves he knew? Basically throwing punches, kicks, grapples and tosses and body slams. He had seen a school for martial arts with students his age flooding into the space everyday. He really wanted to
“If you don’t mind my speaking up, I think he might still be alive!” Dale looked up with such speed that his neck nearly snapped. He scrutinized the man who spoke those words. He was standing in front and looking down at them. He was nearly six feet tall, bald and white-bearded. He had a dignified expression and was dressed in white noble clothing. His white robe and beard fluttered in the wind slightly as he looked at the crying Dale and supposedly dead Wilson. When Dale said nothing and looked on in a daze, the old man continued speaking.“I believe he’s still breathing. So, if you let me help right now, he can still be saved. Come on, follow me.”Dale said nothing as his face turned serious and lifted Wilson up in his hands and followed the man. They stopped in front of the closest restaurant to their right before entering.“We are going to use a table, if you don’t mind!” The old man said to the inn owner that stood behind the counter.“No problem!”
Dale and Maxi looked at each other for a long time after Wilson had left. Dale looked at Maxi with an expression that he only showed when he had no idea how to react.“Dale, I know you meant it in a good way, but your words came out COLD. Like midnight, on-the-mountaintop cold. You really hit him hard there with your choice of words. I mean, outrightly telling him to give up his dream? That was too much!” Maxi said while looking at Dale. Dale tried to sound persuasive but his words seemed to have had an adverse effect on the boy’s morale.“What do we do?” Dale was confused. He did not know what to do and could only ask his friend for advice.“Give him some space to gather his thoughts. He’ll come around…..I hope!” Maxi said with a dismissive shrug and went towards the door.“I will be leaving now! Try to have a good sleep! Wilson will definitely come back! He has nowhere else to sleep!” Maxi said as he waved his goodbyes and left the room for his
The thief was scared out of his mind. He had to do something to escape immediately. Death is not a beautiful thing any way. The sword was coming too fast for his already weak body. It was closing in too fast. He desperately ripped apart the rope he was bound with and pulled off his mask.*CLANG*Wilson was shocked. A person had blocked his sword only few inches away from the thief’s neck. He did not see any movements beforehand. Whoever blocked it must be a master swordsman.“Junior master, I will handle it from here!” The master swordsman said to the thief lying on the floor, who was looking dazed. Master? What kind of master goes about stealing and killing? These and many more questions flooded the heads of Wilson and other onlookers.Common sense told Wilson to forget about it and just leave quietly, but he was enraged, too enraged to listen to his senses. He angrily shouted and shifted his sword towards the swordsman. His horizontal la
The execution ground was where notorious criminals caught in the city were usually executed at the end of every month. It was very wide, about the size of three football fields and was located outside the city, just before the forest. Even though it was used basically for killing others, it was also used for large-scale competitions, like the wrestling tournament.Maxi arrived there as soon as the tournament officially began. There were lots of people both in the arena and outside. Maxi had to push his way through to the front of the crowd to check for Wilson. It took him several minutes to get to his destination and he was covered in sweat and food and wine.“This place is tight! And there are so many contestants this year.” Maxi muttered to himself after squeezing his way to the front. He looked around and could barely see any of the contestants’ faces. The match had already gotten intense. Bodies were flying everywhere, skills upon skills w
Wilson struck at her face again and again and again. He punched so much she began to wonder if he had a problem with her face. All she could do was block. Dodging his fists as she realized was near impossible. There was no room for a counter-attack. It was either she continued blocking or she traded a blow for a blow. She was not sure how much of it she could handle. He definitely knew how to pack a punch. A successful strike to her face was sure to disfigure her beautiful facial features. She became even more hesitant about it.Wilson noticed her hesitation. He knew a simple slash from her would mean the end for him. But he also knew that females in general, especially beautiful ones always paid attention to their looks. It was kinda an instinct. So he focused most of his attacks to her face, giving her no choice but to block and continuously retreat. He remembered what his boxing teacher told him back at the village, about swordsmen requiring some space to brandish their swords
Chapter 13- ComatoseWilson was carried into the inn by the mercenaries Maxi hired. The room was arranged and the bed was tidied up faster than expected. The healer friend of Maxi took out his toolkit from under his large sleeves of his robe. He quickly chanted a spell to cleanse the blood off Wilson’s body. He put another low grade pill into his mouth to further reduce his pain. He then inserted his nine needles into specific points on different parts of his body. He chanted some words for a long period of time and placed his palms on Wilson’s forehead. A white blinding light glowed from the point of contact, enveloping Wilson in its entirety and temporarily blinding the mercenaries. Maxi had long closed his eyes. He knew what was going to happen when the chant was finished. He had experienced it a lot. The healer sat on a chair with a pained and exhausted look on his face. He panted as Maxi went to join him after paying the mercenaries for their labor.