The man’s home was a small cabin hidden right
between two slabs of a mountain’s base. It was far from civilization, but
it had all the furniture and equipment that a house of a village would
have. A boy sat on a chair in the middle of the house’s single room.
A man sat across from him and was holding the boy’s ankle. Two other boys
surrounded them and watched with intense eyes.
“There.”
The man settled Luc’s ankle on the footstool
after he finished putting some herbal medicine on it.
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t that badly
twisted.”
The magician had his head down so the man
looked at Futch and Sasuke. “He must’ve fallen into one of the bandit’s
traps. They make a lot of those to trap carriages and rob trader’s
goods.”
“It’s a good thing I found you before the
bandits did.”
The man pushed himself out of the chair.
“I’ll go make you guys some tea.”
“Thank you.”
Sasuke quickly responded. He looked at
the boy sitting in the chair. Even though Luc had his head down, his body
had stopped shaking and his shoulders were less tense. He seemed much
more relaxed and less in pain.
Luc hadn’t said a word since they have taken
him out of the hole, but Sasuke knew that Luc was just angry that he fell into
a trap and had to let other people help him. The magician really caused
Sasuke to be worried. The ninja hadn’t been able to listen or think
straightly since he had seen the magician in so much pain.
He’s been following the bearded man’s commands
ever though they’ve just met. He doesn’t even know if he could trust the
man. Sasuke normally would’ve thought that way, but for now, the most
important thing is that Luc’s okay.
Another layer of silence passed by them,
nothing was said or heard other than the crackling of fire. The man
finally moved his eyes from the boiling pot to Futch’s dragon.
“Say, what sort of creature might you be
holding?”
The man said in a friendly tone.
“I’ve seen all kinds of monsters around these
mountains, but I’ve never seen anything like yours.”
“Oh.”
Futch snapped out of his thoughts and held up
higher his baby dragon.
“Bright is a baby dragon.”
“Baby dragon!”
The bearded man seemed surprised and held his
chin as if he was pondering something. “You mean the same ones from the
Dragon Knights that I’ve heard about?” The tea was made and the man was
walking over with the three steaming cups he had poured out.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Futch replied as he placed Bright back on his
lap so he can receive the cup of tea with his hands. The conversation
ended there. Nobody seemed to be in the mood to talk. Everyone was
lost in their own thoughts.
~~~~~~~~
‘This is so embarrassing,’ Luc thought, ‘of
all things, I have to get hurt by falling into a hole.’
‘Sasuke told you not to walk up there, but you
just wouldn’t listen to him.’
‘Ughh, that kid just angers me sometimes,
but…’
‘…I wonder why they’re so quiet… wait a
second, didn’t I hear something about tea?’
‘…’
‘Tea!’
“No! Don’t drink the tea!”
Luc suddenly blurted out from his former
silent state. Sasuke almost spitted out his tea from the shock, but
didn’t.
It was too late. The tea has already
been served and emptied up by his thirsty companions. Luc had known all
too well—the story of how Tir McDohl and his party got tricked by the tea of
some mountain bandits. The story had been discussed quite frequently
during his stay in the Toran Castle.
Too bad Futch didn’t pay attention to any of
those things and if Sasuke had been born 3 years earlier he would have
noticed. When Luc first heard of this he thought he would never fall prey
to such silly traps, but now it seems…
“Hey Luc, what did you mean by don’t drink the
tea?”
Sasuke finally spoke up after swallowing the
mouthful of tea that he had almost choked on. Luc didn’t say
anything. There was no point in explaining when the ninja didn’t even get
the contents of his warning. Sasuke held a hand to his head. He suddenly
felt drained of energy. His eye-lids were becoming heavy. The last
thing he saw was Luc staring down at him with an annoyed look on his face, as
if he had known what was going to happen.
A crash from the other side of the room caught
the magician’s attention.
“Futch!”
‘Not you too…’
Luc watched Bright nudging his unmoving master
who had just collapsed onto the floor. The only thing Luc hoped for was
that Futch did knew about McDohl and his tea incident and had only pretended to
empty his cup, but now it seems that Luc was just kidding himself.
“You’ll pay for this.”
Luc aimed his threat towards the smirking man
who had been witnessing all this from the side. He stood up to grab his
staff, but the pain from his ankle caused him to stumble over. He broke
his fall by grabbing onto the footstool, but the man was already behind
him. Luc didn’t need to turn around to know that the man was behind
him. The light from the fireplace was casting a big shadow around him of
the large body of the man.
“Now why don’t you just stay put.”
Luc heard the man tell him with a mocking
tone. Then he felt an awful pain on his back where the man’s hand had
connected. The last thing he heard before falling to the floor was the
sound of Bright’s panicking screams. Then there was nothing but darkness.