Chapter 8

            I take Lia’s hand and lead her to the Kyrian guests’ house when we are both dressed properly. We have many questions for them, especially for Aria. Lia gasps at the sight of West Tigris. Most houses are burnt down to the ground; human remains laying everywhere. If possible, you can hear them still screaming in pain. I shudder at the sound in my head. It is dead silent in reality. This place used to be noisy with civilians. Now it’s just a memory.

            “Come on,” I say. I look briefly at Lia. She has tears skiing down her pale cheeks but didn’t bother to wipe it away. A small whimper escapes from her lips. She follows me obediently. A few houses and small castles are still standing. I knock on the door impatiently.

            Yaris opens the door with a loud yawn. His long curly hair messy shows that he was woken up by me. His long black beard also tangled. He looks like a Viking, if you ask me.

            “Sir Anthony?” His deep voice fills with surprise.

            I take out my sword and lay it by his neck as a warning. His sleepy eyes are now wide awake, staring at me in disbelief.

            “Why is it that the whole town is slaughtered and you and your family live as if nothing has happened? Answer me, you traitor!” I scream, not caring if I wake up the whole house.

            “Yaris!” Aria’s voice screams for her eldest brother. She is not far behind staring at the scene.

            “Stay right where you are, Yaris. I’m going to have to talk to your sister,” I say calmly.

            “You are not talking to my family,” he growls at me with thick Kyrian accent. I can see his fists clenching by his side. Before I can do anything, his brothers has already pin me on the ground. I throw a punch at Harris. Hearing him groaning in pain fuels my adrenaline. I kick at Kerris face. It makes me smug to see his nose oozing down to his thick mustache. I scramble to my feet only to see Yaris holding a small knife at Lia’s neck.

            I freeze. It didn’t stop me from growling at him though.

            “Yaris! Let go of her!” Aria pleads, still standing at the same spot.

             Yaris glances at his sister, distracted. Lia immediately throws a vicious backhand at Yaris which causes him to loosen his grip on her. She gets away from him just in time for me to knock him down with my body.

            He pants heavily in my face. His smelly breath makes my nose wrinkle. I put my sword closer to his neck.

            I let out a curse when I feel something pointy on my neck.

            “I want you to slowly remove your sword away from my brother’s neck,” Harris says in my ears. I do as he says; his sword still in place. “Now slowly stand up.”

            I rise to my feet. Kerris has his sword at Lia’s neck nearby me. Aria watches us in horror.

            “If you hurt her, I’ll snap every fingers and toes you own,” I snarl at Kerris.

            Kerris rolls his eyes, not taking my threat seriously. Yaris staggers to his feet. His swollen face satisfies me.

            “Kerris, let go of her,” Aria pleads again, her voice close to sobbing. She doesn’t look like she like violence.

            “Why, sister? They could have killed us before anyone of us can blink!” Kerris says.

            “She is the princess, Kerris. Their intentions are not to harm us,” she explains. I’m surprised at how she knows of this.

            “Princess?” The three brothers repeat in shock. Kerris quickly let go of Lia but Harris didn’t make a move.

            Aria walks towards me. Her brothers are about to protest when she holds up a hand, silencing them. Lia stands by my side in a protective stance. She starts to growl lowly at Aria. Her growls sounds animalistic as if the dragon in her is about to take over. Her growl makes Aria pause in her steps, merely a few steps away from Lia and I.

            “Princess Lia,” she acknowledges with a deep curtsy. Lia stops growling at her. “Sir Anthony.” We make eye contact as she curtsy at me. The three brothers look perplexed. “I have been meaning to meet and talk to you when I first received visions of your destiny and our future.”

            Lia and I look at each other. What does she mean by our destiny? What on earth is she babbling about? Has she gotten crazy like other Kyrians? First they claim to be dragon slayers and now she has visions? How mind-blowing.

            “As you know, I suffer sleepless nights every night because of nightmares of a black dragon,” Aria starts. Lia stiffens instantly. I hold her right hand in my left for comfort. “I have no longer fear for that dragon a few moons later. That dragon turned into a beautiful girl. That girl has blood pooling out of her heart. That girl is you, your highness.”

            Aria stares into Lia’s brown eyes. I narrow my eyes at her. Does she know that she is practically asking for death? Whoever dare predict any royal family member nightmare will be executed within hours. The last person I heard claimed to be a witch and predicted that King Eli’s death before he gets married. King Eli’s father, who was a father at that time, executed the Kyrian in public, which is a warning to all Kyrians who live in Elopura for a short time.

            “What are you?” Lia whispers as she trembles in fear. The three brothers look at Lia in puzzlement.

            Aria shrugs. “I don’t know what they call the four of us.”

            “You and your barbarian brothers claim yourselves to be dragon slayers,” I sneer, not caring if I’m impolite. Elopura was attacked by Visian army and it is no time to be polite to who knows might be an enemy.

            “I wasn’t talking about my brothers, Sir. I’m talking about another three people who is gifted just like me,” Aria explains, looking at me. She looks very calm which is very suspicious to me.

            “Then where are these gifted people?” I ask.

            “Ahead in time, possibly. And the past for you.”

            Now I stare at her as if she has lost her mind. Do I have to check my ears or did she just say that?

I can tell Lia is as confused as me because she says, “What, in heavens, are you talking about?”

Aria has a small smirk planted on her small face. Her brothers may be giants but she is a Lilliputian. “Sir Anthony is a time-traveler. Do you know that, Princess Lia? Or, sir, do you know that Princess Lia here is a cursed dragon shifter?”

Lia’s and my mouth are hanging open when we hear that. How did she all know this? What is she? Receive visions of the future? Is she a fortune-teller? Perhaps a witch! I narrow my eyes at her. My hands twitching at my sides for my sword. I want a sword by her throat and ask her how she knows all of this. Unfortunately, I’m not the kind who uses violence against women for answers.

Lia reads my mind and take a deadly step towards her, which Aria quickly backs away.

“Who are the other three ‘gifted ones’?” Lia asks. Her voice is calm. Too calm. I have known Lia for so long that I know that it is not the time to piss her off.

Aria frowns. “I don’t know their names because I’m the first. The fourth will know all our names since she has all the records of us. Our visions and which period of time the four of us are in are in those records. That’s all I know since my last vision.”

“When was your last vision?” I ask carefully.

Her frown is deeper as she answers, “A few moons ago.”

“I have no clue of what you speak of, Aria,” Harris complains. I turn to see the three brothers standing awkwardly. We are so deep in the conversation that we didn’t realize that they are listening on us in the same room.

“Where is the dragon you spoke of, sister?” Yaris asks, holding up his sword in a showing off way.

Lia snarls at him, making all of us jump in fright. Her snarl is inhuman. What is happening to her? I thought that her curse only works at night. Aria must have something to do with this. Lia also looks shocked at her own behavior that she looks down at her feet. I put my hand on her shoulder, in a soothing way. She looks up to give me a tiny smile.

            “This dragon you have been hunting down is right under your nose,” I inform them in a matter-of-fact tone with a tint of anger in it. The three brothers look dumbfounded as they stare at their sister for explanation.

            Aria sighs heavily. “I tried to tell you. You numbskulls wouldn’t listen! You’re more interested in capturing a mythical creature than worrying for me! Do you know how painful it is to hear your blood relatives talking about slaughtering a dragon for fame and gold where as I am destined to keep it alive!”

            That’s when Lia and I are lost. We have no idea what she’s babbling about. Aria, however didn’t stop as she walks towards her guilt-streaked brothers. “You didn’t care at all! Ever since I told Harris about it, you three were never the same again.”

            Aria starts to release sobs. Yaris step forward to hug her. Instead she run out of the house, crying.

            “Aria!” Yaris runs out for his sister, leaving the two brothers, Lia and I in the house.

I hug Lia tightly as she starts to shake. From the corner of my eyes, I see the two brothers stare at Lia in shock. They are probably imagining how Lia looks like as a dragon. Lia’s shaking starts to lower.

I let go of her when her shaking can be considered as shivering.

“I will kill you if you try to kill the princess,” I warn the two Kyrian brothers. Their heads bob up and down in answer. “Now, explain why does this part of Tigris remain untouched?”

Kerris is no longer bleeding except that his mustache tinted with a bit of blood. Harris has a black eye in both eyes, causing him to squint to see. The brothers look at each other, debating silently on who is going to talk on behalf of them. I clear my throat to stop their childish game. Kerris lets out a sigh of defeat.

“Yaris, Harris and I went hunting yesterday. We stumbled upon a Visian soldier. The odd thing is that he passes by us without looking at us. Like we were not even there! Yaris decided to capture him and send him to you,” Kerris explains, looking at me. The ‘you’ in the sentence is me. I nod, urging him to continue.

Kerris takes a deep breath. “We caught him and drag him to our house. He didn’t even fight back. He has black rings around his eyes and the way he walks is like he is a dead person walking. His eyes weren’t focused at all. He looked like something possessed him.” Kerris paused and shivered at the memory. Dead person walking? Like a zombie? I start to crave for my delicious cup of coffee. 

“We put him in a room, questioning about him. He didn’t look at us. He was staring at the sun outside that is beginning to rise. Yaris keeps asking questions until he got tired of that boy. We didn’t tell Aria about it though. Harris thought that someone’s spirit has entered him. When the warning bell chimed, that boy suddenly attacked us. Yaris was forced to stab him in the heart. Aria went up to check on us only to see the dead boy coming back to life. Yes, the boy came back to life,” Kerris says. His eyes show exhaustion.

“All of us were too shocked to do anything. The dead boy stumbled his way out of the house just like he did in the forest without harming any of us. We did not leave the house after that so we don’t know much about the attack,” Harris speaks up.

I rub my chin as I am deep in thought. A person who is stabbed can come back alive? Does it have something to do with Aria? She is the one who can get Lia’s dragon out. Four gifted people like her? This is so confusing.

“Perhaps they jump into conclusions that they are dead, except that they are not,” Lia whispers.  

“Perhaps,” I repeat in a whisper.

Lia sighs. “They are Kyrians, Anthony.”

“Aria is right about us,” I point out.

“So you truly are a dragon?” Harris asks in sudden excitement.

“Sadly, yes,” Lia replies.

“Aren’t you excited that you are bigger and stronger than everyone?” Harris asks curiously. He is the youngest and the most curious among the three brothers. I wonder how old he is.

Lia looks angrily at Harris. “How does it feel like to have being hunted down by you and everyone wants to chop off your head just to claim rewards worth of gold!”

Harris flinches at her harshness. His face hangs in shame at her brutal words. Lia is again shaking in anger. I put my arms around her waist to calm her down. She responds to my touch by looking at me. I can see small yellow hints in her chocolate brown eyes. What does this mean? What is happening to her?

“Calm down, Lia. He’s merely curious,” I reason.

Her shaking starts to lower as she takes deep calming breaths.

“It’s alright,” Lia says. I look up to see her looking at Harris. I frown. Who is she talking to?

            Harris gives her a small smile of gratitude. Lia and her super hearing must have caught his low words of apology.

            All of us are silent for awhile. Harris and Kerris can’t help but stare at Lia. Lia shifts a couple of times on the chair, clearly uncomfortable with their staring.

            “So when… do… you know…” Harris trails off, rubbing at the back of his neck. Lia seems to understand his question.

            Lia closes her eyes, answering, “As soon as the moon appears.”

            Kerris jumps on his feet, startling all of us. I stand as well. Kerris grabs his sword and gesture me to listen. I listen closely to hear horse hooves pounding on the ground not far away.

            Should we send a signal that we’re here? Those men could be our enemy. What are we going to do? Where are Yaris and Aria when we need them? I gesture Kerris to follow me which he nods at.

            “Harris, I trust you to take care of the princess as long as it’s needed,” I tell him. All trances of playfulness are washed away, replaced with a serious expression. He nods in understanding.

            “Anthony! Let me help!” Lia cries.

            I shake my head immediately. “No, it’s too risky. Just stay put. Kerris and I will be back before sun set, I promise.”

            “You better,” she growls.

            “I will.” I offer her a smile. Without wasting further time, Kerris and I slip out of the house. I follow Kerris since he’s the one who has a greater sense of hearing than me. We pass through the burnt houses again. The smell of decay enters my nose which makes me want to pass out. I ignore the smell and continue following Kerris to what seems like a still-standing bridge. I recognize this bridge that connects the west and east of Tigris.

            We cross the bridge only to see the worse. All the crops are burnt to the ground.

            I feel something crack under my boots. I look down to see that I stepped on someone’s skull. Horrified, I take a few steps back. The body is burnt so badly that you can’t recognize him… I pray that it’s not one of the Johnson.

            Kerris is waiting for me in front of me. I nod, urging him to continue walking, which he did. I wonder where the survivors fled to for shelter. We pass by a small familiar path.

            “Wait,” I say. Kerris stops in his track. He turns his head towards me with a raised eyebrow. “I need to check on something.”

            “We don’t have time,” Kerris hiss. His thick Kyrian accent leaks out. I can hear the horses’ neighs getting further. I sigh.

“You go ahead. I’ll look around for survivors,” I propose. I glance at the path again.

Kerris nods. “Just get back before dark. If I’m not there by then, don’t come after me.”

With that he continues walking, leaving me alone. I am just about to take a step, before I feel myself being pulled back. I open my eyes only to see myself in the classroom.