Leon was amused by the fearless girl.

Alana was eighteen years old, just like him. However, he would not have even thought of the word escape, if it had been him. As it was widely known, Dragonesians possessed a significantly superior physical strength in comparison to humans, regardless of their training. Whereas, Leon exhibited a relatively low and distinct physical strength.

After Leon had managed to explain the fact that he meant no harm, and simply had plans of running away, similar to Alana, the girl finally brought down her dagger.

"From now onward, you go your way and I go my way. We will not speak about this little coincidental meeting to anybody, got it?" Alana threatened (rather than informing) the Dragonesian, who could only nod his head in response.

Well, moments later, Alana found Leon following her.

When she confronted him, he admitted sheepishly, "You see, I am not very familiar with Dragonesia."

"You have never been out of the Dragonesian Castle and Palace premises, although you are a Dragonesian?"

"Yes," Leon answered, not seeing anything peculiar in his response.

Alana deeply detested the Dragonesians and she was unable to completely trust the young one in front of her. Hence, she uttered a singular statement before walking away from him at a brisk pace.

"I did not catch your name by the way, Miss. And if you are wondering, I am Leon."

Alana did not respond at Leon's nth time of attempting to begin a conversation. He was quite idiosyncratic, as per Alana. Just how humans were not fond of Dragonesians, the same hatred was received from their side. It was almost bizarre, and mostly outlandish to witness a Dragonesian being so polite and happy in the presence of a mere human.

What if this was all an act? What if he was also a Dragonesian Guard, here to capture Alana? Or worse, he was keeping track of Alana's every move and sending information with whatever psychic power (if he possessed) or technology was in possession of, to his fellow guards? Of course, Alana had still not revealed her face, unlike Leon, because again, she had no trust in the Dragonesians.

Leon paused when he found the girl striding towards him, her dagger pointed at him. Not knowing what to do rather than standing awkwardly, he waved at the fuming girl fiddly, only to meet with the sharpened, pointed edge of the dagger, against his neck. As if on reflex, Leon put up his hands in defence.

"Are you a Dragonesina Guard?" Alana, with her eyes narrating the tales of resentment and indignation, asked with no hesitancy.

"Of course not," Leon answered, "As I have said before, I am running away—"

"How can I trust you?"

Leon pondered, thinking about what he could possibly say to make the girl believe he was innocent. And then, a certain Dragonesian rule came to his mind.

"I hope you are aware that Dragonesians are not allowed to speak ill of their own species, right?" Leon asked, quite eagerly.

Alana nodded in response, not understanding where the conversation was heading to.

"I despise the members of my species as much as you do, or any other human does," Leon stated.

Alana had expected a different answer. An answer, which would have given away his evil intentions. An answer, which would have revealed that he, after all, was a guard. But it seemed, he was nothing but a blood traitor. Alana nevertheless could not understand the reason Leon would break the Dragonesian rule and abhor his own kind. But for sure she hoped that it was because of the unfair and crude treatment towards the humans.

"And why are you running away?" Alana further asked.

Leon looked down dejectedly. "I think it is not the right time to answer that."

Alana sighed, as she moved away from the young Dragonesian, but her gaze not leaving his, even for a moment, "Drop your weapons on the ground. All of it."

Leon groaned in protest, "These metal things are my sole protector. You cannot expect me to give them to you."

"Now," Alana demanded once more, "Else, prepare yourself to face the wrath of my dagger. Mind you, this small weapon may seem very little, but it once was able to almost kill a Dragonesian."

Leon gulped down the lump in his throat. This human girl appeared not like others. Even at such a young age, for once did she not lose her pride in front of a Dragonesian. All this time, she stood still, holding her ground, with her faithful dagger clasped in her palm.

Leon knew that it was not worth arguing and putting up a fight with this human. It would only pour more fuel on her suspicion, and ignite the rage within. Surrendering his weapons for now was his only hope of survival.

With that being said, the male Dragonesian emptied his backpack, revealing a number of munitions, sizes ranging from small to middle. Alana's eyes shone at the shiny armaments, as she viewed her reflection on the blades. Ever since she was a child, the girl fancied all types of weapons. Collecting whatever broken or new ammunition she could get her hands at, was her hobby. Back when Alana used to attend school and her mother was still alive, often, the proper ladies in her home-town mocked and taunted her, as munitions were supposed to be for males to handle. Females such as her should not have gone to school. She should have stayed at home, and her mother should have taught her all the household chores so that once she grew up and married a wealthy man and bore his children, she could tend to them well.

The thought itself was pathetic. At least there was one good side of Alana's entrapment. She could freely learn the use of all those weapons, without being judged much. However, there were exceptions at times, like those jerks who had spoken ill of Alana's mother. If Alana could, she would have torn apart their tongues. But thanks to her kindness, she showed them mercy.

One by one, Alana examined each weapon. Alana's specialty was obviously handling a dagger or similar such weapons with a blade and handle. Hence, her eyes sparkled at the view of several ancient dagger-like weapons.

Before Lumina existed, Alana had read that there were seven continents which were constituted of countries; the countries further were constituted of different states, cities, districts, towns, villages, etcetera. It was when the world was in peace until the greatest pandemic that humankind had ever witnessed, the COVID-19, had killed off millions of humans. But that was several billion years ago. After a great earthquake and other natural disasters, the face of the Earth changed once again and all the remaining continents joined together to form one big mega continent, named Lumina.

Alana had learnt that her own ancestors (who were long gone now) were from a place called India, which was one of the countries in the largest continent, during that time, known as Asia. Alana found it very entertaining to sneak out at nights to the Dragonesian library and learn about her ancestors, original culture and ancient Indian ethnicity. There were even numerous religions spread all over the world, existing at that time. It was quite new and interesting. And that is also when, after digging deeper, she had learnt about a number of weapons that existed in the ancient times, throughout the world.

Alana seemed startled to find these ancient weapons, most of which belonged to ancient Asia, she could tell.

There was the Arit from ancient Indonesia, the Kukri from ancient India, the Mandau which apparently were present in ancient Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. The Punyal from the ancient Philippines was what appeared as most appealing to her. And how could she forget the long spear-shaped Qiang, originating from a country named China.

These weapons were all so fascinating and spectacular that Leon wondered why Alana was suddenly examining them, as if she had just been gifted with her favourite possessions.

"From where did you obtain these ancient artefacts?" Alana asked, once she had finished filling her bag with the weapons.

In reply, Leon simply shrugged, "I got all these as birthday presents from my uncle, throughout the years, but never really was fond of them. Figured that these arms might come in handy now that I am escaping, despite me having zero combat skills."

Alana's intuition was correct. The Dragonesians had been travelling all around the world, discovering the precious artefacts, and collecting them. However, these artefacts belonged to humans, and would always belong to them. Alana will make sure of it.

"Why do you need armed weapons, when your physical strength alone will be able to overtake an army of humans?" Alana asked, after a moment of silence or two.

"Guess I have always been weak. Don't know why though," Leon scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Nodding her head subtly, Alana turned away from Leon and began walking through the stone bridge. However, she did not forget to send another sharp glare to the Dragonesian, and ordered, "Keep in mind to maintain distance with me. Or else..."

Leon put up his hand in defence as he knew what she was going to say. He even stepped back, with the amused smile reappearing on his face.

With that being said, the two commenced their walk to nowhere.