Colchis. As/A: 3084.
Milen

It began, again.

In an open field of seemingly endless red roses and jolly butterflies, was a fair little girl not older than six years of age squatting, playing with dirt that escaped into her nails and dirtied her hands.

Her gaze shifted from the mound of mud puddle and sequoia youngling stuck in the middle, to a fairly older boy with long golden hair that tailed the wind rushing past his face.

"Brother," she spoke. "look how big I made it grow."

Her innocent smile was so beautiful that it stole the grace off her flowery gown tugged at at all corners by the wind, with it did the perverted wind flare her black wavy hair that danced too to it's tune.

"With time big brother, I will soon be as good as you." She cheerfully said.

"My magic and yours are very different, but sure, you will be a master at nature magic than any there have ever been."
Her brother smiled back before he walked up to her, lifted her into the air, and began to spin about as she chuckled and jokingly protested.

"Burn her!"
"Away with the witch!"
"Cast her into the well...Drown her!"

Like blowing away chaff did the beautiful scenery of bright red and warmth fade away, and was enveloped with a dark dreary space, having an angry horde of men with pitch garden forks and lit torches.

"Kill the devil's spawn!" An extremely dreadfully scream lurched at ear's length, and immediately a partly naked woman was attacked, pushed, and dragged towards a mountain of rampaging fire, and finally thrown into it.

Deaf to her kicks and pleas they nudged her into the furnace. Taken aloft by her plight, they folded arms and watched her demise.

The agonizing scream from this woman as the flames licked her flesh, struck the chords of engraving despair, and with it was the darkness that then clutched her flesh, and pulled the woman into the skies until she and this darkness vanished.

"Midara Requiem." Those were the last words of this woman he could remember, while the darkness was seeping in and slowly consuming her.

It ended, again.

"Ailith!" Milen screamed and jerked up, his chest drumming, and his heart racing. The air was icy, and like daggers did it slice through the parchment of his skin, cutting into every part made bare to the ocean's wind.

He sat up and still, letting the replay of the same dream that had been haunting him for months, to dig out the fear he had buried down decades ago. Most times it were with more details, sometimes lesser, but they were all similar: A beautiful fair child dancing about in a garden of rose, a woman who is burnt to death, or another struggling within darkness.
Neither of these females were people he had ever had contact with, and the most peculiar thing about these women, were their unique name, Ailith, a name in all his travels has never heard, not even in a whisper.

It took him a while to recover from the piercing jabs around the corner of his head; Sirens are not creatures to be messed with. Luck was in play when the scaly daughters of Poseidon had taken the rest of the men, leaving the ship unharmed. That was truly good luck, as nobody escapes sirens alive.

"I see you're well?"
Amelia's face was the first his blurry eyes parted ways to meet.

"How are you alive?" Milen pouted as he asked.

"Your dirty luck of a sham came to play again, that's the only explanation for why you survived such a blow to the head, only to wakeup few hours later as though nothing happened." Amelia bent into him, examining his skin with a furrowed brow. Her jaw dropped as she realised that Milen had no injuries and broken bones, only traces of dried blood whose source was totally erased.
"Are you some kind of monster?" She said lightly, her eyes still wide from shock.

"Of course, I'm fine..." Milen held the railings that hopefully had stopped him from rolling overboard, and pushed himself up. "It'll take more than a dozen beautiful sardines to take me down." He narcissistically replied.

The smile he wore afterwards was warm, and it eased Amelia's unsettled heart, making her smile back.

"Apparently being a woman was a direct counter to the Siren's magic, but I do not understand how you weren't affected by their songs."

She said, looking at Milen for a response, one he did not have answers to either...or yet.

"Like I said, it'll take more than dozens of hairy tilapia, to bring this hunk of beauty down." he smouldered a bit, and immediately killed his prideful expressions. "Where's the dwarf? He wasn't taken was he?"

"This ship is currently running because of him." Amelia responded. "And we're all that's left."

"Just the three of us?" Milen asked, which Amelia affirmed with a nod. "well, there was no need for all the extra weight anyways."

He shrugged, and Amelia immediately struck his shoulder with a punch, and a pout bubbled on her lips.

"Don't be cruel, you disrespect the dead." She said. "And Geoff survived because of his amassed experience." A smug grew on her face. "He could definitely beat you in a game of wits you know." She teased.

"And you think I could give two shits about that?" He deadpanned, with brow arched alongside it.

"He stuffed a cork in his ear dude... Hmmph, an incredibly smart guy." She stroked her chin too, in an attempt to infuriate him more.

"Okay." Milen blithely responded, deadpanning again as he stared at her.

Unsuccessful at getting under his skin, she became angry and stormed off.

"Inconceivable brat!" She muttered as she walked away.

Milen giggled, and turned his eyes from her.

"We're almost at the docks, just a few hours uh?" He cocked a brow. "I wonder what awaits us on the island."

_____

An hour later.
______

"We mustn't go any further, or we'll be spotted."
Geoff dropping the anchor, rallied together with Amelia and Milen.

"And that is a problem?"
Milen asked.

"Getting to Colchis by sea, is not the original design of entry into this small country, and no one know what might happen to us if they find out that we achieved such a feat."

"He has a point." Amelia interjected. "Accessing Colchis is only through teleportation magic, and only those with special permits are allowed through those gates. It's a controlled system against spies and itchy minds."

"So you're saying we swim?"
Milen asked while clenching his brows tightly in displeasure.

"It's our only option." Geoff affirmed, giving Milen a slight nod.

Turning to Amelia,
"Hope you still have your direction thingy with you?" Milen asked.

Grunting,
"Your ignorance will be your end someday. Gracious saint!" She exclaimed. One might protest against the false use of a holy name, but such antics were long lost.

Swear as thy might, holy or not, nobody cares!

Amelia slipped her fingers into the pouch around her waist, and dragged out something similar to a pocket watch with a long chain tailing it.

"This is it, you heathen!" Amelia angrily shoved it in his face.

Milen backed away, and grinned.

"Shall we begin?" Geoff halted their child-like quandary as he spoke.

"-yes." They both agreed.

Staring at the distant water between them and the shore, Milen protested.
"Isn't that like two hundred - three hundred - meters away?"

"So? Scared?" Amelia chuckled with a smirk.

Milen growled and leaped from the edge of the boat, into the ocean. Seeing this, the remaining two followed suit.

______
About half an hour later. Colchis shore.
______

Dripping wet from crown to sole, they parried the weight of their tired bodies with the desperation to flee harms way. Apparently, being seen on the docks in this state, would arouse suspicion and alert the securities, and moreover they needed to find shelter to dry up, and rest first, before proceeding to enact their individual plans.

Milen needed to find the one who'd contacted him. He needed to know the truth about the so called Amarethean prophecy, and what sneaky ensemble it needs him portray.

Amelia returned for vengeance, and a possible atonement.

Geoff simply followed through for the gold payment, and as they scurried for safety, he slight tugged at Milen's damp coat, and asked...
"So, my payment?"

"Let's get to settled first, and we'll talk about it."

Forcing their feet through the sinking sands of the beach, rushing towards the open field of tall slender grasses widely spread beyond the golden sand.

The plain around them of vastly empty, and even venturing to look far ahead, it still seemed empty. Unknowing to the dwarf, there was a perfect illusionary spell at play, affecting all senses from touch to smell and taste. Amelia could equally see the plains of grass, but she was well aware that the view before them was only an illusion.

"This way!" Milen ordered.

"How - how do you know the way?" Amelia asked, astounded.

"What do you mean?" Milen and Geoff asked.

"Don't you see it, the field of grass?" She led with a question of her own.

"Yes. I believe that moving straight ahead and steady, we would finally find a place to inhabit... And I can finally get my money and leave!"

Geoff responded, making Milen sigh damply first, before responding to a more reasonable question.

"What grass? I'm trying to avoid all these evil eyed punks strutting about with guns. There's no telling who might want to rob us here." Turning directly to face Amelia, "And you never told me that the air around here stinks so badly!"

Amelia prevents any further step.

"Wh-what?" Milen asked part gasping. "Did I offend you with the truth?" He smirked along with his question.

Both the midget and Milen had their eyes fixed on Amelia. Her sudden reaction had them on edge.

"How can you not see it?" Eyes wide in shock, she questioned Milen. Seeing how confused he equally looked, she decided to provide further details.

"To Geoff and I, there is a wide spread of green tall grasses, as far as the eyes can see." She said.

"So?"

"But you don't see it don't you? You can see the real Colchis..."

"So?" He shrugged.

Amelia getting riled by his ninny responses, grumbled before speaking again.
"Colchis is protected by heavy illusionary spell, and it seems that it doesn't affect you Milen."

Geoff, finally making sense of their condition, wanted to grab Milen by the neck and scream "why do you keep getting me into your mess", but he simply facepalmed, and awaited a vindictive solution.

"Is there a way to break the spell?" Geoff asked.

"This spell is conceived in a riddle, and to break it the riddle must first be solved."