Dawn- An age of Darkness

Our job was basically done. But mine wasn't. 

I still had something to buy: something very important. That being the coffee. Though it wasn't coffee. "I know a place where we could buy something. Let's go!"

I was definitely excited. I was about to buy a whole bag full of coffee beans that weren't coffee beans. 

"Unfortunately, we don't have that time. Grab him," Alisa said.

And a second later, Ve, literally grabbed me, lifted me up, and carried me like a potato bag. 

"We should be able to use that large field to start." The earl suggested. 

"HEY! Hey!" I tried struggling but everyone just ignored me. "But my coffee!?"

"Stop being such a baby." Alisa sighed and just walked on. "Let's go."

"HEY!"

Needless to say, no one actually listened to me. 

***

The world moved up and down. Ve's grip was awfully strong and she wasn't letting me go that was for sure. 

By the time we got to the field, I saw countless things I thought weren't possible in this world. One of them was burgers. I didn't know what sort of meat they were using but I wanted to try one: those looked rather delicious. But as expected, I wasn't given that privilege. 

Sigh.

There were other things too. I even saw hot dogs! Though I just liked sausages more. Oh, well. I didn't get to have either though. 

The field was kind of empty but as soon as Ve started to transform, we gathered more and more people. Instead of being scared and run around, these people were being enchanted by Ve's beauty and stuff: some even started painting. I just had one question: Why?

I was still being held by Ve, but this time, within her claws: she didn't hurt me but- I kind of gave up from halfway. I didn't care anymore. And if she was going to carry me like this, then I didn't have to worry about falling down at least. Though this did look a bit stupid even from my perspective. 

I was also the thing for kids to point at. I was an item on display. Yeah, I did not want to know what people thought of me right now. 

Just sighing wasn't enough to get me through this. 

"My lord!" a guy came running from the crowd. I was actually wondering where he went. I hadn't seen him after coming out of the smithy. 

"Yeah, what do you want?" It felt weird to act high and mighty when I was being held like a thing by Ve. And not to mention it was awfully uncomfortable to try to straighten my back. 

"If I may-" The guy bowed on one knee. The same dark knight guy. He was actually acting the same as he did before. "Would you permit me to accompany you on your journey?" His tone was sincere and he meant business.

He wasn't even affected by this display. Well, that was a relief. 

"You mean you want to come along to Saram and fight there?"

"Yes, my lord."

I gave the earl a quick glance and he nodded. I didn't see why not, but there were certain reasons this was a bad idea. What if this guy relayed some weird message to the king and worsened our relationships? It was already pretty whacky, and I didn't want it to worsen even further. "You're reason? And what about your king?"

We were already attracting enough attention. I didn't want to spend any more time here. 

"His majesty has already given me his permission. My wish is to aid the people. After listening to you and your comrades I learned, being stuck here, doing nothing is a waste of my talents and gifts."

Well, that was something else. He was both boastful and willing to help the people. Probably not the combination I wanted to see.

And wasn't his job to protect the king or something?

I was still skeptical though.

"I don't see a problem in this." Alisa winked. This girl just got a new devilish plan. 

"Fine. Climb aboard." If he really did something stupid, then I was just going to strip him off that armor. That cool shiny black armor.

It wasn't because I really liked that armor, okay!

"Alright then-" Ve started flapping as the guy finally got up.

Gusts of winds came down and nearly blew away some of the children. Since I was under, I also felt the force, but yeah, I was safe in her claws.

I was still being held like frigging luggage though. What in the hell did I do to deserve this? 

All I wanted was to buy some coffee-bean-thingies!

***

The return journey was boring. Ve was holding me vertically with one hand- or claw for that matter. Her grip was definitely solid and I had no risk of falling down: I did occasionally almost bang my head against one of the claws and almost caused injuries but yeah, 'almost'. 

Maybe that's why this journey was boring?

I didn't know why I was being such a hypocrite. I kept on complaining about how she tried to kill me and all that but once she really tried to fly steadily and hold me with a solid grip, I again started complaining- inwardly. But still, this whole thing felt a bit weird to me. And the fact that I was actually aware of this was nothing but an irony.

The wind was strong and there were birds up this high. The birds weren't brave enough to get in Ve's way though.

As I was bored I started to count Ve's flaps. It was hard to keep my eyes open though. 

"WE'll be arriving soon," Ve declared. Her voice was a bit deeper in this form.

I looked down and again, met with terrible winds. I really, really, wanted goggles. 

Oh well, I did see Saram and I also saw an army. 'SO, that's-'

WHOAH!

We went down fast, too fast. So fast, I almost thought we'd crash into the mountain top, but we didn't.

The whole trip was kind of boring but this last part was enough to make my heart go into overdrive mode. 

Ve let go of me and I kind of stumbled to the nearest edge, almost falling to my doom, again 'almost'. My head spun but I didn't feel that dizzy. 

"Well, that was something- bleyu-" The earl was too busy controlling his stomach.

I could see the army even from here. I used the army to distract my mind from all the nausea.

And boy was there were a lot of soldiers. The army size was probably more or less the whole population of this whole city if not more. So, technically, if all of the dwarven armies gathered here in this city, still the human army would be three times bigger? 

Meaning, the humans weren't screwing around with this. 

Well, that was a problem. 

'They really do want this war.' It was definitely possible this was the work of some greedy human. Then, again I didn't know enough to conclude anything. Actually, I didn't know much at all. Why was I even assuming either party was responsible? What if there was a third one involved?

But even so, we couldn't be intimidated at this point. Unless I saw both parties with my own eyes, I couldn't just jump to a conclusion. 

"How long do we have?" I huffed. My heart still hadn't calmed down yet.

"I'd say four hours?" The earl said, also huffing.

"Well, we better start thinking fast, cause that army doesn't look small." It sure didn't. 

And by the looks of things, it probably wasn't just going to be a ceremonial fight this afternoon. 

"Well, we have you." The earl tried to smile but the sweats on his face were definitely not comforting. Even this guy probably didn't know the army was this big. 

"Let's go down, calm our heads, prepare our equipment, gather the forces and plan things carefully. There's no need to rush, if we rush, we lose," Alisa said. She came close to me and whispered. "Remember you said you can heal?"

I actually thought these two had either forgotten about it or they didn't care, since they never said anything regarding that. 

I was wrong. 

"Yeah?"

"How about we try something?" There was a very evil grin on that face of hers.

Oh boy. 

***

  We climbed down and the earl started to gather his army. The order was already given before he left. So technically, his army was already gathered, just not organized.

It was a pretty small army. And most of the army only had weaklings. And since this place was literally a day away from the capital, help wouldn't come before tomorrow either. 

Then again the earl never expected any help at all. In his words, this place was already abandoned and a sacrifice.

And I believed him. After hearing the king's words, I had no reason to not believe that. 

Meanwhile, the dark knight kept on following us around. I guess the guy was here to observe me and report back to the king. 

Alisa said it was okay so I just ignored him for the most part. I still had my guard up though. Of course, I trusted Alisa more than anyone else here, but that didn't mean I trusted her explicitly. I had no intention of being betrayed again.