Gold wiped a trickle of sweat on her forehead, but magically, more just seemed to take its place. It was nice and breezy in the morning, but now at midday, it was just unbearable. The suffocating smell of animal excretion didn't help at all.
Sweat covered her everywhere and Gold was certain that there was a weird patch on her back. She ran a hand through her thick hair, she regretted it instantly because her hands picked up even more sweat.
"I need a haircut," she groaned as she worked around the horse. Gold grimaced when she came across his droppings buried underneath the hay.
"Really dude? Can't you do your shady business in the corner, where you're supposed to?" Gold glared at the horse. She swore he 'humphed' at her and turned his nose in the air. In the next stable over, Kai laughed.
"Come on, you can't blame the horse," he said happily.
"Say that when you don't have to clean poop. I swear, that horse never poops whenever you're around." Kai chuckled but it was true. Kai was an animal lover and animals just loved him back. Gold never understood it.
"Of course she doesn't. Carol is a proper horse." Gold shot a look when Kai patted the mane of the large horse.
"Proper or not, everyone has to do their business sometime," Gold grumbled swept the hay out of the stall.
"Hey! Are you two chatting or working?!" Roared a man followed by the whiplash of a crop.
"We're working sir," Kai grumbled and added quietly, "As you can see you, idiotic shithead." Gold snickered. The man glared.
"Did you say something?"
"No sir," they both chorused. He shot them a look and reached for his whip, but didn't do anything else. Once upon a time, he would've tortured them until the verge of death since he came from Balbadd where slaves were treated like objects.
Gold's smile widened when she saw the frustrated looks the master gave some of the slaves when they did something incorrectly and not being able to hit them.
Serves that bastard right.
"Seriously? We're out of hay," she groaned. It wasn't that they didn't have any more nor did Gold mind going out to get it, but it was where she had to get it from that was the problem.
"Oh? Really?" Came Kai's nonchalant reply.
"Yeah, cause someone ate it all!" She glared at the horse who looked as innocent as a daisy. Kai deadpanned.
"Are you really blaming a horse for natural instincts?"
"Well, when you put it that way, yes!" Kai rolled his eyes.
"Don't be a chicken and get more hay from the back," he scoffed.
"You know, I just remembered, I've got this thing so can you go-"
"Go," he said. And Gold went cursing the whole way.
She reached a shed which was connected to the master's house. Yeah, despite having a nice house in the Kou Empire, he liked to live here. But not for the reasons you think.
There was a thump on the wall along with a loud scream. No, not that type of scream. But you know...
"I'll make you all my concubines! All of you pathetic little wh**e!" The master suddenly yelled. Gold plugged her ears and searched for the hay.
Sadly, the makeshift earplugs didn't work out so well and she could hear... Plenty of things she won't go into detail about. And also, the hay was right in the back of the shed.
Which idiot decided it would be a bright idea to put them there?
Oh right...
"You fucking b**ch!~"
Gold quickly grabbed as much hay as she could and dashed out of the shed.
Why did the shed have such thin walls?...
With a rather troubled expression on her face, Gold exited the shed and quickly walked away trying to forget the past 10 seconds.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans for her cause some of the master's friends were on their way. All big, fat and greasy, like the master now. Honestly, if they were so rich, couldn't they take a bath?
"Oh~ What a nice looking gal you are~" They must be drunk cause her hair was covered with dirt and possibly feces, she smelt terrible and her tunic was again covered in what could be horse poop.
"Uh... Thanks." Gold tried to make her way around them, to get as far away as possible. But one grabbed her tightly by the arm causing her to drop the hay.
"Why don't you quit your job and become my concubine?~" Isn't that pretty much the same thing. Gold tried to get out of his grip but to no avail. For bastards who laid around and did nothing all day, they can be strong when they wanted too.
"No thanks," despite all else, Gold tried to be as polite as possible as she swatted his hand away and tried to pick up the hay.
Big mistake.
"Did you just... ?" There was no doubt, there was a hand on her butt.
"What a nice ass," one of them commented. The blood rushed to her head and before she knew it, Gold kicked him.
"Bitch!" He cried. But Gold was running away, with the old bastards on her tail. For some old bastards, they sure could run. And it shocked Gold that they were right on her tail.
They caught up to her in a few strides and pulled her down by the back of her hair. She really needed a haircut.
"Someone needs a little discipline," a large man licked his lips and neared her face. Gold, disgusted by the reek of alcohol, moved her head back and tried to yell for help. He covered her mouth so that she couldn't, not that screaming would help anyway.
People usually avoided this route for many reasons. Like these guys. The only source of civilization would be the other side of the field. Gold didn't think she could scream that loud. She didn't want to be a prostitute or some shit, but as usual, no one would come for her.
"She's quite a feisty one ain't she?"
"Yeah, probably a virgin too."
Oh god.
Gold started thrashing more. She had to get out of here otherwise- oh god.
"Geez, she won't stop struggling. Knock her out will you?" A shadow loomed over her, or maybe she was about to pass out.
She passed out.
Gold didn't know what was worst. Getting kidnapped, or seeing the bright white light she would always see every time she went to bed.
"You've got to be kidding me," she sighed heavily.
"Protect him..."
"Yeah, yeah," she dismissed, "This Aladdin kid. Can I go now? I'm in a bit of a situation here." Surprisingly, the voice actually listened to her, but the scenery still showed the same images. She should've gotten used to it by now, but the images still terrified her, so she mostly tried not to look.
"Of all people, why did you have to be the one? Such an incompetent child..." That was a new one. Gold opened her eyes. It was white again.
But there was a difference this time. This time, there was a girl standing in front of her a few meters away. If Gold estimated correctly, she was probably shorter than her, and she had more childish features than Gold too so she assumed that she was younger than her.
But her eyes told a different story. Her eyes showed a maturity that Gold would never have in her lifetime.
"You're not usually here." Gold commented smartly. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, I'm always here."
"Yeah, as the creepy stalker, but not like physically," Gold tried to correct her point. The pinkette glared at her.
"I'm not a creepy stalker!" She said indignantly. Gold didn't have time for temper tantrums.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever can I go now? I'm really in trouble." She had better things to do than talk to her imagination. Like getting out of being raped!
"And who are you anyway?!" The pink haired girl waved her hand dismissively.
"That's not important."
"That's not important?!"
"No, my son is much more important right now," she said casually. Gold paused at her words.
"Aren't you a bit young to..." Gold awkwardly rounded her stomach. She glared at Gold.
"Why you!... Don't you know it's rude to ask a lady for her age!"
"I wasn't asking for your age!" But if she were to guess, she would've thought she was about 12. Now, Gold could clearly see that she barely reached her shoulders, and her face was way rounder than she thought.
Her ridiculously bright pink hair did nothing to say anything but 'child'.
The 'lady' puffed out her cheeks, but then realized what she was doing and cleared her throat and stood straighter. She was still much shorter than Gold, but Gold couldn't help the feeling that she was looking up instead of this girl.
"A great danger is coming," she spoke. Gold shivered.
She didn't sound like a little girl anymore.
"One that will destroy this world, as it did to mine," she said. The white around them changed so to the one that Gold desperately hated so much.
Everything was gray, and Gold didn't understand much of what was actually going on despite having the same dream every night. But she did understand that it wasn't pretty or nice.
"You need to find my son Aladdin, and prevent this from ever happening," she insisted. That was when her brain exploded.
"Wait a minute! Time-out! You want me to what?!" Gold shrieked. The pink haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Is your hearing that bad? I want you to find my son and prevent this..." she gestured to their surroundings, "From happening."
"Yeah. There are around 7 billion people in the world, why me?" Gold asked.
"I don't know either, but my friend has told me that you have a good heart. The purest," she admitted.
"Your friend?" So many questions ran through her head but with the rise of her hand, she prevented Gold from asking any of them.
"There is no time to explain, I just need to know if you will accept this, or not," she said firmly. Gold found this unfair.
"W-wait a minute, you can't just expect me to take on something like this and not have a clue what's going on!" Gold protested. The girl sighed and stared at Gold with what looked like pity.
"I-I know," her voice croaked and for some reason, Gold felt guilty at her downcast expression.
"I-I know I can't expect you to accept my request without knowing what's going on or who am I, but please, I beg of you!" Suddenly, she was on her knees, her head bowed towards Gold.
"Save my son!" Gold stared down at her in shock. This was just too much. And her son?
"His name is Aladdin, right? You told me that in one of my dreams," Gold guessed. The pink haired girl glanced up slowly and nodded.
"How... How old is he?" She asked.
"Around 8 years old I guess," the woman admitted. Gold clenched her fist.
Gold was 17, a not very reasonable age to go around asking to save the world, but compared to asking an 8-year-old to do such a thing...
"I'll do it." Even though she has never met the kid, Gold felt an intense feeling to protect him. It was weird and honestly, Gold hated it and pretty soon, she was going to hate herself too.
The woman smiled in relief and stood up and suddenly wrapped her skinny arms around Gold.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she chanted. Gold awkwardly patted her back.
"It's no problem," Gold separated them, "So where do I start?" The woman eyed her up and down as it analyzing how weak she is.
"Well first, you're going to need a metal vessel..." she started and Gold immediately cut her off.
"You've got to be kidding me... You know, I'm just as likely to die getting one before I die saving the world right?" Gold challenged. She smiled.
"So you do know where to start," she said almost cheerfully. Gold realized her mistake.
"Wait-" She waved her hand and the scenery around them changed to a bird's eye view of the forest.
"Wah-?! Holy cow!" The girl wasn't paying any attention to that.
"Let's see, you're in here," she pointed to a carriage on the only path in the forest. Gold suddenly remembered her current predicament back in reality.
"Oh yeah..." She said sourly. The girl didn't seem so down about it.
"I'll send a little help your way so don't worry about them," she reassured.
"Help?"
"Well, happy dungeon capturing." And before Gold could stop her, she waved her hand and everything went dark. Soon it became bright, but not because of a white light, but because it was sunny.
"Bitch," Gold cursed. The world became clearer and Gold realized, she really was in a carriage along with many other girls. They were all skinny and packed together like sardines.
Gold tried to look for anyway out, or a sign that that lady kept her word, but nothing happened. Until the carriage suddenly stopped causing her to hit the wall.
"What the-?" A girl was cut off by a loud horn. The horn of the Kou Empire.
"Freeze, you are surrounded! Any kind of struggling will be futile and will result in death!"
"It's the army!"
"We're saved!"
'Could this be the help she was talking about?' Gold wondered. There was an explosion that caused the whole carriage to wobble. But it caused the doors to shake open. Gold shoved through the girls and out the door. Well, she fell out but she was out either way.
Gold glanced around the corner to see that the bastards were in a fight, and weren't holding up well against the Kou army. They were still in Kou at least.
She clenched her fist, held in her breath and ran into the forest when she was sure no one was looking.
That lady was right when she said that Gold knew where to start. The Oracle of the Kou empire rose Dungeons for the Imperial family, but sometimes, he rose too many.
Gold knew where only one of them was.
She gulped as she came to a stop in front of a huge tower. This one was a powerful one, no one has ever gone in and come back out alive.
"I'm a fucking idiot," she decided before rushing in.