Chapter 10: The Race from Danger

The water softly splashed against the small pebbles on the bay. Other than the cracking of the firewood, the only other audible sound was the crashing of the gentle waves of the lake. High in the heaven, the twin moons cast their light down toward the land below. The wind blew silently, lifting the cool air of the water and scattering it over the ground nearby.

The two humans stood with their swords on their side. Nexstar shone brightly in its blue hue while Nezard's silver blade reflected the light of the moons.

The elder man made the first attack, swiftly running forward and slashing with his weapon.

Raising his sword up to parry, Abel cringed his eyes in concentration while thinking, 'Wow, he's fast for an old guys. How did I just do that, blocking his attack?'

"Good job young one," Nezard commented before performing a one-hundred and eighty degree and striking at the teenager's leg with his staff's exterior, to which the blue and green eye human hurriedly deflected while pushing away his attacker.

"Attack! Stop defending yourself!" The gray-beard man shouted as he plunged his blade straight forward.

Grunting, Abel pushed himself off the ground and jumped over the advancing enemy and managed to slice across his foe's robe.

Without even showing a hint of being in pain, Nezard only turned around and smiled when he saw his brown cloth reddening in blood.

"Not bad," he chuckled, "not bad at all." Grinning, the old human shifted his weight to his back foot and charged forward. In the midst of the night, sounds of swords striking one another roared through the wood. Slashing his blade left and right, Nezard continued on with his advancement while the sweating Abel could only parry and deflect the attacks of his amazingly fast opponent. Up above, dark rain clouds began moving in, blocking the light-giving twin moons.

As he was backing up and protecting himself, the traveler from Earth knocked his foot over the campfire. Trying to save himself from falling and defeat, he managed to stable his body but kicked over the water canteen in the process. The fluid quickly spread over the radiating amber, and soon darkness fell over the camp.

"We go on," he could hear the stern voice of his attacker as he tried to look pass the shield of blackness. Using his blade as the final source of light, he could do nothing but block the untiring assault of his rival.

In the midst of the gloom, sparks of swords crashing against one another appeared in different places. Each sparks shred its light quickly, revealing the sweaty face of the fighters, but died out in seconds past. Sounds of heavy grunting and of feet striking the gentle ground resonated throughout the forest and into the Daagin's eyes.

Hurrying back and forth, it tried to replace the wet woods with new ones. Although its eyes allowed it to see night as clear as day, it knew that its new friend couldn't do the same, and without light, there's no sight, and without sight in a fight, one cannot win.

Breathing heavily, Abel continued deflecting the attacks in the dark as his mind raced with doubts, 'how am I doing this? Was I…a fighter? How am I not defeated yet…' Suddenly, he could feel that he was backing into a large tree. Out of desperation, an idea entered his mind. As he maintained his path backward, he could feel the sweat dripping down his face and forehead. At the first sense of the tree's rough bark on his back, he quickly ducked and when the sound of steel hitting against wood vibrated into his ears, he knew that his opponent had fell for the trick.

Gripping hard onto Nexstar's handle and screaming, he thrust his sword forward just as the campfire majestically came back to life, and stopped only inches away from Nezard's drenched neck.

Titan could only look in disbelief. 'The kid did it! Wow, I can't believe he just defeated Nezard,' it thought before clapping and shouting, "Bravo! Bravo!"

The elder human only smiled and removed his blade from the tree and quickly hid it away in his wooden staff. "Well," he laughed, "I guess your amnesia didn't affect your fighting ability after all."

Returning the grin, Abel nodded and collapsed onto the welcoming ground as fatigue took over him.

Slowly opening his eyelids, his eyes twinge in pain from the intense light. As they adjusted to the brightness, the blurred objects from far away became clearer, and he could see the towering great brown trees with glittering green leaves.

The brilliant yellow sun burned brightly on the western horizon as it crept over the tiny line that divided the heaven from the land beneath. The clouds from the night before had all but disappeared, leaving a clear blue sky in its wake. The light from the burning ball danced with the waves of the lake, creating the illusion of hundreds of mirrors floating on top of the water.

The cool wind was still there though. He could feel it caressing against his face. It was a soothing feeling. Looking up, the same wind was tearing away the fragile leaves from its life giver. One of it easily broke away and began drifting down toward the land. It took its time, but landed on top of Abel's body. He grabbed it and brought it up to his eyes so he could examine it.

Its shape was familiar to the leaves his remembered from his unknown past. Where he had seen it before, he did not know, but he could tell that it almost the same. Its bright green texture was filled with life. Tossing the leaf aside, he continued on with his admiration of the gigantic trees.

And indeed they were enormous. Standing over hundreds of feet tall and thirteen feet wide, their massive network of leaves blocked away almost all light in the canopy, saved for a few that had managed to filter through. These giants populated the entire forest, running in rows and columns of one another. Their dark brown barks showed their age and their life. Some had black indents on them, hinting that there was a fire in the past. Light green vines ran from the base of trees and circle their way up to the top. At the very bottom small insects and plants devoured the giants that had outlived its fate, and in the dead ground rose new life to take the place of the fallen ones.

Suddenly, a sharp piercing growl caused Abel to wake from his examinations of the trees. He stared at the two pure white creatures that stood in front of him, about six feet high, and three feet wide. He gazed at one of it with intent eyes, trying to see if the animal was an enemy or not. The thing looked familiar to a cat he remembered from somewhere, but didn't recollect that a cat could be that big. Running down from its ashen body were four great legs that were almost as big as some of the branches in jungle. At the bottom of the legs were fluffy paws that hid the razor sharp talons. Around its neck were three golden spots. Long whiskers ran from its black nose. At the back, it had a lengthy white tail that softly swiveled back and forth over the sand. He scanned around to see that neither Nezard nor Titan was around. As if out of instinct, he grabbed the crystal that hung around his neck, but quickly questioned why he just did that.

Seeing that he was weaponless, he looked around to see what he could use as a weapon. He hurriedly grabbed a small branch next to him and slowly got on his feet. The creature was staring straight at him. It was digging at the ground with its claws while its butt kept on hitting the soft dirt and bringing up small bugs. Abel crawled at a snail pace, hoping that he would not alert the animal. When he was near the front, he could see a big black hole, which he concluded was the thing's mouth, and the other opening above it was its eye.

Little by little, he pushed the stick forward and into the big cat's eye when it suddenly jumped high in the sky and began crying out in pain. Its butt turned around and appeared to be looking at the human with the two blue spots on the side of its bottom. Its companion also turned to look at the Earthling with maddened eyes.

Fluttering its ear-wings, Titan appeared from the dense wood and landed in front of the green and blue eyed teenager while shouting, "What did you do Abel?"

"I don't know," he shouted back, "I just poked it in its eyes to see if it was friendly or not."

The white creature appeared to have calmed down when the Daagin began feeding it scraps of red meat.

The humongous alien spoke again and suddenly, Titan burst into a roaring laughter as he collapsed onto the ground. Confused, the Earthling could only watch as the small little creature wiped away the tears in his eyes.

"You didn't poke it in the eye Abel," the Daagin continued to laugh softly, "You prodded Triger in the butt!"

Abel tried to hold back his laughter, but he couldn't. The situation was too funny to keep a straight face as he smiled and sat on one of the logs.

"Triger? Is that its name? What about the other one?" He asked as he shook his head with a bright grin on his face.

"Yeah, the one you poked was Triger, and its friend is Trigan. They're both Trilians," Titan replied as it threw a nut at the thing's feet which ate it up and gave a delightful response.

"What's a Trilian?" The human asked as he looked at the two giant beasts with admiration.

The small Daagin sighed as it patted the teenager on the shoulder and said, "Nezard and I have a lot of work to do don't we? Well, to get started, Trilian is an animal of Nirva. It is our transportation, other than the sky ships. They come in different color and size, but the most common one is a yellow one."

"Oh, so Triger's color is not common?"

"Yeah. It's actually one of the rarer types of Trilians. Not many are left since they were hunted to almost extinction." Titan explained with a hint of sadness in his tone.

"Why was that?"

"Their furs were used on clothing, and their meet was a delicacy. I can't ever think of eating such a nice and gently being like the Trilians. It's just not right, you know?"

"Are you guys related? Like the Daagins and the Trilians?"

"We're distant cousins. Distant, distant cousins! And anyway, Daagins are better than Trilians," Titan said with a proud face when it was struck on the head by Triger's paw.

"Hey! That hurt you dumb thing! Don't you ever strike me or I'll sell you to the next highest bidder!" The Daagin shouted as it pointed its finger at the giant cat.

The white animal gave a light growl, lifted its head and proudly turned its back on the small creature.

"What did it say?" Abel asked as he was curious in the fight.

"It said that it belongs to Nezard, not me. Ah, stupid cat. We'll see who gets the last laugh," Titan answered as it gave an evil grin.

"Hey, where's Nezard?"

"Oh, he should be around here somewhere. Don't worry, he'll be fine. He'd been through a lot worse than getting lost in a wood."

"Hey Titan, are Daagins human?"

"Human?! Never! Humans are dirty. Why would we be like them?"

"I don't know, I was just curious. If you're not human, then what are you?"

"We're a different race of our own. I guess our closest cousin would be the Dragins back during the Chaos War." Titan said as it handed some nuts to the human teenager.

"Chaos War?" Abel asked while taking the seeds and began eating them.

Sighing once again, it said, "That's a lengthy tale. If you really want to know, ask Nezard. He can tell you more. But to make a long story short, a thousand years ago, a being called Chaos created Dragins, enormous beasts that were as large as these trees here, to supply his air force. Their sharp talons could destroy an entire battalion with a single swipe, and their devastating fire breath could annihilate a medium size town."

"Wow," the Earthling said in a curious tone, "what happened next?"

Titan continued on, "Well, after the war was over, and Chaos lost, the Dragins were free from their master's control, so they began roaming the world of Nirva, doing as they please. When the people cried out for compassion, the Goddess Althura took mercy and decided to change the Dragins. She took half of them and turned them into Trilians and for their sins was made to obey the Nirvans. The other half she took and transformed them into Daagins. Because we were shunned by all the other races of Nirva, we had to leave the fertile valley and land and had to relocate to the high mountains east of here. Or so that's how it all happened. It's been over two thousand years, and the line between facts and fictions was erased. That was the story my father told to me when I was little."

"Hmm, that's a lot of information to take all in at one time," Abel commented as he got up from the log and began stretching his aching muscles.

"Yeah. If you're really interested, just ask Nezard once we reach Angelus. He'll tell you more."

"Speaking of Nezard, where is he? He's still not back yet."

"I'm right here young one," the elder man said as he appeared from the dense forest. "Did ye miss me?"

"Where'd you go?" the Earthling asked with curious eyes.

"Ah, I went to pick up some herbs to mix for ye to drink. Here," the gray-beard human gave a small cup to his human companion, "drink it. It'll help relieve the pain in ye muscles. My apologies. I should have known that ye were still too tired to fight me."

Grinning, Titan remarked lightly, "Tired or not, he still defeated you. Where did you learn to fight like that Abel?

"I…don't know. I just…knew…I think…" the green and blue eye teenager responded as the realization of his amnesia entered his mind again.

Sensing the youth's sadness, Nezard said in an elated tone, "no matter. Ye have proved that ye can handle the worst of what this forest could bring to ye. And from the cry that I heard not too long ago, I suspect ye have met Triger." The old man grinned at the wry sense of humor. "Come here Triger, I want ye to meet a new friend."

The white cat slowly rose from lying down and approached the three companions. "Say hi," the elder human spoke as he nodded toward Abel.

"Are you sure it's not mad at me because of the earlier…incident?"

"What incident?" The gray-beard man asked as if he didn't know.

"Never mind," Abel quickly responded as he slowly reached toward the creature's mouth, which was embraced by six long whiskeys, three on each side, which extended outward and curl along the way.

As his fingers came within centimeters of the being's mouth, it suddenly jumped up and began roaring so loud that the leaves in nearby trees were shaken free and began tumbling toward the earth.

At the sight of the massive cat high above him, the Earthling jumped backward as he fell on his butt. Both Nezard and Titan tried to hold back their laughter but it was to no avail. They both erupted into melodious laughter as the old man helped the embarrassed teenager onto his feet.

"Triger likes ye Abel. Go ahead, try it again. It won't bite, I promise."

Gathering all of his nerves, he slowly approached the creature and once again reached out his hands. But this time, instead of jumping up and down, the Trilian lowered its head below the teen's hand and began rubbing against it with a smile on its face.

"See, I told ye Triger likes ye. Well, why don't we sit down and talk for a second eh young one? I'd manage to find us some food, so lets let the Daagin prepare our breakfast as I tell ye the plan" said Nezard in an eager tone.

"You want to let me do all the work? Titan doesn't know why he's still around Nezard." Said the angry small thing.

Laughing, the elder man said, "I'm sorry. Ye do all the work because ye could cook better than I could. Remember the last time I try to cook us some grub and how I burned the whole thing and we had to starve that night."

Titan could only shake its head as it began flying back and forth using its winged ears preparing the breakfast.

"Now, while it is busy attending to our food, I would like to discuss with ye our plan. The trip to the Capital City of Angelus would take around a day and a half. The entire first day we will take Carnage Road, which would lead us through the Gloom Forest, and into the village of Ipsen on the inner province. From there, we will spend the night, and the following day we will head to the city.

"Nezard…why am I getting a feeling there is going to be a 'but' somewhere?" Abel commented as the smell of the cooking food entered his nostrils. The wind continued to blow softly across the land, causing the Earthling's hair to swivel back and forth.

"Well, the day long trip to Ipsen won't be easy. We'll have to leave pretty soon if we want to reach the safety of the village before nightfall."

"Why? What happens after nightfall?"

The elder man turned and looked into the glamorous wood, "There are things in this world of ours Abel that ye do not need to know about, for they are too gruesome to tell of and too sad to describe."

"Well, thanks for the description. That helped a lot!" The blue and green eyed human said in sarcasm.

"There are also bandits that roam the road during midday. But, in case things turn to worst, just stick by Titan and myself. The little creature may look defenseless, but it is quite a formidable fighter."

"Little? Speak for yourself," the Daagin said as he poured in some unknown sauce in the cooking bread.

"What will we do when we get to the city?" Abel inquired as he nibbled on the nuts that were previously given to him.

"We will find a way to get ye memory back. I'm certain there's a book at the main library to reverse the effect," Nezard answer in a soothing voice.

"And what if there isn't any way?"

"Then the best thing ye can do is let time do its work. I am sure that even if we do not find a way, you will regain back ye memories as the time passes."

The teenager lowered his head as if he was contemplating over the thought of forever losing his memory. Sensing the sadness, the elder man patted the boy's leg and said in a fatherly tone, "Don't worry, we'll get it back. But in the meantime, let us fill our belly with food aye? Titan has finished his job, and now it is time for us to do ours, which is to eat it."

And so, the three companions ate their breakfast and without a sense of urgency, they packed their belongings and head out for the Carnage Road. As he rose from his seat, Abel quickly thought of something and turned to his friends, "Umm, guys, there's one problem. I don't know how to ride a Trilian."

"Oh, it's not that hard," Titan reassured the kid, "Triger is trained to be ridden by anyone. All you need to do is just sit on his back, and hold onto its fur."

Nodding, he slowly approached the giant cat as his heart began to pick up in speed. Sweat rolled down his forehead as the cool wind blew past his hot body. Closing his eyes and praying, he curled his legs and sprung onto the animal. When he opened them again, he could see the others getting on the other Trilian and Triger smiling at him with its big blue eyes.

"Hi," he said weakly as he waved his hand.

It roared back in response as it began jumping up and down.

"Whoa, calm down, you're making me nervous."

Nezard jumped onto the other Trilian as Titan flew behind him. Putting on a gray hat, the elder human threw Nexstar into the teenager's lap said with a smile, "ready?"

Abel nodded, and so, the three friends rode off from their camping spot on their animal and after a while of riding through the twisting path of the forest, they arrived on the hardened path of Carnage Road.

Even with all its terrible name and gruesome reputation, Carnage Road was one of the most beautiful paths to travel on. Perhaps that was why so many humans had risked their lives. Perhaps it was the beauty of way that had enchanted them. For a road with such a hideous reputation and malicious dangers, it shone with beauty

Abel had arrived during the season when the leaves began falling from the trees, as if forever waving goodbye to the life that had supported them.

On both side of the road stood majestic and beautiful trees. They were the same size as the one by the campground, but unlike the ones that were they, the ones on the path had different color leaves. Some had purple, while others had green. Some had orange, while others had white. As the three companions traveled up the road, these beautiful leaves fell over them, creating an array of colors that for that single moment, made the troubles of the world invisible.

Beautiful flowers of various insignias grew at the base of each tree while green vines curled around them, sprouting white flowers in the process. The rising sun was to their left, and as it rose, its ray was refracted by the morning dew that had collected on the leaves. As these previous servants of the towering giants fell toward the land beneath, the water that had stuck to them glittered in the light.

Abel could only look up in amazement as he could see thousands of glittering objects falling from the heaven. His mouth opened in wonder as the hair on his arms grew in appreciation. Never before had he seen anything so beautiful. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, it appeared to almost be that the stars were crying.

That moment of bliss had lasted for only a short moment. Gently walking, Triger, like the human teenager, marveled at the beauty that had surrounded them. But it was an experienced Trilian, and during the duration of their trip, it had been listening to any abnormal sound. And then it happened. Perking its ears up, it could hear the echoes of thundering objects striking the ground at a thousand paces. With advent eyes, Triger locked his legs and instantly began sprinting

Abel shouted in a shock voice, "Hey! What's going on? Why is Triger sprinting?"

Nezard yelled back as his beard danced in the rushing wind, "I believe it had sensed our enemies. Oh my, all this danger is sparking this old fool blood back into action. This is fun is it not? It has been a long while since this old fool has had his heart pumping as fast as it did today," the elder human laughed loudly with the Daagin barely hanging onto his robe.

'You have got to be kidding me. We are in danger of dying, and this old fool is laughing and is enjoying every minute of it,' Abel thought as he turned around to see nothing behind him.

He hollered back again, "How is it that it could sense our enemy? I can't hear or see anything"

"Don't ye know young one? Trilian's senses are twenty times more powerful than that of human. And ye forget, I raised and trained this Triger myself, so ye could say it's a special one. Oh my, isn't this exciting." The excited old man replied back as he tried to hold onto the gray hat on his head as his cloak danced behind his back.

Abel's heart began to race as he turned around to look at the invisible face. The oncoming wind pushed back the strings of hair on his head as his breathing became heavier and heavier. The heavy sword that was Nexstar hung by his side as he held onto the Trilian's fur with all of his might.

The beauty of his surrounding began to dissipate as Triger increased its speed. All Abel could see were just flashes of images. Sprinting with full maximum power, the cat, like Nezard, felt its blood reviving after a long absence of adventures. Even at that speed, it somehow had managed to avoid the obstacle on the road that could trip it. After a few minutes of dashing at full speed, it took one second to look ahead up on the road. When it took its eyes off the road beneath him, it missed the small branch that was quickly approaching.

Without realizing it, the Earthling flew halfway into air and landed with a hard thump on the ground. Slowly getting up, his dazed eyes could see the animal in the distance, slowly rising from its feet too. Suddenly, nervousness enveloped him when he couldn't see Nezard anywhere. Looking ahead on the road, he saw a Trilian running back. While waving his left arm, he ran over to Triger to help it get up.

As the giant bird stood up on its feet, the blue and green eyed human heard a mirage voice that seemed to penetrate the forest itself, "I must go. Triger will know what to do. Stick with it and you'll be fine."

Blood poured down from the scratches on his body as his vision was blurred by the sweat that was drifting from his forehead.

'Great,' he thought in desperation, 'I'm left in the center of a road in the central of a kingdom in the middle of world in which I know nothing about. And I don't even know who I am. This is great…just great.'

Just as doubts began to spread throughout his body, the instinct of survival overwhelmed all hesitations.

'I may not know who or where I am. But I do know I am going to live long enough to find out.' He thought as he jumped onto the creature's back.

"Come on Triger," he shouted out loud, "we're not giving up just yet. I won't die in a forest. Never! Now, let's go!"

Inspired by the young teenager's courage, the white beast nodded its head and gave a loud roar before it resumed its flight from danger.

Behind them, the sounds of hundreds of claws roared throughout the peaceful forest. Clouds of dust covered the oncoming threat as the once peaceful forest suddenly became a fight for survival. The ground rumbled in pain, causing the leaves to fall from their master faster and faster. Hunched over the Trilian, Abel looked up to see the thousands of sparkling leaves falling from the heaven and smiled.