Fantasia
Arc4: Seeking the origins
Chapter1: The nightmare
Juan Rocux had determined to find his real human family after learning the bitter truth from his parents, so and in a tearful farewell he left his beloved village heading toward the human lands with all hopes to find answers about his origins.
He crossed about a half day toward the western part of Zellia hills, the green carpet of grass that eternally extended to the horizon had no rival in pleasing the sight of this young adventurer, as he sniffed the air smelling the scent of dry leaves and moisture of fall time.
He enjoyed this peaceful road until the sun was about to set where he the scent of wet dirt and the cold breeze told him that it was about to rain, so he headed toward a small forest seeking shelter for him and his steed.
Under a large oak he settled down, grabbing a large blanket he mounted the tree and stretched the cover with the branches so it makes a barrier that prevents rain from spoiling his campfire, then he headed to the wagon where he picket some oat for the horse, and searched for the bread bags.
Then after few chomps he started talking:
"Okay guys, game's set, show yourselves" he said while looking at the farthest edge of the wagon.
But no response was there so he smiled, carried a blanket and rushed toward that edge before jumping at "nothing", but suddenly Nimmy, Tsuki, and Zolu appeared and stopped him:
"Golly dude! You are no fun!" Zolu commented.
"Nimmy is sorry, Nimmy knows that orange boy told friends not to follow, but Nimmy wanted to help…" the girl apologized.
"But how did you know about us? I mean Nimmy's invisibility is almost perfect, and we made no sound" Tsuki asked.
"Just presumption (Everyone looked weirdly to him), I mean I've expected Roné too but…where's he anyway?" Juan asked.
"Your mom couldn't let him, he wanted to sneak but Nimmy poured some sleep powder on him and so we left him behind" Zolu answered.
"Nimmy has sleeping powder?" Juan wondered.
"Yes, but as always she forgot that she has it until that moment" Tsuki commented making the nymph blush.
"Anyway, I guess you'll accompany me to Espadia" Juan said while pulling more food to share with his friends.
"Espadia? Why? Is there a reason to start looking there? You could've started with Clavia it's much closer" Tsuki asked after unwrapping a loaf of bread.
"Actually yes for three main reasons; first of all I promised Dean that I'll visit him so it's a good use of the chance, secondly after the incident in the Clavian palace, I don't want to run into trouble especially if Prince Zoldeo paid a visit (he frowned), and third of all I think if there was a tribe of human I look like more then it'll be Espadia" he explained.
"So you think you make a better Espadian than a Clavian or a Nanalian?" Zolu asked.
"Actually I did some studies before (he opens his messy notebook and started pointing to a diagram) you see I lack professional innate in magic like Nanalians, and I have darker skin than the one native Clavian had, and since the woman who left me looked like she's a runaway, and at that era the western region had many conflicts, so Espadia seemed to be the brightest choice to start with" he noted before closing the book.
"Orange boy thinks a lot, Nimmy thinks that Orange boy looks nothing like iron boy" the nymph commented stuffing her mouth with beef but Tsuki scolded her to respect table etiquettes.
"Why is that?" the orange head asked.
"Orange boy treats Nimmy nicely, but iron boy treats Nimmy weirdly, and every time Nimmy looks away iron boy stares lewdly at Nimmy's butt" she said making everyone choke upon hearing this claim.
"Yeah, fish boy sometimes touches me there too, fish boy did it when we were hiding from orange boy" she added.
Juan and Tsuki looked with disrespect at Zolu accusing his perversion, while the latter denied despite he was sunken in sweat.
"Anyway if I couldn't find any clue, we'll head back to Clavia, then to Nanali…" Juan mentioned changing the subject.
At this moment, Tsuki's head flashed with an idea; what if Juan wasn't an Espadian, or Clavian, or Nanalian? What if Juan was an Arcadian? Yes the vile village that obliterated her clan and probably killed the man she loved.
She tried to deny this thought, but after seeing Juan's weird transformation into a fire demon, and the cold threatening aura that he emits at moments of despair is nothing of normal magic, and the only clan that has such powerful and unique traits was Arcadia…how would she react? Would she still keep her emotions toward the young man that she believes to be her brother's reincarnation? Or would she…
But her chain of thoughts was interrupted immediately when she felt her sharp canine pierce the supple skin of her fingertips, making everyone laugh at her, and seeing how Juan bandaged her fingers tenderly wiped that sick idea replacing it with a smile.
Then the shepherd yawned deeply, and asked everybody if they were tired, driving them to note how hasty they were; because they followed Juan without bringing any traveling equipments, which means that they don't have where to sleep!
Juan noticed the expression on their faces and realized the situation so he unfolded two thick one-person mattresses:
"Well guys, I didn't actually put you in count this time, sorry, but this is all what I have" he apologized.
"It's actually our dumb mistake, don't worry about me, we imps don't sleep that much, I'll stay outside for the watch" the imp suggested.
"Wait a minute…if imp girl isn't gonna sleep, and there are three sleepers, and two beds, this means Nimmy had to share bed with orange boy!" the nymph concluded using her fingers to count.
"Why…me?" Juan asked with a blush suddenly imagining weird fantasies about Nimmy's body.
"Yeah, why him?!" Zolu objected, but Tsuki slapped him on the back knowing his perverted motives.
"It's ok Nimmy, I and Zolu will share the bed this night, you take the other mattress on your own" Juan suggested shocking Zolu.
"Yay! Nimmy's happy! Orange boy is the best!" the nymph shouted hugging Juan.
"Wait dude! This can't be right, I mean we're dudes; dudes don't sleep together on the same bed" the ragon tried to explain his point of view.
"Come on, we'll sleep head to feet, why are you so concerned!?" Juan asked.
Eventually Zolu agreed on sleeping like his friend suggested, albeit it was uncomfortable, the men calmed down after Nimmy slept, but with the light sound of the rain dropping pecking the leather veil over the wagon sleep was chased away from their eyes so Zolu started a conversation:
"You know dude, it was quite cold what you did back there at home"
"Really...yeah, I guess I was quite stubborn, I shouldn't have done it but it's too late to regret it"
"So what will you do after you find your real family?"
"I didn't think about it yet, I may bring them back with me to Ardneria"
"So have you thought how would your family be?"
"Not really, but it'd be great if I had I had a baby brother or sister"
"Babies are sure cute, wish I had a baby brother"
"What about you? You miss your family don't you Zolu?"
"Yeah, I miss really dad"
"What about your mother?"
"Nope, she doesn't deserve any love, she left dad when I was a kid and married another man, so please I don't want to talk about this" the ragon said with sadness.
Juan felt that he's stressing his friend so he kept silence and tried to sleep, after a short snooze the rain stopped, he woke up on the site of a small sight-attracting flare, he woke up noticing that his friends were in deep sleep so he didn't bother waking them up and followed the spark that crossed the forest until it stopped at the edge of a cliff.
Juan approached it struggling to walk through the muddy land, but suddenly the flare shined intensely revealing a tall woman in a pearly white robe, she walked with gentle steps toward the man who stood amazed by the light that her body shined with trying to see her shadowed face, the woman approached and lifted her hand asking him to grab it.
The man wasn't sure if it's sane to hold her, because he felt something suspicious, but his body moved by its own and so he took by her hand, she giggled upon this and magically she spread angelic wings from her back.
At this moment Juan remembered his brother Demetri's story; about the mysterious woman who left Juan in Ardneria, and how the only thing left after she went out of the house was a white feather, like the one shed from this woman's wings.
Can this woman be his…mother?! He gulped and tried to talk but it's like his throat was numb, words won't come out, leaving him in confusion witnessing them both soar in the air slowly heading toward the cloudy sky.
They reached the clouds, Juan was simply amazed trying to look at the woman's face but his sight got blurred, then it was caught by something more eye-catching; the clouds were simply lifted revealing a large round gate facing them.
The gate was red and massive, with golden linings decorating it arranged together to draw a hawk with two sapphires for eyes, while on the lower side was what appeared to be the lock, which resembled to two intersected diamonds, it was something nostalgic, the mind of the young adventurer could've never imagined its beauty.
Then the woman left his hand, he panicked thinking that he's going to fall but he just kept floating gazing at the woman who touched the lock of the gate, and played her fingers on the angles of the golden ornament, then she turned at him and signed with her hands calling for him, he responded by flexing his arms in order to push himself in the air reaching her.
"Open…" she said.
"Huh?" he asked.
But responding to his exclamation the woman pushed the lock spreading the shutters widely Juan glimpsed a red light shining from afar beyond the gates, which instantly revealed itself to be a huge fireball that engulfed him and the woman…
"Ah!" he shouted awakening from this frightening dream.
It was a dream! A nightmare! Thank God! He took a deep breath and gulped to kill his panic then he looked left and right to see that his friends were staring at him, while a water drop from his hair he sensed a wet slimy feeling under his palm; it was mud, and that hard cold sensation on his back was a tree trunk, he was sitting outside the wagon…but how?
"Oh you awake dude!" Zolu said.
"That was a close call" Tsuki commented.
"Orange boy was…" the nymph was about to declare but the other two stopped her.
"My head hurts, it was some nightmare" Juan said rubbing his forehead.
"Yeah dude, you were sleep runnin', you hit your head to the tree then you calmed down, you were crazy dude!" Zolu explained.
"Exactly, what did you see so you acted like this?" Tsuki asked helping the shepherd to stand up.
"Nah, something strange, an angel carried me to the sky then she opened a large gate, and it burned us both" the shepherd told his nightmare.
"I think you stress yourself, you should try to sleep and don't plan so much" Zolu suggested guiding his friend to the bed.
"But aren't you guys coming to sleep?" the sleepy man asked.
"Nah, I don't think I'll be comfortable sleeping with a dude" the ragon said.
"Nimmy's fine, Nimmy had enough nap!" the nymph added stretching her arms.
Juan didn't question his friend's attitude, and wrapped himself in his blanket trying to sleep, while the three of his friends walked away:
"Are you crazy Nimmy?! We can't tell him what happened! At least not yet" Zolu scolded.
"Nimmy's sorry, Nimmy's tongue slipped" she apologized innocently.
"But there's something strange this time" Tsuki noted making the other two ask.
"He transformed into this form when he fought Artemiciano…" she said...
"And when he fought Klaive" the ragon added…
"I used to think that he does this when he's only facing threat, but this time there's no threat and yet he almost burned everything" Tsuki concluded.
"Man, he suffers something…I even think that he's not a human as he has been told, imp do you know any clan that can do whatever Juan does?" the ragon asked.
"As far as I know, the only tribals that can engulf their bodies in flames are beastmen, and that looked nothing like a beastman" the imp answered.
"Then…Orange boy must control this power or everyone burned" Nimmy suggested smartly unlikely to her naïve self.
"Either that or…He burns out anything in his path" Tsuki added.
To be continued
Well, this is the first time I'm using an extra space to post my opinion guys (So don't mind me if I posted something silly) Anyway as you can see Juan is back to the field again, this time he's not traveling alone, he has Zolu, Nimmy, and Tsuki (How cute) going with him, he'll start soon discover that he's no ordinary "human" However the price of knowing that will cost a lot for him and the world.
Review are welcome (No flaming though...I'm combustible!...XD) feel free to post your opinions...Bye :D
(Phew posting this somehow left a wierd taste in my mouth O3O)