Chapter Eight
Groggily
Sore and empty eyes etched open, as soon as the high focus of his eyes embarked he sat up, springing with anticipating getting over the foggy haze of memory. Head felt heavy and lolling on his neck, he felt water rolling in his insides as he tried to move –like he just ate a full seven-course meal of lead.
Sunlight beamed on his crusty raven armour?
In half a heartbeat, he stood up, knees buckling on all the extra outer weight. The suit of black flexible armour was unique and he found it strangely to his unknown liking…it had raven feathers sticking shyly out from the shoulder pads, in a T-shirt forum, the lower chest was in layers of leathery metal that looked disheartening to himself – like a muscular build. The waists thinned into his pants and only his knees down were tattered with thick rings of steel that were sewed together to represent boots. Ryley stood there examining it thoroughly, clawing around trying to get it off but it hurt whenever he tried any force.
Something in the corner of his snake skin eyes dragged him to gap, it was; Maya. Face first in the moat possibly dead, without any incantation to think he sprinted and dived swiftly into the glassy water that shrouded his body instantly as he lowered under her sleepy body. The armour somehow, in an astral way –lightened, pondering on how he could adjust his weight to his situation. With his two taught arms he wrapped one under her arms and one to afloat.
Not realizing that he just swan with 3 times his body weight pawing at him, his hand reaching for the edge and his leg followed; sitting on his knees he reached her up, elbows trembling furiously. Sighing with little exhaustion he checked if she was breathing.
"Maya!" He said "Maya?"
Her soft eyelids remained closed. An unpleasant icy wind wisp against his body, it shivered his insides with the truth; but he couldn't accept. The gale combed through his dormant wet hair as it whipped around slowly, the unknown armour rattled with the streams as well. He didn't know what to do, examples. Doesn't everyone know what to do in this kind of problem? Now Ryley felt insignificant.
Singeing his answer he led in for mouth-to-mouth. He could feel goose bumps warning him that the decision was awkward, but staring at her motionless feminine body, neither taking in any breaths nor smiling any signs of life judged it. So close…he could feel his breaths ripple gently against her face he closed his eyes to futilely help.
"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
"N-nothing!" He yelped while pushing himself as far away as possible.
She pursed her lips and backed away "Were you? Trying to..? Kiss me?"
His face lost all colour, "NO!"
She let herself grow a wolfish smile and laughed, "Aww, You were trying to save my life!" Ryley blushed immediately. "Nice…get up…"
"I don't know what the hell is this thing! Help me get it off!" Ryley struggled himself to stand up. "I can't take it off!"
Maya sat there, her mouth dropped and her eyes glistening with curiosity while he attempted to pull the thing off. "Ryley…do you know what that thing is?"
"Some odd armour…why?"
"Idiot…"
"Excuse me?"
"It's cursed."
"C-cursed?" Ryley stopped what he was doing and paid full attention to Maya. "How?"
"You see that symbol on the back? She pointed at him, fingers shaking. "That's an enchantment, a pretty strong one too –it's written in blood." Maya got up, lost her balance and sat back down breathing heavily "In my country, Valria, there was a deadly war. Gah…it's too long to explain, I'll skip ahead: That's my Dad's armour!"
"That's impossible. I just woke up and it was on me!" Ryley countered.
"Even more the reason!" She snapped back.
"You're making no sense!" said Ryley while turning his back.
"T-t-that in sigma…" She surveyed the sign through watery eyes "It's a Dragon, with it tail, shaped like a 'D' and here! In writing…not English…I can't read that…" With her long fingers, she hooked the neck and yanked –causing Ryley to screech. Surely, this had hurt him a lot.
"Will you please!" He wrenched his body out of her grip, glaring.
"Listen Ryley, we absolutely HAVE to get that off!" Maya said, almost pleading, "It's very…uh, sentimental to my family!"
"Okay, first of all." Ryley took in a heaping of air "If I went into our country, WAR would be the least of our concerns! Two! IT'S STUCK! Three, it's forbidden for a Hyrulian to entre such a place…"
"Where'd you hear that!" Maya screamed. Ryley stared at her, his eye's searching in hers, and surveying that something he said has deeply hurt her…
"Maya, I'm primal to get this thing off, but I cannot go to Valria, if I did…who knows what would happen. That's demonic land, cursed! This could be a trick…" Ryley closed his eyes and waiting, ambitious to if whether or not she would start pounding at him.
She stood there, drank and alone in her most morbid feelings. Her luscious, Worchester hair veiling her tears was flowed downwards, conveying her trembling lip. Her fists were shaking madly at the echo of his booming voice, she mumbled as many confusing swear words as she could spit out. "Shut…. up…" She growled with teeth so clenched together they could snap like a brittle twig.
Ryley knew he said something obscure. So he lowered his hands and tilted his head down –his hair cowered in front of his face. "I said something bad…didn't I…"
"No really!" Maya said coldly. A bad omen.
"Ugh, fine…we'll leave tomorrow…lets hope we keep our heads…" Ryley expected her hit him, to cause him pain for insulting her country…but before he could recoil, she tackled him –smiling widely.
"Good boy!"
"I'm not a dog…" Ryley glared.
Maya buckled her knees (which didn't hurt on a count of the armour) and perched his back out so she clearly represented a dog. Her leathery wings spread eagle out, and her hair muffled and water logged stoke up lazily. "So, tomorrow then?"
Ryley sat up, causing Maya to counter backwards. "Yes, now don't bug me about it…"
"It'll be nice…to go back there…I almost forgot what it looked like…"
Night resigned itself over day. The sky, darkening quickly, and stars rubbing their eyes one by one, as the cowering sun descended. The ground was pitch black and only the sector surrounded by the petit fire was dull, and damp. Ryley and Maya sat against a lone tree, the fire between them. Ryley, which was still confused about many things, stared hazy into the fire, while Maya, was combing her hair merrily.
The only sound was the dancing of the fire, and Ryley slurping his cup.
His entire backside was hammering with pain, his legs were taught and aching severely, and even his hands somehow hurt. He was sure his face was stained with battle and dirt. And he was right; his toughened complex was almost a spit image of his fathers. Which he scowled at, and tried to wipe his face with his sleeve which was just as dirty looking.
"I bet we smell like dirt." Maya blurted out, as she too was cleaning her face.
"Yep…" Ryley sniffled.
"Feel like you can move?"
"Barely."
And with that, he jumped upwards. Maya did in unison. Ryley did a 360 turn, squinted his eyes and ironically admired the darkness –it was near impossible to see the ground. Maya started to walk northeast, which Ryley followed groggily.
Something about this armour was odd…besides the look of it…why am I so tired?
Ryley felt his eyes lowering, the blur of his eye lashed obscuring his vision even more, and his feet…were almost skating along the ground. Before he knew it, his eyes were shut, and strangely enough –he was sleep walking.
"Tell me, again, why you don't want to be knighted?"
"I already told you…"
"That's not a good excuse."
"You honestly want to know?"
"Tell me." The adult folded his hands, and pushed his chair back slightly.
"Because, I think it's stupid. You spend almost one quarter of your life preparing for this miniscule event that only gives a name! A title! Then, you have to swear chivalry, which –haven't you noticed- no one does! I don't want to follow in your foot steps either…" Ryley spat out, standing up slightly.
"Please, sit down. And tell me why." He remained calm.
"I just told you…" Ryley sighed. "I don't want to follow your footsteps. Oh wait, I'll dumb it down to your level: I don't want to be like you!"
With a half second, the adult sprang up, causing the table to shake widely, and the glass to send its death to the ground. "How dare you! After all I've done for you!"
"Making my life hell!" Ryley shook his head, "Do you ever look back at what you've done in your life? Horrible things! You don't deserve to be king –"
And the mass of muscle moved towards him, his hand fisted and ready to fight.
"Ah!" Ryley woke up out of the daze.
"What!" Maya snapped as she handed over the money to the hotel clerk, who was, in unison with Maya giving him an obtuse glance.
"Nothing…" Ryley said, while processing that he was beyond just tired.
"You're room is room 14, here's the key—" the badly shaven clerk said grumpily.
Maya snatched it out of his hand, and stormed away, dragging Ryley by the collar. From what he managed to interpret out the window; he was in some weird village that he's never seen before. There was no sky; it was just a blanket of black, and the stars. Muffled out by pollution. Before he could ask her, she let go.
He wheeled around to find a grotesque room that was barely suitable. Two beds, a bathroom (which was terrible and the sink was broken and dripping water at a gradual rate) and a creaking wooden floor. The lone window on the far wall, revealed a train station, in which he knew they would be taking the following morning…
If he ever woke up…
Before he plummeted on the bed, she tapped her foot rather alarmingly. He managed to speak a saturated whisper "What…"
She gestured towards the bathroom "Shower!"
"How can I take a shower—" He gaped, the armour was gone!
"Yes, I put a seal on that hunk of metal, but by tomorrow, it'll be back on, see that piece of parchment glued to your back?" She giggled, as he felt his back for the solo paper.
Another thing he realized that he was also topless… "Ahk!" He tried to hide himself but charged into the bathroom, casted her a dirty look –and closed the door.
After they had their share of cleanliness, they both climbed into their beds, and killed the lights. The scratchiness of the blanket made him grumble, but it was something. In his clean clothes (Maya took the will of cleaning his get up) he felt the radiance of soft skin and clean hair mellow him.
For what seemed like an hour, he laid in the bed, over looking what has happened in the past few days. He's been kicked out of his house, ran through a storm, made a new friend, walked through a dried up sewer, cursed, and now in an unknown town that he doesn't know how he got their. All the piecing together made him ponder; what would have happened if he just stayed at home, and agree to ruin his life? If he joined the organization that has made his life worse? The rumors, the fires, they had to be stopped. And he was the only one, outside the gang, who knew about them.
--They had to be stopped.
END.