Chapter 2: Comrades

Three weeks have passed since Grado invaded Renais, prince Ephraim, upon hearing the news, took a handful of knights and rode towards Grado, fighting whatever enemy soldier that stood in his way. Now he was a few miles from castle Renvall, having just routed a band of mercenaries, Ephraim decided that it would be a good idea to take the remaining supplies from the defeated mercenaries, among the things left behind, Ephraim's knights found a prisoner.

"Prince Ephraim, you need to see this!" a young green haired knight shouted.

"What is it, Kyle?" Ephraim answered as he entered the tent were the prisoner was being held.

Ephraim started untying the prisoner and tried having a better look at his face, he glared at the man's violet eyes and then became shocked.

"... Ephraim..." the man whispered before passing out.

"Get the medical supplies, now!" Ephraim ordered his men, as the knights left the tent, he knelt, held the man's hand and whispered: "Lyon, what happened to you?"

...

Lyon's body was a mess, he looked emaciated, his skin was pale, covered in scars, open wounds and dirt, his nails were long and unkempt as was his hair which had started to gray prematurely due to a mixture of stress and malnourishment, a thick, graying, unkempt beard had grown in his face, his once ornate robes where now torn and caked in dirt, he no longer looked like the proud scion of the most powerful nation in the continent, now he looked like some destitute beggar.

Lyon woke up later that evening and was greeted by the sight of Ephraim sitting next to him, he looked at him and asked: "Ephraim... w...where...where am I?, what happened?"

Ephraim said no word, just grabbed him by the collar and wrapped him in an embrace, he then said: "Lyon, I should be asking you that".

Lyon told him everything that had happened, from the illness and subsequent death of his father, to the events that transcured during the coronation and his escape, as they escaped many of his followers were captured or killed, including his friend Knoll, Ephraim in turn told him about Grado's invasion of Renais, then Ephraim asked him: "why do think this happened?"

"I don't know" Lyon answered "None of this makes any sense, but there is something I can't get out of my mind"

"Go on" said Ephraim.

Lyon continued "When my father returned from the grave during the coronation ceremony I felt a sense of dread when I saw him, I can't quite put my finger on it but there was something wrong with him, like he wasn't really my father anymore, like he wasn't even human"

Suddenly Lyon started coughing profusely, Ephraim said: "Try not to overexert yourself, here, drink this" as he poured a bottle of a bluish liquid into a wooden cup and handed it to Lyon.

Lyon drank it, it had a bitter taste and as he swallowed it, he could it burn his throat, then the coughing stopped, his pain subsided significantly, and his strength seemed to return.

"By the way, Ephraim, do you know what happened to the little girl?" Lyon asked.

"What girl?" Ephraim asked confused.

"The mercenaries that captured me were holding a young girl with indigo hair, I tried to help her escape, but I was discovered and captured."

Ephraim shook his head "You were the only prisoner we found"

Meanwhile, an older knight with brown hair entered the tent, "prince Ephraim" he said "we found another mercenary camp nearby; they seem to belong to the same group we encountered earlier"

"Good" said Ephraim with a smirk as turned towards the knight "stay here and take care of Lyon; Forde, Kyle and I will deal with them"

"Wait, Ephraim" said Lyon "Take me with you, I can fight"

"Do you have a weapon" asked Ephraim.

"I had a couple of tomes with me before I was captured" answered Lyon.

Ephraim then picked a nearby leather satchel and said "we found these, I think..."

Before he could continue Lyon grabbed the satchel out of his hands and started rummaging through it, he then said "yes, everything seems to be in order"

"Very well, you can come with us" said Ephraim " just remember, if things start to go south I want you to return to this camp, take whatever you need and head towards Rena is, you must warn my father about what's happening"

"Yes, I... I will" responded Lyon, then the two of them, alongside Kyle and Forde marched towards the enemy camp.

...

Ephraim observed the enemy camp from the top of a hill, it was smaller than he expected, with only five soldiers in total, he also noticed that there was a prisoner among them but couldn't discern much from where he was standing, he then gave the order to Kyle and Forde to charge towards the enemy, he also told Lyon to stay behind and only fight if he was attacked.

Kyle and Forde engaged two mercenaries, while Ephraim engaged their leader, a ranger and an ax fighter, both at the same time, the remaining mercenary, a cavalier, who was guarding the prisoner, seeing that his companions were under attack, abandoned his post, mounted his horse and joined the battle. Lyon then seized the opportunity and decided to sneak around the camp and try to free the prisoner, when he got close enough to the cage where the prisoner was being held he noticed that the prisoner was the little girl that he tried to rescue earlier, he quickly took the keys that were sitting on top of a crate completely unguarded and opened the cage.

The girl looked between nine and eleven years old, had indigo hair and was wearing a large crimson cloak, after seeing Lyon, she instinctively recoiled.

"Don't be afraid, I'm going to get you out of here" Lyon tried to call her down.

The girl, sensing no threat coming from Lyon, relaxed and decided to follow Lyon out of the camp.

Ephraim was having little trouble keeping the ranger and the axe fighter at bay and parrying their attacks, suddenly the cavalier charged towards him with the intention of striking him with his sword, Ephraim barely had time to notice and tried to dodge the attack, however he was not fast enough and the blow struck him across the left cheek and knocked him down, the ax fighter closed in to see whether Ephraim had been killed or not, when the ax fighter got close enough Ephraim opened his eyes and quickly stabbed him in the chest, then Ephraim stood up and glared at the cavalier, Ephraim's eyes were bloodshot, his hands were shaking, there was now a massive gash that ran from his left ear all the way to his chin, and he was grinning like a maniac.

"Give me more, more!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, and proceeded to lunge at the cavalier.

The cavalier charged towards Ephraim again, this time though, Ephraim managed to dodge in time and to stab the horse knocking the cavalier into the ground, the ranger took some distance, pulled out his bow and fired at Ephraim.

Meanwhile, Lyon had managed to get the girl out of the enemy camp, when he saw Ephraim having trouble keeping the cavalier at bay while also dodging the rangers arrows, so he ordered the girl to hide in some nearby bushes and rushed to help his friend.

The ranger prepared his next shot, this time he was certain he would hit Ephraim when suddenly Lyon casted flux on him, which not only knocked out of his horse but also threw off his aim causing his shot to miss Ephraim and instead hit the cavalier in the back of the neck, killing him instantly. Ephraim then lunged towards the ranger and struck him down before he could even stand up, then he looked around, Kyle and Forde had just managed to slay their opponents, the battle was over.

"Ephraim, your face!" exclaimed Lyon as he rushed towards his friend "we need to stitch that wound shut!"

...

Later that day, Lyon managed to stitch Ephraim wound to the best of this ability, the wound should heal properly and if he's lucky it would leave no noticeable scar, it was early in the evening, and they were all having dinner around a campfire, during which the girl introduced herself as Myrrh, the Ephraim asked about her whereabouts.

"Perhaps it would be best if I showed you" she then stood up and removed her cloak and revealed a pair of large, greenish-yellow wings.

Everyone was surprised, Lyon stood up in shock and said "y...you are... a manakete"

"A what?" asked Ephraim.

"T...they were an ancient race of dragon folk, I've read about them in a few legends" Replied Lyon.

"You are correct" said Myrrh "we live in the east... In Darkling Woods, one day we felt an ominous energy coming from the south, My companion Saleh and I... We went to investigate, but on our way we came across a battlefield and became separated, then some wicked folk, they deceived me and enchained me, they stole my dragonstone, they were preparing me for transport when you appeared and rescue me.

Kyle said "we should return to Renais and warn the king about this"

Ephraim responded "we don't have enough supplies for the journey back, even with what we took today, we will raid castle Renvall tomorrow and take enough for the journey back."

...

Later during the night everyone went to sleep, there were not enough tents for everyone so Ephraim and Lyon had to share a one, before going to sleep Ephraim asked "Lyon, I've noticed that you carry a tome that looks brand new, yet the one you use looks like it's about to fall apart, why is that?"

"I refuse to use that tome no matter what, don't ask me about it anymore, good night" Lyon replied angrily and went to sleep.

Ephraim looked at the cover, it read Naglfar.

...

Ephraim woke up in the middle of the night, Lyon was gone, and he took the Naglfar tome with him, Ephraim exited the tent to look for him, he quickly found him were the place the campfire was a few hours ago, he was ripping pages off and scribbling something into the tome, all while muttering curses angrily beneath his breath, soon Lyon closed the book and fell to the ground due to exhaustion.