Chapter 6: Recreation / Two Souls

Enga

It has been awhile since I've seen Star and her tormenting of Zylup. I found it amusing, yet I tended to be annoyed by all the noise.
Recently, we had arrived in a city called Lohan, somewhere in southern Serdio. Despite it being a commercial town, it seemed to be slightly more rundown than Seles. We had gotten ourselves rooms in the inn, when...
"Sweet!" the girl exclaimed.
"My prayers have been answered!" Star rejoiced.
"What?" Zylup grouched, being awoken from his nap on the sofa.
The girl showed us a poster that was advertising a family enjoying their time in a large arena, surrounded by certain events.
"A festival...?" I mumbled.
"I'm glad that you made the discovery," Zylup said in, I believe, a sarcastic tone, "now let me sleep!"
When Zylup turned his back on us to sleep, Star rested her hand on his shoulder and said, "We're going."
"Good for you," Zylup murmured.
"You're going too," she stated.
"Pff," he said, "as if..."
"Yes if," Star replied as her eyebrow twitched.
"No, I'm-" Zylup shrieked in pain as Star dug her nails into his shoulder. "Alright! I'll go!"
"What about you?" the girl asked. It took me a moment to realize that she was talking to me.
As I shut my eyes, Zylup answered for me, "It's not really his thing."
"Well, you can just hang out," the girl stated. "You could... rest by a wall, or something."
After a moment, I sighed, "Fine, I'll go."
As she walked to the other end of the room, Star commented, "If only Zylup was as convincing as Enga..."
Zylup cursed under his breath.

"Whoohoo!" Star cheered the next day as we walked into a monstrous tent.
"If you don't get off of me," Zylup began, "then I'm going back!"
"Fine, sheesh..." she muttered as she jumped off of Zylup's back.
The area inside the tent was only a circumference of about fifty yards. To the right were games and boar races. To the left were snacks and tourists.
Abruptly, Star blurted out, "Alright, let the double-date begin!"
Zylup and the girl gagged, "What?" Star grabbed Zylup by the arm and dragged him away, exclaiming, "Have fun, you two!" As they disappeared into a crowd, I was left alone with the girl.
"So," the girl began as she chuckled nervously, "I guess we'll be sitting by a wall, huh?"

Half an hour had passed, and I was resting against the same pole, watching the girl go get her third drink. Slurping through the straw, the girl returned and sat on the ground next to me. Other than the crowd cheering, pigs snorting, and a couple of kids running around, it was decently quiet. Then, we heard a group of people nearby talking about something relevant to us. I motioned my head as a way to tell the girl to listen. Despite my keen senses, I could only pick up some of the words that they had said.
"The Assailance... destruction... they'll... another Dragon Campaign."
"Another Dragon Campaign...?" the girl repeated under her breath.
"That's what I hear," someone close by suddenly said. I looked over to my right to see someone standing there in a position that mocked my own. "But we're really trying to change the world."
"You're part of the Assailance?" I questioned him, reaching for the hilt of my sword.
"Whoa! Whoa!" the man said, holding his hands up. "Let's not get on the wrong foot!"
"You're the one trying to kidnap her?" I continued as the girl stood up, being on guard.
"That's not my job," he said before holding out his hand. "Name's Leon." I didn't accept his handshake, so he drew his hand back. "... or not."
"What does the Assailance want with me?" the girl asked.
"Don't know, don't care," Leon answered. "All I know is that Jatan wants something, and it involves you. Whatever he wants, we get. Capiche?"
"Why is Zylup's brother doing this?" the girl said.
"Zylup...?" Leon repeated, apparently searching his memories. "... That name doesn't recall, but I'll be sure to ask about it later." He took out a coin from his pocket and began to play with it. He wasted an amount of time flipping it. Then, a thought had occured to me.
"It's not your job, huh?" I asked. That was when Leon smirked.
"No," he answered, "but it's my job to make certain that it carries out." As I drew out my sword, he called, "Princess! Now!" I became confused for a moment at his outburst. I looked over and saw the previous opponent from Indels Castle, Janet. As she flung her hand forward, the coin from Leon's hand brushed past my vision. A symbol was on it, which triggered a jynx on me, causing me to go blind. The spell that Janet had casted paralyzed me.
"Enga!" the girl exclaimed.
"Nice work, princess," Leon commented, which I now realized that he had been addressing to Janet.
"Let's go," I heard Janet say lazily as a panic from the people uproared.
I heard the struggle between the three, but about two minutes later, when it was silent, I was certain that they had gotten the girl.
The spells that were casted on me had to have been powerful, for they hadn't worn off yet. After physically standing there, helpless, for about a minute, I heard footsteps approach me.
"Enga! You alright?" I identified the voice as Star's. The other prescence was Zylup. After more sounds of feet shuffling, Star held something up to my nose, saying, "Here." I figured that it was a body purifier, so I took a sniff. Eventually, my vision had returned to me. As I gained control over my joints, I began to explain to them what had happened.
"Jatan's dirt-workers again?" Zylup grunted. I looked around until I spotted the nearest exit. Then I headed for it.
"W-wait!" Star called. "We're going with you!"
"I'm the fastest out of the three of us. I even got a scent. If I don't go stop them now, I'll lose the scent, and they'll be long gone."
After a moment, Zylup blurted out, "What are you waiting for? Go!"
I nodded and ran, following the scent. I noticed that as I ran, my blood was pumping through my heart faster, as though adrenaline had kicked in. A mysterious prescence was what got me to look down at my pocket. The midnight-blue jewel of the necklace that I got from Seles had began to glow.

Avrin

I woke up, just to realize that I was being carried on someone's shoulder. I tried getting up, but pain shot through me. I remembered. The guy, Leon hit me in the stomach really hard before knocking me out from behind.
"Hey, princess," the person who's shoulder I was on said, "she's waking up."
"We will get to Gerald soon," the girl next to us said, ignoring the nickname.
I realized that these two people were Leon and Janet. I also realized that my arms and feet were bound, so making a run for it wasn't exactly the best idea.
"Great!" Leon cheered. "Soon, he'll be able to teleport her off of me." I took note of the verb that he had said. Suddenly, the path underneath us turned from a dirt brown to a pitch black.
"W-what the-?" Leon began until he realized that their feet were sinking into the blackness. I looked up and saw Enga standing behind them. His whole attire had completely changed, and he had wings too. Enga was now a Dragoon. Actually, I guess that explains why he bought the necklace from that auction. "Janet, do something!" Leon continued.
"My arms," Janet began as she had sunk halfway down the darkness, "they won't move."
By the time that I was face-to-face with the ground, the slicky-black cover had disappeared. I looked up as Enga walked up and unbound my feet and hands.
"Okay, so you're good," Leon admitted.
"Leon, get me out of here," Janet demanded lazily.
"Let me take care of that, princess," Leon said sarcastically. When Enga noticed that I was still in pain, he helped me up on my feet. We began to head back for Lohan, until Leon muttered, "Stupid bitch..."
Suddenly, Enga snapped. He jerked his hand at Leon's head and began to tug at the hair harshly.
"While Leon was howling in pain, Enga said hoarsly, "You're going to regret saying that."
"What the hell-?" Leon began, but he paused as his eyes widened. I saw it, too.
They say you can see a person's soul through their eyes. My foster father said that I was always eager and had courage. Enga, through his eyes, was someone who was strong, yet sorrowful. However, under his bang, the other half was revealed. His left eye was blood red. It showed that he was eager to kill and was in pursuit of something. Enga had... two personas.
As Leon continued to express his pain, I hesitantly shouted, "Enga, please stop! Let's just go back to Zylup and Star! Enga, just stop it!" I winced as pain shot through me again, which made Enga pause. Other than Leon's harsh breathing, it was silent.)
Finally, Enga stood up as he changed back to his normal clothing, saying, "Let's go."

Enga

She never spoke a word on the way back to Lohan. I had gotten myself too carried away, but why? What triggered it to happen? I thought that I had it locked away...
"So..." the girl finally said, trying to not sound disturbed, "what's the story...?"
Looking away, I answered, "... I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh..." the girl merely said. A moment later, she added, "If you ever want to talk about it, let me know..."
The walk continued to be rather dark until we had arrived in Lohan. We spotted Zylup, who was trying to run away from Star, but failed. When they spotted us, she jumped off of his back and charged right into us.
"Avrin!" Star exclaimed as she hugged the girl. "If Enga didn't get you any sooner, then Zylup could've hurt me!"
"Shut up," Zylup muttered as walked up, hitting her on the head.
"Hey!" Star shouted at him in an irritating tone. However, they didn't continue their bickering when they noticed the girl's gloomy expression. "What's wrong?" Star asked.
"... Earlier," the girl began, "someone mentioned something about the Assailance causing a second Dragon Campaign." No one said anything as a response. Not even I was sure how to respond to that.
Finally, Zylup smirked, saying, "Keeping your butt safe while bringing a stop to them? It sounds fun."
The girl looked up at him before smiling, saying, "Well, what are we waiting for?"
"Alright!" Star cheered.
"Let's go then," I suggested.
"Yeah!" the girl said, nodding.
"Where to?"