Finally, let's get on the road already, Emerald's POV
I opened my eyes, and there was Strider, looking into my eyes… he was holding me, at least a little, in his arms. As I came to, my heart started to beat a little faster. This was nice, I could let this keep happening for at least a little while longer. Why was he just holding me, now? Was this more of an illusion, but a better one this time?
"Oh, girly, yer up." Strider dropped me on the ground. I was already on the ground, but he let go of me. Now it was significantly colder, aw, I wanted him to hold me a little longer. I couldn't lie, I was attracted to him. I was pretty sure nothing would come of it, seeing as we were running for our lives, and I wasn't sure there was really time for that sort of thing. But, if the situation came up… who knew? Oh, and I had to get to know him as a person, first.
"Yeah… I'm up." I said groggily.
"Congratulations. You are now free of the affliction." The old coot said, doing a sort of little dance.
"Good, good to know, I'm glad that's over. Did you cause that, old man? Because, if you did-" The old coot went ahead and interrupted Ray.
"Not you, unfortunately. You were hit much stronger than she was. It still lives in you."
"Still lives in me…" Ray mumbled, his eyes looked haunted. Oh boy, this wasn't good. I wasn't sure exactly what this meant, but… I remembered what had just happened. Was that shadow Rayquaza still around? The guy that was trying to get Ray to kill me. Could I be safe near him, then? I didn't really have much of a choice, did I? Well, now he knew why I was keeping him here, and he didn't seem very happy about it. He just, he didn't understand…
"Is there something we can do about it?" I asked.
"There's a way to get rid of it, in time. I think I need a bit of cleaning myself, but I'll do it later." Strider said, stretching his arm across his chest. Cleaning? Was that what we were doing? The trial of affliction was cleaning ourselves of some, what, what was it, some kind of curse? I didn't know. If something happened, it happened during that time I was asleep and Ray moved me. Something cursed us… afflicted us? Something that wanted me dead, and wasn't able to do it directly, so it tried to make Ray do it. That was just a guess, though. I had no idea what was really going on.
"But, you are clean, and that's enough. You passed the trials. I can teach you, now." The old coot said. He seemed a lot more coherent than he had been before, then again, so did we. So, had he been afflicted, too? Or maybe our perception of him had been distorted. Who could say, who could say? If our perception was affected by this affliction, then what could we base anything off of, huh? How could we gauge the truth… well, we could backtrack to what was true before we were afflicted. How did this even happen. I mean, I knew Ray said someone came and attacked us, but what was it exactly, and why did the old coot and Strider know about it… to the point where they knew how to fix it, who exactly were these guys.
"But what about me?!" Ray was more than a little worried about himself and his condition. I didn't blame him. What we had just experienced… I never wanted to have to do that again, and I was sure he wanted to avoid it too, at all costs. 'At all costs' something about that phrase sent a shiver down my spine. I couldn't let him get back into that state again. I knew he didn't think I did, but I cared about his well-being. He just asked for the thing I could not do…
"You couldn't defeat it right now, so…" Strider hesitated for a moment. "It'll be there for a while, festering in the sea of your soul, or whatever it is you call it, old man." The old man nodded his agreement.
"No time, right now." He agreed.
"Then… what?" I asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" The old man said. He had this huge grin on his face, and a sparkle in his eyes. I had to wonder why he did that. I had seen that sort of child-like sparkle in the eyes of the elderly before, and it was just because they didn't know what in the world was going on. I didn't think that was the case here, he knew something, that was for sure. But how present was he? He hit me with the stick again, knocked me on the head. I scowled. Apparently I had taken too long to answer him… even though I had never intended to answer him, I just wanted to wait for him to finish his statement, but no, I guess he wanted a response from me.
"No, it isn't. When and where does the training begin?" I asked. The old man didn't seem to like the fact that I couldn't guess what was going to happen. Sorry old man, I didn't know. I couldn't just guess what he was thinking, oh no, what a horrible thing.
"The training will be on the way to go stop the dark court's plans." The old man said, he was grave. "Just about everything is on the line, here." He was a serious kind of guy, when he wanted to be, I guessed.
"Oh! The people off the Western shore!" I exclaimed, suddenly remembering the whole reason we had been running away in the first place. We were running away to stay alive, of course, but we were also trying to stop whatever it was they were doing. The old man winked at me and tapped his nose. I took that to mean that he was telling me I was correct.
"You couldn't do it without some magical lessons, huh? We want them to stop as much as you. The crown has hurt way too many people. That court has hurt way too many people. I mean, I always thought I was bad but these guys… they're shaping up to end the whole dang werld, if we're not mistaken." Strider said, pushing up the weird thing on his face.
"What is that on your face?" I asked. I knew I was being very distracted and I was afraid the old man might bonk me on the head again with his totally not magical and just being mean to me stick, but he did not. I braced for it, but it did not come. Was he fine with my curiosity for once?
"Sun glasses." Strider said, a little dumbfounded. It was like he expected me to be able to do something about this, there was nothing I could do about-
What, I meant, no way I could know about this. This… sun glasses thing, did not exist in my kingdom, I had never heard or seen anything. Why did my thoughts go off track there, though? I thought I was supposed to be free of the affliction, now. Wasn't that what was causing my mind to wander like that, go down avenues that made absolutely no sense? Or, ones that didn't really fit together, the logic didn't flow, and so your mind started to slip and fracture. I glanced over at Ray. I was going to be alright… right?
"Well… let's go then. The faster we go the faster you'll teach us things, right?" Was he hoping to get more powerful, too? He didn't seem very concerned about the whole everything on the line thing. Maybe, did he want to try to break the connection himself? Was that possible. This guy was determined to find a way back, huh? If there were a way to get him to go back to his life without stealing my life from me, I would do it… probably. I would consider it much more thoroughly.
"I'll ride with Strider?" I asked Ray, he nodded.
"Flygon can take two of y'all, but not three. Ray, yer gonna have to have someone fly with ya, buddy."
"Child, get on there." The old man said, already on the Flygon. I automatically responded, I was so used to being called child or kid or something… I wasn't used to having a name, although I had taken to it pretty quickly. Emerald, based on the stone. We, me and my sisters, were all named after precious metals and stones. I had often wondered what I would be named after. It wouldn't be something one of my other sisters were named, cause that would get real confusing real quick. I thought, perhaps, amethyst or opal? I studied many of the local types of stone in out kingdom. It was mostly all the same, just that white shale rock. However, the meteor that formed the crater we lived in brought with it many bizarre and wonderful types of stones, including the stones that we made into our gem lights. I, again, took a moment to notice just how open everything was, just how open the sky was. I hopped on Ray, and he, with a grumble, took off. What was his problem? I thought we were working together pretty nicely just a few moments ago.
We flew in silence. I was getting used to this, I think, flying and all. Ray flew way different than Flygon. Ray snaked around weirdly, it probably had something to do with how he was built. Flygon, on the other hand, flew straight, and steady. I wished I could be there, I wished I could have a Flygon. Maybe if I had been born out here, none of these weird things would be happening. I wouldn't have had to endure that weird blood curse. I wouldn't have been cursed with my family name, associated with that court…
I felt bad for my sisters, just a little bit. Crystal, mostly, I felt bad for Crystal. She didn't have anything bad in her heart, not truly, I didn't believe it. She was the nicest one, and I really didn't think she was acting. She even tried to keep me out, keep me ignorant, so I didn't have to get dragged into that world. I liked the world better the way it was before, me and the kids, adventure in our backyard. If I had the chance, I would try to get her out, too. She could join us or something. It would be nice to have someone else in the family on my side, not just be completely alone against them… not that it had ever been any different. At least I wasn't entirely alone, now. This was a pretty weird group for me to get stuck with, but we were together.
"I got a target around here." Strider yelled over the roar of the wind. The old man just sort of waved him off, lightly smacking him in the back because the old man was behind him. A…target? What was that about? Strider kicked the sides of Flygon and shifted his weight, steering Flygon down below the cloud cover. They hadn't talked to either of us. Did they want us to follow? To keep going? There was no real indication, but before I had a chance to talk to Ray about it, he made the decision that it was a good idea to just go ahead and dive after them. I wasn't ready for that, and so I had to hold on tight in order to not lose my balance, which of course, caused me to accidentally choke Ray… again. He bucked and I free fell for a few moments before he was able to catch me again and continue his dive again. I held on more loosely this time. I hoped he wouldn't be too mad about that. I was getting better about the strength of my grip, he just caught me by surprise.
Free falling was not something you got used to. It felt like all your insides were still up where you were, and you were watching yourself leave your guts behind. The wind made everything blow upward, like when you were underwater on you back, it was like… slow motion, suspended reality. It was weird, I knew, and I wasn't exactly sure words were really going to do it.
What in the world did Strider mean by a target. I remembered the knife he had up to that guy's neck… the way Strider handled that thing and ruthlessly made him submit to his will. That justice guy was a whacko. All the people I met so far outside of the kingdom were real weird. I didn't know what I expected. Could I not actually find a normal person? I wanted to find a normal person, and a girl, I wanted to travel with at least one other girl. Our travel party surely wasn't whole, yet. I… I wanted Lilly, I really did.
We followed Strider, he was flying down fast, a green blur, faster than we were. They were flying right towards the ground. I knew he would swoop up in time, though. Yep, there Flygon went, flying straight up. I looked at Flygon. The old man was on there, but Strider was not on there anymore. I raised my eyebrow, and looked back to the ground. We leveled out a bit to watch what was about to happen… or, what had already happened. There was a body on the ground, and Strider had his arms stretched out to the sides, a large knife in one hand. The man's neck was slit. The man was dead. The blood… didn't make me feel weird, that was good. Before I got into this weird headspace when I saw blood, but now was fine, so that was from the affliction, I could only assume.
He just… he just killed a guy. He had slit a man's neck. And that man had done nothing to him, nothing to us. He had just been minding his own business when Strider just… ended his life. That was insane. Was Strider, did Strider lose his entire mind? And he said it was a target. So, he meant to kill this guy. Why in the world did he mean to kill this guy? What did this guy do to deserve being a target? Flygon flew back down to pick Strider up, and they flew back up to meet us. As Flygon approached us, Strider had taken out a handkerchief and he was cleaning off the blood on his knife. I didn't take a good look at it before. It was a pretty fancy knife, it had a curved blade, that reminded me a little bit of a sickle, but it wasn't quite that round, it was absolutely a knife. The blade was kind of big too, it ran the length of his forearm. He has a sheath on his belt, I never noticed that.
"What… what was that?" I asked, mouth agape. He looked up at me, his head still tilted down.
"An assassination." He said it as if it should have been very obvious, and I should have been able to see that. Of course I could see that the man was dead, that Stride killed him with the knife. I was traveling with a murderer! "What?" He said, tilting his head up towards me. "You never seen a murder before, princess?"
"…No." I said, a bit hollowly. He raised his eyebrow, like he had been joking, and it was a bit of a surprise.
"Huh, really? Well, it's common." He said, his face serious. "I just get paid for it."
"What, you kill people for money? How disgusting can you get?" I spat, then stared down at the body, killed in vain. He did nothing to Strider, Strider just killed him for dirty money. And what did he mean it was common? Was this world… was this world different?
"I wouldn't be judging. Your family's the one that does most of the killing around here." He said, he sounded disgusted. I… what? My… my family did most of the killing? What did that mean? Did they run out here and kill people? What? The dark court wanted to disappear some city, not city, town, or, I dunno, a people. They didn't just murder random people… then again, maybe they did. Turns out I didn't know anything about them. Still, when did they even have time to do something like that? Murder and victimize a land.
"When did they do that? I see them most of the time, they don't have time to go ravaging the country land." I said. I didn't know why I was trying to defend them. I wasn't really, I guessed, I wasn't really trying to defend them, I just wanted to understand.
"Well yeah, not directly, they have the armies do that." Strider explained. He finished wiping off his knife and sheathed it.
"Armies…" I trailed off. The kingdom had no armies, my father had no armies. There were no armies to command, what was he talking about.
"You really are sheltered, huh?" Strider leaned forward on Flygon. We were hovering a few feet above the body. What exactly… had they been hiding from me? Strider looked into my eyes. "You really don't know…"
"Not hear, there are observers, off to safety." The old man said, he was half asleep or something, and he was back to not making a whole lot of sense. So, I guessed… we were going somewhere else?
"Aren't you going to at least hide the body or something?" I asked.
"Why bother with something like that, little lady?" Strider said. The guy seemed genuinely confused, like he didn't even have to worry about getting caught or anything, and perhaps… he didn't? Murder, a world where that was just a common thing, a thing that you couldn't even get in trouble for. There was something… there were a lot of things about this world that I did not know. And as my guides, I had an old fool and a killer with a sly attitude! Perfect!
"What is wrong here… have things been like this the whole time?" I asked.
"A good long while, long as I've been alive, at least. Armies show up, pour out of the capital, that place you lived, that crater place? Anyways, they come from the ocean, patrol the land, and execute people for some arbitrary reason. From the look on your face I'm thinking this is news to you." Strider said.
It was, it was very much a surprise to me that this was what this world was. Was it? Was he telling the truth? This seemed like it was a load of nonsense. I couldn't, I couldn't believe it…
"Excuse me, what?" Ray said. Ok, he was on my side, too, on this. It wasn't just me thinking this was wrong. He was a little distracted by the corpse, as one was expected to be, but I was a little concerned about him doing this… he was still afflicted. What if he turned on me, and oh, there was the other thing, our tether, could the affliction or any sort of ill of the soul go over from him to me. That was a scary thought. "That makes no sense, everyone looked so peaceful there. There was no army, it was not like this. The dark court… There's no way it's that bad, just going out and murdering random people. Why would they do that?"
"Something something sacrifice…. Honestly, I couldn't really tell you exactly. They get more powerful from it, not exactly sure how it works." Strider said.
"Let's go." The old man said. "You have no other targets on the way?"
"Nah, that was my only job, for now." Strider said. He kicked Flygon's sides quickly, and they were off. We paused a little, Ray stared at the body.
"Hey, Ray." I said very softly. I just wanted him to break eye contact with the corpse. It wasn't going to make things better and it was likely going to make everything worse. He could get over this, he was just sick. I hoped he was rational.
"Yes… right." I seemed to break him out of a trance. He shook his head and kept on flying, going after Flygon. We were off… and into what kind of world… I suddenly realized… I had no idea.
Have an awesome day!