Fantasia

Arc1: Battle of villages

Chapter8(Finale): The victory is ours…but

Finally, the ragons invasion came to an end after the defeat of their leader, the water dwellers retreat to the sea again, leaving the land, and with this the beastmen of Ardneria can feel free again.

They were gathered in the village square around their leader, all in silence looking further for a word from the victorious old sage.

"Brethren beastmen…we gather here today for something important that may change the life we used to have…" Luffine said in a serious voice making the entire village stunned waiting for the rest.

"From today until the next weekend…Festivals! Festivals will be! Suppers! Drinks! Dancers! And all the joy we can have all the week long!" he added while jumping in joy with a silly accent.

Of course the citizens were a bit disappointed of the announcement as they expected something more serious, standing staring at their leader.

"You do like festivals, don't you?" Luffine asked his people, who nodded with their heads,: "Then what the hell are you waiting for?! Get the streets ready and prepare the supper you imbeciles!" he shouted at them making them rush to their homes to prepare for the great victory celebration.

Juan was in his room at that time, he had unlike -his brother- his wounds healed perfectly, and enigmatically by the holy light produced from Luffine's spell, he was as usual reading the adventures book he got from Roné as a birthday gift, when he heard his brother voice shouting.

He headed down to the yard, to see his brother who was wrapped in bandages, trying to run but his mother was holding him while carrying a small bottle of ointment.

-Roné & Juan's mother: Known as Mel Rocux, she's a large beastwoman in her late forties, she has distinctive round green eyes, a circular face, and a long braided red hair that Roné seems to inherit from her along with the diagonal dark lines on his cheeks, she wears a pink dress, and a sky blue bandana that covers the top of her head-

"Calm down kid! The doctor said you need this to heal your wounds faster!" Mel said while pulling her son.

"No freakin' way mom! I ain't putting that slime on my fur! It burns like hell!" the son said struggling to escape his mother's iron fist.

"Okay then no dinner for you lad, unless you have the remedy!" the mother said, then she added: "Why don't you be more like Juan, he's such a good behaving young man!".

"Mom I'm eighteen now! I can take my own decisions!" Roné said.

"Basically you are still seventeen, if you count that we are twins" Juan interrupted, then he added politely: "Morning mom, I hope you are well." Finishing his words with a gentle smile.

"See? he's such a nice kid!" Mel told Roné.

"He's a kid not a man like me!" Roné answered his mother's words rudely, but he was punched hardly on the head by Mel who scolded him: "Don't say such things to your brother, he saved your life earlier! You should be thankful!".

And so the three stuck for an hour in a futile argument of Juan trying to convince his brother to take his medicine.

However hours later the two brothers were sitting on a barn's rooftop, when Roné started to scratch his stomach and complaining: "That damn slime! I can't bloody believe how it hurts!".

"But it's for your own good" Juan answered.

"What the hell! Why don't you take some as well? then you'll get why I hate this thing!" Roné asked.

"I'd take it, but it won't hurt me as much as you do, in the end I have less fur than anybody around here (except on my legs and arms), besides I'm not injured at all." Juan answered.

"Liar! I remember when we fought those fish bros, you had blunts everywhere, and you were bleeding like you were on per…" but Roné was interrupted by his brother saying: "Don't say it!".

"I don't bloody get you, what'd happen to you if you heard a bad word from time to time?" Roné asked with a sly grin.

"The same thing that happens when I mention the parrot…"Juan answered with a smile.

"Shut up! And it was an accident!" the beastman said in frustration.

And so a peaceful day passed, and when night came, the beastmen celebrated their victory, in a joyful festival; Feast tables were set in all streets, kids were wearing their most beautiful colorful clothing running from alley to alley, men were setting torches and lanterns that hanged from their houses, women were preparing all sorts of food in large cauldrons spread about in front of every house, the village square was turned into a large round table, and by time people were gathered around the large fire that was set in the middle, and each person may tell about a story he knows, or an adventure he had.

"He was this huge!" Roné said to the other young beastmen while spreading his arms widely, to continue: "But Juan murdered him like a boss!".

"Not really, he was about my father's size, he's not that gargantuan, besides I didn't kill him, he just passed out!" Juan corrected for his brother making everybody else laugh.

"Dammit! Juan why are you such an ass!?" Roné complained, then he remembered how Juan's arm stretched all the tower long earlier, so he started pull his brother's arm with all might.

"What are you doing Roné? stop it!" Juan said in pain.

"Show them that cool magic you did there, you know when your arm became as long as the tower!" the beastman said to his brother

"You know I can't pull it whenever I want, besides I just don't know how to do it." the brother apologized.

When everyone heard this they calmed for a second then they were gathered around Juan and started to examine him which made him feel a little disturbed: "Guys? What's wrong?" he asked before they smiled at him and someone commented: "You are brilliant Juan, I can't believe I was bullying you all that time when we were kids."

"You really are something!" another one added.

"I always knew that you are a true beastmen even though you are hairless" a third one said.

"Cheers for Juan Rocux the hero that rescued our sage and village!" a fourth one shouted while holding a large goblet of beer, making the rest of the men shout as well "Cheers!".

"But guys I just…"

Suddenly Juan was lightly hit by a small pebble, he turned to see a shadow of a man escaping in the street corner, he apologized to his friends and left quickly following that man until he reached a dead end.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" he asked.

The man came out to the light to reveal himself to be Zolu, but he looked beaten up, and his right arm is broken, while his right eye is blunted and all black.

"Zolu? What happened to you man?" the worried Juan asked.

The ragon smiled answering: "Hehe, I was banished from the village and this…" he points to his broken arm! "Is my parting gift from my people."

"Banished? Why?" Juan asked his friend.

"Well I helped you out guys, and I stood in the face of the king, so I…you know got banished from my clan for the rest of my life…" Zolu answered sadly.

"This can't be helped, however come on join us, you too helped us in the end" Juan told his friend pulling him into the crowd.

The beastmen looked disgusted at Zolu, and one if them clapped his fisted, while another one carried a knife, but the sage appeared, and so everyone calmed down.

"What's the meaning of this?" Luffine asked.

"You see my lord, Zolu had been b…" Juan tried to explain, but he was interrupted by the sage: "That question wasn't for you my boy!" Then he turned toward the other beastmen and scolded them: "This fine young ragon was the reason of what we are now, so be grateful that God sent us such a gift, show the guest some respect…or else" he finished his words by a scary look.

The beastmen felt a bit of depression of their hasty reaction, then one of them approached Zolu and grabbed his broken arm gently saying: "Here I'm a doctor, follow me to the clinic, I'll wrap it for you better."

Juan smiled from the bottom of his heart seeing how his people started finally to abandon their ignorance.

"So what are we waitin' for? Cheers to Juan!" a beastman shouted, shortly before everyone else did, ironically they got all drunk but Juan, who left the place to some rooftop where he laid back staring at the clear starry sky, thinking of how a single event changed the people's view toward him, and how he turned from the weakling shepherd, into a respected beastmean despite his appearance.

…

But when midnight came, a stranger from out the village approached the frontier, he starred a while at Ardneria and started to talk to himself:

"Ah, Ardneria, the homeland of beastmen, you brutal clan, I'm impressed how you could've survived this far…but in the end there's no need for you in our new world that'll soon be born".

Few moments and the man did some strange hand sign; he faced each palm to another, with the left over the right and started familiar incantations: "O' blessed law, the justice guarded by the chosen one, shine…and fill the heavens…Make those who are not of your kind perish to none but mere memories…to be forgotten for the rest of eternity...I call you from above…Yusseir's order…Descend!".

With these words the sky above Ardneria started to glow in golden light, and shiny runes started to float from the earth to ascend highly, noted by Juan who said: "It's like that day! The same light! The same warmness and nostalgia!", as well as Zolu who was staring from the clinic's window, he put his hand on his mouth to say: "Is this…Lord Luffine's spell?!"

The runes floated swiftly and arranged into a large symbol in the sky; it resembles to two rhomb shaped jewels intersected through one angle from each, the symbol's light got sharper as it covered the whole village".

After this the man left the village like a ghost.

Juan woke up in the morning as he passed out from that light and hurried to examine his village but it was too late, for what he saw was unexpected.

To be continued