Preparations
2095 Words
Thursday, 17th November 1442
"Nom... Nom... Nom... These pork ribs never tasted this good before," as I was slurping the soup noisily as the children laughed at my antics as if I had never had a decent meal for days...!
In fact, I felt as if I really had never taken a decent meal for the day, alright? The part where I was sent to the void that was filled with darkness and emptiness was like a sequential part of a dream fragment and I had no recollection of it at all for this moment.
The part where my hands were jittery and things seem to be dissipating around me was all like a dream to me and does not play any significant part at all.
The most important thing is that the soft pork ribs that I had boiled them to make a heavy broth were in front of me as I scooped one piece of them and was crunching them inside the mouth.
Sir Blackie who had its fair share of trotters earlier looked up at me and maybe it was wondering how come I ate just like it and could have the strength to bite through the tender bones and all.
=*=
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
The front door was rapped in such urgency that I motioned for everyone to continue their meals while I stood up to open the door.
A young guardsman was standing at the door and was panting and sweating profusely as he caught his breath to relay the message to me.
"Good morrow, Your Majesty. Please forgive me for the intrusion as well as disturbing your peace right now."
"We have a life-threatening case that involves with the incident of burying the evidence at Hellsgate."
"The advance party was being ambushed by three-headed hellhounds and three lava monsters."
"We had no fatality but one Guards Ian suffered major burns on his body that requires immediate treatment."
"The injured Guardian had been sent to the hospital as we speak. Right now we are gathering more forces and asking if you would be able to give us some tips on how to settle the matter right now."
"Those lava monsters and the three-headed hellhounds are just 60 miles away from us, Your Majesty...!"
The guardsman was relaying the piece of news to me haltingly as he tried to catch his breath and was almost leaning against the door frame as he spoke between his heavy panting.
"Alright, inform all AAV and the airship 911 Lightning to load up a crate of concussive explosive arrowheads. I would be leading the attack. Give me about 15 minutes and I would be at the airship. Gather the men accordingly."
Instructions were passed down to the guardsman and he saluted to me and bowed slightly before he took off running at full speed towards the town square before he cuts through towards the landing site of the airship 911 Lightning.
I returned back in the house and I noticed they Heather and the children all had placed their spoons on the table and had left their bowls untouched.
"Daddy, are you leaving again?"
HRH JR inquired me as he looked me and had a hint of sadness within him of seeing me leave again after spending just a few short hours with them.
"Yes, Daddy has to leave again. Don't worry, Daddy would be airborne so I would be directing the AAV from the air instead of on the ground."
I replied as HRH Amy inquired, "Daddy, I heard there are lava monsters. Would you be able to defeat them?" as she too had a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Yes, darling. Daddy would need to defeat those lava monsters. I don't know how come there are such monsters because earlier I do not see any of them. Maybe somehow it was summoned right before the sorceror was killed or something."
I replied as I was also uncertain of what kind of answers I should be going to the children as Heather looked at me and she cleared her throat and stood up.
She picked up my cloak and hand it over to me and gripped my arm as she leaned close to me. Before she even managed to peck on my cheeks, I noticed that she had a bit of rice stuck at the corner of her lips and also a bit of green that seemed stuck between the gaps of her teeth...!
"Eerrmm...thanks, dear. I take the cloak from you now, eh? Don't worry, I will shoot those lava monsters from the sky. Pchew... Pchew...! Badaboom...!" I held out my hands as I retrieved the cloak from her and then placed it on over my dark suit of armour.
All this while I tried to avoid her from kissing me when her teeth still had the greens stuck between her teeth. Hahaha...! I moved my fingers gently over her side of the mouth and removed the grain of rice there and put it inside her mouth.
"Be careful dear...! You need to go to the hospital first to check on the injured Guardian?"
She asked and I simply nodded my head as I donned my cloak and got ready to leave the house. "Use the anti-pest food cover and cover the rest of the food, will ya? I would return to battle with the soft ribs. Sir Blackie, you are not going to get my leftovers, do you hear me? Hahaha..."
I left the house with Heather as I would be taking the Dragon Boat out to the hospital and then Heather would drive it back to the house. The children would, of course, be staying back to finish their meals.
I looked back and thought, "Well, duty calls... Whether we are in the domain or a simple commoners house. It doesn't matter at all because we are the backbone of this Town."
=*=
Back in the hospital, Heather dropped me off and by this time she had cleaned her mouth properly as I pecked her on the forehead and bade her farewell and asked her to traverse the Dragon Boat carefully.
"I hope to be back by sundown or later part of the evening. Take care alright. Don't worry about me, I would be safe as long as the airship 911 Lightning is in the air."
I informed Heather as she smiled at me but deep right inside her, a storm might be brewing but she would just keep mum about it.
"Yes dear, you take good care of yourself and don't get near those lava monsters, do you hear me? Get rid of them for the sake of the town folks for us. Return with victory...!"
Heather finally spoke up before she waved her hands off and traversed back to the house.
I stood at the front of the hospital and took a deep breathe before I walk up to it.
=*=
"You don't look too frisky, soldier. What is your name?" I got to the recuperation ward on the third floor of the hospital and greeted the injured Guardian that was being swathed down with lots of hemp bandages on his wounds he had sustained earlier.
There was a bucket next to him and as the doctors worked on him, I did find that the injuries were horrendous. It was like as if he was like a hellhound himself with his rubs partly exposed along with his visible internal organs.
Priestess Isabela was also busy as she was constantly shaking her head and I was wondering if this Guardian could be saved at all or not.
"I'm Alex, Your Majesty. Alex Murphy is my full name. I know that my condition here doesn't look so good since I've been burnt by that three-headed hellhound earlier."
"Others would not survive if one got such wounds inflicted on them. Fortunately, I still can talk and breathe even though the wounds looked irreparable."
The Guardian who introduced his name was a Shadow unit member and he formally introduced his full name instead to us.
It doesn't bother much but all we need to do right now was for him to recuperate and have his insides fixed.
He can't be walking around in this condition unless he would be referred to as a walking dead to us.
"Go get them for us, Your Majesty. Even if I do not make it, you would avenge for us...! Don't let those three-headed hellhounds or even the lava monsters come near our town. Get them, Your Majesty. You can do it... We are sure of it...!"
The Guardian was indeed a bit energetic when he learnt that I would be leading the attack on the lava monsters that somehow had been avoided as the airship had brought everyone back to safety.
I went over to Alex Murphy and reassured him that we would take care of the matters once and for all. I turned around to Priestess Isabela and asked if the situation that the Guardian was in could be salvaged.
At first, when I entered, I saw her shaking her head but when I inquired her about the matter she replied nonchalantly, "Your Majesty, don't you worry about it. Most of the time I had been treating almost everyone here with external injuries. Either it's a missing upper limb or lower one, I am able to regenerate them within 3 days."
"Right now, this is the first time I am encountering such situation but all I could reassure you is that I would be giving my all when comes to this type of challenges. So far this Guardian had managed to come here alive, despite in this kind of horrid situation."
"Don't you worry, Your Majesty. He is here in our care and we would be able to handle the matters. Right now, all we need to do is to ensure his vitals are alright before we proceed to regenerate what's missing and what's needs to be fixed."
Priestess Isabela nonchalantly explained the whole situation to me and I knew that she would need more than a few days to get the Guardian back to his feet.
"Alright Isabela, I leave the Guardian in your good hands then. I would be back here to check on his progress as well as Eagle or Phoenix then. I have a task to do right now and I need all the luck that I could get right now. Cheerio..."
I bade everyone farewell as I made my way down and out of the hospital grounds. Very soon I was already at the launch site of the airship 911 Lightning as the rest of aircrewmen had loaded the concussive explosive arrowheads on board.
The Guardians were not needed at this point of time as we would be launching our offensive from the air. The AAV would be our ground support as they too were loaded with the concussive explosive arrowheads as well.
Those would be great to be used on soft targets as well as the three-headed hellhounds but I'm pretty sure the lava monsters would be dealt with properly with the Frost Burn Arrows.
If it failed, then that's it, man. We would be done for since I do not have any trump cards up my sleeve.
Phoenix and Eagle greeted me and informed me that the cargo had been loaded and we are ready to go.
"Alright then, let's go. It would be better to hit them when there's still light around us. Once we have done our deed, we would hover around Hellsgate and ensure we do not leave a single three-headed hellhound alive...!"
I spoke with confidence as Phoenix and Eagle looked on and narrated to me their plans once everything had been taken care of.
"We would then be heading down to the ground from above once we had made sure that nothing was left standing alive, Your Majesty."
"The Priest and Priestess are once again here except for Imelda who is still knocked out cold from her battle earlier. If not for her assistance, I think there would be more casualties than the Guardian alone."
I nodded my head and made a mental note that I would need to head down to the Guild to visit Priestess Imelda since she was still not awakened from her state. I just hoped that she would be alright right after this.
=*=
Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you and God Bless.
- Writer
