Chap 5: First steps of the journey
2306 Words
“Fight fight Galen, you can do it!”
“I’m trying!!”
Far from Balony Kingdom by less than two miles…
Galen and Frank couldn’t remember how far they have been walking, until Galen’s stomach grumbled from being hungry. They had no other choice than to look for a river in order to find something to eat for Galen, since a Faerin like Frank didn’t need food to eat, he could eat by absorbing the nutrient from the soil.
Galen took off his shirt and jumped to the river to catch the fish. However, due to lacking experience at survivability, he could barely catch anything for half of an hour and still suffering at thinking about how to catch them.
Galen was too tired and decided to take a rest for a moment. He sat at the side river and gave a sigh, while emerald eyes looked to the sky. After the war at Balony, this was his first time to live outside the Palace so it was really difficult for him, even his most basic need – food was the hard thing to achieve. Galen regretted that he didn’t learn the survival skill when he was still the prince.
But it was still too soon to give up yet!
“Galen, it’s ok if you cannot do it.” Frank said when feeling bad seeing Galen suffering catching the fish with the sword in his hand “Sword isn’t for piercing the fish, you need a spear or a net.”
“Hm… Yeah I think you are right.” Galen eventually stopped “Those fishes are so fast and their body is so slippery. Even if I can catch them with my own hands, they just slipped away and escaped.”
Galen and Frank were thinking about how to do. Suddenly, Frank “ah!” when he saw the trees from afar.
“Galen! Follow me!!”
“Huh? What is it, Frank?”
“Wear your shirt, Galen. And follow me!!”
Frank guided Galen passing through the huge prairie to enter a nearby wood. Each of Galen’s running footsteps was each of the sound of the grass echoing through the scenery. Above him, the cold breeze blew through this place as the signal to command the grass dancing, brought the special smell of the grass. The sound and the smell refreshed Galen’s mind as he took a long inhale. It was really an amazing feeling that he could never experience as the prince, he thought.
This comfortable nature suddenly suggested Galen a thought in his mind.
“Hey, Frank.”
“Yeah?”
“At first, I have been keeping the hatred why my father intended to kill me…” Galen said “After thinking for a while, I think there must be a reason why he kept this such terrible thing to me, you think?”
“Honestly, your father really shocked me as well.” Frank closed his eyes while flying and was thinking “Of course, I remember, when you were little, he was a kind person and a loving father to you. Everything just slowly changed in recent years. So I think there might be a secret that your father might hide from you. Or, he intentionally wanted to kill you? Or he actually saved your life?”
“That’s what I’m thinking too!!” Galen agreed with Frank “But for now, I cannot show in front of my father to interrogate him yet.”
“Why not?”
“Let’s base on your assumption, Frank. First, if my father wanted to finish my life, I could be in danger since I’m not as strong as him. Secondly, if he wanted to save my life by dragging me down to the groundwater, I have to not waste his effort. To sum it up, the me now is not strong enough. I need to be stronger, stand on par with my father and will interrogate him while we both are in the same position.”
“Don’t tell me you are going to…”
“I cannot say anything yet, Frank. But the only solution for those both assumptions, I have to gather allies around Tenica Continent and prove to my father that I deserve to become the king of Tredia and he would be proud of me.”
“Hahaha! That’s my kid, you are so mature now!!”
“Hahaha!”
Frank rubbed Galen’s hair and they both laughed together. In a sudden, the wind was blown stronger. Galen had to stop the conversation and hold Frank tightly before he got blown away. Then, Galen was stunned when he heard a familiar sound.
“This sound… it’s a cry of the dragon?”
“Oh no… Dragon??!!” Frank panicky dragged Galen “Galen, hurry up!! We have to arrive at the forest before those dragons see us!!”
“Okay!!”
Galen didn’t care how tiring his legs were anymore and rushed to the border of the forest as possible. His heartbeat even raced inside his chest when knowing the danger was coming near, the cry of the dragons was echoing closer and closer to him.
The dragons were distanced from the prairie by 30 meters…
…20 meters…
…10 meters…
“COME ON, GALEN!”
Galen jumped forward. Finally, he could throw himself in the bush at the border of the forest. Right at the same time, a giant shadow just passed by Galen with extremely fast speed, caused the chaotic noise of the grass with the crazy wind, as if it wanted to blow away everything nearby. Galen had to immobilize himself by holding tightly the trees near him. That wind power was so overwhelming that the trees of the forest were slightly shaking…
According to his knowledge of the dragons, Galen was sure that the only creature which could this power of the wind was the Wind Elemental Dragon – Sabatorus, one of the four popular groups of dragon species.
“Ah… that’s so scary…” Frank trembled in Galen’s hug “That’s… that’s a dragon??”
But what made Galen’s eyes widely open was not the dragon. It was a group of dragons, he guessed there were five or six of them lurking on the sky. Galen remembered his father told him that dragons were trying to eliminate humans, so were they looking for him after seeing him at the prairie…?
Galen just then remembered back the danger when living outside the civilization. It’s extremely dangerous! Once you stepped out to nature, you would have very risk to be hunted, killed by the brutal dragons.
But what was scary the most wasn’t how brutal they killed humans, it was because they just killed humans for nothing (?!). Whenever they saw any human, they would automatically finish their life without any mercy. That was what Galen was heard from everyone in the Palace, that was why people had to live inside the solid fortress of the capital so the royal members and national defense troops could protect them from the danger outside. No one could live peacefully in the village or the town, because those types of civilizations were vulnerable to the attack of the dragons.
Those Sabatorus landed on the prairie, Galen slowly hid deeper in the forest. Suddenly, he accidentally stepped on the broken branch of the tree and caused the noise among the silence, caught the attention of the dragons.
“Damn…!” Galen cursed while whispering himself.
“Galen! Hide over there!” Frank pointed to the big tree nearby.
“Okay!!”
As the dragon came close by to take a look, Galen hid behind the big tree to cover its vision. At the place where Galen was standing, there wasn’t any bush to protect him so it was really a gambling move. But he had no time to run away anymore.
The head of the dragon came closer and closer to the tree and took a look. The distance between him and the dragon was so close that Galen could even hear the noise of its growling breath. Galen’s hand covered his nose and mouth, with the hope that the dragon’s sensitive ears would not notice his sound. Meanwhile, Frank was too scared that he hid inside Galen’s coat and trembled.
The Sabatorus was looking at both sides of the big tree, where Galen was standing behind. He didn’t know that it showed its jaw full of the sharp tooth like the bunch of small knives. With just a bite, it could easily finish the life of everything.
Eventually, the dragon roared a creepy noise and gave up finding Galen. It joined back its group and began flying away. From afar, they together cast the typhoon to a place, with powerful damage that Galen could feel the shake of the ground where he was hiding. Perhaps those dragons found a group of unlucky victims and eliminated them…?
After the dragon went away. Galen inhaled and breathed heavily to relax his heartbeat. He thought that he could be found and killed by the dragons already!
Frank popped out from Galen’s coat after making sure those dragons eventually went away from his sight.
“Galen…” Frank asked Galen. His voice was trembling while still being scared “You… you still want to travel outside right…?”
“That was scary indeed...” Galen answered after calming down “But this is the path I have chosen, Frank.”
“I see...” Frank shook his head “Well, after all… you don’t have anywhere to belong.”
“Yup.” Galen and Frank were looked at the dragons from afar. They couldn’t help themselves from being terrified, when the dragons landing on that place and ate the victims.
***
“Here you go. Catch it!”
“Frank, thank you very much!!”
Frank flew up above the branches of the trees and collected the fruits for Galen – Egnam. This kind of fruit was easy to distinguish with its particular softness and super sour taste, but Galen had eaten them already. After the war, he had been starving so having food was a good thing for him…
“But of course, you cannot eat them forever since they can kill your stomach.” Frank sat on Galen’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I will try my best to practice hunting again tomorrow.” Galen said while eating “Sorry, Frank. You have been hardworking a lot for me.”
“Don’t thank me. In my eyes, you are just like a child since the first day I met you.”
“Come on… I’m already 15 years old and not a child anymore.”
Galen spouted. Then, he just thought about a question.
“By the way, Frank, since when have we met each other? Why didn’t I have any memory about our first meet?”
Hearing it, Frank stood silent for a few seconds…
Then, he chose to drive the topic away.
“Hm… It was very long time ago. So of course, you won’t remember me since you were little, right?
Anyway, after eating, we need to gather the dry branches for the campfire first. It’ll be very cold tonight.”
“Ah, okay.”
The first night outside the Palace for Galen was too unfamiliar. But at least, it wasn’t as bad as the night in the prison at Tredia.
After gathering the branches, Galen remembered that he used to read a book on how to make the fire by rubbing two wooden branches. It was his additional knowledge, but he didn’t expect that this “seemed-to-be” useless knowledge would be so useful to save his life...
“Wow, Galen! You did it!” Frank sparkled his eyes with admiration “You are amazing! We have fire now!!”
“Yeah, but my hands…”
Galen smirked. It took him half of hour to figure out how to rub those wooden branches together to catch the fire. He eventually made it, but trading back, his hands turned red and were torturing his nerve due to the pain.
Frank took a look at Galen’s hands, he then asked.
“Galen, you cannot heal yourself?”
“…Yes, sadly to say that.” Galen smiled with a sad face “I can heal almost everything, except myself. There used to be many times I tried to heal myself too, but it ended up I cannot do that.”
“This is bad. Tomorrow, we will find a medicinal herb to heal your hands. It’s better if you rest now to have energy for the long journey afterward.”
***
Due to being tired from the first day of the adventure, Galen fell asleep immediately after lying down. A while later, he didn’t notice there was a noise of something coming near to them, that woke Frank up.
“Hey… hey, Galen!” Frank shook Galen to wake him up “Is it me or I could hear something coming near to us?”
Galen was interrupted by his sleep. But the survival instinct had awakened him up as he could hear a voice echoing inside his head. He remembered, those voices were very familiar. They were the voice from the aura energy!
“Well, well, aren’t we going to have a great dinner eh?”
“Wait, that boy… Oh, I know him! His smell is so different than the last time we saw him, that I didn’t even recognize him.”
“Hehehe, he is now in our territory, he will be done for.”
Galen grabbed the fire stick of wood and rose forward.
This is bad! He thought while biting his lips. Those were the wolves that he used to encounter before!
- Writer
