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Dusk is approaching fast. Pulling the sky dark as it goes and sinking the sun to disappear behind the desert horizon. The wind blowing on their faces became colder by the minute as they flew. Like phantoms, they are flying in the air to the south. This is Hyun's doing. By controlling the blood to go under their soles, they just leaned forward to stay balanced as the wind blows in front of them. This is true to all of them, save Sayuri - who's still unconscious after exhausting herself out of sadness and anger.
She's lying in the air beside Hyun at his left and his right is Jasper - that looked enthusiastic about the plan in his mind. He hums different tunes all the while the rest of them are silent. Hiroki is just sitting because of his injured leg and Jack is alone behind all of them. He's there because Hyun doesn't like him after what happened earlier.
Hyun is wearing a red glossy cape made out of blood with a long collar. Jasper gave him a shirt so if their lady wakes up, he can somehow be presentable for her to accept him into their company. He just looked at Sayuri's face like his bright red eyes are craving for her and do not want to lose a second in this world without seeing her face. She looks vulnerable and he feels he has to protect her although he knows that she's stronger than him. Even fierce bears can be vulnerable at times like when the white cold pigments fall from the sky. They find a cave and sleep there until the snow thaws.
Then a stomach growled among them. It was Jasper's. "Man, I'm so hungry!" he complained. "I wonder where did our camel go. We just had it for a day and lost it just like that. I think I'm gonna die because of starvation before we get there."
"You can sleep it off," said Hyun.
"Easy for you to say because you're quite used to it but I can't sleep when I'm hungry."
"You're complaining about the decision you made," said Hiroki behind them. "It was your choice to travel as soon as possible."
"Yes I did, so we could get food as soon as possible. You don't wanna let our lady wake up craving for food but can't find anywhere now, do you? If that happens, she will devour us one by one."
"You're exaggerating."
"I'm just saying...," he smiled.
Jack behind them just frowned faintly as he folded his metal arms. He is unsatisfied with everything that is going on right now. He doesn't trust Hyun because of what happened. He thinks that Hyun could've killed her if not for the intervention of Jasper and for the fact that they know each other. He's fine about the peculiarity of Jasper but Hyun is just too much for him to be fine with.
"Jack!" called Jasper as he turned. "Uh...." He tapped Hyun's arm with the back of his hand. "You're putting him too far behind us," he whispered to Hyun.
"I don't like him," answered Hyun and Jack heard it.
"I'd like to think that way about you too," answered Jack. There's no slight fear nor any hesitation from his words although he knows he's no match for him.
"Don't fight, the two of you," said Jasper. "We are companions now, and it is fair to say that we should be getting along."
"Companions?" questioned Jack in a scoff. "Lady Sayuri hasn't yet let him join us, has she? So he's not our companion and I know that she will never let him join us."
"Do you want me to crash you into the desert sand?" threatened Hyun with a provoked smirk as he looked over his shoulder while looking at Jack.
"Hey, hey," said Jasper. "I said don't fight. I trust the two of you greatly and fairly. I have no doubts about either of you but all you need is to give each other enough time to know about each other. And I am sure that you will gonna be great friends as I consider both of you to be trustworthy and dependable. All of us are united for the cause to serve the Lady and that's enough for us to say that we're all on the same side."
Hiroki feels anxious about the tension going around and he can't even butt in because he doesn't have the wit like Jasper nor he has strength like Hyun and Jack to be his source of confidence. He feels he's the worst one in the group because he's just a regular human.
They flew about seven hours and the crescent moon gave them little light to see where they are going. However, this is not a problem for Hyun for he can see in the dark like under the pure daylight. He is not feeling tired unlike the rest of them. They slept while floating and they gathered beside Jack because he can create heat using his weapons. Hyun is a vampire and he can stay up forever if he wants to but it would mean draining his energy faster so it makes him hungrier. That's why he's just biting his lip until they bled while looking at Sayuri. He covered her with warm blood so she wouldn't shiver. He can hear and feel the blood that is flowing in her veins and the inaudible squishing her heart makes as it pumps her blood. He swallowed as he brought her closer to him. Then the tempting smell he loves became stronger that his face looked so weak as he tried hard to stop his l**t. Her hair is covering her face because of the wind so he brushed them away. He smiled after seeing her calm face. Then he stood straight to the south. Jack was pretending that he's sleeping and has been watching Hyun all this time. He saw what he did and he felt less alarmed about Hyun.
"Waaarghhh!" yawned Jasper as he woke up and rubbed his eyes, seeing the faint ray of the sun behind the horizon to his left which is in the east.
"Good morning," greeted Hyun.
"Oh... likewise." Jasper stood up and saw Jack, Hiroki, and Sayuri still sleeping. "Are we near?" he asked while slouching and shivering beside Hyun as they watched ahead.
"I don't even know what we are looking for."
"We are looking for the Scorpion Canyon to find the one that they call, 'The Heir' and I heard that the rebels came from the south so it makes sense that we start looking in that direction. They shot thousands of that popping trinkets from the south to the oilfields and Jack said that the soldiers mentioned that the rebels are from the newly formed Southern Brotherhood Alliance of Ra. In short, 'SBAR.'" Then he narrowed his eyes as he thought about something. "SBAR...," he muttered. "I miss the bar and I miss the taste of alcohol."
Hyun half-smiled before saying, "Don't worry because I think I have found them." He pointed with his fingers with long, sharp nails to the southwest. It appeared like an unrolling scroll from the horizon: a grand canyon.
"Oh, the Grand Scorpion Canyon," said Jasper while acting unimpressed. "You sense people there?" Hyun nodded. "What kind of people?"
"I'm not yet sure because we are too far away. I could get a better sense of it if we get closer."
"That's fine but we need to approach without anyone knowing that we are here. Do you happen to know Cloaking?"
"Concealing the presence of people around me? No. I'm still working on it. It requires a lot of years to train for that." Then Jasper laughed so hard that Jack woke up. "Why are you laughing?"
"Lady Sayuri already knows it," said Jasper.
"What?!" exclaimed Hyun. "So that's why I didn't sense anyone around the oilfields other than Cleopatra and her enemy. I only sensed all of you when Lady Sayuri got enraged."
"She's awesome, right?"
"Yeah, she is. And I'll ask her to teach me if she wakes up."
"Okay, so for now, we wait outside and far enough from the canyon until she wakes up so we can proceed."
"Alright," nodded Hyun and they landed on the top of a rocky plateau.
"Ow!" startlingly cried in pain Hiroki after he lied on the rocky ground.
"Oh, sorry about that," said Hyun and made Hiroki float.
"No problem," said Hiroki feeling grateful that Hyun joined their company because he's disabled and would need crutches to stand that will strain his shoulders. For Hyun, he's just a small pebble to lift.
Hyun just let Sayuri float too while he and Jasper sat on stones. Jasper's butt got healed with the help of Hyun's power. Jack sat at the distance but near her and Hiroki. The canyon is vast, from here they're like dried rivers with brown islands in it, the plateaus were too many to count and nearly as unfathomable. Or for a different perspective, they look like an unorganized city of colossal termite mounds with flat tops. The wind started to blow through and in between the plateaus that made gusts of sand.
"So what happened to your butt?" asked Hyun.
"It was terrible, man... You don't wanna kiss a Judgement Tree Titan."
"Titan?"
"Yes, we found it buried under the desert after a stupidly huge i***t snake attacked us."
Hyun laughed and asked, "Then what happened?"
"I transformed into a dragon so that I can get them out of that hole but the huge root of the tree grabbed my tail, man... It was so painful! It sucked out all of the moisture of my tail but thanks to my scales as a dragon, I managed to minimize the damage. I got free after someone- Uh... Hiroki," he called him as he turned. "Who cut that huge root that grabbed my tail?"
Hyun brought Hiroki closer to them and he said, "It was not Jack nor Lady Sayuri but her power. She was unconscious at that time but it's like her blades summoned themselves to help us all."
"That's strange...," said Jasper while rubbing his chin. "Why do you think it happened?"
"Well, maybe it was my own imagination or it was just the trick of the light when I saw the reflection of Mato - the leader of the tribesmen from the blade that passed by beside me while we were falling. I also felt the presence of other tribesmen although I don't have the senses as you do."
"That's weird."
"Yeah it is," nodded Hiroki. "Maybe they are still living inside her: their souls."
"Could be but we'll know about that later after we ask her."
"Oh, I almost forgot to heal you, Hiroki," said Hyun.
"What?" asked Hiroki in confusion. "You can do that?" Hyun nodded. "But what about my bones?"
"Blood clotting heals broken bones too."
"Oh..." He brought Hiroki to him and he tapped his right leg and destroyed the cast. Then Hiroki stood on his own. "Wow!" he exclaimed as he moved his leg and it didn't hurt. "Thank you!"
Hyun just nodded, "You're welcome."
"So," said Hiroki to Jasper. "how do you plan to make these people come out of this canyon to join us?"
"Glad you asked," said Jasper, and Hiroki sat on a stone beside him. "They are already willing to fight for freedom, considering that they attacked the oilfield. But if I'm correct, there should be someone from the Olympus forces that will come here to confirm if it really is the SBAR attacked the oilfields so we need to be careful. They have a treaty with Olympus that as long as they continue to mine this canyon for its rich natural resources, Olympus will trade resources for them but there's a catch. They will only be given necessities rather than currencies for trading so they won't have the resources to buy arms and gonna be unable to recruit people to wage war against Olympus. But this time it went sideways, didn't it? And that means a lot of them must be unsatisfied living like this. We can help them get satisfied and they could become, 'Our Army'." Jasper smirked.
"I knew it...," said Hyun while shaking his head and chuckling. "Olympus must be disappointed in themselves after raising a god that will do this to them."
Jasper laughed. "Yeah...," he said and turned around after hearing someone gasping. "My lady?!" he exclaimed and stood up while smiling. "You're awake!"
She panted very hard while Jack helped her to stand up while grabbing her arm. She looked at Hyun with fire in her eyes. Then her katana unsheathed by itself and went to her hand to grab it. He pointed the tip to him and asked, "Who are you?"
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