Apparently, our sidequest led us one step forward to our main quest. Which was to search for the knowledge about the origin of our realm. We got a clue that The Tyrant has something to do with The Order's logo placed on the village's entrance archway. So Lord Don asked Frankensheen what The Tyrant's stories she knew since Frankensheen and The Tyrant lived in the same era.
Some micro parts of her head looked vibrating while she tried to remember. Oh... so she still had her memories after all. And this was her story : "We, Slum people were lived in peace and harmony with nature we lived in. We had no rules, nothing to make our differences as an issue to started a fight. Perhaps that was our basic mistake from the beginning. We tended to welcome any visitor, no matter how they looked and what their intentions were. We gathered and befriended with they who were called monsters by the visitors. They were not monsters to us, they called themselves Dragons, Wyverns, Minotaurs, The clumsy Cyclops, and the wise but a little bit introvert Treant. The visitors built houses on our land, the houses they expanded as a fortress because they didn't welcome the visit from those monsters. And we, The Slums let them. And all of our so-called monsters friends didn't seem to mind either. Then they built smaller fortress outside the big one, they named it The Converter. The visitors only mingled and welcomed us in that building. Left out our bigger sized friends outside. I think our friends smelled something bad would happen in that building, so one by one they lost their interest to came and left only us, the Slum people who still came to every visitor's invitations. You curious about what we did in there? They fed us with the good meal, the best we ever had in our life. They talked about the preparation they made to welcome their great leader. They taught us the meaning of each symbol they had. They told us to separate the rights from the wrongs. Have I told you that we were stupid? Yes, we were stupid. But not for so long. One day, one of our Treant friends, named Big Oak told us that his son once heard the visitor's conversation about taking over our land. This caught my attention because from what I know, his son who also happened to be my friend named Tigrids would never spread lies. But, sadly, the other Slum People were too naive, they will deny every bad words about the visitors because they fed us daily. That's how stupid we were. We ate every day before The Visitors came, why should we depend on them now? So my fellow Slum People defile the presence of our so-called monsters friend from our land. So they left, and I wanted to come along with them, but Tigrids put me down off his shoulder and left me in the village. I begged to come along. But they made their mind and left me as an outcast of my own people too. I was alone then. No other choice for a girl like me that time but to get back to my people. A few weeks passed, I got bored to always stay home. All my teenager friends were acting weird like they had been brainwashed. They looked at the world differently. More beautiful, they said, safer. And the became not afraid to die because they knew a better place with their leader will wait for them to fill it. From that moment, we, The Slum People never had a single topic to laugh about. We destroyed all the nests the Wyvern made, closed the cave the Cyclops lived and build tall walls to isolate our village from our own old friends. I could not be sadder that time. The place I lived in turned into the worst place I could imagine. This all started because of the food from The Converter! The next day, I sneaked on my friend, Toby when he went to The Converter, he was about the same age as me. I followed him with enough distance to keep me unnoticed. He entered a bright room on the right of the building. Then I heard some audible dialogues in there. Sounded like a charm or some spells. I was getting more and more curious that I ignored my own safety. I walked closer to the room so I could hear what were they talking. But I was exposed to the bright light from the room! Stupid me! A guard saw me. But he did nothing, he smiled. I was wondering, what is a full metal armored guard doing in a building meant to feed and mingle? Then he told me to enter the room, and not to get late for my next session. I never had any session. But he walked me closer to the room. I got panicked, I tried to escape. Apparently, Toby heard and recognized my voice. There was one big guy with him. That one big guy is later known as The Tyrant. Toby yelled at me and said that I'm the unconverted one and should not be here. So I rushed out. But I hit a solid surface in my run. And I fell down. In the blink of an eye, The Tyrant who was sitting in the room with Toby was now standing in front of me and kneel down to level his face to my face. He asked what have I heard? I told him the truth, I heard nothing. The armored guard nodded to clarify my statement when The Tyrant looked at him. The Tyrant asked Toby if he should convert me or not? Toby looked at me, he told The Tyrant that I was the one who befriended the monsters when they built The Converter. With one hand gesture from The Tyrant, everyone left the building. The Tyrant took me to the bright room by dragging my hair and he threw me to the chair. Without a need to be asked, I sit. He asked me if I really was a friend of those monsters. I said yes, even actually deep down I'm sad that they have left me. He asked me how many times had I been in this session. I said never, and I'm not interested because, since their arrival, our life was getting miserable and fighting each other over small matters. He laughed hard. He said that he had an instant way to push all the teaching I was rejected right into my brain. That will cost him more energy but will save him so many session time. And one more thing, I wouldn't be able to reject that teaching. His big hand grabbed my head. Lift me up. And I felt like thunders and storms raging in my brain. My body shook uncontrollably. Some of my skin began to peel because my blood was boiling inside. I gathered all my consciousness then I screamed as hard as I can to call my friends... any friends who might still care about me. She came... The Wyvern. She landed majestically among the dismantled roof debris. The Tyrant ditched me down because he needed his two hands to cast his spell. With a single attack, The Wyvern hit The Tyrant so hard that he broke through several rooms. Then I was saved by the Wyvern, I flew with her to the monsters village. The monsters were so shocked and sad when they saw at my condition. And they were very sorry that they left me alone. The Wyvern told them that it was lucky that she was hovering around The Converter so she could hear my scream. A few days passed. I was very happy in the monsters village. I felt like I was back to my real life. Only without the human. Tigrids told me many stories about what he found out about those cursed visitors. The birds told him new news every day. So I became smarter. The Cyclops and Minotaurs taught me how to fight using a big club, with one eye closed. That way I had to train my perception as well. The Dragons taught me wisdom. Because not all fight worth fighting for. And The Wyvern, she told me that she actually got hit by The Tyrant's Protection Aura and that she was dying. Everyone in the village was shocked to hear this. I felt guilty because she would not get hurt if she just ignored my calling. But, she shushed me and gave me an amulet. Then from the darkness of the bushes, came out a shining soul of a Great Druid called Avolu or maybe a shaman, like you Ahhanaya. He helped The Wyvern to imbued the amulet with her soul. Then The Wyvern passed away. We grieved for days... until the Avolu's soul who later I knew was also known as The Protector of The Woods Imbued my amulet with his own soul and told me to go where he told me to go. My old Slum Village. With the Avolu's guide, I found no difficulties to make my fellow villagers believed me. About the bad things that The Visitors had done to us without us realized. About why we ended up fighting each other, and also with the so-called monsters. Made them believed was the easy thing. Made them brave to fight was hard. So I had to make an example what a Slum People capable of. I entered The Converter building, and smacked and threw all guards in it out of the windows. Yes. Including the full metal armored one. I ditched him out with his helmet buried in the mud. The Tyrant was not there, maybe hiding in his Fortress. So we marched to ramshackle that fortress. Still no sign of The Tyrant. We were victorious! At least that's what we thought. Then we cut down the high walls, we made for the monsters. Then we saw... everything outside our walls had been filled with The Tyrant's fortresses. The land had been cursed. So many animal's skeletons there like they were eaten alive then left for dead. Then we destroyed everything The Tyrant's made on our land. Except for that main fortress. The rest of the story became a folktale you already heard". |
AhhanayaThe Storyteller. ArchivesOur Journey
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