5 Start of the Journey

Leo, Hina, and Elizabeth returned to the village, on their arrival they were greeted with cheers. That only lasted for seconds, when the beastmen suddenly shuddered in fear, the guards surrounded the group.

"Hey what the hell are you guys doing?!" Leo looked irritated at the guards. His glare made them tremble but they didn't give way. They all stood their ground, until the village elder arrived alongside his son.

"Hey Monenach what's the meaning of this!" Leo voiced his outrage. The Elder looked at Elizabeth and pointed at her "Why have you brought a vampire here?"

"Why? Is there a problem, if I have allowed her to accompany me? If you all have a problem with her. Then tell me directly!" Anger filled Leo as the people rudely pointed their spears, bows, and swords at Elizabeth. The Elder signaled the guards to put down their weapons. "I'm sorry for our rudeness Leonard please come. Let us talk in my house, please tell me what had transpired during your journey to the cave."

The group followed the Elder. Hina greeted her dad with a hug "HIna are you alright? Did that man do anything to you?" Hina shook her head "No, Leo even protected me. I wasn't able to do much."

"It's alright Hina, you guided him properly." Toki patted his daughter's head. The group entered the elder's house. They all sited down on the floor. Elizabeth sat beside Leo in front of them were Toki, Hina and the Elder.

"So Leonard please explain what happened in the cave?" Leo recounted all that transpired inside the cave. How he met Elizabeth, how they fought, and the deal that they had made in the end.

"So that is why you are accompanied by a vampire and it seems she's a half." Elizabeth reacted slightly to the word half. Leo tilted his head confused "half?"

"It means she is not a pure a vampire. She is a mix of human and vampire." Toki explained to the confused Leo. "So what if she is a mix or a half or whatever. Who cares of what race she is from? It matters not to me, Elizabeth is Elizabeth nothing more nothing less."

Hina smiled at Leo's comment, Elizabeth started to face the other way. "I understand what you are saying, Leonard I truly do." The Elder looked apologetic and handed a bag of gold coins to Leo.

"I'm truly sorry Leonard, but even though I understand your point of view. I must protect the people of this village. Even if Lady Elizabeth here, is as docile as you say, the villagers won't accept that. If you stay here the Villagers might suddenly attack you. So I suggest for you two to leave this village after you rest."

Leo pocketed the bag of gold coins "hmph under normal circumstances I wouldn't accept your offer. But what you said seems to be the truth. Elizabeth and I will take our leave here. Thank you for your hospitality but we better leave while it's still daytime, and Hina stay out of trouble." Before Leo and Elizabeth could exit the house.

Hina stood up and shouted "Leo I know now I'm not strong enough to follow you, on your journey! So I promise you, I'll get stronger and stronger, I'll become the strongest in the village! When I do I'll come and find you! So when that time comes allow me to walk beside you, on your journey." Elizabeth smiled gently at Hina while Leo did a thumbs up. Hina responded with her own dazzling smile.

†

"Hey Eli do you know where the nearest town, is?" Leo said while walking on the road heading nowhere. "E-e-eli! Who allowed you to create a nickname for me?"

"Why not? Elizabeth is too long Eli sounds way cuter anyway." Eli's face turned red her shoulders were trembling. "C-c-cute! It's cute, Eli's cute!" She started to mumble to herself.

"Hey Eli, can you hear me?"

"You're really going to keep calling me that? Fine then, I'll allow it. NOT BECAUSE YOU CALLED IT CUTE OR ANYTHING!"

Eli started shouting. Leo sighed "So Eli do you know of any village nearby?" Eli looked away from me

"Hey Eli do you know or don't you?"

"I'M AN EXILE OKAY! I HAVEN'T BEEN TO OTHER PLACES ASIDE FROM THE CAVE, AND MY HOUSE BEFORE I WAS EXILED!"

Leo nodded in affirmation. "Oh ok, so let's just follow this road, the Elder shown us. It probably leads to another town or village anyway."

Leo looked onward, not caring about Eli's comment of being exiled. "Why?" Eli mumbled while Leo looked puzzled. "Why, what?"

"Why haven't you ask me why I was exiled? Aren't you curious about my past? Aren't you afraid that the reason, why I was exiled was because I did something sinister? Don't you think I might not abide by our promise, and suddenly attack you in your sleep! Most of all don't you care that I'm a half!"

Leo was startled for a second cause of Eli's sudden outburst. Eli was trying very hard to stop herself from crying. Leo scratched his head and patted Eli's shoulder.

"Everything that happened in your past doesn't really matter to me. All I care about right now, is the Eli that's in front of me. About you being a half I already said it during the talk with the elder right. It doesn't matter if Eli is half or not, to me Eli could only be Eli... Well to tell the truth, you being exiled does bother me a little but I won't force you to tell me your past. I will simply wait until the time that you deem me a worthy person capable of listening about your past."

...

Eli looked at Leo's face. He isn't lying he truly believes in what he's saying. If it's this man I might not mind telling him about my past. "All right, I've decided to tell you about my past."

"hmm is that so. That was pretty quick."

Eli pouted "I WON'T TELL YOU THEN JERK!" Leo laughed " hahaha I was just joking I'm sorry. Let's go and sit over the shade of that tree. You can tell me your story there." They found a suitable spot and seated comfortably before Eli began to tell her tale.

†

"I was the illegitimate daughter of a high ranking vampire. Born from a human whore I was treated as nothing more than garbage by the others. It was only my father who had sided with me. It was a cruel life. I was only able to go on, because of the thought that my father would be sad if I were to die. That kind of life, that continued on for twelve years was to change. The day of the "choosing" it is what we call the day we pick our next clan leader. To be the next clan leader one has to be chosen by the scythe of Death."

"Wait the scythe of Death, isn't that your weapon?" Eli showed a complicated smile and continued her story.

"Yes you might have guessed it by now. It was I who was chosen by the scythe. You can reckon what the others thought of that. How could a half be our next clan leader? Everyone was asking the same question. Yet they couldn't do anything once the scythe chooses its wielder. The only time it will choose a new owner is if the old one dies. Being the chosen of the scythe they couldn't kill me, so their only option was to exile me." When Elizabeth said the last part her voice sounded a bit in pain.

"Hoping that I would die eventually out here with no one to help me. To vampires time is irrelevant for the pure ones are ageless. So they could wait for my death, but they didn't want to do so with me beside them in their discussions. Before I was exiled here my father told me to stay strong. I stayed in that cave fighting for my life every day. The first few days was difficult for me because I had no battle experience to speak of. So when one of the wild animals started attacking I was afraid. Though I knew many spell words and I even had the scythe of Death it was still a frightening experience, my first battle. Yet as time went by I started to get accustomed to fighting, even an earth dragon was nothing. Then you appeared, the rest you already know."

†

Leo gently smiled at Eli "Now that you told me about your past how about I tell you something of mine. So what do you want to hear? Ask me anything."

Eli looked a little irritated at Leo's lack of reaction to her story, but quickly ignored it. She finally understood he was this kind of person.

"Fine, how about telling me the story on how you acquired such extraordinary swords."

"The story of how Serenity and Chaos were handed to me. Sure that was a pretty good one."

†

"After the death of my parents I started to tour my world."

"Wait a minute your world? You came from a different world?" Elizabeth sounded a bit surprised as she asked this.

"Ah yes is that weird?"

"No, it's not really weird there are many who came from different worlds. Some have been summoned, some intentionally came here. Sorry for my reaction I was just a little shocked to know you came from another world."

"So now that's explained can I continue my story?"

Eli nodded her head "Sure go ahead."

"Ok thank you. Now where was I? Right! I started to tour the world in search for worthy opponents. On my travels I slept on a ruin of some sort. During my sleep I had a dream that didn't feel like a dream. In this dream I met two beings, one was clad in illuminating light, and the other was clad in deep darkness.

The two beings whose voice sounded both male and female, both young and ancient. Spoke in unison

"You who are chosen to walk the path of kings."

The being of light spoke "Will you choose the path of light that illuminates the darkness? If you do I shall grant you the power to save all."

The being of darkness spoke "or will you choose the path of darkness shadowing the light? If you do I shall grant you the power to destroy all obstacles."

Once more they spoke in unison "So the one who walks the path of kings which will you choose? Light or Darkness?"

I spoke loudly enough for both to hear "I choose neither! The power to save and the power to move against obstacles I will gain both by myself!" The two beings started to laugh cheerfully "finally one who walks the gray path the true path of kings. Though you may have decline our offer but nonetheless you are worthy to wield the swords. "Serenity of everlasting light and Chaos of eternal darkness."

Before I could even reply I awoke from my sleep. Upon waking up I saw two blades beside me. One clad in calming blue and one pure black. On grabbing both the swords I heard the two beings voices.

"One who walks the true path of kings always remember that in light there will always be darkness, and in darkness there will always be light." After that no matter how I try to talk back I never got a reply from the two beings. Yet sometimes when I battle I can hear their voices telling me how to use the twin blades. Overtime I was somehow able to grasp how to use chaos but using it takes a lot of my stamina. As for serenity up until now I can never really use its power well. The times that it was able to work can be called luck."

†

Eli looked at Leo dumbfounded "So that's why you're not really reliant with your swords."

"Well these blades have a mind of their own. So it's better to not be over reliant in their power, well it's not as if I wanted their power in the first place."

Eli smiled "Well I guess you're right."

Leo stood up and offered a hand to Eli. A little reluctant Eli grabbed Leo's hand and stood up. "Well now that reminiscing is over let's move on." Leo alongside Eli walked forward to the next adventure that awaits them.