37 Goodbye To Coast Town

The much anticipated day finally arrived, and Savyrran and Ovandarrak were ready to leave for the capital city. Just as Master Bufan had said, enough money had been raised by the town to support Ovandarrak's education in the Soul Recovery School. It seemed the entire town saw the twins off at the train station and they would not stop waving them goodbye until the endless train was no longer in sight.

Savyrran's face was beaming with delight at the thought of finally leaving the town. She wondered if Kasko had felt the same rush of excitement ten years ago when he finally left Coast Town for the higher academy. To her, this was the beginning of her journey to becoming the greatest soul guardian ever. She could not wait to wield Badisk in actual combat. It had been a while since she fought with Master Bufan and thus, was itching for a fight with her sword. Hill City was definitely the best place to meet even stronger opponents. That was the only way she could become stronger herself.

Meanwhile, even though Ovandarrak was excited to be going to the royal capital to pursue a lifelong dream, he looked as calm as ever. The two of them had found an empty room in the common section of the train. In this part of the train, each room had two seats facing each other meant to hold four people at the same time. Savyrran and Ovandarrak were seating opposite each other. They were both seating near the windows and they could not stop staring at the familiar sight of the small isolated hills and scattered grass vegetation.

The town grew small and smaller in the distance until all they could see was an endless stretch of grassland. Soon, there was nothing that reminded them of Coast Town. Even the blue horizon of the sea was nowhere to be found. By the time three hours had passed, they could make out chains of huge green mountains in the distance getting closer.

Savyrran saw a large sign welcoming them to Valley Province. Her eyes twitched with shock. It had been three hours and they were only in Valley Province. How long would it take to reach Royal Hill Province? Dream Kingdom was on a massive peninsula with Southern Cape Province located at the southernmost part of the kingdom. Royal Hill Province was the center of Dream Kingdom both literally and figuratively and to get there from Southern Cape Province took around six hours. Since the train had left exactly at 7:00am, they were expecting to get there past noon.

It was just that Savyrran had not expected they would be passing through other provinces before getting to their destination. Ovandarrak on the other hand had thoroughly studied an old map he had of the kingdom. Thus, he did not look surprised at all. In fact, he had soon grown bored of looking out of the window and had thus gone back to reading one of the books he had specifically packed with him to kill his boredom on the train.

Savyrran, who had nothing else to do, kept feasting her eyes on the beautiful view of mountains around. For several hours, they had not come across a single human settlement and all they could see were mountains. But once the train began to meander its way through the extensive valleys, the outlines of settlement began to slowly appear in the distance. This province was called the Valley Province for a reason. The mountains here were too rugged and high for human habitation. Thus, the settlements were built in the wide extensive valley which were impossible to see unless one got a lot closer.

Savyrran felt her heart skip a beat at the breathtaking scene being painted before her own eyes. Soon, the train stopped in a place called Jerigi. The sight of the large number of people and numerous large buildings was enough to tell Savyrran that this place was not like her small Coast Town.

As soon as the train stopped, a gruff male voice announced that they would be having a ten minute break. From her window, Savyrran could see so many hawkers rushing towards their train that she felt they were like ants racing towards a lump of sugar. A smile graced her face when she thought about that.

The hawkers had different wares from food items to bizarre things she had never even seen before. "Are you hungry?" She asked her brother who did not seem to have noticed that the train had come to a halt.

Ovandarrak raised his brown eyes from the book. "Hmm?"

"I said are you hungry? The train came to a stop and they said we could have a ten minute break."

Ovandarrak looked out of the large glass window as if to make sure that the train had indeed stopped. Then he closed the book, rubbed his space ring thereby causing the book to disappear from his hand. "Let's go get something to eat then."

Savyrran nodded.

Ten minutes later, they were back in their room with enough food for both of them. The train roared to life as it prepared to leave. Then just as the train began to move, the door to their room flung open without a care in the world and in walked a thin girl with red curly hair tied in a pony tail. She had honey brown skin which made her appear a lot lighter than Savyrran and Ovandarrak. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the girl, but the freckles coupled with the permanent smile on her face made her appear to be even more attractive than she really was.

"Hello there. May I join you two?" The soft tones of the Abira language filled their room.

Savyrran smiled sweetly at the girl. They had learned to read and write Abira as part of their education while growing up since it was the official language of the kingdom. However, Gaonan was the native tongue in Coast Town and the entire Southern Cape Province, and that was what she grew up speaking.

"Of course." She beckoned to the girl to come and take a seat next to her.

Ovandarrak's serious brown eyes carefully studied the girl before finally averting his eyes so casually that one would think that he had not been staring at her a few seconds ago. Great. Now they had company who would probably not stop talking. He enjoyed the peace and quiet. That was all about to end.

"So you two are heading to Royal Dream Higher Academy." The girl said. She was not asking, and the wide smile on her face was evidence that she knew exactly what she was talking about.

Ovandarrak sharply looked up from his book. It was the third one he was reading since the train left their town. There was a sharp glint of wary in his eyes, as though he was carefully sizing up his prey. Why would this stranger know where they were going? Was she following them? Ovandarrak felt his muscles become tense at that thought. Why would anyone want to follow them?