3 Chapter 2 - Returning Home

Damien opened his eyes, the sensation of acute pain was still troubling his head. However, it slowly died down. It was then he noticed his surroundings, the beautiful blue sky expanded overhead with cumulus and great cumulonimbus clouds which stretched out till the horizon. He also noticed a certain peculiarity, he was standing on water!

Surprised, he looked around only to find an endless sea of clear water on which the refection of the blue sky and white clouds could be vividly seen. There was no land in sight.He moved his feet - ripples were formed on the surface then he punched the surface of water out of curiosity only to find that his fist won't break the surface but form large ripples.

Then he noticed something from the corner of his eye. It was a grey silhouette of a man. Yes, that thing has the outline of a man, yes, he was totally grey but what scared Damien the most was this man had no features. He looked like a 2-D drawing in a 3-D picture; totally out of place.

"Didn't expect you to greet me so soon", a mature voice made Damien jump and turn back to see a man with handsome features and jet black hair, dressed in deep blue robes walking towards the silhouette. His Oxford blue eyes did not bother to give Damien a glance.

"Creature of sin, I don't laze around", a sound was emitted from the silhouette, his voice was that of a child, a man and a woman speaking together in harmony. The voice held weight, it was as if his every word was a decree passed by a wise imposing judge.

"Yeah yeah, so why trouble meeting me", said the man now standing a few yards away from the silhouette.

"Your actions give birth to a penalty thus, to impose it on you I have come."

"Ah! That... to err is human to forgive divine," the man weakly laughed.

"Consequences must be borne by the sinner."

"Hey don't label me as a scoundrel!"

"Then a ludicrous being it is, expecting to fly too near to the sun and not get burned."

The man coughed and said, "Let's get back to the topic shall we?"

With that the man walked further as the silhouette turned to face him.

Damien could only hear them talk softly in a weird language. The man occasionally laughed while turning and walking a few paces around the silhouette, they seemed like distant friends who had met after some time.

After who-knows-how-long, the man stopped walking, he turned and his gaze met Damien's. His blue eyes seemed to pierce into Damien, making him look away, at this man who laughed and turned to the silhouette.

"Alright", the man said and suddenly a brilliant white light filled Damien's vision. It was so bright that it made looking at the sun as if you were seeing a lamp. Damien closed his eyes as he felt a falling sensation as the surrounding environment turned black like empty space.

...

Damien woke up under a tree, drenched in sweat. As he looked around he found there to be no water around and the sky was as clear as it was on a fine summer morning.

"Was that a dream? But it felt so real. Who was that man and that... 'thing', its appearance was so scary," Damien still felt very abnormal after waking up.

"I shouldn't think about it any more, probably it was a water spirit playing with me... I need to find Robert," said Damien, as he got up and walked in the direction of the river bank. On reaching it Damien thought,'If I walk upstream I may be able to find Robert. Let's hope I don't encounter another beast or water spirits'.

Damien steadily began his upstream journey, on his way he found no beasts for some peculiar reason. As Damien looked around he saw for the first time how dense the forest was, the trees although not extremely tall were very thick and deep-rooted. The river was shallow as it was nearing its mouth but it still had a lot of aquatic creatures. Damien kept on walking while looking at the scenery and inhaling the intoxicating smell of the silent forest after some time he found the point from where he had stumbled into the river.

He walked for some time.

A young boy standing near a rock drenched in blood with his sword stabbed into the corpse of a two-horned kangaroo, the same one that ran after Damien. "Take that you BASTARD! How dare you try to fight me!."

This loud boy who used to be very calm and composed was, had lost all sanity at this point.

As Robert took out his sword and turned around to look at the river in order to find clues to his brother's whereabouts. Robert had heard a splashing sound while he went running in Damien's and direction but, he had to kill a lot of ordinary beasts who kept attacking him on his way to the riverbank. They seemed to have been attracted by the ruckus. Robert was no fool or a weakling, he killed a lot of them to make the others realize not to attack him, which worked out just as he planned. On reaching the bank he found the kangaroo, angered that the beast had injured his brother, an intense killing intent emerged in Robert as he fought the kangaroo to death, in the end, he hacked the kangaroo's body to pieces and kicked the decapitated head of the beast in the forest. All this while Damien had his adventure.

After an hour or so, Damien finally reached Robert who was following the river downstream. As Robert was looking around he found Damien standing near the bank drenched not knowing if it was sweat or water Robert ran towards Damien shouting-

"Danny you're all right, thank god!"

As he hugged him, Robert started apologizing to Damien telling him he was not there to protect him.

"Umm... I don't mind hugs but the blood on you doesn't give me hug-ish feeling", laughed Damien.

Robert humphed as he washed his face and clothes with the river water, "I am sorry I could have avoided this from happening"

"Its alright Robert, I knew you would search for me and for that I am grateful. Come let us go home now, I think I 've had enough for one day," said Damien as he gestured Robert to follow him. Robert was too tired to say anything, so he followed Damien's lead.

...

As the boys entered the town they had left their horses in, Aligarth named after the forest of Aligarth into which Damien and Robert had previously ventured.

"I think we should change our clothes if Mother sees us like this she would faint," said Robert as he looked in the direction of a clothing store.

"Yeah, you're probably right beside we are gathering attention as we speak," replied Damien looking at the surrounding people.

They ran towards the store and entered it, as soon as the door was pushed it gave a bell chime to notify that customers had arrived.

"Hello is anybody here?" said Robert as he looked at the counter and found no one.

"Coming just give me a minute," replied a deep voice. From the sound of it, this voice belonged to a middle-aged man.

As they looked around while waiting for the person to come to Damien and Robert noticed the charm this place held. The cloaks and tunics were neatly arranged for display in order of their shades with the leggings arranged right beneath them. The interior of the shop was made from the finely polished wood of the highest quality giving it a rich feel. On the ceiling was a beautiful tapestry at the centre of which there was a two-layered chandelier gleaming with gold and wax. There were two large couches placed next to a centre table behind the couch were the dressing rooms.

Robert and Damien took each a pair of clothes to try on and quickly went in to change. By the time they had changed the sound of a man coming down from the staircase next to the counter reached their ears. A man dressed in only a plain tunic with white trousers came to the counter. He had a goatee with spectacles on his black bleak eyes, his face was wrinkled owing to his age. As he approached the duo on could see his frail body measuring tape around his neck and a pencil over his ear.

"I see that the young gentlemen have already chosen their outfits. Then may I ask for my payment?" said the shopkeeper. He wasn't bothered by the urgency the duo was in.

"How much do I need to pay?" asked Robert as he took out a silver coin on which was inscribed a dragon the symbol of the empire.

"That would be more than enough," said the shopkeeper taking the coin in his hand.

After this Damien and Robert left the shop took their horses and raced them to the capital of Triston.

***

By the time they arrived in the city gates, it was sundown and the guards too were surprised to see their young masters return so late.

"Damien lets not tell mother about what happened today, as a matter of fact, let's not tell anybody," said Robert while they rode through the city towards the palace.

"Sure I have no issues besides it would only serve to worry others," replied Damien. Soon they reached the castle but as soon as they were about to enter the gates a sharp deafening roar greeted them."STOP RIGHT THERE."

As they turned they fell in despair after seeing their mother in a carriage and a few knights riding towards them.

"We're gonna receive a good chiding" Robert bitterly smiled.

Their mother got off the carriage red with fury, sometimes even noblewomen can lose their temper, after all, it concerned her children.

"Would you two young gentlemen care to tell me which God gave you the permission to hunt all day, you know you two missed your arithmetic classes today moreover where are your original clothes? What in the world were you two thinking?... "

After a while Lady Katherine calmed herself down, her demeanour and grace of a noble returned, and she said, "It was disappointing, you two go back to your room and wait over there, I and your father will decide the necessary punishment for you two when he returns... till then you two are not allowed to leave the mansion" with that she climbed back into the carriage and left with the knights.

***

In Damien's room.

"Damien we need to get stronger, we can't always spend so much time in the forest running from beasts looking for an easy target, remember Father is not with us so unlike our hunting trips with him, our recent trips are pretty long", said Robert with a serious glint in his eyes.

"Okay, so how are we gonna do that?"

"Umm... we train hard? Maybe", Robert scratched his head.

"Yeah! That's a great idea we can extensively hunt beasts that should be enough of a training, or we can wake up daily and practice the meditation technique that Father taught us!" exclaimed Damien.

"Y-Yeah exactly", Robert nodded his head in agreement.

"So let the get-stronger-while-hiding-from-mom operation begin!"

"You are lame", snickered Robert.

"You are a dork", said Damien as he threw a pillow on his brother.

Robert dodged it and said, "Ah! a challenge?... I accept"

"Remember I am still injured", laughed Damien.

Robert jumped and started his spar with Damien as they both laughed the moon soon rose up.

Somewhere far off, seeing this moon through his carriage's window Earl Lawrence sighed, "Damn, this trip is gonna be a long one".