20 Time To Change Beliefs

-Charm's POV-

"Aurora?"

No response.

"Baal?"

Still no response.

As soon as I opened my eyes, an unspeakable darkness was the first thing that greeted me.

I've seen darkness before, the kind that makes our street like an old fashioned photograph, everything a shade of grey.

This isn't like that.

This is the darkness that robs you of your best sense and replaces it with a paralyzing fear. In this darkness I sit, I can feel my muscles cramped that prevents me from moving. I only know my eyes are still there because I can feel myself blink.

I can't hear anything either except the loud beating of my heart. I tried to call for my friends a couple of times now, but I still haven't received a single response from either one of them.

What is happening here?

Where exactly am I?

"You're beloved friends are long gone..."

That voice!

I hastily turned around to look for the owner of that voice spoken with cold formality. As I did so, I was soon greeted by the tyrant king himself, his lips curving into a cunning smile as he holds an enormous sword in his right hand.

My breathing suddenly became rapid and shallow as I felt my pulse pounding in my temples.

"What do you mean they're long gone? Return them to me this instance!" I finally got the courage to speak against the king as I shot him an icy stare.

I heard him laugh- a high cold cackle that pierces into this awful darkness.

"I can't. I already killed them all." he said in his cold, monotonous tone.

My eyes widened at what I just heard, with my right hand clenched too hard which formed a white knuckle as I felt it shaking a bit.

No... It can't be!

Burning rage hissed through my body like deathly poison, screeching a demanded release in the form of unwanted violence. It was then that I mindlessly charged at the king in an attempt to land a solid punch to his annoying face

*CLANG!*

When the king is just beneath my reach, I was then taken aback by that metallic sound echoing in the four corners of this room covered in pitch black. Soon enough, I felt the chains bounding my hands and feet that restrained me from going near the king.

W-wait, what the heck is the meaning of this?!

"And now that I finally caught you, soon you'll also get the chance to see your friends!"

I saw him lifting up his enormous sword with his two hands and pointed its sharp-edgy tip towards my chest.

"PREPARE TO DIE!"

With my hands and feet bound with chains, I feel useless.

I can't help but to shut my eyes as I saw his sword getting close to stab my chest.....

***

"CHARM! WAKE UP!"

My eyes instantly shot open as soon as I heard that familiar perky voice that's currently waking me up now and a pair of arms shaking me continuously.

When she finally saw me now fully awake, Aurora then stopped yanking my body and placed both of her hands on her sides.

Still feeling a bit dazed, I forced myself to lift up my body and sit on this cozy bed that I am in right now. As I took a glimpse of my surroundings, I soon realized that we are still in Mang Kanor's humble home.

I let out a long, pronounced sigh as I convinced myself that all I saw just now are part of an awful nightmare.

"Are you alright?" Concern was all over Aurora's tone as she looked at me, who is by the way sitting on a wooden chair to my right at this moment.

"I'm fine. I just had a nightmare. That's all." I responded, still trying to convince myself to calm down.

"Good thing you're finally awake." I now saw the talking tiger walking towards my direction with his tail swinging behind him. I was a bit surprised to see him going back to his true form now.

"You've been unconscious for two days now."

Wait, what?! For real?

My forehead puckered as I tried to remember everything that happened the other day, when Citadel soldiers tried to destroy this village.

Unfortunately though, the last thing I remembered, before passing out, is the fact that I've consumed a great amount of power to control the seas.

"I'm glad you're finally awake!" I heard that familiar cheerful yet cranky voice of Mang Kanor as he entered the room.

"Y...eah. Sorry for being a burden to you by letting us stay in your house for too long than what is needed." I sincerely apologized.

"Not a problem at all! I'm so happy this old man can be of any help to you and your kind." he happily responded while grinning, showing his crooked teeth with gaps in between.

That made me also smile at him.

"Because of your pure heart and kindness you showed to us, I shall give you my blessing." I lifted my right hand and put it above the old man's head covered in white curly hair.

Like in the past, deities can also give their blessing to mortals who have a pure heart, just like Mang Kanor.

"From this day onward, all of your kin under your clan shall become prosperous upon the land."

A hint of white light soon emerged from beneath my palm that is placed above his head, which seals the blessing bestowed to this mortal. A few moments later, it soon vanished into thin air, meaning that the mentioned blessing will soon take effect starting this day onward.

As soon as his crinkled eyes looked up to meet mine, I heard him sob as I noticed a tear rolled down on his cheek.

"Thank you so much!" he thanked me wholeheartedly.

After I gave him my blessing, Baal soon entered the scene and looked as serious as usual.

"Charm, we must hurry and find the third temple and revive the spring of Deity Ishmael." he said in a formal tone.

Right! I already wasted two days, with me being unconscious within that time frame, so we better hurry!

***

After we all finished our breakfast, I started again to pack our things that we will need for our long trip when Mang Kanor approached me.

"Before I forget, the village chief wants to see all of you in his house before you depart from this village." he said. That made us all stare at him in wonder.

I thought the village chief was afraid of us?

"Why's that?" Aurora asked with a hint of suspicion.

"No idea honestly." Mang Kanor shrugged as he blankly looked at us.

"We'll just go there so we can start our journey as soon as possible." Baal chimed in.

I looked at the talking tiger in horror.

"With that... look?" I pointed a hand at Baal who also stared at me with confusion.

"What about it?"

"I mean... now that you're back to being a ferocious tiger-"

I was then cut off by the sudden movement of Aurora who is just right next to me, with her right hand raised enthusiastically.

"So should I turn him now to a monkey? Or perhaps a rat?" I automatically chuckled as Aurora eyed Baal with her eyebrows raising up and down at the same time.

Baal shoots him a sharp look in return.

"Go away from me!"

Pffttt...

***

As soon as we went outside, he led us towards the chief's house, whom we saw standing in front of his porch and in the midst of other residents of the village who's also here.

O...kay? What is happening?

"Please give a round of applause to our heroes who saved our village and successfully defended it against our enemy!"

The moment we arrived at the scene, these villagers exploded with cheers like an auditory volcano.

I just stood here, frozen, as I witnessed this whole scenario while Aurora smiled at them and waved with grace like a reigning beauty queen.

"Because of your bravery, I wanted to reward you with something that will help you in your journey."

We all saw the chief now hands over a small bag of coins to us.

"I know that we don't have that much, but I hope thirty gold coins are already enough for the service you've done for our village."

I immediately saw Aurora's eyes sparkled the moment her gaze landed on this bag of coins. As she was about to get it from the chief's hands, I gave her a warning look.

"I think you will need that money more than we do chief." I said, in which Aurora frowned at my response as she returned her hands to her side.

"For me... getting to have you believe in us once more, that we are not the persons you initially thought us to be, will be more than enough reward already."

I smiled at the chief as I politely declined his offer, but he shoved it back in my hands.

"Even if you wouldn't say so, we have already decided to change our beliefs and have faith once more in deities like you. We are sincerely asking for your forgiveness for the rudeness that we've shown when you first came into this village."

"You've all given us a new ray of hope, that despite of these trials that we face nowadays... we can still somehow look forward to that day when all of these will come to an end."

A sincere smile curved up at the corner of my lips as I heard the chief state his speech with so much emotion. Even Aurora now is on the verge of crying.

"I'm not crying! You are!" Aurora hissed at me defensively as she saw me looking at her right now.

***

In the end, I can't do anything but to accept the chief's generous offer since he still keeps on insisting that I should take it no matter how hard I tried to refuse him.

Before we completely departed from this village, I gave them a reminder about the importance of having a small troop of army with them for their own protection.

However, with the knowledge that they are all now under Deity Roku's protection, I don't need to worry for this village anymore.

---

Meanwhile...

As we now walked away from the village, I saw Aurora here jumping up and down as she held the bag of coins in her right hand.

"I wish I have known sooner that you can also benefit from being a village's hero, maybe now I've become rich already. Ohohoho!" Aurora said enthusiastically more to herself than to us.

Again, my palm automatically smacked my forehead as Baal shamelessly shakes his head.

"So Baal, where can we locate this third spring?" I turned to look at the talking tiger, who's more reliable to speak with than to this girl standing to my right.

"The third spring can be found in the city of Belmont, so we will be heading east." Baal responded.

I almost gasped. "What? That is like, several miles away from here! Where the heck can we find someone who can take us there... in the middle of nowhere?"

And as if on cue, as soon as I stated these words, I saw a glimpse of a large wagon going towards our direction which is solely run by a horse.

Even from a distance, I can somehow guess who's that familiar persona with a short, almost boyish, brown hair riding on top of the horse. As the wagon's distance is shortened between us, I happily waved at the merchant who owns that particular thing and called out her attention.

"JADE!"