shade of the sun

The rain and fire indulged into each other in a melodious symphony, black clouds shattered into small birds and the blue sky returned, the lively village was now deserted, the people who lived there left it in the hands of fate.

All the White Knight's troops were killed, only he was left there stranded into perfect silence; the night had become a legend written into pages of history.

The enormous rock that was thrown at the white knight began to shake as if there was an earthquake...

And with a big BOOM... the rock was shattered into dust, from dense smog the white knight emerged taking a knee, blood was dripping down his forehead but there was not a single strand of discomfort on his face instead he was smiling like a madman.

"I guess this is where the fun begins Alexios" white knight sighed as he stood up.

"Ahh... what happened?" Alexios awakes in anguish, touching his face, feeling the scar the white knight had left him with.

But couldn't, instead he felt soft cotton covering half-face from eye to chin. Below, the band aid the scar was still hurting as if a hundred scorpions were stinging at once.

"Are you all right?" Alexios sits on his bed and gulped his saliva down his throat and took a deep sigh before standing up.

He moves his head slowly in every direction while walking on the deck searching for Leon and there he was lying on a wooden crate big enough to adjust half his body, beside the paddle of the big boat.

He walks up to him and before touching him; he looks at his face covered in dried up blood and dirt, watching him struggle for someone who he barely knew moved Alexios heart.

"Leon... Leon, wake up..." he gently shakes him by his shoulder and speaks softly.

Leon abruptly wakes up, pulling his arms to fight; he was asleep, but he was still combat active.

After realizing it was no other than Alexios, he came at rest and sat motionless on the wooden crate, facing the sea.

He was injured as well, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Hey... are you okay?" Alexios rested his palm on his shoulder and asked, but he didn't reply and kept looking at the sea.

After receiving no reply Alexios impatiently shook and asked him again, "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Leon was clenched his teeth and replied in an irritated tone,

"What do you want?"

"What do I want? Are you upset with me?" Alexios asked.

"I'm sorry, I'm not mad at you, I'm just... I'm just pissed at myself," Leon sighed and spoke in a depressed manner.

Alexios had never seen him down since their first meeting. It always was like he was a motivated person and seeing him sad made Alexios thinking, he looked at him and sat next to him and softly said,

"Why, what happened?"

"Did you not witness what happened back there?" Leon said.

"Yeah, but it's done. It can't be reversed," Alexios replied.

"It was our fight Alexios, but look what we did. We dragged innocents into it who didn't even know us and still helped us, but look, we turned their entire village into a graveyard."

He stood up from the crate and looked at Alexios with teary eyes and spoke as it dripped through his nose.

"We killed them all... men, women and children too, and what did we gain? Victory? That white knight is still out there, probably killing more of the village, and why is he doing all this? Because of us!"

He grabbed Alexios by his shoulder and yelled in guilt.

"Who's paying for this, the innocents, they all sacrificed their life for us"

"Our sacrifices will not go to waste, Leon, I promise you, every innocent's blood that was spilled last night will pay off, believe me," Alexios held his head by both of his hands and stared into his eyes with confidence and fire of revenge. Looking into his eyes, Leon found belief as if he knew what he was saying was true.

"I believe you. I hope we avenge them all," Leon smiled and rubbed his eyes with his palms and stepped back a few steps.

"How's your cut? Is it still hurting?" He looked at Alexios scar and asked as he made a face, expressing pity.

"Yeah, a little, but it's okay, by the way, this cloth is really soft. It feels as if it's sucking down all the pain and healing it?" Alexios replied in a curious tone.

"Yes, it does suck away the pain. It's the royal Luthorf plants. It's extremely rare," Leon responded.

"Oh I see, I almost forgot you were once a royal, a privileged kid ha-ha" Alexios mocks Leon, which was essential in this critical situation.

While discussing, they both laughed, and Leon questioned,

"You were telling me about your dreams out in the forest when we got interrupted, right?"

"Oh Leon, don't start over again. I'm in pain now, can't you see?" Alexios tries to change the subject, as if he doesn't want to talk about it.

"Well, this is the time; we should discuss now or we might not get another chance," Leon was a hard guy to play around he had picked onto the vein where Alexios was weak.

Alexios took a deep sigh and gave up to Leon and started

"So it's been a while since I'm having these strange dreams about a town, where everything is so beautiful and peaceful, like its paradise, but when I get a little comfortable with a blink, it turns into hell."

He walks to the railing of the deck and continues as the cool breeze blows his long hair back to his ears,

"I see people burning in front of me, slaughtered like pigs and when I walk to them I hear a voice, like someone's calling me but when I turn around to look for the source, I see someone but it runs away before I could see it."

"Well, maybe because you're a part of that dream," Leon explained.

"How? It's not possible; when I told my mother about it, she said that it could be your father because he died in a battle and you may have seen him in your dreams," Alexios responded.

"Possibly...um, don't think about them too much. They are just dreams and oh, by the way, you asked the White Knight about your brother. What's his name?" before Alexios could even breathe, he asks another question.

"His name is Ryan, he is a sweet guy my little brother"

"Do you have any idea where he is?"

"I don't know. I didn't find him in the town when they attacked, well maybe he escaped somewhere. I need to find him soon or it'll be late" Alexios replied.

"Oh, you said you had a sister too right, where is she, is she dead?" Alexios didn't wait for his reply and asked a question curiously.

"Yeah, she died while our guards were attempting to save us. We were heading towards our horses so we could escape Yorkan, but they caught us and killed our guards, but my sister and I tried to ride away from the kingdom, she was behind me and I believed I would make it, but she slipped from the horse and they caught her and killed her." Leon sighs and looks away hiding his pain,

"I believe we both lost loved ones and we're all alone in this," Alexios explained.

"I guess," Leon said.

"WOAHH....here we are."

TO BE CONTINUED….