Arablest/ Prototype

“No way! How is that possible? How can Leona already be the owner of… such a weapon and not know it? Everyone else had to meet with the previous owner and get approval, right?”

Those were the first words that came out of my mouth when I heard General Ira’s guess.

“Hey, not so loud. I’m glad that you’re still watching your tongue, though. But I think you are right, as well. Let me tell you something. The previous owner of Sienglend is not Renning anymore, it’s Raymond. Raymond was the previous owner, so of course he can give it to his daughter with his permission, so that perhaps it may be possible that Lenora does not know yet. Why Raymond would do such a thing, though, is highly questionable.”
“It certainly is.” I agreed. “But at least no one else, especially Brixus, had taken it from her.”
“Well, I remember Raymond having me cast a spell on the spear… I was to make it so that anyone who was not the rightful owner could not use it without the owner’s permission. By passing it on to Lenora, it would be useless in the hands of anyone else, including himself… Perhaps he had a lot planned out back then. Even I didn’t know; I thought that spell was just for safety reasons.”
“Wait, he allowed you to cast a spell on a legendary weapon?” I asked.
“Honestly, I don’t think it would have worked, considering that it was a legendary weapon, but I didn’t even know it was the legendary weapon. It looks just like an iron spear, after all… but Brixus was there, as well! Perhaps Brixus thought that he couldn’t do what he wanted with the spear, and for some reason decided to teach Lenora anyways…”
“Or perhaps he was still loyal to Raymond at the time, and so taught Lenora. That certainly makes more sense, at any rate, assuming it is Sienglend.”
“Of course. Neither of us are completely sure that it is Sienglend in the first place. It all seems to fit, but things always seem to work that way. What I thought back then had made sense at the time, after all.”
“True. We certainly don’t have enough information. But we should probably get back to everyone else now, they must be wondering what’s going on.” I replied.

To be honest, I was more tired from walking. Even General Ira had more stamina than I did.

“Very well, then. Let us rejoin our comrades.”

As we walked towards the wagon, I made one last request to General Ira:

“General Ira?”
“What is it?”
“Since you are a general of Thrycia, wouldn’t it be more prudent if you commanded any of battles that may come? Surely you have more experience than I do.”
“You do not wish to lead? You have the makings of a great leader, from what I’ve seen, and the experience would be great for you. We are not in the middle of a war, after all, so there isn’t as much to lose.”
“First, I never wanted to lead.” I responded. “And how can you be willing to risk your life so easily?”
“I don’t risk my life that easily. I think you have the skill to be able to lead simpler battles like the one we’ve been fighting. In a real war, when placed against another army with a commander leading them, that is an entirely different story. I think Joseph and Garret understood that too, but they wanted to encourage you, and so allowed you to lead. ”
“That certainly does make more sense. Their superior combat skills on the battlefield certainly made battles very easy, despite being outnumbered quite a lot. But why encourage me?”
“Who knows what goes on in their minds? I don’t think like they do, after all.”
“True. But… where I come from, I have never really used my mind for actual combat before. In fact, I’ve never even faced actual combat; fighting is very rare from where I come from. Children are even less likely to be exposed to actual fighting, as well.”
“You don’t? You don’t face brigands, thieves, and the like?”
“No. Everything is relatively safe; I could travel halfway across the world and back without even being attacked once.” I replied.
“…Wow. Sounds like quite a Utopia, like the ones King Raymond always talks about.”
“A utopia? I don’t think that’s possible. Although we don’t have much fighting, we still have many other conflicts. Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to make a utopia.”
“I thought so too, but King Raymond tries anyways.” Ira replied. By now I had taken my seat in the wagon, and others could listen to our conversation.
“I suppose that’s why he’s doing unconventional things, then.” I replied. “I would guess that the reason behind almost everything he does is so that he can make a utopia of some sort. It’s almost like… he’s thinking decades ahead! He could have so many things planned out!”
“…Now that you mention it… maybe everything he’s doing is all part of his grand plan to make a utopia. He’s been adapting very well to other things, as well…”

The two of us fell silent as the meaning of what Ira and I just said.

“…That… that would mean… that would mean that King Raymond is smarter than I actually thought. A genius, probably too caught up in plans to better the world, which almost caused his downfall...” Ira spoke, bewildered. “I mean, I knew he was smart, but I occasionally I... not to speak against Raymond or anything, but… I thought he was crazy, at times.” She continued, whispering that last part.
“I can’t really say anything myself, I don’t know many people here too well.” I replied. “But Raymond… I think he’ll be a great king.”

All of a sudden I realized something.

“Ira, is it possible for you to tell where the soldiers came from?” I asked.
“Me? No, I can’t do that. A good tracker might have been able to…”
“I might be able to.” Garn said.
“You think you could?” Ira asked. But before he could reply, Jacqueline cut in.
“Hey, wait a minute. I thought we were supposed to escort him to Raalte, not go chasing after an army.”
“She’s right.” Tomer said. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we would be able to continue taking on such numbers, as well. If you want, we could send Garn alone, but that would be dangerous for him. But we have to get you to your destination as quickly as we can.”

I stood there silent for a minute, contemplating what I should do.

Since I technically had them hired, I could ask to go after the army anyways, or I could quickly try to find my way back home. But I’ll only be able to find clues in Raalte.

But why should I help this continent? I’ve already helped enough, more than I ever expected to. And I wanted to get home as soon as I possibly can.

So, what should I do?

They are watched me as I sat in the wagon, thinking. It was getting on my nerves, so I quickly decided to go home. I owed this continent nothing, after all. I shouldn’t even be here, changing whatever history. Or should I? Stupid time paradoxes.

The question was, did I really travel back into time? Magic exists here. Perhaps I was placed in an alternate timeline where magic did exist. Then whatever I did here would have no effect on my own life.

But that didn’t matter; I didn’t know the truth, so I assumed the worst. It’s always better to have low hopes, and have something better than you expected, than to have high hopes, only for them to get shot back down. Well, only sometimes. It always depends on the situation, doesn’t it?

“I understand. Let’s go to Raalte. Garn, I don’t want to risk an ally, sending you off like that, so you can stay with us. It’s not that important, anyways.”
“Ok. The decision has been made; let’s go to Raalte.” Kal said. “I’ll continue to lead the way.”

It took us about a few days to make it out of the mountain pass, traveling as quickly as we could. Why we traveled so quickly, I don’t know anymore. All I knew was that we were out of the mountains again. The path continued down through a small plain, leading to a distant city in the distance. Or village, it was hard to tell from here. Some sign of civilization, then. By the time we reached the town it had been a week since we left the capital of the Northern Isles, where Gwen and Veronica were at.

This city was the first and last stop between the closest port that could take us to Thanti, since Raalte had no ports. We only stayed there for the night to stock up our supplies before leaving. It took us another week to finally reach the city port. I had spent a month in the Northern Isles alone, and most of it was just travelling. If only we had an airplane… I could have gotten to places so much sooner. Assuming I could take off, fly, and land one, of course. I’m getting off topic.

The travelling was again uneventful. I spent time meditating, trying to reach Donovan, which was successful half the time now. I had gotten a lot better at meditating, since when Donovan wasn’t there the peacefulness made up for the hectic nights of trying to learn more instruments. Already I had some mastery of the piano and the cello, and was learning now learning both the harp and trumpet. And when I mean harp I mean all the different kinds of harps. Why was the learning curve so hard? I was starting to wonder how Donovan managed to learn all these instruments himself. Did he teach himself? And now did I think about it, how did he know about the piano? Shouldn’t it have been the harpsichord, in this time period? Or an even older version?

I never did ask during my travels so far, though. Donovan was making my nights feel restless with all the learning he was putting on me. In fact, sleep didn’t feel like sleep anymore. I would wake up exhausted, and I would meditate to try to escape as well as get some rest. It didn’t always help considering Donovan had free access to my thoughts when I meditated as well, the same way he had free access when I was asleep. Every night, it felt like he made me dream every single time so that he could teach me something.

I didn’t really notice the time fly by at this point. There hadn’t been any battles since that last one in the Northern Isles, so everything started to become so mechanical for me; Wake, eat breakfast, meditate and travel (I can meditate on the wagon now, and the others had decided not to disturb me seeing how tired I seemed in the morning.), eat lunch (I didn’t really eat much, just barely enough to sustain my lifestyle, considering I wasn’t really moving much.), meditate, eat dinner, meditate, watch everyone else, go to bed, sleep, dream, train with Donovan, wake, repeat.

Every day was the same. The others noticed the sudden change in my lifestyle, but when they tried to talk to me about it I would seem half dead/asleep to them.

“You sleep as much as we do, and yet you always seem so exhausted! Maybe you need to eat more!” Iris said to me one day.

I had been sitting in the wagon, staring off into space, not really thinking about anything. My mind was totally blank until he said that. At this point we had just crossed the border from Thanti to Raalte, and was staying in that city on the border where we first met Kal. It had been another month since we arrived on Thanti. Already I had mastery over the piano, trumpet, cello, and viola by then, and was still learning another variation of the harp, as well as the harpsichord. I didn’t wonder about the piano and harpsichord thing that had bothered me a month ago anymore.

“What?” I responded in surprise to Iris. Since I wasn’t really paying attention to anything, I had just realized that Iris had said something and had directed it at me.

“You’re not even paying attention to anything anymore! You’re practically half delirious all the time! What’s wrong? Tell me what’s wrong! You can trust me, right?” Iris asked. “I trusted you…”

I blinked a few times. My head had been totally clear earlier, but the second she spoke my mind felt like it had been jammed and stuck in concrete. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it, raising a hand to my forehead to massage my temples.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at Iris. “Can you say that again?” I asked.
“Clearly there’s something wrong with you. You never pay attention to anything anymore, you half delirious all the time, and even now you look like you died! Something must have happened! Come on, you can tell me.” She said, sitting next to me on the wagon. “I trusted you earlier, didn’t I?” She whispered.

I didn’t know what to say. So, I decided to tell a half truth.

“I… I’ve been having dreams.” I said. I didn’t want to reveal much, yet, to anyone. Donovan didn’t want me to tell anyone yet. “And these dreams… it makes me feel like I’m not getting any sleep at all. Sometimes… I’m afraid to go to sleep.” Which was a half-truth, in a sense. Despite the fact that I hadn’t spoken much for over a month, I was still careful in watching my tongue. “That’s why I meditate all the time now. It… males me feel like I’m sleeping, but I’m still mostly in control of my thoughts. It’s not helping too much, though…”
“What… have you been dreaming about?” Iris asked, sitting closer. I didn’t really notice, considering how weak I was at the moment. I was exhausted, and I wasn’t really eating much, after all.
And I didn’t know what to say. I had to lie, of course, but about what?
“I… I’m not too sure. I always forget what happened when I wake up.” I responded. This was mostly true for all the dreams I had back home. At least back then it still felt like I was getting some sleep. But this… this was torture. “I just remember… death, that people were killed.” I continued, referring to the battles I had previously. Maybe I could say that I was finally reacting negatively to the battles earlier, now that I had the time to think about it.
“Oh.” Was Iris’s only response. “I don’t know what to say…but please try to get better soon, ok? I miss the old Jeremy, how you used to be.”

It was from here on out I realized that I missed my old self as well. This lifestyle that I had been living for the past month was too mechanical, and I felt like I was half dead every time I was awake. I couldn’t even escape anywhere.

So I brought it up to Donovan, who, after listening to what I said, agreed to reduce the learning curve.

Now I only visited him three times a week, which was a great change. I finally felt like I was getting some sleep, and gradually started to recover and became my old self again. It only took a few weeks, in which Iris insisted we stay in the city and wait before we moved on. When I was feeling a lot better I decided we should continue.

I had fully recovered the day we reached Barcanta, the village where I first met Lenora and Brixus, only to be met with a sorry sight.

The village had been abandoned, and many of its villagers were slain, littered around the ground.