Leurheart (Chapter 9)
#5 of Leurheart
Chapter 9. Pieces of the Puzzle
"Hey.... Hey, are you awake... Michael...?" I heared Blaine's distant voice.
"Wh... What happened" I moaned as I slowly sat up.
My vision was all blurry, but I could make out Blaines figure infront of me.
"Great. You're awake" Blaine said and helped me up.
I shook my head and rubbed my eyes.
'That's right! We got thrown in the dungeons!' I tought as I saw the cold gray bars of the cell before me. I ran to them and grabbed the bars. I looked around the dungeons and other cells, but the whole place was empty.
"Well, that's just dandy..." I said and sighed. I walked to the corner and sat on a pile of hay.
Blaine shook his head and sighed too.
"What did we ever do to deserve this..." He said and sat down too.
I looked at the ceiling.
"I don't think it was just a coincidence the king knew about as, and got us put in here..."
Blaine blinked. "Really?" He said and moved in closer.
"I'm absolutely 100% sure... Rildel, my master in the minstrel arts, warned me to stay away from them... Turns out he was right... I think the king is trying to stop us from doing something." I said and looked at Blaine.
"What could we do to harm him...?" Blaine asked and blinked.
I shook my head. "I'm not sure... But did you see that thing?" I asked as I remembered the dark figure that was behind the king.
"Thing?" Blaine asked and tilted his head.
"I guess you didn't then..." I muttered and started thinking. None of this made any sence... There was a connection between everything that had happened, but I just couldn't put the pieces together.
"What was the thing like?" Blaine suddenly asked, making me wake up from my toughts.
"Oh... It was a dark figure that was floating in the air behind the king. It had a hood and long fingers." I explained and tryed to make the description clearer by drawing pictures on the dust on the ground with my finger.
Blaine closed his eyes and started thinking. He suddenly opened his eyes with a dead serious look on his face.
"What's wrong...?" I asked and blinked.
Blaine lowered his head and growled a little.
"This might be more serious than we tought... Altho, I hope I'm wrong... Because I'm not sure."
My eyes widened and I stood up.
"Tell me, what did you figure out?"
Blaine turned to look at me.
"This thing you saw... It may be something not out of this world, something terrible, with even more terrible intentions... I cannot tell you any more than this for now..." He said and stood up.
'Well great... Now that just clears everything up...' I tought and rolled my eyes.
After a short short silent moment, Blaine suddenly grabbed the bars of the cell.
"We have to get to the East... To the other Leurs." He said and slid his hands on the bars.
I walked to him.
"So, they might know something...?" I asked and looked at Blaine.
He nodded.
"But first... We'd have to get out of this damn cell!" He said and kicked the bars.
I started thinking really hard, I grabbed the necklace Blaine had bought me and placed it on my fourhead when I was thinking.
"Think, think..." I repeated to my self and tapped the necklace against my fourhead.
"If only we had a key..." I muttered.
Then suddenly, I felt something shifting against my fourhead.
It was the necklace. I almost threw it on the floor when I got scared. The golden clef was morphing and shifting it's form. I tapped Blane on the shoulder and pointed at the morphing thing. It twisted and turned untill it finally stopped. It was in the shape of a key!
I looked at the key, then at Blaine and then at the key again.
"Good thing that I bought that, don't you think?" Blaine said finally and grinned. I nodded and went to the cell bars. I placed the key into the lock and turned it. Sure enough, the lock opened. I carefully pushed the cell door open and looked around for guards. There weren't any.
"That's funny..." I tought and turned to Blaine.
"There aren't any guards around." I said and walked out of the cell.
"We should still be careful..." Blaine said and walked past me.
We sneaked towards the staircase that led up from the dungeons to the castle halls. There were still no guards at sight and I was getting a little suspicious.
"This is really strange, where could all the guards be?" I tought outloud when I carefully pushed the door at the end of the staircase open.
The whole hall was empty. I signed to Blaine that the coast was clear.
We quikly snuck to the end of the hall and pushed the big front doors of the castle open.
"Let's get as far away from this city as possible..." Blaine whispered and started running over the bridge that went across the moat.
As we ran I turned to look behind me, and saw a figure standing over at the castle walls. I could make out the dark long hair and a blindfold.
'Raynald...?' I tought and quikly caught up with Blaine.
"We've been seen!" I said and Blaine immediately grabbed ahold of me and lifted me onto his shoulders again. He started running as fast as he could and I held on tight on his mane. I turned to look behind me again, but he was still standing there.
'Why isn't he following us...?' I tought but decided to consentrate on getting away from here as fast as possible.
We ran as fast as we could trough the streets of the large city. Most of the streets were all empty, but a few beggars and merchants could be seen here and there. No one seemed to mind us either way and there was still no one after us, wich was really strange, but of course, it was a good thing.
As we finally ran trough the city gates Blaine lowered me down on my feet and breathed heavily.
"I think we're ok." He said and looked around.
"Let's just keep moving, we can't afford to lose any time." I said and nodded.
Blaine took a deep breath and nodded too.
"Like I said, we have to head towards the rainforest in the east, we have to get to the other Leurs..."
I looked around and stopped to stare at the path.
"I don't think it's safe to go along the roads... The Legion must be keeping an eye on them, especially after they find out we've escaped."
Blaine started walking forward and I followed.
"We should probably walk trough the Great Forest... When we get trough it, we should come to a human city near the edge of the rainforest."
I looked up to the sky and saw the setting sun.
'We can probably set a camp to the forest for the night...' I tought and felt my stomach rumbling.
Finally we came to the edge of the Great Forest. The trees and bushes looked thick and the terrain was sure to be difficult to move in. But either way, we had no choise, so we made our way trough the first bushes on the edge of the forest.
To our luck, there was a small path in the forest. It made walking a little easier.
We had walked for an hour or so, and the sun had allready set completely. The moon shined trough the leaf coverage and the forest wasn't too dark, so we could see perfectly well. The exotic looking plants of the forest glowed a mysterious blue glow, and some of the floating spores glistened in the moonlight.
The whole forest felt so magical and I almost forgot why we had come there in the firstplace when admiring the beautiful scenery.
I suddenly woke up from my daydreams when Blaine placed his hand on my shoulder.
"We should set camp here and rest up..." He said and pointed at a fairly vast area of flat grass.
I nodded and started collecting some dry sticks off of the ground.
Pretty soon, we had a little camp set up. Two piles of leaves to sleep on and a warmly burning fire. We also found some berries in the nearby bushes, so that solved the hunger problem for now.
I sat there looking at the fire and Blaine was doing the same. I felt bored so I took out my flute again.
'Maybe I could work on the song to keep my mind off of everything...' I tought and started playing.
Blaine layed down on the leaves and listened to me play the flute. He smiled and was just about to say something when I stopped playing. A glowing spore was flying in front of my face.
I turned around to see where it was coming from, since there weren't any plants near where we had set camp.
I stood up and smiled to Blaine.
"I think I'm gonna go look around for a bit... Want to tag along?" I said and tilted my head.
"Sure, why not." He anwsered and pulled himself up from the pile of leaves.
I ran towards the direction the spore had flown from and suddenly slowed down as that beautiful sight opened up before me.
There was a large pond in the middle of the forest, plants and trees growing around it. Glowing spores floated gently in the air above it and the moonlight pierced trough the leaves of the trees, hitting the water, making the waving light reflect around the area.
I gasped for air when Blaine walked beside me.
"It's... It's so beautiful..." I said quietly and walked to the water.
I touched the surface with my finger, the water wasn't cold at all, infact, it was really warm.
Blaine crossed his arms and smiled.
I turned around and laughed.
"I simply must go for a swim!" I said making Blaine chuckle.
"Go on ahead." He said and nodded.
"Aren't you joining me?" I asked and tilted my head.
Blaine shook his head and sat down on a rock.
"I think I'll pass." He said.
"Allright, suit your self..." I said and removed my shirt and pants. I placed them near the rock Blaine was sitting at and waded my way into the water wearing only my underpants. It was so warm, and it made all of my muscles relax.
"I wonder why the water's so warm." I said and looked at Blaine, who was still sitting on the rock.
"There must be a hotspring here." He said and nodded.
"It's so relaxing! Come on, a little relaxation never hurts anybody." I said to Blaine and grinned while floating on the surface of the water.
Blaine smiled and sighed.
"Pft... Fine..." He said and jumped off of the rock. He turned around so that his back was facing me and started removing his pants.
Just a millisecond before Blaine removed his pants I realized something.
'Oh, Leurs probably don't have any underclothing!' I quikly turned around and blushed when I saw Blaines bare backside.
I koughed and tryed not to blush any more as I heared him wading his way into the water.
Then I heared his voice from behind me.
"You're right. This is pretty relaxing..." He said and I turned around.
The water reached up to his belly where it was at my neck.
I smiled.
"Told you so." I said and began swimming backwards.
Blaine dived under the water and swam behind me. As he popped up to the surface he growled and acted like he was about to punce on me. I laughed and quikly dodged while splashing some water on Blaine's face.
"Oh, now you're gonna get it..!" Blaine chuckled and I started swimming away quikly.
Blaine dove again and swam with amazing speed! He easily caught up with me and grabbed ahold of me.
He pressed me against his chest and growled slightly.
"Gotcha..." He said and smiled.
I grinned.
"You're pretty fast. And strong." I said and sighed.
"I have have no chanse against you as a human. " I laughed.
Blaine tought for a while and then looked at me in the eyes.
"Well... I have to be fast and strong... So I can protect you..." He said.
My body froze up, not from fear, nor from repulse...
"Blaine..." I said quietly and closed my eyes.
Blaine pulled his head next to my ear.
"Michael... I think-"
His phrase was interrupted when we suddenly heared rustles from the nearby bushes. Blaine quikly jupmed out of the water and grabbed his pants. He raised his fists as we both stared at the rustling bush.
Suddenly, a boar ran out to the open, squealing like mad. Blaine quikly grabbed it and killed it, as it was running towards him with it's tusks up.
"Looks like we'll be having some meat..." He said and grinned, while holding the limb body of the boar up.
I smiled, but was a little dissapointed when our magical moment was suddenly broken like that.
Atleast we had something to eat, the berries didn't satisfy the hunger too much...