Chapter 6 : Journey To Thales

This question struck Tom by surprise. That’s right. What should they do next?

“I think we should just…” Tom wants to say to wait for Hagol, but he realized Hagol word should be heed. Leo wound is not light either. What if it becomes infected? “…I think we should find a place for us to recuperate and heal your wound first.”

“What? You mean to abandon Hagol?” Leo said, surprised.

“No, I do not mean to abandon him, but we should have priority, and the priority right now is to find a place for your wound to recover. I think it is the most sensible things to do anyway.”

“My wound is nothing!” Leo jumped up, but that action caused his wound to hurt very much again, and he sits down almost instantly with a groan.

“See? What we should do is to heal our wound first. Or we would not survive another encounter with those Scrown soldier again. Ah look, your bleeding hasn’t stopped. Here, cover your wound with this.” Tom said, while producing a clean cloth he has hidden in his clothes, as a preparation against emergency.

“…I guess that’s all we can do for now.” Leo said, wrapping the cloth around his wounded area. “But where should we go?”

“Let’s see, if I my memory serve me well, if we follow the path to the east, there is another city much same like Levogard, I think it is called Thales, or something like that. Never been there, but I guess that’s the nearest place we can go for now.” Tom said.

“All right, let’s set out for Thales then!” Leo said in enthusiasm tone.

They begin to walk the only path that is there, and move into a small wood. When they meet an intersection, they took the left path, which is the path to the eastern side of Levogard. They meet no one at the road, so their journey is relatively smooth.

“I never come to this place before, do you think we are on the right track?” Tom asked.

“I guess so, we took the road to the east, didn’t we? Leo said.

They keep on walking, and soon enough reaches a fork, all heading to east.

“Where should we go next?” Leo asked.

“Don’t know, let’s try to find some clues. Look at there, there is a signpost!” Tom said.

Sure enough, there is a signpost in the middle of the fork. They come closer to read it. Although they are rather illiterate, they could still read some words. The one pointing to the left read something like “Carreban”, the one pointing to the middle read “Thales”, and the one pointing to the right side of them read “Calilax.”

“I guess that’s mean we should take the middle path?” Leo said.

“Yes, that’s right. Let’s go then.” Tom said.

They take the middle path, and walked again. All around them is trees of various kinds. It is pretty interesting to watch so many kind of trees that they never saw before, and they tried to guess what kind of tree is that. They do not need to worry about food too, because there are plenty of fruits, and sometimes they could snare a rabbit. But after three days, thing are beginning to get rather boring. On the fourth day since their journey, the rain began to fall.

“I wonder how far Thales is? I sure hope is pretty near already, we are already walking for about four days, and the scenery is still the same. This wound is really slowing me down, and it is now worsening because of this damned rain.” Leo said.

“We must bear with it, Leo. I am also trying my best to shelter myself, and that’s the only thing we can do. I am just wondering about Hagol. Where is he now?” Tom said.

“Don’t know, but I sure hope he is also going to Thales. And…, it seems like we are beginning to leave the forest. The trees are beginning to get fewer.”

“Ah yes, look! I can see a small farmhouse just outside this forest. Let’s get to there first, to ask about direction and shelter.” Tom said.

“Nice idea, let’s go!” Leo said eagerly.

They move quickly to the farmhouse, half-walking, half-running. When they arrived at the house, they find out that the gate is unlocked, so they just walk to the house front door and knocked.

“Anybody home? Would any of…, hey! the door is also unlocked!” Tom said, surprised, and true enough, the door swings open as they knock.

“Guess that’s mean we should make ourselves at home, then?” Leo said.

“Maybe, let’s go in then.” Tom said. But as he step in, he smelled something very familiar to him. The smell of blood.

“Damn! Leo, prepare your weapon!” Tom said in a rather low voice.

Both of them walked into the house slowly. And then they saw what they dreaded. Table broken, cupboard half destroyed. The owner of this house, together with his family, have been killed, all of them headless. And worse of all, a baby has been stuck to the wall with a spear. On the wall is the word “The Slave of Scrown, A Tribute to Skelcrown” written using blood.

Leo cursed madly at the Scrown, while Tom head is becoming very heavy. Tears are rolling down his cheek when he sees the scene. Scrown, they shall pay dearly for everything that they have done. For a moment, he has an urge to run back to Levogard and slay every Scrown soldiers he sees, but then he calmed down for a while. There are only two of them, and to add up to that, beaten badly. What can they do? So Tom gritted his teeth and sit down.

“I think we should get back to business, why are we coming here?” Tom said.

“To get shelter from the rain, and if possible, some medicine for our wound.” Leo replied.

“Then I guess we should help ourselves, considering…” Tom is unable to continue the word.

“Yes, I guess so. Let’s search the house.” Leo said.

So they two ransacked the house. Leo found some clean cloth to replace his old cloth covering the wound. Tom found some bread and a flask of ale. Something he hasn’t eaten for days. He also found a pretty interesting book, a small sized book, along with a jar beside the book. Although he can not really read, but it seems to have a word “Herbs” and other words like “Medicine”, something that they might need eventually. Tom takes the book and some of the jar content.

“Here Leo, we should eat first!” Tom said, while flinging some bread and the ale onto Leo. Leo caught it and begins to eat.

After both of them have eaten their share, they resumed their journey to Thales again. The rain had stopped. This time with more determination, their speed are doubled. But then they saw something that undermine their spirit again. Smoke.

“What the…?” Leo said, surprised.

“No time for asking! Let’s check it!” Tom said, running to the smoke. Leo followed behind as quick as he could.

They are getting closer and closer to the smoke. As he ran, Tom has a very uneasy feeling. The image of Levogard burned come to his mind again, and he sure hoped Thales won’t become the second Levogard.

But soon he knows his hope is failing him. Around him, bodies of dead men, women and children, lies everywhere. This city has been assaulted, too. The question now is whether the city can survive it or not.

And they are getting closer to the answer.

City of Thales stood in front of them, in fire.