The Cinders of Dezu

3rd: The Savior King (2)

"That's a good point," said Cairo, "he might pull something elaborate on us for our visit but he's with her all the time! So unless she's in on it."

Cairo looked at Raina who gave him a doubtful look.

"I was SLEEPING!"

"Yeah, that too," he said.

The door to the room opened back up and Boke stepped in. The three looked up at him as he spoke.

"Okay, so it looks as though we will need to have the king come see to you. We've sent word to alert him."

Julian looked at the guard and smirked.

"'Sent word to the king', huh? Did you send a guy on horseback?"

Boke cocked his head slightly.

"No, I called him," said Boke.

Julian cocked an eyebrow.

"How does using a phone fit into your whole 'village dark ages' thing?"

"Phone?" Boke asked.

Julian threw his head back with a scoff.

"You guys are bad at this."

Boke cleared his throat again as he pulled something from his pocket.

"I have something to read to you."

His hands trembled as he unraveled a small rolled up piece of paper. It was rolled tight. He had trouble opening it and keeping it open as it appeared it hadn't been read in some time.

"'Welcome, dearest traveler, to Dezu.'"

Boke swallowed hard and continued.

"'I am sure you are deeply confused and troubled by your new surroundings. It is the duty of my men and I to guide you back to the safety of your home. Please do not be alarmed. Trust my men with your care until I arrive. I will be at your service shortly as your personal escort to see you off. Yours truly, King Orion.'"

Boke finished the letter and let it quickly roll up. He tightly rolled it the rest of the way and quickly exited the room. The door closed behind him with a thud. The three sat just staring at it. Raina put her hands on her cheeks and started alternating rubbing them up and down, scrunching up her face.

"Okay, " she said, "So I'm starting to think I'm not dreaming."

She looked over at the guys. The looks on the faces looking back at her were not comforting. For the next twenty minutes or so they talked alone in the room about how the night went. Alternating between disbelief and reconsideration of the facts. Julian's take on it was still that this was some sort of reenactment or movie set or maybe even a reality show. Cairo kept pointing out the wolves and the special effects needed to replicate whatever they saw beyond the tree line. Also, he couldn't get over the insurance liability that all of that would entail. None of them had signed any wavers. Raina decided definitively that she wasn't still sleeping after pinching herself as hard as she could on her forearm. She then insisted everyone else do the same.

The door handle turned and the door creaked open again. The three stopped talking and gave it their attention. In walked a reasonably tall figure, draped in a large black cloak at the shoulders. He wore a silver breastplate with intricate markings carved into it. Cairo recognized them to be the face of some sort of animal with metal detail work around it. The face looked something like a bull but had two sets of horns, one on the top and one set protruding from where the nostrils should be.