Primogeniture

Chapter 5 - Voyage

   The colorful towers that fill the Sluggard skyline were etched into Emrick's eyes. He then breathed a sigh of relief, he had made it to the city that his master had told him. The only thing on his mind was to sneak on a ship to Maxia. While he waited for an opportunity to do so, he decided to stroll around the city and explore a foreign place. He has always been locked up in the palace. Now that he had time to think back on his actions, revealing that he was from the castle to the village chief was probably a bad idea and was going to come and bite him in the butt in the future. He missed his mother and it reflected on his face, he does not remember the last time he smiled and how has his life spiraled into this mess. Not too long ago, he was a scholar working for the palace, and now he is nothing more than a wanted fugitive fleeing his home in search of his mother. He passed by a coffee shop filled with people and he heard a commotion coming from within, he turned his head only to be hit with a body flying towards him, he closed his eyes as he braced for impact. A person in brown cloak flew into him and both of them let out cries of pain. As Emrick opened his eyelids, he is greeted with a face of brunette woman whose hair matched the color of her cloak and whose hair was flowing down and landed on his face. Her cheeks were beet red, and he felt that his face was burning up. She was on top of him, and they lied on the street outside the shop, she immediately jumped to her feet and pulled the hoodie over her head, covering her face. Emrick crawled backwards before getting up, his averted eye contact to hide his Eyes of Altracia but she already saw him.

   "Why is an Altracian doing in these parts." Her voice was sultry despite her visible shyness. Her voice did not go with her body language, and this confused Emrick. They were drawing attention from the surrounding public He then composed himself and answered. They were drawing attention from the surrounding public.

   "I would not ask such a question if I too were not from these parts." His reply was swift, and it was loud enough for the growing crowd to hear. Her skin color was darker compared to the normal citizen of Historia and he saw it clearly. She clicked her tongue and discretely reached behind her. Emrick noticed it and suddenly she threw a smoke bomb onto the ground. The resulting smoke dispersed the crowd and dislocated Emrick's vision on her. She disappeared into the crowd as the smoke cleared, some citizens who knew how to use magic used force magic to clear the smoke. He was confused about what had happened but did not want to draw further attention to himself, thus he also fled the scene. He rushed into a nearby alley where he saw more people with the same brown cloaks with their hoodies covering their heads. Apparently, the woman had fled to the same alley and their eyes meet once more. She hid behind her compatriots, and they pulled out knives to protect themselves, this led to Emrick slowly backing away from them but as he back away, he walked into another person, he turned his head to see yet another brown cloaked person that towered over him. Emrick looked at him and his face was painted with burn marks and scars, he then gulped and nervously laughed as the towering figure launched a haymaker at Emrick. Emrick took the hit and slowly black out, his vision was blurring and the last thing he saw was the brown cloaks walking towards him. 

   *Sometime later* 

   As he opened his eyes, he felt a swaying motion as if he was floating on the sea. Dim candlelight filled his eyes, reminding him of the time he was locked in the royal library. He was once again surrounded by people with brown cloaks and Emrick could see that they were on a boat, the brown cloaks had their hoodies down and Emrick could see their faces clearly. He was bound to a column on the ship which housed one of three sails of the ship, he looked at them and spoke in Rawlivia, this was the common language spoken in both Historia and Altracia.  

   "Who are you people?" The bounded boy uttered as he looked at his kidnappers, the adrenaline rushing in his veins and his anxiety spiking once again. None of the crew knew what he was speaking except for that girl who he encountered this morning. Thus, she stepped forward and acted as a translator.