Scales and Swords ✓

4: Philip

I woke to a pounding head ache. It was dark, wherever I was. Though the glowing stars and a full moon were sprinkled generously in a rectangular painting that was most probably a window. I sat forward, feeling my surroundings. I seemed to be on a bed.

I looked up. And there sitting across from me, was a stranger.

I jerked back but the bed had ended so I landed on the floor, loudly and inelegantly. Instinctively I felt for the knife in my trousers' pocket and held it towards the man who sat across from me.

The questions came spilling out. "Who are you? Where am I? Where have you taken me?"

He laughed and leaned forward into the moon's light. Chiseled jaw line, raven black hair and matching monolid ebony eyes that contrasted his pale white skin. He was dressed sprucely in dark form fitting garments that reminded me of those of a hunter. But what captured my attention the most was his large grin. I'd seen it before.

"I think what you mean to say is thank you," he said matter-of-factly.

"Why would I thank you, a man I've never met?" I steadied my shaky hands. I wasn't confident I could do anything with the knife but he didn't know that.

"Aha, but you should, because this man right here saved your life."

The memories came flooding back. The tournament, the fire, and the pain on my back. I jolted to my feet, feeling for the gem at the base of my neck. It was there. My hands travelled up my face to my rough scaly skin. His dark eyes met mine as he gave a knowing look.

"I see you have a little something on your face," he said smugly, motioning to my face.

I stepped back and held out the knife with both hands. "You haven't answered my questions. Who are you? And where have you taken me?"

He stood and stepped forward. Only when he stood did I notice his towering physique. As intimidated as I was I wasn't going to back down.

"Ok, I'll answer your questions," he said, strolling over to me. "The names Philip, and a friend of mine requested I help you out of your little problem. Saved you from a mob of angry pitch-fork wielding folk and brought you here."

Philip? From the tournament? Him?

He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at me. "I've answered your questions, now you answer mine. Who are you and what did you do to the Kuebiko?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied, "and why would you save me from a mob of angry pitch-fork wielding people?"

"You held up a burning building with your bare hands and you have scales on your face, the simple minded folk only know one response to that: hunt and kill. Which leads me back to my previous question, who are you?"

"Obviously not anyone that should bother you. Let me go, I don't want your help." I still held the knife to his face as I stepped back. But what was behind me was an open window.

He bristled, his expression turning grave. He stepped forward and peered out the window, grabbed my empty hand and hopped out onto the roof.

"Let go of me!" I struggled against his grasp. I always knew I had what one would call inhuman strength, but his grip came close to proving me wrong.

"You're quite strong, I don't understand why you lost to Kent. He's like a toothpick really." He let out a laugh then stopped to stare off again. "We should really get going, those guys are back."

"What?!" I stared out the window as well to find an empty street.

He tugged at my hand. "Come on!"

I stood my ground and refused to move. "I'm not leaving. I don't know you, and I don't trust you, so-"

He lifted me by the hips and threw me over his shoulder. A surprised yelp escaped me.

"What are you doing? Let go off me!!" I kicked and hit him but to no avail, his back was mostly muscle. "I'm going to stab you!!"

"You wouldn't." He snickered and began to run. It's one thing running on roofs, it's another being on the shoulder of someone running on roofs. You can't trust your own feet to not slip up. But all that fear was forgotten when the sights of above became mine. Up there, I could see so much, the forest, roads, rivers and even the castle which appeared so small in the distance. Oh, I could also see a mob of pitch-fork-wielding-folk. He wasn't lying, it seemed, but I that meant little.

"Up there!" One angry troll yelled. They shouted and sneered, and ran towards us. But we had a head start and were far from their reach.

"I see they've caught up with us," Philip said.

"You don't have to do this, you know. Just let me go." I preferred not to go with the mob but leaving with a stranger was just as unfavorable.

"We all know you wouldn't want that. Just keep quiet and let me do the work. Consider yourself lucky, ladies would fight to be on my shoulder."

"Where are you even taking me?" I demanded.

"Right here! Hold on we're going down," he said then dropped through a roof. The roof broke and crumbled under our weights. But when he landed, he landed on his feet in a completely different place.

It was prettier than I'd expected. Well-lit, clean, smelled like forest, nice music in the background and weird pink blob looking things everywhere. I did the normal thing and shrieked. Philip set me down, as gently as one would a sack of potatoes.

"Calm down woman," he chided, scowling as he shook his head.

I inched towards him unconsciously as I watched the strange blob people. They looked like piles of pink cream with eyes and a mouth. But they moved like snails.

"They're gyals," Philip said, "enchantments gone wrong. Harmless. Nice people, really."

Right in front was another gyal, behind what looked like a reception. He smiled and said, "hmmm."

"What did it say?" I asked, out of mere curiosity.

"Hello," Philip answered.

"Really?"

"No idea." He shrugged. "Two rooms please."

I scowled at him and stared around again. "What is this place?"

"An inn. These guys run the place. They're very hospitable."

"Hmmm," one said to the other. "Hmm," the other said back.

"Are they alright, though?"

"Hmm," the receptionist said and handed over two keys with its blob hand.

"Hey don't let appearances fool you. These guys are happy as can be," Philip said easily and motioned about. He handed me a key and pushed me towards a hall by the shoulder. "Get some sleep, we'll talk tomorrow."

I was left with two options, get the hell out of there and away from this strange man or I take the keys and go to my room for a night's rest. Call me a fool but I chose the bed.

A/n: I know the picture above doesn't really show Philip's face but the guy in the pic reminded me of him. Hehe, what do y'all think of Philip?

below is a pic that i found on Pinterest that resembles the image of Kreatier in my mind.