Ralph jerked up along with a splatter droplet of blood. The pain in his body had vanished as fast as it had come, except for the dizziness that still binds his head, the rest of his body is fine now.
He exhaled in relief. At least it meant Kanitha's alive. In the brief second of Paulie knocking him out, he was terrified that that was Kanitha dying.
He is back resting in his room, the windows he smashed through last night had not yet been replaced, giving the room a gush of unfamiliar cold breeze. It was early in the morning, and the glimmering stars around the horizon is starting to fade into the blue, but the faint corner of the moon is still hanging in the middle of the sky when he bent down a little to look.
What was that? He knows that the Stone's double has the ability to share vision occasionally, but that vision seems too strange to be real. Would Monk really just agree to such an absurd request? Or more importantly, would Lucy even dare to make such a request? Time traveling can go terribly wrong. Once something happens, the damage attacks indifferently. It doesn't matter if they're the Scars, the Stone Users, or just normal people. Especially if they were to travel to the same past twice... Jerron's right. They're mad.
But, true or false, he will have to do something about it. Kanitha's in terrible danger, and if somehow the Scars managed to get their hand onto The Strange, they will use it in the war with Jerron. And he will be killed by it.
"So, care to explain what was that?"
Being openly startled by Cecilia's voice, he turned around, seeing her sitting on top of his bookshelves, still in the same night dress as last night. He could tell she's probably been watching him all night by the obvious bags beneath her eyes and the grumpiness that she's not even bothering to hide.
Ralph told her about his story with Kanitha and the Stone's double, explaining that that was probably what caused the pain last night. At the end of his story, Cecilia kindly reflected that he was foolish (which is the same comment she provides on eighty percent of his actions), then agreed to travel to the Toe of Layat with him to figure out what's happening.
"Really?" Ralph cried in contentment. Getting Cecilia on his side during this trip would be extremely helpful. "I thought you would've stopped me."
She slid off the shelve, landing gracefully on the floor with a roll of her eyes.
"I'll be interested in meeting the descendant of the Harusin family, who is also someone that got you so worked up with," she shrugs. "It's time for me to actually see the world beyond Garavia, anyway. Also, I will have a chance to see for myself what kind of a nuisance the Scars are really. I'll check with Paulie."
At that, she disappeared in a wave of shadows.
Ralph sat staring at the spot where she left, after a moment of silence, the feeling sank in, followed by an unfamiliar streak of anger across his heart.
He's not used to being angry. On most occasions, he is either neutral or depressed. There are rare occasions when he is happy and excited, but anger is something he truly hardly feels because there was barely anything he could care as much to fuse over.
He did feel angry at Forrest's death, but now it's different. The Scars are doing too much. Caprison's death, closely followed by the danger Kanitha is in and the fact that they're going to mess up the time zones just to hurt her all over again, he couldn't just sit here and watch them take away those he cares about anymore. He knows that this might be the one and only chance he can ever get Kanitha to forgive him. He just simply can't keep watching the people he loves getting hurt again. It was a new feeling that pushes him onwards. He never asks for much. Just someone he could love is all he needs by his side, and they're all slipping away towards one thing. The same thing that is responsible for his past. For all the pain that this world is encased in.
He understands why Layat chose the path she did. He will continue it, he would carry on her wishes and draw a full stop to this mess.
He refuses to lose those he loves. Not again. He won't be the coward he used to be again, his past, those pain that kept holding him back wouldn't stand in his way anymore.
He will have to change
He gets up, tucking Rain away into his belt. Sliding on his coat, he strides out the room towards the gate, where he spots Paulie and Cecilia discussing in the vague drifting snow.
Squinting through the bright rays of the early morning sun, his footsteps crunching across the snow, he walks up to the Ice Prince.
"So?" He asks. "Are you coming?"
Paulie shakes his head.
"Not now, at least," he says, huffing patches of colorless fog into the air. "I am still the Prince of this Dynasty. I can't leave just anytime I like. I just need to warn you, that the Harusin family is a part of the Gods of Garavia, commonly known as the Noir-Vols. I believe you've heard about Abronze Lasbender?"
Ralph paused for a beat of silence. "I think so," he muttered. "All of the Stone's powers were branched from him, wasn't it? But he was executed years ago."
"That's the one," Paulie bows his head towards Ralph, the shadow looming over his face. "Lasbender was just his middle name."
Ralph stared spell bounded.
"You don't mean..."
"His real name is Abronze Lasbender Harusin," Paulie whispers. "That family is mysterious. You should beware of what they could and would do. Out of the Five Families, they're the most unpredictable."
"I'm not aware of her story in the history," Ralph clarified. "But I am aware I don't want her gone. Thank you for telling me this, but I would be going anyways."
Paulie gazed at him in scrutiny, his pale blue eyes fixed into his coal black ones.
"Good luck, then," he whispers after a long while. He bents down towards Cecilia, gently placing his scarfed mouth onto her forehead. "Please be careful."
Her silver hair ruffling against the wind, Cecilia leaped up, enclosing her slender arms over Paulie's wide, broad shoulder.
"I would, ice head," she whispers. Letting go, she dashed towards the blizzard mountains that slowly materializes before them as she climbs over the cliff.
Looking back, her hair flying before her face, she scrunched her nose at Ralph.
"Why are you just standing there? Come on!" She yelled.
"Wait, are you going to-"
"Of course we will be running to Toe of Layat, what do you think?" She demanded. Ralph smiled. Exchanging one last, firm glance with Paulie, he bolted off to join Cecilia on top of the cliff. He gripped her hand, and the two leaped off the bold, outspread edge down towards the dark chasm beneath.
YOU ARE READING
Alasla: The New Age
Fantasi"What killed him isn't me. It's the world." Ralph had never asked for much. Not even his own identity. But when his best and only friend got murdered by the man he calls father, he was forced to set off on an expedition to unravel the truth of this...
