El Comienzo Trágico (The Tragic Start) | [Still on Going]

Chapter 15

It was not a bad day at the time they got out of the woods. The massive clouds covered the sun, and a cold wind was blowing strongly, swaying the grass of the plains. While traveling on the path, they stumbled on a field of flowers, bright white petals and yellow at the center of it reminded Hope of something.
     “Wait!” shouted Hope. “Stop, we need those!”
     “What is it?” asked Kendrick.
     “These are Daisies,” said Hope. “I remembered many potions have this ingredient.”
     “Well, I think you need to hurry, clouds getting darker,” said Kendrick.
     “Let me help,” Sanya jumped down from the horse and helped her to pick those flowers.
     “Guys! Listen up!” Shouted Jake and jumped down the horse with the Rednilyc in his hand to show something. “I just noticed… one of the magical objects seems moving.”
     Everyone got down on their horses to witness the moving of the arrow from the Rednilyc. “How can you say?” asked Lynn.
     “Look,” Jake then pushes the blue button that is pointing at the south. “Look closely, it's not moving it just stays there,” he moved his finger to the green button, pushing it to switch, and the arrow immediately turned to South East. “But this, look… you can see it, it's like ticking, the arrow is moving bit by bit.”
     “Are you sure that's not the button of Hope's necklace you just pushed?” asked Percy.
     “No, ‘coz the button of Hope's necklace is this, the purple one… Look,” Jake started to walk around Hope who was picking daisies. “See, the arrow is pointing at Hope whatever direction I go.”
     “So, what does that mean? Why's the green one moving?” Asked Luke.
     “I don't know…” Jake replied.
     “Maybe it means someone already found it,” said Percy.
     “But how? We have the Rednilyc,” Lynn said.
     “Rednilyc is just a locator Lynn, there are many ways for people to find it…” replied Luke. “These objects are well known, from myth, stories, and gossip. Some of the wealthy people are wasting their time finding those, desiring to be powerful.”
     “All we need to do is to find the person who took it,” said Kendrick. Suddenly, a tiny drop of water fell from above, a sign of heavy rain.
     “We need to move faster, the rain is coming,” said Lynn. At that time they started to travel quickly, hoping to get to the town before the rain drops. However, because they had an injured horse, there was a low chance for them to not get caught by the rain.
      A couple of minutes later, everyone has water dripping all over their body, their clothes are like newly washed, soaked from the river. Although, the rain was still showering.
      “We have to look for cover!” Shouted Ben.
      “Where? There's nothing out here!” replied Hope.
      “There! I saw an abandoned hut over there!” Pointed Sanya who is walking with her cousin at the side of their injured horse.
      They decided to step out of the path and head to the abandoned hut, no walls on it, only a roof, that is good for them and their horses to take cover. They have no choice but to stay there until the rain stops.
        
An hour later, after the rain stopped, they finally saw a glimpse of the town. Their wide fresh fields are emerging at a distance, and the soil is moist after the rain which is good for their crops. When they finally reached the town, the path had crop fields on both sides, the town of Azyro was surrounded by farms, and it was known as the supplier of crops.
     Unlike some of the towns, the roads of Azyro are not created with stone, no gates surrounding the area, baskets of crops and grains are on every side of the street, and wagons are pulled by donkeys or horses.
     As they arrived, people were delighted for some reason. They parked their horses near the exit to easily get out in case something happened. Suddenly, a wall of the one building caught their attention, pasted on the wall were posters of threats, warnings, and awareness for all the powerful people of the whole country. Lynn aggressively took one of the posters on the wall and read it.
     “What is it?” asked Hope.
     “Rebels,” answered Lynn. “They are starting.”
     “Ha! I thought we were only,” laughed Hope, feeling motivated and glad that there were people who finally woke up and gathered for a rebellion.
     “But, the question is— are they aware of how to win this?” spoke out Percy.
     “This is great news, knowing there are people like us who could help with our plan,” said Jake.
      “We need to recruit them, tell them everything we know,” Luke added.
      “A rebel?…” Suddenly a voice was heard at their side, as they turned around, a long-dark haired man, many years older than them was leaning his back on the wall, smoking on his smoking pipe, letting the smoke out of his mouth.
      “Are you one of them?” asked Jake.
      “Yeah… I mean, isn't it obvious,” replied the man, and he sounded irritated by the question. Hope took the poster from Lynn’s hand and said.
      “This poster is new—”
      “It is,” interfered the man, smoke coming out of his mouth. “We just paste it.”
      “Are y'all from this town?” asked Kendrick.
      “No,” groans the man as he gets up from leaning his back on the wall. “We're from different cities and towns, traveling from land to land, planning, making some posters for scaring those wicked people, making them know we exist. But that's just for now— we'll do worse than that in the future. ”
     “We want to talk to your leader, I know he's here,” said Percy.
     The man looked at them tilting his head to the side, signaling for them to follow him.
     The man brings them to a secured building, with stone brick walls, and does not have a lot of windows. Each window has a dark-tinted, smokey color of glass to keep their privacy.
     “Another dark room,” murmurs Jake, wandering his eyes around as they get inside the building. The man stopped at the door of one room and turned to them.
     “Stay here…” said the man.
     The man got inside the room, shoving the maroon-colored curtain of the door to the side, and the leader was there standing at the front of the window, drinking a bottle of alcohol. He looks like in mid 50s, and his freshly trimmed beard keeps him looking strong and confident.
     “What is it?” He asked in his raspy voice.
     “I found a group of young people sir looking at our posters, I brought them here for some reason,” the man said.
     “And what is that?” asked their leader
     “They are forming a rebellion, I was thinking if maybe we can recruit them.”
     “Is that so? Alright, bring them in… I want to talk to them,” he said and walked back to his table and waited.
     The man stepped outside the room and opened the door for them, “Get in his waiting,” he said.
     “Are we sure about this?” whispered Jake, eyebrows raising, eyes wandering around the room, as they slowly approached the doorway. “I have a bad feeling about this… Hey! I think he's not—” Hope then grabbed his shirt and pinned him on the wall at the side of the doorway with her elbow, and her hand still gripping at his shirt.
     “I noticed your kid self came back, Jake,” whispered Hope at him, with hatred in her voice. “We are serious about this, we need them, they are a big help— we can't attack if we don't have others at our back…”
     “Hope!” called Lynn.
     “Quit the shaking,” said Hope, still with hatred in her voice, covering Jake's hand forcibly. “Don't let them see that you're weak— show them that you're strong and brave… so they will agree to what we will say.” She then pushed her hand away from Jake and walked to the others who were already inside.
     As they got inside, the leader was sitting in his chair, leg across to the other, with an alcohol in his hand. He then gestured them with his fingers to come closer to him.
     “So,” the leader said with his natural raspy voice. “A group of rebels of young people— tell me what pushed you to this decision.”
     “What's yours?” Percy said. “Because I know we all have the same answers.”
     “Hm,” smirked the leader. “I like all of your bravery— I can see through your faces… Alright! You're all in!”
     “Wait wait wait,” sounded Hope. “You're recruiting us? I think you misunderstood.”
     “And why is that young lady?”
     “I think, you want you to join us, we know better on how to successfully defeat our enemy.”
     “Love her confidence,” laughed the leader, pointing his finger to Hope. “Oh honey— we kinda have our own thing… Tell me, what you'll be doing right now for this rebellion thingy.”
     “Well, we haven't really done anything these days,” answered Luke. “We're looking for this magical stuff to—”
     “So you're up finding these non-existing objects, rather than focusing on how to make our enemies know about you?” interfered the leader.
     “Wait what?” asked Lynn.
     “Honey— if you want our enemies to be scared of us, you need to have some unexpected plans that threaten them— make them up all night thinking about what will be our next move… Make them know we exist, make them aware that we finally woke up from blindness and are ready to take our freedom back,” explained the leader. “I apologize, but I am not accepting your invitation to join you. You can go now.”
     “Wait!” said Ben. “We are ruled by a witch mister— and your saying that these magical objects don't exist? I'm sorry are you not aware about that?”
     “Pretty boy we know about that, we know that this world has magic, we know there is different creatures outside there— but this! This stuff! These objects you're locating is a myth! They don't exist!”
     “I don't know about you but we believe the sorceress. It's not a myth sir, because we already have one,” said Hope, pulling out her necklace and turned around to leave.
     They got outside the building and decide to continue their plan to gather some of their needs.
     Splitting is what they decided to do, half of them go to buy their needs and food, and the others look for horses.
     In the meantime, Jake, Percy, Kendrick, and Luke look for a horse to have. They don't mind where to get a horse, for they know that this town has lots of it, they are worried about their money, whether they can manage it or not.
     Meanwhile, Lynn and the other three are at the market, full of farm goods, and some of them from outside their town come from different areas. While looking for some stuff, Hope heard some women at the back, talking about something. She doesn't mind at first until she knows what's the topic of their conversation.
     “How'd you know?” asked the woman.
     “Well, my husband was there yesterday. When he got home he brought this news… all wealthy people will be there— this will be a grand night.”
     Hope taps at Lynn's shoulder, tilting her head together with her eyes repeatedly at her back to tell Lynn what she was hearing. The cousins saw it and were curious about what Hope was trying to say. “What?” asked Lynn. However, Hope just repeats the gesture.
     “I don't understand, Why don't you just say it directly?”
     Hope rolls her eyes, leans forward to Lynn, and whispers in her ear. “They're talking about an event in the city at east,” whispered Hope.
     “So?”
     “What is it?” asked Ben in a whisper.
     “She said those women at her back were talking about—” she paused when she saw how close Ben's face was to her. Her eyes widened a little, staring at Ben's lips. Suddenly her heart beating fast realizing how awkward the silence was, not sure what she was feeling that time.
     “About what? Talking about what?” Ben asked again, and that time Lynn got back to her senses.
     “Uh, about– about an event in— in the city in the east direction,” she replied as her voice weakened.
     Suddenly, Hope's eyes widened, and putting a smile on her face, it looked like some ideas got into her mind. She immediately ran towards the others compressing them at the corner.
     “What is it?” Lynn asked, confused about how Hope was acting.
     “A party— a party of all the wealthy and powerful people.”
     “And?” said Ben.
     “There was a ball that night… I have something on my mind to do.”
     “What are you planning?” Asked Sanya.
     “Thi–this is not a perfect place to say it. Let's finish our purpose here first, I'll tell you all later.”
       
Moments later, they stumbled at the front of a bakehouse, the smell of freshly baked bread covering up the place made them feel hungry. While Hope is purchasing bread, Sanya sees Jake and the others in the distance, she tells Lynn and Ben and stretches up her arms to wave at them so they can see her. When they finally reached them, the guys looked exhausted. “So? Did you find horses?” asked Lynn, hand on her hips, putting more weight on her right leg than the other.
     “No— they were not for sale, what they are selling are small ones, they run pretty— slow,” Luke replied. “How about you here? Any news?”
     “Well, Hope heard something from some women— gossiping,” said Lynn.
     “Bread, anyone?” said Hope who just arrived, carrying a bag with bread, while others were staring at her.
     Meanwhile, it was 3:00 in the afternoon, they found a perfect and safe place for them to discuss Hope's plan near where they parked their horses. They sat there, having bread and ready to listen to what Hope would say.
     “There will be a party for wealthy people in a city in the east direction. They said it would be a grand night, and on that night— there will be a ball… I know you'll be confused now but— I've got an idea.”
     “I thought after this we will go look for these magical objects,” Lynn said.
     “I know, I know. But this is important— the leader of the other rebels said, if we want them to be scared of us we have to show them who we are,” explained Hope. “And that night is the perfect night to execute it.”
     “So what are you planning?” asked Percy.
     “Rebel bombing? That's worse,” Luke joked.
     “What?! No! Of course not, I don't want to kill people! I just want them to suffer like we do,” answered Hope.
     “I'm kinda excited! What is it?” said Jake, smiling.
     Hope looked at him, “I just want to introduce ourselves to them.”
     “Are you crazy? They will arrest us if we show ourselves to them,” Jake said.
     “Are you stupid?!” argued Hope. “What I meant, we will— light a fire that will form word by word, like a threat or warning.”
     “That's smart, I like that,” complemented Percy.
     “So when's this party?” asked Sanya.
     “Two days from now,”
     Suddenly, two guards passed by pulling the lead of their horses, the guards stared at them with a rude look. “Are you sure you did not steal that bread?” snarled the other guard.
     “Excuse me?!” growled Hope.
     The guards looked at her, and stepped forward, fist clenched and eyebrows met at the center like he was about to attack her. However, loud chatting and shouting of people are heard in the distance. Turns out, there was a fight going on between two vendors. The guards asked a favor to them in a rude way to guard the horses for them and rushed towards the fight.
     As the guards are away, Hope looks at Lynn and both smile like they will do something. She then taps at Kendrick and takes the lead, steals the horse, and runs. They realized what she was doing and took the other horse and followed Hope to where their horses were.
     “We got all we got what we need from here, we have to leave,” said Lynn, laughing at what they just did.
     Without any obstacles, they left the town immediately with two new horses stolen from the guards. They kinda deserve it anyways.