Gates to Infinity The Novel Series Ash and The Night Fury

Chapter 10 Talking About Ash

"Why do you think Ash refuses to kill dragons?"

"What?" The Clarkston twins asked in confusion.

Unlike Mike who went to his own home, Joseph and the twins went to the Great Hall. They were enjoying an early breakfast together to regain their stamina, so they could repair their broken roofs later, when Joseph asked that question out of the blue.

"Why do you think Ash refuses to kill dragons?" Joseph repeated his question, "In the past, Ash only said that because it's not him, we didn't really care the real reason and just assuming that he's not interesting to fight dragons." He looked up from his food and looked at the twins, "We had seen earlier that Ash could fight with a Nightmare, a dragon that only the best Runners can fight, and he only used a mere rod. If Ash used those swords he carried with him, he could kill the Nightmare easily. Why won't he kill the Nightmare? Why he refuses to kill dragons?".

The twins were silent. Normally, when they were asked questions like that, they would blurted out stupid things that came to mind, just so they could be seen as stupid and could easily get away from any punishment. This time thought, it felt wrong to just blurt out whatever entered their mind, so they didn't answer the question right away and really think about it.

"Because . . . he is different than us?" Lucas offered his answer.

"What?" Joseph was the one who asked in confusion now.

"He is different." Camerin repeated for her brother, "Unlike us, he is smart, kind, and curious. He is the Hero of a Runner like us, except for the Childish part." She explained when Joseph still looked at her in confusion, "He is smart because who else could think of many type of contraptions he made in the past? Even though they often failed than not, but looked at the ones which are not, his inventions that don't fail had helped us greatly".

"He is kind because he shows mercy to his enemy, he has the kindness and strength for that." Lucas continued for her, "His kindness is what make him use his smart brain to help us, even when the village turn cold shoulder to him just because his few failed inventions destroyed part of the village. I and Cam always told him that his performance was impressive every time his invention failed, it's actually our way to cheer him up, aside from because we love explosion, but I think we did it the wrong way." He looked at his twin before they sighed together then shaking their heads in unison, "He is smart because he is always curious, and when he's curious, he would always search for answers until those answers satisfy his curiosity. That shows that he is a fool because he would never give up until he achieve his goal, but that also shows how strong he really is, he has the strength to rise back up when he failed".

"He is sarcastic too." Camerin added with a smirk, "Ash's sarcastic humor is really funny, you don't know it because you always went with Ash every time he and Merc went to another Island, but the village felt too quiet very quiet".

Joseph felt even more guilty than before, he was Ash's Rival but he knew nothing about the boy, even the twins knew about Ash more than him. "You know, I heard what Ash said to Mike earlier. I stayed behind because I want to know how Ash could fight a Nightmare when he doesn't train with us in Dragon Training, I heard Ash told Mike that he had seen more than all of us have ever seen about dragons." He told them since he couldn't keep it in anymore, "What had he seen that we haven't? I think what he had seen is the real reason why he refuses to kill dragons, because that Viking Spy Astrid said she will kill dragons after she had enter our village".

"We never question it, huh?" Camerin mussed, bringing the boy's attention to her, "We are Runners and we are raised in Runner's way, we never ask whether it's right or not, we'll do it as long as it's the Runner's way. Ash is different, he always question things, so he does something we never do, he questions the truth instead of just accept what parents told us." She then looked at the two boys straight in the eyes, "Why the Vikings and dragons raids us? Our General never questioned it, they were attacked so they attacked back without trying to find the reason behind the attack, because they were Vikings. Our parents told us that it's because Vikings are psychos and dragons are mindless beasts who serve one purpose only, destruction, and we accept it just like that because those Vikings and dragons ended our lives the most. We never ask ourselves if it is the truth or not, that's why this war still going on even after 300 years passed".

There was silence again after Camerin's words, but it didn't last long. "Do you think Ash can stop this war?" Joseph asked them again, "He said that he had seen more than us, and I believe that it's the truth. This war had taken 40 lives, sooner or later we would lose more of our loved ones, or even our own lives. Do you think he can stop this war?".

"In a different way than the Runner's way?" Lucas asked before nodding, "I think he can. I mean, Merc and the previous leaders always failsafe the memorys because they have tried to end the war in the Runner's way, with Ash who thinks differently than a normal Runner, he can find a way to end this war using his own way".

Camerin nodded in agreement to support her brother's answer.

Joseph couldn't help but agree with them, and he couldn't help but ask, "Since when the two of you are this smart?".

"We have our moments." The twins answered together with a grin to break the tension.

Joseph shook his head with a chuckle before he leaned forward and motioned the twins to do the same. "Ash told Mike to come to the arena tonight, he said he will show the true nature of the dragons." He told them with a determined on his face, "If Ash had seen more than us and he might be able to end this war, why don't we help him? I think it's time we help him instead of hating him, let's be nice to Ash once again.".

The twins answered him with a matching determination and Noded, they could agree more.