Echo

chapter 2

"Oh hello" I snap my head to an older gentleman in long robes wearing a hat low to cover his eyes. He pushes the hat up and offers me a smile to which I return.

He steps forward to greet me and two large brown wings open from his back and leave me in awe.

"I'm philza" he holds his hand out for me to shake and his smile only grows when he notices that my gaze is fixed to his wings. I take the hand he offered and shook once before he smiles and pulls the wings closer to his back and brushes a small piece of dust from his sleeve.

"Welcome to L'manburg" he beams. Others notice my arrival and make their way over with caution, understandable, my appearance isn't the nicest right now after traveling for days.

"Thank you, I'm never usually greeted this way" he smiles brightly and then motioned for others to come over and say hello.

Two young looking boys make their way over to us and others follow them.

"Phil, who's this?" The smaller one asks and takes his place next to him.

"Its a woman toby" I hear the taller one whisper and I throw a confused smile at them.

"Do you have a name woman!?" The boy asks loudly with a laugh and phils expression turns from a smile to a scowl as he uses his wing to smack the back of the boys head.

"Aha, people call me echo" I answer with a light chuckle and a few people exchange quick glances.

Philza chuckles and shakes his head at the two boys giggling to themselves before giving them both a warning look and motioning towards me with his head.

"Sorry" the smaller one mutters quickly before looking up at me, "I'm toby" he starts with a smile "and this is my best friend tommy" he motions to the taller boy who is still laughing while rubbing the back of his head from the impact of the wing.

A few more people chime in with their names, I smile and greet them all. This small village was placed infront of a beautiful large stone castle.

Everyone quickly went back to talking to one another and I noticed a few people in armour and uniforms.

"The king will probably want to know of your arrival, I'll walk with you" philza leads me through the village and as we walk further into the town I notice odd things about it that put it apart from other kingdoms I've been to.

"Our kingdom is not like others, tell me... how did you get here?" He asks but before I could give him an answer a small blue ram runs infront of us, stopping us dead in our tracks, tommy and Toby seem to be chasing it around and philza let's out a sigh that seemed to hold both defeat and love.

I keep my gaze fixed to the odly coloured animal and he let's out a warm laugh.

"My son coloured him blue, he was a bit odd to say the least" he chuckled and I caught on to his use of past tense, a strange feeling of sadness tips over me and I smile at the thought of a young boy and blue ram.

"A strange man- dream" I start feeling uncomfortable, "told me not to come here, I don't know why... all I know is I had to ignore his warning" the mans eyes grew dark and he quickened his pace.

I step into a faster pace to match him and soon enough we arrive at the castle.

"Nikita, let the King know of our arrival" a girl in uniform nods to him and motioned to another person who upon closer inspection had the ears and tale of a fox.

At this point nothing is going to surprise me.

We walk through the castle and the soft carpet cushions our steps, the walls are decorated with oil paintings and long banners with small trinkets that are encased in glass boxs on pedestals between them.

We approach two large wooden doors and as they open they reveal a magnificent throne room with low hanging chandlers and more pedestals with armour stands.

At the end of the red carpet lays a red and gold throne with presumably the king perched on with his head in his head and slumped down slightly.

"So do what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting, sir philza?" He laughs and stands revealing he's a lot taller than I had originally expected.

"Your majesty, we have an urgent situation on our hands" he rushes but the king only slows him down and forces him to relax his words.

"Please philza, you know the deal" he chuckles, for a man of great power he appears to be kind hearted and comfortable with who he is and the people in his kingdom seem to respect him.

"Eret" he starts slowly motioning towards me, the king gives me a quick up and down look as I continue to stare around the room in awe, "this is Echo, she arrived not long ago, against the word of dream" he says with faint emotions.

"Dream?" He questions looking at me and I nod all too quickly hoping he could tell me who he was.

He gave philza a quick side glance and thinks for a moment before sending everyone away.

"Philza your excused, thank you" his mouth drops slightly as he ushers him away with a hand gesture. Eret subtly motions for me to come closer.

"But-"

"No buts phil, this is a private matter and will be dealt with accordingly, thank you" he gives him a stern look but he gives in and the small girl from earlier escorts him away.

I patiently wait while Eret stands and watches him leave. My hands begin to sweat and he quickly places a hand on my back and ushers me to a side door.

We walk through many hallways in silence until we come across the centre of the castle where a small but beautiful garden grew. He walked me through it and I smiled at the red and white roses and the small stone bench.

Eventually after what felt like forever he opens the door to a room. The four poster bed was covered in pink silk with a small rug placed in the center of the room, while a wardrobe and vanity table were expertly placed against the wall. I look around in awe and Eret only smiles and chuckles at me, clearly catching onto the fact I've never seen anything like this.

"Tell me about your encounter with dream" he says taking a seat on the chest at the end on the bed after giving me a moment to take in the room.

I look out of the large window to recall the encounter and notice tommy and Toby running in circles with the ram around Phil.

"There was an Inn, I walked in and we spoke, he said that i could be someone to have around, and then told me to go back the way I came and not here... he felt dangerous" I turn to him, hoping to learn something new and he leans down with his hands tangled together and stares deeply at the floor.

"You made the right choice coming here, you'll be safe here" he shakes his head slightly leaving his dazed state and looking at me with a smile.

"You'll stay here as a guest of mine, there are clothes in the wardrobe for you and if you need them adjusting, let me know and I'll call my son to get it fixed" I nod and he stands to leave but a few more questions dance on my tongue.

"Why did you usher Phil away? And why are you being so nice?"