HIRAYA: The Call for Blood (Untold Stories 2)

13

The palace was our only choice left regarding their whereabouts.

They couldn't have gone to the homes of the people, there was no other place for them to be at. Gazil and I immediately went on our foot to head straight to the palace. Not minding the distance. 

The scrapes of the dawn sky started to disappear bit by bit as the strikes of the morning sun peeks through the gloomy clouds. Our boots stepped on snow-covered grounds that were so soft as they indulged our feet with every step.

Our breathes and strives for air began to get louder as we ran, allowing our sweat to drip off our faces. Even though I was covered in sweat, as I felt it runoff, the cold still couldn't escape wrapping our warmth-longing skin.

We took minutes to rest and then went back to chasing the thought of having someone holding captive our troops. It was already so bright when we arrived by the City. We looked up at the gigantic walls that covered the Palace, it was smaller compared to the ones that surrounded the entire city.

We entered the first walls by the small passages that were covered in barbed wires. As my hands find my waist when it searched for something to hold to, I breathed. Catching my breath was one necessary thing if I wanted to survive for the day.

"What could possibly be the reason for their disappearance, My Lady?" Gazil asks.

I shook my head as I looked at the walls, trying to figure out our way in. "I don't exactly know," answered I.

"Are you certain they're being held captive?" he runs his questioning mind.

I took out a sigh as I sensed a sudden light that flashed inside my mind. "There's only one way to find out." Certainty was not in my line but I don't plan on wasting our strength of running from Tokyo to Osaka. "Come!"

We walked our way to the opposite side of the gates where no one could see us sneaking our way in. After seeing a well-dressed horse being tied to a tree made me think that he's being owned by someone from the palace who wasn't even inside the palace now.

When I turned to the side as I reached for the leash that was around the horse's neck, I placed a smirk when I read the sign that lay on top of the small habitation that was covered in snow. It was written in Japanese which probably translates to 'City Pub'.

 "It's almost the end of the world and someone still has the guts to pay for beer when everyone's eating dust and grain." I caressed the horse gently while I spoke of his master. I handed the leash to Gazil and looked at the horse's eyes before letting go.

He was as white as snow and he was dressed in dragon patterns which made me conclude that he was a palace horse but his master sits on a wooden stool while emptying his glass of bubbly bear. "Maybe I'll have you like my horse in the next life,"

Gazil and I secretly entered the gates while sneaking, pulling the lever with the leash, and alarming the guards simply by putting fire to their towers. When we got inside, I thought wrong. I envisioned it to be wide and huge just like ours back in Montereal but it was far from that.