The Avallon Chronicles (BOOK I)

37 | Alastair

"Who are they? Why are they coming for me? What did I do?" Cithara asked worriedly.

"I cannot tell you everything but all that I can say is that you do not have to trust anyone around you because you'll never know if they are an ally or if they are an enemy who is there to erase you from this world," the man notified.

"You have to tell me who those persons are!" Cithara commanded and the pressure inside of her began to rise again.

"I'm sorry, You're Majesty! I'm sorry, but I can not say even though I want to," the man replied, begging her to understand his situation.

Cithara was about to blow her temper once more, but as she saw the wound on her arm, she felt pity and gratefulness. For a short period, she felt calmness running through her veins.

"I understand," she sighed.

"Oh! It's such an honor to meet you face to face, Lady Cithara!" The man beamed, "And your Deia is right! You are a kind person."

"Now, can you please tell me who you are?" she asked curiously.

"Alastair Simmons at your service, my lady," the young man replied as he gave her a slight bow.

"Then how did you meet my mother? How did she send you to me?" Cithara spoke, "She already died..."

"What? Did she die? When? How?" Alastair asked in surprise.

"It happened last year. We just saw her lying on the ground with no life," Cithara replied sadly, "Until now, no one in our kingdom knows what happened to her."

"My sincerest condolences," Alistair spoke sincerely.

"But, you said that she sent you," said Cithara.

"Well, your mother is a good friend of mine before she left and disappeared. All I know is that she's now living in Liberia," Alistair replied.

"And how did you know that I was attacked by that Amaergon that you are saying earlier?" asked Cithara.

Alastair remained silent with a large grin forming on his lips.

"You'll not going to answer that, are you?" Cithara spoke.

Alastair just let out a laugh. "Moving on, where's Wil anyway?"

"Wil?" Alistair asked innocently, "Was that your roommate?"

"Yes, he is. Now, where is he?" she asked. "You said that someone's coming to get me. Wil might be involved, too. He might be in trouble right now!"

"But, my lady, if I didn't evacuate you earlier tonight, you might be in grave danger. I can not risk the opportunity to get you out of there," Alastair replied.

"Oh, no! Wil's not that good when it comes to protecting himself!" Cithara gasped. "I need to go back to him."

"But it's still dangerous out there! Those creatures might still be there!" Alastair exclaimed.

"That's it!" she gasped, "They're still there! I don't want to risk the opportunity like you said!"

"But..."

"I might have left my quiver there, but I still have a gem inside of my pocket," Cithara spoke, and without any hesitation, she touched the teleportation gem, citrine.

"My lady, wait!" Alastair shouted as he helplessly watched Cithara vanish from where she was standing. "It's not... safe..." he added, but it was too late. Cithara was already gone.

"Well, I guess it's now up to me to save the day... I mean... night, again," he sighed after disappearing as well.

Little did Cithara know that the only thing that was waiting for her as she teleported herself was a place farther than her desired destination.

She ended up at a place different from what she expected. Instead of a place filled with cobbled and noisy streets, she went off towards a barren land – a land filled with barren hills and ground.

"Oh, no!" she gasped. "I must be on the barren lands of Mithrin!"

All that she could do was to find her way back to the inn – back to the place near the borders of Serebia and Mithrin.

However, as she was about to carry on, she was greeted by an enormous, rocky creature emerging from the ground. That was the time that she realized that she stepped right into a trap made by the nocturnal trolls of Mithrin.

In front of her stood a huge troll that was bigger than her about three times.

"Look what stepped up in front of us?" one of the trolls spoke to his companions.

Soon afterward, two other trolls who were hiding on the ground as a big rock emerged as well.

"I smell a young creature, but..." one of them said in his low pitched voice as he walked around Cithara, "but I don't know what creature that is."

"Oh! Maybe that's an Aragona!" the third one shouted.

"You always say that someone is an Aragona even though they were just animagaes!" The first one groaned.

"Shut up, Lout!" roared the third troll, "Don't be a fool!"

"Me, a fool? You are the one that embarrasses us in front of our meal!" shouted the first one.

With their attentions focused on their arguing, Cithara fled into the land as silently as she could.

"Speaking of meal, what do you want to do with that little creature?" the second one asked.

"Nice suggestion, Val!" Lout beamed as he took a pick on his rocky nose and removed the mosses inside of it. After that, the soggy mosses went straight to his bad-smelling mouth.

"Look at that. You are so disgusting!" the first one exclaimed, bumping Lout's shoulder.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Mon. I just felt so hungry that I could eat anything," Lout replied, wiping his 'booger' on Val's chest.

"Hey! Stop that!" Val groaned as he tried to keep some distance away from Lout.

"Have you seen our dinner?" Mon asked as his gaze dropped unto where Cithara used to stand.

"Lout, you're supposed to be watching her!" Val exclaimed.

"What?! Me?" Lout replied. "You are the one who is supposed to be watching that creature!"

"Well, we lost another one for dinner again," Mon sighed. They may be huge, but they surely have a small intellect. "I guess we have to eat muttons again, boys."

•○GLOSSARY○•

⚔️ Animagaes
- Enchantrian word: Animals

⚔️ Deia
- Elven word: Mother