Guardians of the Prophecy

Chapter Four: Discovering

She stared at him, clearly not impressed, before sighing and nodding.  “Good idea.  I’ll bring the map.”

  

“So, this is where we are,” Rima said, pointing to a small dot on the map labeled ‘Hewa.’  “And this is where we need to get to,” she pointed to another dot some space away from it labeled ‘Talaya."

“Len told you this?” Alistair asked, turning to look at her.  The sight of her staring at the map with such concentration seemed to make admiration flutter in his belly.  He grit his teeth and quashed his thoughts on it, not liking where his mind was going.

“Yes.”  She looked up and smiled.  “He said that Talaya is closest to the Cistern Temple.  So we should stop there and train up a bit, if we can.”

She rolled up the map and put it back in her bag as soon as a server came by with a tray piled with food, some of which he had never seen before: a bowl piled with slimy mauve-colored balls of chewy fruit, a plate of hairy segmented worm-looking things, soft spongy pieces of beige bread, steamed green-and-red colored vegetables, and slabs of meat that smelled positively wonderful.

“What’s that?”  He pointed at the hairy worms, noting how Rima brightened at the sight of all the dishes, and began piling a little bit of everything on her plate.

“Those are roots from the Talura tree.  Very good for your digestion and blood circulation.  Try it.”

Alistair cut off a piece of meat from a slab and popped it in his mouth.  It was very crunchy, almost like eating a mouthful of nuts.  Juice seeped onto his tongue as he bit down, and the salty-sweet flavor was unlike anything he had tasted before.   

It didn’t take long for the pair to finish eating.  Rima had a healthy appetite for someone her size, but she insisted he finish the rest since she was too full (even though he felt she hadn’t eaten a lot to begin with).  Whatever restaurant they had gone to, it was some of the best food he had ever had in his life.

“As thanks for taking me here, I’ll pay.  It was delicious.”  Alistair pulled out his moneybag. 

“No, I’ll pay.  Good thing you liked the food, though.  I wasn’t sure what kind of cuisine you liked.  This place is well-known in Almas.”

So that’s why the food is so good.  If it’s famous in the capital, then it has to be high quality.  “Let me pay.”

“Too late,” she said, placing a couple gold lira into the server’s outstretched palms.  The server bowed deeply, and left without another word.

He glowered at her.  Was she purposely trying to knock down any sense of his masculine pride?  First her independence, and now paying for the food.  He sighed and shoved the bag back into his pocket.  And this was just the first day with her. 

~*~

The two of them were almost at the outskirts of Hewa when a man stumbled out of a tavern and onto the nearly empty street.  Rima instinctively slowed her pace, watching him warily.

The man lifted his head, and she saw him grin in the dim light of the torches outside of the buildings.

“Hey, you.  Your bird,” the man slurred, his inebriety becoming more and more obvious by the second.  “Your bird would make a good meal!”  He snickered to himself, and swayed steadily on the spot.

Shaheen screeched.

It was as if something within her had snapped.  Within seconds, the Guardian had stepped forward and pulled him towards her, her other hand slowly pulling out her scimitar.