AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it took so long! Since summer is nearing my teachers are really loading us with homework to practice for end of the year finals. So I'll be updating every Saturday.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
~Ashlee💕
〰〰〰
The next morning without another word about the strange boy the pair set off to find new adventures and dangers. Dangers that are easy to find in the roughness and violence of the world.
The travelers descend down the mountain in silence and even when their feet hit the soil they are quiet.
Kagon is the first to speak. "Why do you pout girl? You are no babe or young child. It is for the best that the boy left."
Delia's even strides become sloppy, she nearly trips on the root of a tree but Kagon stops her tumble.
She pushes away from him and dusts herself off. "It's not that I pout hero. I have anger for a man with no compassion for those in need."
Kagon snorts. "No compassion?! I've spent my life defending the people of this world from the monsters and villains that lurk."
"For the glory." Delia says. "Not for the right reasons." Her stride lengthens as she stomps a foot ahead of him.
"What other reason is there but glory?" He laughs.
"Exactly."
Kagon looks at her strangely, fuddled by why she's upset with him and angry from it also.
"You're nothing but a small girl looking at the world with wide eyes. It seems that your moral compass points to only right and wrong, there is no center. You say I have hubris but if so you have naivety running thick through your blood. The middle area of the compass is the best, it's where the glory lies. it's where there are no rules between good and bad and there is only right. You've been living a lie to think otherwise."
Delia snorts. "You may think I don't know much about this world but I tell you this, I know more than you'll ever realize. I'm sixteen," Delia says suddenly somber, "but I've seen my fair share of hardship."
"Hm." Kagon grunts, amused. "Writer Delia you surround yourself with the daydream worlds of your books. You write and read about adventure, tragedy, and romance but it's different from experiencing it. I allow you to write of my exploits so my tales can go down in history and inspire boys to seek for adventure. What good is the knowledge you learn from a book if you don't practice it yourself?"
Delia's fists clench and her shoulders become tense but she doesn't speak, and so they walk on.
Kagon sighs, looking ahead of him as his long strides carry him forward.
The girl has much to learn, Kagon thinks, but being by my side will show her the truth in my words. Soon she will know.
The quarreling pair trek onward both thinking they are right in their opinions.
After an hour of traveling Delia finally speaks. "What land are we in? Are we near my old home"
"We haven't left Pikk of yet, we'll be nearing the Ta'ce river that separates Pikk and Lithko soon. It's a couple hours walk from the village you're from." Kagon explains.
Delia doesn't say anything back from walking behind her Kagon notices her back tense.
The hero's eyebrows furrow. Why should their location matter in proximity to her birthplace?
Kagon's eyes narrow as he watches the girl pick up her pace. Suspicion takes place of confusion. Now that he thinks about it she'd been anxious leaving her village as well. What is she running from?
"Cordelia." Kagon's voice lacks its usual light tone.
"Yes?" Her voice is high pitched, squeaky even.
"Why did you wish to journey with me in the first place?"
"I-I told you, it's because I wanted to write record your adventures."
Kagon glares at the girls back from where he walks behind her. "Is there any other reason? You're acting strange writer." He accuses. "Are you sure there are no other reasons?"
Delia scoffs. "Of course not! I have no hidden agenda." She snaps.
Her voice is hard and defensive.
She's lying, she has to be.
However, Kagon allows the topic to drop. How strong Delia's alliance to him and her true nature will be revealed in time. When traveling, secrets always dig themselves up.
The pair continue on both of their spirits stifled by suspicions and anxiety.
〰〰〰
Clop, clop, clop.
Delia's head snaps toward the sound while Kagon takes out his knife and gets into a fighting position.
Two brown moving dots appear down the path in the woods.
"We should go." Delia says. "We need to go now."
Kagon looks towards the lass. Her face is hard but her eyes flash with fear. He can see the tenseness in her long limbs, the way her feet shift like she's about to take flight instead of fight. Her fingers clench and unclench and she leans forward about to run for it.
Kagon grabs her wrist. "Don't leave. I won't allow a coward to travel with me. Now what have you been keeping from me?"
Delia opens her mouth to speak but the two dots become a pair of fine brown horses carrying men on their backs. Not soldiers but familiar faces.
Where have I seen them? The hero wonders.
From the way Delia looks he can tell she recognizes the duo as well.
The horses reach the writer and hero. Kagon can feel Delia struggle against his grip on her wrist but he refuses to let her go. If Delia runs he'll never allow her to travel with him. If she can't stay brave in the face of fear how can he know she won't scamper away like a wee mouse when he needs her?
The horses halt and this is when Delia stops struggling. She glares up at the men in defiance. Kagon inwardly nods, approving her defiance over the running away.
"Who are you and why do you approach us with meaning?" Kagon inquires.
The two men ignore Kagon and stare down at Delia. They both have copper hair, one greying the other not. The one with greying hair has a curly beard and angry piercing blue eyes. He has a potbelly and a red face. The one without greying hair looks to be only a few years younger than Kagon with dark brown eyes and the starting of a beard. Unlike the man with greying hair he does not have a potbelly but is not muscular either.
"I am Davel of Pikk." The older man speaks. "And this is my son Lis of Pikk."
"We both have been scouring the land for my sister, Cordelia. The brat you hold by the wrist."
Delia's eyes narrow but she doesn't speak.
"I doubt you realized she tricked you so we won't make any trouble with you as long as you hand her over." Davel says, holding out his hand.
"When she asked to come along with me she didn't speak of the reasons why she wanted to leave, only that she wanted to record my ventures. I didn't care about her past and I still don't because you see it's the past and this men is the present."
Davel and Lis look at Kagon uncomprehendingly. "Aye present it is. A present where you'll be handing over my daughter and we'll leave you to your way."
"I believe you're wrong about that father. You speak of the future, an unlikely one at that for I refuse to journey back to the village with you." Her tongue is quick, her voice calm, jeering even.
Delia's father's face flames a brighter crimson. "I won't be disrespected by you little girl."
"That's amusing father, you're quite a hypocrite considering what you did to grandfather, same as you brother."
Davel scoffs while Lis looks down guiltily at the sticks on the forest floor.
"Man, ignore her behavior her mother was the same way. She was a shrew until death took her."
Delia's nostrils flare and had knuckles turn white from how hard she clenches them.
"Let's be civilized here." Lis says, looking up from the ground. "My father owns my sister, it's only right for you to just hand her over."
Kagon's eyes glimmer with humor. "I once told your daughter that I disregard the stereotypes of right and wrong and instead go for the glory and benefit. Whether it's right or wrong to give her up to you doesn't matter to me so you'll have to convince me some other way."
"You fool! What other way is there to convince you besides that she is a girl and our property!" Lis yells.
Davel places a hand on his son's shoulder to calm him. "I don't care whether you saved our village or not you've stolen my property, therefore you are a thief. So, the hard way it is then."
Davel takes his fingers to his mouth and blows a loud, shrill whistle.
In seconds the men of the village filter out of the trees and on to the dirt path.
"Now," Davil smiles unpleasantly, "Give me back Cordelia. Oh, and don't make me ask again."
Delia looks at Kagon nervously.
The hero laughs so hard the forest seems to shake from the humor and heart in it.
The horses stomp their feet skittishly and the men look confused if not afraid.
"Take her if you want." He thrusts Delia to her father and she nearly tumbles to her knees.
Before she can get to her feet two other men dismount there horses and grab the writer from under her arms.
Delia's stormy eyes flash as if they truly held captured lightning in within them that wanted to be let loose on the men and Kagon.
The two men force Delia to her feet. She fights back, kicking and squirming violently in there vise-like hold, but it's fruitless. She can't and won't win two against one.
"How could you!" She shouts, eyes burning into the hero.
"Thank you for your cooperation." Thanks Davel. "Now arrest this man as well for thievery."
Kagon smiles and holds up his hands in surrender. Four men swarm him and grab on to the strong man.
However, Kagon keeps smiling and doesn't even resist the arrest.