"The North won the imperial family to their side, the first prince is rumored to be betrothed soon"
"Only one more step, then he will be chosen as an heir to the throne"
Emuela quickly sits up and covers her mouth with her hand, she shrieks, "Then what does it mean? What will happen to the South? What will happen to us?"
Nova picks up her book from where she hid and sits down next to her sister.
"I am not smart enough to identify the decision of the Emperor", Nova, "But I can tell something is going on, not to jinx, but even the toughest stone can be broken into two, especially if it was rotten from the inside."
"Do you remember the duke's message?" Nova, "It just said, 'Brace for the upcoming storm, while plans for the ongoing hurricane', could you figure that out? Isn't it obvious, they told us to be prepared!''
Emuela slowly gets up, a sad expression clearly surfaces, and emotion is deeply shown within a pair of clear brownish orbs, it looks like she wanted to cry.
"Come on, Ella, let's get back and find out", seeing so, Nova pulls up to her feet, holding a broom in her left hand, clutches a book to her chest, and with her right hand free she gently grabs Emuela's hand in hers.
Hand in hand, both little girls step out of the blossoming tree with uncountable fallen leaves, the autumn scenery paints the sky orange in the middle of the day.
Strange, the sun seems to be hiding in the unknown space of the universe, unseen to the naked eye. Even though the ray of our solar which is known to be the brightest amongst other stars in the galaxy, seems to disappear out of sight, even so, the sun's ray still makes every single soul feel it present, an empty unknown meaningful present. It seems like the firmament is aware of the motions of both little girls and decides to accompany them on their journey back home.
The places from where both young girls have left are pretty far from the town village, thus it makes quite a journey, because of the out-of-life scenery of the vast autumn view that is perfectly painted without flaws, only located on a small hill next to the endless cliff. The huge tree expanded at the center of the valley accompanied by thousands of greenery blossoms ascending beneath the hard-ground Earth. As the landscape turned charming orange, the circumjacent delightfully followed in the process, embellishing the whole scenery like a new painting just emerged from the former one.
It is way past noon by the time the two walk halfway back. The gushed wind blows past their faces, the wind turns out to be quite strong like a northern gate unlatches, sending one big wave of cold wind relinquishing every warmth within one's soul, the feeling of sending down a chill through one's bone.
Emuela hugs her arms around herself, the wind makes her skirt blow, sending her body backward as she tries to walk up against their force. Noviera helps push her behind. Suddenly, the whirling wind seems to bring something along, the muffled voices along the wave pass about our girl's ears, but only one of them seems to notice what is happening. Noviera swirls around to face the direction she came from.
"What's wrong?", Emuela stopped walking and started questioning, "You forgot something?"
"...", After a moment of contemplating, Noviera asserts, "I think I forgot something. You go back first, I'll catch up soon!", she left immediately after saying the last word, running backward from where they both came from.
"Nova!!!"
"Gosh, this girl!", Emuela
Noviera runs back to the place they just left, as she is gasping with her hands on her knees, and looks up in the direction of the huge tree, the wind plummets their forces then suddenly dies down as it has always been this quiet, like the slight windstorm a moment ago never happens, even the autumn leaves remain still, just like the world is suddenly disconnected for a second there, everything is quiet like a music that suddenly stops in its tracks.
[...Run...]
The muffled voice bellows out of nowhere, it feels like there is a sound inside her head but she suspects the wind carries it.
[..Run, my girl, save yourself..]
At once, the voice grows louder and louder, more strange, more bizarre than ever, to the point that Noviera tries to cover her ears as she tries to gasp for air.
She feels like she can't breathe, she wants to fall on her knees and scream the air out of her lungs, scream till she drives the strangeness away.
"STOPPP!!!", Noviera yells through her lungs.
As if understand what she means, the voice dies down, bringing back the former breeze of windy autumn, for the bizarreness a moment ago appears to never take place. She refuses to believe what she has just witnessed was a dream, a creation of her imagination. She quickly snaps her head back, surveys her surroundings, and decides to get back to the village.
Then suddenly,...WHOOSHH!!!!
A slight high-pitched whoosh sounds clear from above her head, while Noviera is racing quickly on her foot, she glances skyward, then...
BOOM!!!!!!
BOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...[THUMP-THUMP-THUMP]...
The thumping sound deafens one's ears, blinds one's eyes, and confuses one's mind. It was the thumping sound of Noviera own's heartbeat after the force of the dropping missile knocked her back, she rolled a few distance from where she was at.
Her whole muscle ached, her head bruised, her ankle got twisted, both her arms got cut by the surrounding rocks and the scrapping of the hard ground, blood trickled from the right side of her forehead, where she fell face first to the ground. But it doesn't matter, all the pain doesn't matter, that pain cannot be compared to her complicated feelings right now, her emotions rush together, mix and combine into something she can't just describe in simple sentences.
Noviera, a delicate girl with a skin color of tremolite jade is now bruised and tainted from the knockback she just had, her smooth and soft wavy brownish hair is now a mess, entangled by the dirt and the polluted air. Her eyes, which shine so bright as she wholeheartedly intakes all the knowledge she peacefully read from the stolen book before are now flooding with tears, that can't seem to find their way out of those glittering orbs, those tears remain by the rims of her eyes, refuse to break their boundaries, refuse to be overflow.
Despite her broken heart, her physical pain, and her wounds, she courageously got up from where she fell, using her wounded hand to push herself up, allowing herself to continue her journey back from where she came from, to continue her journey back home...
.
.
.
[An Hour Ago]
SOUTHERN NAVY BASE- THE ALPHA BATTALION
SOUTHERN EMOSA COAST [Territory of the South]
"Hey! Captain", a young-looking guy in blond furiously bellowed, "Give them an order to take off, this is delaying, they try to delay us!!"
In the uniform of blue and gold lining, marking this person as a highborn with acknowledgment upon acknowledgment of honor in whatever job he had given. A foxy-like pair of beautiful ocean blue eyes glance dagger upward like expecting something bad is about to happen, a high nose and flawless pair of lips match perfectly to his composure and gesture, contemplating with a slender pairs of brows and his slim figure, making everyone's eyes curious and mesmerized by his unearthly handsomeness.
Each step of this blond-head gave off the impression of a high-class nobleman, with a posture so straight, and spine unbending no matter what obstacles this guy was going to face. An impression of someone who never bows their head and bends their dignity to anyone ever in this life of his.
He walks out from the basement to the ready-to-take-off aircraft that his team needs to get on, with each step forward unbothered by the strong sea breeze blowing past his face and the noise of the roaring machine of hundreds of aircraft boarding the battleship, ready to set off.
The so-called captain side-eyes the person who just addresses him by his title from his pilot seat inside the roaring aircraft. The captain was in the same uniform, just a slightly different design on the shoulders, with the presence of purple and gold lining representing him as the descendant of his noble house.
The captain's figure cut out quite sharper and more elegantly handsome, his beauty can be described as a man that was perfectly created by god. An uncomparable high nose that gave off different types of unique handsomeness, and a pair of light-hazel almond kind of eyes, with a slight upturn in harmonize with those perfect lining brows and those kissable pair of lips.
"What are you doing here, Kyro?", asked the Captain annoyingly.
"Jeez! I'm here right now, what are you going to do about it?", Kyro, the blond guy furiously snapped back.
"Just let me board captain, you know I can be of help", Kyro said with a strong kind of determination in his voice.
"..." Captain
"It's not like I can stop you anyway", sighed the Captain, "Any codes?"
Kyro slightly shook his head, then he asked, "Do we get the right message? Are you sure there isn't any misconception in your network?"
"Are you doubting my spy's network right now?"
"Wha-"
"We are waiting for code red and commence, so shut up about my job if you want to tag along", Captain
"Hey, Hey!!!", Kyro defended back, "Why are you being offended? I'm just making sure!"
"So what? If I can't get on board I'll just board another craft!", Kyro
"Go on! If you are forgetting who owns this fleet", the Captain calmly responded.
"Tsk-", Kyro wanted to point a finger at the person in the aircraft in front of him but wouldn't dare to do so, as doing so might lead to the cancellation of his plan to get on board since the one in authority here is the so-called stone-faced captain sitting on the aircraft before him.
Suddenly a luxurious private jet land on the deck, and then a nobleman rush out from the plane just as soon as it safely lands. This nobleman sprinted to the craft where the Captain and Kyro were.
"Duke!!", the servants running after the nobleman bellowed nervously as if first-time witness the Duke running.
The captain saw the running person come closer and closer, he realized who that person was, so he quickly took off the headphones around his neck, and the safety belt cris-cross around his torso, then elegantly hopped down from the pilot seat.
The Duke that came running called out, "Son! Not good, commence our force now!"
"Father!" The captain was surprised, but he took back his expression and got back on the aircraft.
Kyro jumped to the back seat and quickly fastened his seatbelt. They smoothly cooperated as they knew what was the plan and what action they going to take.
"They change their tactic, they will attack TOR instead!! They moved by air, not by the sea!!!", the Duke of the South exclaimed nervously, "TOR is vulnerable, most of the children and women remained there!!"
"Got it", Captain, his action was swift as he grabbed the microphone connected to the other aircraft as well as the whole battalion.
"CODE RED!! I REPEAT! CODE RED!!"
"ALPHA OF THE SKY!!! GET READY! DEFEND OUR TERRITORY, THE LAND BY THE CLIFF, TOR!!!"
To be continued...
Key Identification:
-Emuela, nickname Ella
-Noviera, nickname Nova
-[...]: Unknown Ancient language
-Alpha Battalion: Main troops of the South