When Yunara’s consciousness slipped and came back, she felt like he was dreaming. They weren’t standing in the alleyway anymore. Round about them were buildings of a completely different design than the way buildings were in Spain, and walking all about them were fairies,. their wings like robes folded on top of their clothes, roaming the streets and the air above. Manuel looked around in amazement. So did Yunara, but for a completely different reason.
All about them, on the buildings, red flags were hanging with silver symbols of spiders on them. Men with the symbol etched on their chests walked around in hoods sided by knights, patrolling the streets.
While Manuel was still disoriented from the journey, Yunara grabbed his arm and pulled him aside, hiding behind a building as more of these men in these hoods walked by.
“What are you doing?” Manuel demanded.
“Shhhhh...” Yunara hissed, watching as the men passed by. She spoke in a low voice. “They’re Aracs. Damn that man, Lord Stretton has changed everything in so little time.” She said it angrily, but in her heart, she wanted to cry. It was like this wasn’t even Ecencia anymore. Seeing these men marching about, that horrible symbol. A cold hand started taking hold of her heart, sending her heart rate up quickly. The King and Queen. Nexa and Pitrious. It was all coming back to her again, as if she were experiencing it all over again.
“Do you think Lord Stretton has gotten to the person we’re looking for before us?” Manuel said, a welcome interruption from her thoughts.
“No,” she said, trying to focus. “I think Cadria would have told us if they had. She’d definitely know.”
“Then what do we do now? Where do we find whoever it is we’re looking for?”
Yunara paused. “We’re looking for Kailu. I remember Lorenn said she was the daughter of a blacksmith. There can’t be that many blacksmiths here. It’s a small village. Let’s ask around.”
“To who? Them?” Manuel asked dryly, pointing at the hooded men in the streets.
Yunara ignored the comment. She stopped and thought for a moment. “Let’s find a bar. Everyone knows each other at the bars.”
Manuel shrugged. “Lead the way.”
She didn’t respond. She led Manuel away from the building where they hid and carefully started down the streets of Revett.
They walked through the town avoiding the men in hoods. They made rounds about the town everywhere. “I can’t believe so much has changed,” she mumbled under her breath, still staggering over it. She wondered what would happen to Ecencia from here on. When Cadri returned, would she be queen? After all of this chaos, would Ecencia even accept her as their leader? A girl at the age of 16! But Yunara knew that the main family had to come back to set things in order. Lord Stretton had no right to the throne, and Renen was a traitor. Despite her age, Cadri needed to be Ecencia’s queen. She was the only one that might be able to bring this chaos back to order.
Finally, they found a bar, and as soon as a man of the Aracs and a soldier passed by, they darted for the entrance.
They entered a seedy bar like any other. A grisly bartender barked orders to the kitchen behind him as women served at waitresses serving rounds and rounds of beer to drunkards playing cards. Yunara walked up to the owner of the establishment as Manuel looked about with a tinge of disgust on his face. She figured this kind of bar wasn’t the type he would frequent. It definitely looked like a drinking place for the poor. “Sir, can you help me?” she asked the owner.
“Only if the help you need is paying for a drink,” he said, cleaning out a glass.
Yunara looked to Manuel. “You must be joking,” he objected. “Does my money even work here?”
“Of course it does. Now, pay him, it’s important.”
She pointed to the prices on the menu accommodated for whatever currency existed here, but also a few european ones. The price for the beer was right up there. Because of the fact that people often paralleled to Earth and sometimes passed amongst humans to sell things for money, most stores accepted Earth currencies as well.
Sighing, Manuel put the money on the table as the bartender gave a grin full of twisted teeth and offered a glass of beer. “How can I help you?”
“We’re looking for a blacksmith,” Yunara asked. “Do you know one that lives here?”
“Of course. You’re looking for Marus. He lives up the hill to the east. You can’t miss it. It’s the house at the end of a long windy path.”
Yunara went over the directions in her head and recited it to memory. “Alright, thank you.”
Then they left the bar, Manuel just following along silently. The two of them followed the bartender’s directions and found the house he described. At the end of the path they followed was a small home, and the sound of metal ringing was heard even from afar. A fire seemed to burn from a small building beside the home. It was definitely the home of a blacksmith.
They walked up to the little hut, the source of the ringing. They entered and found someone garbed in all of the typical blacksmithery wear, covered in protective covering and a mask. They were working with something in the oven. Heat pulsed through the air as they opened it.
They hadn’t noticed Manuel and Yunara enter. Manuel called, “Sir! We want to speak with you!”
The person looked at them, put up what they were placing in the oven, and came towards them. She pulled off her mask. “My father not in. I’m his daughter, Kailu. How can I help you?”
Yunara tried to imagine her age. She couldn’t have been older than herself, maybe 18 or 19 years old. Manuel looked at the girl with shock, probably disgusted. Her Naiad face was dirty with soot, her hands covered in man’s gloves and looking at them with a disgruntled look on her face. She had angled features, and was brown like Yunara. Her thick black hair was in a single braid that went down her back. She had gills along her neck like Yunara did.
Yunara came in. “We’re actually looking for you.”
Kailu’s eyes narrowed. Her hand went to her tool bag, where a mallet was waiting. “Who are you?”
“I’m Yunara, and this is Manuel. We need your help. You see--” just then Yunara stopped as Lorenn came swooping in out of nowhere, landing on Yunara’s shoulder.
“Kailu, it’s time,” she said.
Kailu’s face turned angry. “Oh, this has got to be a joke. So the Ancient Ones sent these two to try to convince me, huh? Well, I’ll tell you the same thing I told the Ancient Ones, alright? I’m not going with you.”
Now Yunara was shocked, “You can see Lorenn?”
“Yes, I can see her. I see the Unseeables all the time. Well, as of late. It happened all of a sudden one day. I saw animals coming out of nowhere, and they took me somewhere. I saw a bear, a eagle, all of these gigantic animals in the air. The horse is the one that chose me. Baio. Listen, they already explained all of this to me. About the Aracs, the Dark Ones, and the Unseeables. And I’m not getting involved in any of it. You can just go on home.”
Lorenn flew away. Manuel looked furious. “Listen, we didn’t come all this way for nothing,” he said angrily and out of character. “Why won’t you come?”
“I said no. There’s nothing else you need to know,” she said indifferently. “Now either you’re going to place an order and pay in cash or leave.”
“For heaven’s sake, is all cooperation in this country paid in cash, or what?” Without another word, he stormed away.
Leaving her alone, Manuel didn’t leave Yunara any other choice but to follow him. There would be no convincing Kailu, it seemed. Manuel and Yunara walked away from the home and began down the hill that took them there.
“Now what?” Manuel asked.
Yunara looked at Manuel and boiled. This was why she generally disliked the rich and wealthy. Here he was a prime example of someone who honestly thought that everything was always supposed to go his way. He looked at everything with a snotty attitude Yunara normally couldn’t tolerate. He probably thought very lowly of Kailu, the bar and the bartender that helped them, and most likely Yunara as well. Because he was man of status. Of course he could lose his temper because a blacksmith’s daughter told him no. He was entitled to what he wanted. Part of Yunara wanted to scream. This was the last type of person she wanted to be stuck with. It was precisely what she missed about working for Cadri; her laid-back attitude, easy to talk to, easy to get along with. A quality that emanated from the King and Queen themselves. But the Ancient Ones had put Manuel in her path, the exact opposite of the only people she could get along with and trust that her sharp tongue wouldn’t get her in trouble. Yunara had to try to keep her opinions to herself. They had more important and urgent matters at hand, and she didn’t want a stupid argument to get in their way.
“We’ll have to come back later,” she said, swallowing her anger. “I just hope she--” Just then, she stopped. A man was coming up the hill riding on a horse. In his side was a gash that was bleeding. He rode with one hand and coddled his side with the other.
Kailu came out of the hut. “What all this-- papa!” she cried.
--
So this chapter is a little on the long side, but trust me, it's because stuff is about to get serious ;)
So, any predictions? This girl doesn't want to come with them! How do you think they'll convince her? And how will they deal with whatever attacked her father?
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