Not a cloud in sight, the dots of the sun’s permanence set harshly on the grain-less lands. An elder sat with his hoe, wrought with aching joints, suckling the teat of his water sack. The taste of dirt wrinkled his nose. One could smell the clamor of men when the sky turned brown. Hooves shook the earth through the long blur of road. Head of it all was the helmed knight, shrouded in white and red. Their stop into the next town was longer than most visitations. The helmed rider stripped his cloak, handing it off to his subordinate.

  “The six finger tyrant of the north, if it isn’t the most rumored King Schizo?” A young man with burly arms and a chiseled jaw who sat upon a stool cracking under his own weight said.

  “Are you one of the Barri brothers?” King Schizo asked.

  “One of them,” the man said with a cheeky grin.

  “Five hundred million, alive. If she ends up dead, or severely injured, it will be cut in half,” King Schizo said as his subordinate opened a scroll with Princess Haza-Ra Schizo’s entire identity and photo inscribed. “A down payment.” King Schizo threw four sachets filled with gold.

  “My brother will be pleased… We take on the request. The next time you hear of us will be when we have the girl, or when you find our corpses.”

  “Not very confident are we?”

  “King, you should be most aware of the dangers in this world.”

  “Indeed,” King Schizo looked down at his hands. The right hand missing the pinky and ring finger, the left hand missing the index and middle. “This world is indeed dangerous.” King Schizo and his men left as swiftly as they had arrived, a storm of dust that rumored throughout the countryside.

  “Yo Bo, we got ourselves a job of fancy,” Ba Barri said.

  “Ooh, what fool overpaid this time?” Bo, an overly feminine looking man with streaks of makeup dancing across his face.

  “Nah, this time I feel we were underpaid.”

  “Hooh, how so?”

  “Just a hunch,” Ba said, feeling his muscles tense. No one gives this much gold for something easy, even if they own all the gold to ever exist. “This is gonna be fun.”

  “Hire me?” A lone man asked, his suit tattered and his brows unkempt. “I would love to leave the mines, but how can I trust you? Shaking gold in my face as though it was dirt to be eaten.” His shaggy blonde hair covered his dim eyes dyed in coal and oil.

  “Bushcamp French, no?” The simple soldier asked. “I’m a basic retainer, I know no more than you would. I am not allowed to read what’s in this scroll, but once you accept, I am to leave you this satchel and to report that it is in your possession.”

  “This all sounds ridiculous, but oh well. Hand me the scroll.” With the scroll in his hands, unfurling it killed his suspicions. “Aah, I see. I’ll take it. Tell your King this, Bushcamp French is back.”

  “Perfect! Here, this was to be gifted as well,” the soldier took out a large box from the back of his horse trunk. The box was stapled with jade velvet and silver sprigs coiling the locket. “It was told to me that you would know what this is.”

  “Yes…I do indeed know what this is,” Bushcamp grimaced with a perplexed expression. How did they obtain it? This fellow, King Schizo, is far more frightening than I had initially presumed. How troublesome.

  Horo chewed on a pierogi with much dismay for the chaos around. To his surroundings was the commonplace arguing of Valory and Akli, to his left was a small girl that unnerved him. Across the table was Dushyanta sipping a warm glass of tea.

  “Can you two sit for a moment? Let’s properly talk about this,” Dushyanta said.

  “This is ridiculous, no other way you slice it,” Horo said. “We can’t travel across half the country, through sea and desert just because some random kid asks us to.”

  “Um, I just need Akli Graham, the rest of you—”

  “No, I think leaving Akli with a twelve year old girl alone would be far too dangerous,” Dushyanta interrupted.

  “Hey, who do you think I am?!” Akli kicked Dushyanta’s shoulder as he sat back down.

  “I’m actually turning thirteen in a month,” Haza added.

  “I already promised to go with you. So Graham and I are assured as is,” Valory said, returning to her seat.

  “Well I can’t possibly go, the trek is far too long. Crossing the border is one thing, but Ontiganel. You know what they say about Ontiganel?” Dushyanta leaned in.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “‘If you look from Avigne to Omore, you can clearly see that Ontiganel is a valley’. That’s just a cool quote people say, it doesn’t mean anything!” Akli shouted back.

  “From sea to sand, land to water, a valley of vastness… That’s what it means you uneducated buffoon,” Dushyanta snapped back.

  “Whatever…”

  “So the trek is too long. How about this then, we take the train?” Horo asked.

  “Won’t work, it stops in the middle of Omore, we would have to walk the rest of the way,” Haza said.

  “Horo, why are you even humoring them? You just said…ugh, this is seriously so not good,” Dushyanta said with his head down.

  “I just don’t want to go, I also don’t think Val should either. However Akli is crazy enough where I think he could survive. And let’s be real, do any of us know where Nomkyak is? It’s not on any international maps I can find.”

  “That’s because my father, King Schizo recently conquered all the lands from here to here,” Haza pointed at the map Horo held up.

  “That’s…” They all stood up, baffled by what they were looking at. “The entire continent…”

  “Everything besides Ontiganel. I assume because of the landscape, it’s exceptionally difficult to conquer such land,” Dushyanta leaned back into the straw chair.

  “If he’s conquered so much, then why have none of us heard of it?” Akli asked.

  “See this canal, it breaks into the mountains right past the Jungwoon straight. Unless there is some great resource, there is essentially nothing to gain from conquering these lands, in turn your country is safe,” Haza answered.

  “But you said they took over the entire north, that is still part of the Margo,” Horo said.

  “Yes, but like I pointed out, your land is so feeble, and difficult to navigate, that my father and his generals thought it better to avoid the wetlands and traverse around through the more deserted parts. That’s how I was able to get here, by hitching rides through both the desert and wetlands.”

  “I see…” Horo stood stunned. Dry lips were the least of his worries. “I take back what I said then…I’ll send a letter to my father to confirm, but the way she’s—”

  “I know Horo…it’s all too real. Nothing she has said makes sense, or at least what I want to accept as sense; however if it were true…we’re…” Dushyanta cupped his eyes.

  “It’s war, is it not?” Valory asked.

  “More like an invasion. My father wishes to use me as a tool to unite this world under one banner, his.” To wage a war against the gods. The possibility is dim…but not impossible.

  “I…I understand some of what you're all talking about, no never-mind. Haza, you’re like me, right? You can see things,” Akli said.

  “The future, I can glimpse into the future, briefly.”

  “That’s impossible,” Horo said.

  “It’s not,” Valory and Akli said simultaneously.

  “That was creepy, both of you, never do that again,” Dushyanta said. “Alright, I trust Akli, and what you say makes sense. I suppose I can’t completely ignore it. To see the future…how does that work?”

  “I can’t really tell you, if I do, it messes it up…and I guess to put it simply, it weakens it, as my father puts it.”

  “Haza, yes?” Dushyanta asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Does your father, King Schizo, have powers as well?” Dushyanta.

  “Yes. He is what they like to call, a Lord.”

  “A Lord, is he not more than that?” Valory asked.

  “It’s different when they use the word. I don’t fully understand it myself. All I can say about him is that, and perhaps the fact that he came from the sky could be a clue to it, but I’m unsure.”

  Lighting his cigarette, Akli stood back against a concrete wall. The smoke didn’t ease his stressing heart. Beside him stood Dushyanta, waving the line of smoke tickling his face. The green was dimming with yellowed browning, the horizon stilted by a drooping loaf that took over all that could be seen. Akli’s deep breaths swiftly ended what he had shortly started.

  “You really need to quit,” Dushyanta said.

  “Just did…that was my last one. Dushyanta, that talk was more than I think I can handle…”

  “Hah! And you were so gung-ho when you strolled on in. So, what scares ya the most?”

  “I can see it on all of you, this river of red. It pools around me, I can almost smell it, that’s how foul and dense it all is. Y’know, at first it was just a ribbon or two, a lotto ticket, a free meal, but the more I fought, the thicker they got. I knew where to hit, so I began to fight with my eyes closed, I knew the right words to say, or the right place to be. When we broke it all off, I felt relieved, no more. I miss it, but at the same time I no longer want it. A doctor helps heal people, but a guy who knows something bad is approaching, is just a guy waiting for the inevitable.”

  “Didn’t Val say you saved our lives once, especially Horo’s?”

  “That was because his line was thin, real thin. He was in danger, but danger is different then irreversible damage. He was always going to be in danger…I can’t change someone’s fate, not even my own. If only I could be more comfortable with that.”

  “…”

  “Fate’s a nice word though. Princess says it like it's no different than seeing the future. The way she talks about it though, I’m starting to think it is. She may be able to change what she sees…”

  “That’s good then, means we got an easy journey ahead of us. Like you said, danger was always gonna be there, but how we tackle that danger can be as different as the amount of stars in the sky. So don’t stress, after all you are the Demon, Akli Graham,” Dushyanta couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You knew it was corny, and yet you still said it,” Akli tried to slap the smile off his face, but even in the swamp of danger, his joy couldn’t stop swimming.

  “Baddest bastard in the land, took out a bear with just his toe! Demon of Goche middle, the scariest delinquent in town!”

  “Ah, shut up!”

  “That’s your narration. I'm just hyping you up!” Dushyanta said whilst running from Akli’s agitation.

  “Ain’t hyping nobody but yourself moon-head!”

  Indeed, if you look from Avigne to Omore, you can clearly see that Ontiganel is a valley.