Okay, I need to catch up on posting these chapters, since a few people have shown interest. (Yay!) Here's a chapter that introduces the rest of the Guardian set, and almost all the principal characters. Nakama indeed. :D So here's the next chapter of The Imperial Guard.
Chapter Three
The blinds were pitifully thin. Even worse, the windows seemed to be facing east, so every last ray of sun was blasting through into the room. Catalin rolled over with a groan, trying to block it out, but the room was already completely bright.
… wait. Sun?
Catalin was on his feet within seconds, looking around wildly. Rakan was supposed to wake him up before sunrise, like he always did. Why did no one come to get him when he didn’t show up for morning chores? Anwar was going to have him whipped for this one-
… oh, right. As his head slowly cleared, the events of the previous day came back to him. He wasn’t late for morning chores. He’d been kidnapped by Myrrh insurgents.
At least the whipping would have been over quickly.
Speaking of the lunatics, they didn’t appear to be in the room. While the plan to sneak off while the others slept didn’t seem to have worked out, they were giving him a plum opportunity right there. But as soon as he took a step towards the door, it flew open, hitting the opposite wall.
“Riiiiiise and shiiiiiii-” Damian sang, stopping when he caught sight of Catalin. “Ah, you’re up, finally! Has anyone ever told you that you sleep like a dead person? Anyways, Victor and Saphie already went ahead, so we can take our time and eat breakfast. They’ve got waffles in the lobby and everything! Victor left us some money, said to let you eat as much as you wanted because he said he could probably break you in half. Not that he would, of course!”
Catalin tried to process this torrent of words without making his head hurt further. “Went ahead where?”
“Into the mountains, obviously!” Damian turned to leave the room, and when Catalin didn’t follow, he called, “Come on! We’re going to get left behind!”
After a quick breakfast (or, rather, after watching Damian shove entire waffles into his mouth and trying to retain his own appetite), Damian grabbed Catalin by the sleeve and pulled him out the door, directing a quick but chirpy goodbye to the girl in front. Catalin shrugged Damian off roughly, stepping outside ahead of the younger boy.
It took him a moment to remember that this was his first look at the outside world in daylight, and he looked all around himself, trying to get his bearings. It was obvious now that they were far outside of civilization; they were at a high enough altitude that Catalin could see the ocean, glittering in the distance.
We came all this way last night? he thought, taking it in. And uphill at that.
As he began to follow the now-skipping Damian, his eyes traveled up and down, trying to take in every inch of the mountains ahead of them. He’d seen pictures of the West Heideland mountain range in encyclopedias before, but there, they seemed to shoot straight out of the ground and up into the sky. His mental images didn’t gradually rise upwards like the real thing, and they had none of the crags and plateaus.
So this is a mountain, huh…
“Cat! Hurry up!” Damian whined. “The entrance to the pass is right over there.”
As Catalin eyed the uneven, rocky ground ahead of them, he sighed. “We have to walk on that?”
“Not very far!” Damian assured him. “The station isn’t too far in.”
“… there’s a train station in the middle of the mountains?” Catalin asked incredulously.
“Yup!” Damian nodded. “It goes right through the mountains, actually! There’s a system of caves around here from when this place was being mined for ore, and they’ve maintained the tunnels for transportation… only taking this train is pretty dangerous, since a lot of bandits live in the caves now.”
“Then why are we taking it?” Catalin grumbled. “If a bandit were to recognize me, they wouldn’t exactly send me on my way. There’s probably a reward posted by now.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that!” Damian said. “We’re going straight to the bandits, anyway.”
“… and why would we want to do something like that?”
“Picking up some friends of mine, actually!” Damian explained, and left it at that. Knowing he probably wasn’t going to get much more, Catalin didn’t press the issue. He’d find out soon enough anyway.
As they made their way along the rocky ground, Damian suddenly said, “Ever heard of the King of the Mountain, Cat?”
Catalin raised an eyebrow, wondering what this was about. “Can’t say I have.”
“It’s something of a legend around these parts.” Damian lowered his voice a bit, as if he was telling a ghost story. “Rumor has it that one of the bandit leaders kidnaps passing travelers to satisfy his voracious sexual appetite.”
“… wait, that’s not a legend,” Catalin said. “That’s a series of romance novels. The maids at the palace read them.” He rolled his eyes, picturing the ridiculous-looking bodybuilder on the books’ covers as he added, “Things like that don’t happen in real life.”
