Grandayria: Dawn of Heroes - Chapter 5

Princess Rucy stared out her bedroom window that night, when her sister Perl walked into her room.

“…”

“…”
Rucy glanced at her. She loved her sister, but often found herself annoyed by her brash demeanor. Not in the mood for her loud voice and demanding nature, she looked back towards the window.

“Not even going to say hi?” Perl tilted her head, feeling a sadness come over her due to her sister's cold shoulder. “Okay, then. Be that way.”

Rucy sighed, sensing the sorrow in her little sister's voice. “Butch finally told me where that Ethan boy went,” she explained. “Off on some adventure in the Anthartican mountains. Apparently he’s the newest champion of the seer or something like that. One of the heroes. Just like in the old stories Dad used to read us before he became king. Do you believe that?”

Perl scoffed. “Come on, who cares if he's a hero or not?” she asked. “I told you, Rucy, they’re scumbags. Why else would Ethan lie to you about what Claude teaches?”

“He lied to protect him,” Rucy beamed. “I would’ve done the same thing for you.”

“He’s protecting a piece of garbage.”

“You said yourself that he was harmless.”
“I said the boy was harmless. Gods, well I don’t know, maybe I was wrong. Can’t I second guess myself?”

“You know I haven’t gotten to live the life I want,” Rucy said with a deep breath. “I’m an adventurer, deep down. I want to help people, and I don’t feel like I can do that when I’m all bottled up inside this castle. I’m not too fond of Ethan or especially not the older guy, but to join up with them…”
“So what are you saying, Rucy?”
“I’m saying that I think I want to escape,” Rucy responded. “Tonight.”

After long and daunting silence, Perl started to laugh. “You’re not serious,” she muttered. “Bloody scythis, Rucy. You’re kidding me. What are you going to tell our dad? Our king dad, who has about fifty guards just standing outside of his throne room who he can send after us. What about Butch? You know, your bodyguard? What are you going to tell him?”
“Nothing,” Rucy said, cringing at the thought of their over-protection of her. “They don't need to know anything.”

“And what about Mom?”

Rucy exhaled. “What about her?”

“…”

“And you’re not going to tell anyone a thing either. You’re coming with me.”
“Coming with you?” Perl snarled. “And what makes you think I’m going to do that?”

Rucy folded her arms. “Because you’re my sister. And my best friend. That’s what best friends do.”

Far south of the city of Hyguard, Claude and Ethan walked tiredly through the cold and snowy mountains, the flakes practically dumping on their heads with stingingly painful force. They were now officially in the middle, and they knew it by the staunch drop in temperature and the vision of nothing but snow as far as they both could see. Snowflakes falling. White hills. Snow, snow, snow. And nothing but it.

“So, walk me through it again,” Ethan said, his voice hoarse from the cold, his stomach still churning with the guilt of having to manipulate all those people at the castle just to free his teacher. “What were you trying to do with that machine? Back at your house, in the basement.”
Claude exhaled, watching his icy breath evaporate from his mouth as he continued hiking through the treacherous mountain, their shoes crunching in the snow. “I was married, once upon a time.” He stepped on a giant spider, scraping it off his shoe and back into the snow. “Had myself a daughter.”

“And she…?”

Claude shut his eyes and reopened them for business, a sharp pain in his stomach as the painful memories bubbled up to the surface of his mind. “Died in an automobile accident. Killed by a drunk driver.” He lamented. “I was following right behind her.  The truck came out of nowhere. I still remember the noise. The radio still singing that awful song I used to love. The sound of a cannon in the circus. The clash and the bang. There were four clashes. Her car flipped four times. She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve any of it. What did she do to die like that? That, Ethan. That’s what my machine was for.”
“You were trying to create a portal to another world?”
“Yes, but not this world.” Claude cleared his throat. “I was trying to create a portal to Heaven.”

“Holy shit.” Ethan breathed in and out, trying to keep his composure against the startling revelation. “But you accidentally ended up here?”
“Yes. When you started pressing random buttons and pulled the lever, something malfunctioned. Now I don’t know if we can ever get back.”

“…”
Claude rolled his eyes. “We’ll just have to hope I can find enough materials to create another portal. And who knows if that’s even possible. It took me ten years to build the last one, and even that one wasn’t quite finished. I just warned you not to press those buttons.”

“Yeah, keep reminding me…”

The boy and the teacher continued through the mountains, eventually reaching a frozen river surrounded by piles of dark white snow. Towards the far end of the river came the entrance to a dark underpass which would lead them to their destination.

“I saw those books on your counter,” Ethan said, continuing to walk. “Back in your house. Cancer?”
Claude winced. “What about it?”
“Do you, you know, have it?”

A long pause. “I did,” Claude hesitantly admitted. He wasn't quite sure why he was admitting these things to someone he so long considered an unintelligent child, but something about the loneliness of the bitter cold drew the truth deep from his ill lungs.

“Lung cancer, though a mild case. As mild as cancer can get.” Claude swallowed. Considered the possibility of not elaborating, then continued. “I only learned of my diagnosis about a week ago. But it’s strange, because ever since stepping into this world, I feel completely better. My coughing is gone, I don’t feel as weak and tired…”

“Why is that?”

“I asked a guard about it,” Claude said. “Back when I was in prison. I brought up my cancer. He had no idea on earth what I was talking about. Had no idea what that was.”

“Why do you think that is?”

Claude’s eyes glowed as he looked up to the snowy skies. “I hypothesize that we’ve stepped into a world where cancer doesn’t exist.”

The two stepped into towards the entryway to the dark and mysterious underpass. “It may be wiser to keep walking,” Claude suggested. “We don’t know if there are animals in that underpass or not. If only we had a source of fire.”

“Here. Stand back.” Ethan’s eyes swept the ground, where he found a long and heavy stick and held it in his hands. He took a deep breath, focusing on the base of the stick. He puckered hips and blew hot fire from his throat, effectively creating a torch.

“What the…?” Claude opened his mouth in surprise. “How did you do that? How is that physically possible? How did you not burn your tongue and throat?”
Ethan shrugged. “Princess Rucy taught it to me. It’s something about channeling your mind to control the fire. As long as you don’t want it to burn you, it won’t.”

Claude laughed in amazement. “I think I might’ve judged you unfairly before,” he admitted. 

Ethan laughed as well. “You too, Mr. Vilean, you too.”

Claude smiled. Looked up to the sky and exhaled. “I’m sorry for what I said in the basement. I really am.”

The two headed into the surprisingly warm cave, pitch dark except for the light from the fire. “Doesn’t seem like there are any wild animals in here,” Claude said. “I guess it would be safe to camp the night.”

“I thought you said science had to always be exact, sir?”
Claude rolled his eyes.
The cave was pitch dark barring Ethan's torch, but seemingly small and surprisingly comfy. The idea of Ethan blowing fire from his mouth still boggling Claude's mind, he gathered bark from a fallen tree nearby and brought into the dark cave. Ethan blew hot flames from his mouth, creating a small fire in the middle of the underpass. They sat adjacent to one another, finding unexpected enjoyment out of each other’s company.

“It’s funny,” Claude said. “You being this champion of the seer or whatever. You’ve got people teaching you how to breathe fire out of your mouth, and you learned that in just what, a few hours? It’s impressive.”

“Yeah…”

“And now you’re going to learn how to swordfight from this Blademaster? Think of all the power you could wield in months. You’ll be a damn hero to these people! Why were we talking about building another portal? Why would you ever want to go home?”

“Well…”
“I guess your parents probably are worried about you,” Claude lamented. “We’ll get you home, boy.”

Ethan tilted his eyes sorrowfully towards the ground. “Right on. Thanks, Mr. Vilean…”
Claude stretched his arms behind his head and smirked. “But you could easily be the most powerful person in the entire world. And I could be the smartest in the entire world. It couldn’t be farfetched. The king himself wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box.”
“Mr. Vilean…”
Claude sat up straight. “And think of all the technologies I can introduce to this world. They’ve never even heard of a gun. Think of all the things I can bring here. Guns. Cell phones. Computers. Hell, even bicycles. I’ll be a billionaire.”
“Yeah, that’s great, sir.”

“It’s more than great, it’s fantastic.” Claude laughed. “And I’ve been thinking of an even better idea, also.”

Ethan’s stomach grumbled. “What’s that, sir?”

Claude was grinning ear-to-ear. “Forget about wealth. Forget about helping others. With your powers, and my intelligence, we could be unstoppable.”

“What do you mean by that?”
“We could rule the planet Neyoma. Together.” Claude’s eyes glowed when he felt the taste of the words on his tongue. “Don’t you ever get tired of being stepped on, all the damn time? I know you were bullied often in school. So was I. We could become so powerful that nobody will even think about overruling us. King Mason. King Hogan. Gilt. Butch. Rucy. Perl. We can slaughter them all and have that big castle all for ourselves.”

“Mr. Vilean—”

“Why bother being the good guy, when being the bad guy would be so damn fun?”

“Get out,” Ethan snarled.

Claude froze. “You aren’t listening to—”

“Out!” Ethan shouted, confused, alarmed and disgusted at his teacher suggesting they commit mass murder, right in front of him no less. “Get out. I don’t want to see you right now.”

Claude stumbled to his feet, shaking his head. “You don’t want that?” he asked, confused and conflicted. “We’re from a world that is far more advanced than this one. Our brains are a hundred times the size of even the smartest people here. My brain is, at least. Don’t you ever wonder what it’s like to rule the world? You can find out!”

Ethan rose to his feet, still not buying his teacher's proposition. It was then he realized -- Claude was serious. He was dead serious. He wanted to murder all of those people he was still feeling the guilt of having to manipulate.
“You can rule a world, Ethan! It’s not out of the realm of possibility! We’ll kill the king and princesses and we’ll be the rulers.”

Ethan could take no more, and he punched Claude in the jaw, sending him flying to the cold hard ground of the dark cave. A stinging, swelling pain emerged in Claude’s jaw. He put his finger in his mouth, coating it in sticky red blood.

“Did it hurt?” Ethan sniffled.

Claude swallowed. “Of course it hurt, you idiot. What's wrong with you?”

“Good. Go fuck yourself,” Ethan said.

Claude laughed and snarled wickedly, touching his stinging chin. He shook his head and growled, tacking Ethan to the ground as his hair-trigger temper fired off once again.

The two traded blows with one another, tumbling and tossing each other throughout the cave with brutal scratches and punches and knees and elbows. Claude gained the momentum of the violent brawl, delivering several hard punches and knees to the teenager before pinning him against the side of the cave.

Ethan wrapped his palms against Claude’s waist and unleashed a smoldering heat from his fingers. Claude yipped in pain, bouncing back throughout the cave. Ethan went on the chase, punching his teacher several times and beating him down to the ground.

When Claude was downed, his face covered in blood, Ethan kicked him in the ribs. “Perl was right about you,” he admitted. “Go build yourself another portal and go home. I never want to see you again.”

The both of them defeated for the moment, Claude made his way out of the underpass, and through the raw darkness of the snowy night.