Flame

Chapter 4

The smell of smoke is vibrant in the air. The sounds of fearful cries can be heard in the distance. The chilling floor can be felt as Alsi presses his hand against it, staring up at one of the people he deemed irrelevant but somehow easy to remember. The goat face with his long beard gave him a smile that made his spine shiver with fear. 

     "Hello Master." The guard greeted him with the same smile that implied the torture he had in store for him.

     "What is it?…you look terrified, actually, you seem very ill."

     Alsi knew what the guard was getting at. He showed no regard what so ever for his sick wife earlier.

     "L-leave me alone!" Alsi pleaded whilst backing away from the guard who took slow but vigorous steps towards him. 

     " I told you my wife was sick right? She is also pregnant. You were going to kill my wife and my son at the same time! Now, I'm going to make sure you die, because it's disgusting to think that my son would live in the same world as You!" With that, his hands burst with flames and he had a murderous glare in his eyes. Alsi backed up against the wall behind him, his legs trembling as he stood up.

     "You were wondering if I could shoot fire out of my hands…you're on way to finding out!" 

     Alsi heard an explosion and he saw two bright balls of flames heading flying towards him in succession. He didn't know what he was going to do. The fireballs seemed too fast for him to evade at all.

    (This is it, I'm done for…) he closed his eyes and waited for the pain to hit when suddenly he felt a huge surge of energy which made him burst into movement. He wasn't even thinking and yet he could see and feel everything. The balls of heat flying towards him suddenly looked slower than he initially thought. His eyes widened seriously as he started moving forward. He swayed left and dodged the first ball of fire only to find the second one right in front of him. Suddenly he bent his body and backwards and somehow passed his hand through the aura of the flame. The balls of fire both hit the wall behind him and he stood up straight. Alsi's scarlet eyes appeared to be emanating energy and his expression became fierce. The guard was flabbergasted at the surprising movement.

    "You little PIECE OF CRAP!!" The goat face yelled desperately as he rapidly began to throw more flames at Alsi who kept dodging them and at the same time passing his hand over the fire as if he were petting a cat. Alsi proceeds to the left, jumps towards the wall with his right foot, uses his left to bounce off the same wall and get above his opponent. He flips vertically and while upside down he stretches his hands out above his opponent. The goat face lifts his head with a baffled expression, trying to figure out what this young child is about to do next. Alsi's hands then spark repeatedly. Suddenly somewhat of a reddish orange explosion emerges from his palms with enough force to make the guard eat the ground. Alsi lands on his feet and immediately wastes no time as he runs back towards the guard, grabs him by his hair and pulls his head up…

     "SHOW ME A WAY OUT OF THIS CITY NOW!" He demands.

     " Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry!" The guard pleads with a bloody face and a messed up dental formula.

     " If you don't get me outta this place right now, I'm going to rip your head off of your body!" He pulls harder on his head as he says those words.

     "Ok! Ok! There is a secret passage out of the city right here!"

     "Where?!!"

     " Press your hand against the bottom left break on the wall and you'll open the seal to the passage-" 

     "Get up!" Alsi kicks him to stand up. When the guard stands up Alsi grabs him by his beard and drags him along with him to the wall with countless marks from the fire. He does exactly as goat face instructed and the walls opened up, revealing a long passage lit by lamps going all the way in.  

     " You're coming with me, just in case of any funny business you hear that idiot?!"

     "Yes Master!" Said the guard with broken speech. Alsi dragged his hostage into the passage way and the walls closed up behind them. Alsi was focused on nothing but getting out . That was all he was concerned with at that moment. He pulled the guard and pushed him Infront of him. 

   "Lead the way idiot!" I don't want any funny business."  The guard kept limping forward, Alsi followed behind him closely. Even though the passage was lighted by lamps, it  felt dark and gloomy. It was as if the walls were going to swallow them. They walked for almost 40 minutes when they arrived at a point where the paths separated. The guard suddenly stopped, Alsi looked up at him with irritance…

    "What are you waiting for? Keep going!"

    He stood still,not saying a thing at all. Suddenly, Alsi heard voices coming from one of the tunnels. It sounded like that of grown men wandering the tunnels. Right then, goat face screamed…

    "Heeelllpp!!!" Alsi swept him off his feet and grabbed him by his mouth. 

    "Shut your freaking mouth you GOAT!" Alsi scoulded in a quiet but harsh tone. Now the men become a bit quiet and murmured, Alsi starts to hear their footsteps become more urgent and they sounded like they were coming closer. The goat face tries to scream through Alsi's hands on his mouth. Alsi realises that the guard is going to be a problem. He then knocks him out.

    "HEY!" 

    The voices boomed through the tunnels as they got closer,Alsi made a run for it immediately,solely depending on nothing but his intuition. He goes down one of the tunnels…running almost endlessly until he stops to catch his breath. When he continues forward he hears some more voices in the tunnel to his left…

    "How are things going." Says the first voice, which sounded quite deep.

    "Surprisingly well sir. Who knew playing dress up would be such a useful skill." Said the second.

    Alsi did not have the time to listen in on conversations, he snuck past without attracting any attention and when he got further, he started running again ,about 20 more minutes later Alsi emerged from a cave a good distance outside the city. He was exhausted and hungry. He left the guard that he dragged in with him halfway through the tunnel because he passed out. Alsi didn't have the energy to carry him all the way through so he just left him there. There was a stream nearby the cave and he stumbled over to have a drink of water. This would be the most disgusting thing he had ever done in his life. Atleast that's what he thought. After doing so he sits down and lifts his head towards the sky…

     (What a disgrace! I wake up as a royal only to have my kingdom taken away from m in a week!) 

     He stares blankly at the moving stream….

    (Screw them, screw them, screw them, screw them) he keeps repeating the thought in his head until he finally shouts out loud…

    "SCREW THEM ALL!!!" He jumps up to kick a tree in his rage only to hurt himself. All that energy that was flowing through him suddenly left. He then noticed something glowing underneath his shirt, he removes the necklace which he put there. The crystal was glowing brightly until it dimmed and returned back to its faint glow. He stared at it and then put it back in its original place, realising that the old shopkeeper at the magic store wasn't lying.

     "Hmm, he's probably dead by now. He's not important. Right now I have to keep moving forward and find shelter before nightfall."

     He says to himself.  He then takes one more look at the city under siege. He then remembers his previous life as the heir to a world wide conglomerate….

      "This life sucks…but I'm not going to let those good for nothing pieces of crap throw me under the bus."

      He continues into the forests and says to himself…

      "I'm taking my kingdom back, just you wait…"

      He wanders into the forest, with no idea what so ever where he was going to end up next. Four hours go by and Alsi is still walking, he is tired and extremely hungry. His body felt weak and and he thought he was going to die…again. The forests outside of the city of Ari were usually very beautiful and breathtaking. However, Alsi concluded that this experience would be worse than running around naked in the forests of Congo. He wondered how long it would be until he found somewhere to rest. Suddenly, he heard a sound in the bushes. Alsi stopped and widened his eyes, he looked around his surroundings but could only see acacia trees and green bushes.

       (It must be a squirrel) He thought. He keeps on moving but then he hears a sound that's way too weird to be any animal he is used to. Suddenly this big green jelly-like monster ambushed him. Alsi screams and dodges its attempt to swallow him whole.

     "What the heck is that!!!?" He says as he tries to run away, however he trips on a tree stump and falls. He is to weak and hungry to get up. He turns on his back and sees the monster approaching him. Alsi thought looked at it and thought….

     (I'm getting tired of these assassination attempts, just finish me off!!!)

     It was just then that the monster suddenly burst into pieces of slime that flew out in all directions. Alsi covered in smelly slime, just discovered the next most disgusting thing he had ever come in contact with. He looked on and saw four individuals running towards him. He saw a young man with a sword, a girl with pointed ears and a staff, a big muscular man who was shirtless and had purple skin and a shorter one with bow and arrow.

      "Are you okay?" Said the one with the sword.

      (Oh look,it's the typical group of main characters from every isekai around….wait…I got hit by a truck….then doesn't that mean!?)

      Alsi had a distraught expression on his face. 

      "He looks confused and exhausted, let me heal him." Said the girl with the staff. She then points the staff at Alsi and green particles of light begin to materialise around him. Suddenly he could feel his strength coming back to him. When she was done she began to speak…

       "Don't worry, you'll be just fine, what's your name if I may ask?"

       Alsi didn't say a word. The group concluded that he must be too traumatised to respond. 

      "You must be tired, let's get you somewhere to rest. Maybe then we can talk." Said the girl. No suprise there, Alsi did feel tired. So tired that as soon as he grabbed the girl's hand and stood on his feet, he passed out. When he woke up, he found himself on a bed in a room small room. He woke up abruptly and looked around, wondering where he was. He then noticed the girl with the staff seated right beside the bed with a kind expression on his face.

       " I see you're awake, are you feeling any better?" She asked.

       "Yeah I'm fine thanks…" Alsi was surprised he answered back.

       "That's wonderful, my name is Tatiana what's yours?" She asked. Alsi felt skeptical about just giving away his name, especially now that Ari has been conquered. He decided he'll keep a low profile…

       "My name is William." He answered .

       "William, what a nice name… where are you from?" She asked. Alsi found that question to be the best question anyone had ever asked him.

       (If I simply tell them I'm from the neighbouring kingdom and that I was kidnapped and taken from home…they might help me seeing how much these guys look like adventurers. ) he thought to himself. 

        Alsi said exactly that…

        "Aww, so you want to find your way back home. Let's see…the neighbouring kingdom, was your home a place with alot of water?"

        "Y-yes?" Alsi answered reluctantly.

        "Oh! That's Avon! The kingdom of Waterfalls! Don't worry, me and my friends are going to help you get back home an see your parent's okay?" She hugged Alsi tight. She didn't have a chest though, but she smelt very good and seemed to be kin hearted.

         (Don't worry sweetheart…soon enough you'll be added to my pokemon collection. ) Alsi thought with a mischievous smile.

          "Heyo!" Alsi looked at the door and saw the rest of the group. The guy with the sword walked towards the bed…

          "How you doing little man?" He asked.

          "Allow me to introduce, This is Luck, he's good with swords, and then we have Enegus, he is skilled in martial arts and this is archer who is good with archery. Guys this is William."

     "Hello everyone, Alsi greets them." 

     " Damn! you have cool hair kid!, where'd you get it." Said Luck whilst playing with Alsi's hair.

     (Don't react Alsi, you're going to blow your cover) he restrained himself mentally.

      

     *STOMACH GROWL* 

     The sound of his stomach growling was so loud that it silenced the whole room.

     " You must be extremely hungry young lad, let's get you something to eat." Said Enegus.

     "I am extremely hungry as well, let's get going." Said Archer.  

      After 20 minutes, Alsi was walking around with the group of adventurers who saved him. They seemed to be in a small town with not as much infrastructure as the city of Ari. Even so, it had all the necessary establishments such as the pubs, a blacksmith's workshop, a medical centre and so on. 

      " Where is this place?" He asked.

      " Oh this place? This is Flora. This town is known for its beautiful vegetation and it pulls in the biggest crop harvest in the kingdom." Said Tatiana as they entered a restaurant.

      "Hello Luck!" The lady behind the counter greeted them.

      "Hey Lana, we're hungry! Oh and we brought a guest today!" 

      "Oh really? Who is that?"

      "Here he is…" Luck suddenly lifted Alsi and put him on one of the chairs by the counter. Lana looked at Alsi for a bit…

      "You look familiar…"  she said whilst she narrowed her eyes at him. Alsi suddenly felt the air grow thick with tension, he noticed the other customers grow quiet from their chatting and turn their heads to him. 

      (Oh…crap. My cover is blown!!)