ChiarOscuro Book Two - Episode Four - Welcome Back

  “It's strange, they have simply broken the idols of each Temple and there were traces they had accessed the lower levels of each Temple though there is nothing out of place, nothing out of the ordinary once they leave as far as the reports go” he replied as he bit his fingernails.

  “It is strange” he continued “Not as strange as some of the stories that have been told to us. A bloodsucking monster stealing livestock in the lands around Urok, big handed and footed men to the north, flying creatures standing two meters tall to the south. Has everyone been drinking too much of that Moonlight Sparkle or what?” he said chuckling to himself.

  “Sounds like it” said Koatsu.

  “Then there's The Hero. Apparently he's created another ground breaking invention or something though I don't know the full details. I swear, that man ain't human, his brain is something else” said Koshin.

  Koatsu agreed. The Hero, as he was known for no one knew his real name, was being argued as being the most intelligent man in the last five thousand years due to his inventions, his ideas, his paintings and a dozen other reasons that made him unable to deny the claim.

  They were riding one of his claims right now for that title.

  “But there's one thing that is for certain” he said in a more serious tone “There are rumours of Decabian forces amassing all across the eastern border, bordering on Tueley.”

  Koatsu froze.

  “You what?” he said, rage boiling inside of him.

  “Urok has announced it can't send any forces to protect the cities that stand close to the border, doing so would look like an act of mistrust or a reason for conflict in their eyes although we've heard that the smaller villages are evacuating and sending their soldiers to the main cities at the border. Decabia argues that they're only protecting the borders from bandits and raiders that have been plaguing them for months now so that's why there's such a large force” he told them.

  “Liars” said Koatsu, yelling out the word so loudly it frightened Skora who jerked his head back and he felt himself shaking with anger.

  “You don't think I know that? Ten years have passed and though I'm nothing more than an official of Urok and serve Aludin loyally in your eyes Koatsu, don't think I haven't forgotten the events of that summer, I think about them everyday” replied Koshin.

  “Of course you do” said Koatsu “We Omicornian's...these other provinces, these people, they don't understand us, they'll never know the feeling of losing their home...so is that it? Aludin will lie down yet again and let Decabia invade another province, in twenty years, when they're at the ninth wall, is that when they'll finally act?”

  Koatsu looked down at his feet, thinking back to ten years ago, the images that flashed through his mind every time he woke up and sometimes appear to him during his dreams. Those were the worst, for he couldn't escape them and though he knew it was all in his mind once he woke up, it all seemed so real.