Age of Darkness (4 page)

Keimaro inhaled a deep breath as he walked
to his room, which was practically empty except for a bed, his wardrobe against
the wall on the left side of the room, and a large chest on the right side of
the room. The chest had been simply lying there for many years, and Keimaro
couldn’t remember a single day when he hadn’t seen that chest in his room.
However, he had never opened the chest. The only one with the key was his
father, and he had it wrapped around his neck like a necklace at all times. It
sometimes made Keimaro curious as to what was inside of it, but, knowing his
father, the chest would be complicated and impossible to pick—and stealing the
key from his own father definitely wasn’t a solution.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes
locked onto the keyhole of the chest, listening to the silence of the night. He
ran a hand through his messy black hair and exhaled a deep breath. His father
had always told him that he would know what was inside of the chest when he was
ready.

When would he be ready?

The question was always lingering in his mind,
and he shook his head as if to clear it. He kicked off his shoes and threw
himself onto his mattress, bouncing a bit before settling in. He lay still and
sat looking at the blank ceiling, while a streak of moonlight shone in through
the window of his house. He folded his arms behind his head and looked out the
window at the gleaming stars in the sky, remembering the sight that he had seen
earlier in the day with Yata. A year, huh? That’s the amount of time it would
take to escape this place. Maybe even longer. Would Yata be able to wait that
long? Keimaro didn’t even know if he wanted to wait that long.

There was a whole world out there, and he
was stuck inside of a cottage, behind a barrier—like a coward. He closed his
eyes, noticing that he had called himself the worst of insults that he could
think of. Cowards ran from something when they could turn and face it
themselves. Cowardice. Keimaro hated the concept, but knew that it existed in
him. He thought it was horrid and absolutely ridiculous that some stories told
of soldiers who would go to war and ended up fleeing. It was cowards who sat
there and watched their friends die. Keimaro didn’t ever want to be like that.
That was why he had asked his father to teach him how to fight. It would have
an all-around benefit. He would be able to protect Mai, protect himself, and
finally obtain the strength he needed to leave the village. He remembered when
speaking to his father that he had only said he would protect Mai.

If the beasts broke in through the wards,
would he not try to protect his mother and father? He honestly didn’t know. His
mother was always kind to him, and he would love to protect her. But his
father. He always looked the other direction. A person could slice off Keimaro’s
leg, and his father probably wouldn’t even blink an eye or be worried about whether
Keimaro was okay. He would probably just ask his son what he wanted for supper
and then cook the opposite of what he had answered. It was actually a surprise
that his father had agreed to teach him. Perhaps it was the speech that he had
made earlier.

He wondered what Yata would act like the
next day and who that foreign girl was. That sense of mystery that glistened
around her made him all the more curious of her origins. He also wondered if
Yata would continue being his friend and whether or not he was okay with
waiting a year to leave the village. Should he spend his time to master the way
of the sword rather than just learning to protect himself? Which would be more
beneficial to him in the long run?

Keimaro closed his eyes, allowing the
feeling of overwhelming thoughts to surge through his head. He had made his
first friend, a mysterious girl was lying in Yata’s house, they had seen a
beast earlier today, he would be training swordplay tomorrow … it was all so
much. Such a day out of the norm, he couldn’t help but smile to himself.
Something exciting was coming in his path of life. He could feel it. When it
was coming, he didn’t know, but he supposed that was the excitement of it and
the excitement of life as a whole. It was a thrill that one couldn’t obtain
while living behind the walls of the magical shield. It was one that could be
caused only by outside forces.

The girl.

Keimaro grabbed his bag he used for school
and put some materials into it for later that morning. He stuffed a few
apples into it, along with some of his mom’s clothes. All this hassle, just for
the mysterious girl. Not that he minded. In fact, that girl was all that he was
thinking about. Not in an obsessive way, but he was rather curious. He wanted
to know where she came from. He wanted to know everything about the outside
world. Was it different than Bakaara? Well, of course it was, but he was sure
that the technology must be more advanced! In fact, Bakaara was probably incredibly
behind the other empires technologically since it was a small and isolated
village with no contact with any outside sources.

He folded the clothing neatly and placed it
into the bag, blinking a few times as the realization of how awkward it was to
be taking clothes out of his mother’s wardrobe hit him.
At least I won’t
have to be here again
, he thought. Unfortunately, he turned around only to
find himself face to face with his mother, who gave the bag in his hands a
knowing look. Keimaro could feel the heat rising to his cheeks as he stammered,
“W-Wait! I can explain. I need the clothes for … an acting project! That I’m
doing for school, yeah, an acting project. Umm … a girl that I know needs some
more old-fashioned clothes so—”

“So, you’re saying I’m old-fashioned?”

“No, no, no!” Keimaro waved his hands
before him, his face flushing red. To his relief, his mother giggled—he knew
that she was just teasing him. He hated when she did that, teased him. But, to
be honest, it definitely wasn’t as bad as when someone else did it. When other
people did anything to embarrass him or make him look bad, he always felt a certain
resentment toward them. He hated being frowned upon.

“I’m sure you have a good use for all of
that,” his mother said with a warm smile. “It’s not like I need these clothes right
now. Just make sure you return them. I trust you’ll be using it for the right
reasons.” She paused before continuing, “You know, if you ever feel like you’re
a little more feminine … you can always tell—”

“No!” Keimaro exclaimed, his face red with
embarrassment. He groaned loudly. “It’s not that I’m feminine!”

“Of course not,” his mother said with a sly
wink and a chuckle, sitting down on her bed and patting the space beside her. “Kei,
come and talk with me just for a moment?”

Keimaro sighed reluctantly and sat down
beside his mother, looking into her eyes as he kept the brown bag on his lap in
a rather uncomfortable position and shrugged. “What is it?”

“You shouldn’t be so angry at your father
all of the time.”

Here we go again
. “It’s not my fault he doesn’t care,” Keimaro jumped in.

“It isn’t his fault either.”

“Isn’t it? Does he have no control over his
own feelings?” Keimaro said, rolling his eyes dramatically. He scoffed, feeling
rather annoyed at the nature of this conversation. He hated talking about his
father, the man who always abandoned him in his time of need. “The old man
chooses to always look the other way instead of acting. He’s a coward.”

“Think what you want, but keep your
thoughts to yourself,” his mother said in a gentle tone. “If you get your
father extremely mad, you never know what’s going to happen. Just … try to be a
little more caring, hmm? He’s the one who raised you, after all. He was a
little reluctant when we decided to adopt you and Mai. I know for a fact that
he doesn’t regret our decision. Your father and I are just trying to take care
of you two. Just try and behave, please? For me?”

A few minutes later, Keimaro had left his
house and was walking in the morning light, tossing an apple lightly into the
air and swiftly catching it in his hand. A cool wind blew, ruffling the paper
bag as he held it and also blowing his clothing. The blades of grass in the
field swayed as if they were all dancing in unison. Yata’s cottage soon came
into clear view. It was an isolated building away from most of the village in
the middle of a field. There was a stone well beside the small cottage; a
wooden bucket set beside it along with a lot of rope. Smoke was drifting off
from the chimney, signaling that Yata was indeed home. Excitement and positive
energy radiated from his body as he smiled to himself, eager to meet the girl.

He scratched his neck and took a bite of his
apple as he approached the cottage. He felt the sweet juice run down his throat
as he rapped loudly on the door, watching as it swung open. He jumped with
surprise when he saw Yata raising a metal bat high into the air, nearly ready
to smash his skull open.

“Eh?” Yata said with a surprised expression
and then relaxed, lowering his bat. “Oh, it’s you.”

“What the hell were you planning on doing
with that?” Keimaro said, his face pale. “That’s used to play a children’s
sport, not kill me.”

“I planned on smashing someone’s skull in,”
he replied without hesitation.

“Why would you do that?”

“No one can find out about her!”

“You’re being a bit paranoid, aren’t you?”
Keimaro muttered, tossing an apple to him as he walked through the doorway into
the next room. He found the girl sitting upright on a bed, leaning back against
a pillow. He blinked for a moment, not realizing how beautiful the girl was
until that moment. Her long brown hair flowed down past her shoulders and
extended toward the small of her back. Her eyes were an enchanting royal blue
that scanned him—similar to the way he was examining her. Keimaro felt his face
growing hot as he looked at her and gulped. “Has she talked yet?”

“No,” Yata muttered with a sigh, shrugging
as he sat on his bed. He bounced on it before leaning back and crossing his
arms behind his head. “Did you bring her something to eat?”

Keimaro nodded and reached into his bag. He
pulled out an apple and walked over to the girl, offering it to her. He watched
as she grasped the apple as delicately as she would a young child and blinked a
few times while looking at it. Then she took a small, experimental bite,
sinking her teeth into the fruit. A piece of the skin ended up on the corner of
her lips as well as specks of juice, but it didn’t matter. A small smile
stretched across her face, and she began to take larger and faster bites into
the juicy apple. Keimaro also pulled out a loaf of bread and handed it to her,
watching her devour the food as if she hadn’t eaten in days. “She seems pretty
hungry.”

“Yeah,” Yata said with a resigned sigh. “Oi,
are you ready to talk yet?”

“You really don’t know how to talk to
girls, do you?” Keimaro muttered and sat down beside the girl with a reassuring
smile. To be quite honest, neither did he, but he figured that maybe talking to
Mai would suffice as some practice in talking to females. “Hey, I’m Keimaro,
and that’s my friend, Yata. We are the two boys who saved you from the monster
on the hilltops last night, remember?”
Smooth.

The girl looked at him as if he were a
foreign being and nodded lightly upon finishing the apple. She placed the core
on the table beside her and then folded her hands neatly across her lap. “My
name is Aika,” she said in a soft, innocent voice. “I … umm … I’m the princess
from the empire of Faar. I was kidnapped by Spartans and was taken through a
forest. In the forest … it was extremely dark. There were odd creatures
everywhere. The Spartan soldiers, as you probably already knew, are well-known
for their melee combat. They were able to fend off many of the vicious beasts
that came to devour us. However, every time blood was shed, stronger and larger
beasts came in a brutal attempt to slaughter us all. A small troop of soldiers
tried to escort me. They burned the carriage as a decoy to lure the beasts
away. The large, black tiger-like creature slaughtered the rest of the escorts
and chased me. That’s when I found the two of you, simply lying underneath an
apple tree upon a hill. Might I ask what you were doing there, next to such a
dangerous place?”

Keimaro was first surprised that this girl
was even speaking their language. Well, he had read somewhere that all humans
spoke a common language in this continent. Her accent was different, but it
made her all the more attractive to Keimaro. Wait, this girl that they happened
to meet outside of the barrier was actually the princess of one of the largest
three empires on the continent? That wasn’t good. They had an extremely
important person living inside of their barrier! It would only mean that the
Faar Empire would target Bakaara, jeopardizing the safety of the citizens. This
was a lot to process.

“Uh….” Keimaro also wasn’t particularly
sure how to answer Aika’s question. What were they doing out there? It was
somewhat hard to explain, especially to an outsider who wouldn’t understand the
feeling of being isolated from the world and trapped within the barriers.

“We were simply gazing at the stars,” Yata
intervened, clearing his throat in an attempt to change the subject. “Either
way, it’s going to be rough if you want to get home, princess. It could take
some time, actually, but you’re welcome to stay here for the time being. We
just need to figure out a way for you to fit in with everyone else.”

Aika blinked a few times in confusion, not
sure whether or not to be scared of her current situation. “Where exactly am I?”

“You’re in the small village of Bakaara,”
Keimaro said with a sigh, finding no reason to hide the name of their village
from her.

“Bakaara? But isn’t there a ward that
isolates—?”

“Yeah,” Keimaro said with a sly smile. “You’re
lucky you met two boys who found out how to bypass the magical wards. But that also
means that if the beasts find out how to get inside the barriers, we would all
be dead. So, let’s keep it a secret. I’ve got some clothing that will probably
fit you, Aika, but your proper posture and all of that princess stuff has got
to go,” he said, realizing how proper and neat the princess was even sitting on
the bed.

Aika watched as Keimaro reached into his
bag. He pulled out a few folds of clothes and tossed them onto the bed beside
her. “I’m going to become a peasant for a few days?”

“A few days?” Keimaro said with a chuckle. “It’s
going to be a while before you’re able to leave this village. I also don’t
appreciate the term
peasant
either. Your vocabulary is probably going to
have to change. Yata and I have a dream to leave the village one day and
explore the world. When we do obtain the ability and strength to leave and
escort ourselves through the forest barrier between the Faar Empire and Bakaara’s
grounds, we shall take you. Then you shall see your empire and home again, but
that won’t be for a while, understood? For now, you’ll just have to lay low.
Otherwise, they’ll have you executed and have Yata and me in chains. The elders
don’t want any of the townsfolk meeting an alien from the outside world.”
Though, that was a bit of a lie. In reality, Keimaro and Yata would be the ones
executed and the princess would be held hostage so the king wouldn’t barge into
Bakaara and slaughter everyone. At least, that was the more realistic outcome.

Nevertheless, Aika nodded her head in
understanding, her heart beginning to race with excitement at the mere thought
of pretending to be one of the townsfolk. It was like switching lifestyles.
Being a princess, she had always gotten what she wanted and lived with the
luxuries of life. However, she was never able to meet anyone or speak to
anyone. Now that she was a commoner, she was officially able to speak to anyone
she pleased. It was exciting to know that she could now live a life outside of
politics. The two boys before her seemed like two adventurous young men with
aspirations that suited them and even matched hers. She also longed to see the
world beyond the walls of her citadel. This was her chance.

“What’s it like to be a princess?” Keimaro
asked curiously, leaning against a wall.

“Well,” Aika looked at nothing in
particular and pouted, rather surprised by the question, “it’s hard to explain,
I suppose … since I’m not quite sure what peasant life is like yet! But I
suppose I could explain to some extent. I could consider it somewhat like a
cell. Everything you do is monitored. Everything you say is recorded. You have
to watch your tongue; otherwise, you ruin the family name, since you’re
royalty. It’s terrible in the sense that there’s no one to be friends with
since the king, my father, forbade me from becoming friends with anyone. There’s
also the chance of being assassinated or kidnapped at any moment, which was
what happened to me.”

“You make royalty seem terrible,” Yata
scoffed.

“In a way, it really is,” Aika said with a
sigh. “I wanted to get away from it, but I wasn’t exactly sure how. Being
kidnapped wasn’t the way I wanted to leave the citadel, but I’m actually quite
happy that I get to have this experience. Though, in the end, I would prefer to
eventually go home.”

“Yeah, understood, princess,” Keimaro said.

“There were many luxuries as well. I got to
have anything I wanted and everyone would have to do whatever I told them, I
suppose.” Aika examined the room around her. “Though, I got sick of it after
getting spoiled for so many years. This is actually a nice change of scenery. I
don’t have to see glistening gold and jewels everywhere.”