Burning Soul

“As I feared!

Someone is deliberately causing it to cause an uproar in the capital!”

This made no sense as to why anyone would want to mess with two of the strongest settlements! The mess may turn into a decisive battle which is one with political effects. A battle can change the balance of powers of boundaries between the settlements, if Dimitri was the one to point it, that meant there was something behind and it wasn’t all that good!

A decisive battle is an armed clash between the main forces of the belligerent sides that decided the course of a war that caused a radical turning in the course of military action. A victory in a decisive battle is a military victory that definitively resolves the objective being fought over, ending one stage of the conflict and beginning another stage. Until a decisive victory is achieved, conflict over the competing objectives will continue.

“My Lord! What brings you here to such a place?” Yvaine politely bowed, not moving from her place.

“Hmm, am I uninvited?”

He turned towards Yvaine, widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows higher than their natural position, his irises became smaller. His mouth was slightly opened when he heard what she uttered.

“That wasn’t my intention, I’m sorry if you felt like that!” Just a little push and she’d have cried out again,

“Hahaha! Don’t worry, I was just teasing you young one!” He bowed little; blinked his eyes, having thick eyelashes calmly and then smiled delightfully, staring at her.

“I was rather interested in what you hunt down in the forest!”

It looks like the news of someone wiping out MaBeasts in the forest reached him as well! His expression turned from jolly to concerned in one fell sweep.

“Zura!” Aeneas abruptly asked,

“Hmm, well at least the one who wiped ‘em wasn’t one of Beastmen or the pact would have been dissolved right away!

Or so I think! Well, we need to head to his settlement and seek more information about the matter!

An entire village gets wiped out, a small settlement of MaBeastes was flattened to dust as well, the contract killers are roaming freely! There had been no such time in the history of Arnor with so much happening at the same time!” He had a concerning look, after all his territory was in so much chaos!

Dimitri sat down on the footstool nearby deep in silence. His eyes moved with little alertness that came from heavy stress and his hands remained clenched by subconscious thoughts. Each one was reverberating around the room like a cymbal, yet no one blinked their eye. There was no sound in the room for a few moments since everyone was moving, moving and not talking. Each one had dejected expressions on their face.

“Is it something related to our travels?” Theo felt a bit guilty as he asked.

Dimitri took a silent pause before he replied, “I don’t think so! Maybe someone is using your movements as cover!

He got up anxiously from the footstool, took a few steps, then stretched out his both hands in forwarding direction and while thinking something enormously he stroked his chin with the tips of his fingers. He stared down at the ground, his eyes became deep as if he had many questions in his mind which were unanswered.

But who could be that someone?

And where the heck is Eric? Did anyone figure something about his whereabouts!” He slammed his fist on the door making it rattle loud scaring off the guards following him, “We are still trying to look for him my Lord, but after all that happened, daily patrol shifts are tightened and there is almost no one who wants to go on their own.” One of the guards replied while trying to catch his breath.

“That is understandable, you saw that guy?

If he could trouble even someone who’s best at swordsmanship in your entire territory, it's natural that people are gonna be afraid of roaming freely!” Aeneas rubbing his palm vigorously step forward and took the role of explaining things,

“that being said, we can look for this brat while we pay a visit to Zura!” He seemed happy for some reason,

“Aeneas!” Theo was a bit suspicious of his smile,

“By any chance, do you know the Deity of MaBeasts?”

His suspicion was rather accurate, as he asked this, Aeneas startled a bit before replying, “Well, you can say that!”

“He’s an Ace who’s lived that many years! I won’t be surprised if he really knows Zura!” Dimitri wasn’t a bit surprised at the fact that Aeneas might actually know the Deity of MaBeasts!

“But before that!” Dimitri again took a brief pause before continuing, “There is a bit of problem!”

“Did you run out of people now that you seek our help for solving all the little issues regarding you!

Now, we will help you as we are that generous to lend needy a helping hand…”

“It’s the dragon” Dimitri tried sliding in his babbling

“And I don’t like not helping weak as well”

“It’s your dragon”

“But there is a limit at how much…”

A loud bang echoed in the chamber followed by a weak squeak.

“Can you keep your mouth shut and listen to people for a second!” Merida who hit him hard scolded him good!

“I almost saw Lamius calling me from the other side of the river!” He replied as he rubbed his head while shedding a drop of tear.

“Isn’t he alive? And stop fooling around a bit!

What happened to the Dragon!” Merida asked Dimitri who was a bit taken by what happened just a while ago.

“It’d be best if you come with me! And please stay low key for this time!” He sounded a bit concerned about something.

Without questioning they chose to follow him and see for themselves.