Journey Back III

Luke stared at the muscular man that had just bumped into him. He stared for a few seconds before he remembered he didn't want to cause a ruckus.

Hurriedly bowing his head and scratching the back of his head, Luke apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you. And I'm also sorry for the long stare. I've never seen someone with such a body so I was stunned."

"You better be sorry." The man snorted and walked away.

"Phew… I survived." Luke breathed.

Kyne and Aurora burst into laughter seeing Luke act like this. "More like he survived. You couldn't beat him unconscious." Kyne corrected Luke.

"I don't know what you mean but I survived." Luke feigned ignorance which made Aurora's laughter worse.

"That laugh shouldn't be coming from a lady of a great family." Luke faced Aurora.

"Right now, I'm not a lady of a great family. I'm Aurora Daveon, a newly awakened Chosen that might encounter danger at any moment in this zone." She replied.

"I must say, this place is better than I had pictured for a base in this kind of place." Aurora continued to talk.

"What did you picture?" Kyne was the one to ask.

"I had pictured a single big tent surrounded by tall trees in a jungle." She answered his question.

"It's not so different though." Kyne chuckled.

The guard's camp consisted of several tents of varying sizes and colors. The ground around the tents was rid of any growing plants making it look like a barren land amid a forest.

The tents stood facing each other as they moved into the camp. There was a straight path that divided the tents into two sides. This path went straight ahead till it came to a stop in front of the biggest tent in the camp. This huge round tent was twelve feet high and forty feet in diameter. This was the tent of Greyhn, the captain of the guards.

They walked up to the tent and found a guard standing in front of it.

"Good day, we're here to see the captain." Aurora spoke first.

"Hold." The guard replied and walked into the tent.

A few seconds later, he walked out of the tent. "You can go in. He's waiting for you all."

"Thank you very much." She dipped her head down and the three guys with her did the same thing. They walked into the tent in a straight line, Aurora at the front, Sihlon behind her, Kyne next, and Luke at the back.

"Greetings to the captain of the guards. I'm Aurora from the Daveon family." She introduced herself.

"Oh, it's someone from a great family. I'm called Greyhn. Abandoned my family name. So everyone either calls me Captain Greyhn or just Greyhn." He also introduced himself.

His yellow hair fell over his shoulder. His blue eyes complemented his hair and even his clothing was a combination of yellow and blue. He was just over six feet in height.

He was very handsome and his deep masculine voice was a gift ladies loved. When he smiled, Aurora was forced to turn her head. She was already blushing.

"Right, Captain Greyhn, these are Sihlon my guard, Kyne Gadoth, a team member, and Luke, a team member who also seems to have abandoned his family name."

"He was robbed before I met him and had all his gold taken away. His ID was also taken away. Luckily, they left his bag and clothes to him." She introduced them in the order in which they had entered the tent lying when it came to Luke's turn.

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Well, he's quite lucky to have survived since you'll all be leaving in two days." Captain Greyhn gave off another smile.

"Not many of you know about it but when you guys arrived, a criminal sneaked in with you guys. He was deemed to be dangerous, wearing black clothes and carrying a black backpack. When we went to apprehend him, we found your base being destroyed by those rabid jackals. Of course, we rescued them but the criminal was already dead so we left him there, buried with the ones we were too late to rescue."

The criminal was currently in the same tent as him but he didn't know.

Luke scratched his head when Greyhn finished speaking. 'I knew they would report the issue and they did. Luckily, they think I'm dead.'

"That's quite unfortunate. We'll take our leave then. We shouldn't bother you any further. Is there a tent good enough to contain all four of us?" Aurora asked the captain guard.

"Yeah, when you walk out of here, the guard outside will show you to the tent. You can leave now." Captain Greyhn answered and gave a shallow bow.

"Thank you very much." The four of them bowed in return and left the tent.

The guard did take them to a tent not very far away from the Captain's tent. They would stay here for the next two days.

When the guard left, Luke was the one to break the silence. "People from great families seem to have special privileges. I'm sure if it was just me, or me and Kyne, we would have been interrogated a bit and probably left to make our tent."

"Well, that's true but there's nothing to be done." Kyne replied this time.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that." Aurora seemed to feel bad about it.

"It's alright. I was just saying what was on my mind." Luke hurriedly spoke before she started overthinking.

"Oh, I see. Anyway, you're the criminal he talked about right?" Aurora attacked Luke.

Luke was mute.

Kyne just laid on the mattress in the tent, smiling without saying a word. He was sure Luke was the person Captain Greyhn had just talked about.

"Won't you answer me?" Aurora asked again.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Luke tried evading the question but Aurora was sure it was him.

*****

"Keep an eye on the group that just arrived. That guy named Luke, he seemed to contain more than what he showed. Don't get caught or else, I'll be the one to execute you." Captain Greyhn spoke to the guard who had just entered his tent.

"Yes, captain!!" The guard replied and walked out of the room.

*****

Early morning the next day, Luke and Kyne had left the camp. They headed out towards a place covered in fog.

Their training continued for all they cared.

In a whisper, Kyne informed Luke. "I think someone is following us."

"Yup, someone is. Just ignore him. He's probably here to keep an eye on me. You'll be the one doing all the training so there's no point in trying to catch him. He'll never get anything out of me." Luke replied.

And so, their training commenced. As Luke had said, Kyne was the one to do almost the whole hunting, leaving a single two-ringed rabid jackal for Luke to fight. With controlled strength, Luke fought the beast for fifteen minutes before killing it.

He was panting heavily and bleeding when he finally killed the hound.

Like that, they returned to the camp and Kyne treated Luke's injury in their tent.

"What happened?" Aurora was surprised to see Luke this injured when Kyne was still alright.

Luke explained the situation to Aurora and Sihlon. They didn't bother asking anything anymore after Luke's explanation. They just acted along.

*****

"It's finally time for you guys to return. I hope you've learned a lot during your stay in this zone." Captain Greyhn spoke to Luke and the others that were about to return.

"We're not paying a fee like last time?" Luke asked Aurora who was close by.

"No. The fee we paid last time was for both ways. Half for entry and the other half for exit." She explained.

"Ohh. I see."

It was time to return and Greyhn gave a short speech before the portal was ready.

"See you all next time." He smiled and activated the portal, sending them back home.