Legacies of light

Two hours later

“Where finally here, so Sparrow you can stop puking.”

In response to what I say, he continues puking. He has thrown up so much over these last two hours that a hole must have burnt through his oesophagus. Though the vomit has gradually decreased over time, his stomach is running out of ammunition. But regardless, “Let’s get going to Deno,” I say to Cyrus as we begin to walk forward.

When we enter, we see an incredibly bustling city which has the highest amount of people I have ever seen. No matter where I look; there is someone doing something different than all the rest. Unable to control myself at the site of this all, I run up and start speaking to random people.

“How are you today.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to have a stomach this big.”

“What a cute child.”

“What is this vegetable? I haven’t ever seen anything like this.”

“Is that a ship I see over there.”

“That Building in the distance is like nine Willow the 2nd tall.”

This is Deno, the port city. I am completely enraptured by what I see until Cyrus taps me on the shoulder and says, “S-S-S-Sparrow is vomiting again.”

Instantly I say, “Who cares” while still overtaken by the sights.

“B-B-But Orb, everyone is staring at us.”

Looking around, I see the eyes of the countless people around us staring directly at us while whispering to each. Realising the situation, I calmed down even though we have coverings over our heads and Cyrus’s tail. If anyone finds out Cyrus is a dragon or that we are legacies, it will only cause problems for us, so I should keep a low profile.

“Sorry, you're right. Let us get out of here and find something for Sparrow to drink, if he burns a hole through his oesophagus we are screwed.” After I say this, we start moving through the alleys of Deno. Walking around without trying to draw attention to ourselves, we eventually make our way into a bar.

Stepping in, I am about to freak out due to excitement. But I restrain myself and then sit down with Cyrus and Sparrow. First, I order some water for Sparrow then some meat for Cyrus and me.

While sitting down, I ask Cyrus “Do dragons have any concerns when it comes to eating certain foods.”

“No such things. The weak should be killed and eaten,” Cyrus says with a smile.

Sometimes Cyrus says some scary things. “Sorry about all the questions I ask you. I am just curious. If you have anything, you want to ask me go ahead.”

“Well, I have one.”

“Tell me then.”

“I w-w-w-was just wonder-e-e-ering why you seem not to know everything.”

“Huh, I don’t understand.”

“Sorry, it is just that you told m-m-m-me that you read lo-o-o-lots of books about the world, yet you seem to be sur-r-r-prized a lot.”

“I see where you are coming from. Well, Capti only wrote down things he had read or written, so I won’t know about what he experienced.

But thinking back on it, the knowledge I had read has lots of gaps in it, like I was only ever given knowledge of important locations like the port cities of Deno and Cordum and the fact that they are both neutral zones.

Even the animals and plants I learned about, other than the basic ones, were poisonous or dangerous. Some of the books had gaps like pages number skipped it was almost as if certain information was taken from them.”

“W-W-Why would that be?”

“I believe Capti only gave me knowledge important to my survival. The rest was up to me to find out. I guess he didn’t want to ruin my adventure. Though this ruins his whole idea about me knowing him the best, I guess I have to fill that gap with my own experiences.”

In the middle of our conversations, our food comes, which puts a giant smile on my face. As I am about to start eating, Cyrus says “You are strong Orb”, with a sombre look.

“Are you making fun of me, Cyrus? If you were to punch me in the face, my head would come off.”

“No, not in that w-w-way,” but as Cyrus is about to speak, a hand suddenly comes down on the table. Looking over who did this, I see a rather ruff-looking man and his friends behind him.

“Can you please tell me why your hand is on my table?”

“SPARROW, YOU BASTARD, I FINALLY FOUND YOU. Did you think you could rob me and get away with your life?”

Looking over at sparrow, I hear his heart rate increase—that bastard. “Sorry about whatever he did to you, but I promise he will receive a punishment equal to his crime at my hands.

“I don’t remember talking to you brat,” the man says as he swings his hand at my face. I move my head out of the way quickly, but his hand knocks the cloak off my head.

As the man stared at my face, he said, “Well, it is my lucky day to think that you would have a legacy with you. It seems I am going to get reimbursed.”

“Hey, did you know adult males have two hundred and six bones.”

“Do you think I care.”

“Oh well, I just wanted to tell you that if you don’t calm down and let me finish my food, a hundred and three of those bones in your body might shatter.”

The man smirks and then knocks my food away, saying, “Do think I would give a shit about the words that come out of a little girl's mouth. Maybe I should teach you some manners.” Moments after he says this, his fist comes towards my face.

-Break-

Throwing sparrow out of the bar, I break one of his fingers, which causes him to scream like all the battered men inside the bar. “I expected to have a nice meal Sparrow, but it seems like you just had to ruin that for me, but still we better get a move on.”

As we are about to walk away, I take out some lupas and throw them at the unconscious bodies of the men inside.

In response to my actions, Sparrow asks, “Why are you giving them money.”

“Because if you robbed them, it is my job to return that money to them. I would have given them more if they sat down and talked, but I guess stupidity had overtaken them today, and anyway they probably need that money to get someone to patch them up after the beatdown they were just given. So, Sparrow, since you our able to talk, tell me which building is the church.”

“It is the giant one in the distance.”

“Then let us head over there,” As we start our walk towards the large church, I ask Sparrow, “Isn’t Deno a neutral zone? I thought violence didn’t happen here.”

“Well, publicly Deno is a neutral zone because all the big countries have agreed that the value of Deno and its sister city, Cordum value is too great to be lost, so violence of any sort against Deno is tantamount to declaring war against said nations. But in actual practice, it essentially means that as long as you don’t specifically harm a citizen of the country, they won’t step in.

Due to this being a significant port city, there are people from all over the world, which is like a treasure trove to bandits. And as long as they only target non-citizens, they can get away free with their actions.”

Hearing a scream, I run over to see a young boy getting a beating by a massive woman. But more shockingly, everyone around is not doing anything. Some are just watching. “Why is everyone just watching.”

“Remember, only citizens of this city are protected, but the people with actual citizenship are the vast minority. Most people travel completely unprotected by the laws, so attracting attention is bad. And since this city has no peacekeeping force all the outsiders have to mine their own business to stay safe, that’s just how it is.”

When the boy starts to scream, I move my body about to jump in but holding me back Sparrow says, “Lots of people are watching if you expose the fact you’re a legacy here, it will get a bunch of people after us.”

“I have to do something because that boy will get killed if I don’t.”

But as I pull away from him, an adult man comes up behind the woman in question and tapping her on her shoulder he says, “Could you stop?”

As she swings her arm at him, he dodges and then puts his shoe on her face. “Early, I stepped in poop, and I guess this is why god allowed such a thing to happen.”

The woman screams in disgust while rubbing the shit off of her face. The man then lifts the boy off the ground while saying to the woman behind him, “Why would you do such a thing?”

“That brat stole my new sword. It is one of a kind. That brat couldn’t even afford that sword if he spent the next ten years working.”

Picking up the sword, the man says, “Well this craftsmanship is top-notch.”

“So, as you can see, I was just disciplining the child.”

“Discipline is done from the point of love to give someone pain equal to the pain they caused. What you did was simply out of anger. Utterly shameful”

The woman goes in for a punch on the man, but he dodges effortlessly. When the woman starts huffing and puffing, she brings out the sword she has attached to her waist. “I am going to cut you and the other brat.”

Sighing, the man says, “Those that live by the sword will die by it. So, I have no intention of fighting here”

“Well, let’s see how you get out of this without fighting me,” she says as she swings her sword at the man and the boy.

In an instant, the man picks up the boy and dodges all her sword strikes. As he continues to escape, he moves to her side and sticks his foot out, making her trip and fall. “Watch your step, madam.”

She gets up and goes at him with a thrust, but he jumps up and lands his butt on her head. “Your breathing is heavy. You tired? because I can go all day.”

Looking around, I notice people laughing at the fight they see right in front of them. The woman realising what is happening gets progressively angrier as they continue this exchange; the woman reaches for her pocket and throws a dagger which causes him to dodge left, though when he moves there, he notices she has already swung her sword in the direction he escaped. But he turns his body and dodges under her swing with his ass facing her. A moment later, he uses the heel of his foot to knock the sword out of her hand.

“So, as you can see, violence has given you a net zero in value, both spiritual and physical.”

“How the hell did you dodge all my attacks like that?”

Flamboyantly the man says, “It is because I am beyond comprehension” immediately after he says this, a bird flies into his temple and knocks him to the ground. Right before he landed, I hear him say, “Sorry god, I was too arrogant.”

As the man fell to the ground, the kid on his back said, “Wake up, please.”

The woman seeing this, gets up and picks up her sword. The boy who was helped by the man also unsheathes his sword which is too big for him and gets in a defensive position, but his hands shake the entire time.

As the woman swings her sword down at the boy, I rush over beside them and freeze the woman solid, saying, “You really could have just walked away.”

After I do, I hear Sparrow scream, “You idiot!” Looking up at my head, I see my covering is gone. I moved so fast that it fell off.

“Praise god,” the man on the floor says as he jumps up.

Spooked by this, I scream. “It bad for a legacy like you to be out in the open like this,” so grabbing my hand and the boys, the man runs off with us. Cyrus and Sparrow follow close behind.