"Uh-" Leon mumbles as he shifts in his chair. He grabs a drink and stands up holding it high in the air, "Let's have a toast. Let's toast to our good health." Parodona stands up with her rock beer, looking at him curiously, "To our good health, Leon."
She pulls him close so her face is near his ear. Her cold and rainy breath hitting his ear, she whispers, "I won't forget about that question, you will answer it one day, Leon."
Leon's face grew tired, "Step away from me, Parodona, I'm too tired for this. Get some sleep. You will need it for the journey to Esterron." Parodona walks to the doorway of an adjacent room, "I do not know if I will be going with you, I might go back and help my village recover. I have been away too long."
"Go get some sleep, Parodona, regardless of what you're doing in the morning," utters Leon as he walks outside.
Parodona goes and lies down, sighing as her thoughts drift off into the open sea of dreams. Sitting in front of the door, Leon smokes a pipe full of Jute, an herb that helps soothe the mind and soul. Blowing smoke rings into the air, forming shapes of all sizes.
He takes the pipe out of his mouth, puts it out, and places it on the ground next to him. He holds the pommel of his sword with relative ease, and as the night comes drifts off to sleep.
An hour passes, and the night becomes dark and gloomy. Leon awakens to a crack in the woods. He looks down to see his left hand still on the pommel of his sword, "Old habits die hard, I guess," he mutters as he stands up, stretching.
Leon walks out of the cave and takes a quick scan of the woodland. He hears nothing. He nods his head and turns around to go back to sleep. As he starts walking into the cave again, he hears another noise from the forest. He turns around quickly and spots a bush shaking. Quietly walking over to the undergrowth, he steadies his breathing and brings his left hand to his sword handle which is on his left side.
He creeps up on the bush and separates it with one hand, while the other remains firmly on his sword handle. Leon sees nothing but a dirt hole. Leaning in closer to it he spots materials for stone beer. He picks up one of the stones and spots a marking on the back of it, "Geru," he reads in Unisaki. His eyes sag go cold. It means Darthja. He grinds his jaw and throws the stone down making a dent in the grass. "I've got a horrible feeling about this. Goddamn it Rowyn." he whispers to himself.
The ground shakes suddenly, and five foul creatures burst out of the ground, dirt shooting into Leon's face. Leon rolls out of the way as he blinks trying to get the dirt out of his eyes. He finally can see again, but a little to late before two of the creatures latched onto his back, squeezing their claws onto his shoulder blades as Leon grits his teeth from the pressure.
He starts to draw his sword when one of the creatures on his back grabs his hand with one of it's long arms. Leon tries to shake the two creatures off his back by suddenly jolting forward, but he's unsuccessful as he keens in pain as their claws now pierce his skin.
Eyeing the other three creatures on the ground, he backs up suddenly, "Get the hell off me!" he roars, hitting a nearby tree, knocking the creatures off his back with a thump. His hands now free as he draws his gleaming longsword.
He backs up more so that all five of these creatures are in his line of sight. Tiny grey skinned revolting creatures with long arms with huge claws and fangs. Despite their tiny stature, they were relatively strong in comparison to others their size. Leon's gaze goes back to the opening that goes back to the cave, "If it was just me around here, I'd be fine but if they decide to run in that direction then Parodona would be screwed since she's asleep at the moment. Damn it."
Leon starts to run in the opposite direction towards the nearby river, passing several startled animals and glowing foliage. He keeps looking back as he runs and accidently stumbles into the river itself with a splash. The creatures sardonic laughs are in earshot now as Leon snappily beholds the creatures pointing at him grinning.
He immediately stands back up soaked all throughout his body, from shoes to his blonde hair. Without breaking eye contact with the creatures he reaches for his sheathed sword- oh right. He was running with it and it fell into the river with him. With an exasperated sigh he bends down to pick it up. One of the creatures abruptly jumps into the river to try and grab onto him but badly misses it's mark. It falls into the river and shrieks as it's skin burns and melts off it's bones. Leon finally finds the handle of his sword and lifts it out of the water with a mighty heave.
Walking out of the water towards the other four creatures as they growl in hunger and lust. Firmly grasping the leather-wrapped handle and silver pommel, he swings at the heads of the creatures. Leon's eyes sharpen as one of them jumps at him from the flank. The other three jump from the front of him. He slices horizontally in front, cutting the three creatures with ease.
The three creatures are sent back howling in agony as the fourth creature clasps onto Leon once more, claws aiming for the already injured shoulder. Leon shrieks in pain as he grabs the fourth creatures head and shoves it off. Blood coming down Leons green cloak, he rips it off and grasps two handed on his sword at the ready smirking, "Guess I've gotten rusty with my old age… haven't I Dex?"
All four of the creatures stand up in pain, all bruised and bleeding. Leon feels the sword slipping out of his hand because of the blood all over his fingers but securely grabs hold. One of the four creatures release a high pitched snicker at one another and then jump back into action, splitting up into groups of two. Leon swiftly notices this and backsteps to try and prevent it, but it's to late. A group is already behind him, his eyes widen; "Crap biscuits-"
His sword suddenly bursts into purple flame and burns Leons cheek slightly as he flinches. The force of the bursting flame blew the creatures away and into the nearby bushes. He faces down at his sword in awe and his eyebrows narrow. He looks back to the four creatures as they crawl out of the bushes with angry looks on their face. Leon rushes at two of them and jumps.
"This is going to end badly for you! Go back to your master!" Leon thunders as he brings both hands to his sword. Bringing his flaming sword downwards chopping the first creature in two, shaking the entire forest with his battle roar.
Slashing the other creature as it burns in agony, Leon steps back to compose himself for the third and fourth creature whom are cowering in fear now. His blade roars to life even more, burning his hand making him drop it with a thud, "Ow what the hell-" Then all of a sudden the creatures charge at him with sharpened claws, "Damn it my sword! I won't have enough time to pick it up to block!" Leon frantically thinks.
His foot takes a step back from the incoming creatures, eyes moving side to side as quick as they process the information before closing to brace himself. His mouth curls in a tight line as he braces himself-
All of a sudden he feels something firm in his hand, he opens his eyes to see his blade. Astounded at how it got there, the entire blade dripping with grey blood. Creatures on the ground in tiny pieces.
"How'd I- wait it was just on the ground- what just happened?"
The dead corpses blow up in purple flames, and the purple flame on the sword dissipates. Leon's eyes widen, and he looks at his blade curiously, "There is no way I could've picked up my sword in time. What just happened?" he mutters.
Sweeping his blade to the side, all the blood on it was thrown off, cleaning the blade enough to sheathe it. Leon looks at the blank space where the creatures once were as his eyes widen, 'Parodona! I forgot she was asleep in the cave!"
Running back towards the cave, he finds a dead creature in the entryway. The same type as the ones he fought. Bursting inside, knocking a chair over, "Parodona, are you here!" Leon shouts. "Yes, I'm in my room!" he hears Parodona shout back.
Walking into her room, he sees her with a bloody dagger and a dead creature at her feet. "I'm so sorry, Parodona, I was fighting them off in the woods!" Parodona sighs and drops the dagger on the floor as it makes a loud clang, "Leon, cut the nice crap, I know how to fight a little bit you know. You look injured. How many did you fight? Also, are these things what I think they are? I forgot they lived around these areas"
Leon's gaze over the room becomes indifferent, "Those were small creatures, claws, and teeth sharp as knives. They hunt in packs and are the sworn enemies of the Unisaki. These are Darthja all right"
Parodona's eyes darken as she sits on her bed, hands on her head, "Leon. Where's the rock idiot?"
Leon's mind thinks back to the hole with the stone beer materials, "It said Geru on a stone," he said. Parodona's face is riddled with confusion. "What does Geru mean?" she plainly asks him.
"It means help. In Unisaki." Leon mutters coldly to her.
"Leon? He was taken wasn't he. Don't color me surprised tch." she mutters.
Leon's eyes focused on the doorway turning away from her, he knows that Parodona is talking but he can barely hear her through the screaming sensation in his mind.
"Rowyn…please stay strong my friend" he mutters, his hand shaking as he grabs the pommel of his sword at his side to help stabilize it.
His mind racing thousands of words per minute, thousands of thoughts, solutions, potential outcomes, mistakes, everything that he could've done differently. Leon's vision starts to get clouded by darkness, and he hits the ground with a thud.