"There were quite a few things that happened in the past 25 years. I don't know all the details about what happened that day or some other things but to summarise it, an internal conflict had happened between the people in the everlasting kingdom, essentially splitting it in 4 parts or regions as some call them."
"That doesn't make sense, why would people argue against the king? He was a good leader and also, how did they have enough power to split the land from him?" Sky asked, confused.
"I don't know the details about it much, since I was still young then so I'm almost as lost as you."
"I see…" Sky responded, listening attentively.
"Well as the war was escalating, a large dark knight looking creature with no face appeared. They stood at 9ft. They were knights of nightmare. This sudden appearance of the knight of nightmare in the dark woods was odd to say the least. Being that they were and would always stay in the land of nightmare, suddenly appearing in the dark woods caused a shock to all of them. The kingdom, still broken due to the internal structure, was absolutely crushed by them. They lost over half of their population and even when they finally defeated them, the barrier and walls that ward off the monsters had been broken, causing thousands of monsters and hundreds of fiends to rush in and attack the last few remaining survivors."
"…So, how did you guys manage to stand back up and group up again?"
"That was a result of our leader's effort."
"And who's your leader"
"Just wait, I was going to get to that part in my narration."
"Oh, my bad." Sky said, putting his hand on the back of his neck. "Please continue."
"Well after the destruction of the everlasting kingdom, most people were scattered apart and died slowly, I was lucky and managed to keep running from danger. After 3 years, I met a group of people, who were knights of the everlasting kingdom, they were kind enough to let me join them and I continued to travel with them. We travelled and a few events happened but for the sake of my own privacy, I'll be skipping those. To summarise everything, I lost my group after 5 years and as I was about to be killed, that's when our leader saved me. She was an odd one, but strong and smart. Her name was Esther, she had grey hair and blue eyes.That's the best I can describe her."
"So you guys managed to create a large group under her influence?"
"No, we managed to create a kingdom."
"That's impressive." Sky responded, his eyebrows raising a bit in surprise. "But if she's really that smart and great, how could she have been tricked by the 'fiend rouges'?"
"She was busy during that time. I forgot the specifics but it involved dealing and warding off a group of fiends."
"And that's when the rogues attacked you or stole something from you? Wait, what did they even do to you guys for you to chase them? And why are you chasing them alone?"
"Well, to summarise it, after I went there we talked for them, I stayed around them, a lot of things happened, we saved a lot of people, made a camp for people. In total 7 years passed and we found a stone. Well, Esther's right hand man did it to be specific. The stone was large, almost bigger than me in size. This white stone had a white glow to it that could ward off monsters and even fiends. It was the item that allowed us to even create a kingdom in the first place, although the white stone required some source of energy from anything. We managed to somewhat fix that by using electricity on it directly to power it."
"And how did you create this constant source of electricity?"
The knight sighed as if asking if he had to explain this too.
"We make a person who has the ability to control electricity to some extent. We would weekly go to the land of storms and redirect the electricity to a unique item we had in hand, almost like a mini white stone that was similar to it but instead of it being able to use the energy to ward off monsters it could be used to strike enemies or anything with electricity. It was a bit bigger than a person's hand but much smaller than the white stone."
"That still doesn't answer 2 of my other questions."
"Well to answer your other questions, The fiend rouges tricked us not once, not twice but three times in a row. Their goal was to steal the white stone and they almost succeeded but thankfully our leader managed to figure out their plans even in a time of crisis and managed to fight them in the place where the stone resided. Unfortunately, the white stone was split into 2 pieces. And they managed to run off with the smaller piece. Even after the white stone was damaged it was working fine but due to the loss of parts of itself, the invisible shield that warded off the monsters and fiends had a few holes. While the others were killing the monsters that found these holes, Me and 4 other members were tasked to take the white stone back from them but unfortunately in the way here, we got tricked and they trapped us, resulting in the death of my other 4 teammates and I managed to escape by hiding in the shadows."
"And, you found this cave after your escape and you planned on resting for the night and you met me. Isn't that right?"
"Yes." The knight confirmed.
"Then do you injuries are minor or do you just heal your injuries really quickly?" Sky asked, curious.
"My injuries were not minor but not serious. It's just that my body heals faster the more damaged it is. It's my soul's manifestation." The knight said, his finger twitching in between his dialogue.
"Well, now that the explanation is out of the way, let's get to know each other. I'm Sky, what's your name?"
"…" the knight stayed quiet, hesitant to tell his name.
A sigh left Sky's mouth, as he said, "no need to tell me your name, just tell me a fake name or something to call you by."
"…" the knight stood quiet as if considering Sky's words. "My name is Kyle." The knight responded, his finger twitching.
"Well according to our agreement, we were supposed to separate and I was supposed to leave you alone but I don't think you'll point to where your kingdom is because you still distrust me, even if it's not too noticeable. So I'm just gonna follow you and I might even help you kill the fiend rouges or help you steal back the white stone."
"I don't need your he-"
"Oh shut up, you know you need my help, normally you could have probably just managed to do it if you had your squad but you fell for a trap and I doubt you want to return back to your kingdom as you don't wanna make their death have no meanings and you'll probably charge straight towards their base that you don't even know anything about and there is a very big chance you will die and their death and you death will be in vain." Sky responded, cutting off Kyle, midway.
"I-…" The knight tried to say something, but quickly stayed quiet.
"You are not in a state to refuse my help so just let me help you, worst case scenario I turn out to be from the fiend rouges and you die just like you would probably have if you had just gone and charged alone. I bet you don't even know where their base is so you'll probably die before even finding their base."
"…"
"You know I'm right don't you. You feel like arguing but you know deep down you need my help or someone's help to do what you want to do, that's why you are staying quiet aren't you? So that you don't ruin this chance of support even if you don't like it."
"…" the knight still kept quite staring at the floor. He raised his head up and looked at Sky's face and responded, "Yeah you're right. I don't like to accept your help but I do have 1 request."
"What is it?"
"Let me punch your face at least once for the beating you gave me yesterday."
Hearing this, Sky's eyebrows were raised a bit and a slight grin appeared on his face. "Sure why not." He said, accepting Kyle's condition. "But only after you recover."
"Sure." Kyle replied, accepting and respecting Sky's wish.
The sun had just begun to set, it seems like today's day was short.
"Do you have any water?" Sky asked Kyle, realising that going out to find water will be a bit risky right now.
"No I don't have it, not anymore." Kyle replied, looking a bit regretful. "I dropped it as I was escaping."
Sky sighed and took out his water canteen from his void, checking how much water he had.
The water canteen had barely enough water for a single mouthful. Seeing this, Sky drank all the water in one gulp and put the empty canteen inside his void. He then reached into his void and took out a yellow fruit that looked circular, similar to an individual fruit in a grape.
"Here have some" he said as he gave a handful to Kyle and kept a few to himself. "There's 13 pieces there, which should be enough to keep you hydrated for today as they contain a lot of water."
"…" Kyle looked at the grapes in his hand, holding it and looking at Sky for a while.
Another sigh left his mouth as he ate 1 of the fruit and swallowed it. 'I wonder how many times I sighed in this short amount of time?'
A loud crunch was heard as Kyle began to eat out loudly.
"After you eat the food, let me check up on your wounds," Sky requested Kyle.
"…" Kyle stared at Sky's face, considering his request. He was quiet for a while as he stared at Sky and then after a very long and awkward silence, he responded, "Sure."
'How awkward does this brat want any conversation between us be?' Sky thought, feeling irritated at Kyle's random and awkward silence.