Amon finally stirred as a sharp, throbbing pain pulsed at the back of his head. The surface jolted beneath him, sending little nagging shocks through his body, as if he were bouncing along a rough road in a cheap vehicle.
"Argh," he groaned as he leaned up on his elbows in the wherever surface he was in. His hand went to his forehead, tracing the dried blood that still clung stubbornly to his skin.
As his vision cleared, he took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a soft, purple cushion. In front of him was a polished carriage door with a small window, the black and purple interior glowing faintly under soft lantern light.
He tried to piece together what the hell had just happened.
Then he felt the gazes from the opposite seat, three figures huddled together, eyes wide with anxiety. Amon's sharp blue eyes narrowed, and he instinctively combed back the loose strands of his hair with blood-streaked fingers.
"Who the hell is dare-" He froze, dumbfounded, finishing the sentence in a soft, almost unbelieving tone: "…to hit me?" His body stiffened, every muscle taut with a mixture of irritation and disbelief.
"Huh?"
What he saw was… absurd. Completely, impossibly absurd. Three trembling figures clung to each other on the opposite seat. Amon stared, unable to find words that could describe the impossible scene before him.
"Oi, oi, he's staring at us," the one in the middle squeaked. It wore a ragged purple robe, and… it was a talking skeleton. Yes, no flesh or blood, just bones wrapped in tattered fabric.
"Neh, sure he's the guy?" said the one on the left, a young boy with sharp wolf ears, clutching the poor skeleton even tighter as if it might vanish.
"You fools," said the one on the right, a dark-skinned girl with pointed ears, her voice sharp but panicked as she, too, hugged the skeleton. "Does he seem like the guy we were supposed to find? It seems like we picked up the wrong one. See… I think this is the hero candidate."
Amon just stared. He had faced countless bizarre situations in his life, from palace intrigues to blood-soaked rebellions, but nothing…nothing had prepared him for this.
The three stiffened the moment the girl said "hero candidate." Amon exhaled slowly, letting his shoulders drop. He placed his legs firmly on the floor, took a deep breath, and combed the loose, blood-streaked strands of hair off his forehead.
Then, against all reason, he broke out laughing.
"Ha… ha… ha! I see. I understand now," he said, leaning back into the seat with one arm draped casually over the backrest. His laughter echoed softly in the carriage. "I'm just dreaming. To think… I'm this tired, dreaming something so absurd."
The three of them stared at Amon as if he had grown a second head, frozen in place, clearly terrified to do anything.
"Neh," the pointed-ears girl muttered, her voice sharp with frustration. "What are we doing? We should be scaring him, not being scared of him. We are villains, after all."
The skeleton in the middle bobbed its skull in agreement, while the wolf-eared boy cleared his throat and straightened up, releasing the skeleton from his tight clutch. "Hey, kid!" he called out, raising his voice. Amon, whose head had been resting lazily against the back of the seat, slowly lifted it to look down at them.
The wolf boy visibly winced at the piercing intensity of Amon's blue eyes but pressed on. "S-state your name!" he demanded, trying to sound commanding despite the fear threading through his tone.
"Huh?" Amon responded, disbelief lacing his voice. State his name? He leaned forward, studying the three odd figures before him.
"Do you… not know who I am?" he asked, incredulity sharpening each word. That was unacceptable. On Earth or in the Kingdom of Deimos, there was no way someone could be unaware of him. After all, his name regularly dominated news headlines, scandals, and rumors alike.
"N… no?" the skeleton rattled, its teeth clattering nervously.
Amon arched an eyebrow, leaning back again and raising his chin as if to look down on the three. "Ah… I guess you can't recognize me because of my appearance right now. I am Amon Deimos," he said, his voice carrying an undeniable weight of authority.
But the three looked utterly unimpressed, their faces blank, as if the words meant nothing to them.
"Unforgivable," Amon finally scoffed as his patience frayed. His voice rose, tinged with disbelief. "Even if this is a dream… not knowing my name is a crime!"
"Do we… know Amon Deimos?" the wolf boy asked nervously, glancing at the others.
"No, we don't," the skeleton said, its jaw rattling in a hollow, dry sound. And that was all it had to say.
In an instant, Amon lunged like a panther, his movements were impossibly fast. He grabbed the poor skeleton by its neck bone, lifting it effortlessly and slamming it against the carriage wall. The skeleton's empty eye sockets stared blankly at him, helpless.
"Then you shall know now," Amon said coldly. With a swift flick of his wrist, the neck bone snapped with a sharp crack. The other two screamed at once, in a high-pitched and panicked tone, stumbling back toward the opposite seat as Amon tossed the remaining bones to the floor.
This was not a dream. Amon knew it. For a fleeting moment, he had considered that possibility, but the sensations were too vivid. There was no escaping it. This was happening, right here, right now.
He turned slowly to face the other two, who now knelt on the floor, clinging to each other as if their very lives depended on it. "You will explain," Amon said threateningly as his piercing blue eyes glared down at them.
"W-we're so sorry-" the girl began with a trembling voice.
"Where am I?" Amon interrupted, combing his loose golden hair back from his forehead with one blood-streaked hand. Damn it… Where's my hair ribbon?
"Okay… so it's a long story-" the girl tried again, but Amon's patience had already evaporated.
"EXPLAIN SHORTLY!" he snapped.
The wolf boy gulped, his ears twitching nervously, and blurted out in a rush, "So… basically, we were driving, and you were just… there! We tried to stop the carriage, but you got so close, and then… the horse kicked you! You fainted, so we picked you up!" His ears twitched anxiously as he hugged the girl closer, eyes squeezed shut in fear.
Amon let out a long, exasperated sigh, his lips curling slightly. This… absurdity of a situation just kept getting stranger by the second.
"So… you are kidnappers," Amon said flatly. The other two didn't dare meet his gaze, they just stared at the floor.
"Yes," they muttered in defeated tones.