Some small headaches incoming!

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Chapter 5:

I Come in Peace

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'Ah...

It is that dream again...

Standing right next to Death, looking over a field of flowers.

The scent... The serenity...

This...

This is a good dream.'

Eriss kept thinking those words -even though she felt this was not exactly as she remembered it- as she stood in the middle of a flowery sea. The wind blew mildly from the front, which brought a strong scent of vanilla and strawberries. The shadowy figure that stood no more than two metres to her right, wore a thin -almost translucent- black robe. Along its edges, a stream of white, silvery, liquid continuously flowed from the top of the hood, to the bottom of the thin robe. The loose sleeves had this pattern, too, but the streams instead flowed to the opposite direction of each other: one to the left, and one to the right... Around... And around...

"I see you're just in time. Had any... Fun?"

She felt a shiver down her spine as the words easily rolled out of the hood containing nothing but pure void and a set of red eyes. Eriss felt an intense stare from the shadowy blur, even if she couldn't exactly see how Death managed look at her while still facing the field of flowers.

"Why am I here?.." Eriss felt a headache arise from the back of her head as she heard her own, high-pitched voice, and immediately tried to hold her head while crouching down.

'Ah... Right, I was...'

A reverberating cackle came from the robe. What was the sound bouncing off of?  Death then turned his face to Eriss and she could clearly see the outlines of the countenance this time. The discovery scared her, and another headache came as she could only continue to hold her head while looking down on the white flowers underneath her.

"Why... Do you... Look exactly like..."

The pain subsided and she sighed in relief. The hazy shadow cackled again for a good minute -must have been something really funny- before his deep voice escaped the hood.

"Like you?... Ah! My apologies. Like you used to?" I...- He cackled again for a while until he decided to continue. Will he ever tell the joke? "I think you know the answer to that. Is this not... Your  dream?"

Death spoke in questions, and it started to piss Eriss off, but she showed no signs of retaliating. The shadowy robe let out a deep sigh that sounded closer to numerous wailing voices echoing upon each other, as he then turned back to face the serene flower bed. Eriss, still crouching down, wanted to say something, but Death interrupted her before she even opened her mouth.

"Everything is but an illusion, just like this dream. Eyes decieve, and ears hear lies."

"..."

"Oh but I'm real." Death answered the girl's thought with a cackle as he seemingly dissapeared and then appeared right in front of her. "I'm just as real as the next illusion is not. And that 'illusion'  is just as real as me. All it takes... Is just a bit of imagination."

"Then... What am I?"

A sensation entered Eriss. A feeling that the dark hood smiled at her question. That he wanted her to ask this.

"Oh.. You don't know that yet? Then I guess it can't be helped huh... I guess I have to..."

With the flick of his hand, the landscape changed, and Eriss now stood, together with Death, in the middle of a grassy field that reached up above her knees. The scenery confused her.

"What if I told you... That we have not moved an inch? Yet, the field of view is completely different, right? Flowers... Then grass... How do we know that this is the illusion, while the other is not? Because you saw that first?"

Another headache creeped up on Eriss as the shadowy figure cackled maniacly right next to her. Irritated and confused over what he had said, and over what it could be that was so funny to him, Eriss cried out.

"This doesn't tell me anything! What about an illusion!? What about a reality!? What I see is what I-"

"...And yet, here you are once again... Like always."

The next words uttered by Death was exactly what she didn't want to hear. She hastily tried to turn around, screaming 'wait!', but the dream turned pitch-dark as she only heard a faint, echoing, laugh in the distance.

*-*-*-*-*

"Dear! Dear! She woke up! Hurry!"

The plump woman ran down the stairs in her red dress and into the kitchen where her burly spouse currently stood naked, only clad in a white flowery apron -hopefully doing the cooking and nothing shady- that reached down to his feet.

"Is that so! Well then, Magda! Let's see what the little mud monster did in the Red forest!"

"Not like that! Now hurry up and get dressed or I'll put an attire on you myself!"

Magda watched the man walk out of the kitchen, chuckling 'hahaha! Is that so... Is that so!'  while turning left to enter a room by the foot of the stairs. The woman mentally sighed while walking back up the stairs, towards the room she had once dashed out of.

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'Someday his negligence will get his head chopped off...'

She thought he had already done something dangerous when she found her husband walking in with a muddy girl in his arms two nights ago. In the middle of the night, no less! But after his explanation she had calmed down and took the job of taking care of the unconscious girl. The girl may only be fifteen, but that was even more of a reason to care for her looks.

Opening the door, Magda glanced at the bed in the corner. A girl -clad in an oversized white dress- sat up in the bed with a dazed look in her green, almond-shaped eyes. The back of her black, luster hair -thanks to the bath Magda had given her- covered her ears and reached down to right under her neck, while her bangs reached down to each side of her eyes, which framed her delicate countenance that sat upon the slender neck connecting with her shoulders. The thin arms that were currently holding her head seemed to hold more strength than Magda could assess. The rest of her body was under the blue blanket, but during the washing of her body, Magda had seen her modest chest and all the scars on her slim, curvy, body, not to mention the dirty wounds along the slender legs. Once cleaned, her fair skin contrasted with her dark hair.

Looking at the body hidden beneath the blanket, Magda assumed that she couldn't have been taller than 165cm.

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Waking up, Eriss felt a lingering pain in the back of her head. Still trying to make sense of it all, she mumbled to herself, completely ignoring where she currently was, or who the round woman that ran out of the room while spouting gibberish was. Later coming to her senses, a tall, muscular man with a fuzzy-looking moustache, sat on the other end of the bed, wearing nothing but red trousers -probably running around saving princesses, too- while staring at her. Eriss decided to ask her supposed saviors.

"Where... Am I?"

The man ignored his wife's comment about 'his attire is scaring the litte girl senseless'  and the follow-up 'Look she already lost her ability to speak!'  and spoke in a soothing voice towards the girl in front of him.

"Are you okay? Do you remember who you are?"

Eriss only heard gibberish, then understood the problem as she looked at the frantic woman yelling something at the man.

'Of course they can't understand me! Something so convenient as no language barrier doesn't exist! Shit... I must be calm in these situations to not make any misunderstandings. Let's see...'

She waved with her hands to get the two residents of this world to stop, then point at her and spoke slowly.

"I... Come in... Peace."

Eriss smiled as she saw the look in the man's eyes. It seemed like he might have understood! The man then furrowed his brows and repeated something that she recognized she herself had just recently said.

"Aiiee... Kamin... Peeees..."

Then the man's face lit up, as he rose from the bed and screamed joyfully to his wife, who also looked happy with the words.

"KAMIN! Kamin Peeees!"

'No... No no no no! What is with that broken english!? Who's Kamin!? No! What are you doing?! HEY! WAIT!'

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"Aiiee... Kamin... Peeees..."

Matt furrowed his brows as he pondered on the three words the little angel had uttered. She seemed too calm to be hurt, so she must be fine for now, even if her language was definitely not from this country.

'Could she have been an escaping slave, then? I don't know what "Aiiee" means, but Kamin... Kamin... I feel like I've heard that from somewhere...'

"Kamin Peeees... Dear! Isn't that the neighbouring country's current ruler!?"

'Is it now?... Kamin... Peeees... Wait!..'

"YOU'RE RIGHT! KAMIN! Kamin Peeees is indeed the neighbouring king! If he hears that our liege is in possession of his runaway child I am SURE that he'll be overjoyed! And we would be rewarded with fame! Andrigor the third and him always seemed to be on good terms during the coronations!"

Running out of the room, Matt left the girl related to Kamin in Magda's care, and made his way out the backdoor of the building and then turned right to the main road, passing the front of the building he owned. A sign that read: 'Matt's Moon Inn'  was hanging over the wooden door.

'That soldier... Where is he?.. Where- Ah!'

"Hey guard! I have a promotion for you today!"

The guard, puzzled over the eccentric behaviour, turned around to face the burly Innkeeper.

"Matt! What may I own the pleasure of talking with you today?"

"Stop the formalities! Quick! I have a message to the king, and I need someone I can trust to keep this confidential up until that moment! You see! It seems we have found-"

"Oh!" Matt's trusted friend interrupted. "If it's to the king, then why don't you just put it on the next carriage towards the capital? It should arrive any hour from now, actually."

"...Do you have some shackles?"

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I had a hard time to think of how I should have conveyed the two languages.

Your convenience came first, which mean I'll probably go back and explain further along the road if anything ever feels unclear!