Suta POV

Suta eyed the unknown new area with a mixture of apprehension and marvel. With the little Knight leading the way, he was half-confident about his footsteps and also nervous about what sort of troubles may befall them at any moment.

There stood a golden road, trailing away into a dark woodland. Ser Ector was adamant that they followed it, suggesting it was the quickest route to the lagoon. Giving the cyan meadows one lasting look, he shrugged his two shoulders before gesturing towards the little knight to lead the way.

Suta passed by the roots of thick trees almost 10 meters high. He watched throngs of these same thick roots wove into one another like a cluster of vines. And separately, also paid a great attention to the larger creatures appearing the further they walked into the woodland.

"Hey, tell me a little about this Queen Mother then ?" Suta asked with wide eyes practically taking in his every surroundings .

"S-s-sire? Oh, right. Our Gracious Mother? well, she was noble, incredibly majestic, fair in judgement, and in the same breath, unfathomably terrifying." Ser Ector explained, his clattering pieces of armor had been the constant echoing sound traveling alongside them during this journey.

Suta found those choices of words alarming, he quickly removed his wandering gaze away from the unique clover-coifed leaves.

"Was she...strong?" he asked the little knight, Ser Ector bounced its closed helmet a few times

"The strongest of them all, a-a-actually I shouldn't say, oh gosh but I've said it now, but I really shouldn't" He could hear the little fellow doing that thing he does when he questions whether or not it was proper to reveal a secret he nestled closely.

"Yes...go on..." Suta urged him,

"W-w-well, you-you didn't hear this from me, sire. But....but I was informed, there was one other who was considered stronger than our benevolent mother." He whispered the last part

"Your secret dies with me noble knight" He gave a soldier's salute whilst crossing his two fingers behind his back. Just in case superstitions were true within this world filled with magic.

"We-well-y-you see sire, they say...ahem...the prince was even stronger than our Mother."

'The prince? didn't that distrusting feline call me that before?' He asked himself, smoothing his chin whilst he recalled that large painting against the wall behind those two thrones.

"A-and what happened between this Prince and your M-mother then?"

"The most devastating tragedy happened sire, after falling in love and securing the great lands of Candy for our gracious Mother. The Prince suddenly vanished! Without a trace of his existence left behind. Our Mother mourned his departure for several moons and as a result of her wails. It drove her into madness sire. Such a terrible tragedy indeed."

Suta listened silently, focusing on any piece of information about these two rulers of this mystique land.

"Did you ever meet this Prince? what was he like?"

"He was perfect! so kind and so graceful. We've all met him, we, the inhabitants of Candy Sire. I can't quite tell you when, but we all remember his song. It's the song of the most perfect dawn, to which our sins were turned into Golden memories, and thus we were made anew."

This entire tale sounded completely unusual but that wasn't out of place considering where he was right now. What Suta was hoping to get out of all of this was a clear understanding of who the rulers of this world were, and why both he and Demoria held this strange resemblance to the high populace of this place. Well, at least to these animals they did anyway

"This song you remember hearing. Care to share how it goes?"

"Er-w-well-erm-ahem...I...I can't really remember sire, but I do recall a single line from it."

Suta stared down at the little guy without blinking.

"Al-alright-ahem! here goes...!

"All Hail Abbra, chosen son of the dawn, unblemished prince, whose love shrills the darkest hearts of all, all hail Abbra, the benevolent one of all."

Suta's mood darkened, this place was strange, and clearly filled with countless strange things he doesn't understand, 'The Prince...the Mother...and now this lineage of dawn business sigh ...One step at a time Suta, one step at a time.'

2 miles further east...

Suta and his tiny knight companion reached a slightly elevated hill overlooking a vast, endless sea.

Not far from where they stood, a beautiful, green, shallow brook shimmered beneath the cloudless sky. White, narrow shoals of land separated the tranquil lagoon from the dark blue waters of the open sea. Beyond the lagoon, Suta's gaze was drawn to a distant island, its landscape rising into the sky, adorned with a vibrant crowd of violet and amber trees.

As he narrowed his eyes to get a better look, Suta was met with a harrowing sight.

At first, he wasn't quite sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but upon closer inspection, he was almost certain he could see a number of large silhouettes roaming the skies above this island. Their wingspans were wide and misshapen, reminiscent of crude reptilian creatures. Strangely, their bodies seemed almost human in proportion, with irregular, long feet pointing downwards.

Swallowing harshly, Suta gave his little companion an uneasy look before slowly lifting his finger towards the island.

"Wh-what… what are those things over there?"

The tiny knight replied, "Hn? Eh-th-those are the Cold Creatures' minions, sire. They are horrid pests whom you should try to avoid at all costs. But more importantly, you never want to be caught around their nests during an eclipse. In fact, s-s-sire, you don't want to be outside at all during such times. Which reminds me, we should make haste to complete this quest and return to the castle!" The diminutive knight punctuated his statement with a small salute.

'Ah, so he's taking this journey as a small quest. How noble and adorable,' Suta thought to himself, with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. However, his brows quickly furrowed as he processed the knight's words.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

'Cold Creatures?' He could only frown upon hearing such a name, silently admonishing the increasing frequency of dangerous-sounding things appearing around him..

'Tsk! It's only a matter of time until something unusual appears isn't it,' Suta mused depressingly to himself, almost certain of the inevitability. This realization even prompted him to question his eagerness towards exploring this world for answers in the first place.

'Maybe it's within my nature?' He pondered, recalling his unnatural thirst for high-adrenaline sports back in his own world. 'No, no, no, I shouldn't entertain that thought. Usually, when someone starts thinking about that kind of stuff, that's when—'

Suddenly, a screeching whine hallowed, with a eerie echo piercing the peaceful skies. He caressed a sinking feeling as his heart fell into his stomach, as though he fell off a high rising cliff and descended to his doom, Suta's gaze quickly shot up towards the empty air in a hurried haste.

He searched the sea of cyan velvet, finding nothing but the discolored grey clouds gently wading. Moments later, the snarling screech sounded again but this time its echo clapped against the air even louder, seemingly originating from the air itself again.

Tossing his frantic stare towards the heavens, Suta still found nothing but the empty expanse.

'But where is it? I… I can't…'

"Sire! Get down!" Ser Ectors desperate call sent a shiver running down his spine, and without a second thought, Suta dove straight towards the ground, his heart almost falling into his stomach as he felt a sharp wind agonizingly carving the space where his head had been moments before. A surge of wind tore over him, the gale moving so quickly that Suta initially thought something had burned the skin off his back.

He ended up skidding harshly on all fours, the pain biting into his palms, but the adrenaline kept his mind poised, allowing Suta to gather himself quite quickly. He spun around hastily to get a better look at the assailant. The moment he beheld the creature behind him, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

'What the hell is that?'

With a look of horror plastered against his face, Suta blinked a few times in quick succession in a blank daze.

A slender, ghoulish creature dressed in ragged heavy clothes with worn white wrappings stood clearly in his view. The ghoul's head was longer than a normal human's, with most of its face covered in thick, pale wrappings, starkly reminding Suta of a mummy. Between the uneven gaps, he could see bits of the creature's greyish-black skin underneath.

'Th-that's not human? B-but how did it...?'

The long face stretched its maw obscenely wide, revealing rows of jagged, discolored teeth. Suta felt his skin crawl the more he observed the horrific-looking being. This was the very first time he had encountered such a noticeable threat. He could feel a real sense of looming danger just from staring at the nightmarish creature. By instinct, he found his feet retreating, but before he could say another word, he heard the sound of iron and the equally surprising scene of the tiny fellow placing itself between him and the strange creature.

"S-s-sire, st-st-stay back... I w-won't be long." Despite likely being the least believable words Suta could remember hearing, the short fellow didn't seem scared, and its next action would trump Suta's previous shock.

It held out its little arm, and in a few moments, a conjuring of fragmented azure shards gathered and formed into a long silver lance. Noticeably, the lance itself looked incredibly long and weighted, stirring a mixture of deep wonder within Suta as he couldn't work out how in the world that tiny fellow could even manage to carry something of that size.

'That's... completely OP, no?'

To answer his startled thoughts, the little fellow angled the disproportionately large lance a little ahead of itself. Suta could've sworn he merely blinked once before seeing the tiny figure vanishing from its earlier spot, only to reappear right in front of the creature in seconds. The ghoulish fiend made a low snarl and raised one of its bony black arms over its head, its entire forearm morphing into a greyish, crude blade before slashing down.

The little fellow tossed its arm forward, pushing the tall lance ahead. Matching both the speed and timing of the thrusted attack, the nightmarish creature slashed downward.

PENG

Their attacks met at the same time, causing the overbearing-looking lance to ricochet off what Suta grew troubled to see, was an equally sturdy force from the creature itself.

The attack slightly pushed them both a few feet away, but the tiny fellow, clearly the nimbler of the two, dashed ahead moments later. Another bullish gore with its lance charged relentlessly towards the creature, which seemingly had no time to ready itself for another parry. Instead, its body made a strange movement, almost like a sidestep, but the motion was too strange to accurately follow with his eyes. Missing its mark completely, the little fellow was descending midair when the nightmarish creature swung its arm out, its arm once again morphing into that crudely shaped scythe.

Seeing this, Suta felt his heart tighten.

'He can't dodge that! Damn it - he's in trouble.'

Despite being able to anticipate the likely outcome, Suta knew he was powerless to do anything about it. Both his instincts and his heightened sense of survival kicked in. At this moment, he could only roar a desperate charge into the air.

"HEY! Dodge it!"

Suta heard himself, but he already felt his outcry was too slow to spur a quick enough response. He watched in horror as the crude weapon bore closer to its mark. But at the last possible moment, he noticed the lance suddenly dispersing into those cyan shards once more. This time, however, the shards swiftly gathered between the point of contact and the little fellow. A dazzling silver shield with azure engravings materialized. Suta could barely contain his relief, almost managing a stiff smile, watching the shield manage to block the incoming attack.

The little fellow landed on his feet and held out his short arm again. The shield turned into azure shards and formed back into that steel lance. The tiny fellow wasted no time and lunged forward, his attack skimming past the fiend's head, but he managed to withdraw it back quickly enough to avoid the expected counter from the creature.

Their movements were a blur of speed and precision. The tiny warrior wielded the oversized lance with unbelievable skill, parrying and thrusting with a grace that belied its size. The nightmarish creature, in turn, morphed its arms into various crude-shaped weapons, with each one of its unpredictable strikes aimed to kill.

Sparks flew as the lance clashed against the creature's twisted appendages, the sound of metal against metal echoed a clash of firm together. Suta's heart raced, his eyes wide, unable to follow their movements, but still filled with this strange fire of excitement as he watched the furious exchange of blows.

'Is this really happening? Am I dreaming?'

But the pain in his palms from his earlier fall, coupled with the wind whipping against his face served as stark reminders that this was no dream. This was his new reality, a world where magic was as real as the ground beneath his feet and the air in his lungs.

As the battle raged on, Suta found himself marveling at the little the little fellow the most, Se ectors courage and skill in particular was admirable =. Despite its diminutive size, it stood its ground against the monstrous creature, never faltering, never wavering.

'I can't believe this... That little guy is incredible!' A wry smile managed to crease against his slightly paled mask

The clash of weapons intensified, and the pace of the battle reached a fever pitch. Suta's breath caught in his throat as the lance and the creature's blades met in a shower of sparks, the force of the impact sending both combatants skidding backward once more.

For a moment, they stood facing each other, the little fellow's iron chest heaving, with heavy mumbled breaths escaping through its closed visor. The creature's wrappings fluttered in the breeze. Droplets of black blood dotted the ground. It was wounded.

Then, with a roar that sent shivers down Suta's spine, they charged forward once more, ready to continue their deadly dance.