1 Two Teenagers

A cold breeze swept through the land freezing all it encountered. A lizard stood near a worn road, and it ambled around looking for sustenance. Unfortunately, there were no bugs in the vicinity

Suddenly, a brutal force knocked it to the ground, run over it and fade away, the only evidence of its existence is the fractured body of the poor reptile.

"How long did we need to reach the gate of Talismania? " It is a sound from a teenager, blonde hair, lightly dress, his green eye barely able to open in front of the passing wind. He is sitting in a coach and while sticking his head out to have a conversation with the coachman, his hair got blown heavily by the wind.

"We still roughly 2 hours away from the city, Miseur" the coachman replied, even though he was barely able to move his lips. He is wearing multiple clothes and covering his whole body under a cloak, yet rubbing his hand to seek some heat. He is controlling the coach, letting the horses gallop toward the north.

"Achoo! The coachman said that we still need 2 hours to arrive at Talismania." apparently the youngster is not immune to cold, he might just forget to put on his gear before he puts his head out. He closed the wooden window and picked up the halved-open romance that he read beforehand.

"Nice, but we must hurry up. We must go through the Faust walkway before winter catches up" the one who replied to him is a teenager that as young as him. Cover in cloak just like the coachman, only some brown hair come out from the cloak. He was cleaning his sword with oil, maintaining its brightness. "And I remember that I told you, you should always keep your clothing on whenever you are, don't undermine then breeze in this land."

The blonde lay his hand over the others' neck, drag him over and said, "Come on Vati, Mister Winter still take 1 month to arrive, there had no way we can't get away before that." despite him doing such a huge movement, the novel was still being held firmly in his hand. "Vati" the other teenager had expected such an impolite action and quickly put his sword away, to avoid injuring anyone.

"Igor, how many time did I need to tell you that my name is Vaterian not "Vati", Maybe my father had the privilege to call me like that, but it does not belong to you" Vaterian push Igor's hand away and correct its error, although the word is tough but there had no anger shown in his tone and face.

He took a look at the book Igor holding and said "it seems like the wind had blown your book, turn to page 183 there's where you stop". Igor quickly look at his novel, after finding out that what Vaterian said was true, he quickly turned his book to those pages.

"It's because you keep reading these sorts of books so that you keep failing in the exam," said Vaterian. "You don't understand the greatness of love! That's why your life is so boring! and it's not like I not doing well at all exams, I perform very well at sports and art!" Igor tries to argue with Vaterian.

"Don't speak like you had been in a relationship before, I still remember how heavily you cried after getting rejected. And really? you are showing off your result in front of me?" Igor instantly get exhausted after hearing it, he lay on the wooden bench.

Vaterian saw Igor behaviour but didn't take it into account, he continued his word " yes exactly that the winter still takes 1 month to arrive, however, we need to count on the time we need to pass through Talismania, those watchdog from Von Talismania had a very good sense of smell, they won't let us go through their territory such easily."

"But you are so intelligent, you must have a plan before we sit on this carriage, isn't it? You must have a couple of ways to bring us out from this situation." Igor sounds not worried about the issue Vaterian bring out, he just quickly flew over his novel and reply to Vaterian.

"By the grace of Selania, why did I choose you to follow me along the way when I can choose Einhaven or Alexandro, even Katherina is better than you" Vaterian cover his face under his hand and express his emotion with full disappointment. "at least they can give me some help."

"But still you have chosen to carry me with you, there had no way back, if you bring Katherina here, she will also wait for your order. Not as an insult but I just far better, at least I told you I don't have a plan." "Fair point at the second half but I don't think Katherina would be that passive, she is an Independent Lady." Said Vaterian, noticing the change in Igor's tone, He brought his conversation further away "I did have a plan on breaching the line of defence" "just said it out loud, I will listen to it." Igor was excited but it doesn't seem he paid much attention to Vaterian's word.

"We will approach the city like a wolf and remain silent as the owl approaches its prey, then..." "then?" "We pull out our sword at clear a way out with our advance skill in sword fight!" Vaterian shout it out loudly with a serious face, which quickly brings panic to Igor" You must be kidding me? this is the plan you come out from your brain? the brain that brought you to the first position in the class? you are the best guy in our warfare lesson, you must have a better solution!"

Igor grabbed Vaterian's shoulder and shouted at him the huge movement caused his hood to fall off, showing the face cover underneath, a clean face without facial hair, the long brown hair been nicely tied together, a pair of sapphire-like eyes looking at Igor like he is an idiot.

As the coach start moving again after the incident, Vaterian replied to Igor's doubt "you don't believe that we can find our way out through some exciting sword fight? mister "second place in sword-wielding". We are the top 2 in class, of course, there had no one able to stop us."

"And that was indeed a joke, I can't believe you take it seriously, I started to doubt that your brain only consists of Romance." "It is because of you! You said that joke with a dead serious face which cause me to believe you" Igor take his hand off Vaterian's shoulder and sit back to his seat, however, the clothing that he takes off had stacked up between him and Vaterian and caused him some trouble.

" I thought that 8 years of education in Karlsburg Military Academy didn't rip all the muscle filled in your head. It almost made me doubt that education in our nation had gone so wrong." "Maybe, but I think the joke pulled off just because of your lack of humour" Vaterian picked up the book that fall on the floor, and quickly flip over the pages as he was mocking Igor. "Now I would bring up the true plan, I hope you pay full attention to it." Vaterian stop smiling and close the book in his hand, making a noise that attracts Igor's attention. "Yes", few words express more.

After ensuring Igor was listening to him Vaterian started to speak "As we close to the gate of Talismania we will let the coach return to where it came, and we walk into the city with our owns feet..."

"Wait a minute? with our foot are you serious? I felt like is more possible to kill all the guards in the city than walking through the whole Faust walkway barefoot! it just takes such a long time!" Unable to believe what he heard, Igor questioned it in full volume.

"Keep yourself calm and don't interrupt me, mister Igor, you are no longer a beggar or farmer, behave like what you represent," Vaterian warned Igor over his behaviour, making sure he won't do a similar thing to the public.

"If you don't expect this to happen? then those dogs won't expect it either." Vaterian adjusted its posture to a comfortable position and said "Anyone who uses coach or horse to go through Faust walkway will always draw the attention from the guard, they are either noble or wealthy. I believe those bloodhounds would pay full attention to the guy who made them earn one less Julius for the day."

Vaterian take a sip from the water inside of his bottle and explain it further "that's why we should go in by foot, once we have gone into the city, we can find ourselves a caravan to blend in and follow their way out from Faust walkway, I hope that you didn't forget what you had learnt from our Mathematic class, it will be very important later on."

"Stop taking me like an idiot! Of course, I had become a master of calculating after 8 years of Mathematic education" Igor seems a little angry on Vaterian keep taking him as a man with low intelligence. "What's 10+9?" "21!"

Igor gave Vaterian a wrong answer. In purpose of course, quite obviously. The two teenagers, who sit in the coach laugh. The high tension in the atmosphere, lighten and fade away along with the wind.