Five great Kings

Jo opened his eyes and saw that his environment was not what it was some moment before everything became a blur. He looked to the side and saw a familiar face staring at him.

"You're awake Captain" Amelia said with happiness.

"What happened?" Jo asked as he tried to stand up.

"We have made camp for now. You should rest. Let me Inform the doctor". She said as she made Jo lay down.

She went out and came back with the doctor and three others. The doctor briefly checked on him and after a while she confirmed he was fine.

"Thanks doc". Jo said.

"You can excuse us for a while."

The doctor bowed and left the tent leaving Jo, Jane, Mickey, Amelia and Zachary.

"What happened after I fainted?" Jo asked seeing the look on everyone's face.

"I think it's best if I explain everything" Jane said and started narrating.

Few hours ago after the battle...

Zachary had come back with the news that he had sighted a magical beast. Since the captain was out of commission, Mickey was the next in rank to take charge. He walked towards Zachary and held his shirt, what exactly did you see, you dumb baby he said.

"Leave him alone, Lieutenant Tulley, it was obvious whatever he saw had him spooked. We need to leave here quickly" Jane suggested.

Mickey left Zachary's shirt and was about to give an order when a voice spoke from above.

"There's no need to be in a hurry" the voice said.

They all looked up and saw a man, or what looked like a man. He had the appearance of a slender man with brown hair but his antenna, wings and the eyes on his forehead said he was anything but human.

It didn't take any special means to tell them they were speaking with a magical beast.

" He can talk Jane thought, he's definitely a strong magical beast if he was able to learn human speech".

"I'm Le'llda, the Ont" The beast said with a polite bow. Mickey grabbed his sword ready to fight but Amelia held his hand and shook her head, she didn't say anything but her actions spoke volume

"You should listen to her, she's wise enough to know how this will end if we do anything but talk" Le'llda said.

"What do you want?" Jane asked

"I don't want anything, not from you anyways, I'm just here to ask you a question." He said

"We're you the one that was responsible for those things" Jane asked.

"Oh, those? They are my children Le'llda replied. They were born from my blood he said cutting himself with his sharp nails, his blood feel on the floor and from it came a beast that looked like the ones they just fought off."

They all stared in shock and horror.

"You are the beast that has been roaming around the fort" Jane said.

"Well you say it like I'm intruding, while it's your fort that's standing in my territory."

"What do you mean? Jane asked. This wilderness is a border between two kingdoms". Jane said.

"Yes, I forgot how you humans act like you're the only species in the world. Such crazy creatures" he said.

They all stared at him like he was talking crazy

"What did you want to ask?" Jane asked

"It's simple really, was it your people that took the sly fox Sune?" He asked.

"Who's that?" they all asked in confusion.

"Well she's one of the five Kings of this wilderness, she was taken a while ago and it was crazy because none of the other Kings sensed her aura spiking from a battle. It was as if she just dropped from the surface of the world.

Was it you people?" He asked again.

"No it wasn't Jane replied, we are actually trying to look for the people doing it" Jane replied.

"Oh, is that so Le'llda said. I guess I shouldn't have avoided her then he whispered to himself."

"Ok then, you guys can carry on, I pray you find the culprits on time" he added and started flying away.

"Stop! Mickey said, where do you think you are going after putting our captain in that state?" Mickey said. He drew his sword and was about to attack when Amelia drew her weapon and moved to stop him.

"Move Amelia, or else I'll cut you down first" he said.

"You can't put everyone in danger because of your selfishness Mickey, the Captain is fine, let him go, no harm no foul."

"No harm? The captain is lying unconscious and you are saying no harm?"

"Move Amelia else I cut you down" Mickey warned.

"You can let him come Le'llda said. It's been a while since I crushed a little bug".

Mickey was now angered and was about to cut Amelia down when Jane dragged Amelia out of the way.

"Let him go Amelia, Jane said. He's just being a child, if he wants to throw tantrums let him, children learn their lessons eventually". Mickey heard Jane's words and gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Damn it!!" he screamed He walked away and withdrew his sword.

"Tsk, How disappointing" Le'llda said and flew away.

After narrating everything Jo looked at all of them before speaking.

"You made the right choice not fighting him Mickey. It would have been reckless if you did. I'm sorry for making you guys worry". Jo said

"No problem Captain" Amelia replied.

"What should we do now Captain?" Jane asked.

Jo thought for a while and spoke. "I think we'll need his help, he seems to know about the missing beast. If we can get his help, it will make our job easier".

"Ask help from someone that attacked us? That's crazy" Mickey said.

"I think Mickey is right on this one Captain, what if he betrays us and attacks us again." Amelia replied

"From what you guys told me, he's also investigating the Kidnap of the magical beast. We can help each other.

Do you know where he went?" Jo asked.

"We don't know". Jane replied.

"Actually he's still close by" Amelia said.

What? You mean he's still around and you didn't tell us" Mickey said.

"Well yes, and I didn't tell you because I don't trust you not to go and fight him you dumb head." Amelia said.

"Enough you two, this is not the time for fighting". Jo said.

"Take me to him Amelia" Jo Ordered and Amelia led the way. The others wanted to follow but Jo ordered the to stay back, much to Mickey's disappointment.

Jo and Amelia moved away from the camp and went further, away from the others. They got to a place with their camp still visible in the distance and they saw Le'llda sitting on a large rock.

Jo told Amelia to stay back and he went to meet with Le'llda.

"I knew you would come" Le'llda said as he stared at Jo.

"I'm Le'llda", he introduced himself.

"I'm Captain Jo Kindel" Jo replied.

"Well Captain, what do you want to do now" Le'llda asked.

"I believe you also what to find the person responsible for the missing beasts." Jo said

"You know you humans are interesting creatures Le'llda actually said.

You are always acting like you care but underneath all that is a grand selfish interest. You don't care about beast going missing. You care about, someone using it against you, you care about how it will affect your lives. If the missing beast doesn't affect your base in anyway. Will I still have a Captain as a guest in the wilderness?" Le'llda asked.

"Then, what is your own unselfish interest in this?" Jo asked.

Le'llda looked at him for a while before laughing.

"You caught me, I'm also after my own interests, but I believe it's best if you don't know what they are. For now we'll help each other find out who is behind the missing Magical beasts. So what do you have" Le'llda asked.

"No, you share first Jo said. You're stronger, if I go first you can decide not to share and I'll not be able to stop you".

"You're a very smart one Le'llda" said with a smirk.

"Well, this is what I know. The wilderness consists of over a hundred magical beasts and even more than five times that number when counting ferocious beast, but, out of all the magical beasts we have five who are dubbed the Kings of each region. They help maintain some sort of order amongst magical beasts. We have Rynbull King of the south, Dryin king of the North, Xerxes King of the East, Sune Queen of the center and Me King of the west".

"So you're a king?" Jo asked.

"Surprised? I don't need fansy palaces and Stewards to validate my Kingship. The west is mine. It's that simple". Le'llda said.

"I believe there's a point to your story" Jo said.

"There's no need to rush human, Now where was I. We five Kings maintain order amongst magical beasts and make sure things don't get too out of hand in the wilderness. Le'llda said. Ten days ago something happened that caused a bit of panick amongst the magical beast. Sune got missing suddenly and with that the beasts in her region are starting to get a bit uneasy. The other Kings decided to give me the task of investigating how she went missing. No one knows If she was taken down in a fight, since her aura would have been all over the place from the battle. It was as if she just suddenly stopped existing". Le'llda said.

Jo thought of what he said for a while before he finally spoke. "What kind of beast is she". He asked.

"A four tailed fox" Le'llda replied

Jo widened his eyes, he jad only heard of two tailed fox anything higher would only be found in place like the wilderness. "Only crazy strong beasts live here" he thought.

"Do you have wyverns here in the wilderness?" Jo asked.

"Yes, but they are just a small group in the south, they stay clear all beast activities".

"Crazy lizards those ones if you ask me Le'llda said. Why did see any wyverns?" He asked

"Yes, a group of soldiers encountered a wyverns when investigating the Kidnapped beast. Although they reported it seemed to have been mutated."

"So someone is experimenting on beasts" Le'llda asked.

"That's dangerous" Le'llda added.

"Where did you encounter this mutated wyvern" Le'llda asked

"We were on our way there before you attacked us." Jo said.

"We can get there tomorrow and investigate from there". Jo added

"Ok then we'll do that, you can get your human rests. We'll continue tomorrow".

Jo stood up and left with Amelia.

Although he said nothing, he had some doubt about Le'llda. He was definitely hiding something.