A Crazy Discovery

Another chapter for today, a crazy plan is uncovered and the plot thickens. More tomorrow!

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Ilioneus took a tentative step outside of the church, which made the glow slightly stronger, but it still wasn’t bright enough.

 

         “I should be so lucky…” He grumbled mentally, “Not only am I not going to be the one who saves the world, the one who does lives less than half an hour away from me…”

 

         The sword still dangled from his belt, the weight still felt unnatural to Ilioneus, “I sure hope that I don’t have to use it, I’ll make a fool out of myself for certain!”

 

         He walked through the town, getting the same stares from everyone as usual. He didn’t appreciate the attention, especially now that he could feel the tingling sensation of his tattoo on his arm.

 

         “Would any of them know about it?”

 

He couldn’t be sure, what he was sure of was that as he approached the outskirts of town, the mark started to grow dimmer.

 

“So it’s not one of the farmers…” He turned around and started walking back into town, “Where else could they be?”

 

He walked a few circles through the market, drawing the suspicion of more than one person, but the mark would only glow slightly brighter. Satisfied that he wouldn’t find them here, and more nervous of the increased number of stares that he got, he walked out of the market. All the while he listened to the remarks people gave about him.

 

“Who is that old man?” One would say

 

“That old man from the church,” Another would join in, “didn’t know people still took care of that thing.”

 

He mostly ignored them, he had heard most of them during the times that he had been out with his dad. Despite what the god said, he was still convinced that his vendetta against the Leppets was a just cause. After all, those Platypuses would be the reason that the world would fall.

 

“Excuse me?” His thoughts were interrupted by a child’s voice.

 

In front of him stood a young boy.

 

“Uh… hello?” He hadn’t prepared for when someone might approach him, especially a young child, “Can I help you?”

 

“You seem lost mister, need any help?”

 

“No, I think I’m ok,” He forced a smile, the last thing he needed was some kid bossing him around, “you should find your parents, they must be worried.”

 

“Are you sure, I saw you walking around the market for quite some time.”

 

“Yes, I’m quite ok, I have some very important business to attend to and I would appreciate it if you left me to it.”

 

The kid shrugged and moved on, probably off to get into trouble with his parents or something.

 

“Probably for the best, I probably would have been yelled at by his parents if they found me with him.”

 

         He walked back to the church where the glow was the brightest. He went back into his basement and pulled up a map of the town. With some of the leftover chalk he started drawing his path through the town. He crossed off all of the outskirts of the town, concluding that he wouldn’t find anything out there. The glow on his forearm, once being a signal of hope, was now turning into more of an annoyance, mocking him with the false promise that he would find who he was looking for. Crossing off the market left him with only one option, the castle.

 

         “Who in the castle could be the chosen one?”

 

         The King and Queen had already left for the Summit and as far as he knew, they weren’t back yet. He couldn’t think of any servants that were pure, not that he knew any.

 

         “What about that old lady?” He mused, “Perhaps she is the one, but I don’t know enough about her to make a conclusion.”

 

         He started drawing up a plan for investigating the castle, “With how Hads’s father treated me earlier, it’s probably in my best interest to investigate while he’s still at the summit.”

 

         Next came the question of stealth or action, “It’s probably smart to do this quietly, if anyone sees me in the castle they’ll probably report it to the king, and then I’ll be in for it.”

He started moving around to the backside of the castle where the guards didn’t patrol as carefully and tried looking for an entrance. When he came around the backside he began to hear talking and quickly dove into a bush to try and hide.

“And you’re certain that the plans will be ready?” A mysterious male voice asked.

“Of course, Erik doesn’t expect a thing.” A familiar female voice came.

“Why are they talking about the King?” Ilioneus became even more tense in the bush.

“We’ve been planning this for months, as Soon as Erik gets back you can begin the attack, I’ll make sure I get the royal family in a place where you can find us.”

“Attack!? Royal family!? I have to get a closer look.”

Ilioneus quietly tip-toed out of the bush, making sure to cover the mark on his arm and peered around the corner. He was shocked, the old woman was talking with what could only be an Osred spy.

“Erik is too naive to expect an attack so soon after the summit and with how he’s been running this place, it shouldn’t be too hard to burn to the ground.”

“I’m happy to hear that, I’ll bring the news back to the army and we’ll await your signal.” the spy bowed to the old lady and inconspicuously walked back into the village.

“I have to go warn Hads!” He managed to dash out of the bush and made it back around to the other side of the castle.