“Boy, I would suggest waking up soon before our hosts let you sleep forever,” someone harshly spoke in Nanashi’s ear. His head hurt and he really didn’t want to move. The person spoke again, “If you don’t wake up you really will die, hurry up!”
Finally stirring, Nanashi shook his head and looked around. The sounds of drums, big bonfires, and many cheering demons greeted him. Nanashi tried to rub his eyes, but he found his arms bound behind him around a wooden pole. Shifting his hands did accomplish touching something soft and warm.
“Hey, watch where you’re touching!” The harsh voice shouted at him, “We may be tied up, but at least try to not touch my butt!”
Nanashi looked around some more, his senses still slowly returning to him. “Why are we tied up?” he sleepily asked.
“Aww, you’re still half asleep. Maybe this will wake you up.” She coldly replied. Nanashi suddenly felt a sharp poke in his back, waking him up, but hurting a lot too.
“Oww, what was that?” Nanashi complained
“My tail is still free so I just prodded you with it to wake you up.”
“Your tail? Why would someone have a… Ohh right, I’m in Surgen.”
“Ehh? You mean Suren? Well yea, but where else do you expect to be?”
“Umm, never mind,” Nanashi quickly replied, “So who are you, and more importantly, why are we tied up to a pole?”
“Well if you couldn’t tell from touching my butt, I’m a girl. But if I’m not that important, I won’t tell you my name. You were dragged here a couple of hours ago by the goblins dancing over there. They probably just got the jump on you.”
“I’m sorry, it’s not that you’re unimportant, but…” Nanashi started to apologize, but he was cut off by goblins running onto the platform where he and the girl were tied up.
A particularly ugly goblin, with a large hat, stepped onto the stage and called to the others, “Begin the ritual!” His proclamation was met with continued cheering from the other goblins. Some of the goblins ran up to Nanashi and the girl, and began rooting through their pockets.
Behind him Nanashi heard a lot of metal clanging. “What are they finding in your pockets?” he asked.
“Knives mostly,” she coolly replied, “most of which I would love to cut them down with.”
One of the goblins pulled a folded piece of paper from Nanashi’s pocket. “This is all he had on him Nurgurul,” it said, handing the paper to the goblin with a hat.
Nurgurul opened up the piece of paper and started reading it. Suddenly his long green ears drooped, and he looked worriedly at Nanashi, “Who are you, boy?” He suddenly perked up with a mischievous idea. Crumpling up the paper, Nurgurul tossed it in the air calling, “Hey Magi, Hit this!”
One of the goblins with patchy red hair punched into the air at the paper wad. Nanashi felt some kind of humming and a ball of flames burst from the goblin’s hand, striking the paper, and instantly burning it.
Nanashi felt a strange sense of loss as he watched the paper quickly turn to ash and blow away on the wind. As the ball of flame in the air went out, a shimmer of something caught his eye. He saw a bird flying towards him and someone shouted loudly, “Found you!”
The goblins looked in the air and saw the bird flying towards them. Their ears drooped while several screamed and ran away. Nanashi noticed the shimmer of light again, and a knife landed in the wood pole, cutting the rope tying Nanashi up. He barely noticed though because the bird was still flying towards him, but getting bigger and bigger.
A giant monster landed in front of Nanashi; it looked like a chicken, but MUCH bigger and with four legs. A hand grabbed Nanashi and pulled him onto the monster. He barely had time to think as to what happened, and by that time, the giant chicken monster was already flying again.
“Wait stop, we have to go back!” Nanashi shouted.
The person sitting in front of Nanashi on the monster called back, “And why is that my friend? You leave something there?”
Nanashi tried to get a good look at who he was talking to, but the wind blowing past him made it hard to open his eyes, “No, well, yes. There’s someone else trapped there too. We have to help them.”
“Here I’ll take us down and you can tell me the whole story.”
The chicken monster started flying down and landed on a hill overlooking the forest in the span of about five seconds. The rider jumped off expertly while Nanashi slid off and fell onto the ground. Shaking his head to regain his senses, Nanashi opened his eyes to see the giant chicken monster staring him in the face.
Nanashi jumped back and exclaimed, “What is that thing?”
The rider walked over to Nanashi and said, “Well… let’s just say that an abandoned research facility should expect wildlife to knock over experiments and potions without a care.” Finally getting a good look at the rider, Nanashi saw a tall man with darkly tanned skin, green hair, and long pointed ears, wearing a brown cloth shirt and pants. His shoes looked simmilar to brown ballerina shoes.
“I see,” Nanashi replied, “and who are you?”
“What did you hit your head when those goblins grabbed you, Vincent? It’s me, Sylic,” he answered with a smile.
“Umm… I’m sorry, but I’m not Vin-“ Nanashi started
Sylic interrupted him saying, “Now tell me, Vincent, who do we need to save and why? What, you finally find yourself a girlfriend?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say girlfriend,” Nanashi said embarrassedly, “Wait, that’s not important right now. There’s a girl tied up back there, and I told you, I’m not Vincent.”
“You’re not? Well, your clothes look a little different, but that hair and short stature are way too close for you to not be him.”
“Well, this isn’t even my hair,” Nanashi said, pulling the wig off his head. “I’m Nanashi, a umm, demon elf.”
“Okay… So you’re not Vincent, but an elf? I’ve never heard of an elf as short as you. Here, let me see that wig.”
“I’m just short, okay!” Nanashi yelled at him while handing over the wig. A déjà vu feeling hit Nanashi, like he’d yelled that at someone before. Sylic brought the wig to his nose and Nanashi exclaimed, “Wait no! It smells terrible.”
Sylic took a large sniff of the wig and smiled, “That smells just like Vincant. Now tell me, Nanashi the short elf, what is a Magik like you doing with my partner’s hair as a wig?” Sylic glared at Nanashi
“Someone gave it to me, a maid girl I think, but that’s not important now, the girl tied up by the goblins is more important.”
Sylic thought for a moment, then decided, “Alright boy, I’ll give you a deal, if you can save that girl I’ll let you off the hook. I actually need someone so if you can do it, I’ll even let you in on something good.”
“How am I supposed to do it on my own? I have no weapons or anything.”
“You’re a Magik aren’t you? That’s a better weapon than you’ll ever need. But if you’re set on a weapon, take this.” Sylic retorted, throwing a short sword into the ground in front of him. “You see how the sun’s setting now? I’ll wait here until this time tomorrow, or else I’m coming for you.”
“I’m not sure about this,” Nanashi said, pulling the sword out of the ground and running off towards the fires of the goblins’ town.