Dragon Quest - I - Chapter 2, Part 3

Totes hawt... (pp 62-70, 22%)

62

3 - Cecille

The town of Garai was eerily quiet.

The roads were completely absent of people, and a cold, harsh wind blew through the streets, bringing in flecks of snow from across the ocean.

Immediately following Aleph’s relief from arriving in town came sudden fierce pangs of hunger. He hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday. The only restaurant he found off of a side street had its doors closed, and a wooden ‘temporarily out of business’ sign shook in the wind.

Sighing, Aleph turned himself around to try to find another place to eat when he suddenly matched gazes with an elderly man peering out at him through the darkness beyond his shutters. The old man ducked down immediately.

“Another one,” Aleph mumbled under his breath, as he rounded the corner around the restaurant. The old man peeked his head up again and followed Aleph with a dark glare until Aleph was out of sight.

That old man made the third. Since entering the town, a man in his mid-forties had stared out at him from a crack in his door, and an old woman had leered down at him from the second story of a closed tavern.

Now, behind a faintly opened door leading into a home directly ahead, a pair of children that looked like brother and sister were eying him with suspicion. Their mother appeared from behind them and chased them back with a scolding, meeting Aleph’s eye as she shut the door.

63

“Uh, excuse me-” Aleph was about to ask if there was an open restaurant anywhere in town, but before he could get out the words the woman slammed her door shut with a surprised bang.

“The hell is going on here?”

Aleph walked off again, and came to a T-junction. In front of him was a building whose faded wooden sign indicated it was an inn. He rapped on the door, but there was no response. As he was about to give up and turned to leave, the door’s peephole opened, and a man’s hard eyes peered out at him.

“Where d’you come from?”

“I’m from Alefgaard,” replied Aleph.

The peephole closed, and a moment later the door was slightly ajar, the man looking at Aleph as if sizing him up. The man was in his mid-fifties, with thinning hair and a portly belly, apparently the owner of the inn.

Upon asking if he could stay the night and have a meal, the owner beckoned Aleph inside, led him to a table in the dining room adjacent to the lobby, and disappeared behind the counter.

Aleph felt a small sense of relief after taking off his cloak and unloading his leather sack. After waiting for a bit at the table, a serving girl appeared with a plate of food.
64

“Here you go,” she said as she carefully placed down a dish containing a freshly baked loaf of bread with a thick layer of flour on top of a smoked and fried fish filet.  

She was a beautiful young girl, with wide, watchful eyes and fair skin.

Her hair was flaxen, reaching down her back and her eyes were a striking, yet subdued azure. She was about the same age as Aleph, but her face contained a hidden grace. It was the first time he had seen anyone so… pristine. He couldn’t stop staring.

“P-please, eat. Before it gets cold,” the girl said, embarrassed to be stared at, averting her face.  

“Wha?” Realizing what he was doing, Aleph shut his mouth and flushed red.

He cut into the steaming fish with his knife and stuffed the piping hot bread into his mouth.

The innkeeper poked his head out from the kitchen. “Cecille, now’s a good time to clean up the guest room.”

So her name is Cecille - Aleph stared after her as she ascended the stairs, hands frozen on his food.

66

“Uh, s-so, what exactly happened in this town? It’s so quiet,” Aleph asked suddenly, after seeing the innkeeper’s disapproving glare. Aleph explained what had happened since he arrived.

“Guests are rare,” the innkeeper replied. “It ain’t often we get people coming here.”

“I see. So that’s why the restaurant was closed, too.”

“Everyone that lives here is good folk. They’re just untrustworthy of strangers.”

“And why is that?”

The innkeeper didn’t respond.

“I’m human, just like everyone else. Why are they so untrustworthy?”

Irritated, the innkeeper let out a sigh. “Because they have reason to be,” he said brusquely.

“Why? What happened!?” Aleph asked persistently, not taking his eyes from the man.

With the face of one beaten down, the innkeeper slowly began to tell the story of what happened in Garai.

At one time, Garai was a bustling town, known as a resort city across all of Alefgaard.

67

Once, its sloping red roofs and white walls, perched atop the cape at the edge of grand cliffs, looked out over the pristine, divinely beautiful emerald sea - it captured the hearts of travelers across the continent and wouldn’t let go.

But the great disaster of 1348 destroyed the town, and turned the sea the color of ash.

Not only that, but the majority of men from the village were sent off to join the armies that clashed with the Dragonlord, and most of them never managed to make it back home. The town was left with only the elderly, women and children, and a few able men here and there.

Then, the village was attacked multiple times by the Dragonlord’s monsters. However, thanks to its positioning on the cliffs, the few remaining men managed to defend the town. One day later, they had a visitor. The traveler was greeted with joy and kindness by the villagers. Unfortunately, once he was inside, the traveler showed his true form and attacked. The town was in an uproar. He was a monster in disguise. Other monsters took advantage of the confusion and launched another attack, killing most of the villagers left.

Since then, Garai has only just barely managed to survive with the young and old that were left. It’s population had been reduced from what was once over ten thousand to not even a twentieth of that number.

“I had no idea…” Aleph had forgotten about his meal.

“Everyone in Garai has been raised hearing tales like that from their parents and elders,” the innkeeper stated. “You’d better hurry and eat before it gets cold,” he said finally, nodding to the food.

68

“I’ve heard that the grave of Garai is here. Do you know where it is?” Aleph asked, after finishing his meal.

“Garai’s grave…?” The innkeeper paused, reaching for Aleph’s plate, his face changing color.

“What are you getting at, asking about his grave!?” the innkeeper suddenly yelled, glaring at Aleph as if he wanted to shake him. “Why’ve you come here!?”

“Er, I…” Aleph began, trying to find an excuse, when the man’s two fists suddenly slammed down on the table, shaking the plate and silverware with a clatter.

“Listen! You’re not to go anywhere near his grave, d’you understand!?”

“What’s wrong, dear?” An elegant-looking woman in her mid-forties appeared from the door of the kitchen; the innkeeper’s wife.

With one final glare at Aleph, the man turned and stalked from the room.

Without being noticed, Cecille had finished cleaning the upstairs room and was standing at the base of the stairs, looking at Aleph.

69

She led Aleph upstairs to the room she had just finished cleaning. It was a small, humble room, with only a wooden bed next to the window and a small dresser for belongings. Before Cecille left the room, Aleph called for her to wait.

“Where is Garai’s grave?”

Cecille hesitated. She was obviously thinking about the innkeeper’s earlier reaction.

“It’s at… The tip of the cape,” she finally answered, in a small voice.

“Your father got awfully mad. Why is it so wrong to approach his gravesite?” Aleph asked.

“B, because,” Cecille began.

“There’s an old legend,” she continued after a moment. “If ordinary people approach his grave, calamity will strike Garai.”

“But why is his grave sealed? Is there something inside?”

Cecille stared at Aleph with heavy eyes, as if she were attempting to calculate his reasons. “I know a little about Garai’s myth,” she said finally, shaking her head.

“His myth?”

“Yes… Long ago, at the time when the hero Loto was on his journey to defeat the Dark Lord, Garai had also taken up his silver harp and was on his own journey.”

70

“A silver harp?”

“Yes. It was said that when Garai played that harp, it gave him the ability to speak with monsters,” she continued.

“With monsters!?” Aleph asked, incredulous.

“At one time, many monsters lived side by side with humans in peace. Garai wanted to travel so that he could talk to those monsters and free their hearts from evil,” Cecille explained.

“Huh. So that’s it,” Aleph said, grabbing his cloak.

“Um, where are you going?” Cecille asked, perturbed.

“Garai’s grave, of course.”

“What!?” Cecille’s face grew even paler.

“I came here to break the seal,” Aleph called back, as he ran out of the room.

“Break the seal!? Wait!” Cecille yelled, then chased after him.