Dawn- An age of Darkness

I once drowned when I was twelve. The feeling was not pleasant but- I still remembered the fright in mother\'s eyes. And that was in the middle of the summer vacation too. So, the whole thing was filmed. After all, we were on a family vacation. And when I saw the whole thing later with my cousin- I knew, this stuff was anything but pleasant. 

Meaning, I knew exactly what I was doing.

That didn\'t mean I shook any less. I was shivering both with the cold and fright. What if she never wakes up?

What if- she- dies?

Needless to say, though I tried to act calm, I was not calm and I was panicking way more than I ever thought. \'Calm- stay calm.\' It was not working. 

I put in adequate pressure and even tried to give her mouth to mouth. If she died now, then what was the point in all that?

I also tried to use my holy magic, but so far nothing worked. I kept up the CPR but- it wasn\'t working. One hand just wasn\'t enough for it to be effective. 

I was running out of time and options. Her body was warm but it was starting to get cold fast. 

Suddenly a thought ran across my mind. \'I have an elixir-\' I didn\'t mind sharing- for the sake of her life, but what if she- no, this wasn\'t the time for worrying about that. 

I took out a small vile, took it in my mouth, and fed her. 

She wasn\'t in the position to drink it on her own and even with me pouring it down her throat, I wasn\'t sure it was working or not. 

Her body was still warm, at least enough to conclude she wasn\'t dead yet. \'Please, don\'t die.\' But I wasn\'t so sure anymore. 

The elixir was in her and her head was now on my lap but- she wasn\'t waking up. 

Sigh. Argh! I wanted to punch the earth- but I couldn\'t. 

I tried everything but- it wasn\'t enough. 

"You\'re crying?"

Alisa woke up and threw up at the same time. 

"No, I\'m not." I chuckled. "Why do I keep failing at everything?" I was looking ahead but couldn\'t see anything. 

It was almost as the world got blurry and everything was black and white. 

No matter what happened, I always ended up leaving a trail of blood no matter where I went. 

"Cough!" Suddenly the girl in my lap just blitzed awake, leaking water all over my lower half. But boy was I glad. "Why-are you crying?" She said, half dazed. 

I didn\'t care anymore, I just grabbed her and hugged her tight. "O, thank the blood of Trerortra." I had no idea what I just said but I didn\'t care. "You\'re alive."

Finally, someone who didn\'t die. 

"I wasn\'t?"

I sighed in relief. It was almost as though the world wasn\'t black and white anymore. 

The leaves fluttered and there were birds in the sky, chirping. I just hadn\'t noticed anything else till now. There was sound. 

"Um- it\'s kind of painful-"

"Oh, ah, sorry."

I gently put her down and even brought out a pillow from my ring. 

Next, I stood up and moved away a bit. I might or might not have acted a bit too clingy. 

"Am-am I naked?" She asked, still perplexed. And a second later flushed red. 

Alisa kind of glared at me now. I guess she was done puking. 

I lifted my hands a little. "Well, you were freezing and-" And I was freaking out. 

Viola didn\'t say anything and just hid under the sheets. 

Alisa didn\'t say anything either and just turned around. But then she looked at me through her peripherals. "We should find another river or pond or something and clean ourselves."

"Right!"

***

By some unholy miracle, we still had the crystal ball. We used it to find the nearest pond. 

Before I could even scout for monsters, both Alisa and Viola jumped in. 

Well, I followed their suit. I really didn\'t want to stink or wear the stuff I was wearing anymore. But nothing I was wearing was dispensable. Okay, maybe the underwear was, but that was protected, okay!

This was a small pond, maybe a hundred meters wide on all fronts and though it looked shallow, it wasn\'t. 

It wasn\'t that deep but it definitely wasn\'t shallow. I didn\'t see any monsters and even if there was one, I didn\'t care. I just wanted to get cleaned. \'Should\'ve bought a box of soaps when I had the chance.\' Just half a bar wasn\'t enough. And now I had to divide it in three. 

Sigh.

I kept a good eye for anything that might attack us but so far, nothing. 

"We aren\'t destroying this pond, are we?" Because there might or might not have been a lot of stuff in our clothes and armor. 

"Don\'t worry, this stuff will become fertilizer and food for the fish." Alisa had an amazing answer as always. 

Yeah, wrong question. 

I sighed and got out of the armor, slid my pants down, and was only in my underwear. 

Currently, the water reached upto my shoulder, so I didn\'t run the risk of being seen.

The two girls were in front of me, and they were at least three meters away, meaning everything was cool. They were probably doing the same. I mean, who wanted to wear tainted clothes?

Now that I was out of these things, I tried to wash them. It was rather hard underwater though. 

\'Maybe I should just head up the shore. It\'s not like I\'ll die if they see me naked.\'

And more importantly, I was still wearing my underwear, so it was fine. Moreover, it was almost impossible to just hold onto all these things with one hand let alone clean them. 

So, with a sigh I headed up and- stopped. 

I looked ahead. The water was cool, but- I was sweating.

"Something wrong?" Viola said. 

My teeth started to clatter. My intestines in my lower half were crying out. Something, something just bit me there and it wasn\'t letting go. 

"I- kind of removed my armor and pants to wash but-"

"You lost your underwear?" Alisa asked. 

"Worse-"

Alisa sighed and took a dip in the water. 

She wasn\'t coming back up. 

Something else just touched it!

Roughly a second later, Alisa came up, holding my shoulder as support. "I guess we have our lunch now." It was more like late noon though. 

In her hand was a big, a very big catfish. "That was attached-" IT was attached to you know where and it was sucking and biting pretty hard. I actually wanted to scream but had to hold back. 

Now that it was not attached, I could relax, but I still couldn\'t feel anything. Anything other than pain that is. 

"Don\'t worry, it\'s male, so no harm was done." Alisa made a smug grin. She was in her undergarments, meaning she had a similar intention as me: all black.

  The hell was that supposed to mean though?

But yeah, now I could rest easy as I strolled forward. The pain.

The pain!

This was not easy. 

Once, up at the shore, I just lied on the ground, face up: water covered most of my lower body. "Shouldn\'t we head to the castle?"

"I\'m pretty sure everything is going according to plan. If you hadn\'t butted in when you did, things wouldn\'t have taken this long and we wouldn\'t have to go through this." Alisa sat down next to me. 

"And her dad won\'t be dead either." I sighed. 

"No, it was a good call. Her father would have died either way. And if you didn\'t do what you did there, she would have either died or became a vampire herself."

Viola came out of the water and sat beside me. "So, what are you going to do now?" She was also in her underwear: truly white.

"Let\'s dry ourselves and march into the castle. This time- we\'ll make sure no one dies." Big words for a guy who couldn\'t even save an old man.

I really wanted to punch myself for promising such big things when I couldn\'t even do anything. 

Viola chuckled. "Thank you for saving me but- I won\'t forgive you for betraying me and killing father."

"I don\'t expect you to." I didn\'t look at her. "What I did was for my own-"

"But I will trust you for now," Viola said not letting me finish. 

I smiled. "Very well." At some point, I\'d subconsciously started to copy those shitty aristocrats\' responses I so despised. 

"By the way-"

"Yeah?"

"We still stink." Alisa just had to ruin everything.

I sighed. 

"There\'s some sort of spring in the castle right?" I asked.

"Yes? Though-"

"Alright, we\'re marching in right now! Today, we shall bathe in soap!"

"But you said-"

"NOW!"

I stood up, wore my not-so-clean, still wet clothes and armor, and looked forward. "Which way was it again?"

***

With the crystal ball, we reached the city borders in a matter of minutes. 

The guard did recognize me but he still stopped us. "EUU, you reek!"

"Yeah, we\'re in a hurry." 

"Sorry but- I\'m ordered to let no one in today. There are some problems going on inside the city. Our faction is kind of losing, so yeah, let\'s change sides, shall we?" He grinned pretty nicely. 

I grinned, pointed my sword. "We are the problem. So-"

The guy\'s eyes opened wide and a second later he was blasted away by water. 

Apparently, the fox girl with me didn\'t want to wait.

"Let\'s go!" Viola said, flaunting her magic.

We run inside. 

There were no guards around.

Everybody was already in the castle, or so I heard. 

Apparently, a dragon came out of nowhere and a group of seven was now invading the castle along with the guild, led by Daarc green, a first-class adventurer and the Archduke of Alfeime. 

Was it me or were my friends using my name a bit too much?

I really wanted to hide by the sheer embarrassment. 

People were actually praising me in broad daylight. Another faction was cursing me but that was all. There was no ruckus, and there was no chaos. Everything was normal, too normal.

Did these people really care about their country or who even ran it? I had my doubts.

By the time we made it back to the castle though, there was already a crowd outside. \'Wait, maybe I can use this.\' A certain Helsing flashback intensifies.