Chapter Text
"We're going right!"
"No, we have to go left!"
Varian rolled his eyes in annoyment and sighed. Desperated he peeked out of the caravan and let his gaze shift to where Nuru and Hugo were discussing loudly.
"Are you guys fighting again?"
"Well, if Starlight here would just let me take over the reins and go the left path, there'd be nothing to fight about", Hugo sneered and crossed his arms defensively in front of his chest.
Nuru let out a frustated noise and turned to Varian, raising her hands in exasperation. "Varian, please explain this dickhead that we have to choose the right path if we want to arrive at Ingvarr in time!"
Their group of four had just passed the Dark Kingdom where the Dark Trial had been. They got to meet Varian's uncle and aunt, who were terrifyingly scary according to Hugo, and Eugene's father, King Edmund. After finishing the difficult trial, Hector and Adira gave them more than enough food and supplies for their trip to the Iron Trial which was placed in Ingvarr.
"Hey guys, look what I just made!" Another head appeared next to Varian and a 12-year-old boy shot a triumphant glance at the group, his red, curious eyes sparkling in excitement. Yong was the first to join Varian along these trials, because he wanted to prove to his family that he is capable of being responsible and that he isn't weak or dumb at all. Back in Bayangor he is known as an inventor and manages to surprise his elder three friends with new inventions on many occasions.
He was also wearing a pair of black, worn out boots, and, over his red shirt with long sleeves, a top with yellow, firework-like decorations that matched perfectly with his dark red pants, despite being a little dirty.
In his hands he's holding a pair of weird-looking TNT sticks.
"Whoa, easy there, Sparkles!" Hugo tried to calm down the young alchemist who happily waved towards them, the dynamite sticks still in both of his hands.
He was dressed in his usual dimmed green clothes with dark brown details. His shirt had long sleeves and is high-necked, along with grey shoulder pats that were decorated with silver balls and matching large bracelets. He was also wearing brown, fingerless gloves and a pair of goggles, which were dangling loosely around his neck. The brown boots on his feet made him look even taller than he already was, as well as his teal pair of pants. A big pair of glasses were placed on his nose, revealing his forest green eyes, and his platinum blond hair was tied back in his usual high ponytail with a few loose strains falling out here and there. His skin was pale with some freckles scattered across his long face, which Varian thinks were quite attractive (even though he would never admit that).
Varian and the others didn‘t know much about Hugo, since he didn‘t really like to talk much about himself. All they were aware of is that he was an orphan who had grown up in Ingvarr who had have a tough childhood and Varian assumes because of this, Hugo wasn‘t a big fan of royalty. They’d met at the first trial, where Hugo has stolen the totem right under Varian and Yongs noses but eventually had given it back and joined them.
"What did you make, Yong?", Nuru curiously asked him, turning away from Hugo to face the younger boy. She was a princess from Koto and also a talented astronomist, who had helped the boys to get the totem in the Air Trial. After that she‘d joined their team, because she wanted to help her kingdom, which might be destroyed due to a meteorit.
She desperately hoped that she will be able to find an answer to prevent it in the Eternal Library.
Right now she was wearing a knee length, empire waist, baby blue dress with short puffed sleeves and a square neckline. The hem of it was decorated with stars and constellations. On top of that a light yellow, transparent overdress, that had slightly longer sleeves than her main dress, was wrapped around her frame. Her pants were dark blue and she was wearing short, baby blue boots which had heels. Her bright, yellow eyes stood out perfectly from her dark brown skin and her black, curly hair was tied back in a high, loose and quite messy bun. She was also wearing beautiful, gold and expensive looking jewelry and a yellow star-shaped hairpin.
Aside from that she often took responsibility and watched after the boys so they don't make a complete mess, which was high likely.
Nuru's attention was drawn to Yong, who immediately started ranting about his new creation, eyes shining brighter than the sun.
While they were talking, Varian sat down next to Hugo and eyed him.
Varian was the Royal Engineer of Corona and a very talented alchemist and scientist, who had been the first to begin this journey in hope of finding the Eternal Library to get some answers about his lost mom. He was wearing a light teal shirt and dark turquoise baggy pants, held up by a belt with the Dark Kingdom symbol on it, which ended in dark grey boots. On his hands were his usual black gloves and there was a bright, orange scarf wrapped around his neck. He had a couple of test tubes filled with a glowing, green liquid strapped to his right sleeve with the help of a cedar brown piece of cloth. A hickory brown strap was tied to his waist with some of his self built alchemical and colourful bombs attached to it. His warm, honey colored skin was covered with countless freckles and his eyes had the colour of the ocean, a comforting baby blue. In his black, messy hair a peculiar teal hair stripe peaked out and his old goggles were placed on top of it.
"What?", Hugo asked annoyed, knowing the look on the younger one's face.
Varian glimpsed at Nuru and then back at him, arching an eyebrow. "She's right, y'know? Your path is around the woods. Nuru's path is through the forest and besides, it'll save us a lot of time."
"It's also more dangerous, Hairstripe", Hugo replied, avoiding his eyes. "This is my home, I know this place very well. And trust me, you don't wanna mess with the bandits in the forest waiting for you to appear on their way." He let out a grunt.
Varian grinned slyly. "And who would want to attack three talented alchemists and a combative princess?" He paused for a while, then continued. "We have enough tricks to defend ourselves and as much as I agree with you, it'll be much faster."
Hugo sighed again but remained quiet and breathed in sharply, clearly frustrated but silently agreeing.
Varian took that as a victory and grabbed the reins to navigate Promotheus, their donkey, onto the right path, granting the other a small smile.
———
Nuru and Yong continued babbling, while Hugo and Varian sat on the front bench in uncomfortable silence.
During their trip through the woods Hugo was tense and frowned the entire time, nervously glancing to the trees once in a while.
Varian looked like he was just about to ask him why when Hugo suddenly took notice of a crack coming from the bushes next to them.
Also having heard the crack, Varian stopped Promotheus immediately and whirled around to where he supposed the noise came from, eying the exact spot in tension.
Noticing the stop, Yong interrupted his conversation and his eyebrows knitted together. "Why are we halting?"
Hugo silently put a finger to his lips and pointed to the woods, still staring in anticipation.
The others silently followed his gaze and again, something cracked, not especially loudly but loud enough for all of them to notice.
Nuru's eyes widened. "Is there someone?", she whispered, gulping down her fear and putting on her usual brave facade.
After a short moment, Hugo slowly nodded, his fingers gripping the waggon.
As soon as he did so, Varian loosened his grip on the reins and quickly grabbed a few alchemical bombs on his strap with one hand, ready to throw any second.
Yong took a few dynamite sticks and Hugo already had his own alchemical tricks at hand.
After they shortly exchanged meaningful glances to each other, Nuru was the first to jump down from the caravan and slowly approached the woods on the one side of the path.
Behind her, Hugo carefully walked towards the other side and after them, Varian and Yong also leaped onto the road.
Then they remained silent and listened closly to any noise they were able to hear.
All of a sudden a tall man left the thicket and stopped in his tracks, with a few meters distance, in front of the wagon on the middle of the path.
He didn't walk out where Hugo and Nuru were standing, so both of them were distracted and caught off guard when suddenly two strange people unexpectedly rushed out of the bushes next to them and started attacking each of them.
Hugo was immediatly pinned down by a man easily twice his body mass while Nuru still tried fighting off her female opponent, but she was unfortunately faster than Nuru and shortly after, both of them were defeated.
Without thinking about it for too long, Yong threw a few dynamite sticks towards the two opponents and the blast blew them away, leaving the strangers gasping on the ground. Hugo was - for not the first time - thankful for never taking the dynamite sticks out of the smaller one's hands, and so he and Nuru got up quickly and sprinted to the caravan, ready to flee.
It was only then that Hugo noticed Varian hadn’t moved at all.
"Goggles?", he shouted, obvious concern ringing in his voice.
But the boy didn’t react, instead he fearfully stared in the eyes of the man on the road and began to shake from head to toe. The guy, who was still standing on the road, started to grin widely and threateningly. He had dark hair tied back in a full, high bun, a sword in his right hand and almost hungry eyes fixed on Varian as if he was a shark and the young man in front of him a flapping fish.
"Andrew", Varian mumbled quietly, his unstable voice cracking away midway.
Even though it was only a whisper, Hugo seemed to have understood the trepidation in his voice and defensively placed himself between the two, piercing the stranger with a death stare.
All at once a smaller woman stepped out of the woods and next to Andrew, an evil smirk on her lips.
"What a surprise, isn't it, Clementine?" He let out a harsh laugh. "I would've never thought that I could lay my hands on you ever again... but here we are."
That must've been meant for Varian, Hugo supposed.
He quickly glanced back to the other and slightly relaxed, seeing that Varian seemed to slowly regain his composure.
The two opponents, who had earlier fought against him and Nuru, were now standing side by side to Andrew, Clementine and another man Hugo hadn’t even noticed until now.
They were outnumbered.