Chapter 5: The sleepy boy

“Let’s boogie! (Boogie out!)”
“Let’s boogie! (Boogie out!)”
“The night is young and I just want to move my feet”
“I’ll dance till I drop; the dance floor is meant for me."
I pressed multiple buttons on the RV video trying to figure out how to stop the music it was playing. I got more irritated as I listened to Mom and Dad's old music from when they were younger.
I complain, "How do you use this thing? I swear on my mother’s grave I know I downloaded my songs from this stupid radio!”
I’ve been on the road for the past three hours now following the fields of sunflowers as Oka said. But I was getting anxious by the minute. What if I was stopped by those “Ogres” like my family was? What if they spotted me before I could search for them? What do they look like, anyway? I know that they are green but what does it mean? Are they dressed in green or are they GREEN? After encountering Oka, perhaps there are other creatures like her in this country.
This journey is stressing me out. I feel like I’m about to puke at any moment and I don’t know if I'm heading in the right direction or not. I just needed music to clear my mind. Then it hit. Mom, she must have deleted all my music! I know because she always complains about how I listen to her quote: “inappropriate musical by mid-20s Korean men.”
“Back in my days, I listened to country music,” Mom would say. "My parents would never allow me to listen to these kinds of music. We had class.”
Sure Mom and you would expect me to believe you hadn't listened to "Boogie Out!" by Michel Chao while dating Dad at the time.
Although I understand Mom's point of view, I just couldn't help myself: I love Korean pop. But not only Korean music, but Korean entertainment as well: movies, TV shows, and web novels. Maybe that is why I love drawing. I enjoy stretching my favorite characters from movies and stories.
Using Bluetooth, I transport my music to the radio with my phone. Good thing mom doesn’t know my password or she’ll delete every song on my phone.
“Hmm, maybe I’ll choose this one,” I mutter about pressing the album called “You drive me crazy” by Au Boys but stop when I spot “Bitter” by the one and only Dark Knights. “No, wait I changed my mind. I’ll choose this one!”
I press play and the RV radio transports my music into the speakers as it plays “Bitter” by The Dark Knights. It's easy for me to sing along to the lyrics since I know them by heart. So far I love this boy band called Dark Knights. A year ago, they joined the entertainment industry and became a hit. I love their music so much; I listened to every song they played when I was in high school. I even went to their concert with Dawn at some point.
“Baby, why are you so bitter?"
“I just want to cuddle you a little."
"Saltier than salt and hotter than pepper.”
“Baby, why are you so bitter?”
Upon looking out the car window, I see nothing but sunflowers on either side of the road as I sing, "Bitter". No buildings, no trees, just an endless garden of sunflowers. Since neither field had a fence, I wondered if they were owned by the same person. If so why didn't he put up a fence? Maybe he didn’t have the time or the money.
I looked up at the sky. The sun was shining through the clear blue sky as birds flew past me singing and chirping. As the song ended, I turned off the radio and switched off my phone for a moment of silence.
“Mom, Dad, Aiden," I mumbled to myself. “I don’t know where you are right now and I know it’s my fault. I shouldn't have listened to any of you but I will find a way to get all of you back. That’s a promise.”
Looking behind, the staff were lying on the sofa. I was not sure where I could hide it due to its length; I would have put it in the stuffed closet however the keys are nowhere to be found.
I rethink what Oka said earlier: “You can learn how to cast spells or curses. All you need to do is learn incantation magic from a witch or a wizard.”
“What does she mean by “cast spells or curses”?” I mutter, facing the road. “And who are these witches and wizards she talked about? Maybe they can help to open the fog that staff they used earlier using magic.”
I found myself putting my fingers on the tip of my chin repeating the words over again.
“Magic,” I said, biting my fingernail. “What is magic?”
I was interrupted by a huge wave of shadows shading the environment around me, interrupting my thoughts. In shock, I looked out through my car window to see why there was a shadow only to find a huge bat-winged lizard with two grant horns flying up the sky.
Surprised, I hit the brakes before the flying lizard spotted me. The creature flying above me produces so much wind power that I can feel the wind pushing me.
“It was the same flying animal but bigger!” I blurted out, examining it from afar. “Hmm, that animal has scales so it must be a reptile but it has bat-like wings, horns like a mule, sharp long teeth like a crocodile, and from what I recall earlier, it breathes out fire.”
As soon as the strange animal figure is within sight of me, I step right out of the vehicle and take a close look at it. I have never seen anything quite like it. It's almost unbelievable.
“I have an idea!” I gasp. “I could get rid of that animal and find my family then we'd fly all the way home!”
I giggled at how ridiculous my idea was. “Yeah, right? It sounds like I'd like to be eaten alive. It’s my first time seeing that kind of animal but I can tell it can feed on any creature even a human being.”
An idea pops into my head-a great one this time. “I know I could take a photo of that animal and ask one of the villagers what that is- I’m such a genius!”
I pull out my phone only to realize the creature is far away from me. I’m too scared to chase after it believing it will see me and eat me alive.
Disappointed, I put my phone back in my pocket till I heard a voice echo through the sunflowers. I turn to my left and listen closely: It sounded like a female but with a high pitch like it was screaming in the distance. Her screams are a mixture of pain and screaming for help.
“Oh my god," I gasped. “Someone is in trouble.”
In the blink of an eye, I was about to follow where the voice was coming from. However, a thought came into my head and stopped me from proceeding any further. “What if one of the ogres is in there?”
My heart was beating a hundred times per minute as I started to make decisions; should I leave her and move on? Or should I save her? But what if the ogres appear and catch me? Maybe I’ll drive fast and warn anyone passing by or by then it will be too late? I don’t know what to do at that point.
I feel hopeless, weak, and powerless.
In slow motion, I turn my head towards the window and observe only the glass staff lying on the sofa as I stare at it. When I reached my motor home, I entered the living room and gently held the powerful weapon.
“I don’t know what’s behind those sunflowers, but I'd better be ready if anything happens.”
I walked out of the motor home staff in hand and bravely walked towards deep fields of sunflowers after taking huge breaths.
Although I am scared of what lurks deep within these fields, I must stay strong and let myself calm down. While I usually ride in a safe zone and call the police rather than rescue anyone in danger, this is a different situation. This is a country where rules are bent: There are no police stations or cell phones.
So with that said I have to reach out and help her. I'm indeed weak, I'm not skilled at karate, and it's stupid to act alone without assistance, but I cannot just leave someone in need. Furthermore, I possess the most powerful weapon, so I don't need to back down. All I have to do is see what’s making that noise and if it’s something, I'm eager to jump in and rescue her!
I mean, I could try.
The screams grow louder as I keep walking toward it until I hear a hump sound that stops me in my tracks. The unknown female stops screaming as the loud sounds of feet stomping echo throughout its surroundings. In my eyes, my senses were activated as I searched my surroundings and kneeled in hopes nobody wouldn't notice me.
I heard voices indicating that the girl was not alone; there were at least three men with extremely low voices. Additionally, another man with a pitched voice sounded angry. In the shade of the tall sunflowers, I barely saw a body shape; I was about 10 meters away from them.
There were four men in the middle of the road; behind them were two massive vehicles pulled by a large cage. On the right side of the cage was the same large flying lizard animal as before. It was lying on the floor either sleeping or shot by sleeping drugs.
The second cage had a guy lying down after passing out. He wore a black jacket, blue trousers, and brown tie shoes. He had ginger curly hair and fair skin.
“Oh my god, there’s a person trapped in that cage!” I whisper. “But where is the girl who was screaming for help?”
“YOU SPINELESS NINCOMPOOPS!" An angry man screams. “How low-life pea brains like you could not have been able to hear my orders!”
I heard a wooden clipboard being pressed with a pen. “This area was supposed to be the home of dragons that could be captured so that they could be lured into the "Time Out" district. But all I see are STUPID SUNFLOWERS!”
The man who was yelling was quite short: He had pointy ears, a nose, and a chin. He had a golden pieced ring on his side nose, grossly wrinkled hands, and a few strands of hair on his chin. He wore a white waistcoat, maroon tailcoat, dark blue trousers, and a tall blue hat with a daisy wipe around.
“But we did follow your orders, boss."A deep voice comes from one of the men, defending him and his crew members. “We-I mean, I thought we could use a shortcut to our distinction.”
The three men were tall and had round bodies. Due to their thick skin, I could tell they were muscular. The three men were not dressed formally: they wore brown bagger pants, a worn-out white shirt, a sock-like hat, and wear an iron chain with a bright arctic stone attached necklace.
“OH? Is that so?” The midget replied approaching the tall man “Tell me, Utas: Who was the one who saved you from poverty, who was the one who kept feeding you and you’re kind and who was the one who took you in before you will face you, SAD, PATHIC, MISSABLE LIFE?”
In a brief moment, the tall man spoke. “You did.”
"EXACTLY!" the midget called, pointing at the sleeping creature. “We only found that thing around here and it has been four hours since we last saw a dragon!”
I looked at the giant wind lizard closely. “A dragon, is that what the animal is called?"
Then the midget turns into a male human, till unconscious. “And we HAD to bump into an un-slaved human, defending the dragon like a superhero trying to convince us that all species are created “equal”.”
The midget laughed as he looked up at the male. "Equal" is what he can say to an outsider. The strong live and rule on the land while the weak tremble and plead, that’s just how the world works: nobody relays on the weak, and everyone only serves the STRONGEST, RUTHLESS, AND BIGGEST MAN!”
Following the midget's completion of his sentence, one of the men chuckled. “Biggest.”
After hearing that, the small man slowly pulled out of his right pocket what appeared to be a push button and pressed it. Suddenly, the man who was smiling with his chain necklace stone began to glow and collapsed to the ground while a pool of saliva flowed out of his mouth. The man bagged to stop but only last for a minute.
As they stood watching their friend cry and plead for them to stop, none of them dared help.
As a result of what I had witnessed, I covered my mouth in shock. “Oh, my dear God.”
Listening to the man's crying, the midget yawns as if he was bored. “Anyway, I’m planning to contact my boss again if there are any dragons around. In the meantime, get ready to move these carriages. Transport the dragon to the “Time Out” district, Utas who knows where it is, and the rest of you, transport the boy to the slave market or whatever I don’t care.”
The small man entered his tiny vehicle before shouting: "AND THAT IS AN ORDER!" and slamming his car door shut.
Three grown men put their heads to work while I stared into the distance in utter disbelief. “Oh no, they are planning to convert him to a slave. That’s sick! What kind of organization will allow them to do such a thing?”
I looked at the carriages trying to figure out how to unlock those cages till I noticed they do have similarities: None of the men wear shoes which took me by surprise for the midget since he appears to be from a wealthy background. Looking closely, I noticed their skin color...it seemed rather strange...
“GREEN!” I screamed then I quickly covered my mouth. The three green men overheard my scream and one of them slowly approached me. Panicked, I kneel clenching my staff as tight as I can.
I can hear footsteps walking toward me. The green man's eyes are fixed on me as I get back, camouflaged by the sunflowers; I hope he won't notice me.
"Oh my god, those men must have kidnapped my entire family," I thought as my eyes watered. "No, it can't be. I’m about to get caught before I start searching for Mom, Dad, and Aiden.”
As I look at the staff rather than the core, an idea comes to mind. "I got it! I'll taser him as I did to Oka last time. This stuff is really powerful so it can defeat anyone, except people made of wood.”
As I thought of this I imagine how the plan goes: I wait for the ogre to approach me, I sneak behind his back when he’s not looking, I tase him till he blackouts, I run to those ogres and tase them, free the boy and force them to tell me where are my family or I’ll feed them to the sleeping dragon.
I nodded at myself thinking this was the right plan. I kneel quietly, covering sunflowers and waiting for the ogre to attack. As the ogre looked around at what made that sound, he ignored my surroundings, holding something that was shadowed by sunflowers and I didn't know what it was.
As expected, the ogre turned around when he heard a sound behind him. Suddenly, I was ready to strike until the sun suddenly brightened my eyes as I stood on my knees. After rubbing one or two of them, I was able to open my eyes.
As soon as I gained sight, I stood frozen at what I saw: The ogre was only 10 feet tall, his body was impressively muscular, his skin was thicker than a car tire, his ears were longer and slimy and his head was abnormally large. His facial expression is horrifying: his lips are thicker than his eyes, he has two sharp teeth sticking out of his lips, and his nose is larger than his eyes.
The ogre kneeled and his sock-like hat fell, revealing one thick horn on his forehead. After hearing a bird tweet, he immediately struck a nearby stone with his weapon. This broke the stone into a million pieces to reveal it was a gigantic war hammer bigger than a tracker tire.
At the sight of what I saw, my whole body shivered like it was a blazing winter day; I was in shock. There is no way I’m fighting someone like him or his kind. In contrast to Oka, he's an ogre and can crush a stone with his strength without exerting any effort.
I slowly stepped back until I accidentally stepped on a stick, causing the ogre’s ear to twitch. He looked back and slowly approached me. Panicked, I hid behind the sunflowers because I couldn't bear to run for my life.
As he got closer, I could see my memories flash to my eyes, all those wonderful memories I had done with my family and my closest friends: Me and Dad baking cakes together at our little restaurant, Mom torturing me with math after showing her my last math test got an F, both me and Aiden arguing whether the “bogeyman” was real or not, me, Dawn and my old friends going shopping for art supplies after school later getting soft drinks, me getting lectured by my old sensei for falling behind than others were and me winning a chase against grandma for the first time after ten losses.
Then there's me sitting alone in my old room holding a college administration letter. As I heated my candle, a sweet coconut aroma filled the air. It is difficult for me to remember why I hesitated to open it. Perhaps I was too scared to do so.
“ALTER, ALTER DRAGON UP AHEAD!” A delighted scream broke the silence coming from behind us. It was the midget boss man.
“I just got a call from my boss and he says he saw a dragon only a few meters away from us!” said the small man excitedly. “And since he had other things to do, he ordered me to order you to catch the dragon before the dragon- I don’t know, burns the nearby city to the ground.”
The small man ordered the ogres to stop what they were doing and get their weapons checked before catching the dragon. When the two ogres sat together on the trail, the ogre that almost found me walked to his superior and looked at him.
“What are you doing, Utas?” the midget asked. “Did you hear what I just said? I told you to catch the bloody dragon before I get paid less today!”
"As I must follow your orders, Mr. Grim," Utas replied. "Would it be possible for me to check one of those sunflowers? My fellow mates and I heard a girl’s voice among those sunflowers. She meant have seen everything we had done-"
But before Utas could finish, the midget now known as Mr. Grim stopped him. “Oh and what? “Call the guardians?” What we’re doing is not that illegal. We are just doing our jobs to stop dragons from burning houses and eating people. We’re dragon hunters, remember?”
Mr. Grim pulled out a box of cigars from his left pocket and took out one before inhaling the sweet scent of tobacco. “And if she tries to pull up a fight, what is she planning to do? It’s not like she knows incantation, you are an ogre for crying out loud; you can take her down and it sounds to me like she runs off to her mummy.”
After blowing a dark smoke, Utas is compelled by Grim to join his mates in hunting the dragon. After a moment of hesitation, Utas followed his mates as Mr. Grim walked along with him.
I waited till everyone was at a considerable distance from me, and slowly got up before walking towards the center of the road.
“AAAHHHH, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPEN?" I scream as I pull my hair out. “THOSE MONSTERS ARE ALMOST THE SIZE OF A TRUCK, AND THEY ARE SO FREAKY ULGLY I COULDN’T BEAR IT!”
I dropped to my knees. "Those guys looked so strong, I could have died! If that ogre took one more step, I wouldn’t be standing here now!"
My sentences were cut short when I heard someone coughing; I turned my right to see the same boy trapped in a cage.
I looked at each side of the road, spotting if anyone was around or an ogre before approaching the conscious male; there were many buried all over his body. He’s quite built for a slime body, for him lying on the ground he's only 5'11" tall.
Remembering the girl crying for help, I looked around his cage to see if she was there: but there was only him. “What? Where is she? I could have sworn I heard a girl crying for help. Where could she have gone?”
Before I could investigate further, I felt a wave of dark smoke pushing me. I turned to see the sleeping dragon exhaling soot out of its nostrils. Slowly, amazed by how it breathed, I stopped in the horrific realization.
“Did the ogres kill her and feed her body to this dragon?" I wondered to myself as my whole body felt numb. “This can't be. How could anyone do such a thing?”
I quickly turn to the sleeping boy, clinching the steel bars hard. I feel my heart stabbed through me. This is horrible. That girl could have been his friend, relative, or even his girlfriend.
I looked around hoping there weren't any ogres around before examining the lock chain to a steel door. I have to save him otherwise he would have the same fate as the girl. But the real question is how? As I remember, the midget walked along the chain of keys around his belt rather than leaving them in his car.
“This is not looking good,” I thought. “How would I save him?”
Then I realized I still had the staff with me, so it would be the only way out. But I don’t understand how to use magic or what magic is. Unfortunately, I don’t care right now. For all, I know those blood-sucking ogres will be back soon, and I’ll be damn purged today.
While examining the staff, a part of me suggests hitting the lock with it, but will that break the stone? And I’m not that physically strong to break a lock. With another thought in mind, I slowly placed the yellow stone on the lock, hoping anything would happen.
My vision blurred as I remembered the facial expression Oka made: she had a hollow expression when I tried to execute her, and then after a few words she started crying. Everything is déjà vu to me, perhaps when I hold up the staff against the lock. I wonder if Oka is still sleeping.
“I knew it. You are fit for the job. Finally, now and forever, my country will have a bright future behind these walls.” Remember what Oka said. “You are what people need. You are considerate, nurturing, brave, and strong. You are meant to save your country and mine from evil: You’re a Guardian.”
I cracked a small smile, laughing a bit. “Me a guardian? Yeah right...But what does she mean I’m a guardian?”
To my amazement, the lock slowly turned black and then began to melt out hot molten metal on the floor. I stepped back a bit trying to figure out how it could be possible until the lock melted away.
As I slowly entered the cage, I dropped the staff, becoming uncomfortable holding it. My eyes were fixed on the sleepy boy; I lay down on my knees and slowly put my hands on his shoulders shaking him slowly but gently.
“Psst, hey,” I whisper to him. “Wake up!”
He didn’t brag, he was still asleep. My hands started shaking him harshly; whispering louder to wake him up but the results were the same.
“Come on, wake up!” I whisper to him. “If you don't, you’ll be taken to the slaughterhouse or forced to work as a slave.”
I rolled my eyes believing he will not wake no matter what, so I decided to drag him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and dragged him out of the cage. Once I stepped out of the cell, my head spins as the world around me blurred.
"Oh god," I mutter, almost tripping over my own feet. “What’s... happening?”
Shaking my head, I grab the staff with my left hand and drag the sleepy man to the sunflower garden. As time passed by, visions of different colors were placed in every direction. My chest tightened and my arms were sore from carrying him as I walked slowly through the sunflowers like it was slow motion.
After what felt like forever walking through the garden I finally made it to my RV until my mind turned blank. It's like my whole body rains out of energy. Once I drop the guy on the ground, my whole body falls face-to-face with the dirt.

Chapter end