Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Gora’s return home

Outside of the city Gora, Secomi, and Utum do not look back towards Oneidora when leaving as they head to the lands of Sokara. This journey would take another 2-3 weeks meaning if they hoped to return before the Luutons. meaning they could only afford to stay in doanertofia for a week or two.

During their travels they pass through waves of injured soldiers. It seems many of them are just now reaching the capital. Gora feels uneasy as wounded soldiers head home from battle the way she is heading to her home. She hopes that the luutons had not touched the lands of Sokara. Though she feels a bit disinherited thinking that. Is she not heading home to bring the war to them? It seems there is no winning she thinks and just ignores the wounded levies.

As they travel on wards the wounded soldiers fade from view as they get closer to the most north western parts of the astran kingdom. where the forest turns to swamp in the west and where the forest opens up into plains at the higher ends of the potami river.

As Gora crosses the bridge she couldn’t help but smile as it felt only like yesterday that she left her home. She runs her hands across the old stone bridge wondering exactly who built it. Though the thought quickly leaves her mind as she crosses into the lands of Sokara. The cool air from the plains were comforting on her face she looks over to the two astrans with a big smile on her face”Ok boys only six more days until were at doanertofia.”

The astrans couldn’t help but sigh ever since this war began they haven’t got a good rest it feels like. They hoped the lands of Sokara would be more hospitable in these times. Secomi would be constantly studying the landscape. Never before has he been to the lands of Sokara. The air is filled with static causing him and his mount a good little static shock every now and then. Utum though didn’t seem to be bothered as he just happily watches the sky. The sokaran sky was notoriously always cloudy and the gentle giant utum quite enjoyed cloud watching.

Bored out of her mind from the traveling gora would resides herself whispering to her horse.” how angry do you think grandfather will be? I mean i kinda did just take off i cant imagine hes just gonna give me a slap on the wrist and let me be on my way right?”

The horse seems to hold no wisdom for gora as it just continues to move along without reacting to sounds coming out of goras mouth. Gora sighs to herself and unwraps her spear and starts polishing it for the seventh time today. Gora was beginning to develop a distaste for travel. It had only been a couple of months since she left and most of that time had just been travel.

Gora thinks about all the traveling she’s going to have to do after her time in the lands in Sokara. She’ll have to go from doanertofiaa to oniedora, then to whatever battlefield they’ll send her to from there.

No gora was not excited for the far future in the least bit, but the near future she was quite enthusiastic for. she couldn’t wait to tell of her exploits and her travels since the last time they saw her. She cant wait to tell them how many luutons shes killed or her conversations with the high kings and all the wonderful things she saw and ate for the first time within the lands of astra.

When they finally arrive outside of her grandfathers city gora sits up straight on her horse, holding her head high as she enters into the city. Her beautiful sokadoan spear on full display. the further she made her way through the city: to her grandfathers palace, the more a crowd seemed to form. The city was full of life; the constant murmuring behind Utum and Secomi made them quite uncomfortable. Once they arrive at the palace Goras grandfather would already be waiting outside his palace.

His arms were crossed around his chest, a stern look focused in on gora sending chills not only down her spine but Utum’s and Secomi’s as well. Gora gives her grandfather a nervous chuckle as she dismounts from her horse” grandfather i have returned home i hope that you received my letter from the morning of my departure.”

Gora felt uneasy her grandfather says nothing and his expression does not change in the slightest for some odd moments after Gora’s statement. Eventually his stern face turns to one of disappointment as he nods his head”yes gora i got your letter but for now let us resume this conversation inside your friends may come along as well”

The old giant turns around and heads inside. Gora felt nervous about following him in. she wondered if she should just make a break for it now fearing her grandfathers wrath. Though reluctantly she follows him inside followed by Secomi and Utum. As they all head inside no one says anything they all just follow Goras grandfather Dyues, eventually he leads them all into his room of commerce. He sits on his raised platform on the back of the wall as Gora quickly sits on the floor in front of him. Secomi and Utum sit on both sides of her feeling quite uneasy themselves.

Dyues was a legend even to the astrans, he was known far and wide as the defender of Sokara. In his 120 years of roaming this world he has done many thing to distinguish himself over 100 years ago when he was just debuting himself as a young warrior he played a large part in fighting off the Astrans who were advancing into the lands of Sokara. Hes defeated Luutons and Terreans alike. He alone is a major reason for the prosperity of the sokarans and now he stands in front of them having they had just returned with his runaway granddaughter, his heir.

Dyues claps his hand hands together causing them all to let out a startled gasp. Dyues cant help but laugh at the sheer terror he imbued into these young warriors.”oh my the look on your faces”

He says wiping a tear from his eye. Gora stands up looking furious the attitude had completely changed.”you shitty old man if you aren’t mad at me you should of said so i was worried over nothing!”

goras voice is like that a barking dog her fist is curled as she stands in a fighting position as if shes now ready to take the old man on, a complete 180 from how she was acting mere seconds ago causing the astrans a great bit of confusion.

Dyues finally stops chuckling to himself and calms down. Coughing in his hand before he begins to speak” Gora you are a grown woman i can not stop you from going off on your own escapades, but just know as you are my only grandchild if you were to die you would leave the me without an heir and when i die the lands of Sokara without a grand chief to unite them.”

His voice was calm but the words fell upon gora heavily. She looks toward the ground feeling guilty”i do not plan to die grandfather i have done well so far grandfather i have vanquished well over 400 of the luuton invaders”

Her grandfather scoffs”the luutons are a numerous people 400 of their soldiers is nothing gora”

Gora grits her teeth” i have earned the respect of the high king and been awared a high military ranking!”

Dyues slams his fist onto his platform”only a fool measures their accomplishments by the respect of others and the title is meaningless just another flashy thing to allure like that spear was!”

Dyues at this point would be standing looking furious with his granddaughter as she just lowered her head. Gora felt foolish. utum and secomi place their hands on gora making her look back up. Her eyes glance between theirs causing a restoration of her confidence she stands up with a grin on her face taking the spear off her back and slams the bottom of it onto the floor” GRANDFATHER! I do not need your approval i grigora kalos have made up her mind in helping the astrans and that is final. I have not returned home to simply tell you of my feats so far. I grigora kalos heiress to the grand lands of Sokara challenge you to a antagon!”

Now dyues looks shocked his jaw drops for a second before quickly clamping back down as he grits he teeth” you impudent little shit!”

He scowls at her going to grab her but gora does not flinch. Her eyes never leave his causing him to stop himself. He scoffs and moves closer”fine then grigora i accept your challenge what is your terms?”

She grins with all the confidence in the world as she looks her mighty grandfather in the eye” three rounds three different challenges with three different challengers. If i win you must lend your aid to your full extent as the grand chief”

He scoffs once again he looks furious but not out of control”fine so be it noon tomorrow then. Ill let your party rest from your travels today but make no mistake if i win you are to forget your foolish quest to help the Astrans and stay here”

Utum and secomi are lost there not sure what a antagon is but they had bad feeling about all this. they imagine this is what she really brought them for though she wishes in the two weeks of travel, she would have told them what the plan is.

Gora looks at her grandfather still with unwavering confidence and nods”fine if thats your terms then i accept”

Dyues nods and then goes back to sit down”fine then get out of my sight i don’t wish to see you anymore than i have to right now gora!”

She nods and bows to her grandfather before turning around and gesturing for utum and secomi that it was time to scidattle. They quickly catch on and get up heading towards the door. Once outside of her grandfather’s meeting hall gora quickly rushes over to a vase that appears to be made out of the same stuff as her spear and quickly proceeds to vomit in it.

Secomi and utum just kinda look at eachother not sure really what to say or do just awkwardly standing in silence as gora recomposes herself”wow that went alot better than expected”

She says looking over to two confused astrans.”wait how did you plan for this to go then?”

Secomis questions with a rather concerned tone of voice. Gora just shrugs seeming rather nonchalant”eh idk kinda just expected the old man to beat me senseless and lock me up i guess?”

Utum and secomis jaw drop at the awful scenario she imagined in her head”wait then what was that about a antagon and if you were planing on getting locked up why did you bring us along then?”

Gora puts the priceless vomit filled vase back as if nothing happened and looks at the rather upset secomi confusedly”huh you two would of obviously had to break me out duh what else would i need brain and brawns for?”

Secomi grits his teeth not fully satisfied with that terrible answer”and what is a antagon?”

He says sounding rather annoyed.”oh its just a type of challenge to settle disputes I honestly didn’t expect him to accept that ,he very rarely humors me with these.”

Now even utum looks rather concerned”wait what kind of challenge?”

Gora smiles and shakes her head”Oh no its nothing terrible it’s just some light hearted sports. we sokarans don’t have a tradition of duels like the astrans instead we sokarans will settle many things peacefully through rigorous competitions. Sometimes entire clans go up against eachother and the spectacle can last for days don’t worry about it too much i mean take it seriously the entire war could be riding on us wining this but you wont die. From the competion atleast”

The astrans look petrified she had just wagered not only her own aid but the aid of all the lands of Sokara on a sports competition. They didn’t know if they should be impressed or horrified.”what kind of competitions are they though?”

Utum asks quite curiously” oh stuff like log splitting javelin toss, discus throw, running and maybe the occasional contact sport like wrestling or boxing”

The astrans let out a sigh of relief as they hear the types of events”well then is there anything else we should know?”Utum asks.

Gora ponders for a moment”oh um ya since i challenged him he gets to choose the majority of the challenges since this time i challenged him to three the majority is two meaning though i get to choose 1 of them”

Their eyes light up”oh and what contest shall you choose gora?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

utum asks sounding quite interested. Gora grins and stands up straight and puffs her chest out”why discus of course my grandfather will undoubtedly want to challenge me and discus is the only sport i can beat him at. meaning out of the two 0f you only one of you have to beat whoever he chooses for the other two challenges.”

Their eyes light up maybe gora had a plan after all”and since its such short notice i doubt hell have any big names to use for the competition as grand chief he could technically use any one in the entire lands of Sokara that were to agree, but he said tomorrow which means the competitors have to be here tomorrow. So its whoever is here is who he has to use. I trust you knights of astra can beat my grandfathers aging guards?”

They grin it sounds like gora really has thought this threw”this is great so tonight we rest and tomorrow we win your grandfathers aid this is great!”

Secomi says excitdely. Gora smiles and turns around gesturing for them to follow”yes so lets relax ill show you two where the guest rooms are”

Utum and secomi happily follow gora though their gaze is more focused on her grandfathers palace than her. They look around in awe at all of the items ornaments or made entirely of drakkite. the astrans could not believe the luxury they are seeing and so openly in their palace too. Hell moments ago gora just threw up in a vase probably worth 100 years of utum and secomis salary combined.

They felt uneasy as they walked through the halls. the static air from before was stronger than ever. Many of their hairs stand up straight as they walk through the halls its unbelievable. They try their best to space themselves out from one another not daring to get near anything as everything shocks .them luckily these halls were made for giants like Utum and Dyues so are very accommodating.

Eventually they arrive at a hall filled with rooms”this is the guest area theres about 12 rooms here so pick one as you like i doubt any of them are occupied” gora says gesturing towards the hall way so they can examine the rooms

Though as goras voice hits the air it seems she alerted someone as the second she finishes talking a door from one of the guest rooms open up quite furiously.”oh my is that the lovely sound of my beloved gora’s voice i hear?”

A ratherly deep flambiont voice emits from the room, sending shivers down goras spine”No not him!”

she says with a annoyed whimper as someone steps out of the room. A rather slim but muscular man steps out from behind the door his hair was a bright yellow and it stood up at all ends and was styled into a series of rather spikey looking cones. Gora looked disgusted as she saw this rather well styled man.Utum and secomi think he must surely be another sokaran noble”kompsos what the in the name of the ancestors are you doing here?”

gora says rather aggravatedly.The man smiles and brushes his hands through his hair any loose strands that were falling quickly stand back up”well lady gora when i heard that you had run away quickly traveled here to wait for your safe return and look my patience has finally payed off and you have returned”

She grits her teeth and walks away”get lost kompsos utum secomi ill see you two in the morning im heading to my room don’t bother me!”

She storms off leaving the two astrans with the odd sokaran noble. utum nervously waves to the man who looks up at the rather tall utum quite confusedly”and who are you two supposed to be not suitors i imagine”

Secomi looks a tad annoyed hearing that getting a little closer to the one gora called kompsos.”and who the hell are you supposed to be?”

he says sounding quite agitated. Though instead of getting upset with secomis aggression he just grins his entire person wreaking of narcissistic confidence.” i am kompsos kavalaris heir to chieftain of the kavalaris clan and i am on a quest to prove myself worthy of goras hand in marriage”

Utum and secomi give the man a blank stare as he just stands there grinning like an idiot. They both turn around and pick a room to sleep in “im gonna pick this one utum” secomi says to utum” okay secomi ill see in the morning” leaving the sokaran noble by himself in the hall still grinning like an idiot as they close their doors on him.

Feeling disheartened kompsos goes back into his room whimpering to himself. Everyone would spend the rest of the night in their room. Gora feels ecstatic as she opens her room though feels devastated to see it had been cleaned”noooooooo!”

she rushed around the room trying to figure out where everything had been put” that shitty old man he knows i have a system for everything fuck where did he put all my stuff”

as she rumages through her odd cabinets and chest she starts to once again make a mess of the place not bothering to put anything back that she takes out. Not finding what shes looking for she disheartedly lies in her bed and covers herself with her blanket”dammit that shitty old man must of thrown them away”

She lies in her bed feeling quite upset and eventually just passes out. The next morning gora wakes to a knocking on her door” gora wake up you’re gonna miss breakfast”

Gora grogily gets up and opens the door. Dressed in her cloth clothes she looks much more casul than their use to the astrans cant help but chuckle. Still half asleep gora looks down at herself to see what so funny looking upset once she looks back up at them”what’s so funny can i not sleep in my own room in some comfortable clothes?”

The two astrans who are accompanied by kompsos cant help but laugh now “ hey who the hell invited you kompsos?!?”

She says sounding quite annoyed.”sorry but you never told these two idiots where your room was. acting like you were gonna wake up before them and come get them.”

Gora huffs and sighs”fine im sorry utum and secomi”

she looks back to kompsos”btw kompsos do have anything on you it seems my grandfather found my stash and threw it out”

Kompsos chuckles abit and nods”ya sure when i arrived your grandfather must of been in a good mood he gave me a bag full of some and this sweet pipe”

he says holding out a decent size bag of crushed up plant matter to which gora quickly recognizes to be hers”hey thats my stuff bozo!”

Kompsos grins holding it above her head”eh eh eh finders keepers you should of known better than to keep your stuff where your grandfather will find it”

Gora sighs and lowers head reaching down to her satchel that has always been on her person. She pulls out a few red mushrooms and some red crushed up leaves”fine i found these while in the lands of astra i put the leaves in a tea and they were quite stimulating and i havent dared eat the mushrooms yet so by all means take them”

Kompos grins and hands gora back her stuff putting it in a satchel of his own as gora goes in her room. Utum and secomi are quite confused what they were talking about. Minutes later gora comes out dressed in her normal attire. though as Kompos follows along with them and an odd smell lingers in the air. They ignore it for now and move on

They make their way down the hall utum feels unsure about while secomi seems uninterested” so where the dinning hall?”

Secomi ask rather nonchalantly. Gora who now seems to be more awake smiles and gestures to the path way down the hall. Secomi squints looking at it. He looks to the opposite side of the wall from the pathway and sees the hallway leading to his room”oh so it was right across? This place is pretty small compared to the palace at oneidoraa.”

While secomi most likely didn’t mean any offense the two sokarans are hit heavy by their words they both look at secomi their eyes peirce his very soul. hes not sure if its out of fear or the sokarans discharging their geia but every hair on secomi stands up he quickly holds a hand out as if hes trying to halt their hostility”wait no i didn’t mean it like that I-”

“A bewildering castle is no replacement for a comfy manor!”

The two sokarans chant this phrase in unison causing secomi as well as utum to be taken back.”the sokarans would never make such large wastfull homes!”

Secomi is taken a back by the aggressiveness of gora”sorry gora really i didn’t mean anything by it”

Gora rolls her eyes and proceeds to what seems to be a large area of commerce. In the middle of the room there would be a large pot sitting on top of a fire. Dyues grand chief of all the sokarans vanquisher of a 10000 men defender of Sokara would be making his subjects breakfast. The two astrans were shocked to see this.actually looking away from the sight of it thinking they have seen something they should have never seen. Though this just causes gora to look confusedly at her guest. kompsos had already walked off and is grabbing a bowl from dyues.”huh whats the matter? Are two just gonna stand there all day or you gonna go eat? We have some difficult challenges ahead of us and you’ll need your energy”

Gora looked at the two astrans quite annoyedly she was really starting to regret her picks maybe cofus would of been better all she sure hed probably prefer it over whatever codia would be having him do by now, she thinks to herself.

The astrans look at eachother for a moment but say nothing to eachother.”Im sorry miss gora you see me and secomi are not high class nobles like captain rex and cofus. Im barely a low noble myself and secomi doesn’t even come from a noble family. We have never before left the lands of astra in this way and communicated with other peoples we are truly sorry if we act in a way thats rude this is all very new to us not just the location and the people but the very situation itself”

Utum would be lowering his head to gora secomi panics seeing him do it and quickly follows his actions.”yes were truly sorry lady grigora”

Gora looks down at the two with a look of pure bewilderment. She herself now doesn’t know how to handle the out of place astrans.” Stop this just stop! stop bringing your foreign ways into my foreign lands just shut up and go eat the soup my grandfather made! In a few hours were about to go head to head with him and some goons in order secure my grandfathers aid in battle. I have no clue whats wrong with you astrou but im quite sick of your odd habits.”

They stand back up not sure what to do they just shut their mouths and go get a bowl of soup saying good morning to grand chief dyues as he pours them a bowl. They then sit next to kompsos as he was sitting by himself and they didn’t see any point in not talking to him.

Kompsos looks at them while eating, gora sits down with them soon after with a bowl of their own. They looked down at the food it looked quite good though it still felt weird to think they have eaten the food prepared to them by a grand chief and to have enjoyed it quite as well.

They quickly finished up their meal so graciously prepared for them by the grand chief. Gora stood up and ran to a door on the side of the wall like most doors are. Opening the door she took a deep breath as she looked on through the other side. Utum and secomi followed by kompsos join her and look through as well. In Front of them laid a field made for a variety of sports the trees to the side of the field. The leaves would be turning yellow as fall has begun. she smiles enjoying the fresh air of her home once again as she steps outside

There was a board on the side of the field close to the house. Gora looks over at the little possy following her”ok you see that board over there guys thatll have the events on it. Im sure my grandfather has already chosen his events so lets go over and look”

They all agree and make way to the board. It seems to have numerous slots for sliding in wooden panels utum and secomi look at the events quite curiously. This antagon would only hold 3 single competitor events as they look at the board theyre not sure what it says as neitheir of them can read sokaran. Though as the two astrans try to read the board gora and kompsos would be looking through a wooden crate that seemed to be full of these wooden panels” kompsos help me find the discus panel”

Gora says as she starts rummaging through the box. Kompsos sighs and gets on his knees and starts helping”ugh fine i guess i got nothing better to do”

Gora chuckles abit as she digs through panels.” kompsos you should really just give up im not gonna marry you”

Kompsos nearly falls onto his back as he dramatically grabs his heart”gora how could you say such rude things to a beloved child hood friend”

His voice sound artificially hurt as her words leave no real sting”ya whatever were only friends because of our relatives positions at this point in time kompsos you’re just the old dog my grandfathers vassal brings around”

This time kompsos actually does fall onto his back her words cut deeper than he thought possible. He thought he had finally built up an immunity to her sharp tongue, but how foolish he had been as he now lies on the ground as his heart feels as if it had been cut in two, though Gora takes no notice of her work as she finally finds the panel she had been looking for”ah hah!”

She grabs it and quickly runs up to the board sliding it in. now thats done she can finally see what challenges her grandfather had put up. As her eyes move across the bored a sense of uneasiness fills her. The challenges her grandfather has issued is log splitting and boxing!

Gora looks at the later challenge quite confusedly. Surely her grandfather wouldnt participate in this challenge. Especially not against her. It would be odd to challenge her like that, she thought. Though she most certainly didn’t feel great about logspliting. This was something she knew the astrans knew nothing about shes not even sure how they could do it. Its a clever trap she thought”secomi you will be doing log splitting youre a clever man i believe you’ll find a way to do it.”

Secomi feels uneasy himself now”wait hold on i don’t even know what log splitting is why cant i do discus youd be much better at it than me at least”

Gora shakes her head”no thats my grandfathers plan undoubtedly he will pick discus as well it was something he took great pride in in his youth and he knows that im gonna pick discus too so theres that. I doubt i could beat my grandfather in log splitting if for some weird reason he didn’t choose discus and theres now way he would ever choose boxing my grandfather is 120 he hasnt picked up a weapon in decades i bet. And i doubt anyone could beat utum in boxing he enormous!”

Secomi sighs and thinks it over”so i guess im just the sacrificial lamb? If you are as good in discus as you say thats a guarantee win and ya utum is definitely our best choice for boxing. Fine i’m in ill do it”

Utum smiles a bit as he feels very appreciated at this moment in time. Gora smiles and stands confidentially once again. Kompsos finally recovering gets up and walks over to gora and them though doesn’t say anything as he has a look of uneasiness upon him. Gora doesn’t notice though and just smiles as she looks at her astran companions”ok so its settled ill do discus where ill surely win. Secomi i guess try your best in logsplitting? And utum i doubt theres anyone here that could defeat you”

Secomi once again sighs, still quite unsure about this”i guess i do have until noon to practice. I don’t plan on losing”

Gora smiles and gives him a very big over exaggerated smile as she gives him a thumbs up”good for you buddy”

Secomi tired of this situation just shakes his head and tries his best to just smile at gora copying her little gesture as utum looks confusedly between the two. He coughs into his hand to try and brake the silence of the the smiling idiots giving each other thumbs up”um so i guess ill start doing some warmups or something”

Gora shakes her head and looks to utum”huh oh ya sorry that would probably be best. i guess ill help secomi practice till noon though im not sure what i can teach an astran about log splitting.

Secomi eyebrow twitchs a little” all i have to do is split a log right how hard can it be?”

Gora pats secomi on the back giving him another big smile”thats the spirit!”

She says giving him another thumbs up. Secomi lets out another sigh of disappointment. he has a feeling that today would be an event he would remember for the rest of his life. So as gora drags him along to set up the logs utum begins stretching. Leaving a pondering kompsos at the board by himself.