An Airan's Quest

Chapter 20: The Enaran Prophecy

"What is this?"

"It's a map."

Looking more closely at it I could see that he was right. It was just an ordinary map which looks exactly like mine before it got lost on my journey for some unknown reason. I drifted my gaze from it to glance back at Avery. "So we're here right now - " I pointed to our location at the map. " - and Tarah's back here in -"

"That's not what I'm referring to," Avery interrupted me. "Look more closely." I shot him a mystified look but did what he said. "Do you see anything different?"

My eyes scanned the entire map noting that it looks similar like the other maps that I've seen before until it found a tiny island marked Thean which was hastily sketched on the lower left portion of the map. I glanced back at him in confusion and pointed it out. "What's 'Thean'? I never knew that island existed before."

"Me neither," he admitted his eyes glued on the tiny island. "It looks relatively smaller than the other kingdoms."

"Maybe it was just discovered recently," I said. "That's why it wasn't included in the older versions of the maps."

He shook his head in disagreement. "I don't think so. If it was then we, royalists, would have known about it already. I think that..." his voice trailed off and I could almost see the gears turning around in his head as he tried to process everything on his mind.

"Where did you find this anyway?"

"I found it back in the Cabrians headquarters," Avery replied sounding quite distracted by my question. All of a sudden, his blue eyes lit up and I already knew that he's got an idea on his head. "The Cabrians must have drawn this."

"What? Why would they do that?"

"Who else could have done this?" he countered his eyes shining with inspiration at the idea that was on his head. He jabbed his finger on the island and said, "Look at it carefully. Note the name of the island."

"Thean," I answered quickly still not catching up with whatever is going on his mind.

"Right. And what's the name of the master of the Cabrians?"

"It's Altherea," I replied at once. My eyes grew wider as I gathered all the information and pieced them all together into one. "You're not saying..."

"I might be right or I might be wrong," Avery said shrugging his shoulders. "But it's just a hunch so we better find out if we're correct about it."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"You'll find out. Soon enough."

~~~*~~~

Several minutes later, we were trudging downhill towards Braviah City. My heart was heavy with disappointed because today I was really looking forward to be back in Batidalle to be reunited with Tarah once again. But Avery had insisted that Tarah could wait and since we're already here in Enara, we should seize the opportunity to go to his avilar and seek for counsel on our next move and also regarding about the map which he had found back at the Cabrians headquarters.

On the way there, Avery seemed reenergized and I could sense that the reason why he wanted to go to the avilar was only partly because of the map and mostly because of other reasons which I didn't dare question him anymore. We passed a number of shops and stores which sold various things ranging from Enaran souvenirs to food and in each one that we passed, people stopped to stare at Avery as if barely recognizing their battle-scarred Havian. When they did recognized him, they bowed respectfully and greeted him then went on about their usual businesses while glancing back at him every so often as if they couldn't believe that he was really there within the vicinity. From time to time, Avery stopped to converse with the Enaran residents and just talked about the latest happenings around the kingdom. As I watched him engage in a conversation with the commoners from a distance, it struck me that he was well-loved and respected by his people. He beckoned me towards their small group and said, "May I introduce to you my friend, Evanity, from the kingdom of Airy. We met each other on our journey..." After the introductions had been made and after a little bit of chitchat we were on our way again.