The silence could cut through glass, yet Harry stayed silent. He wanted Groga to question him first, and the man eventually did, "How… did you… know?" he asked in a rather low tone, polar opposite of his normal tone.
"It was not hard," he said. "When Imka tried to leave me to die, I just kept my eyes and ears open. And then you and Amma's conversation filled in all the details,"
Groga looked down, "I.." And for the first time since Harry had known the man, the chief of the Vulcan tribe was at a loss for words. Not to mention, it was the first time that Harry had seen the man vulnerable.
"Appa," He said, further fueling the event that he had started. "What.. Should we do? Amma and Imka are hell bent on killing me. I am sure that they are going to try to pull something in the festival."
Groga didnt say for a few seconds, "They won't be able to do anything. You are stronger, and not to mention, you are aware of their intentions. You won't be caught off guard,"
"That is the thing," Harry said, "But I dont know who they have recruited in their madness. I know Karina is with them as well. I am sure that they might have recruited someone else as well."
Groga shook his head, "They won't try anything. I am sure,"
"But isn't it smart to kill the snake hiding in the bush, before it strikes?" Harry said with conviction.
"I understand that.. But son….." Groga started saying something, but Harry didnt listen to a word that he was saying, as he spotted something.
What.. Is that? He thought as he saw a black spot in the sky. It was very hard to see, considering that the sun would set in minutes, and that thing was just streaking across the sky.
Harry's zoom worked wonders, and they made him see that the black spot was in fact a ship. The ship was far away, so it was not clear what kind of ship it was. From what he saw, it was shaped as a typical aerodynamic plane, but its wings were.
They looked transparent for some reason.
This world's technology is more advanced than what I had imagined, He thought.
"What do you say, Adui?" Groga asked, breaking Harry's train of thought.
Harry simply answered, "I don't want to watch my back for the rest of my life." He had no idea what Groga had asked him about.
"I understand that," Groga said, "But…. Oh no,"
Harry asked, "What?"
"I forgot.. The accompanying ritual. I totally forgot about it with your training and everything,"
"What is that?" Harry questioned.
"Well, as the champion of the Vulcans, your parents would have the right to send someone with you who is going to accompany you to Agora."
Great. Harry thought.
Groga, on the other hand, started ranting, trying to come up with an idea that could potentially save them from harm's way. While Harry was not fazed at all, he already had plans that could foil anything or everything that Imka might have stored for him.
His immediate attention, on the other hand, was on the place. Because it is only now that he had realized that the ship was heading in the direction of the Agora…
***
After they got back to the tribe, the sun had already set. Groga went to meet Joron. According to the man, now was the time for Joron to know exactly what was going on.
Harry, on the other hand, went and cleaned himself up before heading up the rock, where Tina was waiting for him. For the past month, Tina had been teaching him the language of the Gorgon Kingdom.
That day as well, she was ready with a piece of bark of a tree, and a piece of soft and porous lime stone. In the past few days that he had learned the formation of the words, learned their pronunciation, and now they have moved onto the meaning of different words. As far as the grammar of the language was concerned, Tina had only taught him the basics.
As Harry sat down beside her, she greeted him in Gorgonian, "Good evening, Mr. Harry."
"Good evening," Harry said while sitting down. "I. You. We tommorow. Go," he said, barely able to form a sentence.
But Tina understood and nodded, "So for today's lesson we will revisit…." She was not able to complete her sentence when a very powerful shockwave hit the rock.
The wave shook the sentry towers to the core and toppled every single one of them. People who were on the sentry tower at the moment fell down, while some fell onto the rock, others fell to their death.
Harry, along with Tina, was blown away as well, but he was relatively safe. He only suffered from minor scratches.
As a veteran on the battlefield, Harry immediately moved in the direction of the shock wave. His eye scanned what had happened, and he realized that now, suddenly, the amount of Vita in the air had drastically increased. His eyes were not able to pick up anything in the east, but he knew that in the east was the Agora.
He connected the dots, the ship, and the Agora. And soon realized that he could not miss this for anyone.
Immediately, Harry ran, he picked up his bow and arrow, borrowed a battle ax lying around the rock, and started making his way downstairs.
People of the Vulcan tribe were still reeling with pain and anguish, and shock. The shockwave had hit harder down the rock. Most of the huts and mud houses were destroyed. Many were injured and buried under huts. Children were crying, and a lot of shouting and wailing were taking place all around him. But Harry didnt pay attention to anything, he cut through them and started running in the direction of the Agora.
He didnt know what to expect, or whether going there would be safe or not. But he was not wasting this opportunity; he wanted to see for himself the capabilities of natives of this world…
***
Like a loose kite, Harry was thrown back again; he had lost count of how many shockwaves he had gone through. The waves are coming and going, not in fixed patterns. And as he is getting closer to Agora, the waves are getting stronger and stronger. But he was not backing away, as he was almost close to Agora.
While constantly pumping some amount of Vita through his body, Harry had managed to cover a great distance, and if his calculations were right, he was almost at the Agora.
Sure enough, after he had covered some more distance, he started seeing the silhouette of the barrier of Agora in the distance. Previously invisible barrier was not shielding Agora from anything now. It now had many holes, its integrity deteriorating with time. While the deterioration itself was making the barrier visible, as it was producing this bright red hue. With his zoom, he saw Agora, bright flashes taking place there, with no clarity of what actually happening.
Let's go, Harry thought, and started making his way towards the sacred dome as quickly as he could.
By the time Harry reached the barrier, the shockwaves had stopped. Instead of barging straight in, he went to a bunch of rocks near the Agora to take cover and watch what was happening.
As Harry got into position, he was able to see the ship parked close to the small settlement. While the settlement itself was covered in fire and ash, the white dome lay in tatters. The only living thing that he could spot was these beings clad in blue armor.
Jenny.. What is the height of those guys? He questioned because if he is not wrong, then those guys should seem smaller than what they appear to be.
[Calculating…]
[Based on estimation, the average height of the beings being scanned is over 10 feet tall.]
The fuck? He couldnt help exclaim. He had seen fairly well-built humans in this world, but had not seen anyone larger than 7 feet tall. Now looking at being whose average is above 10 feet, he couldnt help but wonder whether those guys are humans. Or do they belong to other species altogether…