Chapter 39: The Rescue (Part 1)

After having dinner at Yura's house, we stayed there overnight, I didn't know if I was really homesick or not.

I felt a bit sad when I got stuck here with my sis, but at least for now, I just wanted to find John then find a way to return to our world.

I had taken a nap that night, my body felt so heavy when I had to sleep in another place, I didn't have many friends back home.

About my sis, she even didn't have a friend, maybe because both of our parents died so we didn't sad much when we got drifted here

"Sarah! Wake up! It's already morning!" - I heard a voice call me, that was Yura

I slowly opened my eyes, Yura was there, in front of me, she was looking at me while opening a smile as if to greet me when I woke up.

I felt a bit tired, I didn't want to wake up now, there was so much thinking in my head.

"What's wrong? You feel tired when have to sleep in a strange place?" - Yura seemed too worried about me

Then I saw Yura step into the kitchen, after a few seconds, she brought out to me a cup of that glowed blue water, maybe she wanted me to calm my nerve.

I took the cup from Yura's hand and drank all of the water, my mind felt very relieved after drinking them, maybe I should get up now. I must do something if I want to find John and also to return to my world.

Otherwise, nothing would have happened if I do nothing.

"Ah! Just get up slowly, don't need to rush!" - Yura held my body when I was waking up, she seemed to be very cared about me

After waking up, I looked around the house again, I didn't see my sis, where did she go exactly?

"Ah! If you ask me about your sis, she is upstairs. I will prepare breakfast now, get down here when I call you two to join breakfast, okay!" - Yura pointed to me to go upstairs, then she went into the kitchen to prepare the breakfast

Then I went upstairs to see my sis, seemed like the rooms down Yura's house were just the living room and the kitchen, maybe up here was her room and her parent's rooms.

Yura seemed to want to avoid talking about her parents, I didn't know why, maybe her parents now had to live far from her, or they had...passed away.

After I went upstairs, in front of me were now three rooms next to each other, each room's door had a board that was written in a language that I didn't know, maybe those were Elf's language of this world.

I heard sounds that coming out from the first room so I went inside there right away. When I got in, I saw my sis, who was now seemed to read books that placed on a shelf inside the room.

I also saw books that were placed around the floor, maybe my sis had read them and dropped them there in a hurry.

I looked around for more, the room seemed very casual, nothing much inside the room, maybe this was Yura's room.

"Oh...You are awake...Sarah..." - My sis noticed my appearance inside the room

"Sis! What are you doing?"

"Reading books...I want to know...about this world..." - My sis was now still focusing her eyes on a book that she held in her hands

Then I stepped close to my sis then picked up a book that was on the floor near my sis, I flipped a few pages of the book to see what was written inside.

The entire book was written in a language that I cannot read, it seemed to be pictographs language but written upside down mixed with the Latin.

"Sis! How can you read these when you cannot understand what's written inside?"

"SA...can you...translate it for...me...?" - Seemed like my sis cannot read at all but she asked SA to translate for her

"Negative, Shizuka! Translation failed!"

"Kusa..." (Dammit...)

Then my sis returned the books that she read to the shelf, I also helped her to do it, after that we went downstairs to eat breakfast with Yura.

After we went down, I saw that the dinner table had already placed some of the dishes. I saw Yura, who had come out from the kitchen and now bringing the other dishes to the table.

"Oh! You two, can you please help me a bit?" - Yura saw us and asked us for help

Then we helped Yura to place those dishes on the dinner table. After that, we had breakfast very well though the meals were just full of fruits, vegetables, etc...

After breakfast, we cleaned the dishes together, it was quite a struggle for me because my sis was the one who always take care of that stuff.

But I couldn't do nothing but look, at least must do something for a person that like Yura, she was very kind, even allowed us to stay in her house without any pay.

After cleaning the dishes, Yura said to us that the three of us would go outside, she wanted to let me know more about the village that I and my sis just newly got here.

I must learn something about this another world first before thinking about doing anything.

"Hey! Sarah, Shizu! Remember to stick close to me!" - Yura said to us then slowly walked outside of her house

I didn't bring any weapon when going out, not even a knife, about my sis, she was quite cautious, she brought with her a KA-BAR knife, a Katana and an M1911 pistol.

The knife was now placed on her left side of bulletproof armor, the pistol was now placed on the holster on the right of her waist, the Katana was on her left belt.

"Sis! You don't need to be cautious that much like that!"

"..." - My sis went silent, seemed like she didn't want to talk right now

I was now looking at SA while going with Yura and my sis, I was looking at this village's map. My sis said to me that she had spent her previous night going around the village to let my SA record the entire area of the village.

We were now walking past a big field, it seemed to be planted wheat mixed with fruits, some elves farmers could be seen to be working on the field.

Some of them saw us, they glared their eyes at us but later ignored us and returned to their work.

The village named Zaira was quite big for me, Yura said this was her hometown, I saw that the elves people were living in their treehouses.

The house was built up the trees with a dense traffic system by climbing ropes with going on the wooden stairs that connected with every building.

We were now going on the ground, seemed like the ground was used the most for planting and cutting woods.

We had passed the field, we were now going to another field but it looked like a small stadium. I saw that there were elves who wore Tura clothes and helmets that looked to be made of thick woods.

They looked to be playing some kind of sport.

Two elves were standing next to each other, one wore a thing that seemed to be a wide wooden glove standing a bit behind the one who held a long stick.

There was another elf that stood opposite them a few steps, also wearing that kind of glove. He performed a stance as if to throw a thing that looked like a small wooden ball in his hand.

Wait? Wasn't that the performance of a catcher from baseball when he was about to throw the ball? That elf threw the wooden ball to the elf that held the wooden stick, he hit the ball with his long wooden stick.

The ball was now spinning in the sky, the one who hit the ball earlier was now running on the field.

"Wasn't that baseball? How did it get here in this another world?" - I was a bit surprised to see

"Well! Like I said, Sarah! My ancestor was another worlder so you see, he introduced his homeland's sport to us and it's now become our traditional sport." - Yura explained to me, so her ancestor must be an American or at least a European

Oh! Looked like the elves that were playing baseball had seen us, they immediately stopped playing.

"Hey! Just take a little break!" - An elf player shouted to the other players

Seemed like there was nothing for us to see now! At the time we got away from that small stadium, the elves started playing again. Why did these elves hate humans like ours? We haven't done anything bad to them yet!

After walking a bit more, I saw a treehouse up a tree, it looked like a very big building to me, I saw many elves going outside and inside it while holding things that looked like books.

Also, another big building next to it, I saw that some elves looked to be very young, their appearance just looked like 5 to 6 years old, also many elves looked like adolescents.

They were now gathered into lines and getting inside there, all of them wore clothes that looked like blue hood clothes.

I also saw some elves that looked very aged, they wore green hood clothes, they were now leading the other elves inside the building, that tree-building was very big!

"Yura! What's the building that the elves are now going in and out and the building that is next to it?"

"Oh, Sarah! The building that you say the elves are going out and in is a library, you can get there to read books free, also to learn magic or know about lives and cultures of other races in there."

"The other one is called a school, it's the only school in this village, the elves that their ages are under 20 have to go there to study."

"The schools are available in every village, town and city in our elves countries. All grades have been mixed in one school, our education program is very qualified."

"The admission is free, the level of each grade is classified into 4 grades: Primary school from 1 - 5, middle school from 6 - 10, high school from 10 - 15, University from 16 - 20."

"When you have graduated all of 4 grades, you would become a free scholar, you are allowed to teach everywhere or become a teacher to teach in the school. My ancestor has created this kind of system!" - Yura explained all of that to me but why I saw there was something wrong

"Elves have to go to school when they're just 1 year old?"

"Well! I know that your world doesn't have elves but as my parents told me, my ancestor also has tales about creatures similar to ours in his world. I don't know how about those but listen!"

"About our elf according to human biology, we can walk and talk when we reach 1, as a human kid when he reaches 5 to 6. When we reach 5, our appearance looks like a human from 10 to 15."

"When we reach 10, our appearance has looked like a human from 20, we stop aging there until we reach to age 550."

"We will age and die like a human when we reach 1000 but most of us hard to reach that age. Most of us will choose to pass away by our own decision when we've satisfied with what we have in life and when we have no needs to live more."

Yura seemed to be a very knowledgeable elf, must ask her as much as possible.

"Okay! I have understood now, Yura! Thank you! But you are a Half-elf, so what about your lifespan?"

"Well! I'm now at the age 50, I will age when I reach age 180 and die when I reach 200." - Yura said to me she was 50, then I could consider her as old as my parents

"Eh! You are 50? Then I have to call you my mom or my aunt! Mama Yura!"

"Well! If I have two daughters like you then I have to go strict on you, Sarah! You are too child! About your sis, Shizu, well! I must make her talk more like you, she's always silent!" - Yura said to me and my sis and opened a smile

Then I noticed that my sis was now staring at Yura, what's wrong? Why did my sis stare at Yura so much?

"What's wrong, Shizu? You want me to be your mom? Here, here's your mama, let's hug each other!" - Yura made a joke to my sis then hugged her, Yura seemed very happy when doing that

"Yura..." - My sis called Yura when she was hugging her

"What, my daughter? You want your mom to hug you more?"

"I'm very...jealous...at your...age...you can keep...your pretty...that long..." - Oh! Seemed like my sis stared at Yura because of that

"Eh! Don't be like that, my daughter! I see you are more pretty than me!" - Why I saw those two looked very same as mom and daughter

"Please stay away! Please stay away!" - We suddenly heard a voice call us to stay away

Then three of us separated away a little bit to see what that was, I saw an elf that looked like a soldier, he wore iron armor with a big emblem on his left shoulder.

That emblem looked very like our United States's ensign, only the difference was that the ensign only had one star and it was placed in the middle of the emblem.

That elf soldier was now being carried inside by the villagers, I saw that some of his limbs had been lost but those lost parts had been covered with cloths that looked like bandages.

His face was now draining a bit of blood, seemed to be beaten very rough.

Seeing that scene made me a bit nervous, I wanted to vomit, my sis seemed very normal, she didn't react like me.

About Yura, she looked very worried about that soldier, the soldier had now been carried inside a resident's house to perform the treatment.

"Shizu! Sarah! Can you follow me inside there?" - Yura begged us then ran toward the house before we could answer

Then we rushed to keep up with Yura to the house, Yura had gotten in, we saw many villagers gathering around the house to see what happened.

"Hey! What are you two humans doing?" - Four elves guards pointed their spears at us, didn't want us to go inside

"Those are my guests, let them in!" - Yura shouted loud to the guards outside the house

"Ahh! Sorry for you two! We don't know you are the guests of the prophet! Please go inside!" - Those guards apologized then stopped pointing their weapons at us, they stepped away to let us in

Then we got inside the house, in front of us were now the village elder, Yura and two people that looked like husband and wife. They seemed to know about treatment.

They tried to bandage the soldier but his limbs keep draining blood, they looked very depressed to see that scene.

"Anybody here can do Healing magic?" - The elf looked to be the husband asked us and the people outside of the house

"What happened?" - My sis suddenly talked normally to the elves

"We found him outside of the village, he was wounded while riding his horse! When he got here, he fell on the ground!" - The elf looked to be the wife who talked to my sis

"Pleaseee! Hear me!" - The soldier that was wounded talked to us, his voice seemed very weak

"We got attacked in No Man Zone, we were carrying the people who got kidnapped back home, with Her Highness on the carriage! All of us have been killed! Her Highness and the others have been! Ugh!"

"Ugh! Kidnapped! The kidnappers are now! On their way! Back to the border! Of Kahn Kingdom! Ugh!" - That soldier suddenly passed out after saying those

"Hey! Wake up! Wake up!" - Except my sis. Yura, I and the others called the soldier that passed out to get up

Then Yura touched the soldier's head, she kept her hand there for a few seconds then got it out and made a sad face.

"He's...dead!"

"What happened, Yura? I cannot understand yet? What's No Man Zone? What're the details the soldier said to us?"

"The humans broke the truce, once again!" - The village elder said to us, what was he meant about?

"You two! Can you please get out of here a little bit? I want to talk with these two humans! And also, tell the people around here to stay away from the house!" - The village elder told two husband and wife to get out of the house, also telling the people outside to stay away

It took a few minutes to tell the elves to stay away from the house. When they had gone away, the village elder looked at us, and Yura, seemed to want to say something.

"You two don't know anything, do you? I will brief it to you!"

"Kahn Kingdom has begun to kidnap our people for a very long time for their purpose."

"We just have signed a truce with them recently to hand over our lands in exchange for our people."

"I heard that Her Highness Tama has got to Kahn Kingdom's capital for the negotiation for exchanging our people, the negotiation has lasted for 3 months."

"I heard the information that Her Highness has been told to be the one who was about to carry the people who got kidnapped to return here."

"But seemed like the humans just have broken the truce!" - Seemed like I had understood the situation

"If they keep kidnapping your people and breaking the truces then why your King doesn't declare war on them?" - My sis said to the village elder, what's wrong with you, sis?

"Shizu! This's very complicated!" - Yura told my sis, she seemed didn't want to have quarrels

"Our elves love to live in peace! We will find all solutions that keep us away from wars! We may hate the humans but we don't want wars, we want to live in peace!" - The village elder talked to my sis, he seemed a bit angry

"Your King cares about his people or he cares about peace! Tell me!" - My sis replied to the village elder but seemed to be very aggressive

"He cares about both! The truce is broken now, His Majesty will find another way to settle the situation! You must believe him!"

"Tch! Tell your King my words "You are just a soft and a stupid, if you care about your people and your daughter, then save them by declaring the war on your enemy!"

Sis! What were you saying! You just made the conversation more complicated!

"But we love peace!" - The village elder kept repeating his words to my sis

"Sometimes peace cannot be achieved by talks, if your enemy keeps overwhelming you then you must show them your will! You must scare them to let them know who you are!" - Sis, please stop!

"You two please stop!" - Yura got between the village elder and my sis, she wanted to stop the quarrel

"Tch! Let's go, Sarah! We don't need to talk with that old anymore! We will save that little Princess and her people!"

"Hey, elder! Say to your Majesty that he must reward us after this!" - My sis said to the village elder then stepped to the door about to go out

"Please stop, Shizu! That would be dangerous!" - Yura said loud to my sis, she seemed very worried

"What's your ambitious for rescuing Her Highness and our people, lady?" - The village elder asked my sis, I also wondered the same

"Everything! I want to know everything about you people! Anything about this world!"

"Ah! I just forgot! Say to your King one more thing, if he not willing to reward us after we done this rescue, then wait to look at his daughter's corpse!" - My sis said to the village elder then went away

"I'm so sorry! Village elder! Yura! I will talk to my sis, I will persuade her to reconsider her purpose!" - I apologized to them and was about to go away

"Sarah! You are Sarah, right? Please take this!" - The village elder said to me and took a paper from his pocket that looked like a map and gave it to me

"Elder, what's this?"

"This map contains the area of No Man Zone, every village elder of every village has this one, Zaira village is just away from Kahn Kingdom's border to the West a few hours by going horse!"

"Please! You human! Please save our people and also Her Highness! I promise that I will persuade His Majesty for accepting your sister's goal!"

"Please! Save our people!" - The village elder bowed to me, he looked very serious

"Elder! Please stop! We must ask permission from His Majesty first before doing anything!" - Yura told the village elder to rethink his decision

"Yura! Please let them go, I will take all responsibility for this!"

Then Yura seemed very depressed, seemed very powerless when she cannot do anything. After that, Yura walked toward me and took both of her hands to hold my face.

"Please Sarah, promise me! You and your sis must return here safely, alright? Even if the rescue failed, you two must stay alive!" - Yura told me with a very deep voice

"Yes, I promise you!"

"Please go! Before I change my mind! Remember you two must live!" - Yura hugged me

I didn't know why Yura had to be kind to us like that but, maybe I should go now.

Then I hugged Yura a bit more then held the map running outside of the house. When I got out, my sis had already waited for me out of the door.

"Hand the map to me, Sarah!" - My sis ordered me to hand her the map, my sis had changed her way of talking completely, no more emotionless face, just a cold voice

"What's your purpose, sis? Tell me!" - I handed over the map to my sis

Then my sis took the map and looked at it for few seconds, after that she opened a satisfied smile and stared at me.

"You don't need to know, Sarah! I want to announce something, listen carefully, my dear little sister!"

"From now on, when John Rigen is not here with you, I will become your Commander! Got it?" - Sis! What was your purpose

"Shizuka Hatano! You think you can do whatever you want when our Commander is not here!"

"Watch your mouth, Sarah! From now on, I will be your Commander! John Rigen is dead, Sarah! He's dead! Don't try to find him!" - Sis! How could you say to me like that!

"Sis! You must stop now, please return to your previous person! I don't want to see my sister like that!"

"Call me Commander! Private Sarah Hatano!"

"Sis!"

"Call me Commander!" - My sis threaten me by shouting loud to my face

"Sis! I, I mean, Commander! I'm so sorry for not listening to your order!"

"Good! Follow me!" - Sis! How could you! How could you!

"Roger that, sis!"

"Call me Commander!"

"Yes...yes...Commander!"

What should I do for now? Sis! Why did you become another person like that, please return to your previous!