Hero Dyes - Yellow

[After the events of Hero Dyes - Blue]

Golden Sage, Yohan: I’ve embarked on a cursed quest, yet again. A never ending one it seems. For the past few centuries a group of sages, like myself, have been trying to overthrow eight cursed tyrants that rule over the Geminis kingdom. Obviously, we continue to fail. So why did I believe we would succeed once more? I had given up on this quest bestowed to us by our dead queen, Elita. You see, all of the sages that are bound to this quest can not die. The difficult part about this quest is vanquishing all the tyrants. As cursed sages, we can not kill these cursed tyrants. We are simply tasked with finding heroes that can eliminate them, train and aid them as we see fit. Clever Damaris, Elita’s older sister, ensured that her rulers could not die when she took over the kingdom. If a tyrant did indeed die, whoever killed the tyrant must remain alive until all of them are dead. If the hero who slayed the tyrant dies, then any tyrant they killed will come back to life. This is the main reason why we’ve never completed this quest. Yet here I am, preparing to venture out to find our next hero. For some reason, I thought we could actually accomplish what no one has done before. My son inspired me to start this madness all over again. Of course, we failed…

Our first hero wasn’t too promising. She was stubborn and self centered. Honestly I can ramble on and on about her flaws. Although, she made it farther than I expected. Her death took a toll on my son, more so than I thought it would. Perhaps it was because they slept together a few times, or wasn’t only once? Either way, he expressed feelings for her but I didn’t think it ran that deep. Not only did he have a crush on the hero, but his actions resulted in his mother’s death. Now that we’re home, maybe it finally settled in that he risked his life for no reason, and exchanged his mother’s life as a result of it.

Regardless, it took my son a bit of time to recollect himself after our defeat. This was his first time experiencing the heartache of this quest. Hopefully he learned a lot from this trial. I know I have. The simple fact that I have been out of the loop for such a long time, I was unaware that these tyrants have advanced. They have progressed in their motives, their magic, their morals, their skills and wit. It was a learning experience for both of us, yet my son seems to be the only one deeply affected by our loss. I’ve done this too many times to allow such minor setbacks to aggravate me. At least this time, I hope we’ll accomplish a lot more. I doubt the end result will be in our favor. I had just finished the ritual that would awaken the amulet to show us who the next Dye Hero was. It didn’t do anything at first. Perhaps I was distracted by my son’s sulking. Once it lit up and the yellow trail was before me I turned to my son to inquire about his current state of mind.

“Yosin, are you okay?” I asked my son as we packed the same things we did the first time we set out for this mission. The big difference here was not kissing my wife goodbye. I believe this was the reason for his saddened face above anything else.

“For the last time, I said I was fine.” He mumbled back as he finished packing his traveling bag. After my parents left from their visit, my son hasn’t looked at me since. It would seem that he blames me for our first hero dying. During our conversations with my parents he would drop subtle hints that made it look like the fault was all mine. My parents knew the truth. They knew the reality of this quest as they’ve been unsuccessful with it longer than I have. Apparently even recently as I come to find out. They allowed him to speak his frustrations out, regardless of who he blames.

“I warned you, boy. I told you this wasn’t going to be easy.” My voice became stern instead of caring. At this point I wasn’t going to put up with his attitude. Most of Bridget’s downfalls were a result of his inability to listen. Time and time again I told him not to interfere, but he did as he pleased regardless of my warnings.

“So what, I’m supposed to become heartless and callous like you? I’m supposed to just not feel anything no matter the outcome?” He replied as he glared. I narrowed my eyes as I prepared my speech.

“You’re supposed to own up for the actions you took and move on. Lucky for us, Lord Magnus held a ceremony honoring her and invited us to partake in it. At least we had time to think about what we did wrong and move on. It’s rare that a tyrant comes back from the dead and orders a period of peace. So, learn the lessons needed to be learned. Grow with wisdom and not with emotions. Most importantly…” I paused as I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Listen to your old man when I tell you to do something, or not to do something. I was hoping you’d handle our first failure better than this so you could lead our next hero. Clearly you’re not ready to take point-”

“I am ready! You just don’t trust me!” I suddenly grabbed his face and shoved him into the wall. His outburst was immature. I wasn’t going to allow him to bring the baggage of emotions he was carrying, nor was I going to tolerate his disrespect. Upon colliding with the wall a bunch of paintings fell to the floor. His anger fueled him to rush towards me but he crushed one of the paintings under his foot. Once he heard the snapping of the wooden frame he instantly stopped and looked down. It was a portrait of my wife, of his mother, who he deeply cared about. His eyes started to water as he slowly picked up the picture. The longer he stared the quicker his tears came rolling down his face. I sighed as he closed his eyes and sat down against the wall, sobbing and clutching the picture within his hand. He started to settle down once I sat next to him and stared at another painting on the wall of all three of us.

“How do you do it? I mean, you just move on like nothing ever happened. You trust that the next person will make it through but you’re never one hundred percent certain that they’ll make it.” He started off as he stared at the portrait again.

“I didn’t just fail Bridget, I also failed my mother. I shouldn’t have risked my life for her. I should have listened to you. Mother would be alive if I wasn’t so reckless.” His eyes started to water again as he opened his mouth to speak. I interrupt for the sake of avoiding another crying fit.

“Enough of this. You did what you thought was right. You followed your gut, you listened to your heart, and you did what you thought was best. Sure, your actions were wrong and lead to more disasters every time you tried to help. Regardless, you still have something I don’t… Hope.” I turned his face towards me with my hand as I focused my eyes upon him.

“I’m just a weary old man. You are a vibrant young man seeking to accomplish a task we all know is impossible. I have lost all hope in this quest. My tales and stories of the many adventures I had were supposed to deter you from going down this path. Instead, you took in my failures and saw hope where I didn’t see any. All you heard was that there was still a chance to finish what was started. Your heart was amped up for this quest and I’m sorry I poured that into your mind. Either way, your mother knew you were going to take this mantle one day and carry it for as long as you could. Her fear was your death. If anyone could complete this quest and free every sage from this burden, it was going to be you. That is what she believed, and I agree with her ten times over.” My speech quelled his tears and sobbing as a small smile shined through. He nodded his head and folded the picture as I stood up. He shoved it into his pocket as I helped him to his feet. He quickly hugged me once he was up and squeezed as he whispered ‘thank you’ in my ear. I was stunned at first, but embraced him back and simply patted him on the back.

It didn’t take us long to saddle up and ride out towards town. Apparently the amulet was leading us towards Magnus’s kingdom again. Normally that is where I’d find my heroes. This is why I built my ranch on the opposite side of the forest in the countryside of his domain.

“Yellow, huh. What did that signify again?” My son asked as we trotted down the countryside hills.

“Yellow means the Hero is gifted with wisdom and magical advantage. And before you ask, blue means a well balanced hero in strength and endurance with the ability to use magic, just not a whole lot of it.” My son smirked at my reply as I knew he was going to ask what Bridget’s color meant.

“I see… Well, showing our faces in Magnus’s kingdom isn’t the best course of action. They know us now, so we’ll have to tread lightly, correct?” I couldn’t help but smile at my son’s cleverness. He was right, which was good that he mentioned it because my old mind completely forgot about that part. I pondered on how we’ll be able to get in. I smirked as I turned to my son and raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Well, my witty son, how do you expect us to enter his kingdom and retrieve our hero?” I asked, to which a determined smile spread rapidly across his face.

“I thought you’d never ask. I have it all planned out.” He tells me, and starts to unfold his master plan to get us inside without notice. This was a good start to our journey. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way. Hopefully we will make it farther this time. Despite my hopeful mind set, I have an odd feeling about this attempt. The fact that the amulet stalled as if it wasn’t sure on who the next Dye Hero was is slightly concerning. That has never happened before and it made me panic for a moment. Hopefully, this isn’t an omen that presented itself, warning us about this trial. I keep repeating it because I want to believe in it, but hopefully we’ll make it through this time… Hopefully.