A woman was stomping her foot angrily. The sounds could be heard clearly in the entire forest. She lost count on how many days she had entered the forest. She didn’t have much arrows left on her back and she couldn’t find the exit. Sometimes, she felt that she’s only circling around the same place and she’s tired of seeing animals and monsters.
She wanted to immediately have a warm bath and sleep on the comfortable bed. If only she knew a teleportation spell, she would’ve gotten out from this damned forest long time ago. Even though she had an angry expression right now, one could still see her stunning figure. Her face was truly gorgeous with a pair of clear black eyes. She had a silver braided hair, flowed until her slender waist. Her distinct figure was too much out of place!
Looking up, she could see that soon a downpour would fall. So, she fastened her pace in order to quickly find a place to rest. Out of the blue, she could hear a shriek from her right side. It was definitely a young boy’s voice, she thought. Instead of running towards the source, she crossed her arms and stand still. Judging by the sounds, the young boy probably met a creature similar to rhino.
She could hear it charging at the trees and stones, “So noisy,” she muttered. After standing still for some minutes, she lazily grabbed her bow and load an arrow. She decided to analyse the situation first before she took actions, after all her arrows were really precious. Stealthy, she circled around the sounds and found a place to hide. With a glimpse, she could see it clear; the situation was truly pathetic.
The young boy was probably around 14 years old; his body was small and thin. Even if the rhino ate him, it won’t be satisfied at all. Its height was around 2 meter and its weigh was probably around 800 kilograms. Any human being who got attacked by it directly would definitely be greeted in the underworld.
Looking from afar, the young boy just looked like a small ant, he’s so pitiful! Right now, the young boy was only dodging it. This type of rhinos was slow when turning its body around, but super-fast when charging at enemy. In the end, the young boy was stuck between boulders, having no way out, he boldly loaded his arrow and shot the rhino hastily. One, two, three… Countless arrow was shot uselessly, each one of them was bounced off or broken into half. Not even one arrow could leave a mark on its thick skin. When seeing its pray tried to ‘tickle’ it, the rhino gave a loud snort, lowered its head, and finally gave a full charged at him!!
Gray was looking helplessly at the giant creature that was coming closer to him in super speed. Am I going to die here? He thought panickily. Since there’s no way out, he closed in eyes and screamed, “AHHHHHHHHH-“ In order to find the herbs for the butcher, Gray travelled to the deep part of the forest. What a back luck, he never thought that a monster like this would exist here!
At that crucial moment, he thought of his friend, Leon. Wouldn’t he feel sad if Gray didn’t come back? Abruptly, with a big boom, Gray felt his surrounding trembling. He opened his eyes quickly and tried to balance himself. Without a warning, the giant creature was sliding down and landed not far from his feet. Out of nowhere, its entire body was filled with smoke. Then, the rhino delivered its last breath with a low groan and died. Just like that. Overwhelmed by the circumstances, Gray legs finally gave up.
“Did- did my master send his help from the underworld?” He said hoarsely and couldn’t hold back his tears. It was so terrifying! He’d never gotten himself in a situation like this before. Gray couldn’t help, but calling his master’s name while wailing, “Master, turns out you still care about me even when you’re in the underworld!! This disciple won’t forget this, every day I promise to bring your favourite fruits-”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” A cold voice cut through his words.
“Waaah!! Who- who’s there?!”
Then a figure leisurely appeared from behind the dead rhino. Never in his life did he ever see a person this beautiful! Gray stuttered foolishly, “Are- are you- a- fa- fairy?” Of course, for him, it did make a perfect sense! Fairy tales always described the beings as the most beautiful and flawless persons in the world.
She looked down at the young boy who had tears flowing down and snapped, “I’m not! Get a grip on yourself, you moron!” She truly had bad moods right now, she wished to get out of here quickly, but instead got stuck with a useless boy. Okay- with a temper like that, she’s definitely not a fairy! Gray thought. Rapidly, big drops started to fall down mercilessly.
“Oh, wow just great,” she mumbled hatefully towards the sky. With much difficulties to calm himself, Gray stand up and said hoarsely while wiping his face, “There’s probably a storm coming later at night. I- I know a place to rest. Um- Miss, would you-“ Since she’s already drenched out by the rain, she was totally pissed off, “Show. Me. The. Way. Now!” Thus, Gray led the way. Since it’s raining, he was afraid his saviour would slip down, so he didn’t dare to quicken his pace. However, to his surprise, she was really nimble and also impatiently command him to be faster.
When they finally entered the dark cave, she could see that the boy had prepared this place nicely. The campfire was ready and even the woods were already stacked neatly. Gray finally couldn’t hold it anymore and asked her by squeaking, “Um, Miss, my name is Gray. May- I know who are you?” She glanced over her shoulder briefly and said, “Call me Sierra.”
She continued to look at the small campfire and without any warning, it burned up by itself. Gray couldn’t help but exclaimed in surprised, “WOW!! So cool!!” She must be a fire type magic user, he thought excitedly. She pretended not to hear him and sat down to dry her body. Gray decided to sit in front of her and didn’t hide his admiration at all. Ugh- she could feel the twinkles from his eyes and speak with annoyance, “Stop it, kid or I’m going to burn yourself,”
Gray shyly muttered, “I’m sorry, it’s my first time to see magic, so I couldn’t help myself,” Hearing his answered, Sierra just let out a snort and didn’t intend to continue the conversation. Nevertheless, Gray continued with a serious manner, “Miss Sierra, thank you so much for saving my life. If it wasn’t because of you, I wouldn’t be here right now,” he bowed down deeply until his head touched the ground.
Seeing his behaviour, Sierra messaged her temple and said, “You think I did it because of kindness? Of course, I want something from you in exchange,” His head went up so fast, it even made a crack sound; with a confused look, he asked, “What- what can I give to you?”
“The exit way,” Sierra answered coldly.She always aimed for the main topic instead of idle talks. “Ah! Of course. I can tell you that tomorrow morning. Don’t worry,” Gray heaved a sigh of relief and stroked his chest. After that, Sierra decided to ask him a couple of questions. Turned out, she’d walked so far and already passed the border between The Kingdom of Bealaris and The State of Etherna.“If I may ask, what is your business here?” Gray asked her. He couldn’t help, but become really curious. It’s not a common thing to meet a mage, especially here in the border towns. His master used to tell him stories about mages.“I’m a traveller. This time, I was unlucky and got lost in the forest,” she said shortly. Gray could tell that she didn’t like talking too much, but after all, when would he get another chance like this? He couldn’t just shut his mouth and let his c
How could she forget about the most crucial part about the Water Bark?!She had completely overlooked the fact that Gray didn’t know how to control his energy flow at all. If he didn’t have any awareness about the energy flow, it meant he completely vulnerable. Sierra muttered some curses under her breath while running so fast. She stumbled over some roots in the dark and because of that, she impatiently opened her right palm and summoned a fire ball. It moved fluidly and floated above her head in order to light the way.The light illuminated a large area and helped Sierra to see clearly. Now, she didn’t have to worry about the roots and retraced her steps to the cave. It took half a day to the exit, then it meant it also required half a day in order to go back to the cave. She couldn’t help, but wonder what would welcome her if she arrived half a day later.She gritted her teeth and ran madly in the middle of the forest. Her braide
Gray couldn’t believe his ears, and rubbed his eyes to make sure that this was not an illusion. He kept looking at Sierra strangely, like wanting to confirm something on her. On the other hand, Sierra just casually sat on the river bank and took off her shoes. Because she was running for hours, now all of her toes were full with blisters and blood. She slowly soaked her feet on the river and let the water stream cleaned it for her. Later, she would treat it by applying an ointment. She didn’t have any changes in her expression, still the same cold and aloof appearance. Nevertheless, her actions were all seen by Gray and now, he felt so overwhelmed by various emotions. Sierra was completely unaware and just focusing on cleaning her feet. Out of nowhere, there was a loud wailing sound behind her back, similar to a wounded animal. She turned her head while frowning and saw the kid was crying so hard, he was even unable to breathe. She gritted her teeth and asked
In the morning, Gray stretched his body and tried to stand up. His body didn’t tremble like before, but his legs still had no power. In a short time, he was sweating and had to sit down again. Sierra just watched the whole struggle with uninterest while eating an apple on her hand.Then, she asked him lazily, “Do you really want to save her that badly?” Wiping his sweats, he answered resolutely, “Yes! I’ve already made a promise, and master always said that a man should never break his words, so I’m going to do my best to exit this forest today!” Sierra looked at his light hazel eyes, and couldn’t help, but feel a little bit of familiarity.Sierra walked around for a moment and found a long stick. She gave it to Gray and said, “Alright, if you say so. You better walk properly or I’m going to leave first.” She knew that kind of gaze, no matter how weak his legs were, Gray wouldn’t give up. Thus, she
“Oh man! Gray! Are you okay?!”Leon looked at his friend and finally felt relieved. He’s been searching for two days in the forest. Gray left without leaving a single message and hadn’t return for many days, thus ignoring all of the consequences, he just geared up and went into the forest. Sierra narrowed her eyes and asked Gray, “Hey, you know this new kid?”“Yes, Miss! Rest assured, he’s my only friend I mentioned before!”Hearing this, Sierra finally lowered her bow and continued to sit down silently. On the other hand, Leon was frozen still while looking at her. He wondered who was she and how Gray knew her. However, he knew that looking at a woman for too long was rude, and so he lowered his eyes and walked quickly to Gray’s side.He proceeded to examine his friend’s condition thoroughly. Except for his dirty appearance, Gray was pretty fine, so Leon exhaled a long breath and hit his f
Gray finally woke up around 9 a.m. He searched for his surroundings, but couldn’t find his friend, Leon. He was not fully awake yet, so he thoughtlessly greeted Sierra, “Guh mowning~” Just like before, Sierra didn’t want to wake him up, so she just waited patiently.Hearing Gray’s greeting, she couldn’t hide her surprise and looked at him with annoyance, “Am I your friend? Watch out how you greet me, kid.” After that cold scolding, Gray was so embarrassed, so he decided to wash his face with water. “Um- I haven’t fully awake before, Miss. And, I didn’t mean to disrespect you…”Seeing his sorry state, Sierra just brushed it off quickly, “Forget it. Now tell me, how’s your condition today? You’ve been sleeping for a pretty long time.”Gray decided to move his legs and body. He even stretched it a little to find out that his condition was quite good. He repo
Sierra sat down in the white, soft passenger seats. The interior items there were from the highest qualities and coloured in white and gold, but honestly, it didn’t match with Sierra’s taste. The owner looked like they loved to show off their wealth. In the end, she decided to ignore the owner’s awful taste and sit silently. Gray decided to sit in the driver seat along with Leon. From inside, Sierra could hear their conversation, even though they tried to concealed it. “Leon, how could you get your family’s carriage?” He asked in concern. “Hm? What do you mean? I’m the only heir, so naturally this carriage belongs to me too.” “Gosh, stop joking! Your mother won’t be happy with this!” Gray slapped his friend’s back. He already knew ever since he was a child, every parent in the town didn’t like him at all, especially Leon’s mother. Well, he didn’t blame her though… No one would like it, if their children hanged out too much with a strange, poor kid like him. T
In the morning, she woke up with soft knocks on her door. She reluctantly got up from her bed and opened the door. “What is it?” She asked. Uncle Ten’s wife went into a daze as she looked at her guest. It was not that she didn’t notice about her beauty, but what made her shock was Sierra’s long silver hair. Her hair complemented the fair skin perfectly. Then, her face had the characteristics of an elegant yet fierce young woman. Her beauty would definitely make every woman jealous. Seeing the guest furrowed her brows a little, Uncle Ten’s wife quickly spoke with a trained intonation, “Dear customer, it’s a part of our daily service to provide a bucket of water,” she intentionally raised the wooden bucket higher. Sierra blinked silently and made a way for the attendant. She put it on the table and went outside, “Ah!” She looked at Sierra and said, “If you want to have a breakfast, please go downstair faster, Miss. Otherwise, you will miss our inn’s speciality.”