The soft sound of the breeze filled her ears, the flames that is her body grow colder than she knows. The feelings of nothingness fill her up as her eyes close and her body fallen into an unending abyss that would soon embrace her, once the flames have dimmed, the world ancient mage is no more than a story told to the children. The world of Eradoria has seen the glory of the past, the victory against the demon kind and free from eternal darkness that bestowed on them, a war of hell and earth. As the flames sleep, the world of Eradoria have change into far more modern, city is built more profound and powerful, people have changes and accepted the unknown. But their ignorance would soon come back to bite them…

In the deep sleep, there’s would only be nothing but Void. Void that would never let her awake, a void that she has accepted. A void that embraced her after the sword pierce the demon king chest, is this a curse? Or is this just the consequence of…… her mind couldn’t comprehend the thought of accepting it.

Accepting the truth? Is it something worth to accept? Is it something that she has to hide? Nobody would understand her choice from the beginning. Is it irrational. Stupid. Pathetic. A thought that ate her very heart out, she wanted to tell others about it so much, but something pulled her to not accept this. Maybe the void does this to her? Or maybe something else? You might not understand it too, just like her. But let the flame of the bird sleep peacefully… for now.

The land full of green grass is filled with the sound of the two children laughing and playing together, chasing each other and smile with innocence from the world. The two children running around so happily until they play for too long and trapped in the deep and dark blue forest they have been told to not walk in by the villagers. The boy with blonde hair look around the forest with a fearful look, his eyes unblinking as if waiting for any dangers that might appear. Meanwhile, the black hair boy in front of him continue to march his step further into the woods with a sense of confidence.

The blonde squeal when a squirrel jump from the bushes to the tree, the black hair boy laugh at his friend cowardly squeal, “You’re really gonna be scared of a passing squirrel, Bryan?” the mocking tone from the black hair boy make the blonde, or Bryan, squint his eyes in annoyance.

“I didn’t know there was a Squirrel!” Bryan look around their surrounding, the trees stood tall, taller than the all-known giraffe. Bryan could see the squirrel from before watching them at the tree branch and disappear into the hole in the words. “Roy, why are we continuing this? This is too scary, let’s just go back!”

“Oh c’mon! don’t be a scaredy cat, Bryan. This forest is nothing to be scared of, it’s just leaves and woods!”

“I know that, but the Ghouls…”

“First the squirrel now the Ghouls?” The black hair boy, or Roy, turn to look at Bryan. His expression showing sign of boredom and frustration at Bryan cowardly act. He know that Bryan hate these kind of stuff, yet he follow him to venture into the woods with him when he himself know it’s a scary place. Every time there’s some sound, Bryan would freak out and that frustrated Roy more than ever. “You want to be a Mage right? Want to be part of those hunters when you grow up?” Bryan nod at his word.

Roy have been close with Bryan, being there for the blonde through thick and thin. Needless to say he understand Bryan more than he understand himself, Bryan have a dream that Roy supported. The dream to become a Mage and be part of that Infamous Monster Hunters group known as “The League of Hunters” is a pretty big one, to Roy understanding, Bryan didn’t show any sense of bravery needed. He is pathetic, coward, and too kind. The League of Hunters only needed a person who’s brave enough to venture into the dark areas like this forest and brave enough to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

Roy reach over for the fallen wood stick in the ground, holding it tightly in his hand and then begin hitting the air toward Bryan. Bryan back away and his hand raised in defense, simply telling Roy to stop it, but the boy didn’t stop, instead he begin to hit it at Bryan body and straight into his head.

“Ouch!” Bryan whimper in pain, his hand move by itself to cover his own forehead and back away from Roy attack. “What was that for!?” Bryan ask, looking hurt at his friend.

“You should’ve fight back, being this cowardly wouldn’t make you a hunter! You need to be strong, to be brave!” Roy throw the stick to him, the blonde watching it fall to the ground near his foot. “I’m gonna run and you try to hit me with that stick, okay?”

Bryan hesistantly pick up the stick, inspecting the thing clearly, the rough feeling of it and the small little branches still connected to it. “Are you sure? What if I hurt you badly?”

“Who care if it hurt?” Roy suddenly run much to Bryan surprise. The blonde had no choice but to chase after him, hand raising the stick as he tries to ignore every sound and just focus on one thing; Hitting Roy.

It feels refreshing to be honest, to be able to play freely in the wild without the worries of the adult waiting back home. Although it’s not safe of course, the wild is unpredictable to the young minds like Bryan and Roy. They could be in danger of monster lurking or maybe even get caught in some deadly plant, but the world is already dangerous for children like them isn’t it? After The Hundred Years War… children lost their parents to a war that was unnecessary, they are alone and have no one to help them find safety amidst the destruction the adults have created. They only wanted to be held in a hug and have someone tells them that “everything will be okay.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

But the two boys stood still amidst the battle, with a father lost in battle and mother shot in the head by the enemies, they have learn how to adapt and survive on their own. The world will give them the hardest challenge and they still thrive, needless to say their survival pay off and they have a forever home in an Orphanage called Cloverloft. Though, it didn’t stop them to play in the wild and be free again.

And play they did, until Roy stumble upon a plant vein and fall down, he let out a grunt as Bryan rush to his friend side, “Roy! Are you okay?”

“Yeah… I’m fine, should’ve be more cautious.” Roy answer with an aloof expression and instead curiously look into the vein. The tendril is a small looking thing with a blackish color, no thorn or anything, reminding him of a cable. Roy notice that the tendril is trailing toward something, something farther into the wood…

But curiosity always win him over, Roy immediately stood up and look at Bryan, “Let’s follow that trail, Bryan!”

“Seriously, Roy? Can you see just how suspicious that is?”

“Aww, c’mon, you’re no fun.”

“Yeah, but at least I’m not trying to prey into something that maybe I shouldn’t know.”

“Whatever.” Roy roll his eyes and quickly left him to follow the trail of the black veins. Bryan seem not amused by his trick and have no choice but to follow, “Don’t you leave me alone in this!” Roy always know a trick to let him follow, It always frustrated him.

The air start to get more colder and colder, the sound of the animal almost a distant thing in Bryan ear. He stuck with Roy the whole time as if he will disappear any second and he gonna cry all the way back home. His eyes look over toward the many tall pine trees surrounding them, it felt so menacing… as if those tree are watching their every move, the more they follow the trail, the more trees they’ve seen and more darkness begin to fill the area.

“Bryan, look!” Roy shout and point to something right infront of them, a big and large amount of black vein tendrils curling up into some-sort of makeshift pupa in the ground. Bryan mouth part slightly at the sight of that thing, he never seen that kind of thing in any book he read. So weird… and those weird thing are sometime dangerous. “Do you know what that thing is?” Roy ask, his eyes still lingering on that veins.

“Uh… No, I’ve read book about plants and the book didn’t tell about this weird vein stuff.”

“Oh really? So it’s never been recorded… then we could show this to the world!” Roy excitement of exposing this new stuff have only brought dread to Bryan, he grabbed the stick from Bryan hand and eagerly walk over to the big stuff.

“Roy… I don’t think we should…”

“Oh please, Bryan! We’ve could have a lot of money if we show this to those government people, they be fascinated!”

“I-I don’t think they will… beside, it could be one of Ghoul nest and we should really leave-“

“AH! Ghoul this, Ghoul that. They are scary, yes, but they only eat bones you know? and who the hell got intimidated by a bone…” Roy stab the stick into the tendril, “…eating…” he tries to rip it apart, “…Monster!” the stick create a cracking noise that suddenly cause Roy to fall backward with his bum striking the ground first. “Ouch!”

“You really need to start being more careful.” Bryan didn’t spare him a sympathetic glance, that’s Roy fault for doing some foolish thing not his.

He ignore Roy grunt of pain and approach the massive amount of weird looking vein tendrils, he look inside, only more and more tendril. Bryan curiously grab one tendril and easily rip it apart, the tendril felt soft and fuzzy to his palm. Huh, that was easy. Bryan begin to rip more and more tendril away, revealing a deep layer inside of it. Roy come back at his side and watch as Bryan continuously rip those tendril away like a mad man, “So these tendrils are weak…” he murmured, then he help him on each tendrils. More and more layers start to peel away and more of the ripped tendrils begin to pile into a junk behind them.

They pause without a second thought, a woman with a plain white outfit, coat with nothing but tendrils that seems to almost cover her up. Even though they are shock by the sight, but with a single look toward each other eye’s they know they must keep ripping it up until the woman have no more black tendril coating her up. At first they thought there will be some sort of treasure inside or maybe an abandoned dragon egg? But they never ever thought to find a person inside this thing! Even more worrisome that the person is very skinny but not malnourished, it’s a wonder that her skin is still perfectly rosy ivory with no bruises and only small dirt on her face and forearms.

After ripping the last remnant of the tendril, Bryan quickly hold the woman hand and begin to check her pulse, he press 2 finger on side of wrist under the thumb. After that, he lower his head to her chest, closing his eyes and then hear the heart beating at a normal rate. “How is she?” Roy ask, one hand resting on his hip as he look at the woman with disinterest.

“She’s… sleeping.” Bryan answer, a confused expression play on his head. His palm move near her lips and sense the slow, rhymtic pattern of a breath.

“Oh, that’s better than her dying.” Roy said, walking over to the woman side, “But seriously, why is she sleeping in the middle of the forest?”

“I don’t know, but I guess these tendrils are protecting her from the cold?” Bryan stand up, huffing in the process. “We should get her back to the orphanage, it’s not safe if she sleep here…”

Both the boys look down to the sleeping woman with nothing on their head, no thought appear on how to carry this woman back to the orphanage. She look like an adult in her early 20s, they are definitely not going to carry her on their back or she’ll broke their spine off. Roy realise something and turn to look at Bryan.

“Let’s drag her.”

“Seriously?”