'I have to take courage ... either I cross this bridge or I will have to swim it ...' the idea of swimming in the icy waters of that lake did not invite me at all.

I decided to untie the sword belt from my waist and place it on the ground, this in order to have as little weight as possible with me during my reckless walk on that bridge.

I took the first step, another creak, second step, and history repeated itself. I kept walking, trying to be careful not to put my feet in the parts where the wooden boards were moldy.

*Crrrk!

I was now halfway across the bridge when, placing my right foot on a plank of the bridge, it yielded in the center, almost knocking me forward.

At that moment, instinctively, I tried not to fall by holding up with the parapet to my right, this at first held my weight, however, in the end, it too gave up.

Now, instead of falling forward, I was about to fall into the void to my right left by the parapet. This would have been even worse as I would have fallen into the water.

I raised my right foot and placed it as far to the right as possible on the wooden plank ahead, while with my left hand I grabbed the railing on my left, pushing myself towards it.

This way, I managed to regain his balance, and, above all, not fall into the water.

* Fiuu

I gave a sigh of relief, when, without any warning, the two curved wooden beams placed under the bridge, which were used to support the weight of the whole bridge and to give it shape, broke in half, making me fall ruinously into the icy waters of the lake below me.

Fortunately, in the fall, I suffered no injuries.

At first, I panicked, the water I was in, was very cold, too cold. It reminded me of the time when, after seeing a video on social media of someone explaining the benefits of freezing baths, I tried jumping into a bathtub full of water and ice cubes. Be it then as now, not a beautiful experience.

I then started swimming towards the islet. Even though my clothes were heavy, I was able to reach the islet in no time.

'To think that I will have to swim back ...'

I was shivering from the cold, so I decided to pick the flowers and get back to Rivorio as quickly as possible.

The "water flames" were now in front of me. These really had the shape that vaguely resembled a fire in a fireplace. They were stemless and leafless. They were formed only of petals. These were fiery red, zigzag-shaped, varying in size, and appeared to grow confusedly.

I approached one of these and was about to catch it when a noise, a mixture of a howl and a screech. It came from the forest that was a few meters after the bridge, now destroyed, from which I came. For now, the howling seemed far enough.

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My instincts and mind told me to pick these flowers and leave quickly.

'What the f*ck was that ...?!' I thought terrified.

I plucked a few flowers and put them in the special pockets of my pants, then plunged without hesitation into the lake, and swam at full speed to my sword.

Out of the water, an icy wind attacked me, the air around me became heavier and a malaise grew inside me. Maybe all this was only psychological, what I had seen and done the day before were still alive in me, I had certainly not forgotten the dead man, quartered by the errant bear, and certainly, I had not forgotten the feeling of being able to die at any moment that I had experienced in front of the errant.

I began to shake visibly, I noticed how the fur I was wearing was hydrophobic and that the pockets of my trousers had not let water in. However, the rest of the clothes got soaked with water.

Instinctively I touched my sword which I had now placed again on my left side.

*Howrrrl!

I turned to the howl. 'it's the same as before ... it seems to be getting closer to me ...' I thought worried.

I ran towards the path that would take me back to the inn, unfortunately, having my clothes soaked with water, I was unable to exploit my maximum speed.

* HOOOWWRRRRL!

Whatever it was, it was now close to me. Just before returning to the path, a strange beast with a ferocious "face" emerged from the forest near the destroyed bridge.

It looked like a mixture of various animals, a chimera.

Its torso and legs, including the color of his fur, were reminiscent of a gray wolf's. It was, however, taller than a wolf. It was far away so I couldn't see it well, but it seemed to be able to reach my chest with its head.

The neck of the strange beast featured a kind of black feather scarf, and, if its body resembled that of a wolf, the head was certainly that of a bird, in particular, it resembled the head of a condor, reddish and without feathers or hair.

Its beak was all black ending in a hook.

The thing that terrified me most was the sight of its tail. It was basically brown in color, with, however, features that looked like eyes, which were dark green in color. That tail seemed made of snakeskin, a few meters long and thin as a baseball bat. That thing then ended with an external ax-shaped skeleton.

Its entire body had scars and wounds, some older than others.

As soon as it saw me it started running towards me. I plunged into the path at full speed.

'First the frozen lake and now this too ...! ...'

I ran among the tall grass and the branches of the shrubs, without giving too much weight to the various thorns that the latter had, which caused me various superficial wounds on my hands and face.

Sometimes I turned to see if maybe the monster that was chasing me had changed its mind, however, every time, not only did I see it continue to chase me, but it seemed to get close to me too.

I kept running away, I remembered decently the way back to the inn, so I kept running away with only fear in my head.

I realized that I was moving away from the lake as the vegetation around me returned to having tall pines as "rulers".

I was now minutes from the inn, and the monster was still behind me, now about 20 meters away, when a lump rose in my throat, it was a mixture of fear and guilt. What I felt at that moment was a different fear than before, what I felt then was fear not for my safety but for that of other people. I realized that if I continued down that road I would soon arrive at the inn, where there were other people.

'If I take it there, I could have someone killed ... in the inn, there is also Leo ...' I remembered the face of the child I had saved the previous day, I could not allow anything to happen to him.

"Fuck!" I screamed, trying to kick out as much tension as possible.

I veered to the right, exiting trampled paths and immersing myself in the wild and dying forest of tall conifers.

'Think ... think Eizo...' I said to myself as I ran among the pine logs.

I turned to look once more at the monster that was chasing me.

'Compared to yesterday's bear… this one is certainly scarier, but it seems even weaker ...' I don't know how well founded this last thought of mine was.

I stopped, drew "Chaos", and turned to the beast.

{TO BE CONTINUED}