“Hnnng... ”

An uneasy feeling gripped both body and mind. Struggling to escape the merciless nightmare she was.

“Laysha… Eldreus… No… Don’t… Leave me… Alone…”

Her body twisted as she painfully moaned those names. Her face was contorted in pained expressions, painted with agony.

Gradually, she began to hear that sound: the noise of the river flow, and when it reached her numb ears, it was as if she felt herself drowning, pressed against those dark waters by forces of immense proportion.

Down there they were, pleading for help — her help. Their arms stretched high in the deep waters as they sank endlessly.

She tried to scream, but she couldn't breathe. She tried to swim with all her speed towards those who, even if only known for such a short time, could already be called “friends” with full right.

"Laysha... Eldreus..."

But it was no use. They were very far already, and kept getting further away. The current took them deeper and deeper — farther than any corner she could reach.

“Laysha...! Eldreus...! No, please...! Don't leave me here!"

Her vision darkened, until there was nothing left but the endless pressure of water in her lungs, eyes, and ears, squeezing her like a pimple.

Soon, nothing would remain of her, delegated to the same purpose, eternally separated from those whom, for such little time, she could say that were loved as if a part of family.

Lost forever. Away in a sea of pain and agony.

"... DON'T GO...!"

Her body jerked forward, lifting the entire upper half of her small, fragile, feminine form in build. It was then that she realized it had all been a nightmare.

"I… I couldn't...!"

The girl with blond hair that reached her shoulders plus a half the size of her head looked at the pink palms, callused by the use of the sword she always used to carry with her. It wasn't a dream.

It wasn't a dream, and knowing that was the most painful thing of all.

“Laysha… Eldreus… I… I…!”

She covered her face with tiny hands and let her pain fall to the floor in heavy drops. It certainly wouldn't be her last time shedding tears for those people, but doing so right after waking up seemed like a good start.

“I couldn’t save you guys…!”

Even if still dizzy and disoriented, she had a clear notion of everything that had happened, ranging from the last steps they took in the mission to retrieve the ring, to the arrival of those lunatic killers who treated life as a joke.

The memories were so fresh that what she wanted to do most was just rip them out so they wouldn't hurt anymore.

"Why...? Why did I live...? What happened...? Why did it have to be me?!”

However, although she remembered everything, a key piece still seemed to elude memory. All the girl remembered was, in the midst of all that immense panic, the fact she was losing consciousness, only to finally wake up in those conditions.

Are those crazy people so insane and perverse as to choose someone to survive, only to have that person live with the pain from the death of their companions for the rest of their lives?

“Why did I survive…?!”

Her lamentations had every right to continue, but something in the distance was coming with a promise to stop them. Upon hearing those sounds, the girl immediately forced herself to stop crying.

It was grass — or rather, someone stepping on it, in a rather calm gait.

Was it another one of those freaks, having come back to finish the job?

The girl in a chainmail shirt looked to the right side, and when she saw the floor, her skin felt the difference that existed between that and the earth on which that strange piece of fabric was placed. It was something soft, too firm and unlike any cloth she had ever seen in her life.

She knew it wasn't the time to lose focus, but couldn't help admiring with a certain wonder the condition her body was left in, treated with what looked like so much care.

The sword was still there, sheathed beside where she had been lying through that time of unconsciousness. It was almost too deceptive, as if the person who did it didn't mean to hurt her.

And before she was even able to get out of such a scattered state of mind, in front of her eyes he appeared.

“Oh, you woke up. That's good.”

A deep male voice greeted her, its owner soon emerging from the shadows in the trees. His tall form gradually distinguished itself, revealing those somewhat strange characteristics and features, starting with the color of his skin.

“A Dark Elf?!”

The blonde girl's first reaction was to grab the sword at her side and try to protect her own skin. A Human-Dark Elf encounter usually only resulted in one thing, and that meant a massive bloodbath.

It wasn't uncommon for human women to be raped by them, too. At least that's what the stories said.

Given that, she had all right to be wary.

“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, will you?" He said, raising his hands. “I understand that you are confused and scared, but I can assure you that I am only here to help.”

Stolen novel; please report.

It was a boy, perhaps a Dark Elf man. In his hands he carried fruits, all of them edible. They were foods she knew.

"Your ears..." She murmured, weakly. “Show… Your ears… Now…”

The strength in her arms still lacked, and that was seen in the faulty swing of the sword, which shuddered while in grasp. She didn't even adopt a combative posture to begin with, choosing to remain seated for reasons even the young woman couldn't explain.

"Ears...?" The boy raised his right eyebrow, a clear sign of not understanding anything. “Such as… like this?”

He turned his face, letting her see perfectly the cartilaginous design of his hearing appendages. Her surprise at that proved even greater than the expected in case it was a positive suspicion.

Those, after all, were human ears.

“Oh...!” The girl's face twisted in a mixture of surprise and questioning. “Your ears... They are human...”

"Well... I'm human... Or at least that's what I think of myself." He responded, seeming unfazed by the answer that should have been so obvious. “I've recognized myself as a human my entire life… Is there a problem with that?”

“Uh...”

The two exchanged glances for several seconds, amidst the silence broken only by the occasional gale and the constant flow of the river behind them.

She inspected him from top to bottom, taking note of his most striking features. Certainly his eyes were a little threatening and rigid, but they didn't have the natural sharpness of a Dark Elf's gaze, which is drawn to the sides, and he was also a little too tall to be one.

So what's the reason behind that skin color?

"Uh... Forgive me if it's disrespectful to ask... But are you half-breed?"

To that question, the boy once again distorted his face in doubt.

"I do not know what you're talking about. I can assure you that I am as human as you are. I happen to come from a place far enough away where people are like this.” He said. "I don't understand what makes you judge people like that, but I can't agree with it, especially when that individual just saved you."

Her eyes nearly bugged out at the news.

"Saved me...? Then..."

"Exactly. That soft thing you're lying on, for example. That is my winter coat.” He pointed to the floor. “I found you here, unconscious in the middle of the forest, with all this destruction around you.”

“Huh…?”

It was only then that she stopped to take a sharper look at her surroundings, where a quick survey revealed everything the girl had failed to notice all that time.

Destroyed trees, badly damaged terrain, and stains of what appeared to be blood smeared in an area a few feet away. The scene of a battle that had just ended.

“I don't know precisely what happened, but in my search for some means of getting help, I ended up coming across this river and, consequently, with you unconscious next to the bank.”

He took one of the fruits he carried in his arms, shook it for a while and smelled it, only to then question something quite peculiar.

“These fruits... They don't exist where I come from... And although I saw some animals eating them, I don't know if they are suitable for human consumption...”

She knew that fruit very well. It was one of the most delicious that could be found in the open markets of the city.

“That… is a Keishe.” She said, opening her mouth for the first time in a while. “You… you can eat them. They are… delicious.”

“Ahh... That's really good to know. It's nice to find out I didn't pick these up for nothing."

The tall, dark-skinned boy, dressed in strange garments, smiled a little at the sight of the fruit, shaped like a pear, though a little larger and indigo blue instead of pale green.

"Actually... They're all edible... You... Picked the right fruits..."

She couldn't look him in the eye as the words came out, constantly looking down at his feet covered in those bizarre but still very pretty black shoes. They looked a lot more comfortable than those stiff boots she used, too.

"There you go. I got these for you. I thought you would be hungry when finally awake. Honestly? I was afraid to offer you something that wouldn't hit well... Good thing that they're all edible, right?”

The girl felt her whole body freeze at what was said. Whoever that stranger was, he had taken the trouble to venture into the forest, into the middle of a land he didn't know, just to pick fruit... Fruit for her.

And the first thing she did was point a sword at his chest, ready to kill him whenever the chance presented itself.

“I'll leave them here. You can take whatever you want and as many as you like. I found more of them a little further down the river. Can get more a little later.”

He started to walk away, heading towards a nearby tree, which had large leaves comparable those of a banana tree.

“Uhm… ” She murmured restlessly, while making sure it was loud enough for him to be able to hear.

"Some problem? Are you hurting somewhere?”

His distant speech required him to raise his voice. Even with his great height, the boy still needed to take a tiny leap to reach and pick up one of the large leaves.

“No... It's just that...”

In a quick gesture, he ripped the leaf out, looking satisfied with the result.

"I want to apologize..."

The blonde girl again wasn't able to bring herself to face him, choosing to pay attention to the rushing river instead. The stench of vomit on her clothes roiled her stomach, threatening to overwhelm all possible appetite.

"I... I'm sorry I... Well, tried to kill you earlier... I..."

"It's alright."

The way he tossed it aside like old paper moved her insides in every single possible way, and it wasn't long before she felt the tightness in her heart press even further.

"Like I said earlier, I don't understand why you even tried, but judging by the look on your face at the time, I suppose it must be a good reason."

Gradually, her eyes lost their fear, and she finally allowed herself to focus on the image of him, beside the river, weaving something with the leaves of the big tree in his broad hands.

“And by the way, it's not like I couldn't defend myself at the time either… And if I have to be honest, I've had way too many chances to kill you so far, so you can say we're even.”

He arranged the leaves in his hand, in a sort of fold, and used them to fetch water from the river.

“No hard feelings about it.” He said. "Here. Take it. Just be careful not to end up undoing the fold.”

Carefully, he folded that set of tangled green ribbons in such a way that the water pooled in the center didn't leak out in any direction, effectively functioning as a cup or bowl.

All she could do was stare at her reflection in the water mirror as her eyes filled with tears.

“Wow... Looks like you were really thirsty...”

This was due to the fact that so suddenly she drank everything in a few gulps, almost as if trying to drown herself in the water contained between her hands. At the end, the young lady let out a satisfied “Ahh!” while holding back the tears with all her might.

She used her right arm to wipe away the tears that were already threatening to fall, and looked at his face in detail for the first time.

“I am Enille… Enille de Siora.” She said. "What is your name?"

“My name is Jake.” He replied. “Jake Parker.”

A brief smile that soon died came across young Enille's face. It was a laugh.

“What was so funny?”

“Your name... It's pretty weird! No other than that!"