In the once small clearing that was enlarged by the destruction brought with the magnificent magical wind, absolute silence was interrupted by several small things.

The noise of birds singing among the trunks, fluttering free in the blue sky above, devoid of any clouds, drew attention. Their varied melodies, far apart from each other, took the girl's head almost to another universe.

The flow of the river, ever steady and reliable, weak to the point where it couldn't hurt even an ant. Its slow flow brought her security and solidity, things the girl felt she needed so much to calm the turmoil in her heart.

A gust of comfortable temperature, cold wind coming from the high peaks visible just ahead. Their apparent deceptive proximity made them seem so close, climbing misty through the green leaves; bright rock in that beautiful shade of blue, by so little not confused with the sky itself.

She looked at the floor. A trail of small brightly colored beetles followed their mother — or so she thought at the time — back and forth between the earth and the pebbles.

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Purple — all, one after the other, following the big, older beetle, which was white in color and which seemed, by instinct, to understand that its mission was to lead them to safety.

Many things crossed her mind when faced with that event coming from pure chance.

“I wonder if father is worried about me…”

The girl of long blonde locks hugged her knees, wrapping both arms around herself in a gesture that was almost a spiritual embrace. Her skin had no heat to itself, as it was covered in a fine layer of dust adhered by sweat; and being in such close proximity to her own chest filled her nostrils with that acidic stench once again.

She didn't care. It was the best she could manage to possess at the time.

But that wasn't what stopped her curious eyes from looking to her left, following the line of the floor little by little and rising from there. The pair of emeralds on her face focused on something so close by yet so unknown.

It was that boy. He wasn't too far into the center of that clearing, and that made his movement one extra part of the noises that pulled her back whenever her mind wandered too far from the objective reality.

If she had to say it at face value, Jake Parker was a very weird guy — eccentric would end up being a better word, though.

That stoic way, always serious and solid as a rock, and who always seemed to have a manner of finding a solution so quickly to any problem. If Enille had to say so, would admit that she came to admire that quality a little too soon.

She wanted to be just like that — independent, unshakable... She wanted to be strong.

But there he was, analyzing fruits that had always seemed so commonplace and normal to her. His gaze was one of curiosity and analysis, and he would spend several seconds chewing a single bite of one, studying its texture and the palatable characteristics that accompanied each different type.

Looking at it that way, he looked almost like a child who had just discovered what anything other than his mother's milk tasted like.

“Enille.”

His deep voice pierced through her ears like an arrow, rousing her from the lazy doldrums of the shadow of the tree she lay under. Enille's whole aching, tired body was suddenly active again.

“Huh?! What happened, Jake?” She asked, somewhat taken aback by her own reaction.

“This fruit.” He raised his arm, which held something characteristic in his hand. “What’s this one called again?”

A brief smile that soon died made itself on the girl's lips, who rested her left ear on her flexed knee, letting the strands of her smooth hair spread across her face.

"It's a Coika, Jake." She said, sounding matter-of-factly. “Those are not very good when they're not ripe, but in that state, the ones you found are usually quite sweet. I like them."

She couldn't care anymore about the doubt between him being human or not. That suddenly didn't matter, leaving only the fun of seeing him confused with things and concepts that for her would be too simple.

“Coika , huh… That's really a bunch of new names I’m learning today.” Jake responded, admiring the fruit in his hand.

The coika is an orange-colored, bulbous fruit that usually grows on the trunks of a species of tree that is not very tall. When ripe, they are soft-fleshed fruits with a concentrated flavor, sweet as honey; with all it takes to dig in being to get through the relatively tough shell, which isn't much of a challenge in itself. They are commonly used in recipes due to their rich flavor, especially in delicacies.

"How I would love to eat a slice of creamy coika pie right now..." Enille thought , feeling herself salivate.

However, her nirvana did not last long, as she was soon faced with the bitter memories that in no time stopped consuming her mind over that time.

"... But what good would that do if it means they can't share it with me...?"

She felt on the verge of tears all over again, ready to give in to the melancholy of loss for a second time. She knew the tightness in her chest wouldn't go away anytime soon — if ever —, and so she didn't even try to hide the rivers running from her green eyes.

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She felt urgency. Her head needed that fabric so soft and different to comfort it.

It felt good. She had no words to describe the qualities of that thing, so soft and cohesive, that made her feel strangely welcomed, even though it was just an object and, above all, one that didn't belong to her.

But that wasn't with her anymore, as Jake caught it back just as the sun started to get higher in the sky and began hitting just above where she previously was. He even insisted that she keep what he called a “winter coat”, but it clearly wasn't something to lie on in the first place, so she declined, feeling she couldn't go on causing any more problems.

Enille bitterly regretted that decision.

… … …

"Here."

Her body curled up into itself and shivered all over at the feel of that weight on her shoulders, followed by a sudden comfortable rise in temperature and the feeling of protection the girl so craved.

The silence became denser than ever and even the crying was forced to stop, but as Jake started to walk further away...

“Jake...”

Enille rather desperately gripped the dense orange fabric of his pants, not wanting the boy to go. It was too firm to the touch and whatever kind of cloth that was, would certainly be a commercial success in any corner of that kingdom.

“How…?” She asked. "How did you get here...? How did you find me...?"

A gentle breeze cut through the small clearing and the sounds of the rushing river were heard again.

“I come from a far away place… Far, far away. A place where people live too well... In fact, everybody in there lives so well that they end up creating unnecessary problems to have something to worry about and to keep their lives running with some semblance of emotion and uncertainty.”

A second of silence that ran like an entire day cut the space between the two.

“It's a place where people aren't hungry, don't have to fight wars, in which there is not even the most remote need to need to antagonize each other... I know that, by the way I'm talking about it, it's going to feel like heaven. I can see that. But, there... It turns out that life has become too comfortable for that to be true.”

Enille didn't understand where he was going with that, but felt that she would soon. It was just a matter of continuing to listen.

“And that's why, just because it's so… perfect, if we can use that word… It's just because the people hate living there so much. So they create problems that don't need to exist... that shouldn't be allowed to exist.”

The boy's gaze was lost in the dark horizon between the trees, taken to a place so, so far away.

“And I was one of those people. Tired of how good my life was, I decided to create my own problems, because I felt like I wanted something to fight for. I couldn't just sit back in a chair and accept how everything around me was so ideal... And what a fool I had been.”

Gradually, it began to become clear.

“So it was me and four friends. We put together everything we've gathered over the years for this trip that promised to be the adventure of our lives... A true search for meaning and purpose to our empty existences. And so, we left, far from our protected dome, totally unaware of what the world awaited, unknowing that soon we, a group that had no talent for combat and moved only on the basis of faith and braveness, would be ambushed.”

“Ambushed…?” For the first time, he dared to question. "You guys were..."

"Yeah. We were." He coldly cut her off. “It was a freaky bunch of people, walking around in those black robes, hiding their faces and laughing at anything that came in front of them like a bunch of lunatics...”

That description made all the hairs on her body stand up, as well as a sudden burning sensation rising in her throat.

"They... They killed my friends... They killed them all... We tried to fight, but we had nothing but courage, and even that ended quickly after reality hit us." He said. "And I... I don't remember anything else, other than waking up on a plain nearby... Without my valuables or any belongings other than clothes."

Even after all this time, the grip of that hand on his leg was still felt.

“Something tells me I'm not in a position to cry. It's almost as if my own spirit knows that the fact that I'm here, in these conditions, is my fault alone and that I have to deal with it without complaining.”

Expressionless, the dark-skinned boy turned his face to the blonde girl.

“That's how I found you, Enille de Siora.” Jake stated, sounding factual. “I don't know where I am, where I'm going from here or anything else, but I know I couldn't let this go. Wherever your home is, I will make a point of taking you back there.”

Jake semi-kneeled, lacing his own fingers around the girl's hand, gently coaxing it out of his pants. Compared to hers, but his hands were too soft, having never known the pains of carrying a sword.

But at the same time, they carried a feeling of such strength...

“It's going to be too late soon, and I don't think it's a good idea for us to stay here much longer. Is the place where you live very far from here? Because, if I may say so... You don't look like you want to spend the night here.”

As much as she wanted to say something about it, Enille couldn't find the words to comfort him. Most of all, she could see that it was not what he wished for. Jake did not want to be comforted.

So she just took his hand, and was helped to her feet by that firm jolt which, after so long of weeping and mourning and dreaming, set her back on her own two feet. It was time to start looking forward.

“Calendas is by no means far from here. I think, considering how late it must be now… ”

The blonde girl with a rather slender physique looked up towards the blue sky and, with a bit of expertise, dictated what she thought.

“Hmm … It seems like it's been about a period since noon… Too bad I didn't bring my Time Gem… At this rate, we'll reach Calendas in about two periods.”

He didn't understand what it meant to say "period", but he assumed it would be something similar to hours, or at least the equivalent to that.

“Two periods… Right. I suppose we should get a move on, then. Maybe it will take less time if we hurry a bit.” Jake nodded and added. “Shall we go, Enille?”

"Yes. Let’s go, Jake.”

And the two of them took the road, bidding farewell to the ruined clearing and the slow-flowing river of that forest, ready to get to civilization as quickly as possible.

“This girl… She really is too innocent for her own good. She fell like a trapped bunny into a story made from pure improvisation.”

Jake thought in silence as he felt that so dangerous object hidden by his shirt, tucked into the space between his pants and his skin. Luckily those cursed knives came with a sheath.

“She sent the body of that hooded dude at least twenty or thirty meters into the forest, before it collided with a tree which almost completely destroyed all of his bones, shattering the body as if it was made of glass. I could look for more, but time was short for that.”

The boy looked to his left, noticing young Enille and her sad gaze at the floor. Every now and then she clutched the fabric of the black leather coat more tightly, desperate for the strange comfort it brought.

“She doesn't seem to understand the extent of her own abilities, as this girl doesn't even remember what she did in that instant… I won't be able to rely on that again if something happens, I guess.”

An expressionless frown crept over his face, admiring the blue mountains ahead.

“I just hope this girl serves her purpose as my pass into this town called Calendas.”