Before the incident, Odilia would visit Ezhno from time to time to teach him how to read and write.

Ezhno and Odilia were not good friends at first. On the day she came to visit her grandfather, Master Redfield, she was riding her horse towards the stables to retire for the day. The horse did not like something she did and was thrashing and was trying to buck her off the saddle. After a few minutes and a lot of yelling later, trying to calm the horse down, the horse gave a big jump, bucked and snorted, as she was thrown off behind her horse.

Afterwards, the horse was still thrashing around, Ezhno came running over and just before the horse could kick Odilia in the head, Ezhno approached with a few soft words, some forced tugs and soft petting. Only then did the horse calm down.

Odilia had remained on the ground, with her eyes tightly closed, she was crying and expecting the worst to happen but it did not come. After a minute with her eyes closed and hearing the soft words that were soothing the horse, she opened her wet eyes. As she opened her eyes the bright sun was beating down on her face and slightly blinding her, and within a few blinks she saw Ezhno. With the sun in front of her it looked liked Ezhno had a radiant aura around him, while his hair flapped around in the wind. It was as if a handsome knight in shinning armor had come to save her from her pending doom.

She blushed slightly and got up on her feet and brushed herself off.

Odilia asked, "Excuse me boy, what is your name?"

"I am the one that takes care of the stables." Ezhno replied.

"I did not ask you what you do, I asked for your name!" Odilia said in a slightly agitated, and aristocratic voice.

"I am sorry, this lowly one's name is Ezhno, Ezhno Stone." He obediently responded.

"Mr. Ezhno Stone, my name is Odilia Redfield."

With a slightly puzzled look Ezhno replied,

"Oh, so you are Master Redfields granddaughter? I will take the horse back to the stables, Miss Odilia, please have someone examine you On your return home to make sure you are not seriously injured. I have many duties I still have to attend to before I can retire for the day, I shall excuse myself."

With a bow Ezhno turned around to walk the horse back to the stable. Odilia watched Ezhno walk away, and before she did the same, she yelled out,

"Mr Ezhno.... Is.. it, umm... ok... if I come see you again some day? I would like to properly thank you and reward you for saving me just now."

While still turned around, Ezhno held his arm in the air, waved, and replied,

"Sure, if you are not busy, but there is no need for a reward, I only did what anyone would do. The stables are always open to any of the Redfield family, if you want to see the stable and the horses come see me anytime." Again in another agitated voice Odilia replied,

"Mr. Ezhno you deserve a reward and I will definitely come to see you."

Ezhno stopped and turned around,

"Sure, but when you come to see me, you can just call me Ezhno, I am no one special so no need to call me Mister."

Odilia Was slightly blushing and Looking down at the ground, She was rocking back and forth, with her hands behind her back, she replied,

"If I do, you must also drop the Miss and call me just Odilia then. We are around the same age so no need to call me Miss."

They both laughed and agreed and went on their way.

The following days after, they would meet up many times. Odilia wanted to give him something special as a reward and decided to teach Ezhno how to Read and Write. they both agreed together that this was a suitable reward. When Ezhno was not busy with his stable duties or if Odilia was not teaching him how to read or write, they would run around and explore the outskirts of the Grand Sea Forest together.

The forest had many wild beasts and hidden dangers and only some of the stronger men of the village would enter and hunt and forage for things needed for the village or for their families finances. To prove who was braver and who was a scaredy cat, Odilia and Ezhno would constantly dare each other to enter the forest and would always say whoever can find the Jeweled Sage Berry Plant would be the hero of the village, and the loser would have to call the other from that day on, regardless of who is around, by the title of Hero of Forest Shadow Village.

Having to call the other by that title would be too embarrassing, so neither of them wanted to loose, but the actual truth was that they were both scaredy cats and most of the time when they went their separate ways to go find The Jeweled Sage Berry Plant, they only went a few feet in and would hide in some hole or tree until the time passed and they would usually both lie and tell each other that they searched forever but could not find it.

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The plant that they were supposed to look for and retrieve only grew about half a mile within the forest and beyond. They remembered hearing the stories on where this plant grew from the strong villagers who entered the forest to forage. They were also told that The Jeweled Sage Berry Plant was highly toxic and can kill a human.

While the two recalled the story in question, one of the curious village children listening in the group had asked,

"Senior, why do you risk Dying to gather the Jeweled Sage Berry Plant, why is it worth risking your lives over?"

The village senior, replied,

"The Jeweled Sage Berry Plant is worth some good coin, so we risk our lives to enter the Grand Sea Forest to enrich our way of life. There are many rich folks in the towns and cities who have an abundance of wealth, and are willing to spend a good amount of coin on their animals".

"Also we humans can not eat this plant. It does nothing for us regardless on how tasty it looks, the plant is highly toxic and would kill us within minutes.It may not benefit us in any way, but to animals this is like a miracle medicine with many beneficial properties. To the animals that eat this plant, they would noticeably become stronger and faster".

Ezhno was well aware of this and had seen the Jeweled Sage Berry Plant many times. He saw the benefits first hand and knew how beneficial it was, especially for the horses.

Master Redfield had told him to fed it to certain horses and the ones who ate the Jeweled Sage Berry Plant would run faster and would be harder to stabilize and calm down when they got out of hand, because of their increased strength, and he would often take a good thrashing because of it.

Master Redfield also told him in a word of caution that regardless on how hungry he was and how tasty it looked not to eat the plant. He warned that it was poisonous and if he were to eat it, that it would be his parting meal into the afterlife.

Ezhno had to agree, after not eating for a half a day or more, he was tempted by the plant many times and wondered if Master Redfield was just lying to him because he just did not want him to eat it. The bright vibrant colors of the green leaves, the berries that hung down looked like sweet jeweled hard candies that the richer kids in the village would snack on. Such treats he knew he could never afford to indulge on in his life time, he thought.

The children that were huddled around the village senior were full of oohs, awes and confusion. They were taught that animals were used for certain jobs or to be eaten. They did not really understand why one would spend their hard earned coins to spoil there animals.

Within the noisy crowd another child asked,

"Senior, why is it called the Grand Sea Forest? I do not see any water nearby?"

The senior chuckled and replied,

"If one was to climb the tallest nearby mountains, all one would notice is a sea of trees as far as the eye could see, and also if you still are not aware, the town forefathers derived the village name from the shadow that is cast from the 200 foot tall trees from the forest on certain hours of the day."

Many of the kids were smirking as if this was common knowledge and many were dumbstruck as if they had learned some truly mystifying secrets that there parents were hiding away from them.

One day, after once again daring each other, Ezhno and Odilia entered the forest and when they came back out after a certain time Odilia had a twinkle in her eyes and a look of extreme excitement on her face.

She said to Ezhno,

"Haha, Ezhno I am the bravest and The Hero of Forest Shadow Village. Who cares about a stupid plant. I did something only someone brave and strong would do! I saw a large wild beast, and being the hero that I am, I picked up a rock, aimed it at beast's head and bashed its head in."

Since Odilia was the only person he had any relations with, he would not have a shred of doubt towards anything that Odilia would have to say, and would be full of oohs and awes and praises as she retold her tale of bravery and how she did it over and over again.

"Ezhno, night is soon approaching and we should head home now. I really don't want my grandfather scolding me again for staying out so late." Odilia said.

He agrees and nodded.

The two headed back to the village with heads held up high and aura glowing as if they were mighty hunters returning home from a successful hunt. Even though Ezhno hid away and did nothing but cower in a tree, since Odilia was his friend, and successfully slayed the wild beast, he could not be any happier for her.