Middle Moon / 22 / 1208:
I got a belly full of pork and noodles, new steel-toed boots, and a thick coat. Got all my gear stored neatly in my bag too. Collapsible lance, crossbow, extra bolts, extra clothes, extra socks, hunter’s license, a canteen of water, a canteen of pork and noodles, a tinderbox, and a wallet full of some banknotes and coins. Even got two sticks of blues just in case. The sun is shining for the first time in months. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a cloudless sky. The sun feels so warm. Not looking forward to the sweat… I’m sure it’ll get better once I get to the river.
I put some gloves on, throw my bag over my shoulder, look at my room one more time, and begin descending the stairs. I look to the front door to see ma and da standing there smiling with their arms crossed. “Astrid.” Ma rubs her eye. “Don’t you want to stay for one more dinner?”
“Maaaa.” I rub the back of my head. “I’ve stayed for one more dinner five times already. I’ll never leave at this rate.”
“I know… but…” ma runs over and nearly tackles me to the ground with a hug. “I just don’t want to see you go…”
“Dear, come on.” Da pulls ma off of me without breaking a sweat. “This is what Astrid’s been training for her whole life. Who are we to deny her her glory?”
“I know… I know.” Ma wipes her eye again but still keeps her smile. “Do you need another canteen of noodles? I can make some more in no time.”
“That won’t be necessary. Thank you though. You’ve done far more for me than I could ever ask for. Thank you both.” My chest feels heavy. “I don’t deserve you two. I couldn’t ask for better parents.”
Da’s eyes start to get watery, but he takes a deep breath and the water recedes into his eyelids. “And we couldn’t ask for a stronger daughter. You sure you’re all patched up? No other wounds we need to know about?”
“Nope.” I smile and stretch my hands over my head. “Completely restored.” I rotate my shoulders then lift up my shirt to expose the new scar at my side. “See?” I poke it. “Completely closed too. Looks pretty cool, huh?”
“It does look neat.” Ma blows her nose. “How does your hand feel? Did you remember to pack your repair kit?”
“Indeed I did.” I raise my left hand and pull off the glove to reveal a metal hand attached to my wrist. While the outer shell looks like it belongs on a cheap automaton, the engineering is second to none. Got a chief army engineer to design this baby. It’s heavier than my old hand, but feels more responsive somehow. At least until I gotta do maintenance. Best part is one of my hands can’t get cold anymore. “This still feels good too.” I curl my fingers and listen to my joints click and whirr. “Though I can still feel my fingertips… my real fingertips.”
“Yeah that’s normal.” Da nods. “Though if it starts to hurt too much, please come home, you hear? We don’t need you chewing your other hand off.”
“I will, I will.” I put my glove back on. “I promise.” I point towards them. “Mind if you move out of the way? I need to go now.”
“Not until you give us a hug.” Da demands with his usual grin.
“Of course, of course.” I smile, put down my bag, and wrap my parents into a hug.
My ma and da wrap their arms around me and squeeze tight. It hurts, but it feels good.
“Are you certain you won’t stay for one more dinner?” Da asks.
“I’m certain.” I can barely breathe.
“You don’t sound certain!” Da laughs. “Put your back into it! Make these old bones feel the burn!”
“You got it, old man! HIYAAH!” I grab their backs and squeeze them harder than a bear just waking up out of hibernation.
“There we go!” Da laughs some more before letting go and slapping me on the back. “Good to know you still have it in you!” he rubs his back and winces.
“I’m glad you are still well… Promise me you’ll write us some letters.” Ma kisses my forehead.
“I will. You’ll get at least two a month.”
“Good.” Ma gives me one last squeeze before letting go. “I’ll hold you to that.” She opens the door and bows her head a little bit. “Now go! Create your legend! Let the world know your name!”
I give my parents one last hug, one last farewell, and head out. I only get twenty paces down the street before Ma’s voice rings through the street.
“Astrid! Did you remember to pack extra socks?”
“I did!” I stop and turn around. “Got ten extra pairs just in case!”
“Okay just checking!” Ma waves at me. “Good luck!”
“Thank you!” I wave at her before turning around again and resuming my adventure. I get ten more paces in until-
“Astrid!” Ma calls out again. “Did you remember to clean your lance?”
“Cleaned it last night!” I turn around and pat my bag. “Clean as a whistle!”
“Good to know! Okay you can go for real this time!”
“Thank you!” I wave at her again, turn around, and resume my journey. I get thirty more paces in before-
“ASTRID!!!” Ma’s voice pierces through the street. It’s faint, and I can just barely see a blurry outline of her at this point, but I can tell she’s yelling.
“WHAT!?” I turn around.
Ma says something, but I can’t make it out.
“WHAT!?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Ma says something a little louder, but I still can’t understand.
“WHAT!? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Ma’s voice rars through the street and pierce my heart.
“I LOVE YOU TOO, MA!” I wave goodbye to her and begin my journey for real this time… I stop in my tracks and feel my chest. My fingertips feel a small teardrop shape under my shirt. Good… I didn’t forget that.
Still Moon / 8 / 1218 A.F.
To my surprise, I wake up. I’m in a bed that’s too small for me by a window. Looks to be around midday. A light breeze blows in through the window and graces my nose. The wind reeks of salt still… what could be causing that? The room features a simple rug, some cabinets by the door across from me, and seven other beds full of sick and injured people. Compared to everyone else, I look alright. Body’s clean, wounds are healing, hair’s washed. I’m curled up in thick warm blankets and got my head supported by three of the fluffiest, coolest pillows I’ve ever felt. I peek under the blankets for a quick checkup. I’m… clean. Leg wound is closing nicely. Looks like I’ve been bathed. Hair feels nice and smooth. Legs feel good if a bit stiff. Arms and back are ready to go. No trunk weighing my back down. Shoulders feel soft and flexible. Left hand is nowhere to be seen, but my stump feels soft… Cant’t remember any nightmares either... It’s strange. I feel good.
Only bad thing is I’m dressed in this white and yellow cleric robe. It’s light and comfortable, but… it just doesn’t belong on me. My eyes wander around the room for a suit of armor I can borrow. Eventually my eyes glance down below me and find David sleeping face down ass up on the floor drooling on the rug. His cheek wound is closing nicely and he looks like he’s sleeping peacefully. I take a deep breath and smile… I still cannot believe I did all that…
sniff
Wait a moment. My eyes wander to the left of David and see a stone bowl about the size of my head with a lid on. No way. It… it cannot be. I take the bowl, sit up, and rest it on my lap. It’s still warm. I pull off the top and find a still hot bowl of pork and noodles. Broth is a nice dark brown and the noodles are almost overflowing out of the bowl. I had to slurp noodles for three minutes straight just to see my first sight of pork. Well sliced, salty, and sweet to the touch. I can’t stop eating. I might just suffocate, but it’s worth it… I need this in me more than anything else right now. After inhaling all the noodles and pork, I start downing the broth. Just as I’m about to finish, I hear David ask. “How is it?”
I put the now empty bowl down into my lap, wipe off my mouth, and let out a victorious belch. “Best damn pork and noodles I’ve had in three months.”
“Good… good…” David rubs his eye and yawns.
“Are you going to cry again?” I bop his head.
“While you were resting, I actually cried so hard I pulled a muscle in my neck.” David chuckles and winces. “The nurse informed me to take it easy.”
I can’t help but laugh - and laugh - and laugh. It’s not funny, but I can’t stop.
“Are you well?” David rests his elbows on my bedside.
“I’m the best I’ve ever been.” I stretch my arms over my head. “How did the ceremony with the stone go? Did you find Paradise?”
“We have not commenced it yet…” David lightly pokes at his cheek wound. “We wanted to wait until you woke up.”
“I appreciate it. How long was I out?”
“Three days.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” I get out of bed and stand up without an ounce of pain. “Let’s go check out Paradise.”
David leads me outside the healing ward and to a higher ranked cleric. They have this long, fast conversation in Lombard that I can’t translate. The big cleric nods and begins leading us through a series of simple, clean corridors and staircases. This thing is much bigger than I anticipated. All the walls are filled with tapestries depicting the Matriarch. Each one is more ornate and brilliant than the last. She looks just as she does in my visions. There’s some scenes of her traveling into the Boundary, others depicting her healing wounds, and others of her hugging downtrodden children. Each time I look at one, I feel a warmth in my chest and my cheeks curl into a soft smile… even though I don’t want them to. After ten minutes of walking, we’re led outside East of the Monastery. David, me, and six clerics are all standing in a circle on a wide precipice with an intricate sigil drawn in white chalk on the earth beneath us. Right behind me is the Monastery barrier and right behind that is The Boundary. Thick, benign mist stretches as far as the eye can see to the left and right of me. I don’t hear anything coming out of it… let’s hope it stays that way. I refuse to be cheated out of Paradise this close to the end.
A cleric with a large, impressive, slightly silly hat exits the Monastery halls carrying the stone in his hands with relative ease. His impressive bulk is wasted on a bishop. Within seconds, he plants the stone in the center of the sigil and joins the circle. All the clerics and David join hands and begin chanting a hymn. The stone begins to levitate high into the air and spin around. A small vortex of wind appears under the stone and quickly grows in size and strength. The earth, trees, and wind all around us get sucked in towards the stone, but the clerics and I remain undaunted. The wind looks violent, but feels like a soft summer breeze. I look up and see mist from every direction as far as the eye can see, gathering above us and getting absorbed into the stone. Mist from near, Mist from far. Doesn’t matter. The stone just keeps spinning and spinning sucking up more and more and more Mist. The sky all around us has turned grey and the precipice we’re on becomes covered in mist. It just keeps coming. There’s no end. There’s-
The mist stops coming. The stone stops spinning. The sky reverts to its normal blue and the stone slowly lands back onto the ground. It’s now shining brightly and looks like it has a world’s worth of mist constantly swirling around inside of it.
“Praise be to the Matriarch… it worked… it truly worked…” The clergy look behind me with ajar mouths and sparkling eyes.
“What worked?” I look around and up at the sky. “Everything looks-” I pivot behind me to see what all the fuss is about. “the… same…”
Water. So much water. A vast body of clear water as far as the eye can see… I can no longer see the Boundary. Not an ounce of mist for miles. Nothing before me but the largest body of water I’ve ever seen. Just beneath the precipice is a slope of soft sand that goes down to the water. My body moves by itself, jumps off the precipice, and begins running down the slope to the water. The sand is so warm… so soft. It’s hard to run in, but I don’t care. I’ve never felt anything like this before.
“ASTRID! WAIT UP!” David calls out and starts chasing after me.
“You’ll have to catch me!” I laugh and continue running down the hill. I nearly fall and roll over, but I wouldn’t even care if I did. Soon enough, I reach the bottom of the hill and there’s soft sand all along the edge of the water. I stand there and watch the water crash against the sand. In and out… In and out… the sound is beyond alien… and yet so comforting… I feel like I could fall into the water and get swept away never to be seen again if I’m not careful… but that doesn’t scare me. I lift my robe up to my knees and step into the water. It’s cold, but refreshing. The water keeps crashing against my legs and trying to pull me in. In and out. In and out. It’s almost like the water has its own heartbeat. In the distance, just over the horizon I can just barely see a landmass. I’ve never seen it documented on any map.
Grand Moon / 24 / 1219 A.F.
“Astrid? Astrid! Come now! Wakey wakey!”
“Yeah… yeah… yawn… What do you need?”
“What do you mean what do I need? Today’s the day we set sail!”
“Oh… yeah… that is today, but that’s at noon. Sun’s not even up yet. The hell are you doing up so early?”
“I couldn’t sleep last night at all… I was so excited.”
“What are you excited for? It’s just a bunch of water.”
“A bunch of water that contains Paradise.”
“True… true… Alright. As long as we’re up, wanna do some training before breakfast?”
“Yes please!”
“Did you clean your sword?”
“Of course! Did I do a good job?”
“That’s a fine blade. Good job. Alright, go out and run a few laps… I need some time to orient myself… damnit…”
“Are you hungover again?”
“No, no… I’ve just had this killer headache all week…”