´I´m bored´

A few long, looong long hours passed since Vienessa and Madeleine hired a carriage and departed for the royal capital. The hours were so noticeably long that the Demon went to sleep 4 times, woke up and wondered if a new day had begun. The time stretched worse than this one famous pirates.

Their journey leads the two along a specially paved trail through the Archlander forest. The Archlander Forest, or also the ´if you don´t perfectly know the way perfectly, you´ll defnitely get lost´ forest. Basically a huge chunk of dense vegetation populated by some monsters, though mainly by all sorts of plants.

Because not much effort was put into the construction of this ´special road´ through the forest, if you can even call it that, and most didn´t want to spend the money for an experienced guide, many Humans would rather take the longer alternative. The Main Road that reaches almost everywhere, that Vienessa also took to get to the Minotaur Den.

Due to the many roots, the way feels something like a roller coaster, a bad one at that. The ride is uneven, bumpy and exhausting all the way through. Especially Madeleine has it hard, she feels like a die that´s being thrown around. She was begging her Demon friend to take a quieter route, but the girl wouldn´t compromise as this shortcut saves them about one whole day of time. Maybe even more since Madeleine equipped the carriage with monster-repellent barriers.

And yet, for some reason, a few hours ago, their carriage came to a halt in the middle of nowhere. The Demon is currently lying with her arms behind her head inside said wooden transport after waking up for a fifth time, her eyes follow some lines of some patterns on the old wooden ceiling. Quickly losing interest, she averts her gaze and releases a deep sigh before returning to a sitting position. She then looks at her companion who´s daydreaming in the seat across:

“Hey, Madeleine,” the Demon says

Madeleine, whose eyes were set on a curiously curved tree right outside the smallish window, turns her head to Vienessa´s voice

“Why did we stop?” the girl asks

“Well... You remember that rumbling from a while ago?”

“Madeleine, it´s been rumbling literally the entire way”

“No I mean the big one”

“Oh yeah, that one, sure,” the girl mocks.

Madeleine holds her stomach in laughter… well not really.

The Demon rolls her eyes, then continues “Ok ok I remember. What´s with it?”

“Well, that was actually a wheel breaking,” Madeleine explains after taking a deep breath

“And?”

The receptionist looks more exhausted the longer this conversation goes “What do you mean ´And´? The carriage rider´s outside replacing it… As fast as he can I hope”

That last part comes out in a somewhat annoyed voice

“But it´s been… I don´t know! Hours!” the Demon unintendtionally raises her voice.

“Well… I´ve heard that exchanging parts of an older carriage is an overly meticulous process,” Madeleine attempts to cope. “We´ll have to wait until then”

Vienessa clicks her tongue: “That´s why I didn´t want to take this stupid carriage” and receives a glare from Madeleine

“I didn´t expect this either, but there´s nothing we can do now”

The Demon girl is just about to open her mouth but then notices that nothing will come out of retorting anyway. She exits the small-sized cart and stretches her sore body, starting with her legs, then arms and finishing with her back. Moving around in the cool air feels good, it kinda makes the anger fade.

She takes her time to play around with some thoughts before nodding to no one in particular, having come to a conclusion. She turns around to Madeleine “We´ve got nothing to do anyways so I´ll explore the area for a bit, won´t be wandering too far off, okay?”

Madeleine doesn´t have the mental energy to stop her: “Just make sure not to be too long,” she says before stepping out as well and disappearing behind the carriage where she joins the carriage rider

--

This place tickles Vienessa´s curiosity as an explorer. Especially since both her home and here are labeled as forests, yet differ like night and day: In this forest, the plants are bigger, rounder, greener, denser… it even smells differently, fresher somehow. There´s much less dirt and more vegetation.

Vienessa walks through the green and touches some prickly leaves here and there. She tries holding her outstretched arm against them only to see that her body part loses in length. She tears an especially big leaf off and holds it in front of her face, noticing that the green becomes transparent when close enough to the eye. She laughs at the thought of the world around her turning greener than it already was.

Eventually, she even finds some fruit. She ponders which looks the tastiest and decides on a yellowish one that |Appraisal| labels as Groosha. It´s sweet and juicy. The girl picks some more and happily gobbles them down on the way to... somewhere. She takes her time walking around in hopes of maybe even finding some monsters to fight, but to her surprise, nothing wants to show or attack.

--

The girl´s curiosity is drawn to the splashing sound which seems very nearby.

´Hm? Water?´

After nothing happened for so long she was just about to get bored again. She tries to pinpoint the general direction of the sound and following her guess the splashing becomes clearer. The shortest path is choked with vegetation that´s got nothing better to do than get in her face, but she fights her way through and after brushing aside some final branches a vast clearing reveals itself.

The girl makes out the sound´s source: At a crystal-clear lake, shimmering a bluish color in the sun, an elderly man about Vienessa´s height stands on a huge rock adjacent to the water. He holds a tool, maybe an |Artifact|, in hand which looks like a long stick with a line attached to it. The line is cast out far into the water and disappears there, but at the point where it goes under rash movements happen.

The man appears in a grueling struggle against his hectic opponent. Vienessa wants to move closer to the scene so she can see. The prickly ground beneath her feet changes to a soft carpet of grass that can be felt even through her shoes, but she´s too invested in the fight to even notice. The girl quietly climbs the rocks behind the Human and sees a bunch of equipment scattered around at the top. He doesn´t seem to notice her as she inspects his belongings.

Suddenly, the line on the man´s tool loudly snaps. The strain he was carefully balancing disappears all at once which results in him stumbling backward. He flails his arms and makes a panicked sound about to fall, but unexpectedly for the old man, there´s someone to catch him. He almost jumps away in surprise at the hands holding his back, but once he turns around and sees a curious, smiling girl, the cogs in his mind begin to turn. His face goes through surprise to doubt to questioning. At the end Vienessa sees relief appear up there, and even some delight too:

“It´s rare to see youn´ folk around these parts,” he eventually smiles. “Thanks for the catchin´, Name´s Jean,” he holds out an arm while stroking his white, fluffy beard.

Vienessa, remembering how Human culture works, takes his hand and shakes it

“I´m Vienessa,” she quickly returns the introduction before leaning forward into his face: “Say, what was that? What´s up with this |Artifact|? Did you fight just now?” and immediately bombards him with questions.

“Woah there, give these old bones a break,” Jean laughs and takes a few steps back “You´re quite the curious one, huh? That´s good, that´s good,” he lightly nods to himself before speaking up again “But there´s no need to rush, I´ll be here for quite a while. If ya interested, why not join me, aight?” he sits down and gestures for the girl to do the same.

Vienessa sits herself cross-legged beside him, Jean observes how the water calms

“Do you know what angling is?” he asks

“Uhm...” Vienessa looks up at the sky but quickly squints away due to the blinding sun “It´s related to catching fish or something?” she asks while rubbing her eyes

“Indeed!" The man immediately gets excited "Where didja learn that?"

"Don´t know. I just knew"

Jean cocks an eyebrow to that. "Is that so," he more asks than says. "Well, yes, basically a method to catch fish,” he again strokes his beard “Not very popular ´round here, but back in ma home everyone knew it. Or at least heard of it”

“How exactly do you do it?”

“It´s quite simple, see this?” Jean points at the stick in his hands “This is a fishing rod, really just a stick with a reel and line attached to it, although mine snapped just now...” he laughs awkawardly and scratches the back of his head. “But this aint too bad, I´ll show ya how to fix it”

The old man removes the remaining thread and takes a new line that´s conveniently lying around there. With precise and quick movements that Vienessa didn´t expect his bony fingers to be capable of, he replaces the line and spools his rod, then attaches a hook to it. Vienessa doesn´t know why her eyes are glued to the whole process, maybe it´s the satisfactory feeling of seeing a master at work.

“You´re quite skilled”

“You´re quite flattering,” Jean smiles.

“But… I mean, how do you fight with that?”

“Hoho, just watch”

Jean takes some old meat from a closed jar and pierces it on the hook. As the stench of the expired product reaches Vienessa´s nose she instinctively holds her breath. It´s even worse than the Minotaur corpses. The old man seems unaffected though, probably already used to it. He stands up, leans back and throws the line far out in the lake. It flies through the air while the little wheel that apparently functions as a spool goes ´whoosh´ until the hook plops into the water. Jean then spins the line back a little until it´s just the right amount of strained

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“Now, all that´s left is to wait for a bite”

“Wait...?” Vienessa´s face changes from excitement to visible confusion

“What do you mean, wait? I thought you´d be fighting now?”

But Jean doesn´t reply to her question

“Hey! Are you ignoring me?” Vienessa hisses and is just about to grab him by his collar, but stops herself

´Madeleine said that Humans hate this kind of thing… Should I just force him? But in the case he is a resistant type? I want to see…´

The girl tries to express her dissatisfaction some other way, but can´t come up with anything. She debates if it´s really worth fussing over it and in the end, her curiosity takes the upper hand. She sighs. Moving a little closer to Jean, she sets her eyes upon the calmly dangling floater in the water.

For a while the two just sit there in silence, which turns out to be quite uncomfortable for Vienessa. At first, she lets her gaze wander around, never holding her eyes on anything for more than a few seconds. Then she stands up and walks back and forth and taps her foot for a bit before sitting down again. She goes on by drawing markings into the rock with her claws until doing so becomes boring as well.

At one point she can´t take it anymore and finally speaks up: “Jean, this is boring. Nothing´s happening, what the hell are we even waiting for?”

Jean gives her a side glance “Hmm. As I said, we´re fishing. Though I´m not trynna force ya to anything, you can leave whenever the fancy´s yours. The bait is cast, we only have to wait for a right moment.”

“But why?! If you want to catch a fish, I´ll just dive into the lake and bring you one, or ten!” she says while completely ignoring his proposal to just leave “Why do we have to go through all that? Just for a measly fish? This takes too–

“Wait!” Jean suddenly shouts

Vienessa, surprised by his sudden outburst, jumps up and throws her head around to the lake. But there´s still no movement. She turns to the man again and glares at him

“Vienessa,” he proceeds before she can say anything “Your words may be true, you could catch a fish much faster by hand. But then I´d lose all reason comin´ here”

The Demon´s glare turns into slight irritation. Wasn´t he here to catch fish? Why would a faster method be meaningless?

“Kid, your thoughts show on your face, y´know? Listen, you´re too fixated on the goal, broaden your view a little”

“Broaden… my view? I can see well enough though?” Vienessa tilts her head.

Jean sighs. “Not that kinda view. I mean metaphorically. One of the things people struggle the most with is spendin´ time with themselves. We´re constantly distracted by something or ´nother, doing this and that. Our thoughts have almost no time to be just on their own. That´s where fishing comes in for me. I can relax and reflect.”

“What do you mean?”

Jean spins his reel a bit before speaking up again “Like I said, it helps me relax. Our mind is just like our body, it´s working hard for our sake, so we need to give it chances to take a breather from time to time, wouldn´t you say?”

Vienessa is a little stumped. She hasn´t concerned herself with questions that are so… trivial. She thought of them as too irrelevant to even waste time on, so it´s a bit difficult to give Jean a solid answer. If it were anybody else, she probably wouldn´t even care. No, she definitely wouldn´t have cared. Nothing would´ve changed. But, somehow, the old man was able to keep her attention. Although he annoyed her, he had something that seemed… intriguing, and a familiar air.

Maybe she´ll give it a shot, seriously thinking about it.

The girl once again sits down beside Jean, but this time hugs her knees and falls into deep thought. The wind whistles as some birds chirp to the tune, the sun feels warm on her skin. Small waves form on the water, making it move ever so slightly. Finally, the girl finds her words again

“Jean, I have a question” she starts “It doesn´t really have anything to do with… anything. But, I feel like you could maybe help me out there”

This time it´s Jean´s turn to be startled by words. “Uhm, sure. I mean, I can try,” he replies clumsily

“You have to know, I... This thought has been bothering me a lot lately, but... before I knew it I took the easiest answer for granted. I took it for the correct and obvious choice so I could finally stop thinking about it, but it just won´t leave my head no matter what I do”

Vienessa turns to face Jean and for a change his gaze is not fixed on the water

“Jean, there´s something I must do. A purpose I have to fulfill. I´m convinced of that. I was given so many chances, was led, helped, raised. Only to fulfill it. And I will do everything to see it through. That´s not a question,” she starts

“But, at times... at times I ask myself, will I be able to do it? There are people who are so much… stronger than me. Will I ever gain that strength? The strength to reach my goal? Right now I´m wasting so much time, there´s so much more I could´ve done but… I didn´t. And why? Why do I only realize when it´s too late? And… This, why can´t I just… Ugh!” Vienessa loses her train of thought.

Jean takes a deep breath, somehow it shows his exhaustion

“You´re so young and already make everything so difficult,” Jean strokes his beard and takes a little before giving his answer

“Vienessa, it is good to have goals, and it´s good to strive, but... you´re too demanding of yourself. Or maybe you are too impatient. If you only look out for the future, you will lose your view of the present. I remember a wise turtle once saying something similar”

He looks at the girl and sees that his words only confused her more. He sighs “If you only think about what is to come, how will you ever figure out what is now? What you can do, who you are, what really is important. I´m sure you will manage, you just have to take your time doing so”

Vienessa doesn´t look too convinced. Seeing that, Jean continues “What I seek and what I have at the moment, there is really not much difference between the two. There´s so much on the way which is just as important as reaching your goal, you see.”

“No, I don´t” the girl interrupts “You´re the one making everything so difficult. I keep it simple, a goal´s purpose is to be reached, Jean. Take right now, you´re ´angling´ because you seek fish, and you will only have fish once you reach your goal. How is having fish and not having fish the same? If you don´t reach your goal, you will go home empty-handed, you would have wasted your time”

Jean shakes his head “Do you know what people do when they reach their goal, Vienessa?”

“Eh? Well, uhm they´re… happy about it, I guess”

“They are indeed happy," Jean laughs "At first that is. But no, it´s not that easy. When people reach their goals, they move on. That´s what they do. They search for something new, something else to strive for. The delight is only temporary, after a while all of it is just taken for granted.”

“I... no, I don´t think that´s true– ”

“Take me, for example. I have caught an uncountable number of fish in my life, so many I could probably feed an entire village for a year. Are you really telling me that my ´goal´ is to catch one or two more? And you, have you taken the time to appreciate were you are right now? What you have accomplished so far?”

“Well...” Vienessa doesn´t completely want to agree with that, but can´t completely disagree.

Jean notices the look of discomfort on her face. She turns away from him.

Maybe it was still too early for her. “I´m sorry Vienessa, I´ve gone too far and said too much. That conflicted look doesn´t suit your face, so please just forget what I said, okay?”

An awkward silence drowns their conversation, like the small lake before them would to everyone who jumps in.

Jean hesitates a little

“You know, in my days, I was really similar to you”

Vienessa looks up at him as he makes that statement, somehwat surprised, but also internally laughing about how that is not the case

“Until one day when I was forced to rethink some things," Jean continues

"Was a while ago, that day my grandpa died. Honestly, it was quite tragic, I remember the scene clearly, as clearly as the water in this lake: He was lying there in his too soft bed, covered by his thick sheets. The room was dusty, untended to for quite some time. The flames in the fireplace were slowly dying out, as was he. My whole family was in tears, I can still hear the crying of my sister ringing in my ears every time I think about it. He was a great man with a big heart, and my own was in shatters when I saw him on what could be only called his deathbed. I didn´t expect to hold a last conversation with him, but in his final moments he reached out to me. His hands were cold, yet somehow filled with warmth.

´Jean´ he said ´I know how ambitious you are. That is a wonderful trait, but promise me one thing. Please, don´t lose sight of what´s really important, okay?´

That´s all he said before demanding some final time for himself. It´s strange how I still remember it word by word,” Jean sadly laughs and lets a deep whiff of air escape through his nose

“I thought long, long and hard about his words. In the end I still don´t know if I understood them right, but I found my own answer. Do you know what it is?”

Vienessa doesn´t know, she just shakes her head

“Well, it´d surprise me if you did,” he chuckles “I won´t tell you about everything, but one thing I figured out is that I wouldn´t rush to the end anymore. Because in the end there´s only the end. But there´s so much more to reach in a journey aside from the finishing line,” he looks at Vienessa “And yet, there´s one thing i can be sure about that everyone strives for. Do you wanna know what that is?”

The girl looks skeptical but nevertheless nods

“It´s happiness,” Jean says as he turns his eyes to the lake again “If your decisions bring you happiness that you can feel from the bottom of your heart, then they are good decision.”

“Well that´s why I need to get stronger as quickly as possible. So that I can achieve that ´happiness´ you´re talking about”

“What about now?”

“What do you mean?”

“What about now? Is there nothing you can be happy about? Or grateful for? Family, friends, food, freedom, even just being alive. Is there absolutely nothing?”

Vienessa lets his words sink in.

“It´s astonishing how many people don´t realize, how often we just take all our happiness for granted. Vienessa, I believe there´s at least something, right?”

The Demon casts her gaze down.

Her family comes to mind

“Yes, there are many things. Many, many things”

“Then stop worrying, you will be fine”

The sun´s rays somewhat become blinding as the star begins setting behind a mountain far in the distance.

“Vienessa”

“Yes?”

“You asked me what angling is good for. This is my answer, I hope you understand”

“Well, not really. But yeah, also kinda”

Jean smirks. “Then, want to give it a try?”

She didn´t expect the proposal, but doesn´t refuse

Jean smiles and hands Vienessa his spare fishing-rod. Vienessa is slightly swamped at first but with Jean´s guidance catches on quickly. After only a few minutes she feels comfortable with the tool.

The two sit there in silence for a while.

–

“I think,” Vienessa eventually says “I think I like angling”

“Oho?” Jean says without letting his eyes wander off the lake “Although you didn´t even experience the fun part? We´re just getting there. Look, see that movement? One of ´em is interested”

Vienessa notices the ever-so-slight dangling on her line “Jean, I think it´s a fish, what do I do? Quickly, tell me!”

“No need to panic. Listen, when I give you the signal, you´ll need to get the fish on the hook”

The girl looks at him with a ´Yeah duh, how?´ on her face

“Yes, yes. Just give it a quick, strong pull and slowly turn this wheel here afterward, got it?”

That´s better

“Got it!”

The dangling becomes more violent. The girl´s hands are itching; she bites her lower lip and expects Jean´s signal any second now, but it just won´t come

´Do we really have to wait for so long? What if the fish just swims away? We´d miss our chance if–´

“Now!”

Vienessa pulls the rod with all her might and sees how the fish flies out of the water and high in the air. It´s big. Plummeting back into the water again, a huge wave surges

“What the?! That was way too much!”

Vienessa ignores Jean´s outcry as she feels a pulling resistance at the other end of the rod. Not that she will lose in a contest of strength though.

“No, never mind! That´s a big catch! Why didn´t you say you were this strong already? You dare complain to me about strength when you can do this? No anyways, you can´t just pull it as you please now. You have to tire it out or else the rod won´t make it!”

“Huh? Wha- What do you mean??”

–

[Lunar Shad – HP: 131/231]

“What a catch! Amazing!”

“Haaa... Haaaa... That was tougher than I expected...”

“But you did great! Your first catch! And an impressive one at that hahaha!” Jean laughs and pats her on the back, probably feeling happier than the catcher herself

Vienessa hesitates for a second, but then smiles as well “Yeah, that´s right! I did it!”

After calming down a little, Jean reels in his own rod to which the bait is still attached. It´s rare for it to stay on there for so long. He then turns to Vienessa

“Vienessa, how was it?” he asks.

“It´s more fun than I thought, in many ways”

Jean lets his fingers flow through his beard “Then, I want you to take this,” he hands her a bag with multiple lines and hookers as well as his spare rod she has been using

“Eh? You sure?”

“I wouldn´t give my equipment to anyone if I wasn´t sure”

“But–

“No buts, see it as thanks for keeping company to an old man and listening to his ramblings. Take it”

Vienessa slowly reaches out her hand and takes the bag and rod.

“That looks good on you,” Jean says “Now, we should probably be on our way. It´s getting late”

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Madeleine´s probably waiting for me,” Vienessa scratches the back of her head and jumps off the rock

“Jean,” she turns around “Thank you!” and says with a big, genuine smile on her face for the first time in what feels like a while.

Jean waves his hand as the Demon makes her way back.

He remains standing there for a while. After making sure no one is around, he snaps his finger to which all of the scattered equipment floats up and moves into the empty bags “She sure has grown," he lets his fingers run through his beard.

"May the world continue being kind to you, little princess”

–

“Hey Madeleine, I´m back!”

“Vienessa! Where have you been? We have been searching all over the place! I was worried, you know?”

“What? Did you think I was killed by a monster or something?” Vienessa says cheekily with a grin on her face

“As if. There´s no way anything here could touch you anyways. I thought you´d forgotten about us and just left us behind...”

“Pff haha, I won´t just forget about you, you know?”

“Really?”

"Uhm... probably?”

Madeleine releases a sigh and rubs her temples. Then a confused look rises on her face: “Say, I don´t remember you taking any luggage with you?”

“Oh, this?” Vienessa gestures at the pivot and bag “I got this as a present, it´s a fishing rod and some other equipment. I got it from a Human I met at the lake nearby”

“You… were what? Angling? Moreover, a Lake? But… there shouldn´t be any sources of water in this area though?” she mumbles that last part to herself

“Oh and look!” Vienessa takes out the fish she caught from her bag “That´s my first catch! Impressive, isn´t it?”

“Ugh... I´ll have to report about the change in terrain later...” Madeleine whines, not really listening to the girl anymore and more troubled about how her work keeps piling up.

“Anyways,” she then eventually says “We´ve wasted too much time. The carriage is ready to depart now. You can tell me about what happened on the way, okay?”

“Yeah! let´s go~”