That night, I tried to practice moving. However, with the only light being that from the girl’s arm, along with my lack of senses, it was difficult to track how much I was actually moving. And since the girl was asleep, I couldn’t get her to touch any of the nearby trees, so with nothing to do, I simply waited for the night to pass.

As the morning rays began to illuminate the clearing, the girl remained sound asleep. But with my surroundings more visible, I could spend some time trying to roll. Unfortunately, no amount of practice could remedy my unrounded shape, which made it extremely challenging for me to roll around for any meaningful amount of time. So, shuffling myself around seemed to be the best way for me to move, at least for the time being. And after a few hours of practice, I was able to shuffle a bit faster than before.

Eventually, the girl opened her eyes and sat up. And as she raised her left arm from the ground, I witnessed the earth swiftly reseal itself, erasing any trace of its unraveling from the night before.

I shuffled toward her.

“You slept late...”

“Oh, sorry…” She said, “I sleep late sometimes.”

“I see...”

I decided to ask for her help once again. “So, have you changed your mind since yesterday? Are you willing to help me?”

“It’s… it's still a no,” she answered.

“Hmm...”

Recalling what I witnessed last night, I decided to ask the girl what she knew about it.

“Another question. Did you… hear anything last night?”

“Umm, I don’t think so.” She answered. “Should I have?”

I sighed internally.

“Just forget about it.”

Suddenly, the girl’s stomach began to grumble.

“I think I might be getting hungry,” she said, before getting up and limping towards a nearby tree. As I watched, it became clear that something was wrong with one of her legs, but I couldn’t tell exactly what.

I looked at the girl’s silhouette more as she picked the berries off the tree, and it also became evident that she was severely emaciated, and her condition looked to be in spite of the droves of berries that she was plucking from the tree.

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After a few minutes, the girl returned, and for some reason, she held out her berry-filled right arm. “Would you like a berry?” She asked.

“It's fine. I… don’t have a mouth.”

“Oh. Ok,” she replied, as she began to eat the berries off her right hand, seemingly adamant on not using her other hand.

As the girl ate, the juice of the berries dripped down from her mouth. She seemed to recoil each time she put a berry into her mouth, and yet she continued to eat them.

“How do those berries taste, by the way?”

“They’re… umm… they're good!” She stammered, “Yeah. They’re good!” She continued to eat.

“Ok….”

After a short pause, I continued.

“Do you have anything else you can eat?”

She shrugged.

“Hmm…”

She popped another berry in her mouth.

“You know, there’s a town nearby that might have—”

“I’m good!” She interrupted abruptly. “I’m ok here.”

There was another pause.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I already said I’m f-fine,” she stammered.

It was clear that I wasn’t making any progress.

“If you insist.”

While the girl continued to eat, I noticed something in my periphery. It was swaying in one of the trees, alongside a nearby slope. I was about to shuffle toward it, but I didn’t want the girl to notice, so I decided to wait until she finished eating. And once she was done eating, she stood up and walked away.

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As soon as she turned away, I shuffled over to the tree, which the girl didn’t seem to notice me doing. When I reached the tree and looked up, I saw the bag that I had briefly been inside hanging beneath one of the branches. I wasn’t sure how it ended up there, but regardless, I knew what I had to do. If there was just a way to get up there…

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The bag seemed to be quite high up, but a slope nearby caught my attention. I first tried to roll up the slope, only to find myself immediately tumbling back down. Then, I attempted to climb my way up by shuffling, but this time, I ended up flipping upside down and once again tumbling back down.

There had to be another way to get up. Perhaps I could jump? I could use the rocks protruding from the hill to get to the top. But first, I had to test whether I could even jump.

I rolled onto the first ledge and looked towards the face of another large rock in front of me.

Ok then, just… need to… jump! I found myself hopping a few centimeters off the ground. That should be enough to leap forward, but just to be safe, I decided to practice jumping a couple more times. After another minute or so of practice, I turned towards the nearby perch, feeling ready to make the jump.

Ok… now… Look toward the edge, and leap! I hit the edge of the perch, and it looked like I was going to fall back down.

No! Not yet! I need to lean forward and… I made it! I made it. Now there’s only… a few dozen more to go. Perfect, absolutely perfect…

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A long while later, I finally reached a decently high point. I looked in front of me and saw the bag, its strings hanging beneath one of the tree’s branches. I took a look down at the clearing and noticed that the girl was drawing something, or rather someone, with a stick that she was holding in right arm. It was tough to tell exactly who she was drawing, but it looked like someone with giant twintails.

Then I recalled that there was someone like that who was popular on TV back in the day, when I was still attending school. Many of the girls back then adored her. I couldn’t remember what the show she was in was called, but the girl’s drawing, however simple it was, bore a striking resemblance to her. I could ask the girl about this later, however. First, I had to get the bag down from the tree. I oriented my gaze towards the bag’s straps. I only had one attempt; otherwise, I would have to climb up the slope all over again. Everything had to go perfectly.

Ok. Here goes. One, two, three… And JUMP!

I hit the straps of the bag before landing on top of it. The strings snapped, and a rush of motion surrounded me. And then… a loud thump as we landed on the ground.

Did the girl hear me?

After quietly leaping off the bag, I peeked toward her from behind the trunk of the tree. She was looking around, which confirmed that she had heard me. But then the girl scratched her ear a little, after which she shrugged and continued to draw.

I looked at the bag, and though its strings were snapped, nothing inside of it seemed to have fallen out. I considered asking the girl again for her help, but I realized that if I waited until she fell asleep, then I wouldn’t have to ask her at all. Leaving the bag next to the tree for the time being, I shuffled over to the girl, who was continuing to draw on the ground.

“What are you drawing?”

The girl abruptly turned towards me, with a nervous smile on her face. “What are you talking about?” She dropped the stick. “I’m not drawing anything!”

“Are you sure? Then who is that?”

“It’s… it's no one. I’ll just erase it.”

She quickly began to kick over the outline of the drawing with one of her feet. Was she embarrassed? No, she was clearly hiding something, and I had a guess as to what.

“You know, there’s something I haven’t asked you yet.”

“Umm… What is it?”

“Who exactly are you?”

"Oh! I’m just… a humble village girl, nothing special.”

“Then, how did you get here?”

She paused.

“Umm… I… don’t want to talk about it!”

I heard the girl’s stomach grumble again, to which she abruptly departed, presumably to find more berries to eat. She wasn’t going to talk, and there wasn’t much I could do at the moment. And since the bag was as close as I could get it without her noticing, all I could do now was wait.

----------------------------------------

And for a long while, I just watched the bag, making sure nothing happened to it while I waited for the sun to set. But eventually, a sudden presence entered my periphery. I turned and saw the girl sitting beside me, her gaze fixated on the sky.

“What are you looking at?”

“Oh, nothing… just the sky.”

“Ok… Do you see anything interesting?”

“Umm, not really… Oh, I see a cloud over there!”

A small cloud began to drift above us, which the girl began to stare at.

“Hey, umm… rock?” the girl said after a few minutes.

“Yes…”

“Do you think there's someone on that cloud staring at me?”

I thought back to when that group swam in the lake, with the dragon’s carcass behind them and the charred hill in the distance, all of which they were responsible for. And I remembered seeing those piercing golden eyes, gazing down from above.

“I doubt that.”

“Are you sure?”

"Yeah, I don’t think we’re being given much thought.”

“And what makes you think that?”

“Just a gut feeling.”

“Ok…”

As the cloud began to drift away, the girl got up and went off to do something else. I focused my attention on the bag, and as I did so, I noticed that rays of light were beginning to glare through the forest canopy, which meant that the sun was getting ready to set. And when it did, the girl laid down to fall asleep.

“Good night—umm—rock,” she mumbled.

As I was about to respond, a thought crossed my mind.

“You know, you never told me your name. What is it?”

“Oh, it's Sa—”

She paused.

“I mean Mare… Made… umm… It’s not something you really need to know.”

It was clear that I still wasn’t going to get anything out of her, not now at least. I watched as the girl closed her eyes, and when I was sure that she had fallen asleep, I looked in the direction of the bag, and I knew it was finally time to take action.