"Zane, are you awake yet?" Mira asked from outside the tent.

Her words pulled him out of his meditative state. Zane slowly opened his eyes, the sunlight shining through the thin fur and cloth walls blinding him. Slowly crawling over the fur blankets he had put down on the ground to make it more comfortable he made his way to the tent flap and opened it.

Mira stood right in front of it, leaning down to him, exposing her cleavage. As soon as Zane saw it he looked up at her two differently coloured eyes, the one a yellowish colour and the other light blue, at the sight of which he couldn't help but remember Ivara's blue eyes that had always looked like the ocean. For seconds he continued staring at her blue eye before he shook his head and crawled out of the tent, making Mira take a few steps back.

She had already lit the fire and was heating up a rabbit, the skin laid on a small rock next to the campfire, a bit of blood running down the side of the rock.

"You went out again," Zane said coldly.

"N-No, the rabbit came close to the camp . . . so I tough I'd catch it," she said.

Zane looked around and did indeed find a few traces of a short struggle. He nodded and went past her to sit down at the campfire.

"S-So about last night," Mira began.

"Doesn't matter," Zane replied coldly without waiting for her to finish speaking.

Mira looked down with a hint of sadness in her eyes. She continued to turn the rabbit over the fire as Zane looked up to the sun, still slightly tired from letting Aura course trough his body all night and not getting any sleep at all.

"It's done," Mira said, now slightly colder as well, after a short while.

The two of them began eating and once they finished they packed up their camp and continued on their way to the cave that served as a hidden passage between the Alva and the Velva Highlands. To get there they followed the path that led through the forest, the gravel crunched beneath their feet with every step they took as they went on without talking much at all.

All the sounds they could hear came either from the gravel they were walking on or the forest around them. The twittering of the birds in the trees, the rustling of small animals running over the forest floor, whirling up the leaves that had fallen down from the trees and the occasional cracking of twigs and that animals had run over, breaking them in half.

The noises had something calming to them, but at the same time, they also kept Zane on edge, because between all the peaceful noises he could also hear the occasional growling of what might just be a small innocent fox but could quickly turn out to be a bear or even worse one of the dire beasts that might have come here from the giant forest they had left not so long ago. And now that Zane knew just how much weaker he had truly become the simple tough of them put him on edge. It wasn't quite fear but he wasn't calm either.

Zane could also feel the eyes of many small animals on them as they walked along the gravel path. Squirrels looking at them as they crawled down the trunks of the trees, birds looking at them from the branches growing over the path, rabbits hopping over the path, giving them short glances before continuing on and even a few deer were brave enough to come closer to the path and observe them.

At night they strayed off the path and set up camp behind a large stone to hide from anyone who might walk along the path at night. The two of them sat around the fire without talking much, it was awkward.

This might be for the best. If she starts to dislike me it won't be to much trouble for her once I leave.

"I'll go to bed now," Mira said, sounding less cold than this morning. But her voice still sounded as if she was troubled as if she was thinking about something.

Let's just hope she doesn't think she is somehow responsible for this which would just end up in her trying to fix something that she can't fix.

After Mira had disappeared inside her tent Zane extinguished the flame of the campfire and went into his tent. He sat down on a fur blanket, crossed his legs and began meditating like the night before and began to let Aura course trough his body. It might his body tingle a bit, especially in the spots where he concentrated the most Aura at once. But as soon as he had begun meditating he was already ripped out of the state by Mira's words.

"Hey I wanted to talk to you," she said from outside the tent.

"Go to sleep," Zane said without opening his eyes and trying not to lose concentration.

"No, we need to talk," she said with a calm voice.

"Go to sleep," Zane repeated.

But instead of replying with another, 'We need to talk'; Mira opened his tent and crawled inside, which led Zane to open his eyes. She sat down beside him and just stared at him, wrapped in a fur blanket like the one he was sitting on.

"Why are you so cold, what happened?" she asked with a motherly tone.

"Does it matter? All that I'm trying to do is get you to Kalwa," Zane said, a bit annoyed at her prying.

"Does it matter? Of course, it does! You can't keep just eating all of your problems into yourself. That will just hurt you in the end. It won't make anyone happy!" Mira said, leaning forwards as she extended her arms to him.

Zane chuckled at her words as he blocked her attempt to hug him.

She's beginning to sound a lot like him.

"Do you think I don't know that? I've been doing this for eight years, eight long and hard years!" Zane said loudly. "But after what happened I know that I'm not yet ready to do anything else! I'm weak! Weak and pathetic! This world is too harsh for people like me who fall to rock bottom every time something goes wrong for them! You, as well, should now know how unforgiving this world truly is! No matter how hard you force yourself to accept what happened there is no way you're not sad about losing your hand!" Zane got louder and louder with each word.

"So this is about me now!?" Mira asked, now getting loud as well.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"No! This all just happened because of the mistakes I've made! And now go to sleep!" Zane said angrily.

He began pushing Mira outside, which resulted in her nearly losing the blanket and revealing her almost naked body. Zane looked after her as she stumbled back to her tent, her body shaking slightly.

Just perfect . . . and again I've made a mistake with consequences that will definitely come back to bite me.

When Zane had retreated into his tent and sat back down with his legs crossed he noticed that his face had become warm, warm from tears slowly running down his cheeks.

Perhaps I should apologize.

Zane spent the night meditating again, letting Aura course trough his body the entire time. But he was also slightly on edge, expecting Mira to pull him out of it yet again with another attempt to talk with him, but no such thing happened.

He could already see the sunlight trough his closed eyelids for a few hours when he decided to get out of his tent. He slowly crawled over the blankets and went outside, expecting Mira to sit there with another animal she had killed. But no one was here, the fire was still extinguished and all he could hear was the twittering of some birds in the distance.

Zane got out of his tent and walked over to the tent next to his, from the inside he could hear breathing and he could see the outlines of a human trough the illuminated tent walls.

Good, she didn't run away.

"Mira," Zane said, trying to get her attention.

He saw the humanoid figure inside the tent jerk and raise its head for a second before putting it back down.

"Listen, Mira, I just want to tell you that I was a bit too harsh last night and that I'm sor-"

Before he could finish he could see the shadow inside the tent move towards the flap and open it. Her head emerged from it, her eyes piercing him.

"No, it's alright. I get it," she said. "We'll deal with this once you got me to Kalwa and made good on your mistake of letting me lose my arm."

Her words weren't cold like he had expected. Just like last night, they sounded like the words of a mother talking to her child. Before Zane could say anything to her she disappeared inside her tent again and came back out a few minutes later, completely dressed.

"I overslept so I didn't make anything to eat but we still have some supplies so we can eat some of that," she said without letting Zane get a word in.

Mira sat at the campfire and took out a pouch filled with dried meat. Zane, still a fair bit perplexed, sat down at the campfire as well, facing her, and took out a small pouch filled with dried meat as well. After the two had finished eating they packed up the camp and went back to the path.

Like the day before they didn't talk much but the atmosphere had changed, it didn't feel as awkward as it had been the day before and Zane also didn't feel as on edge as he did before. It was almost like Mira's words had calmed him a bit.

Once it turned dark Zane led Mira off the path and towards a large rock in the middle of the forest, moss was growing all over it along with some ivy. They walked around it and stopped in front of a black hole in the rock, the entrance to the cave.

"Let's sleep outside for today, I don't want to give her an excuse to have us stay," Zane said as he stared into the black hole.

Mira nodded and she began to make a campfire while Zane set up the tents. Once the camp was completely set up they sat down at the campfire again and stared into the flame.

What she said this morning . . . what exactly does she hope will happen. That I'll just go and talk everything out with her once she's safely in Kalwa?

Zane sighed loudly as he threw a small stick into the flame.

"You're right, it wasn't easy to accept that I had lost a hand, but I can deal with it," Mira said.

"Wha-" Zane began but Mira continued talking.

"I don't know what happened eight years ago, I don't know why you're the way you are now. And you don't have to tell me. It's just that I don't want you to think everything is your mistake. This with my hand is my fault, not yours, mine," she said.

Then why did she mention it this morning?

"Anyway, I'll go to sleep now."

Mira stood up and walked to her tent, looking back at him one last time before entering.

Why can't nobles just be normal? Why are all of them weird. Or am I the weird one? Still, she'd be better off without me being there. After Holvin sees that wound he'll agree, he'll give me my money and say that I should leave. I'm going to be lucky if he won't go after me for that.

After a short while, he extinguished the fire and went to his tent as well and began meditating like the nights before. He could feel that the tingling feeling had become slightly stronger but still wasn't anything like before. In the morning he was pulled out of it by Mira's words again.

"Zane wake up, we should go now if we want to get out on the other side before midnight," she said.

Zane slowly opened his eyes, having trouble due to sleepiness slowly catching up with him. He crawled out of the tent and saw Mira sitting at the campfire eating dried meat from her small pouch.

"I couldn't find any animals close to here and didn't want to go out to far," she said.

Zane nodded and said, "It's alright."

He sat down, facing her just like the day before, and began eating as well. Once the two had finished eating and packing up the camp they stood before the entrance to the cave again.

"Well, let's go inside," Zane said as he stepped inside the dark cave.

He got out his lantern, lit it and held it out in front of them. The light didn't reach far and all they could see were the rough, stone walls of the cave and a few mushrooms growing on the floor. Mira followed Zane the long tunnel that steadily led down. They followed it for hours before it began to flatten again, a few drops of water dripping down from above.

We must be under the rovers now.

They quickly reached the other end of that part and the tunnel began to lead upwards again. Many spider webs were now scattered around the tunnel, the higher up they got the more common and the thicker the webs became. Some even had bones sticking to them.

"I-Is this really safe?" Mira asked.

Zane shrugged as he cut through one of the webs blocking their way with his katana. After a short while, they could hear a clicking sound, as if someone was constantly tapping the walls with their fingers and trying to be as loud as possible in the process. The two came closer and closer to the origin of the voice.

Something must have made her uneasy.

Zane looked back to Mira who was hectically looking around. They reached a large open chamber filled with webs. And running around that room was a large arachne. Silver hair, purple eyes, a black spider body with a large red cross and only one arm. She looked over to them, her purple eyes filled with tears.

"Y-You," she said slowly with a shaky voice.

Zane didn't reply at all, he just stared her in her eyes as he walked past her, Mira hiding behind him.

"W-Why a-are you he-here," Megikula asked.

Zane continued to ignore her as he walked past her, one hand on the hilt of his katana, holding the lantern with the other, keeping Megikula in the corner of his eye the entire time.

"W-Why don't you speak with me!" she yelled as she jumped at them.

Zane let go of the lantern, drew his katana and turned around, halting his swing just before the sharp end of his blade met with Megikula's throat. He looked at her with cold eyes and she looked back with eyes reddened from tears. He could feel his body shaking slightly when he remembered what happened seven years ago but he managed to suppress it.

"S-Seven years, o-only those t-trying to k-kill me came! A-And now, now you i-ignore me!" she said.

What did you expect?

Zane stayed silent as he sheathed his katana again, turned around and picked up the lantern. Mira had hidden behind a large rock, the same Megikula had hidden behind all those years ago.

"We leave," Zane said to her.

"W-Wait, d-don't leave me alone," Megikula said.

But her words fell on deaf ears as Zane walked away from her. He could hear the clicking of her spider legs on the stone floor for a while longer, following them, as they went up to the exit of the cave. Zane could still feel his body shaking a bit. But after he told himself that this was nothing compared to some of the other things he has been trough it stopped.

"Are you really going to ignore her?" Mira asked.

Zane nodded in response. "Although it is a mystery what happened to her, last time her home seemed . . . a lot homier," he said. "Hugo and Gilma must not have been visiting and normally people just go down there to kill her, that would explain the bones."

After what felt like another hour they arrived at the exit to the cave. It was cold and storming outside.

"Well then, we're finally in your homeland, the Velva Highlands," Zane said as he stepped outside.