"What do you mean?" Zane asked with a shocked expression.

"What do you I mean? You just crashed my wedding, talking about how you forgot me there, then you killed the guy I was supposed to marry and dragged me through the city, then through some tunnel and now we're in the Boriam Region! Do you even have any idea what we're supposed to do now!?" Mira shouted, tears rolling down her face.

"I know this might all be . . . strange, but at least I do have a plan," Zane said.

"And what would that be?" Mira asked as she sank to the ground.

"We're leaving the country," Zane said.

"Oh, and how would we do that?" Mira asked.

"Depends," Zane said. "Either Ishtar or Indura are gonna come here . . . although Indura probably can't come herself."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Ishtar? The Pirate Queen?" Mira asked with a shocked look on her face.

"I mean she's a pirate in name only. I'd call her an aggressive merchant but yeah people call her that," Zane said.

"And who's this Indura?" Mira asked.

"Supreme Commandress of Kross," Zane said.

"What!?" Mira said loudly. "How do you know all these people?"

"That's a story for another time, first we need to get to the Boriamus village, that's where the port is," Zane said.

"The Boriamus village? I thought it was just a myth that the native tribes were still around," Mira said.

"Oh no, it's very much real. Visited some relatives there once and that was only a few years ago," Zane said.

"Relatives? You're a descendant of the natives?" Mira asked.

"Pretty much, my mother was pure native and my father was just a merchant from the Ulva Highland that became a farmer after he got my mom pregnant," Zane explained. "But that's enough about my past, if we want to get there anytime soon we need to go now."

"Right . . . wait, I can't go on with . . . this on," Mira said, pointing at her wedding dress.

"True . . . ah, wait, give me a second," Zane said.

He opened one of his satchels and pulled out the clothes he had forced into it.

"They might be a little too big for you but I guess they're better than your dress," Zane said.

He gave his clothes to Mira who quickly walked behind a large rock close to the tunnel.

"Don't look," she said before disappearing behind it.

"Don't worry," Zane replied.

He walked over to one of the trees and noticed blue, apple-like fruits growing on it. Zane jumped up, grabbed onto one of the branches and pulled himself up, quickly grabbing two of the fruits before letting himself fall down to the ground where he sat down, leaning against the trees moss-covered trunk. As he waited he began eating the fruit. Its skin was soft and when he bit into the fruit its sweet taste filled his mouth along with its juices.

After a short while, Mira came out from behind the rock. She wore Zane's clothes that were way too big for her and had used stripes she had ripped off of her wedding dress to make them tighter by wrapping them around the clothes at her wrists, waist and ankles. When Zane saw her he threw the second fruit he had picked to her.

"What is this?" Mira asked as she inspected the blue fruit.

"Rilvets, they're pretty common around here," Zane said as he threw away the large seed that had been in the fruit's centre.

Mira hesitantly took a bite out of the fruit. As soon as the juices filled her mouth her eyes lit up and she had finished the entire fruit before Zane had even stood up again.

"These are great," Mira said with a smile on her face.

"Well then, we better go before nightfall," Zane said, looking at the sun that had already begun to disappear behind the mountaintops.

Mira nodded and the two began walking. They quickly crossed the wooden suspension bridge. Zane looked down at the river raging far beneath them.

"By the way, isn't this where those massive snakes live? Like the one we saw in the tower," Mira asked.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"They don't come close to this area. Over the years they learned not to come here since the mercenaries always kill them when they travel to the black market. So they usually keep away from here. So it's rather unlikely that we'll run into any of them. And they've basically been eradicated around the village since they're the main source of food for the natives," Zane explained.

"Wait, the natives eat them?" Mira asked.

"Yup, and as long as you keep their meat away from sunlight it also rots very slowly," Zane said.

"How do they even kill them?" Mira asked.

"Traps and such, my uncle showed them to me when I was younger," Zane said. "But that aside, we should really hurry up, I want to reach one of the waypoint platforms before nightfall."

"Waypoint platform?" Mira asked.

"It's like the halfway point in the tunnel down in Alva, some mercenaries built small shacks for people to sleep in on their way to the black market," Zane explained.

They had reached the other side of the suspension bridge and were now on the other platform which again, had a few trees on it but nothing more. Another wooden suspension bridge connected the platform the next. And so they went on, walking from platform to platform, over many suspension bridges. At one point, when they were about to walk over a naturally formed bridge made of the thick branches of multiple trees, leaves hanging off it and only a rudimentary wooden railing protecting them from falling off.

"A-Are you sure this is safe?" Mira asked with concern in her voice.

"Don't worry, this thing is totally safe. And look there, on the other side is the hut," Zane said, pointing to a small wooden hut that could be seen through the trees.

Tabe took Mira's hand and slowly led her over the thick branches to the other platform. With each step, they took the branches began shaking beneath their feet. Leaves fell down on them from the branches that were above them. Zane could see the entire tree bend as they walked over the natural bridge and held one hand over Mira's eyes. Once they reached the other side Zane let go of her.

"See, totally safe," Zane said with a smile on his face.

Mira smiled and nodded back at him. Together they then walked over to the small hut, which was surrounded by trees, hidden behind the branches and leaves. It was a bit overgrown but completely undamaged.

"Are you sure we can stay in that?" Mira asked.

"Of course I am, no need to be so overly cautious," Zane said as he opened the wooden door.

The inside of the hut was clean, there was barely any dust. Some firewood was in the fireplace, there was a large mattress on the ground similar to the one in the hideout they had stayed at previously. And just like in that hideout there was a table with a few chairs and lanterns were hanging from the ceiling.

"See," Zane said.

He began lighting all of the lanterns as Mira sat down at the table, her stomach growling.

"Do you happen to have any food with you?" Mira asked, with a slightly embarrassed undertone.

Zane sat down at the table and took a small container out of his satchel and opened it. It was filled with dried meat.

"All I got," he said.

"Better than nothing," Mira responded as she grabbed a piece and put it in her mouth.

Zane smiled and took a piece as well.

"So, tell me. Why did you run away?" Mira asked.

"Because . . . because I just couldn't do it anymore. And then there's what you did . . . and I thought it would be better if I were gone, better for your marriage, better for everyone," Zane said.

"I guess that's the logical conclusion . . . and to think I believed them you were sick and that Ivana was just taking care of you," Mira said. "That reminds me, what about her?"

"What do you mean?" Zane asked.

"You just left her behind, I mean she even admitted to loving you and you just cold-heartedly left her behind," Mira said.

Zane chuckled.

"I guess you could say I'm a self-serving asshole that does whatever he thinks is best," Zane said. "I just used her so I could pretend to be the old me, the me that would help his friends and the ones he loved. But sooner or later that lie didn't hold out anymore. I told myself that the old me would rather go on an adventure than just sit around all they, train at the training grounds and wait for nothing. So I went away, I went on an adventure. But Vin made me realize that that's not who I am. He made me realize that I only care about myself and what I want. And what I wanted was to get you out of there and run away. Not going on some useless adventure that would just lead to me falling back into my old behaviour where I would break down in tears every time I see the graves of my old friends. Vin made me realize that I have evolved into a self-serving asshole, if that's a good or a bad thing is something I'll have to find out."

"So, how come you, the self-serving asshole, cared so much about me that he'd start a fight with the most powerful family on Ion?" Mira asked.

"If I knew that I'd have told you already," Zane said.

Mira began grinning.

"Could it be that you've fallen for me? Maybe that's why you didn't bring that servant with you because you wanted me because you've fallen in love with me," Mira said with much more confidence than she had ever displayed in front of Zane before. "I mean, you could have brought her along, you could have had both of us," Mira said jokingly.

"Very funny. Do you think I would have rejected you like that if I was in love with you?" Zane asked.

Mira responded with laughter, laughter in which Zane could hear sadness.

"Well . . . I'll head to bed now," Zane said.

As he walked past Mira he whispered something, "Sorry," he whispered, so quietly that even he could barely understand it, so quiet that he only knew it was supposed to form the word 'sorry' because he was the one whispering it.

"What?" Mira asked as he went past her.

"Nothing," Zane said with a smile on his face.

He went over to the mattress and lay down on it. It was soft but cold, not comfortable but also not uncomfortable. As he tried to fall asleep he could hear a noise coming from Mira that sounded to him like sobbing.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that . . . I feel like a piece of shit . . . should I have lied to her? No . . . or maybe . . . oh I don't know. My life has become so complicated that I need to rely on Vin for everything hasn't it? I can't figure out who I am without him and I probably won't be able to figure out what to do with this situation without him either . . .

After a while of trying to fall asleep and constantly doubting his decisions, he heard footsteps coming towards the mattress. They stopped for a moment, then continued for a second before he heard Mira lying down on the mattress right next to him. Zane pretended to be asleep as he felt her body press up against his, as he felt her force one of her arms through the space between his body and the mattress and lay the other one around him, as he felt her body shake and press against his own.

I really shouldn't have said that.

Zane decided not to do anything about it and eventually fell asleep, Mira holding onto him the entire time.