DAPHNE
With practiced ease, Daphne led a group of hikers to an outcrop of solid rock jutting upwards at the edge of a forest. Its body of stone was bare save for a few batches of short grass and shrubs, but from there one could get a view of the whole forest. Green as far as the eye can see, with colossal mountains further beyond just within sight, covered by a layer of mist such that it appeared like a mystical land. A gray tower stood in the far distance and stuck out like a sore thumb surrounded by all the green. Up here, the air was crisp and smooth. It was early dawn and most of the creatures in the forest were still asleep. The rustling of the treetops below hinted at the presence of nocturnal bird Pokémon, seeking to make the most out of the last few hours of darkness from the previous night before the first rays of sunlight streaked across the sky like a paintbrush renewing its colors.
They all had smiles on their faces amidst the sweat on their brows and necks, and everyone traversed the craggy trail with ease, including the young boy in the group. The hikers carried full backpacks with tents and sleeping bags in them as well as walking sticks in their hands that they poked the grass and ground with. The young girl who led them, on the other hand, seemed ill-equipped for such an adventure. She wore a cotton shirt with an army camouflage print, and the seal of Argyros Town was sewn on the left chest of her shirt. It depicted that same rocky outcrop they were standing on illustrated inside a circular frame, with silhouettes of trees drawn in black at the base of the natural monument and the sky above it colored in dark orange and purple to represent either dawn or dusk.
She gestured for the tourists to come closer to the edge. “Behold! The Forest of Arcadia, in all its beauty!” she spoke with enthusiasm.
She then pointed to a section of the forest that had different species of trees compared to the ones directly below them.
"That area is special, even among the list of ‘special places' I already showed you,” said the girl. She turned towards her guests and beamed a smile at them that was almost as bright as the coming morning. "Those aren't ordinary trees. They're part of a Pokémon! Slumbering over yonder is a colossal and majestic creature found only here in the Apeiron Region, and that specific specimen is the oldest and strongest of them all. They're called Arbozil, but the locals call that one 'The Sage'. Nobody here on this earth was alive when that Arbozil was but a wee Grassrewt, and when the Pokémon League came to Apeiron it was still a sturdy Growmodo. Since then it has grown larger and larger to the point where an entire section of the forest grows on its nutrient-rich back." The girl spoke with an exuberant tone, and there were no pauses in her speech introducing the slumbering creature to the tourists. She had a final addendum to it as she turned towards the Pokémon again. “We believe The Sage guards this forest," she said.
"Can I catch it?" asked the little boy, the youngest of the hikers that Daphne was guiding through the preserve.
The smile on her face faltered a little bit after hearing that, the muscles on the corner of her lips twitching. Nevertheless, she kept up appearances. To her, it sounded more like a comment than a serious question. This child - who by her own estimation was around eight or nine - clearly would not stand down no matter what her answer would be. How would she deal with this situation?
"Ah, certainly. You may try, is what I'm saying. The rules of the establishment don't specifically say that The Sage can't be caught." She forced a giggle through her smile. Then she crouched down slightly, her hands on her knees, trying to look at the boy at eye level. She spoke in a soft tone. “But… that would make the other Pokémon living in this forest sad, wouldn't it? Imagine you have a friend, and that friend suddenly goes away and you don't know why. That's how the forest would feel if The Sage was captured."
She looked into the boy's eyes with her lilac pupils, and he nodded. Daphne turned to the adults in the group and declared that they could rest for a few minutes at the foot of the stone outcrop, if they wished. She stood aside and let them occupy her spot at the top of the rock to take pictures of themselves or at the forest below, always cautioning them to be careful, as beyond that rock was a fall through grass and bushes and trees and rocks and it would be a while before one would hit stable ground. Her quiet was interrupted by the same boy, who cried when his mother held him by the arm and did not allow him to run to the top of the rock. ‘Noisy little brat,’ she said to herself as she sat near the trunk of a tree. Daphne watched as the boy's father lifted him up and walked near the top of the rock, but not quite the summit of it.
Daphne heard the bushes next to her rustle, and she turned towards it. The presence felt familiar, and it made her lean slightly forward. Then out popped a small creature, with a yellow head and a sharp snout with a pair of thin whiskers. Two round-shaped ears could be found above that little head. The small Pokémon had a tiny dot of a nose and its eyes were a dull red, almost brown. The creature's torso was shaped like a pear and heavy near the bottom, most of it was the same shade of yellow as its head, but its arms were red and looked like long sleeves concealing its real limbs underneath and it looked loose and lumpy with the elbows bent. The Pokémon's hands were yellow also. Its legs were short and sturdy-looking, also red, and it had a tail that split along the middle close to the tip.
Daphne sighed in relief as she stretched her arm towards the Pokémon. “Mienfoo, is the road to the tower safe? Any obstacles?”
Mienfoo nodded and nuzzled the young woman's hand, its cheeks pressing against Daphne's knuckles.
“That's great!”
She reached inside the pockets of her baggy pants for a folded up paper and unfurled it. Daphne examined the itinerary for her trip, tracing a finger along each named place and the time of day written next to it. She bit her bottom lip as her brows furrowed, and she shook her head. ‘We're not going to make it to the lakeside before noon. Not at this pace’, she said to herself. They started from their camp at first light, but it was slow. Only the leader of the group was enthusiastic about starting early, and the rest dragged their heels as they gathered their stuff. The boy was not awake at all and had to be carried around when they began. She looked at the hikers she was in charge of and was tempted to cut their fun short and resume the hike. They were taking pictures of themselves and the scenery, performing ridiculous poses near the rock. Twice she had to speak up and warn them about the edge, and she had to keep her eyes on that little brat who was running around.
Their Pokémon joined in too. Out came those red and white balls from their pockets and belts. At first they were barely the size of a single grape, but with a push of a button, the ball expanded in size and occupied the entire palm of an adult human, and after pressing that white button at the center of the ball again, a red beam of light was projected towards the ground and from it materialized a Pokémon - a living, breathing creature as sentient as any other, and likely more intelligent than the boy. Daphne reached towards Mienfoo and held it close to her as the Pokémon shuddered, nervous and caught off-guard with the appearance of four other Pokémon seemingly from nowhere.
Daphne narrowed her eyes at the Pokémon. A Heracross, an Azumarill, a Magnemite, and a Fletchinder. She looked at them, but avoided their eyes. She did not want to hear their thoughts. Daphne glanced at Mienfoo who also observed the other Pokémon with a furrowed brow, and put a hand on its head and patted gently. “Don't worry, buddy. I'm never putting you inside a Pokéball. You're gonna be free to wander as much as you want!” she said.
The group and their guide proceeded a while after that, with Daphne repeating a warning that she already told them at the start of the trip. They were to keep their Pokémon secure inside their Pokéballs as they hiked, the reason being the wildlife in the area being unaccustomed to seeing foreign Pokémon. It would just be needlessly disruptive. Letting their Pokémon outside of the balls must serve important reasons, such as emergencies. Mienfoo was already used to the forest, and the creatures in there had no reason to be hostile to it. Mienfoo was just as much a guide as Daphne was. Quietly though, Daphne thought it was well and good that she did not have to witness Pokémon being released from their “prison” all the time. The distinct sound of a Pokéball beaming out that red light made her nauseous sometimes.
There was plenty yet to see, and the scenery and the surroundings were enough of a distraction for Daphne too. After the rock, she led them down the same forest trail they came from, but then turned south and then southwest. The area was still mostly flat and grassy, green as far as the eyes can see with grasses and shrubs rolling along with the blowing wind. Wild Tauros and Gogoat ranged freely in the grassy field, coexisting without chaos in an environment largely free of large predators. Daphne and the group were also witness to a local equine Pokémon called Vinequine running down the field with several juvenile Sprigcolt running after it. The horse Pokémon's elegant green mane blew back as it met the wind, as did its leafy tail. Daphne pointed at the sky and brought everyone’s attention to a flock of Battalon flying to the northeast, there was a great number of them and the early morning sun bounced off the steel-like armor around the torso of each and every one. Their gray feathers appeared white for a moment as they flew under the sun, dark eyes fixed to the horizon as their sharp beaks, sturdy as metal, pierced the air the bird Pokémon flew through. They sailed along the air elegantly.
“They’re flying to their nest beyond the lakeside. Then they’ll fight a series of ritualistic duels until one remains and evolves into a Knightawk. A worthy king!”
Down the hill, the vast farmlands near Argyros Town were still visible indicating that they were not that far from civilization. Once Daphne turned north to a thinner trail, she led the group into the thick forest that they were merely looking down at from the large rock an hour ago, and slowly the town disappeared from sight. The road they traveled on became a simple dirt path cleared of any huge obstacles, and large trees stood vigil around them. Oaks, beeches, pines, and alders all served as homes for winged beasts and mammals alike, and their sounds gave life to the forest. Daphne hid her dislike at naming the Pokémon who lived in the area to the tourists she was guiding, because she knew that she would mention a certain species and one of them might stop to capture them. Not only would they be delayed for a few hours again, but her hatred for those tiny red balls had steadily grown in the past year or so, since she started working in the Argyros National Park.
Among the many familiar forest-dwelling Pokémon she mentioned, there were also creatures native to Apeiron that the hikers may not have heard of before. She drew their attention to the tiny rodent-like creatures with stout snouts, round bodies, and prominent quills sticking out of their backs called Prickspine, foraging for food in the form of leaves, berries, and roots on the forest floor. On a nearby stream that flowed with crystal-clear water, Daphne showed them a picture-perfect scene of two Happicapys and a single adult Charabara relaxing in the middle of the stream with Spearows nonchalantly sitting on their heads and back; these Pokémon looked like sturdily-built creatures with shaggy brown fur and two prominent front teeth. The wonder of the treetops and the canopy came next. Not bird Pokémon, but lithe and agile yellow-furred and long-limbed primates racing each other across the forest by leaping across branches and clinging to tree bark and howling noisily at each other, and even paying attention to the hikers and their guide. They moved too fast, and Daphne was only able to name them once they were gone.
“Baboolt. Fast as lightning, and with days of energy to spare. We don't tend to provoke them and we watch them closely, as their monkey business can easily set the forest on fire,” she said with a laugh.
None of them even had to lower their heads to see dozens of the hapless worm Pokémon known as Caterikon; creatures destined to forever stay in the first stage of their life cycle unless taken outside the forest and into extreme conditions. As they were, they looked like nothing but squiggly brown lines crawling across the branches and munching on leaves. Their thin bodies looked like tree bark, camouflage being their only defense against predators.
Daphne paused and thought about how similar she was to the Caterikon, trapped in this small world - the only world she knew, here in the Arcadian Forest like the near-motionless worms. She shook her head in defiance of those thoughts. ‘Not me. Not as long as I have a choice.’
The forest went on for what seemed like forever. Daphne advised the hikers to stay close to her and keep every member of their group within sight, while she herself slowed down and instructed Mienfoo to venture ahead and warn them of danger. She was free of worry, having taken this trail a thousand times before and often leading a number of people larger than the current group safely through. Aside from the little boy, these hikers actually listened to her cautions and did not carelessly wander off. Daphne chalked this up to them being Apeironese natives, just urbanites with little experience outside the cobbled stone streets and the agora and the thermal bath houses in their cities.
‘Tourists from Hoenn are the worst!’ Daphne once confided to a co-worker. She had no shortage of eye-rolling stories concerning those foreigners, from a pair of tourists getting lost for three hours because they wandered away from her, to a so-called “Pokémaniac” almost dying after eating a poisonous mushroom byproduct of a Pokémon that he claimed to have studied for weeks. Even still, there were precautions that she took for the current trip and even items in her itinerary that she had to cut for time. She and Mienfoo agreed to take this group away from The Sage. If they stopped for a couple more hours, they would not reach Tourmarches Tower while the sun was up and there was no safer place to camp amidst this sea of trees. It saddened Daphne. She wanted to see The Sage today, and pet its mossy snout and even take a nap on top of its broad but rough and stony head.
Once the sky could be seen again, unobscured by the trees, the sun was no longer above their heads and the heavens had already begun to wear a tinge of orange in the midst of the blue. Soon, the trees around Daphne and the hikers became shorter until they sighted a clearing ahead, a flat grassy plain with no trees similar to the area that they were in before they went through the forest. The source of the orange in the sky could be seen off in the far distance, the sun coming down slowly over the horizon and seemingly hiding underneath a lake of still, shimmering water, with light bouncing against its gentle surface. At the shores of the lake stood the gray tower that stuck out from the surrounding scenery when viewed from here just as much as it did when observed from afar, only this time the dilapidated state of it could not be hidden.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Stones that once helped the tower stand tall and sturdy were scattered all over its base, in such a worn and weathered state that one would assume they were boulders placed upon its feet by nature, were it not for the square-cut corners and the clear imprint of human labor. Holes on the surface of the gray tower could either be windows or products of neglect, but they could also very well be slits for archers to shoot their arrows from back when the area was unpacified and required the constant attention of the eponymous tourmarches, the term for a local ruler appointed by the emperors. The tower was crowned with a ring of parapets that seemed less worn down than the rest of it, and at the center stood a metal flag pole that bent with the wind, carrying aloft the Imperial Standard - the silhouette of a dragon Pokémon on a purple field prominently breathing red fire that wrapped around itself like a wreath.
“Viewing the sunset from the top of the tower is quite the experience. But the top is seven stories up and accessible only by stairs,” said Daphne, cautioning the hikers after an entire day of just walking from dawn to dusk.
The area at the foot of the tower was already lively. Daphne could see other groups of people being led by guides working for the park, but she did not particularly feel inclined to interact with them currently. She stuck with the group she was leading and acted like she was engaged with them also, but in reality she was trying to usher them to the top of the tower where they could take their pictures and tape their videos and then she would show them their designated camping spot near the edge of the lake. Quietly, she was thankful they chose to rest instead of climbing Tourmarches Tower. Before her day could end, she attended a small gathering with a dozen other tour guides that was called by a superior at the base of the tower. The topic was about reassignments, and she was the last to be addressed.
“You’re taking the next two days off Daphne, I heard?” asked the man who presided over this small meeting; a short, middle-aged, balding man built thinly but spry, sturdy, and healthy.
“Yes sir,” replied Daphne.
The man smiled at her. “Very well. You’ve done great this week, and I think you deserve an earlier time off. Go on now. I’ll take over for you and make sure your guests are settled in for the night, and I’ll assign a new guide for them on the morrow.”
“Thank you!” she said with a bright, gleaming smile and then a bow.
Hypatios had always been good to her, and one of the few employees that still remained working in the park since she started a little over two years ago. The man was in-charge of the training of new recruits, so Daphne was tossed his way when she was hired. A little girl of just fourteen winters back then, but already sure of where she wanted to be. ‘I want to be where the Pokémon are!’ she remembered herself saying to Hypatios on the first day of her training. And so she was trained; taught her bearings and how to navigate, how to forage, how to build fire and shelter and sometimes even bivouac in the winter if the weather got too rough, and taught about the Pokémon that lived in the area. It was fun at first, but reality caught up to her eventually.
It was a job. She had the winter mostly to herself, but come the summer and the fall, Arcadia was swarmed by tourists from other parts of Apeiron and from other countries as well. Daphne could count with one hand the times she met a group that was not disruptive to the Pokémon living in the area. In the best cases they were simply noisy and numerous, but at the worst they littered and sowed discord with their Pokémon “battles” at the most inconvenient spots and timing. Even worse than that, Daphne grew to hate those small red-and-white balls that these foreigners carried around and captured Pokémon with, like they were mere collectibles and trophies. Mienfoo became scared around them.
Five months before she joined, the previous owner of the preserve died and in his will he left its ownership to his widow. Not soon after, the new matriarch opened the whole expanse of the Arcadian Forest to foreigners and defilers, and every winter that passed since then, as she walked through the snow-covered woods, she inevitably found traces of apathy and disrespect. Trash was only the least offensive defilement Daphne could find, although by far the most numerous. It also strained the meager finances of Argyros Town as it was forced to sponsor “cleaning teams” every start of winter to return the place to its pristine state… only to be devastated again when the snows melt. But no, by far the worst of what she saw were dead Pokémon occasionally strewn about just at the side of the trails, often hidden haphazardly as if covering up a crime. They were left to rot under the shade of the forest to spread miasma, or out to chill in the late autumn wind. These people had no respect for these creatures.
‘These foreigners often weaken wild Pokémon before they attempt to catch them with their Pokéballs,’ she remembered Hypatios say, once when he and her were left burying as many dead Pokémon as they could. ‘They force them into battles, and strike them unprovoked. Sometimes, they kill the poor creatures by accident. We're here to at least give them a little of the respect they ought to deserve.’
For the evening, she was free. She did not leave the area right away, and instead went to the back of the tower where nobody was looking. Daphne looked around for Mienfoo, and shortly after saw it jump out of the bushes as if to surprise her.
“You little rascal!” she laughed. Daphne went low and stretched her arm out, and Mienfoo jumped on it and scampered to her back and wrapped its short red arms around her neck. “Ready to go up?” Daphne got an enthusiastic squeal from the Pokémon as she rubbed her hands together and tied her purple hair in a bun.
With a running start, Daphne elevated herself in five steps on the vertical surface of the tower wall and hooked her fingers on crevices between stones, her grip as strong as the thickest tree root against a terrible hurricane. She pulled herself up stone after stone with Mienfoo cheering her on, her breaths steady and practiced. She seemed to know where all the jutting stones and the holes where, the crevices wide enough to fit four fingers and the round tips of her sneakers, and she also knew when to stop reaching upwards and sidle a few meters to the left or right, whereupon there would be something closer in reach that she could hold and climb again.
She kept her gaze upwards and ascended steadily, unfazed by the wind that blew stronger the higher she went up. Mienfoo’s grip around her body tightened as the wind came, but she only laughed it off. Soon the round tower became narrower across, but there were plenty of places to grip and hook yet. Centuries this tower stood, it was already dilapidated in many spots, but no matter how much weight Daphne put on the stones, they never moved even an inch. The mortar that held them together was as strong as it was when the masons worked at this height on the backs of their bird Pokémon.
Finally Daphne’s fingers hooked on the top surface of the parapet, and it only took one strong upward heave to hoist herself up and over it, and land on solid ground. She expelled a rush of hot breath through her mouth and wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her forearm. Her muscles ached, but she loved the way they hurt. Daphne never shied from work that left her sore and limping, but climbing was a special kind of fun for her. Mienfoo took a while to get comfortable, but after watching Daphne do it so many times, the Pokémon had taken a liking for it too.
As she stood wiping her brow, her Pokémon leapt from her back but then uttered a growl that alerted Daphne. She moved her hand away from her side and saw a young man standing on the opposite side of where she was, leaning on the structure near a door that would have been the way in and out of the top if one used the stairs. Daphne viewed him with wide eyes and lips slightly ajar, examining him with much suspicion. He seemed the same age as herself but taller, though he seemed just as thin. His blond hair blew at the direction of the wind, thin strands flying all over his face and obscured his blue eyes from Daphne’s sight. He showed teeth with his smile, and his eyes were smiling too. He was holding a phone horizontally and aiming the camera at Daphne.
“Excuse me?” she said. “Can you get that camera off me?”
He exclaimed, and then he put the phone down, stuffing it inside the outside pocket of his red jacket. “So sorry about that, miss. I saw from up here when you were starting to climb. I had to get it on camera! I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Daphne narrowed her eyes. “Okay… How come I never saw you?” she inquired.
The boy shrugged. “I shot your climb from different, weird angles. Or maybe Tourmarches Tower is just that tall! I know I certainly was floored when I arrived here and witnessed its true size. ‘Seven stories tall’ hits different when reading it versus actually being here. The name’s Julian, by the way! And yours?”
She did not respond. Daphne stared at him with piercing lilac eyes in silence and with a slight pout. “Why do you need to know?” she asked back. “And my name’s right there. On my shirt.”
“Oh!”
Daphne watched his eyebrows arch upwards as his eyes went towards her chest. True enough, her very name was embroidered on her shirt at her upper right chest.
“Nice to meet you, Daphne. So you’re a guide. You must have been all over Arcadia, huh? Seen all that needs to be seen here?”
She shook her head. “The forest, maybe. There’s more to Arcadia than the forest.”
Julian nodded, and his eyes went downwards seemingly along Daphne’s legs. She followed the motion subtly with her own gaze, and both of theirs met on Mienfoo. Julian crouched.
“Hello there! Nice to meet you as well. You like climbing too?” Daphne was also watching Mienfoo when it nodded its head. “Yeah! You looked like you were having fun.”
Mienfoo posed for a photo, and Daphne was about to curb that behavior with a stern call. But before she could, Julian’s phone was already pointed at the Pokémon. She quietly walked off to the side so she would not get in the way. She was still not comfortable with having a camera pointed at her by a stranger. In direct contrast to her Pokémon, who enjoyed posing for whoever had a camera. Daphne let it be, and stood leaning against the tower, where the stone was still warm from the sun that had by now hid behind a cloak of darkness. She had scarcely noticed that. There was still light when her gaze was fixed upwards when she climbed, but now the sky was dark and purple near the horizon, and tiny dots of white twinkling lights replaced the mighty sun. Daphne found herself looking upwards again, with a heavy sigh of relief escaping her lips.
She heard Julian thanking Mienfoo, and from the corner of her eye she could even see the boy showing her Pokémon the pictures he took in his phone. Daphne paid them no mind. She did not even notice him facing her and walking towards her. She turned cautiously towards him, her arms crossing over her chest. Julian waved, but stopped after she turned and stood on the spot where the wind continued to blow against his face and ruffle his hair. He looked uncomfortable, but that smile did not seem forced.
“Will you still be here on the morrow, Miss Daphne?” he asked.
She raised a brow. “Why?”
“I need a guide,” Julian replied, laughing. “I need to go north, to a village somewhere in the Karvounas Mountains. My map says I can get there through the forest, but the locals I’ve asked advised me against going alone. So I uh, I think I need a guide.”
Daphne’s lips straightened into a tight line. She was going north tomorrow, but preferred to have no company other than Mienfoo and not desiring to be held back by some urbanite who was probably ill-equipped for a journey through rough forest terrain. And did he say he was going to the mountains? She looked him up and down again, before she answered.
“No,” said Daphne. “I’m not working tomorrow.”
She watched Julian’s shoulders drop and his eyebrows slant. “Oh, okay.”
She continued to watch him. He pulled out his phone and walked away, sullen and quiet. But Daphne couldn’t help but feel bad, she also felt the need to explain her attitude all of a sudden. “Look, Mister Julian,” she said with a sigh, turning fully to face him where she was met by a hopeful gaze. “I… don’t particularly feel safe traveling with a stranger, when I’m out of uniform and possibly outside the bounds of park service. I hope you understand.”
Julian nodded. “Of course. Trust is earned, so is respect,” he said. “I just hoped you’d be more accommodating to my plight. Considering how close you are to your Pokémon, I thought you’d feel safer traveling with a stranger together with your hetairos.”
Daphne perked up when she heard the word, and she repeated it under her breath. “You… are you Apeironese? I thought you were a foreigner…” The last were spoken as a hushed whisper.
The boy nodded, “I sure am! I’m from the north though, and I only recently learned your dialect so… forgive the accent!”
There was no accent. Julian spoke like he was born in the same town as she, although in retrospect she should have found it strange that she was able to converse with him without difficulty. This young man made her drop her guard at odd moments.
Daphne looked around the top of the tower. “Where’s your hetairos?” she asked.
“Oh no, I don’t have any!” said Julian. “I’ve never been able to form a connection with Pokémon as deep as that. But I get along with Pokémon in general.”
That was perhaps the most suspicious string of words she had heard thus far. Daphne eyed him closely, like she did not want him to leave her gaze for even a moment. She was so unabashed about looking him right in the eye that Julian seemed to feel a fluster creeping up from inside him, and he appended his earlier statement with an awkward-sounding laugh as he looked away. She hummed in thought, audibly.
Perhaps that was common in the big cities, but it was profoundly unheard of for Daphne. To go on an adventure without a partner Pokémon - one you would trust with your life and one who would entrust theirs to your hands - was courting peril. For as beautiful a land Apeiron was, the danger of nature was still abound and humanity’s only protection from it came in their connection to the Pokémon around them.
“What am I supposed to make of that? Someone traveling to somewhere as perilous as the Karvounas Mountains without a single Pokémon.” Daphne shook her head after saying that. “Look, I–”
She caught herself before she spoke what was on her mind. If all he said was true, then this Julian person had no business even anywhere in the wilderness. It was unfathomable to Daphne how he even managed to get here. But no matter how she looked at him, she could find no lie in those eyes or in that smile. The thoughts that she stopped herself from saying out loud pertained to Julian not making his destination at all, on account of the dangers he would face if he was telling the truth of his destination and that he actually had no partner Pokémon. ‘I don’t want to be the one to find your mangled body four days after you’re declared missing,’ she thought. Disappearances in Arcadia Forest have become more common as of late, and authorities relied on rangers and guides such as herself for the search operation. Daphne had been involved in three such searches in her time as a guide, but she was never the one who found the remains. She shuddered at the thought.
“Okay, you clearly don’t know what you’re getting into,” she said. “It’s gonna weigh heavy on my conscience if I refuse you now, and then something bad happens to you. I… I can’t bear it. So I will accompany you, and act as your guide. But I have a stop to make first.”
As she spoke, the smile on Julian’s face grew. When she finished, he was nodding eagerly. “Yes! Thank you very much! I don’t mind if we take a dozen stops!”
Daphne cleared her throat. “I’m not done,” she said. “I have to be back here in two days, so I can’t accompany you all the way. But I know a hunter and his family who lives at the foothills, and if you have money with you, he won’t refuse you. He’ll be the one to guide you the rest of the way.”
“Of course, that’s not a problem at all.”
“Speaking of, this isn’t gonna be free,” said Daphne, leaning on one leg with her knuckle pressed on her hip. “This is an unannounced trip, you’re booking my services during my time off, and… other factors, so that’ll be… nine hundred drachma.”
She watched his eyes widen and his jaws drop. “Nine hundred?!”