Things couldn't be any worse that night. The night sky that was clear a couple of hours ago had disappeared, hidden behind countless dark clouds that each released an endless stream of rain. It had been raining for at least an hour, and yet, there was no sign of it slowing down, let alone stop.
Fleur could only tighten her grip on the horse's reins as strong gusts of wind hit her. The wind kept pushing off the hood on her brown cloak, revealing her long silky blonde hair to the extreme weather. Her frustration peaked when she pulled her hood back up for the tenth time, only for another gust of wind to push it off again immediately after. She wanted to scream at the top of her lung, or punch something. But in the end she could only let out a sigh in resignation, glad that at least she wasn't carrying anything important for the wind to blow away. She only had a rope that she used to help pull the wagon if it got stuck in mud.
Silently and repeatedly, Fleur threw out curses at fate, as it constantly impede her in everything that she did all her life. Her mother mysteriously fell ill the day she was supposed to leave for the academy. The usual spots where she and her mother gathered herbs were overrun by monsters. And it just had to rain so heavily when she wasn't around to care for her mother. Out of all people in the world, fate just had to target her.
Suddenly, the sound of her horse shrieking drew her attention back to reality. “Is something wrong, Jak?” she shouted at her horse companion, who had been bravely pulling the wagon. When her horse shrieked a second time, she squinted her eyes to try and see what's in front of them. Something must have riled Jak up.
Despite the intense rain limiting her vision, she could still make out, though barely, the shape of someone sitting motionlessly under one of the trees at the side of the road. The bulkiness of the person led her to believe that they were wearing a full-body armor, which would make them a knight, which was odd. Knights rarely visit the area because there was nothing noteworthy around. Fleur couldn't help but wonder why this one ended up here. At first, she wanted to ignore them, her mind was more focused on hurrying back to her mother. She can vividly imagine her mother struggling to light the fireplace because of the cold. And the knight was probably already dead, she could just report the body to the elder the next day.
But then she saw the knight shakily raised his hand toward her, and her plan shattered. The knight was still alive, and in need of dire help.
She wanted to keep moving because she thought the knight was already dead, but then the knight turned out to be alive. With such bad weather, they wouldn't make it if she didn't help them. Even so, what of her mother? What if she was unable to light up the fireplace and the cold made her mother's condition worse? But what if her mother was just fine, and she had to live her life knowing that left someone at the side of the road when she could have helped?
Fleur's brief inner battle finally stopped when she saw the knight fall to their side. She couldn't help but grit her teeth at the sight, as it reminded her of when her mother first showed symptoms of her illness. Had she immediately taken action that day instead of just accepting her mother's reassurance, would her mother be cured? Was her suffering all that time avoidable? It was this thought alone that finally pushed Fleur to make a decision.
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She pulled Jak's leash and stopped the carriage. “Please hang on!” she shouted, though unsure of whether the knight was still conscious. She jumped down from her wagon and immediately rushed toward them. The sound of the storm drowned out all other noises, but she could still make out the sound of the knight's armor shaking and their shallow breath when she put her ear against their armor's chest plate.
The young girl tried to lift the knight with all her might but struggled to even lift one of their hands. Dragging her onto the wagon by herself was out of the question. Her mind rummaged for an idea on how to lift the knight. She desperately looked around for something she could use or perhaps someone passing by that would help her. The road they were on was one of the main roads into and out of the village, so a lot of people should be going back and forth, but the rain must have forced them to take shelter. Fleur would have done the same if she wasn't anxious about her mother's condition.
Finally, she remembered about the rope on her wagon, and an idea popped up inside her head. “Wait here!” she shouted before leaving the knight and returned a moment later with rope in hand.
After securing the rope around the knight's chest, she threw the rope over the tree's thickest looking branch. Fleur then jumped and used the weight of her whole body to pull the rope down. Fortunately, her weight was just enough to lift the knight. Without waiting for orders, Jak pulled the wagon and positioned it below the knight. She tried her best to gently lower the knight, but the rope's rough surface scratched her hands and forced her to let it go. The rope reeled, and the knight fell with a loud thud. Fleur started panicking and rushed to check their condition. When she heard the sound of them breathing, albeit more shallow than before, relief washed over her entire body. That relief quickly vanished when she realized what she had to do next.
Hesitantly, Fleur pulled out a tiny crystal from her pocket. Her eyes lingered on it for a moment too long. She wanted to keep the expensive magic crystal for when her mother needed it in the distant and perhaps uncertain future, but the knight in front of her at that very certain moment was in critical condition. There was no way he could survive the journey with the storm and cold wind constantly battering him. Suddenly, Fleur shook her head. It was this kind of hesitation that she wanted to avoid. Refusing to waste more time and further endanger the knight's chance of survival, she gritted her teeth and shattered the crystal in her knuckle.
A circle of rune appeared on the wagon's floor, while the crystal's remains turned into dust, slipping through the cracks of her knuckle and floated up. The crystal dust formed a bubble barrier that covered the wagon and warmed the air inside.
While putting the rope back, Fleur couldn't help but admire the knight's armor. She hadn't seen a lot of knights in her life, but she was certain that this knight's armor was vastly different. There was a glowing line where the hole for eyes was supposed to be, and similar lines could be seen across the armor itself. After a bit of thinking, she realized it felt much lighter than she had expected. Then again, her vision of knights was based on seeing them once as a child. So she just thought that it was the current generation of armor or something. Perhaps she would have known better had she left for the academy.
“Ha… I should stop. There's no use pondering about the past.”
After securing the knight onto the wagon with the rope, Fleur got back on the carriage and continued her journey back, her mind wondering whether she just did the right thing or not.