“Are you there?”

“I’m here. I’m-I’m right here.”

“Good… You’re… Okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m just fine. You-You’re bleeding a lot.”

“It’s okay… As long as you’re fine…”

“But-"

“Hey… There’s something I want you to know…”

“Y-Yeah? Wha-What is it?”

“I, I…”

And the dream ends.

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

“Wake up.”

I bolt upright and come face to face with Aisha. She frowns.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

“Why?” I ask defensively.

“You’re sweating.”

“It was too hot in here. You know I don’t like it hot.”

“It’s winter,” she says, smirking. “You’re a bad liar.”

“Har har. Are the others up?”

“Outside and waiting.”

“Axel didn’t wake me?”

“He didn’t think you’d be asleep this long. I volunteered after breakfast. You can eat some bread before we head out.”

“Considering I choose our targets, I don’t think we can move unless I say so. Tell everyone I’ll be out in a bit. Let me put my gear on."

“Okay~.” Aisha leaves to inform the others.

I roll out of bed and quickly throw on all the necessary things for today’s hunt. It’s a simple monster, not as weak as goblins but certainly dumber. Even if three more suddenly joined the pack overnight, we should still be able to take them on. Istruan and Kat are growing more confident with the frontlines, maybe I’ll leave more for them today.

They greet me with a smile once I’m outside. Axel marches off in a random direction before I pull him the right way. We’re on the brink of breaking out into song along the way, not me exactly, since I don’t particularly think I have a good voice, but some of the girls whistle and hum the words waiting impatiently to come out.

Then, we see the pack of monsters. The fight ends in a near instant. Istruan, Kat, and Emile jump on the nearest one, a four-legged beast with a nonexistent nose, and two spiked tails. Ellis and Axel each take one of their own and I kill the last. We cut off their tails, eight in total, and head back.

“Good job guys!” Istruan cheers. “You were right about having us surround it, Rainen. Made it a lot easier. Maybe we’ll be able to take on another quest when we head back to town. This one was too easy.”

“Better to start small,” I reply, swinging the bag that holds the tails. “If you let it get to your head, someone could die.”

“Look at you, always so concerned. Come on, lighten up a bit leader. If you’re not laughing how can the rest of us have a good time?” Kat hangs close to me, nudging me as we pass another group of adventurers going out for the day.

One of the older adventurers in the other party snickers.

“Who says I’m not having a laugh? I just keep it inside so other parties don’t have their ears blown out by you guys.”

“Always so cold, Rai,” Axel pouts. “How much are we gettin’ from this quest again? I was thinking about getting some new boots, I think we’ll see a hole in this one in a day or two. See? Look at the tear at the tip, doesn’t that look bad?”

Iris pulls out her notebook, “Ten silvers. A pretty good price considering how easy it was. I do suppose they were causing quite a ruckus though, they were big.”

“Hiyah! Think I could’ve killed one using a pitchfork?”

“You haven’t even touched one in your life, Ellis. And no, I don’t think you could have. Well, maybe if you burnt it like you did the one back there first."

“About that, do you think they’ll accept that tail?” Fia wonders, biting on her lip.

“Don’t know why they wouldn’t,” says Emile, “No reason for us to lie if we’ve already got six other good ones.”

Aisha waits in line with me while the others take a look at the quest board and buy some supplies. The line isn’t particularly short but it’s a bit shorter than usual for a town of this size. Once we reach the front of the line, the receptionist asks us for our guild IDs and the tails. She examines them both for a second then gives us our reward.

Aisha glances around the guild, “Why are there so few people here? Where is everyone.”

“Oh, you don’t know? There’s a festival set to happen tomorrow, and for four days after I might add. Most adventurers who come to the guild here live in this town, I imagine they’re out there helping set up. The mayor even put in some requests and those disappeared in a heartbeat.”

I turn my head before those eyes can wear down on me. A second later, the pleading happens and I feel stares from all over. She tugs on my sleeve, the receptionist gives a wry smile. Axel and Emile come over with a quest in hand.

My heroes.

“What’s going on here?” Axel asks.

I can feel his evil grin.

“Nothing-”

“There’s a festival going on tomorrow and he won’t let me go.”

“I never said you couldn’t-”

“Festival?” Ellis rushes over. “I love festivals! Lets go, lets go!”

“It sounds like a nice break, doesn’t it?” Iris chimes.

“Please? It’s not like we’re doing anything important.” Aisha’s basically hanging off of my arm.

“Fine,” I say, just to get them off me. “We can go to the festival tomorrow but we’re going to start training even harder after it, understand?”

“Woohoo! I’m going to tell the others.” Ellis bolts off and Iris yells at her not to run.

I shake my head. With everyone lazing about, we’ll never find…? Who were we looking for? No, no. We were, we are looking for my master. But, why? Sure I’d like to see him and maybe tell him off for leaving me at the academy but that’s it? That’s why I’m dragging Aisha, Axel, and the others through all of this? They’re having some fun. Maybe it’s me who’s suffering a bit. Something’s missing…

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What’s up Rai? You look bothered.”

“I-If the festival is such a big problem then-”

“No,” I stop her. “It’s not that, it’s just… I was thinking about something else. Anyway, you two pick out a good quest? I might be rank D, but we’re not tackling any hobgoblins, they’re too much of a risk. Besides, we’d miss your beloved festival if we went out that far.”

“No hobgoblins,” Emile promises, laying out the quest. “We’ll be taking this on.”

“What’s this?” I examine it more closely and my jaw almost hits the desk.

“I think you can guess why I’m taking it, fifty silvers to look into a ghost story? Sign me up. Also, I’m curious about this little bit right here, one of the ghosts carries a nice sword. They say it’s cursed with power and wrapped in some white cloth. Of course, it’s a sighting and more of a fun little hunt than anything else.”

“I fun little hunt wouldn’t pay this much now would it?” Axel says.

Emile shrugs, “Quest says to spend a night at Bramble Lake.”

“How are they supposed to know we spent a night there? We could turn it in right now for those fifty silvers,” I say. Aisha hits me on the arm. “I’m not serious about the lying part, simply a bit curious.”

“The guild takes care of all completed quest confirmations when the original requester does not. If you take the quest, we will send someone out with you to verify you have completed it properly,” she answers curtly.

“So we’ll be sharing tents with some person from the guild?” Axel asks.

“No, the person we send out will check on you periodically from a distance so as to not disturb you. We have a strict policy of not interfering with adventurers, especially when our members sometimes become political tools. We are mediators for the smaller, more pressing matters, for the people, not the state.”

Axel sighs, “Gee, thanks. I’ll feel much better knowing that I’m being watched. Eh, better that I can blame it on some guild representative than some ghosts.”

We hand the receptionist the quest and she marks it off for us. It doesn’t take too much preparation before we set off, only a visit to the marketplace for food and some firewood. This particular winter isn’t as bitingly cold as last year’s but it pays to be prepared. It takes a good half hour until we reach the lake. Our tents are set up before twilight and we spend time walking around the area looking for the ‘ghost’, leaving three people to watch the camp at all times.

The search for the ‘ghosts’ ends with no results, not even a meagre sighting. I expected as much. Emile, on the other hand, sulks by the fire next to the others who look more happy than saddened. So much for a ‘sense of wonder and excitement. I think I’m a bit disappointed we found nothing, some townsfolk heard of the stories too. I really don’t know what I’m doing getting wrapped up in these dumb tales but at least that’s fifty silvers in our pocket.

“Hey, why’re you sitting out here by yourself.”

“Huh?”

Kat glances into the water, “Did you see something? You’ve been staring at it for the longest time.”

“Nah, I didn’t see a thing… When you went searching with the others, did you hear any voices, other than our own I mean.”

Kat shivers, “Stop it, you’re scaring me a bit. No, I don’t think I heard anyone else. Ummm… What kind of voice was it?”

I pause for a moment. Did I actually hear anything or was it just my imagination? I guess I really am getting caught up in this little quest. “A soft voice, a girl’s. It sounded distant.” The voice sounded lonely, like it was calling out for someone, anyone to come.

Kat shakes her head and pulls me to the fire. I glance into the lake one more time as the last of the light fades and leaves nothing but the moon.

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

 “Here’s your reward,” the receptionist says.

“Easiest money I’ve ever made.” I drop the coins into the shared pouch to be distributed later. It’s overflowing despite our spendings yesterday that almost left it as another piece of fabric to sew into our torn pants. “Our next quest will be-”

“Getting ready for the festival,” Aisha interrupts. She pulls me away from the counter and has me count out the coins for everyone. It’s hard to split between nine people. In the end, we agree to give each person five silvers and keep the last five in the shared treasury.

If I had it my way, or if there wasn’t a festival coming up, the most anyone would get is three silvers, the rest going straight to equipment, food, and other necessities. Oh well, might as well let them have their fun while they can. I doubt the coming days will be easy… It gets harder from here on out right? I have to save some money… Whatever. I don’t plan to spend my money on anything in the festival, I’ll watch from the rooftops or stand against some wall somewhere.

Emile fumbles around with the coins, “So are we all going together?”

“I think it’s better if we split up. Fia and I plan on getting something of ours fixed, though we might do that before the festival anyway,” Kat says. “But we should definitely decide on somewhere to meet up.”

“Right, I’ll meet you all back at the inn,” I say promptly, stepping away.

“Nuh uh. You are going to come with me,” Aisha locks my wrist between her hands, “I won’t let you run away from this.”

“Huh. I totally forgot Rai might try and skip out on us,” Axel sighs and claps me on the back. “Don’t let him ruin this event for himself, little sis. Besides, I think you two still have some catching up to do. Really weird stuff back in the Green City.”

Don’t remind me. Who would’ve thought our grandparents would do something as stupid as arranging a marriage for Aisha with a man that’s well over twice her age. I know it happens but I’m really glad Axel was there to help me stop it. It was a tough fight… against the man, my grandparents? No, it took a little bit of arguing for them to end it. Yeah, that was that. It was a bit tough learning how suffocating it was there for Aisha while I lived comfortably with our uncle.

“Don’t worry about it so much,” Aisha whispers, flashing a smile.

I realize that their eyes are all on me. I break out of my thoughts and nod, “All right, I’ll be walking around with Aisha.” I groan, “What’s this festival for anyway?”

Istruan rubs his head, “The people said something about, ‘All Spirits Eve’, or ‘The Night of Dreams’. Not the first time I’ve heard of it but I don’t think it’s commonly celebrated in the empire. I’d know, I enjoy a good festival.”

Iris frowns, “We do celebrate it in the empire. It’s a popular event for couples, not saying you can’t or shouldn’t spend it with family,” she gestures at Aisha and me, “It’s called ‘Spirit Day’. The empire adopted it around thirty years ago.”

“Really? What’s up with all the name mix ups?”

“Oh,” Fia waves us over, “Look, you didn’t read it all, Istruan. Here,” she points, “It says ‘Join us for a celebration of the most magical time of the year where the line between two worlds blur. The first and second day will be a precursor to the next three days and nights, Spirit Day, All Spirits Eve, and The Night of Dreams.”

Iris takes the paper, “Interesting. I suppose it makes sense that a village closer to the elves would celebrate all the days.”

“So it’s four days of partying!?” Ellis counts the money she has and looks about ready to collapse after coming to the realization she won’t have enough for the full festival.”

“I only agreed to the first night,” I respond sternly. “We didn’t come for fun.”

“Rainen’s right. We’ll have to pick things up tomorrow but… Tonight we can do whatever we want!” Istruan grins.

We break off into our on little groups and walk around the town. Children stare out their windows, watching as the streets are turned into markets, decorations are pinned up, and stages are set, the largest one being in the square with drums and gongs. Aisha tries on a couple of masks and decides the fox one.

Fitting, I’d say.

Aisha urges for me to get a mask. I turn her down and check out some of the game booths. The urge to spend money lingers for a bit before I take a risk with a couple of coppers, thanks to seeing Aisha mess up at an easy looking game. Before I know it, I’m twelve coppers lighter but at least I come out with a cheaply made doll. I hand it out to a young girl and she gleefully takes it.

Before long, the sky’s reflecting an orange hue. Aisha meekly grabs my attention, “I forgot something at the camp…” she mutters. It takes us around twenty minutes to reach our previous camping spot without any gear. She spends a while looking…

“Is there something there?”

“Huh?” I snap back to reality, “Did you find it?”

“I did. What were you staring at? You were doing it yesterday too.”

“Nothing. I was just wondering why it wasn’t frozen.”

“Ah, we could’ve skated if it was!”

“We haven’t skated since mom and dad took us that one time before they left for that long trip.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. I was crying because I did something that would get Lester mad and got scared when I heard mom and dad were leaving. Hehe… He was the one who ended up teaching me how to ice skate.”

Lester… I haven’t heard our brother’s name in a long time. “Too bad I never learned.”

“Chicken.”

“At least I wasn’t a crybaby troublemaker.”

“Hmph. Festival time is wasting away. I won’t let you waste it here.”

“You’re the reason why we’re here.”

We share a couple more memories of the past, as fragmented as they are, as we make our way back. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of blue. When I turn back, the girl is already fading into the background, nothing more than a spot of color in the white emptiness. Aisha tugs on my sleeve.

“She was cute wasn’t she?”

“Was she? I didn’t see.” my fingers instinctively reach for the scarf around my neck.

“When did you get that?” Aisha asks.

“I think I bought it back when we first got here.”

“Oh.” she frowns. “Never seen you wear it.”

I look back once more, tightening the scarf.

Did I really buy this or was it given to me?