“Careful,” Zed said, both hands on Chris’ hand that squeezed his new shirt, “I just got this shirt and it wrinkles easily.”

“That’s not going to work, Bloodbath,” Chris said, her grip tightening. “You aren’t going to annoy your way out of this one.”

“Alright,” Zed sighed.

He raised an index finger between them and pointed left.

“It’s that way,” he said, defeated.

Chris turned to look in the direction he’d pointed. Her grip remained firm. Her expression molded into a thoughtful one as she stared at the sea of trees to the south. The night sky was already darkening and the forest was becoming a fantastical myriad of glowing colors. Most of the colors were a soft luminescent blue or purple with gentle motes of colorful dust particles dancing about them.

“Chris,” Oliver said gently.

“I know,” Chris scowled, turning angry eyes on Zed. “He’s just saying rubbish so that I’ll let him go.”

“No,” Oliver said. “I was going to ask you to let him go.”

“But that’s exactly what he wants,” Chris said. “And he’s saying rubbish so that it happens.”

Zed gave her an impish smile. “In my defense, you can be quite terrifying sometimes. But I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about. If I knew where something as valuable as you make a mana surge sound was, wouldn’t I have gone for it long ago?”

“I’d contest the mana surge’s the reason you’re here?”

“Brrrr!” Zed buzzed gratingly. “Wrong. I’m here to get the little missy something to eat. She might not look it but she hasn’t eaten for a few days.”

A few eyes turned to Shanine, Chris’ included. Shanine remained seated on the ground. The bar of chocolate was now finished and she held an empty wrapper in her hand. Her once beautiful gown was torn and frail. Her wooly hair was a horrific mess. Her body was clearly malnourished. She was a shadow of her beauty but she was beautiful nonetheless.

She looked like she’d grown up in a village without food and she bristled under the attention.

At least she’s stopped shaking, Zed noted.

“Okay,” he said when everyone’s attention returned to him, “she looks terrible. But I assure you she’s worse than she looks.”

“Don’t you mean she’s not as bad as she looks?” Kid asked, confused.

Zed shrugged. “I said what I said.”

“And you snuck in here to find food for her?” Chris asked. “What were you going to feed her; monster meat?”

“Of course not, that’d kill her… right? Right. I was hoping to pluck a fruit or two.”

“This forest has no fruits,” Kid said.

“I like you big guy,” Zed said, peering past Chris to look at him, “but you’re not helping.”

Chris’ gaze on him narrowed in annoyance and Zed groaned.

“Okay,” he said, peering back over at Kid, “that was a lie, I don’t like you and you’re still not helping.”

Kid turned his head to look down at Jason. The height difference was glaring.

“Does he always talk this much?” he asked.

Jason nodded. “You get used to it in time, though.”

“Sorry to break this reunion up,” Daniel interrupted them, stepping up to Chris and Zed. “But can we pick this up another time? The monsters are close and there aren’t six of them anymore. So let’s move.” He turned his face to Zed. “And we will pick this back up when we’ve lost them.”

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

* You have received repaired [Pocket memory(incomplete)] 5/5.

* You have repaired [Pocket memory (incomplete)] (who am I?).

* Warning: Beware of [Memory Triggers].

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

Zed raised his right hand and answered Daniel. “Supported.”

In the back of his mind he wondered what [Memory Triggers] were. As though it was known for its communication skills, another notification popped up.

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

Info: [Memory Trigger]

Certain words, events, or existences related to the senses are often known to trigger the activation of suppressed memories. Be careful lest a memory you need to keep hidden be unraveled.

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

Zed frowned. It seemed the notification was telling him that unraveling his [Memory pocket] was no longer entirely up to him.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Thanks for that, he thought sarcastically. Telling someone with no memories to beware of things that may trigger his memory. How exactly is he supposed to know what might trigger memories that he doesn’t have?

Zed cast the worry from his mind as the others resumed whatever journey they had initially been on.

He followed them quietly. So did Shanine.

……………………………………..

“So we got back and struggled through the entire thing,” Oliver was saying. “Mostly I just moped and grieved, but the others did what they had to.”

They were walking through the forest now, the entire party moving with an alert efficiency. Zed could sense too many auras from the mages, most of which were Rukh ranked. Ash, it seemed, was the only other Beta mage in the group.

An anomaly pricked Zed and he wondered why despite their apparent sizes, Kid’s armor made no sound as he moved and Daniel’s armor made the sound of a normal sized mage walking. He also noted that he couldn’t sense a whisker of the Olympians’ auras.

It was mildly disturbing. Only mildly. After all, he’d been around creatures with no aura signature.

Zed and the others had since left the area where they’d met. And while Chris was unhappy about having to postpone their conversation to a later time, she voiced her displeasure in nothing but a scowl that continued to mar her face even after so long.

From what Zed had garnered from his discussion with Oliver, they were actually on their way to meet another group of mages. From what he now knew, the town had grouped up with the Olympians and a few other mages to scour the forest for no more reason than to cull the rising number of monsters appearing.

“So you people thought I was dead,” Zed said, pushing the conversation along.

“Yea,” Oliver answered. “Chris saw it with her own eyes.”

Zed thought about someone having to watch what had happened to him and winced. He still remembered the pain of the gunshots, despite how instant. He remembered the hole in his neck and the arm he’d almost lost. He rubbed rubbed the healed neck unconsciously with one hand.

“Yea,” he said, dragging the word awkwardly. “I can only imagine.”

“It wasn’t a nice thing walking around thinking I wasn’t going to see a friend again.”

Zed nodded. “But look on the bright side. Three days of missing me has made your heart stronger. I bet you’ll handle it much better next time.”

Oliver stopped.

“What?” Zed asked. “You’ve got a weird look on your face.”

“You’ve been gone for more than three days, Zed.”

Zed shook his head. “Can’t be. Okay, maybe four days.”

“You’ve been gone for more than a week.”

Zed stared at Oliver in disbelief. He wanted to refute Oliver’s claim but he saw no lie in his eyes. Oliver really believed he’d been gone for that long. Considering he was the one with a history of memory issues and had been unconscious for a while, Zed was inclined to believe him.

Which meant it took me more than three days to heal my injuries. That’s a bit terrifying.

“Well, I’m back now,” he said, discarding the question of time as they resumed their walk. “And you grieved for me, which means you care, and that’s all that matters. Now who else grieved?”

“We all did,” Oliver answered, shifty. “Each of us in our own way.”

“Sounds more like no one grieved visibly so you don’t know,” Zed said, his attention on a bent tree that reminded him of an old man using a cane. “But you don’t know how to say it nicely so you choose a lie. No matter. So how did Imani take it, then?”

Zed didn’t have to look at Oliver to know that he bristled at the question.

“Ah,” he mused. “She’s still with the other guy.”

“Yea,” Oliver said, his face hard and his voice firm.

Zed turned to him and smirked.

“Is that acceptance I hear in your voice, Ollie?” he teased. “Is my little lover boy all grown up now?”

Oliver snorted. “Says the guy who came back with a sixteen-year-old.”

“I’m seventeen,” Shanine said from the back of the group where she walked beside Ash.

“Not that much of a difference, kiddo,” Zed told her, before turning his attention back to Oliver. “And it’s not like that. So, are Imani and her boyfriend a part of the people here?”

Zed was pushing the conversation along and Oliver was happy to oblige.

“No,” Oliver answered. “Ash’s the only Beta mage.”

“And me.”

“I’ll be eighteen tomorrow,” Shanine added from the back of the group, interrupting again.

“Happy birthday, then,” Zed called back, uninterested. “Now be quiet while the grownups talk.”

Oliver looked at him with a raised brow.

“What?” Zed shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

“Most people would argue you don’t act grown enough to say that, though.”

“I’m older and that’s all that matters… Wait.” Zed turned to look at Shanine and found he wasn’t the only one. “You’re eighteen?”

“Why are you surprised?” she asked him with a scowl. “I already told you this.”

“Yes,” Zed agreed, scratching his head. “But I thought you were just lying. People do that, you know.”

There wasn’t a single person here that wasn’t staring, gauging Shanine’s size. Even Big Man Desolate who’d been engrossed in his own world of whistling had stopped to stare.

Shanine shrugged. “I’m a late bloomer.”

“No, you’re not,” Zed said. “You’re a no bloomer. What happened? Are your parents short, too? Is it like a genetic thing? Are you Ash’s other-racial height doppelganger”

“Zed,” Jason chided him, his voice low despite it. “That was rude.”

Zed paused, then frowned. It seemed his barely withheld joke regarding Ash’s height had finally slipped out at the wrong time, and Ash had only served as collateral damage.

“It was,” Zed agreed, chastised. He was walking backwards now, continuing the procession while he faced Shanine. He gave her an apologetic look. “And for that, I apologize.”

Shanine’s expression dipped into one of suspicion and she said nothing.

Beside her, Ash watched her.

“Aren’t you going to accept his apology?” she asked, curious.

“Oh yea, sorry,” Shanine said, shaking her head as if displacing cobwebs. “Was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“The other shoe to drop?”

“Yea,” Shanine said. “It’s just not like him to just apologize.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just…” Shanine hesitated. “No offense to your friend, but it’s just that I have this feeling his going to say something else, something—”

“Mean?” Ash offered.

“His more likely to crack another boring joke than be mean,” Chris said.

“—Different,” Shanine finished. “He likes to crack a few jokes before saying what he wants to say. I guess I was just waiting for the joke.”

“Well that’s a nice way to put it,” Ash said. “How long have you been traveling with, Red, by the way?”

Ash climbed over a bright neon green root and helped Shanine over it.

“Red?” Shanine asked when she was safely on the other side.

“Zed,” Ash clarified.

“About a day. I met him last night.”

“And she already knows you talk too much,” Chris called after Zed.

“Well, what can I say,” Zed answered back, nonchalant. “There are side effects to having such wit and charming—”

“I swear to God, if you finish that statement I’m going to beat you back with your club.”

Shanine stared between the both of them, confused.

“Doesn’t she mean ‘her’ club?” she asked Ash.

“No,” Ash said with a soft smile. “Red was the one that gave her that club.”