From up close, it was clear that the black, child-like creature was wearing a cloth tied around its waist. The cloth was bright white, looking too clean for a piece of cloth that must have been through a lot with the creature it was plastered on. Not even a scratch or a thread came loose. Meyara frowned at this, but then brushed aside her own confusion. After all, the creature in front of her was not an ordinary living being. The rules that bind its world were certainly different from the rules that Meyara knew.

Meyara stepped closer slowly while clutching something tightly in her hand. Leaving Adriel who shrieked a little, warning the girl not to be careless. The young man's warning only entered the girl’s left ear and came out of the other. She was too fascinated by the unknown creature in front of her, even her eyes refused to blink.

When the girl stretched one arm through the flames that felt like they were burning her without actually touching her skin, Abiku's screams became quieter. The creature stared at her intently, she was sure those green irises had enlarged with time, almost swallowing the white part. The air around them began to move, she felt how her body was being pulled by an invisible force towards the creature.

A dark green magic pattern appeared between her and Abiku. Adriel's warning echoed even louder, bouncing off the large trees that might as well have disapproved of what Meyara was about to do.

"It casts a spell on you, be careful!"

“Calm down! Like I said, I'm not a child. It won't affect me in any way.”

"But we're not sure! We've never met anything like this before!"

Ignoring her companion's warning, she kept walking. She slightly changed her strategy by taking out some candies from the bag, and holding them with her bare hands. The colorful sugar balls were sticky against her skin, the scent too sweet for her liking. But she wore her gentlest smile and offered the candies to Abiku.

"It must be hard to wander alone all this time, too bad I can’t keep you company," she whispered sweetly. “Take this, and I will wish you endless happiness. It’s so sweet, you won't even taste any bitterness in this world forever.”

Abiku made a sound very similar to a baby's cry. The magic pattern was getting bigger, Meyara almost took a step back but a hand on her back stopped her. She turned around and found Adriel standing right beside her, doing exactly what she did.

"Your hand," whispered the young man. His voice sounded terrified no matter how hard he tried to cover it up.

Meyara's eyes widened when she caught a glimpse of the dark red line on her fingertips. She already knew about her condition when she was fighting for his life due to the plague that had attacked her before. According to Adriel and Warren, the crimson streak would always return whenever her body found it too difficult to handle external energy.

The girl immediately withdrew her hand, leaving Adriel to solve the problem. Being the best student and the only one Meyara ever taught, Adriel was able to handle Abiku in no time. He managed to persuade the creature to accept his gift and leave without causing further chaos.

"Are you okay?" he asked after the situation calmed down. He approached Meyara who was now sitting cross-legged on the ground. The young man innocently offered the rest of the candy that he had deliberately hidden in his pocket, but Meyara refused his offer by shaking her head.

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"Why wouldn’t I be? It just stings a bit,” the girl replied nonchalantly. "I should have thrown the candy from far away while screaming at it to leave."

"Don't take the incident lightly. Don't you feel something strange?" Adriel clicked his tongue and sat beside Meyara. He looked up at the sky, which was now a little brighter than before. “You shouldn't get any effect like me. What really happened?"

“That Abiku was stupid enough to think that I was still a child. Maybe because of my cute face and posture.”

"Are you kidding me? You grew up well like any other teenager. After all, creatures like them would never choose the wrong target."

Meyara's face turned darker. She took a deep breath, as if to suppress all negative feelings along with the oxygen she was breathing in. She wanted to curse herself badly for getting into trouble when they hadn't even crossed the frontier, but she couldn't look frustrated in front of Adriel.

"I think that Abiku has just looked into my soul and decided that I haven't accepted my true age enough." The girl explained while standing up. Her hands were busy patting her pants which were dirty by the ground. "I can't believe I almost got into trouble just because I haven't been able to accept that I have grown up without good childhood memories. Abiku must have also noticed my memory is blank for the last 4 years and decided that I'm no different from kids under 12."

For a few moments, Adriel was silent listening to his friend’s explanation. He felt a little relieved to know that Meyara was willing to explain everything to him even though the girl must have felt embarrassed to admit her shortcomings. The young man only spoke again when Meyara started to continue walking.

“How do you know all that? I mean … that candy can make Abiku go away? And how can you know exactly what just happened to you?” Curiosity made Adriel speak too fast. Fortunately, Meyara could understand his meaning.

"Booker told me."

"Booker?"

“A shabby-looking teenager with an ugly glasses framing his eyes. You don't know him?”

It took a few seconds for Adriel to catch who Meyara meant. “Oh, you mean the worker who's always cleaning up books in Warren's office? Are you sure his name is Booker?”

Meyara shrugged. "No. But that name suits him."

“I can’t understand you sometimes.”

“You don't really know me yet.”

Dawn came as Adriel had expected. That meant they were both slightly behind schedule. However, Meyara didn't seem to mind too much as she just stretched out her hand to check the air.

"The invisible fence must be around here." Without stopping, she continued to step forward while touching the air. Her fingers that still had a lot of crimson lines moved briskly.

"Uh ... I don't think you should move around too much." Adriel grabbed and lowered Meyara's hand. Instead, he nimbly checked the air in front of them, he even used his legs to kick around quite hard. "It wasn't long ago that you just woke up from a coma, remember? I'm not here for nothing.”

Meyara pursed her lips so as not to laugh. Adriel's current behavior really looked like a teenager who likes to boast. "Okay. Then I'll leave this work to you. Now I want to check the map first."

"What map?" The young man looked confused when Meyara's palm opened before him.

"The map I left with you before we said goodbye to my mother."

Adriel froze in place. His eyes were shaking and blinking restlessly.

Meyara could only swallow hard seeing that. "Don’t tell me …."

Seeing the grimace that formed on Adriel's face, made Meyara gasp in disbelief. "You stupid brat! You better go back and get the map!"

“But we've come so far! We don't really need it anyway. It's too ancient!”

"Adriel!"

"Wait! I found it!"

***