“Who’s there!?” Cain yelled again, louder than before, not having to catch his breath.
The big shadow got smaller the closer it got, changing into something that looked like a figure.
A growl turned my head back in the direction the beast had flown. The fog opened up again, and the beast appeared. Before, it was making slow moves, using the area to throw Cain down, but now it was full of anger, rushing in, wanting nothing but to finish him off.
Suddenly, a loud pop came, like the sound of a bubble breaking. Air blew in a big gust of wind. The next moment, there was no fog... well, there was, but the fog had cleared as if we were inside a circle keeping the fog away.
Turning back to the shadow, I gasped.
It wasn’t a shadow, but a girl.
A big girl, dressed full black with dark hair, like Lyon’s, but not the same. Hers were way longer, reaching her back, and unlike Lyon’s hair, which was very, very black, hers was like shining black! And pretty! And, and they swooshed in the wind!
‘What fog?’
Just as I was about to remember to breath, I choked.
She... she looked at me!
I couldn’t see her eyes before, but now they were... they were looking at me! And they were so pretty! They... they were green and, and they were... they were... Ah! What’s the word! Ah! Not now! AH!
They were so pretty! Prettier than Lyon’s!
‘Lyon who?’
Grrrl!
I gasped as her eyes left mine. Oh, and because the beast growled again.
Now that the girl wasn’t looking at me, I could turn my attention back to Cain. The beast didn’t care about the girl’s appearance or the clear bubble and continued rushing at Cain.
Cain was also too focused on the beast to pay her any attention. After catching his breath, he prepared for the beast’s attack.
Just as the beast was about to scratch Cain, and he was about to throw a punch, both of them missed. One because it was sent flying away, and the other because the beast wasn’t there anymore. The girl was faster than both of them. With a simple movement of her hand, a wave of wind took the beast off its feet.
‘Yeah, you show that beast!’
Cain looked at his hand and where the beast flew away. Meanwhile, the beast rose again, this time its attention to the girl. She returned the gaze, her eyes sparkling like the stars in the sky but in green, even more intensely than the beast.
I gulped. She wasn’t staring at me, but I got a little scared of that look. Not to the point of looking away, though...
The beast growled but, suprisily, it turned around and walked away, slowly drifting hazy over the fog.
‘That... was... so... cool! Who is she!? She is so pretty and strong and cool and pretty!’
“Who are you!? Cain yelled, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she walked closer.
When she reached me, she stopped and bent down to me. I froze in place, not knowing what to do. When her hand moved, I flinched and closed my eyes, however, I could never expect what was to come.
“Aw~ aren’t you a cutie little one? What’s your name?” She said in a voice sweeter than candy.
She... she patted my hair!
Her hand was as soft as her voice and despite being in the moutain, it was warm and... and it felt like how Papa does it!
I giggled. Opening my eyes, I forgot how to breath again.
She... she was smiling at me!
‘I’m in heven.’
“Theodore, get away from her! She could be dangerous!” Cain yelled, ruining the mood.
‘Pickles Cain! Can’t you see we are having our moment here!?’
She stopped playing with my hair and rose back up on her feet, giving me full view of her...
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
‘Pure thoughts Theodore! Pure thoughts!’
“Aren’t you a rude one?” She chuckled. “Is that how you thank the one who saved you?”
“Saved who?” Cain yelled back, showing his purplish hand. “Didn’t you see my last punch? I sent it flying! And you still haven’t answered my question. Who are you?”
She chuckled again. “My name is Nali, and sorry to burst your bubble, but I was the one who did that. Judging by the scars and color of your hand, if you were to land that punch, you wouldn’t be able to swing it around right now.”
Cain’s face dropped and his hand quickly flew behind his back. Still, he wasn’t ready to quit. “And how would you know that?”
“It’s quite simple, really. That was a Stonehedge. As the name suggests, they have a protective outer shell of stone-like armor. Of course, it’s possible to break that armor with brute force, but only an insane person would try to with his bare hands.” Nali looked Cain up and down with a funny smile before continuing. “It is much easier to aim for their weak and soft underbelly.”
“I’m not insane!” Cain screamed. “And what’s all this about the underbelly? You also attacked the shell.”
“Well, of course.” She said in a carefree tone. “To me, such a beast isn’t even worth mentioning, we are not the same.”
Cain didn’t have anything to say back. He just looked at her angrily.
“Your welcome by the way.” She added to tease him more.
Cain kept looking at her with the same expression, but with that last comment, I found my way to butt in.
“Ah... yes! Thank you for saving us! I... I am Theodore and that’s Cain.”
“Aw~ Theodore. Such a cute little name for a cutie like you.” She played with my hair again.
‘Hehe, she called me cute two times now!’
Nali glanced at Cain from the side of her eyes and smirked. “You can close your mouth now. Bugs will get in if you keep it open for too long.”
Cain’s hands reached for his mouth before he even realized it. Then, after a moment, smoke came out of his ears. “You!”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” She waved her hands. “Now come here and let me take a better look at your injuries.”
Cain gave Nali an ugly look, but did as she said.
“Say,” Nali began, as she took hold of his hands. “Now that we introduced ourselves, what are the two of you doing in Aurilon?
Cain and I looked at each other.
Now that I looked at him closer, his hands were really bad. The scars weren’t very deep, more like scratches, but there were many of them in each of his hands. The color was even uglier than what I had seen before; the blue parts looked more purple and the purple ones were more black. Compared to him, my fall wasn’t that bad.
“We... em... Papa was hurt and this flower will help him get better.” I said, showing Gentian.
“Your Papa?” Nali moved her head to the side.
“Yeshh!” Cain gritted his teeth. “Our Father,” he said the ‘father’ louder, “was hurt because of him,” he pointed at me with his head,” and our other brother. We were looking for this flower because the doctor said it would help his treatment."
Nali’s pretty brows squeezed. “Still, why are the two of you alone?”
“Because if things went as planned, we wouldn’t need someone else. I am an Elemancer after al-ouch!” Cain suddenly yelped. “You did that on purpose!” Cain looked at her angrily again, but other than smiling, Nali remained focused on his hands. “If it wasn’t for this fog, nothing like this would have happened.”
“I see...” she said, letting go of his hands, and turning to check on me.
Some time had passed since my fall, and it hurt. Nali’s hands were soft, but... why did she have to press everywhere that was hurting? It hurt!
“We told you our reason for being here, but why are you here?” Cain asked after a while.
“Well, I have two reasons.” Nali said casually. “One is the fog, or rather, what’s hiding inside. This fog is a bit special and very dangerous. Honestly, you were very lucky to encounter just a Stonehedge and nothing worse.”
“W-What? W-wait! That’s why the fog got bader the higher we got?”Nali chuckled and tapped my nose. “It’s worse, not bader, little Theodore, and yes, that’s the reason why the fog hasn’t dissipated but instead thickened.”
“And what’s the second reason?” Cain butted in, ruining the moment again!
“Oh, I am on my way to visit my old teacher.”
“Your old teacher?”
“Yeah, I recently learned that he lived in Asmit’s End, so when I’m done here, I’ll go visit.”
Hearing the name of our village, my heart forgot to go thump-thump for a moment. “We are from Amit’s End!”
“Asmit’s End.” Cain said.
“That’s what I said!”
“You forgot the ‘s.’”
Amit’s End - Amit’s End! See, I said it!
“You forgot it again.”
“AHHHH!”
“Will you stop—”
Nali burst into laughter, stopping both of us.
Her laughter was so... pretty. I don’t know the words, but my tummy felt weird, like bubbles popping and popping, and it made me feel giggly and warm.
‘I have to learn more words.’
“Sorry for that. You just reminded me of the old man and a friend of his. They would always disagree with one another and end up fighting for the most foolish of reasons.”
“Can you tell us about your teacher?” I asked, wanting to learn more about him, and not because I wanted to hear her voice more. It was Cain who wanted that!
She looked away into the fog. “The geezer was always an easygoing ass— carefree jerk, doing only the bare minimum to train me. But of course, when I was carefree, he would get mad at me for ‘slacking on my training’. Oh, I still remember him pointing out my mistakes with that smug smile on his face.” She said these mean things about him, but why was she smiling? Was she happy, or did she hate him?
Well, I knew how to feel about this ‘teacher.’
‘Who stupid said that about my Nali? Just wait, you jerk!’
“I know everyone in the village. What’s his name?” Cain butted in again.
‘Finally, something good. Good job Cain! Let’s find that stupid jerk teacher!’
“Really? Well, I suppose he was pretty well known back in the day… His name is Zephyr, do you know of him?”
‘Wha—’ That stupid jerk was… “Papa!?”
How could that be? Papa is sweet and caring and always smiles. How could it be that jerk?
“Excuse me?” Nali tilted her head in confusion.
“Ahem.” Cain coughed. “What Theodore tried to say is that your teacher is our father.” He explained a little better than I did.
Nali’s face froze and her eyes got as big as they could, the pretty green color making me gasp.”He what!? The old man has children!? Since when!?"
“Hey! He is not old!” Cain yelled in Papa’s defense, but Nali ignored him.
She was too busy walking left and right, mumbling to herself. After a minute or two, she stopped, took a breath, and turned to us. I couldn’t tell if she was happier or not, or something else, but she looked different. Just as pretty as before, but different.
“Alright, alright.” She breathed in again. “I’ve checked both of you, and you aren’t in any critical condition. Let me clean you up before bandaging and sending you your way.”