« What’s done is done. You can change people, you can change destiny, and you can lie as much as you want. But you can’t change the result. That’s why courage and regret always come hands-in-hands. »

The wind blew between the trees, shaking the branches in a distant cacophony. Some leaves were flying, following the strong flow of the air which stopped, then blew again with no warning. My clothes were ruffled by the wind, giving me a chilly but pleasant feeling.

I was outside, finally.

The clouds covered the sky, threatening to rain on the area at any moment. I guess nobody would call that a good day, however I couldn’t be happier at this moment.

I was outside, I was finally free from the underground. I breathed in, then sighed in relaxation for this moment. My lungs hurt me, but in a good way. This pain was proof that the air was purer outside than in the cavern.

I let out a small laugh, unable to contain my joy any longer. I let my hand caress the bark of a tree, it was rough and solid, just like I remembered. I laughed a second time, louder this time. This is the exterior, not a coffin where I was feeling cramped.

I fell on my knees, touching the muddy ground with excitement. It dirtied my gauntlets and my garment, but I didn’t care much. I laughed for the third time, because I just felt that happy about my new situation.

But I couldn’t laugh anymore when my stomach reminded me how empty he still was. I had no skill related to scavenging for any food in the forest, I couldn’t even tell what was edible and what was poisonous.

A bird chirped above my head. I had the idea to capture it and grill it for its meat, but by the time I found him he already departed for another tree. Too bad.

While I was feeling down, I took another sight at the pendant. The emerald jewel incrusted in the necklace seemed to shine even more, or maybe it was my delusion. I couldn’t tell, nor would I care. This item was important to me, that was all that mattered to me.

This pendant was the same the girl from my dream was wearing at that time. This dream… The burning city… And all those dead… It made no sense to me. I couldn’t explain why, but I had the feeling I was the culprit. I wasn’t the one who set the city on fire, but rather the cause that brought the consequence.

I angered something… Or I unleashed something I shouldn’t have…

I stopped myself. It was stupid of me to find any logic from a dream. After all, it was merely an interpretation of my mind, and lately my mind played many tricks on me, so I couldn’t really believe myself for the moment.

I… Sounded insane.

But I was hungrier than crazy, so I decided to take another step in my journey.

The forest wasn’t dense, it allowed me to spot many wildlife at a distance. But they either ran away as soon as they saw me, or were just too big for me to hunt. Besides, how would I hunt anything barehanded? I should simply find a settlement somewhere and ask for some help.

I saw no dirt path, no trace of civilisation. Wherever I woke up, I was in quite a pinch. I couldn’t tell what time it was either, the grey sky gave no hint and the sun wasn’t visible from under the roof of leaves.

In this time of misfortune, I had the bad luck to slip on a rock, leading into a painful fall towards the bottom of the slope. I hit many things, until I arrived at the bottom.

For the second time, I almost drowned.

I landed face first in a brook. I quickly raised my head in order to avoid breathing any water, however the surprise still paralyzed me for a short time.

My body must have understood it wasn’t in any danger as I felt the tension leaving me. The stream flowed past me, but the water wasn’t cold. I stood up and reached the shore when I suddenly lost control.

I was so tired my body refused to respond anymore. I needed to go, I needed to continue, but it was true I also needed to rest for a bit.

I guess… I guess a short nap couldn’t hurt me. I let my consciousness fade away, allowing those degraded muscles and this broken mind a moment to recover.

It was fine, everything was fine. After resting for a short time, I would look for her. She could be anywhere in this world… But even that was fine. We’ll eventually meet again, I was sure of this.

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We would meet again… I would see her again. Her smile. Her brimming smile that I loved to look at.

But right now, she was in danger… The fortress… It burned… Everyone was dead… There was nobody else to protect her from… Harm.

I needed to go, now. She was right here in front of me. She pleaded for my help.

“Don’t be so sad, of course I’ll help you…”

“Why are you crying? I said I’d help.”

“Answer me! Answer me! Answer me!”

“WHY WOULD YOU CRY WHEN I SAID I WOULD HELP?!”

“ANSWER ME!!! –

QALENDRAAA !!!”

I suddenly woke up, my body tensed all of a sudden but something prevented me from moving too much.

“Someone wake him up already!”

I felt a slap on my cheek. Someone slapped me. I stopped having a seizure and looked at the people surrounding me.

“Ah, he’s awake.” Said with a surprised tone a young man, probably the one who slapped me when I looked at his raised palm.

I felt many presences around me, but I was still too drowsy to properly focus, or maybe too sick to get a hold of myself.

“Are you okay? Can you hear me?” It was the older man who questioned me, worried about my condition, or probably more worried about my presence.

I tried to answer, but the words coming from my mouth were… Sloppy. I felt an imbalance inside me, which slowly made its way to the top until I… Well, I thrown up on the floor. I don’t even know what I vomited, my stomach was still empty at this time. Anyway, I felt better after that.

“Here, water.” This time it was a woman who approached me, unfazed by my reactions. She handed me a goblet of water, which I accepted and slowly gulped down in one go.

The freshness dwelling inside me helped me regain most of my mind, allowing me to count seven heads looking at me.

One old couple, one younger couple, and the remainder must have been their youngsters. Someone cleanly swiped the floor without me noticing, but everyone else gazed at me with various expressions.

The younger ones seemed to be hesitating between wariness and excitement, while the older were clearly more prone to suspect me. I could see it in their eyes, they didn’t trust me.

“We found you unconscious in the forest. You’re lucky no animal came to feast on you.”

I was lucky, he said. I didn’t know how to answer back at the moment, but I probably should have said that no beast would dare to eat a body like mine. None, except the one in the cavern.

“What happened for you to end up like this?”

“I… Don’t know…” I tried to recollect the pieces of my shattered memory. “There was this… Creature, in the cavern… But it wasn’t alive… No, it wasn’t organic. The water moved on its own and attacked me, so I escaped.”

Their face became darker when I narrated my encounter with the monster.

“You met a mymu? Bad luck. At least it didn’t run after you or you would be dead by now.”

So this thing was called a mymu. A living puddle that catch its prey and… Do what living beings do with their prey. Scary.

“But dear, didn’t we hire mercenaries to clean the forest last month? What if there is a second infestation?”

Uneasiness gnawed at me again. I took out the pendant to appease me, silently praying for everything to goes smoothly.

“Then we’ll post a complaint against them. They did a bad job if they’ve let a mymu escape.”

“Tell me… Where am I?” I interrupted their little quarrel. I thought they would never stop.

“This is Tsim. It’s a small hamlet, so we can’t provide much for you. If you want direction then you only need to follow the road to reach the closest town.”

I didn’t need much, I only wanted…

“Can I have some food? I’ll repay the favour.”

“You already did more than enough telling us about the mymu. We can’t let a second infestation manifest itself in the forest. Not after what happened last time…” The old man was visibly upset about the event, and contrary to his words he didn’t look grateful at all.

The old lady instructed the woman to bring some dried meat while she filled a second goblet of water for me. I thanked her and drank it the same way. The food itself wasn’t much, but better than nothing.

“Actually, if you go to the town, can you bring the news about the mymu to the town hall? That would help us a lot.” He charged me with a small task, but that was more or less fine. But first I needed to ask them about one thing.

“The thing is… I am looking for a girl. Her name’s Qalendra, she has green eyes.”

The old man shook his head in denial.

“Sorry, never heard of her. We don’t get a lot of visitors here aside from the merchants and the inspectors.”

“You can go and ask the townsfolk while you’re at it, they may know something.” The young man added. He must have been the kind to know more about how life at town worked than any other person here.

“I’ll do. Thanks for… Helping me.”

Go to town, report the mymu incident, then ask about Qalendra’s whereabouts. My journey finally had a destination.

“Oh, before you go.” The old man suddenly raised his voice as I was about the leave the house. “There are also bandits roaming around here, you should wait for a caravan.”

A caravan would certainly make the trip safer. But that was fine. I had my own ways to handle any problem.

“I don’t need a caravan.”

I left the place with those words, heading towards the nearest town.

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

“Who was that guy?”

“A guy? She looked pretty feminine though… Or was I wrong?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. We should be grateful he told us about the mymu without asking back for too much.”

“He looked like a sorcerer. You think he comes from the Academy?”

“A sorcerer? With his outfit? He was obviously a knight, duh!”

“I said I don’t care. We should make preparations for another infestation until the town send another team.”

“Was the last infestation that bad?”

“... If you were here, you would understand how horrible it was… Just remembering the tides coming from the forest makes me shivers in fear…”

“What? There was THAT much mymus?! Damn, I’m… I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help everyone.”

“Don’t be. We lost fifty brave people to the infestation before the mercenaries managed to drive the mymus back. We could have lost you too if you weren’t careful.”

“But still… Why was the infestation that big?”

“Who knows…”

“What worries me more is that there will be a second infestation if we don’t hurry and purge the forest. Let’s hope this man knows what he’s doing and delivers the message before it’s too late.”