I had briefly closed my Eyes back then, but in what felt like just a moment I had found myself lying on a bed in the cottage the hunter took me to. It was not at all spacious, and looked to resemble more of a park ranger's hideout than a cottage, but I am sure the hunter made do with what he had. Rubbing my Eyes, I looked in front of me to see the hunter peacefully drinking his coffee on the sofa, gently petting the doe as she sat next to him.

"Oh, awake already?" He noticed me waking up, "You can sleep some more if you want, we only just got here."

"Thank you, but I feel alright now." I sat up, "Apologies, I did not quite get to introduce myself. I am Meil Deram, thank you for the save."

"Aw shucks, no big deal, feller!" He looked rather pleased with himself, "I'm just out here hunting for sport, plus it pays the bills. Really, you just happened to be close by. I'm Navi, self-proclaimed part time forest ranger and full time caretaker of the animal haven up north."

"Up north?" I tilted my head.

"Never heard of it?" He chuckled, "Ha-ha, guess I might've really gotten way too big of a head these days. I just expect everyone to know about it these days. My family used to own a ranch in Montes, so I repurposed it into an animal haven."

"It does not ring any bells." I shook my head.

"Really? ...Ah, I get it." He snuffed me out, "You're not from here, are ya'?"

"Correct, I live in Simpleton as a student." I explained a tad bashfully, "Though I must admit, even I myself do not know what I am doing here."

"Ah, wanted a break from it all? I know the feeling all too well." He smiled melancholically, "Yessiree, sometimes you just find yourself in a tough spot mentally and wanna go far away to reset. That's what I'm doing right now with Bamb, we're taking a bit of a vacation from the business."

"Is killing animals less stressful than taking care of them?" I asked.

"Hey now, I exclusively hunt beasts!" He frowned, "Animals are our friends, but beasts just don't know reason! Hell, Bamb was caught in quite a lot of trouble a few years back right around these parts, so that's why I'm making sure these forests are as safe as can be—One dead beast at a time!"

It seems the doe lost interest in our conversation, since she got up from the sofa and began prancing around the room as if looking for something. This was when I had noticed a peculiar design choice about the interior—The floor was full of sand. And when I say that, I mean it literally looks like a beach. Navi, was it? Quite the odd kid. He is sadly a Purple Iro, but he seems rather hopeful. His pet doe, whom he even calls his closest business partner, might be influencing that. On the other hand, he mentioned she understands Entropic, but I assume he just means she knows some basic commands you would typically teach a dog or something.

"What the...?" I looked on, mouth agape as the doe began writing in perfect Entropic on the sand using her front hoof.

"Surprised? My best friend's the smartest doe in the world!" He praised her.

After she finished writing, she carefully walked around the message to direct me to go read it. From the placement and rotation of the message in the sand, it was actually turned upside down, so I had to physically get up and go around to read it.

"If there is anything you need, please feel free to ask and Navi will help you!" The message read.

"Oh right, did I not mention that?" Navi scratched his head, "Yeah, sorry, I guess I forgot. Thankfully she was there to remind me."

"You have already helped enough." I nodded, "If anything, I should be the one asking to repay you."

"Is that so?" He reclined in his seat, "I didn't help you just so you would owe me, y'know. Just relax and make us company before you recover. That's all."

"Mhm, I see." I sat back down as a certain annoying gust of wind piped up.

"Talking deer!" The voices screamed in astonishment, "So animals talk in the future!?"

"Yahhhh!!" Navi screamed as Bamb jumped from the surprise, "Who the hell said that!?"

"Hm? Just my audio hallucinations, do not worry about it." I reassured him as I pointed to my head, "I am a diagnosed schizophrenic."

"...N-Now I ain't no doctor, pal, but..." He nervously asked, "How in the world can we hear them too, then?"

Merely blinking at that question, I had turned to the seat beside me, where the voices came from to ponder that same thought. Indeed, how come they heard the voices if it should all be in my head? Is it all in my head? They did tell me before that they are very real, but I just assumed it was my mental disorder messing up my perception of the world. I see, so I am not crazy, but that only makes things scarier, because it means all the things they have said about this world ending disaster are true...

"In that case, it appears I was mistaken." I shrugged and introduced them all, "Voices of the damned, these two are Navi and Bamb."

"Yo." A carefree wind blew.

"Navi and Bamb, these are the voices of the damned."

"Uh-huh..." They looked on in astonishment, "Might wanna run that back for me a lil' bit, pal."

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"Oh, so you and Bamb got separated as kids, but reunited when the king and his entourage found her and brought her back." The voices briefed, "Crazy."

"Uh huh, so while you were asleep in your bed in Simpleton, these voices of a long gone civilization went to lure you to go to Schnell's Archipelago, so now you wanna get back home to make sure the girl you're taking care of is safe before going back to save the world." Navi nodded along, "Mighty interesting."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I see, so you learned Entropic by hearing it get spoken by the locals." I read Bamb's sand messages, "Fascinating."

Now that we have been thoroughly acquainted with everyone's backgrounds, we could continue to converse more freely about a wider range of topics. In this case, our future plans.

"But wait, isn't saving the world kind of a big deal?" The farmer began to sweat a bit.

"If you were in my position, and Bamb was left all alone in Montes without any prior warning of your disappearance, would you leave her all alone and confused for an unspecified period?" I asked.

"Well, looking at it like that..." He glanced at Bamb, "I guess I'd at least like to tell her where I am."

"But we never leave each other's sides, so I would go with!" Bamb hastily wrote out on the floor.

Right, there is that possibility as well—That Nelly might protest and wish to come with me to Schnell's Archipelago. In that case, maybe being secretive about where I am going would be for the best. After all, I just want to make sure she is safe and appoint Lee to take care of her in my absence.

"In that case, we shouldn't be holding you up if the end of the world's at stake." Navi chuckled.

"No, the ship to Simpleton in Meridia's oldest dock is only on Wednesday at the latest." I shook my head, "In fact, the sole reason you found me in the woods was because I was looking for time to kill."

"Why not try some of the western docks, then?" He asked.

"He's too broke to afford a ride there." The voices coughed and muttered.

"I see..." Navi thought for a bit with a wry smirk before suggesting, "Hey, Meil."

"Yes?"

"You said you came here on a whim, right?"

"Indeed, I was asleep the entire time." I nodded.

"So that means you didn't bring any luggage with you, right?"

"Yes, that is correct...?" I raised an Eyebrow, "What are you alluding to?"

"I'm alluding to a rather crazy idea that might be able to send you over the ocean way faster than just waiting around for a boat." He smiled, "And it doesn't even require any money. Just some bagels."

Soon enough, we had found ourselves on a nearby beach. It was sunset by now, plus the area was pretty desolate, so I imagine not a single person would even know of this place. Even still, I do not understand what he means by this at all. He bought quite a lot of bagels too on the way here...

"Bamb." Navi went to whisper in her ear, "Think you can do that?"

Nodding, the doe carefully turned to a bunch of seagulls and used her voice to direct their attention to her. To us, these wails sounded like nothing more than just that, but I am certain she is conversing with them in a language they can understand. The seagulls seemed disinterested, then intrigued, then finally flew over to us expectantly.

"What's the plan?" The voices couldn't understand a thing either.

"I told Bamb to ask the gulls here for a favor." Navi flashed us a thumbs up, "We'll bribe 'em with their favorite food, and they'll carry you all the way across the ocean and straight into Simpleton!"

"That's not gonna work." The voices lightly mocked him before double checking with me, "It's not gonna work, right?"

"No, physics simply do not allow for that." I shook my head, "Birds are extremely light and small because they need to be in order to carry their weight and soar. Adding 74 kilos onto that will definitely not grant us take off, no matter how many birds are holding onto me."

"Yeah, but it's not like the birds are the only ones that'll be doing the work." Navi alluded to another person, or rather people that will be coming with me, "You have some invisible friends that can help carry the weight with that powerful wind, don't you?"

That's... feasible! Yes, one would say that the chances are improbable, but that is simply because they are going off of guesswork! But I can calculate the possibility in a flash! Quickly counting up all the seagulls here, I can see there are exactly 36 of them! The voices have proven before that they are capable of making me nigh-weightless and even helping move us along faster with their wind, so putting that into account...

"It can and will work!" I smiled, "Navi, Bamb, thank you very much for this!"

"Heh, you're super formal even when you're excited, huh?" He laughed, "No problem. Be sure to come visit us one day when you're done with everything on your plate."

"Of course." I smiled before looking down, "And Bamb, this could not be possible without your ability to cognitively understand both humans and animals. If I may, I would like to learn more from you in the future."

"Ohh..." She tried her best to speak instead of write on the sand this time, "Keh..."

"Ah, so she can talk too?" The voices chuckled, "Now that's one talented doe."

"Heh, she says it's still kinda embarrassing for her to talk to other people." Navi explained, "But soon enough she'll be fluent in talking as well, and the day will come when everyone can understand her without needing any sand on the floor."

"Is that your end goal, Navi?" I asked, "A world in which humans and animals coexist as one?"

"That's the plan." He smiled, "But that's probably centuries away, even when I'm being optimistic! Even still, my dream won't work at all if you don't succeed in this task, so for everyone's sakes—I wish you the best of luck, Meil Deram."

"There is no such thing." I said as all the gulls grabbed onto my clothes once they finished eating the bagels, "Luck is merely good timing, and right now the timing is just perfect!"

Fwoosh, I almost felt myself going dizzy at the speeds I was whisked away at. Seeing the hunter and the doe send me off with a smile was a bit bittersweet. I wanted to wave at them, but due to the seagulls restricting my ability to move my hands around, I could only look at them and smile back. Luckily, I will not need to wait any longer before I can see Nelly again. My mission can officially begin!