Conan was lost in the sorrow of losing his other self as he leaned back against a tree trunk. Against the chill air, warm rays beat down through the trees as the sun rose higher in the sky. It seemed to be late morning outside, as he felt safe in these unfamiliar woods. Feeling as if his eyelids were weighed down by big rocks, he allowed his eyelids to droop and let himself drift away in a peaceful sleep. He was jolted awake a few minutes later. He wasn't sure if it was a dream or some voice, but that same voice repeated telling him to wake up.
"Wake up!" Eunice yelled as she continued her crude chest compressions on a young girl. She then flattened her hands and began pushing harder and in turn with a more rhythmic pattern. Sweat poured down Eunice's forehead as she continued to push.
"Are there any water magus among the guards?" Prince Hugine asked his guards.
"None, Your Highness." replied the guard leader.
"Damn it! Had I known, I would have brought some water magus along with us", Prince Hugine cursed as he knew that a simple restoration spell from a water magus would have restored her body to the optimal state while expelling the extra water from her lungs.
Going back in time for an hour, Eight individuals were skimming across the moist ground. A young male around 17yrs of age was leading the group with another man closely following behind him who looked to be around in his late 30s. The young male looked fit and healthy with a handsome face wearing a silk cape over his back. He had long, crimson-colored hairs with dark amber-colored eyes. He was the crown Prince of Tristan Kingdom, Prince Hugine, and the man closely following behind was none other than his Head Captain of his trained guards named Sir Waris. Sir Wariswas a huge - both tall and thickly muscled - serious-looking guard ought to protect the Prince Hugine in the face of danger. At some distance behind, a young girl around 16yrs of age was observing the Prince Hugine intently. With the same dark amber-colored eyes, she was the princess of the Tristan Kingdom and a younger sister to Prince Hugine. She also had red curly hair that hangs in ringlets up to her waist. A tall, slender and busty figure with a snowy white face that looked like if the goddess had descended to Earth. Around her were four more trained guards tasked to protect her.
With quiver and bow on his shoulders, he was looking for prey to hunt. The place they were in, currently called Willow Woods, woods known for its weeping willow trees. These woods were generally safe to hunt for small beasts and such if one didn't wander too deep into the woods. Currently, Prince Hugine and the party of six were striding across the edges of Willow Woods. Soon the Prince Hugine heard some sounds of crunching leaves and branches up ahead. He signaled his party to stop the advance while he and his Head Captain crept forward to sneak up behind some trees to look for the prey. Prince rejoiced it was a one-horned rabbit eating at the grass leisurely. The Prince Hugine positions himself and nocks the arrow over the bowstring. Waiting for a perfect chance, he releases the string, and after a moment, an arrow struck the one-horned rabbit at its neck and killing it instantly. Prince was feeling excited after he managed to secure his first kill for the day.
"Go and fetch it!" Prince ordered one of his Guards.
"Yes, Your Highness!" Guard replied and hastened towards the rabbit.
"What did you catch?" Princess Eunice stepped forward and asked curiously.
"It's a one-horned rabbit. You should have seen how I..." Prince Hugine was boasting when a cry for help sounded.
"Help! Help! Is anyone there? Please Help! ..", A female voice was yelling at some distance away.
Prince Hugine shifted his attention towards the direction from which sound was coming and tried to march forward.
"Wait, Prince Hugine, it could be a trap. Let me go ahead and scout the situation first." Sir Waris suggested blocking Prince Hugine's path.
"She might be in real trouble, and if things got too late because we were a bit paranoid, she might lose her life." Hugine disagreed and hastened towards the direction that voice was coming from.
Waris felt troubled, but he knew he couldn't change Prince Hugine's decision, so he chased after him.
Princess Eunice and the other guards also followed suit.
Soon they reached the land near the river. They looked all around, but they found no other human presence in their surroundings. "Maybe they heard wrong" while those thoughts went through the minds of the others, Prince Hugine just happened to reach near one of the willow trees close to the river. Fortunately, he just noticed some branches strangely bundled together as though they were being pulled by something. Barely he noticed that those branches were wrapped around a hand with some dark silhouette submerged in the water. Soon that hand also sank in the water. As if fearing there wouldn't be enough time to think and plan, he jumped into the water immediately. Waris saw nervously, Prince jump into the water, so he also chased after him and jumped into the water. Soon others also reached that willow tree to check the situation.
Taking in the air for the deep-dive, Prince Hugine followed the silhouette under the water. Due to his immediate action and thanks to the branches wound around the hand until a few moments ago, the body was not far away. He soon saw a young girl's body and caught her. Waris was quick to follow behind as he also reached from behind and helped Prince Hugine pull the body out to the surface. Eunice called to the guards and said, "Pull them out."
One of the guards - a wind magus - used a spell [LEVITATE] and brought all of them back to the ground. Eunice hurried and checked the pulse of that girl. The girl had a faint pulse, but she was still alive, so she started giving her chest compressions. She didn't know CPR but knew some basic things thanks to her master Zveriyan Wales.
Now coming back to the present, while Eunice was trying her best to save the girl, Hugine studied her. She was quite beautiful with milky white skin and dark straight hairs reaching till her shoulders. The girl seemed to be young, maybe around his age and wore a Renaissance dress having embroideries at the edges. He guessed from her attire that she might be from a noble background to be wearing such a high-quality dress.
Out of nowhere, the young girl gasped, and Eunice let out a little shuddery breath of surprise and relief. Conan has finally found the connection back to the girl's body. The girl's lungs swiftly pulled in a breath of fresh new air while spewing the left-behind water in her lungs. She continued coughing and gasping while Eunice pulled her to a more upright sitting condition. Her fingers and toes tingled from their temporary lack of oxygen. Her chest ached as though someone had been punching her repeatedly.
After finding that the girl survived, Waris stepped forward and heeded the Prince "Your Highness, Jumping into the river without any notice or warning was a foolish move. If something had happened, you could have lost your life".
To that, Prince Hugine said indifferently, "Come on, Waris, I have four trained guards and a Head captain, nothing bad could have happened."
Conan was elated since his female body didn't die and somehow met some people as well who might be able to give him some answers.
Looking around, he assessed the situation he was in. Listening in to the conversation they were having and attire they were wearing, he concluded those four in leather armor were guards, and the huge fella with similar armor was a Head Captain. The young guy whom the head captain addressed as "Your Highness" might be royalty, and the young girl who had similar hair and eyes as the guy might be related to him, or they might be actual siblings. So that makes her royalty too, and guards here meant to protect them.
"Are you alright?" Eunice asked her worriedly.
"Yes, I'm alright. Thank you for saving my life.", Conan in the girl's body replied gratefully.
"Who are you, and how did you end up in a life-threatening situation?", Hugine pressed for more details.
Having considered it, Conan decided that until he gets more information about the place and the people around here, he will hide the truth. As a teenager, He had watched many TV Dramas where often a character goes through either fake or real amnesia and escapes a lot of troublesome situations, so he decided to lie about his condition. As for the name, Conan has not felt the need to name the girl so far, but the current situation demands it. Instead of coming up with something creative, he decided to use his sister's name, Heather. He took a moment more to reply to Prince Hugine and placed his hands over the head with a pained expression.
Eunice and the Prince looked worried and thought that the girl was still in pain. Standing across from the prince, with his eyes hard and a hand resting on the sword at his side, Waris carefully monitored the girl. He was vigilant in case the girl turns out to be an enemy.
Soon the girl replied sorrowfully, "My name is Heather Quinn, but that's all I remember. I don't know who I was, where I lived, and my family. "
"Maybe she lost all her memories due to the trauma," Eunice said.
Seeing the pained expression of Heather trying to remember anything about her, others also came to the same conclusion.
"Having the last name must mean she must belong to a noble family as commoners are not allowed to have a surname.", Prince Hugine stated.
"I am called Eunice, the princess of Tristan Kingdom. He is my brother Prince Hugine and his Head Captain Sir Waris", Eunice introduced themselves to Heather.
Heather has never heard of a place called the Tristan Kingdom on Earth. Maybe it's one of those small isolated kingdoms that still follow monocracy that still has Kings or Queens in Today's time. "My original body was gone, and now I have two different bodies which I can control simultaneously through some strange phenomenon." while Heather was thinking this, Eunice called out to her again.
"Why not come with us to the capital? Maybe master can look at your situation and find a way to bring back your memories", Eunice proposed.
Heather didn't know who Eunice's master was, but she wanted to get back to civilization and away from the wild as fast as possible. So she accepted her invitation, "Thank you very much. I will be in your care then". Conan's male body completely awake at the moment and was still lost in the woods somewhere but he knew he had drifted very far away from the location Heather was in currently, so Heather didn't mention anything about her male self to others. "Hopefully, I will also find my way back to the civilization." Conan thought to himself while getting ready to move on.
Another few minutes passed before Heather felt like standing. The tingling feeling in her fingers and toes eventually subsided, and her breathing has already returned to normal. Hugine grabbed her arm and slowly helped her to stand up. Apart from a little headache and a sore ribcage, she didn't feel so bad for almost drowning.
"Our base is set up at some distance north of here. Are you feeling well enough to walk?", Hugine asked Heather.
"yes, I think I can walk.", Heather said optimistically.
"Before we march towards the base, let us Dry ourselves.", Hugine suggested.
Once Hugine mentioned, Heather noticed that her clothes were still wet. Other than her, Prince Hugine and Head Captain's clothes were also wet. Heather figured that these two were the ones who jumped into the water to save her. She was wondering how should they dry themselves off, suddenly she heard the Prince mutter:
[DRY]