Nahia woke us up by sunrise, and we dressed up for the grand event. It has been a couple of days since I have been reborn in this world, and I had to see how people lived in this world. With its magical properties and alien monsters, this world surprised me one after another.

We left the snowy mountains and its leafless trees behind and met with lush forests and chirping birds. The smell of washed soil mixed with the local flora reminded me of the days where I picked lavenders with my parents. The warmth of the sun and the comfort of my memories made me drowsy, but it went away as Alba rode her horse next to me.

"Isn't it beautiful? We might as well be in a fairy tale."

"I'm fine with living in one if you’ll be with me."

She got so close to me that our arms touched each other. I wouldn't change her smile for anything else.

"We would build a house next to that pasture, and live there forever."

Nahia peeked at us but quickly turned her head. She must've been wondering how we got here, and how we've been this close to each other. I didn't know how to answer these questions either. It would be best to focus on the moment until we arrived at safety.

We reached the town, but we couldn't find anyone. Time froze in this barren place, lit chimneys with buckets of water around implied that they fled to somewhere else. Scattered swords and arrows left me anxious, but we couldn't find a single trace of a battle or fight.

"We should search and find someone alive, or dead to see what happened here."

They nodded and we did a thorough search of the area. I found a pouch of gunpowder, and Nahia brought a cube of salt. It would be impossible to carry these without a cart, so the search meant nothing in the end, or so we thought.

"John, Nahia, I found someone! Bring a long rope so we can get him out of the well."

Baffled and amused, we found the man in the well and threw the rope for him to tie it around his body. With all of our energy, we brought the old man out of the well, who got sick from the heavy and moist air. He had rugged clothes, had a chunk of his hair missing but managed to keep his teeth clean. He gestured at me first and then to the ladies, and introduced himself.

"Thank God! I thought you were one of those raiders, sir. My bratty children left me here because they cared about their salt more than their father."

"Do you know where they went? We can take you there! You're not going to survive here by yourself."

He pointed at the northern road, which disappeared into a forest.

"Those areas are usually safe, and there's a small river to drink water from. I'll gladly show you the way, young man!"

He also showed us a couple of horses hidden in his stable, and a cart. We loaded whatever we could and rode for the hills. The sun slipped away as the sky turned to the palette of a painter. We had to be quick if we didn't want to be vulnerable to wildlife.

Some time passed before we heard the noise made by children ahead of us, accompanied with lit torches and a campfire. While the people were wary of us at first, they relaxed as they saw the old man we brought. Still, I didn't know how we could communicate with them. Nahia talked to the old man since Alba and I didn't know Basque, and it seemed like she'd be our middleman for a good while.

I took a good look at the villagers, and concluded that none of these people could muster a defense against a well trained army. From what I read, raiding villages and towns used to be a thing in the middle ages, but to what extent this went, I didn't know. I assumed people would flee the moment an enemy army came, or give everything they had in the hopes of surviving another day. It's something I wanted to prevent, at least on my watch. Changing something for the better is the best I could provide to this world.

"John, you alright?"

Alba nudged me from the side, and I expressed my thoughts to her. We sat down as villagers invited us for dinner, and got our bowls of soup.

"We can help the villagers in one way or another. You saw what we did to that monster, we can do much more."

Nahia came with whom I assumed to be the village elder, and sat next to us. They probably knew each other for a while, and brought him to meet with us as well. The man had nothing out of the ordinary except for a cane and a pendant with valuable stones on them. He also gained my respect with his well adjusted mannerisms. Nahia would be the interpreter between us. I somehow understood them, but I wasn't sure if they could understand me back.

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"We thank you for coming this far to look for us, my Lord. I'm afraid however, we might need additional supplies and soldiers if we are to eradicate this threat once and for all."

"Ask him if they know how many soldiers they saw."

Before Nahia could speak, the elder answered.

"We counted them to be a few hundred soldiers, my Lord. They mainly diverge from the main army in the East and come here to raid for supplies. We estimate that they'll be here within a couple of days."

We all looked at each other, the man, even though I spoke in French, somehow understood me. I put all the implications and ideas born from this aside and focused on the matter at hand. I had no intentions to ask if this man knew French, which he most likely didn't.

"Could we ambush them in the forest? They're unfamiliar with this place, so we'll have an easier time picking them off from a distance."

The elder combed his beard, and thought for a moment.

"We have many able bodied men here, my Lord. With your guidance and wisdom, we'll take those heretics out!"

The elder announced a training session tomorrow, and everyone should prepare themselves for it. Except for Nahia's thoughtful eyes gazing to the sky, everyone was overjoyed and people started dancing around the fire. Even the shy Alba joined a group of girls and drank wine with them.

My social ineptitude and tiredness prevented me from joining them, so I got two cups of wine and sat next to Nahia. Whether it was from weariness or morose thoughts, she completely isolated herself from the world in that moment. I sat next to her and put my back on a tree.

"Here, it'll give you a good sleep."

"Thanks, I'll need it for tomorrow. It's going to be a long day."

I nodded, and we rested our eyes on the campfire. I didn't want to open my mouth in case I'd blurt out something stupid from my drunkenness. A blanket of warmth embraced me, and my body got tingly. It'd be the best time to sleep, and postpone the inevitable question, however, fate had other plans.

"You both are strange. For a commoner, you act like a noble, like a leader. You know what to say, how, and when. Where did you learn such skills? "

"I had to learn everything or die. The war forced us to our limits."

"I know that too well."

The conversation hit a dead end. I felt that crushing weight on my shoulders again. Should I confess? I didn't have to say everything.

As I battled with my own emotions, she turned at me. Like a lance, her lit eyes pierced through the veils I hid behind. I couldn't look away, I had been chained by my consciousness. At that moment, I related more to a murderer who got caught on the act than to anybody else. If I explained myself, I'd save my future self from a lot of headaches. A villager offered us alcohol, which made the whole process much easier.

"Well, I feel like I owe you an explanation.

We, or I, kept a secret from you."

"Such as?"

"I told you that I was a villager from the north, but to be frank I don't even know where I came from."

"So what, are you implying you descended from heaven or something?"

I shrugged, and she laughed.

"Come on, you're joking, right..? Wait, are you for real?"

"I'm telling you the truth. All I know is that I had a bad dream and woke up in the midst of nowhere. If she didn't carry me away, I'd probably die there."

Her pinkish face turned away. I could sense her confusion from every movement, she had no idea what to say.

"Well, what do you say?"

"Nothing, I'm considering how we'll survive tomorrow. Villagers expect a lot from us. As for me, I need to process this information."

"I might not be a military genius but I know simple tactics."

"We'll see how gen-"

The campfire in front of us turned blue, and the blaze reached to the stars. Shocked, everyone approached the perpetrator. We locked our arms, and melted into the crowd.

The crowd encircled Alba, I could tell her anxiety skyrocketed from the countless eyes on her. Whispers filled the air, and we reached her. I hugged her to calm her down and stood our ground in case something terrible happened.

The village elder walked to Alba, and raised her hand.

"Fear not, young lady. This is the hand of Aurora guiding your body. The gods lent us their power with your hands!"

The people cheered for her. As someone who always expected the worst, this pleasant surprise soothed us. Even Nahia hugged Alba and they danced around the fire. Her potential power had no bounds, and this deepened my trust to her.

As the fire died down and everyone fell asleep, Alba led me to a quiet corner of the forest. A villager told her of a small river close to us, so we went there to relax for a bit. Although we were both drowsy, the ice cold water brought me to my senses. In a move I didn't expect, Alba took off her clothes and dipped into the river.

"While I'm washing myself, my dear knight will protect me, won't you?"

I bolstered my courage and jumped into the water. My body burned with an intense desire for love, and I could only extinguish it in her arms.

"A knight can't protect his princess from afar, milady."

She splashed freezing water on my face.

"That's right. My knight should clean me with this soap I brought, then!"

I had to play by the rules, and the act of flirting required some foreplay.

I took off my clothes and cleaned Alba's back with the soap. She murmured a melody I couldn't remember at first, but as the memories flooded my mind, it surfaced from the depths of my subconsciousness.

"Hey, have you ever heard of this melody from somewhere? It's like a distant memory to me."

I sank to the water and embraced her from the back. It finally dawned upon me, and I let go of the dams that held my emotions for this long.

"I do. I bought a music box for our tenth wedding anniversary, and you really loved it. Like a child who got her first teddy bear, you put it to the best spot in the house. Shame that we lost it when we moved to our new apartment."

There was a long silence. I couldn't see her face, but I knew that something in her moved, and destroyed everything on its way. The river soothed my heartache just a bit, and I tightened my embrace.

"I remember it, our bird loved it too. She'd sing the song and call for your name. Then they took you away."

I raised her pink, freezing hands from the water, and held them. They shone under the moon.

"The war lasted years, bombs swept away cities. Millions of lives, gone in an instant."

She turned and gave me a kiss.

"No one will separate us from each other. Forever and ever."

She turned and gave me a long kiss. All the limbs in my body went loose as if they've been waiting for this moment. I carried her out of the water, and we spent the rest of the night there.