They both moved as the first ray of sunlight hit their faces. Sera was still flustered from yesterday's behaviour, keeping her distance from him, while Noen just walked without a stop, keeping his eyes on the front.
His blade swung, cutting away all the plants that confronted his face, his steps slow and careful, keeping a wary sense of his surroundings.
His ears twitched, eyes staring in a direction as he pointed his blade toward it.
"There is a waterfall nearby," he said. "We can take another break."
Hearing that, Sera lit up in happiness, her thoughts jumbling at the mention of a waterfall.
"I can finally take a bath," she thought, as she hummed while moving through the forest.
After a while, they reached a cliff. From it, the hush of a waterfall reached their ears; the smell of water filled the air as steam rose high into the sky.
Noen stood, holding a vine alongside a tree, looking at it with a calm gaze.
Whereas Sera just screamed in excitement, though the sound was so loud that barely any voice reached their ears.
Gesturing, he pointed his finger below, toward a rocky ledge. He screamed, trying to say something, but Sera looked at him, confused, wondering what he was saying.
Sighing, he just picked her up in his arms, jumping from the ledge to the rocky riverbed.
But his trajectory shifted.
"Shi—" he cursed before they both landed in the river pool with a huge splash.
Sera pushed herself upward, gasping for breath in the endless view of water swimming around, shouting his name.
"Mister!"
But only a drowning sound came, making her worry. She dove below the water, searching for him. Briefly, she noticed a drowning body.
It was Noen. Quickly, she swam toward him, grabbing him as she swam with her full force, dragging him to the shore.
"Mister!" she shouted in panic, slapping his face, before he threw up some water from his mouth, waking up with a huge gasp of air.
He huffed continuously, eyes red from water. He closed his eyes, grabbing his hair back.
"I miscalculated a little," he said, looking at her, but what caught his eye were her drenched clothes, revealing her figure, making him slightly blush as he looked away, saying in a low voice,
"Sera… your clothes…"
Though confused, she glanced downward, her face slowly turning red as a tomato. Covering her body, she screamed.
After a while, they sat beside a campfire, its hue reflecting on their faces, along with fish that cooked slowly in the heat.
Hesitantly, she said, looking at Noen,
"Mister, how long are you going to stay like that?"
In front of her eyes, Noen sat, eyes stabbed with his blood daggers. He tilted his face calmly.
"Till your clothes are dry," he said nonchalantly.
Blushing, she just nodded, sitting parallel to the campfire. Body wrapped under a piece of cloth, as her other clothes dried with her body.
She slowly glanced at his face, drifting her eyes to his physique, covered in wet clothes, revealing his athletic figure. She couldn't just blush; her heart fluttering, eyes completely lost, she instantly looked away, covering her face in embarrassment, she muttered:
"What am I doing, ahhh.."
Where Noen sat completely clueless, dagger still in eyes, he picked the fish from the fire, eating as he glanced silently at the sky.
***
They walked near the shore, following the river belt, walking miles far deep into the forest, but it didn't end; it was like a maze naturally built by nature.
Although they noticed many monsters along the way, some were almost invisible to the naked eye, some had unique patterns, a few looked alien, but none of the monsters they encountered dared to attack them.
After a while, they finally came out onto a path leading somewhere.
It looked very old, but for them, it was something precious.
Noen sat to check the ground, touching the soft soil as he wondered,
"I think no one has passed through this path for many years."
He started moving without saying a word as they followed the path for minutes. After a while, they reached a point where the forest started to get dense again.
"Be careful," he said, looking toward the dense vines and leaves that stood against them.
He pulled out the dagger, cutting it away as they made their way inside.
The path was still there, but it looked as if it had been devoured by nature and insects; there were hundreds of them, or even thousands.
They all lunged at Noen, biting him, but he just solidified his blood, killing them all in an instant.
He asked in a low voice, "Are you alright?" as she nodded, looking a little scared.
They moved deeper. The cold started to rise, and the path kept paving their way to the unknown.
At last, he finally pushed aside the stems blocking their view. They reached an abandoned village.
The stones lay scattered all across the ground. The church still stood, though cracks and moss had covered it whole.
Burn marks were all over the abandoned structures, or what was left of it.
Looking at the sight, Noen couldn't help but mumble,
"What happened here?"
Just then, he heard something fall, instantly moving toward the sound.
Although there was nothing, just fallen stones of an old building, he stared at it for a while before moving away, starting to explore the place.
Sera followed behind him as they wandered alone in the abandoned village.
She asked in a curious tone, "How would this place have looked?"
But he just replied in an indifferent tone, "Who knows? This place is now abandoned."
"But…" she said, continuing further, "just imagine how lively this place must have been."
"It would have, but to me it's now just a pile of trash," he said coldly. Before looking away, moving toward the giant church, he went inside to find something, but there was nothing—just crumbled stone and vines taking over the place.
He sighed, and just like that, the day passed and the night came.
They both sat inside a stone foundation where a campfire burned brightly. Everything was silent as small murmurs of insects pleased their ears.
"Look how beautiful they are," she said, looking at the stars that twinkled in the sky, on which Noen just chuckled.
"Stars were always beautiful," he said, "but I only got to see them in this world."
"Why so?" she asked.
"The world I'm from is way different from here; it is filled with greedy people."
His expression saddened a little as he continued,
"Those people, for their own means, destroyed their home. Even the skies were not safe… from them.
He stopped for a moment, sighing, about to say something, but then a voice interrupted his thoughts.
It was a lullaby. Sera also tilted her head toward the sound.
Its pleasant voice filled the air; though the words weren't clear, it was just the humming of a woman.
He stood up, confused, wondering where the sound came from. While the sound of a lullaby kept echoing in the air.