Both the group and the Great Fox stood in place, the silence stretched for minutes. Ariel was first to move. Bashing his halberd onto the ground he raised a wall of earth. With a turn of his hips, he kicked it towards the beast.
It didn't flinch as the wall hit it. The Great Fox took another step closer, the earth beneath shook. Amy raised mana from her orb and chopped her hand across the beast. Sharp currents dashed towards it, only to get shattered on its skin and dissipated back to the air.
Do we even exist in its mind? Ariel thought
Hitting its paws against the ground, the Great Fox sent waves beneath the earth. The dirt beneath rose and fell. The trio got ejected backwards, the earth rolled sideways as they hit the ground hard.
Ariel gasped for air, then he turned to the Fox. It took another step, then stared at them. Its turquoise eyes boring holes in them with an uncaring serenity.
It was the same eyes Ariel saw, staring down at him as his men choked in blood.
No matter what I do... It was impossible. Ariel nearly chuckled.
A particular soldier echoed in his mind. Red eyes, calm demeanor and a family that soldier had, It was all Ariel could remember about him.
"Please... take my revenge..." His fading voice echoed in Ariel's mind.
Ariel's hands reached to the soldier. He disappeared when his hands reached to him. He was back at the Crimson Forest. Yet the eyes of the soldier, with their faded color, continued to stare at him with disappointment.
At least I didn't promise anything.
Suddenly the fox turned both of its head away, looking away from them, its ears twitched. It walked away in a slow pace, leaving the trio on the ground.
A familiar feeling knotted in his chest as Ariel's eyes followed the fox. Then he covered his face.
They lay on the ground for a while watching the clouds pass with their ragged breaths. The fruits and the flowers danced with the slow wind as if laughing at them, another wind came by that swept through their hair.
"No wonder it's called divine." Amy said, mostly to herself.
Peter turned his eyes to Ariel
"You fought with that?" Peter said between his ragged breaths.
"A few years ago, yes." Ariel stared at the sky.
"Why?"
"The crown sent me, do you think I would deal with that for no reason?"
"Yeah, I do." Peter chuckled.
The forest fell into a silence again.
Their breath had steadied.
I wonder what would my father say if he saw this...
"You're not worthy of being the next house head. Get up and kill it!" his dad's stern voice replayed in his mind.
I tried. Ariel thought. He looked at his hands, they were faintly tremoring.
Never mind. It's not worth debating with the voice in my head.
Ariel slowly got up, then he turned to the group.
"Get up."
"We nearly died Ariel." Amy said.
"I know."
"Then why are you so calm?" she said, in a rougher tone than usual.
"We are still breathing, and the time is closing in."
Peter mumbled as he got up. Amy threw her orb at the sky, the sphere slowly drifted behind her.
The ground squished as they walked towards the Redroot village. After a few hours the village rose up between the towering trees. Few wooden-made houses were scattered around with farmlands stretching in between. The sun moved to center of the sky as the trio settled the tents on the ground.
"I'll ask about the cult." Ariel said.
He got up and disappeared from the sight.
After a minute Peter pulled up his notebook and charcoal pen and started writing on it.
"What are you writing?" Amy said, looking up from her orb.
"About Aethelburg and the Forest." His gaze fixed on the book.
After a silent minute.
"Ariel's kinda acting weird." Peter spoke.
"How so? He's always been like this."
"I'm not sure, its like he's forcing himself more than he usually does."
"Either way, there should be a reason he isn't telling us anything." Amy shifted her eyes to the sphere. "I don't want to overstep."
*************
Ariel slowly walked amongst the farmland, careful not to crush them. A medium size river cut through the farmlands with its quiet murmuring. The plants beneath alternated between completely white blooms and plants with red petals and a golden stigma, placed in complete harmony. Two or three wooden houses were around him, black smokes steadily rose from their chimneys. Suddenly his eyes shifted to the plants themselves.
I haven't seen these plants... are they even edible?
The plants resembled something he had seen before but he couldn't put his finger on it. He crouched beside one of them and rubbed the plant's white petal.
"Get the hell out of ma' property!" An old man shouted behind his back.
Ariel turned, a garden fork was pressed against his face.
"I am sorry I will move out." Ariel slowly rose and took a step backwards. A crunching noise arose from beneath his feet.
"Ya' come here without a pass and crush ma' crops." Old man gripped his fork harder.
"All ya' raiders are the same!" He shouted.
"Raider?"
"Don't play dumb with me! Am an old lion yet I know a raider when I see one." Old man said with a puffed chest.
"I am Ariel from the Sun house. I was sent here by the crown to check for traces of a cult activity."
"Talkin' all fancy, ya can't fool me!"
Ariel reached for his backpack.
"Don't move!" Old man said.
Ariel pulled the family crest from his pack and held it out for the old man.
Grabbing the crest, the old man inspected it, he rotated it on his hand. After a second he lowered his fork and handed the crest back.
"This doesn't seem fake." Old man sighed.
"Twenty somthin' year ago, when I was a young man. I joined the army." old man sat on the ground. Ariel did so as well, away from the flower he just had crushed.
"It was the War of Avaster, I remember it crysta' clean. I saw a guy named Goethe carrying this exact crest. Ya related to him right?" he looked at Ariel's eyes.
"He would be my father."
"Ya' dad!? I can see that, ya' kept moving with a fork on your face. Anyways, ya' dad was the best warrior I saw. Even better than me-"
Ariel spoke a beat too late.
"What about the cult?"
Old man stared at his face.
"What cult ya talking 'bout?"
Silence stretched for a while.
"That 'cult'! They don't know what they talking about." The old man pointed at the village.
"The animals just actin' strange. What could you do? They never saw a real cult."
Old man continued. "Ma' neighbor's horse, Daisy, just threw a man off his back. And they call that the work of a cult!"
Ariel scratched his head. "Thanks for helping..." He said and rose up.
"No problem kid, just don't step on ma crops. I won't let you go alive if ya do!"
Mumbling along the way Ariel went back to the tents, careful not to crush the plants this time. He spotted their brown tents and the faint smoke of the fire. Behind the tents the sun was slowly passing the horizon, the golden lights grazed his skin.
Have I talked that much? Ariel thought to himself.
He moved towards the fire.
"Welcome back." Peter said, sitting next to the fire. "You find anything?"
Ariel sat next to Peter.
"No, the guy I spoke to dismissed the cult." Ariel said
"Meaning?"
"There probably isn't a cult to begin with."
"We can just head to Iei." Amy said, sitting in front of both Ariel and Peter.
"What if there actually is?" Ariel shifted his gaze to Amy.
"Why do you think that?"
"I don't know, something feels off." Ariel covered his face.
Amy pulled her map. "Even if you are right, we cannot spend more time here. I don't think the cult would randomly start killing the villagers"
She shifted her gaze to Ariel. "But the Aetherlburgs, on the other hand, are in immediate danger."
Ariel spoke a beat too late.
"You're right." He sighed.
"How much time do we have?" Peter asked
"I would say we can reach to the Iei's landing plains in two days." Amy answered.
"Good then." Ariel looked at the sky, it was slowly losing its bright color and fading into the dark. "Get rest."
Ariel took off his armor piece by piece, first his chestpiece then his gloves, he set them aside the fire. His fingertips traced the cracks and the dents.
Fixing this is going to take a while.
A silver part shone from inside of his chestplate, Peter's eyes shifted to the light.
"What's that?" He asked.
"It's the Silver Sun motif." Ariel answered, moving towards his tent.
"I thought you didn't like legends and stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"That is the Heroes of the Old's symbol, right?"
"Yeah, they are not legends, Peter... At least." Ariel stopped himself and went to his tent.
The group went into slumber. Hours later, before the first lights of the sun hit the earth, they woke up. Ariel wore his armor back, then the trio packed up their belongings and marched towards Iei. The trees thinned and the sky expanded. Large plains stretched out before them.