Book 1, Verse 38

The monster turned to look at me.

A mouth filled with sharp fangs. Yellow eyes. Long thin limbs. Black fur like a bear, but too lean.

I looked at Vivian.

She wasn’t getting up.

The monster gazed at me. Its long ears twitched.

Behind it, I saw a flash of green light.

The monster sensed it too and turned around rapidly, before getting hit in the face with a glass bottle that shattered into a hundred pieces.

It yowled in pain and clawed at its face, but didn’t run away.

I stood up and ran over to Vivian as Niels and Elisa got in front of the monster.

She was breathing.

I looked back at it.

Niels was using magic to cause the plants to restrain it; thorns and thistles kept sprouting wherever it put its feet. Elisa was looking through her bag of supplies and occasionally throwing more vials at the monster.

Each one she threw made a horrible smell, but they didn’t seem to affect the monster very much aside from the glass shards.

“Shinko!” Niels shouted, still concentrating on the monster. “Take Vivian and get away!”

No.

I had to think; what could I do?

“Shinko, hurry up!”

The monster was slowly approaching the two of them despite their combined efforts.

“B-but you two can’t–”

“Yes, we can! Just get Vivian out of here! Now!” Niels yelled again.

I could think of something.

“Run!” Elisa shouted.

Fine.

If they didn’t want me to think, I wouldn’t think.

My heart was racing too fast for me to be critical about things anyway.

I picked up Vivian as best I could despite her height, and began making my way down the trail, running.

I could hear the sounds of the struggle behind me.

No screams though. Only the sound of glass breaking, of plant fibers tearing, and occasional yowls from the monster.

As I got farther and farther down the path, the sounds slowly became quieter; but even as the sound decreased, my panic only increased.

What if Niels died? Or Elisa? Or both of them?

My breathing began to speed up as I kept dragging Vivian.

I heard something rustle the grass around me.

What if it had gotten away from them and was stalking me as I carried Vivian? I was so slow while doing this.

A horrible thought came to me.

If I couldn’t outrun the monster while carrying Vivian…

No; no, absolutely not.

I dug my fingers into her shoulders harder and picked up the pace.

She wouldn’t do that to me; heck, she’d shoved me out of the way of the monster’s attack when it first appeared.

Why?

For the same reason I was carrying her, I guessed; she cared about me.

I kept moving.

The only thing I could hear now was the wind.

Even when I was far enough away that I couldn’t see them at all anymore, I didn’t stop moving.

Eventually I saw someone on the horizon ahead of us.

My footsteps became a little faster.

The person didn’t notice me and Vivian at first; only when I got close enough to make out his facial features did he turn around to see the two of us.

He was an old man. He had large and prominent rabbit ears.

As we approached him, he started running towards us as well.

He had a few wrinkles on his face despite being pretty thin. He immediately put Vivian’s other arm around his small shoulders and nodded at me.

“Good afternoon.” He said with a slight smile as we carried Vivian together. “What knocked her out?”

“I-I don’t know! It was black, with thin fangs and yellow eyes! It had big ears too, but not like yours! They were like a mouse’s ears, I think.” I shook my head at the recent memory.

I prayed that Elisa and Niels were okay, but only half-heartedly.

The old man tilted his head.

“Hmm… nope; no idea what that is. Sounds dangerous though.” He shook his head and looked at me with a profound smile. “What’s your name? And hers too, while we’re at it.”

“S-Shinko. Inori.” I looked down at Vivian. “Vivian… uh… I don’t know.”

The old man chuckled slightly.

I didn’t.

I’d been traveling with Vivian for a week, and I didn’t even know her last name.

My stomach twisted.

I’d called her an idiot to her face.

And then not one minute later she threw herself in harm’s way to protect me.

“Hey, don’t worry! Your friend’s going to be okay. It looks like she’s just a little bruised.” He said as we kept walking down the path. “I’m sure she’d be touched by how much you’re crying, though.” He said politely.

I hadn’t noticed my tears.

I wiped them away after a few moments.

Projecting my memories of John onto Vivian. Yelling at her like that would accomplish anything.

Why had I done that? I liked Vivian. She was strong, polite, a little playful at times, and caring.

Why had I been so vehement towards her?

“You travel around here often?” The old man asked.

I breathed in deeply.

“N-no. We’re traveling to Kuzges for the Wizard Council.” I said quietly.

The old man whistled.

“I hear that’s a big deal these days. You a wizard?”

“No. I’m a–”

I looked at Vivian’s unconscious body before I spoke again.

“If I told you I was a priest, would you believe me?”

The old man tripped, but caught himself at the last second.

“Hmm! Well, if you were a priest, I’d ask you if you subscribed to the church pact.” He said with a smile.

I thought about it. Personally, I had agreed with the principles of the church pact when I first heard about them.

Although, the longer I traveled, the more it sounded like the priests from those churches were bad and taught stuff I didn’t agree with.

Plus, Vivian Elisa and Niels had all agreed that I was a ‘strange’ priest.

“Not really.” I said calmly.

The old man smiled.

“We’re coming up to my house pretty soon. I may have something special to show you, Mr. Inori. As soon as we’re done treating Ms. Vivian, of course.”

I looked out over the grassy plains.

There were no buildings anywhere that I could see.

“Where do you live?” I asked, confused.

“You’ll see.” He winked.

We walked for a little longer on the trail, before he pointed at a nearby hill that was slightly off the path.

“Over there. Be gentle with her now.”

I raised an eyebrow. The man didn’t look too dangerous, but I was having my suspicions.

“Wait.” I stopped at the edge of the trail. “I-I’m sorry sir, but I can’t trust you.”

The old man looked at me, then smiled.

“Oh. You’re absolutely right.” He nodded. “I should’ve known better. Darn it, I even forgot to introduce myself!” He bowed his head. “Albert Himmel. Call me Albert.”

He gently let go of Vivian, making sure that I could hold her up.

“I shouldn’t expect you to come inside. I’ll go get my supplies and patch her up out here.”

With that, he walked away towards the hillside. I watched him approach it, before crawling into a patch of grass that was actually concealing a hole.

From where I was standing, it looked like he had been swallowed by the hill.

He didn’t come back for a while, so I sat down and laid Vivian next to me.

She was breathing softly, but she didn’t look calm; her face showed that she was in discomfort, and when she was on the ground, she curled towards her left side slightly.

I laid down next to her so that my head was near hers even though I was laying down in a different direction.

I had been so irrational towards Vivian.

I closed my eyes as I laid flat on the ground.

How could I blame her for believing in religion? A lot of people did.

The answer of why they believed it was also relatively simple.

They did it because they wanted to have meaning.

Even I wanted to have meaning, and that night a few days ago when she looked at me and told me that her hands mattered…

She’d made me want to believe too. For just a split-second.

But it was too good to be true.