The stranger and the prophecy

The town meeting had left Lumia restless. Later that night, as she prepared for sleep, she couldn't help but reflect on the events of the day.

After getting up from bed earlier that morning, she showered, got dressed, then went to check on Hunter in his room. But to her surprise, he wasn't there. Where had he gone? Was he downstairs having breakfast already?

While entering the kitchen to grab her food, she still couldn't find Hunter among those eating at the dining area. Had he headed out sightseeing maybe? And where was the little girl? She couldn't find her either.

"Lumia, is there a problem?" the head priestess asked. Lumia was seated at a table with the head priestess of the temple sitting across from her. They were both having breakfast.

"It's nothing, head priestess," Lumia replied, suddenly remembering the food in front of her she was meant to be eating before it got cold. "I'm just a little distracted trying to think about the possible whereabouts of our guests. They weren't in their rooms this morning. I hope everything's okay."

"Oh, do you mean the tall stranger and the little girl?" the head priestess responded. She was dressed in a fashion similar to Lumia's. In fact, nearly all of the women at the temple were. Red was the standard color among healer maids, but Lumia's gown was a much darker crimson; the head priestess's attire was closer to orange.

"I'm not sure myself, but I don't think you have to worry," the head priestess said. "Our town Templa, although small in size, is also a big place at heart. So maybe he just went on a little exploring."

A passing junior girl overheard their conversation, then quickly stepped in to provide the answer.

"I saw them heading up towards the small patch of forest this morning, at the edge of town," she said. "The visitor and the girl. They were together."

"Towards the forest?" Lumia asked, turning to face the healer in training. "But why? Did they say where they were going?"

"I'm afraid not," the girl responded, shaking her head. "But it seemed like they might have just been on a stroll."

"Alright, Sylvia. You may return to your duties," the head priestess said to the girl, and the maid curtsied and bowed her head before leaving in a hurry. Satisfied to know they were still around at least, Lumia went back to sipping her tea alongside the head priestess.

***

Ten minutes later, they left the temple and were heading for the town meeting in the central square. It was Lumia herself, the head priestess, and a few junior healer maids. Since the place wasn't far at all, they had no trouble proceeding on foot. And when they arrived, they were surprised to find the meeting already ongoing.

"You're late, head priestess Mary," a man seated at the head of the procession said, his fingers locked in front of him. He was the mayor, dressed in an expensive-looking tunic, completed with a yellow sash and golden button.

"Allow me to apologize on behalf of my girls and myself, Mayor Travis," head priestess Mary said, gesturing for Lumia and the rest of the temple girls to take their seats in the crowd. Meanwhile, her chair was among the officials leading the discussion, where she ended up sitting beside key individuals like the head of the temple guard, a representative from the adventurer's guild, the mayor himself, and the few delegates from the King's Court.

"As you know, a healer's job is never done, especially after the unfortunate events of yesterday," head priestess Mary continued, taking her seat. "But we apologize for our tardiness. So, may we continue?"

"Alright," the mayor said, turning to address the audience. "For the sake of our sisters from the temple, allow me to revisit the topic of the discussion one more time. The Sigumanju threat, the monsters plaguing our town for quite some time, blocking our roads and cutting off our trading routes—well, that problem has suddenly gotten much worse. Over forty of our people were killed, slaughtered like animals out in the farmlands yesterday morning. Entire families were lost. Brothers. Sisters. Mothers. Fathers. And like the head priestess said, it was quite the unfortunate incident."

Lumia felt a pang of guilt suddenly grip her chest at that moment. So many people died while trying to save the farmers, but somehow she had come out among the survivors. She wasn't a warrior like Hunter or the vanguard who charged directly at the monsters and nearly lost all their lives because of it. She was a healer. A support role. And she knew her job was just as important, but sometimes, she wished she could actively help out in the front lines.

"However," the mayor continued, "while we mourn those we've lost, an action must be taken to end this threat once and for all. We can't just sit and do nothing. We must find a solution to end this problem."

Half an hour into the meeting, the hall split into two groups. One faction wanted to declare an emergency evacuation, calling on the king for troops and horse-drawn caravans to transport goods and residents to the next town, a journey of two weeks.

The champions of this idea were the head priestess, the head of the temple guard, and a civilian representative, who was also the representative from the adventurer's guild.

Their argument, as calmly and confidently stated by head priestess Mary: "Every day we remain in this town is a day we risk an attack from the Sigumanjus. As you said yourself, mayor, the threat of the creatures is only getting worse. They started by attacking the merchants on the roads months ago, cutting our access to crucial supplies. Yesterday it was the farmers, coming down to hunt and slaughter our people. These monsters are getting closer and closer to our homes, mayor. I say it's time to leave before more people get hurt."

The second group, led by the mayor himself and the delegates from the King's Court, wanted to launch an undercover attack on the Widow Makers. Their goal, like the mayor so delicately put it: "Let's blow them up. Kill every single one of them. Take them out with one decisive strike. Otherwise, if we simply evacuate, nothing is stopping the monsters from following us to the next town, and the next, and the next, until we are all dead."

The audience was divided on which group to support. Most people wanted revenge on the Widow Makers for killing their loved ones. Others were too scared and just wanted to leave.

Personally, Lumia didn't believe a retaliation was the answer. Only four of the creatures nearly wiped out an entire platoon of soldiers on their own. Even if the king was able to supply them with a thousand troops, an attack on the nest, with hundreds of the six-legged scorpion-like monsters scuttling all over the place, that was still very much a death sentence.

However, she didn't think running away was the answer either. At least, not entirely. As much as she hated to agree with the mayor, he was right. If the town were to simply evacuate, that could serve as a short-term solution. But without eliminating the threat entirely, the Widow Makers would always remain a problem lurking in the background, slowly catching back up to them.

So then, what was the answer? What was the true permanent solution to the issue?

"How about the stranger that recently showed up in town?" one of the officials asked, and Lumia's ears suddenly perked up at the mention of Hunter.

"I heard he was an exceptional fighter on the battlefield," the man said. "A very skilled one, I might add. Took on three of the creatures all by himself, killed one of them, and gravely injured the remaining two before he almost got killed himself."

The man was one of the delegates from the King's Court. He must have asked around about Hunter, and gotten the information from some of the survivors.

"Where is the strange lad anyway? Shouldn't he be here at this meeting? Since he was such a crucial part of the rescue mission?"

"He is unavailable at the moment," the head priestess responded.

"Well," the delegate continued, "if you are going to organize an attack on the monsters, mayor, my advice is to let him lead the charge. He can see it as fair compensation for the town showing him such care and hospitality when he first arrived."

"The temple doesn't charge its patients to heal them, mister delegate," head priestess Mary said, narrowing her gaze in the man's direction.

"I know, I know," the man responded, waving his hands defensively while a smile crept onto his face. "But let's say he tries to refuse. In dire times like these, exceptions can and will be made, in service of the crown to help protect its people. So if the king orders him to join the fighting, as a direct beneficiary of the crown's hospitality, he has no choice but to do so."

Lumia was sick to her stomach. The man was clearly planning to force Hunter to help in the raid against the monsters if it eventually came to that. People who received healing from the temple weren't charged for it. The king already covered the upkeep and salaries of the staff, so the services Lumia and the other healers rendered to the community were completely free.

This was why she told Hunter there was no need for payment when he asked her. The treatment was already paid for by default.

While head priestess Mary and the King's delegates continued to bicker, Lumia noticed the mayor gazing at her with intensity while stroking his chin. It was weird. Why was he doing that? It made Lumia uncomfortable.

She tried to look away, pretending not to notice, but he was still staring at her. Finally, he pointed at her and spoke up.

"You there. The healer girl. You've spent some time with him, have you not?" he asked. "The stranger, I mean. You were the one who healed him. What do you know about him? Where is he from?"

Everybody in the hall was now staring at Lumia. Yes, she did spend some time with Hunter, but they hadn't really gotten the time to just talk. It would be weird if she just came out and began interrogating him right away. She'd been waiting for an opening, or until he was willing to share. She’d be lying if she said she wasn't curious about his roots though. Where had he come from anyway? Why was he so tall, and such a skilled fighter?

Lumia sat up as she replied. "I'm afraid we haven't spoken all that much, sir," she said, bowing her head a little. "It's true we did spend some time together, but it was mostly about me showing him various tourist attractions in town."

"Hmmm... Very well, you may sit."

Lumia did as she was told.

"May I inquire as to why the sudden interest in the stranger's origins, Mr. Mayor?" a woman, the second delegate from the King's Court, asked the question. The man was silent for a little while, seeming lost in thought with a faraway look on his face. Then, out of nowhere, he said...

"How many of you remember the story of Anna? Little Anna Wara, the girl who woke up one morning, screaming that she saw the end of days in her dreams."

The hall was silent after that. For almost a full minute, nobody said anything. Even the officials, the two delegates from the King's Court, head priestess Mary, the head of the temple knights—all of them. They all had shocked expressions on their faces, as if they couldn't believe what the mayor had just said.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Mayor?" the male delegate from the King's Court asked. "Don't tell me you believe all of that fantasy."

"For the sake of those in the audience who may not be aware of the story," the mayor continued, ignoring the delegate's question. "Anna Wara lived near the Elven Kingdom with her parents while she was just a girl. They were poor, so they went to live in the forest when they could no longer afford the rent within the kingdom walls. One night, Anna woke up screaming at the top of her lungs, claiming that the end of days was coming, and all of humanity was going to die. She said she saw it in her dream, of portals opening, and of monsters that could only be described as horrific creatures from the deepest parts of hell flooding into our world."

Like most people, Lumia had heard this story before. The tale was almost a century old at this point, and mothers usually told it to their children in order to scare them into eating their vegetables. If you don't eat your dinner, then a portal will open just above our house, and a monster from hell will reach down and grab you with its claws. It was a traumatic method of getting children to eat more food, but Lumia remembered it being very effective, especially on her when she was a child.

"The girl's parents kept trying to find a cure for her nightmares, but nothing worked," Mayor Travis continued. Everybody was listening attentively.

"She kept having the visions of humanity's death and decay up until she turned eighteen, becoming a young woman. However, she never stopped having the dreams. Eventually, she set out on a journey from home, swearing that since nobody was ready to listen to her, she would leave and not come back until she found a way to stop the coming apocalypse before it ever had the chance to begin. Nobody has reported seeing her ever since."

***

The people mostly ignored what the mayor had said, dismissing it as a retelling of a popular scary story. They carried on with the meeting, and the notion to attack the Widow Makers at their nest gained popular vote and support from the audience. Head priestess Mary wasn't happy with that.

While heading back to the temple with the head priestess and the junior girls, Lumia couldn't shake the thought from her mind. The mayor wouldn't just bring up a random ghost story during an important meeting. That was not the kind of person he was.

He had asked her about Hunter shortly before retelling the story of Anna Wara—the girl who had nightmares of the supposed end of the world, and who promised to find a solution before it happened, even though nobody believed her.

Was there some kind of connection? Lumia wondered. Between Hunter's arrival, Anna Wara, and the potential end of the world, that is, if it was even happening exactly as Anna said it would from her nightmares?

Religious texts spoke of natural disasters and diseases being how the world eventually wraps up, not monster attacks from hell. So what was Anna Wara talking about? What did she really see in her dreams, and was any of it true?

Even when night came, Hunter was still nowhere to be found. The little girl and the water lizard were back in their rooms though, sleeping peacefully. A junior healer girl reported to Lumia that he briefly came back to drop off the girl and the lizard while they were at the meeting. But then he left, and the girl claimed she hadn't seen him since.

As Lumia prepared to sleep, she could only pray for Hunter's safe return, wherever he was at that moment. She just hoped he wasn't in any trouble.