Fateful Encounter II

Her face full of shock, it didn’t take long for her to jump up and run away into the woods, most likely back towards her village.

I guess they aren’t used to visitors…

I sat near the stream for a while more, looking at my own reflection and thinking about everything that’s happened to me.

I have been through a lot lately…

It looks like I am making good progress for Ors Juna… grandpa…

I wish you were here with me…

If you have been watching over me all this time… I love you…

I wonder how the others are doing too…

Xax, Braun, and Anna… have you found a new hideout by now?

What about you… Gyorn…

Are you still out there…?

Do you need rescue…? Or has someone already found you…?

What about you… my friends from the village?

Has anything changed in the couple of years that I was gone?

Did you finish building that silly construction back home…?

Hopefully all is well…

If any of you are worried about me, I assure you that I am alright…

It has been a precarious journey, but I already made it this far…

…I miss all of you…

I stood up from my melancholic time sink and realized that the sun was setting already.

Remembering that I had nothing left to eat, I faced the stream, and with slight hesitation dove into the azure, blue sky within my head.

Immediately, I could perceive the fish swimming in the water stream and what seemed to be the village the girl came from, in the distance.

It had some tainted life forces within, but like grandpa taught me, I wasn’t going to stick my nose where it didn’t belong.

Trying something new, I maintained my rex and patiently waited for a fish that was approaching closest to me.

…three…

…two…

…one…

I snapped my wrist, rotating it and pointing my finger upwards while holding my rex immersion. Working as intended, the fish came flying out of the water towards me.

I outstretched my arm, preparing to catch it with my eyes closed, but to my great dismay the fish went straight past.

Slightly embarrassed, I picked it up and had a small revelation – I knew what I had to train now.

I called it:

Hand-rex coordination.

Going back to the woods, with a couple more fish, I built a shelter and started a fire to prepare my own dinner.

The smell from the grilled fish was so good, I could barely restrain myself from eating it partially raw.

Having the best feast I’ve had in months, I fondly remembered what I had the misfortune of consuming in the past.

I was blessed to not have to resort to any spidorpion meat anymore; those were truly desperate means of getting by.

Going to sleep with a full stomach, for the first time in a while… it felt good to be alive…

…

I woke up early in the morning.

Having eaten some leftover fish and berries that I confirmed weren’t poisonous for breakfast, I gathered my things and left the area.

I found a big waterfall and other beautiful sights while traversing the mountains.

The entire forest was filled with tall, thick pine trees giving off a sweet, pleasant smell. I truly wanted to stay here longer, but I had to go on.

A couple of hours later unfortunately, the forest had different plans for me as I arrived in the same opening I did yesterday.

The girl was there too, crying and not paying attention to her surroundings yet again…

I approached the same spot I did yesterday.

Fully preoccupied with her misery, she continued sobbing without noticing.

I couldn’t explain it, but my heart hurt seeing her in this state.

“…why are you crying?” I asked softly.

She looked up, frightened at my sudden appearance, which unbeknownst to her, wasn’t sudden at all.

She raised her guard, wiping her tears with her sleeve.

“I am not” she replied in a quiet voice.

Sure you aren’t…

…hm?

Wait…

My eyes widened.

I was speaking in Acolatum’s national language, yet she still understood it.

How…?

“You… can understand me?” I asked bewilderedly.

She nodded silently.

Amazed at this revelation, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Acolatum and this place are so far apart… so how…?

Zetre’s language seemed completely different in comparison…

Did I already cross all of it?

Am I in Ors Juna already?

And there’s something I don’t know?

While I was thinking, the girl continued staring at me in silence.

Suddenly, a low-pitched whistle sounded from the direction of the village, breaking my thought process.

The girl’s face became overwhelmed with horror.

She sprang up, briefly glancing at my confused face with terror in her eyes, and running back towards the village shortly after.

There was definitely something wrong with this village.

But I couldn’t do anything about it…

I couldn’t meddle in things that didn’t concern me.

Unenthusiastically, I got some fish the same way I did yesterday, successfully catching one out of four, and went back to the spot where I stayed yesterday.

I built the shelter again, and repeated yesterday’s feast.

Everything was the same…

I was hungry too…

Yet for some reason, I couldn’t enjoy it.

…

I woke up early in the morning again, gathering my things, and leaving this place by going in a different direction from last time.

I was passing through a gigantic moss-covered area of the forest. Wherever I looked, it was a beautiful shade of green.

Getting too carried away with my sightseeing, I forgot what I said about mountainous regions in the beginning of my trip through this forest, falling into a small ditch and badly spraining my ancle.

“Ow…” I exclaimed.

The pain didn’t allow me to rely too much on that leg anymore.

Hurting quite badly, I barely got out of the slippery ditch.

I picked up a good-looking stick and used it as a cane to support my weight.

It started raining and my legs became even more vulnerable to injury. Feeling like I was slipping on ice in some areas, I hardened my core and tried to walk as stable as I could.

I lost a lot of daylight because of my greatly slowed pace.

Nighttime was approaching.

A couple of minutes later, I finally saw a good place to set up camp.

Not recognizing it because of the darkness, I came out into the opening, once again, arriving at the water stream running down the mountain.

Getting slightly annoyed, there was something wrong with this location.

It kept looping me back here, even though I chose different paths.

That said, the girl wasn’t here.

Did she go home already?

I painfully sat down near the surface of the stream, watching my face getting smothered from the ripples in the water.

All my clothes were dirty from the earlier incident.

My ancle was getting bigger too.

What is this?

What’s wrong with it…?

“Aahhh…” I tried touching the swollen area.

I better leave it alone…

After some time sitting there and staring off into space, I heard crying approaching.

It was the girl.

This time later than usual.

Stumbling towards her usual quiet place next to the water, the bright moon illuminated her body.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

She was entirely covered in cuts and bruises...

Clenching my fists, anger was consuming me.

…what did they do to her…

I walked over the stream towards her.

“…who did this to you…?” I asked.

She sobbed for a moment, working up the courage to speak.

“…my parents…” she said softly.

“…why? …for what…?” I asked for more details.

“…youngest… child… in the village…” she sobbed, “…responsible… for harvest…”

Harvest?

Does her village do agriculture?

“…is it bad this year…?” I asked.

“…”

“…worst… in history…” she said, tears filling up her eyes and her body trembling in pain and fear. “…threatens… famine…”

“…do you want my help…?” I asked somberly.

Associating something unpredictable like a harvest as her fault…

She’s just a child…

Maybe they DO need a famine to set them straight…

Even thinking about it made my blood boil.

“No…” she answered quietly, “they said… won’t hit me… anymore…”

There was a silence, while I looked at the ground, her crying quietly fading as she calmed down.

“…why… are you always here…?” she murmured.

I raised my head, surprised.

This was the first time she was the one asking a question.

“…I get lost every time… I keep coming here whichever direction I go in…” I explained.

“…outsider trap…” she sniffled, “…have to go down the mountain…” she pointed her feeble hand in the correct direction.

My gaze dropped down to the ground.

A part of me wished that she had never told me…

I was still worried about her…

“…thank you…” I said quietly.

Her injured body swayed with the slightest of wind, yet she was still kind enough to worry about me.

After a moment, she stood up.

“…you should go… dangerous at night…” she muttered gently, “…goodbye…” she said, turning around and leaving in the direction of her village.

I looked at her desperately.

“Wait!” I yelled after her, “If you need anything… come here again.”

She stopped, turning around one last time, and bowing before disappearing behind the darkness of the forest.

Gripping my walking stick as hard as I could amidst my disappointment in myself, I crossed the water stream and went back into the forest along the path the girl told me about.

I felt pity for her.

But most of all, I was repulsed by my own uselessness.

I can’t possibly force my way into all of this, especially when she didn’t even ask for my help in the first place…

If it wasn’t for this complicated situation, I would have been appreciating tonight’s beautiful starry sky, shining brightly and illuminating the vast darkness down below.

I continued walking down the mountain, hearing the loud waterfall on my right which I remembered from my other walk past this place.

So that one time I had to go down instead…

I descended the steep slope, arriving at the base of the waterfall.

It was a big, clear space, but the last thing I wanted right now was to be in the open.

Scouting the place, I staggered towards a more private area within the woods.

I built the shelter and assembled my bed for the night, but I didn’t feel like sleeping.

I bent over and sat on the ground, laying back to look at the sky, and thinking about the suffering girl.

Staring at the countless small, bright dots, I remembered what the wisest man I knew used to say –all of these were people who have passed on to the afterlife yet continue to watch over us.

Say… grandpa…

Now that you are one of them…

Are you out there somewhere too?

I observed the sky, lost in thought.

A shooting star flew past and my head drooped over to the side following it, making the noisy waterfall come into view.

There were some strange feeble light sources circulating on top of it.

Am I seeing things?

Or are those people?

What are they doing up there at this time…?

Suddenly, something was thrown from the top of the tall cliff into the savage waterfall.

I raised myself up, seeing it land all the way to the bottom, and disappearing within it in a matter of seconds.

I used rex to clue myself in on what was going on.

Tainted life forces stood atop the waterfall.

At the very bottom of it, was a presence all too familiar…

My heart sank and my insides went cold.

I jumped up, immediately stumbling over because of my sprained foot.

Propping myself up and ignoring the pain, I sprinted towards the pool of water as fast as I could.

I dove into the freezing deep end, relying on my rex to guide me.

Within seconds, my limbs went numb.

The current was very strong, forcing me under and making me question how we were going to get out.

I swam towards the girl’s weakening white-colored life force.

She was drowning.

Finally taking hold of her, I felt us pressured towards the rocky bottom of the basin.

Rapidly losing air I had to do something.

Without contemplating too much, I firmly pressed both of my feet against the ground, squatted and used my wind magic to assist my leg strength.

Sending a massive shockwave through the entire pool, I drove us out of the circular current that would have drowned us otherwise, and onto the surface of the water, swimming the rest of the way using my hands.

Reaching land, I carefully dragged the girl out.

There was but one problem…

My foot bone was completely shattered.

…

I looked at the motionless girl; her hands and legs were tied.

She was thrown into this waterfall to drown with no chance of survival.

I felt like slaughtering the entire village.

She was unresponsive.

Panicking, I tried to remember what grandpa taught me and other kids in the village.

I freed her hands and placed her on her back, rhythmically pressing her chest to revive her.

Come on…

Please… work…

I continued trying to revive her for nearly a minute, thinking it was already too late.

Suddenly, she started coughing up water.

Relieved, I sat back and wiped my face with cold, shaking hands.

She opened her eyes slightly, slowly titling her head in my direction.

“…why…” she muttered, “…you… shouldn’t… have…”

She lost consciousness.

…obviously I couldn’t watch someone get killed, especially someone I knew…

…I wouldn’t be able to live with myself after that…

Both of us still breathing – this was a start.

I couldn’t walk anymore, so I had to painfully drag her and myself through the ground towards my shelter.

I didn’t know if, or when, those villagers would come down here to confirm her death, so I had to move us out of the open.

After a couple of minutes of struggling, I made it to the shelter.

I placed her on my stick bed that was anything but comfortable, but at least it wasn’t cold, solid ground.

I couldn’t bring myself to take off the girl’s wet shirt to dry it normally, so I went the roundabout way.

I took off my own shirt and tried expelling all moisture from it by manipulating my water element. Contrary to my worrying, it was surprisingly easy to do.

Repeating the process, I carefully dried out her shirt and made a fire to keep her warm.

Still worried about uninvited guests, I staggered out to monitor our surroundings and sat outside.

As some of my worries finally let up, I squinted from the excruciating pain I could now feel all too well.

My leg completely mangled and mind in disarray, if anyone came down the mountain to finish the girl off, I couldn’t guarantee a peaceful death.