Chapter 12: Running.

Neya opens her eyes, she is greeted by an unfamiliar wooden ceiling above her, and the feeling of a soft mattress under her body. She takes out her left arms under her blanket and brought it in front of her face. She notices that there something amiss with her sight, she kept waving her left hand in front of her face.

She can't see with her left eyes, she ran her finger on the surrounding skin around her left eyes. She couldn't see her left-hand clearly, but she felt a scar running down her eyes. Neya then removes the sheets from her body, kicking it to the floor and notices the oversized white shirt that she is wearing.

Neya raises her upper body to a sitting position on the bed. Then she checks all of her cut and injuries, every one of it has been healed. Looking around the small bedroom, she finally realized that this is not her room. Neya notices the sound of the footstep getting closer to the door. She back away to the corner of the bed, with her back touches the wall.

Neya hugs herself with both of her hands while waiting for the door to open. The doorknob turn, the wooden door swings open revealing a silver, long, ponytail hair human on the other side.

The human has this contempt smile on his face while wearing a butler uniform and carrying a wooden tray with food on top of it. The man walks closer to Neya, she back away even further from the man. He then places the tray of food on the bed and back away.

Neya looks at the tray of food, a glass of water and some kind of soup in a bowl. The delicious smell lingers under Neya nose causing her stomach to grumble.

"It's carrot and potato soup, you should try it," the man said.

Neya heart rate rises like a drum being repeatedly hit in quick succession. Her muscle tense especially around her face, her hand twitches as she tightens her grip on her arms. Her eyebrows furrow and she bare her teeth toward the man.

"I know men like you, you use kindness to gain my trust, but when I disagree with your order. All that facade crumble and the true monster reveals," Neya said.

"I'm not using you. My name is Nesto, I'm the one who found you unconscious in a dark alley," Nesto said. He places his right hand on his heart, gesturing to himself.

"Do you think, I owe you something because you save me from death?" Neya ask.

"No, I just want—" Nesto was interrupted by Neya.

Neya stands on the bed and walks closer to the tray of food. She pulls back her leg and kicks the tray toward Nesto. The bowl of soup smear Nesto's clothes, the bowl fall to the floor while the smear drip down Nesto cloth.

"I rather die than eat you poisonous food!" Neya shout.

Nesto looks at the bowl, he squats down and picks up the tray, cup, and bowl. He stands up again still smiling, he nods at Neya. Not a single trace of anger on Nesto face. Neya was expecting something like an outburst, but it didn't appear.

"Don't worry about the mess, I will clean it up later," Nesto said.

"Just leave me alone!" Neya shout.

"Okay," Nesto said he then walks out of the room with the tray of empty bowl and cup.

Nesto closes the door, leaving the room to herself. Neya takes a step back to the corner and begins to scan the room. The room is empty except for a bed and a chair. She sees a close window, Neya rush to it. Neya slowly places her hand on the close window and push it. The window opens, revealing a thick forest on the other side.

Neya climbs out of the window, using her upper body strength. Her feet are the first to touch the dirt ground, she walks a couple step and her feet feel the trickle of grass on her sole. Neya looks up toward the giant wall circling Targia. She saw the royal palace, she spits on the ground and turns her body to face the other way.

She took off from the spot and toward to the forest. As she runs in the forest, she felt the rough small rock prick under her feet and the smooth root that she almost slip on.

She finally free, Neya thought as she ran past the bundle of trees in the forests.

A loud roar causes her to stop her tracks, she looks around with caution. Neya tries to find the source of the roar, she treads lightly after she guesses the source of the roar is. Another roar came from behind her, Neya turns her body to face the source.

Her heart rate begins to rise again, but this time instead of rage, fear overcomes her. Another loud roar came from the bushes in front of her. When the bushes start to shake, Neya turns her body to face the other direction and start running away from it.

The loud roar kept getting closer, Neya kept on running with all her strength. But Yana didn't bless her with luck as she slips on a root on the ground causing her to fall face first to the ground.

Neya screams in pain as her head trickle a little bit of blood, but what worse is the searing pain in her ankle. The load roar kept getting closer to her, Neya tries to stand up again, but the pain was so intense that she couldn't. Neya turns her body so her back laid on the ground. She looks at the source of the loud roar.

Her eyes widen as she saw a brown bear charging toward her with drool dripping from its mouth. Neya closes her eyes and turns her head away, waiting for the inevitable to happen when the bear let out a painful cry. When Neya opens both of her eyes, she saw an Axe planted in the tree beside her.

She looks at the bear, there a large cut on its snout. The bear places a paw on its snout and continues to let out a painful cry. Neya search for the person who throws the Axe, she turns her head and saw the man with a silver-haired walking toward her with the same smile on his face.

Neya looks closely at the man, there is something different about him. She can feel the intensity coming from him. Nesto casually walks past Neya and the bear while rubbing a few leaves off his chest. He then pulls out the Axe first before walking back to Neya.

He walks back to stand between the bears and Neya. He points the Axe at the bear, the stand on it two legs and let out a terrifying roar causing Neya body shake in fear. Nesto didn't even flinch, he just looks straight at the bear's eyes. Neya kept waiting for the man to attack the bear, but it never happens. Instead, the bear drop on its front leg and walk away from the man.

Nesto waits for the bear to leave and then turn around to face Neya. He then places the Axe on the ground, after that he examine Neya ankle.

"It just a sprained, can you walk?" Nesto asks as he tried to touch her sprained ankle.

"Don't touch me!" Neya scream, as she remembers the feeling of getting close to other people.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," Nesto said.

"I said, don't touch me!" Neya screams again.

"You can't stay here forever," Nesto said.

"I can walk on my own," She stresses. Neya tries to stand up, but the pain was too much for her to handle.

Nesto looks at the elf girl struggling to stand up, he then sighs and wedge his hand underneath the girl and lifts her up. Neya struggle and scream.

"Stop!" She said almost crying.

"Everything going to be okay," Nesto reassure her.

Neya stop struggling and nothing happens. Nausea, fear, panic, not one of them appear inside of Neya mind and heart. She is confused by the situation that she is in, did she cured her insanity. She raises her head to look at the man, he still has that gentle smile as he carries her.

"I don't understand," Neya mutter to herself as her eyes on the verge of tears.

"It's okay. Sometime in the world, nothing makes sense," Nesto said as his eyes went to the elf girl.

Neya burst out her tears, she grabs the fabric of his jacket and planted her face into Nesto chest. She begins to sob in Nesto jacket causing it to become wet from her salty tears. Nesto looks away from the crying girl, giving her some privacy to let her spill her pain out.