Are you alright?

This last week I would spend most of my time getting ready for my journey.
First, I’d go to Elize’s place together with Iris and Maya. Elize is a silver-haired woman, who puts her hair in a bun and wears both a tunic and pants with a flowerpattern.
According to Maya, Elize is the best sewstress in the village who makes her own clothes and it shows. Apparently most of the clothes in the village were made by her. So if I needed some travelling gear, asking her was definitely my best bet.

I didn’t want to ask for too much. Just the bare minimum which I thought would be necessary. A simple bag that I could put all my important stuff in, like a map and food, and something that I could sleep in like a blanket or a sleeping bag.
I did have to explain to her what a sleeping bag was, since that was something they had never heard of in this world.

‘What’s a sleeping bag?’ They’d ask me.
‘It’s basically a bag, big enough for a person to fit in, which will act as both a bed and a blanket.’ I explained to the best of my ability.
‘I think I prefer the term “napsack” then.’ Elize said.

Oh yeah, she’s also a big fan of puns.

Of course, I didn’t just ask for a favour without any form of recompensation. Elize was apparently a giant sweettooth, so I wanted to make her something sweet as a thank you gift.
In the end, I ended up making some jam with those apple-sized raspberries that Maya and I found. I made jam before with my mother, but making this was actually a lot harder than the apple pie. Specifically to make it a more gel-like substance, but we eventually figured out how to do that.
I told her that it’s excellent to put on bread and without hestitation, she immediately tried it and loved it.
Thankfully I made enough for all of us, because she completely destroyed that small cup of jam in what seemed like a couple seconds.

At the moment, Maya and I are going to Julian, since he apparently finished the map today. Meaning that when Elize finished on the things that she’s working on, I’d be leaving the day after.

And although Maya would help me, as the days gone by I could feel a weird distance forming between us.
She’d still act happy and jovial around me, but not as much as in the beginning. She’d often times go somewhere on her own and I didn’t know why. Or I guess I did know and just didn’t want to admit it to myself.
Yet weirdest of all, would be the way Casper would act around us.
Now that Maya and I are walking with an awkward silence between us, I decided to ask her about that.

‘Do you think Casper has been acting weird lately?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean?’ Maya asked back.
‘Well, it feels like he’s been staring at us a lot. Like he’s been paying attention with what we’re doing.’
‘I’m pretty sure you are just imagining it. He is a growing kid, of course he’ll become more curious of the world around him.’
‘Yeahhh, I guess you’re right.’
‘Come on, let’s get that map from Julian.’

We arrived at the Solarian Academy and knocked on the door. We heard someone scurrying on the other side and Julian opened the door with a tired look on his face. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

‘Are you alright Julian?’ I asked. ‘You don’t look alright.’
‘Yeah, don’t worry about it. Teaching those kids can sometimes take a lot out of me. You’re here for your map right? Come on in, I have it on my desk.’ Julain said with a loud yawn.

We walked inside and spread out before us is the entire map of Resilia. I saw that Resilia is all the way in the south of the kingdom, while Wiliam’s Rest was more to the north.
He drew Emmerberk Woods and the waterfall in that forest, which is apparently called Raphael Falls for some reason.
Julian was even meticulous enough to draw all the rivers, mountains and general locations of the other villages, towns and cities. Just how much detail did he put into this and how long must it have taken for anyone to start this map in the first place?

‘You said you wanted to go to William’s Rest correct?’ Julian started. ‘It’s best that you follow our river and then take a first stop here at Barterstein.’ Julian pointed on a location on the map. ‘It isn’t a large town, but certainly a lot bigger than what we have here. It’s actually mostly used as a trade destination, even for most people that live here. But that’s kinda out of season for us at the moment.’
‘Thanks Julian. It really means a lot.’ I sincerely thanked Julian.
‘Hey it’s no problem. It’s just one of my tasks. And good luck on your journey.’

He handed me the map in a tube casing made out of wood. I shook his hands and Maya and I walked out of the academy.
With the map in hand, Maya and I walked back in silence once again.

‘…So, I guess you’ll be leaving soon.’ Maya said to me out of nowhere.
‘Yeah, I guess I am.’ I said back.
‘Are you sure you’ll be fine?’ She asked.
‘I don’t know. *Sigh* And I also don’t know what will happen, as much as it scares me. There is still so much I don’t know about this world, but I still have to go. Otherwise I’ll never find a way home.’

A moment of silence fell between us for a couple seconds, until Maya spoke up again.

‘…Say, have you ever had the things you want and the things you need to do, not overlap?’

This caught me off guard.
What she wants and what she needs to do. I am not an idiot. Sometimes, but not always. I knew what she was talking about.
We stopped in our tracks and we turned to both look at each other. The slight breeze sometimes making her hair and ears flow to the side. Her lonely expression more visible than ever before.

‘Hey hey, look at the inseperable duo.’

A familiair voice snapped us out of our thoughts. We turned towards where the voice came from and saw two men walking up to us. One mustachioed and the other bald. It was Marcus and Rock.

‘Oh hey you two, it’s been a while. What are you guys up to?’ Maya asked politely.
‘Ahhh, just walking around. We’re off-duty for the first time in a while.’ Rock said.

I learned this in the last two weeks since I’ve been here, but Marcus and Rock are both guards send from the capital, who eventually ended up living here. They are trained soldiers who would sometimes tell us stories about some of the other towns and villages they had protected in the past.

‘By the way, have you seen Casper by any chance? He told me in the morning that he’d be playing with his friends, but I haven’t seen him in the village all day.’ Maya asked probably to change topics.
‘Nope, can’t say I have.’ Rock said.
‘What are you talking about? I think we did see him, but he looked like he was in a hurry.’ Marcus said.
‘Why would that be?’ Maya asked.
‘I don’t know. He had a bow in hand and ran towards the southern gate. Other than that, I have no clue.’

Why would he do that? He could probably be practicing on his own.
Yeah, that’s it. …But why would he be in a hurry? That’s the part that didn’t make sense to me. And looking at Maya, she was probably thinking the same. The gears in her head turning at the thought.
Then a sudden look of realization popped up on Maya’s face.

‘He couldn’t have.’ I heard Maya say within her breath.

Before I had time to react, she jolted her head upright and ran off towards her house. She looked like she was in a hurry.
What’s going on with her?

‘Do you think she is worried that…?’
‘Yeah probably. But who can blame her? It’s because those things killed her….’

I heard Marcus and Rock talk behind us, but didn’t hear their full conversation since I quickly ran behind Maya. Worried about her sudden change in behaviour.
I was able to catch up with her and we stopped in front of Maya’s house. She slammed the door open and quickly ran upstairs. The living room empty. Her parents aren’t home.
As I placed the map in it's casing on the dinner table, Maya ran down with her bow in one hand and a quiver filled with arrows on her back. In her other hand she held a sheath, which clearly had a sword within it.

‘Here Micheal, you take this! It’s my father’s!’ She shoved the sheathed sword in my hand. ‘Follow me!’ She was talking so frantically that it was hard to keep up with her. She was clearly out of breath.
‘Wait, what? What are you saying?’ I asked confused and slighlty scared.
‘No time to explain!’ She ran out the house like a bullet shot out of a gun. How did she still have so much energy left?

I followed behind her, at first not knowing why she’d be in such a panic. But then, as we ran past the southern gate and into Emmerberk Woods, it all clicked.
Emmerberk Woods is where we first met. She was worried that Casper would run into something dangerous. I didn’t know what they were talking about back then, but now, seeing Maya’s panicked run and look and the things I have learned about this world, I have a faint idea with what she was afraid of would happen.
If they are indeed as dangerous as Maya said, then we indeed have no time to waste.

We ran and ran. Past the trees that looked oh so familiair. The river with the fish swimming through. With every step we took, Maya looked more and more worried. She’d often mumble in her breath, praying that everything was fine.

‘…Please. …Please. Let him be okay. I don’t want to see that happen again.’

We eventually arrived at the crystal clear lake of Raphael Falls. But no one was to be found.
Now I started to get worried too. I didn’t want anything bad to happen. So I prepared myself for the worst.

‘Casper! CASPER! CASPER!!!’ Maya cried out, getting louder and more distraught with every shout.

‘Sis? Micheal? What are you guys doing here? I made sure no one would follow me.’ Casper asked us, his head popping out from behind one of the bushes.

Maya ran up to him, placed her hands on his shoulder and shook him erratically. She was visibly angry with him.

‘What were you thinking?! You know how dangerous Emmerberk Woods can be! You know I warned you before! But you just didn’t listen!’
‘But sis.’ Casper cried, tears starting to form in his eyes. Clearly scared of his angry sister.
‘No buts! Why would you think this is a good idea without telling any of us?!’
‘I couldn’t tell you. You do so much for us. I wanted to do this for you.’ Casper started to cry.
‘FOR WHAT!?’
‘So you could travel with Micheal.’
‘What?’ Maya said, taken completely off guard.
‘I overheard the two of you one night. I know how much you want to travel sis, but you keep holding back because of us. I wanted to show you that I could hunt perfectly fine myself, so that you don’t have to worry about us.’

So that’s why he left so suddenly. While it was an undeniably thoughless idea, I could definitely understand why he would do it. Maya didn’t look okay after she told me she didn’t want to go. He was just looking out for his older sister in his own way.
Maya’s arms would fall, only to bring Casper in for a tight hug.

‘…I’m sorry. …I’m sorry. …I’m sorry.’ Maya said, struggling to control her voice and cries of apologies.

They took some time crying it out and I kept out of their little moment. This is something between Casper and Maya. I shouldn’t intervene.
When they let go, Maya would dry her own and Casper’s tears.

‘…We’ll talk more about this later. Let’s head back home and tell our parents about this, okay?’ Maya said to Casper, her eyes still a little red and a compassionate smile on her face.
‘Hmmm.’ Casper nodded in acknowledgement.

Both of them stood up, not letting go of each other and ready to leave. I stood in front of them and asked how they were doing.

‘…Hey, you two okay?’
‘…We are now. Don’t worry.’ Maya said softly to me.
‘…Okay.’ I responded.

It’s probably a stupid question of mine, but I needed to be sure. At least they made up with each other without anything bad happening.
At least everything seems to be fine now.

‘HRRRG.’ A deep snarling sound came from behind one of the bushes.

‘What… was that?’ Maya asked in shock and fear.

I felt my eyes widening. The constant worries and mumblings of Maya had already prepared me for what we might find, so I kinda lowered my guard when we found Casper unscathed.
But hearing that sound, I was reminded of the picture I saw in the Solarian Academy.

I turned around to see what kind of creature could make that sound.
It stared at me with completely dark eyes and red pupils. It’s body and claws were like that of a crocodile, with the fur, colour and the head of a gray wolf. It’s horns reminded me of those of a rhino, but they were both sharp like blades.
What was in front of us, was not a normal creature. It’s a senus.