On the way to Gather

"I'm done, i would like to end it all."-said nori with depressed voice leaning against fallen wall, heavy rain is falling from sky on his face covering his tears

"I would like to live it all once again, but i dont have any strenght, im so sleepy, i wish that i wont wake up again." - having said that Nori felt asleep 

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Its beautyfull sunny day, from afar the clash of blades and chirping of birds can be heard. Wind ruffles hair pleasantly .

"What a nice feeling, I haven't felt like this for a long time." - thought nori. The sun was shining brightly and heated the earth, so Nori could feel the warmth even when sleeping on the ground.

After a moment of relaxation, nori opened his eyes and looked around him, in that moment his heart sterted to beat faster because he couldn't believe what he saw.

"How come I'm here again, I...I...died." - Nori said in disbelief - "It's impossible, I must be hallucinating, this can't be happening." - while nori was trying to understand the current situation, the person on whose lap he was lying also happened to wake up.

"Good morning Nori, did something happen? Your face looks pale."- the girl said caringly in a sleepy voice

"Lili is that really you?" - Nori asked, stunned

"Of course I am, why do you ask, do I look different than I always do?" - After these words, tears came to Nori's eyes

"Why are you crying, did you dream about  something bad?" - Lili asked caringly and hugged Nori to her chest and started stroking his head.

"Mhm, I had a terrible dream, a really terrible dream, you, shiro, yuki, everyone..." - said nori through tears, hugging lili more and more tightly, he tried to say something more, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was incomprehensible gibberish.

"Don't worry, we're not going anywhere, it's just a bad dream, if you want, you can tell me everything, I'm all ears." - said Lili caringly.

"You're right, it's just a dream, it's impossible that all this would happen, I feel a little better now."-said nori.

"Are you going home with me? We'll bring them water, they're probably thirsty after so many hours of training." -  Lili said, then she stood up, grabbed Nori's hand, and they went home together.

 It was an abandoned cottage far from the village or any trade routes. Its roof let in sunlight in the summer and leaked in the fall. Despite its external appearance, the house looked tidy inside, Lili took great care of it, there was no dust anywhere, the beds, if they could be called that, were made and everything had its place. The richest item in the house was a wooden wand with a  soul jewel inside, which only Lili knew how to use.  Spells were publicly available in form of magic tools, but only the enlightened - slayers of all kinds of monsters that lurked in the depths of darkness, had access to their own soul spell.To become enlightened you had to go to a guild and get your soul spell unlocked.  Spells could be obtained by killing a creature and reading its soul record, which looked like a small fluffy ball of light floating above the deceased, most creatures were born with one unique spell that could be a material for weapons or tools. They could be sold to merchants for a decent price depending on the usefullnes of the spell. Most of the time poor pepole sold their spell underpriced. 

"I think we can bring them something to eat right away, it will be lunch time soon. Today for dinner we have fish that I caught with yuki yesterday. Come help me, take some wood for the fire and I'll take food and water." - having said this, Lili left the house with Nori and they went towards the fighting Shiro and Yuki.

 For a moment they moved in silence, saying nothing, only the whistle of the wind and the sounds of fighting coming from the distance could be heard. Nori looked on the sky and stared at trees flying in the sky, turned upside down, their roots stuck into the clouds, and the tree crowns were directed towards the ground and contained various fruits.

"It's that time of the year, soon there will be a gathering festival in the city of Gather. We will have to go there and collect as much fruit as we can, we will keep some of it for ourselves and sell the rest. - said lili

The Gathher city is a merchant center, it's one of few cites that upsite down trees fly throught. Every year festival is organized to celebrate the hard work of pepole and to bring adventurers to the city.

From afar Yuki and Shiro were waving towards Nori and Lili.

"How was your training?"- asked Nori

"I hit him once today. It's realy unfair that he can wield a sword that well while beeing blind."- said Yuki and slowly grabbed two cups of water which one of she gave to Shiro

"You would be better is your memory wasn't as short as you. Everything that i teach you is leaving as soon as we start training." - said Shiro 

After that words he knew that he needed to run as fast as possible to not get hit by her.

"You are dead meat!" - shouted Yuki while trying to catch Shiro

"Seems like we have to prepare the fishes by our own, you can start the fire while i will scrape them." - said Lili and started scraping the fishes

"We need to prepare some extra food for the trip. It takes 7 days to get to the Gather." said Nori while placing the sticks to make a bonefire

"Dont worry, we already did that yesterday, dont your remember? You even helped me to smoke the meat." - said Lili

"Yeah you are right i forgot." - said Nori with unease face 

"I don't remember what happend yesterday, to be exact, i dont remember a lot up to now, i have big memorie gaps." - thought nori while trying to remember something more

Time flew by and Nori with Lili finished the cooking. Yuki finally cought Shiro and hit him as hard as she could. They all gathered together and ate fish. Their diet contained fish, mushrooms, fruits from forest and sometimes meat of busheep which was really rare because they are good at hiding. After They finished eating they lay down on the ground thogether and looked at the night sky.

"It's so beautyful tonight, can  we sleep here? I want to have better view at the sky, bonefire is still up so they shouldn't come close." asked Yuki while staring at the mezmorizing view of night sky 

"We could but someone would need to keep watch and tommorow we are going to Gather city so we need to wake up early and get enaught sleep, that means that we can't" - said Lilil, the rest looked at Yuki sad face but they knew that Lili is right

"I can keep watch, but you will have to change witch me." - said Shiro pointing towards Yuki

"Thank you, i love you!" - said Yuki and she hugged Shiro

"Your are too soft for her, but if this is what you want, go and do it." said Lili

After few hours almost everyone fell asleep, only Shiro and Nori who just woke up weren't asleep. 

"Cant sleep can we? She fell asleep as i thought" - said Shiro while playing with grass

"I knew that would hapen, now get some rest  i will take the watch" - whispered shiro, trying to not wake up others

"Tkanks, you are a savior." - said Shiro and lay down

Nothing in particular happend that night, they were propably too scared to come out because of the bonefire. Time flew and Nori also fell asleep.

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Everyone woke up to chirping of birds and other noices , Lili told everyone to pack their stuff and prepare for trip. They didnt have enought money for backpacks, so they packed their stuff into leather bags that Lili made in freetime from busheep skin. 

"Everyone ready?" - asked happily Lili

"Yea!" - rest responded

"Our goal, Gather city!" - said Lili