No Rest for The Weary : Part I

As the sunlight rose on the horizon, casting its golden rays filtered through the frozen leaves, the boy and Leonard packed up their belongings and ready themselves to set out one more on an arduous journey. Leonard looked back at the old church for one last time. Strange. So little time, yet that place held a lasting impression for him.

As they cruised through the deep snowy path amongst the ever-endless forest, a sense of curiosity stirred within Leonard, wondering what lay ahead of them. Up in the air, the bird chirping traversed through the fragile morning mist. A sense of peace and tranquility enveloped the stillness of the morning.

A child's voice broke the quiet morn, perching on Leonard’s shoulder. “Where are we going?” Lilieflour asked. “Are we going to a human town?” her face brightened upon her question, and her wing fluttered with excitement.

Leonard trudged along behind the boy, gazing at the forest canopy. “I have no idea,” he replied, his voice tinged with uncertainty as he raised both his arms up and behind his head.

“Lilieflour wonders why not simply ask him?”

“Who? Him? Heh… As if he could understand me,” Leonard murmured, his voice barely audible.

“What do you mean?” the fairy tilted her head in confusion. “You could not speak the common language?”

Leonard nodded in affirmation. At first, He hesitated whether to hide the reason behind his inability to speak the common language of this world from her. What if he said I’m not from this world? Wouldn't that make a commotion? Should he tell her the truth? Would she believe it?

With a tint of hesitation in his tongue. “I-I lost my previous memory,” Leonard stammered. I lied, but it is much easier to stick with that story.

The boy glanced back, eavesdropping on their little talk. He raised his eyebrows in amusement. Leonard looked at him, confused until a squeal escaped from Leonard’s mouth; he did a double take and after realizing it; he shook his head hard.

You stupid, Leonard. Of course, from his perspective, I speak alone.

The boy walked back toward him and lowered his body to a squat position. “Stedavi duin, [no]?” the boy asked. Leonard still kept his head down and had no idea how to respond to his question.

“[Your] piereen,” the boy said, pointing to his leg.

Ah, Is my leg’s hurt? That's what he means by it? Leonard shook his head and demonstrated his leg swung up and down, letting him know that his leg was no longer hurt.

“Wilretus [get on my back] plabio?”

Leonard stopped. I think he said those words before. If I'm not mistaken, it's something like ‘get on my back’ or something like that. Although he was a bit not sure if it was really what the boy meant, Leonard shook his head in a polite manner. Well, to be honest with him, he preferred to walk on his own.

“Dunt, wilretus [walk]?” the boy further asked.

“[Yes,] umm… [m-me] [walk!],” stammered Leonard, fumbling for words. He was a bit worried if it would be lost in translation, but he was confident about it, although casually butchering the language spelling. Seems like I'm getting a better understanding of what he said. Sey is yes and fi is me. But it would be nice if I had a notebook to write it down.

“[Ok], alsie [that what you] wilre,” the boy sighed. “Blied kerdicht bid [me],” he flicked Leonard's forehead.

“Ouch” Leonard groaned. “What’s that for?” he protested, but the boy only replied with a smile.

“Komve!” he waved his hand, signaling Leonard to come near him.

Along the way, Leonard couldn't shake the feeling that this world became more game-like for him. It felt like he was on a tutorial level, where he, as the player, needed to learn about the game's basic mechanics. Unlike a well-seasoned player, of course, who would often skip the tutorial, Leonard had to learn every single thing from zero.

For him, his tutorial wasn't about learning skills of elements or something; Leonard’s tutorial was more akin to learning a language —a tedious process. Whenever the boy spoke, words appeared in his head and his job was only to fill in the words and connect the meanings to Japanese. It reminded him of the Luodingo app that he used to play to learn English on his phone. With the brain of a child, perhaps he could memorize a bit faster than an average adult, but even so, it was still a slow and tedious process. He chuckled a bit when thinking about it. His older self would have struggled to memorize.

Hmm… I wonder if I could do it.

“Open Status!” he shouted and put his hand forward, expecting some kind of status window to appear in front of his eyes. Yet, nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” shouted the fairy in unison as the boy. “Leon, wat zijn [you] daein?”

“U-uh. [No-no!]” stammered Leonard, feeling embarrassed as both scrutinized him with a rather confused expression. So, this is not that kind of isekai, huh?

As they walked further deep into the forest, Leonard's small body quickly grew tired of walking on his own. Despite only about an hour of walking, his legs began to ache, unable to walk any longer. It was probably because of lack of sleep last night. With no other option, Leonard mumbled a word to the boy, and the boy took notice of his condition. He lowered his body and Leonard climbed onto the boy's back.

He could feel the warmth of the boy’s body, bringing comfort to him as the cold winter wind caressed through his hair.

It’s warm…

Somehow nostalgic for him, reminiscing him of the times when his father used to carry him after a long trip. As the gentle crunching of snow beneath swayed against the boy's steps, its rhythmic sound became his only entertainment to his ears. The soothing cadence only lulled him further into a drowsy state, stranding himself to slumber.

***

A breeze of fresh winter air tousled up to his hair as he stirred from his nap. A soothing hymn of water shimmered in Leonard's ears —the sound of the gentle waves lapping against the rock beneath him. To his astonishment, Leonard found himself gazing upon a serene, deep dark ocean laid before him, stretching as far as eyes could see. As he looked around, Leonard realized they were walking close by the cliff’s edge.

He had no idea how long he had been sleeping. Judging by the position of the sun slightly above his head, it was safe to assume he had slept until noon. While he gazed upon the sky, he noticed a couple of birds moving —a jet black bird. Crows. As they screeched and soared, they flapped their wings, moving in the same direction as the boy.

Leonard tapped on the boy’s shoulder. The boy glanced back at Leonard. “Oh? [You] alja [awake?]” Noticed the boy as they continued along by the cliff’s edge.

Leonard reached out his hand and pointed towards the crows. “Ah… Dunt, [you] mervse [that too?]” asked the boy, his expression was rather grave.

“He has been following those birds for a while,” said the fairy, joining the conversation. “If anything, Lilieflour does not like the look of this; crows always bring bad news wherever they are.”

As they followed the crows' direction, a gentle murmur of water shimmered in Leonard’s ears. “Leon, [look]!” the boy remarked, drawing his attention into a slope in front of it.

“Orech,” said the boy as they drew closer.

“Whoaa,” Leonard's eyes brimmed with wonder as they stumbled upon a ravine in the middle of the forest. The ravine, though not narrow, a stream of water ran through the middle of the rift. Its slopes on each side were quite steep for a kid like him to jump down.

“[Hold tight!]” said the boy, sprinting through the snow and sliding down the slope to the riverbank.

"Yes, yes, yes! Finally, I could wash my dirty face." Leonard's anticipation gripped him relentlessly as he jumped from the boy’s back, wanting to drench himself in the water. But he was held back by the boy, who pointed at the sky where the crows circled not far from their footing.

“It is probably just a dead animal,” said the fairy naively. Her statement didn’t help their situation at all. Even if it was a dead animal, it was either killed by another animal or, even worse, by a human. The last thing they wouldn't want to expect was to stumble upon another human being in their current situation.

Restlessness started to creep in. The boy rested his right hand on the sword’s pommel, ready to draw it if something escalated, while Leonard crept along behind the boy’s cape, each step only bringing a sense of dreadness to him.

Leonard had no idea what to expect.

As they walked to the upstream, the crows descended to the ground, their screeching drawing only somber melodies to Leonard's ears. His heart pounded fast as he saw a glimpse of two figures lay motionless amongst the crowds, one lay down by the riverbank while the other partially submerged in the river. The boy approached the body, looking at closer inspection.

From a quick glance, based on their clothing alone, it was safe to assume that they were not soldiers who were searching for them. One figure lying in the river wore a long garb with a quiver strapped on their hips and a bow submerged in the water. The other figure, on the riverbank, was clad in a winter garb, with a sword lying nearby. It was quite possible that they were adventurers or hunters.

Leonard took a peek behind the boy’s cape to get a closer look. The wounds were severe, with a particularly deep laceration marring one of the bodies. His gaze accidentally met the deadpan expression of a young man, his eyes wide open, as if pleading for help. It was the same haunting face of the poor soldier that was killed by the boy. He quickly averted his gaze as his stomach churned with unease.

“Zouria [a] bosa [did this?]” murmured the boy as he moved to the body in the water. Although the boy couldn’t hear it, the fairy added something to his statement.

“A mere bear could not do this. Hmm… Oh wait, maybe it can?” said the Fairy, rubbing her chin.

“Bear?” replied Leonard. In his old world, at least according to what he learned on the internet, bears were notorious for both mauling and biting their victims. “But I don’t see any bite marks,” he said. At this point, anything could have caused it to the victims. Wild animals, or even another human, could have inflicted wounds like these.

“True…” agreed the fairy. “You kid know a lot of things for someone losing their memories, let alone age.”

“Err… I learned that from a… book. Yes, a book,” said Leonard, trying to convince her.

“Huh… Anyway,” sighed the fairy. “Lilieflour almost forget, bears are just like fairies. They hibernate during the winter.”

“Then something must’ve bothered their sleep,” Leonard added, his mind racing with possibilities. Something clicked in his mind, although he was not sure if it was the reason.

“There are two possibilities, I think, whether these victims stumbled upon a bear when they were walking around the riverbank or they are hunters, hunting for bears.”

A voice, a scream of a girl, broke the stillness of the forest followed by Leonard assumed a bear roar. The scream drew their attention, the boy stood and drew his sword, while signaling Leonard to stay behind him as they approached the source.