Dawn- An age of Darkness

I was treated- kind of. Almost all the wounds stung but I got the feeling they\'d be healed in a few days, assuming I didn\'t get a high potion soon. I had six in my ring, but I never got the chance to bring them up and if I did now, it\'d be suspicious, so I didn\'t. 

After treating me, the maid had told me to stay put for half an hour and only then come out. I had a bad feeling but waited. 

Lately, I was getting so many bad feelings, I kind of feared that my bad feeling sensors were going out of date or something. 

… A moment of silence, please. 

Once I headed out, I was actually in for a shock. These guys were surprisingly resilient. They were already done packing and then I saw the princess. But wait, that wasn\'t the princess. It was just someone dressed as the princess who was wearing a hood. 

And by the looks of things, they were about to head out into the forest. These guys were in tatters but they were still pretty intent on doing what they were going. 

"We are taking a gamble here." The maid was right next to me. "Come this way." She spoke softly and led me to the back of a tent. The central tent wasn\'t near this place. 

Behind the tent was the princess and a horse. 

She was wearing clothes of a typical soldier and she did look good in those. 

She wasn\'t that old actually. Maybe eighteen? Fox ears, braided amber hair, and a tail. Yeah, definitely not bad-looking. 

The horse was tied to a tree and upon seeing me, the girl- the princess bowed softly. "Please forgive me for showing you such a shameful look lord Daarc."

She didn\'t smell bad anymore and actually, she was wearing some sort of a strong perfume now. 

"It\'s okay and feel free to drop the lord."

I really didn\'t like artificial scents like this though. Always made me remember that night in the forest of Moire. 

"Right, Daarc!" And she already got over it. 

Oh well. 

I turned to the maid, "Where should-"

"Take her to the knight captain, Jeran. Please ensure her safety." The way this maid begged almost made me wonder if she really was a maid. "I give you my word, you\'ll be paid handsomely."

And I wished she didn\'t put so much faith in random strangers, after all, people were selfish. "You have my word." But unfortunately, I didn\'t have ulterior-

Oh, wait.

I touched the horse and patted his neck. Yeah, he was a good horse. It took me a minute to remember the feeling of riding one and I climbed on. "Well, get on, we\'re leaving as fast as possible."

The soldiers were marching out to give us this chance. Though I had a feeling whoever wanted this girl dead, wasn\'t dumb enough to fall for that. 

It was past noon and if we didn\'t leave soon, it\'d get dark fast. And I had a lot of bad experiences with forests in the dark. 

"Ri-right."

I only had one hand, so I couldn\'t hold the rein and help the princess get up. Meaning, she was on her own. 

This girl literally fumbled for three minutes trying to get up. But then the maid slapped her behind, she shrieked got on top of the horse rather easily. 

Sigh. So much for respecting the princess.

"Alright, hold tight."

"Wait, you\'re not coming?" She looked back at the maid, who now had a satisfied smile. 

"May we meet again." She nodded at me to move on. "Please protect her." Her eyes shimmered and she tried her best not to cry. 

I nodded back and ebbed the horse forward. 

It wasn\'t like they were going to die anyway. But I guess the maid really did care for this girl. 

"NO, but-"

The girl did cling to me, but she still had tears in her eyes. I heard loads of bad things about this girl, but somehow she didn\'t seem all that bad. But I guess that was too soon to say. 

As the horse blitzed for the dark forest, I took a deep breath and tried my best to not look back. "Don\'t worry, my companions should arrive at this place soon, they\'ll figure something out. Meanwhile, we have to hurry to the capital."

"Okay." The girl hugged me tight and it was kind of hard to breathe. She almost believed me too much. Was something wrong with these people?

Is this how Ve and Biteria felt when I hugged them too? I definitely had to reconsider.

***

It was afternoon and though the horse ran fast, I had a feeling something was wrong with the surrounding. 

It was almost as though- the woods were changing. 

I stopped the horse. 

The girl grabbed me tighter but then eased up. "Is something wrong?" She looked very frightened. Her eyes were almost saying \'You\'re not going to abandon me, right?\'

"There seems to be something wrong with the forest. Are you familiar with the folklore of this place? As in, things that might make people lost in the woods and those."

She looked at me for a minute without blinking and then breathed in relief. Did she seriously think I was about to leave her here?

"I don\'t know. But I did hear the soldiers saying something about a tricky dark elf."

A tricky dark elf huh? Well, that didn\'t sound good. 

We were going into a straight path but I had a feeling this path wasn\'t so straight. 

"Can you use magic?"

"A little bit of wate-"

"Good. I\'m controlling the horse so, try to shoot a ball of water straight." It had more to do with me not wanting to use holy, but oh well. 

"Sure." She wasn\'t too convinced but she did throw a ball of water straight. The ball did go straight but just after ten meters, it disappeared: I heard a faint sound in the distance. The girl shrieked. "It disappeared!"

\'So, that\'s why.\'

I once played a certain game that had a large floor with loads of teleport stones. It was very, very tricky and that\'s why, after seven years, I was excited to take on a similar challenge. 

So, without a doubt, I marked the tree and scrutinized the surrounding. 

Obviously, this\'ll be a drag to do again and again. But- wait, I had another person with me. "Say, how\'s your memory?"

"Good? I can memorize the multiplication table easily."

Well, fair enough. 

"Try remembering these marks and the surroundings."

"Okay." I didn\'t know why but this girl was too agreeable. Wasn\'t she supposed to be a spoiled brat? I was awfully confused.

And with that, we marched on. 

If we went straight, we kind of went in various random directions. Taking left had us going either straight or backward. The same went for right. And the back was also random like going straight. I did see a pattern but it was kind of impossible to be certain. Even with trial and error, things weren\'t going that great.

And it was getting awfully dark too. 

"Are there undeads in this forest?" There wasn\'t any smell, but I definitely wasn\'t going to let my guard down. So far, I didn\'t see any goblins or red eyes anywhere though. 

"What?"

\'You don\'t know what undeads are?\'

I sighed. I guess I could take that as a no.

"Are you from outside Xylax?" The girl asked in a quiet voice. 

"I\'m an adventurer. I travel all the time."

"I see." She rested her head on my back. "But for a human you really are strong. Are you really a human?"

"Demi-humans are a lot stronger I guess. But- I\'m human."

"I see." She didn\'t seem to believe me. She believed that I was going to take her back home but she didn\'t believe I was a human? 

Sigh. 

This really wasn\'t going anywhere though and we were still lost. 

And I didn\'t have tricks either. If only I could sense my surroundings. 

Wait, Jori could do that!

And he gave me a clue too. 

What was that again?

Blood? Lifeblood!

I actually heard lots of things about mana. Jori told me to imagine as lifeblood. The girl in my dream told me to imagine it like flowing water and Ve told me to use the healing kind. 

Honestly, I was lost. Both literally and metaphorically. 

So, with a sigh, I tried a tinsy wincy bit imbuiation on my hand. I imagined it to be like water flowing and I also used the healing kind, whatever that was. 

The girl was curious as to why I let go of the rein but she didn\'t say anything. 

My hand glowed and became very hot. I stopped. A failure. But it lasted longer than before. I was getting closer. But definitely not close enough to imbue my body let alone my brain. 

Rustle!

There were some sounds coming from the woods. At first, I thought it was just the leaves but- I remembered we were in a forest. And forests were unpredictable. 

Something was in there and my light might have caught its eye. I got down from the horse. "Can you ride the horse?"

"N-no."

Well, she was a princess. 

"At least maintain the horse, and don\'t let it freak out, maybe touch his neck and pet?" Though I said it, I wasn\'t really convinced either. 

"Is something out there? Shouldn\'t we run?" The girl was sweating rather a lot. And she was shaking too. I was right next to the horse, so I could even feel her gasps. 

Normally, she\'d be right.

"You\'re right but- maybe this isn\'t so bad. If that thing can travel here, then there\'s a good chance, this is great news for us."

The girl didn\'t disagree. But I didn\'t see anything.. Whatever it was, it was fast.