"¡…!"
The light emitted by the strange lamp he held in his left hand illuminated the face of a mature man, open-mouthed in surprise. Slightly bearded and disheveled, his blond hair tied into a ponytail and emerald-colored eyes. He was wearing a hooded cloak that made him blend in with the darkness, black pants, and travel boots. In his right hand he held a wooden gunpowder-based rifle, so old-fashioned and basic by the way it looked.
Never before had Tristessa desired the presence of another person so much, and now that she had one just a few meters away, her half-open mouth emit no sound at all. Exhaustion had reached its limit, and it was there that she allowed herself to fall to the ground, having accomplished her objective, for better or worse.
A small victory among so many defeats.
"Miss!" She heard the man scream when her legs gave way and she collapsed like one of her articulated dolls back on Earth, falling on wet ground and protruding roots of the nearest tree. "What happened to you?!"
Instantly she had the lamp casting its light all over her face in a chaotic twirl, like a dance of stars in front of her cloudy eyes. She saw the man leave the lamp hanging on one of the small branches of the tree and passed the strap of his rifle traverse to his body, in order to leave the weapon hanging on his back and have both hands free. The man quickly untied his cape and covered Tristessa with it, then took her in his arms.
"In the name of Xiliarra, you are covered in blood, but… I don't see that you are hurt. Whose blood is this?" He asked, unable to overcome his surprise at the girl's morbid physical condition. "And you look very weak… Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
Speaking in her own language, Tristessa saw that the man's concern was more than evident. Without compromising the support he was giving her, he took a brown leather waterskin that he had hanging on the belt around his waist and uncorked it with his bare teeth.
"Drink, it's fresh spring water," he told her, and the girl didn't hesitate for a moment to boldly take the mouth of the waterskin to her mouth and drink as if there was no tomorrow. "That's right, have as much as you need."
As she stopped to breathe, Tristessa felt a fraction of her fatigue begin to fade. As soon as she handed the leather container back to the man, he was already offering her a large slice of dried meat.
"Thank you, sir." She accepted the food with a weak smile of relief that was going to be very difficult to erase from her face. She wasn't going to deny that the flavor was very strong, further concentrated by the smoking process, but rather than having nothing at all, that strip of meat was worthy of the very gods.
"Miss, did you…?" The man looked in the direction she had come from and licked his dry, chapped lips out of nervousness. Tristessa could tell he was uneasy. Scared, even. As she swallowed a piece of meat, she opened her mouth to say something but the man pulled himself together, looking at her with a little more serenity. "Let me carry you."
After turning off the lamp with a click and hanging it on his waist, the man lifted Tristessa off the ground with great ease, clearly determined and with a plan in mind, given the seriousness reflected in his eyes.
"Umm… sir…?" Tristessa asked timidly and with a certain degree of discomfort that was insignificant compared to the extreme tiredness that dominated her. Protected from the cold behind that traveling cloak and held firmly in his arms, she even struggled not to give in to the temptation of falling asleep.
"Not here, please, miss." The man, who was undoubtedly a hunter, looked around constantly, frowning and not letting his guard down. "As long as we are in the Sea of Trees, we are in danger."
Logically, with both hands occupied, it would be difficult for him to defend himself from the attack of predators if they caught him off guard. The forest was not to be underestimated, even when accompanied; the girl knew this perfectly well, having believed herself safe while walking straight into the abyss of Death. In addition, she was unaware of other dangers there apart from the giant wolves and their pompous and thorny allies: after personally verifying the existence of inhuman creatures such as that mechanical succubus and her lover, the guardian angel of the Infinite Corridor, there could easily be threats never before seen or thought of in her imagination, lurking among the shadows of the trees.
"Damn spinnaraks, they're so insistent… I'll stew them, for sure," she heard the hunter mutter, several minutes later, when nearby the whispers of the talking rabbits began to sound like the buzzing of a beehive, wanting to attract them with their empty words. "Don't worry, miss. It won't be long before we leave the forest, just less than half an imperial vista."
"Sorry. I-I didn't understand what you mean by 'spinarac and 'imperial vista,'" Tristessa whispered in return, her tiredness evident in her voice.
"What? How could it be that you don't…? Bah, we'll have time to talk later. We must get you safe first."
The hunter quickened his pace and in no time Tristessa managed to see, after what seemed like a perpetual panorama, the end of the forest illuminated by the beginning of the new day. In front of them was the irregular beginning of highlands, with plains that rose slightly to form hills; there were some groups of trees smaller than those in the massive forest behind them, scattered near a river that emerged from the orange rocky horizon to the north and went downhill until it was lost in the darkness of the Sea of Trees.
"Nothing better than home," she heard the man say, relief in his voice, as he walked in a specific direction to the northeast. "I live there with my wife and son."
Tristessa had to turn her head slightly to see a two-story brick house with tiled roofs and glass windows. As they got closer, she saw that around it there were posts of weak artificial light with very old-fashioned lamps and no electrical connection in sight; the house was protected by iron bars and in the back a fraction of what seemed to be a barn could be seen.
"By the blessing of the Goddess I found you at the beginning of my morning routine. Hunting is not easy, and much less in the Sea of Trees," the man commented, distracting Tristessa from her visual analysis by moving her a little roughly to accommodate her in his arms, already numb after so much effort. "If I hadn't seen you walking in the dark, who knows what would have become of you…"
But Tristessa couldn't stop thinking about the house; among the many clues that this simple building gave her about the current state of this new world, there was one detail that caught her attention the most:
"Is this the only house here? Isn't there a town somewhere?"
The hunter looked at her, lowering his gaze a little. The last shadows of the night still darkened his face a little, but Tristessa, with her eyelids weighing a ton, could see the ghost of suspicion crossing his gaze.
"The town is ten imperial sights away. Two days of travel on foot, in the best case scenario," was his neutral response. "You didn't know that either?"
"N-no…"
"You're not from around here, are you? You're not from Lady Eramisaptor's Domain."
"I…I-I…"
Before she could say anything else, fatigue finally overcame her and Tristessa lost consciousness.