Deep within the Malign Forest
Yel dropped from a tree, clutching two small branches with green leaves.
"To cross the river ahead we'll need these"
he handed one over to Merika, she hesitantly accepted
"umm...and what are we to do with these branches?" she asked curious
Yel pointed to the river ahead of them.
"The waters ahead produce a poisonous substance when heated for a long time. Given it was sunny out until just now, there's a slim chance some of the poison still lingers in the air"
Then he brought the branch's leaves close to his nose
"The green leaves of the Green Tree will cleanse the poison from the air before we inhale it. This way, we can get across safely"
"hmmm...interesting. I get this protects us from inhaling it in the short term, but what if the poison gets to other areas of our body. Our clothes, our skin... how do we cleanse it then?"
"Good question. Easy answer - we simply wait"
"We wait!?" she asked surpirsed
"Yes. While this poison may be potent, it is only so for about 5 to 10 seconds. Once we get across, we don't put away our branches until that duration after" Yel replied
"Understood. So I put it like so?" Merika tried to copy what Yel was doing with the branch, but was slightly clumsy as some of the leaves brush off on her nostrils
"Not too close-" Yel tried to warn her but it was too late
"*Sneeze*" Merika lets out a supressed but weirdly cute sneeze.
Her face immediately goes red from embarassment
"!!..." she looked up at Yel bashfully
"haha, not too close. Humans are generally allergic to the substance on the leaves. Lucky, we don't have to put it too close to repel the poison" said Yel
"urgh...I will recommend you start with that next time, mister Yel" Merika said, annoyed she just embarassed herself in front of a mere adventurer
"Sorry sorry, I'll be sure to begin with the least deadly conditions haha"
"hmph! let us be on our way" she pouts, making her way ahead of Yel.
"(huh, so the princess of Malecia gets triggered over silly things like this too)" he thought with a smile
"(I should stay close, there's no telling what lies ahead of our innocent benefactor)"
Yel thought to himself and quickly caught up with her, maintaining close promixity as they used the makeshift bridge made of wood to get across the river ahead
As they made it across, Merika's earlier bravado was slowly being replaced by fright, as the deadly silence was starting to get to her.
The distant growls and hoots of the owls, plus the occasional rustling in the bushes caused by the winds were not helping her case.
Yel noticed her steps were getting unsteady
"(the tension must be getting to her. As a princess she must have taken leadership lessons but mostly in the comfort of her guardians I'm sure. A far cry from what adventurers go through, navigating deadly forests and dungeons on a near daily basis)"
Yel was thinking up a way to break the silence but she took it upon herself to do so.
"He-hey! so...umm, you've been quite useful so far Yel" she said.
"huh?"
"With your skills and talents, surely you would do just fine without partaking in dangerous jobs like this. So, why? why take this job?" she asked a question she's been wanting to ask all her escorts for a while now.
"why else, for the money of course" Yel replied
"I find it hard to believe you will be so shallow minded" said Merika.
"(Partly because Leon hold you in such high regard)" she recalled.
Yel was surprised how quickly she brushed aside his previous answer.
"While I'm flattered, I must say you think so highly of my lady Merika"
"So I take it you won't give me the real answer then?" she asked, cutting a frustrated figure.
"..." Yel remained silent
"I see...how disappointing" she muttered
After another brief moment of awkward silence
"(...While this is hardly the place to revisit my past... if it'll put her mind at ease, it should help quicken her feet once we get to the vixen flowers clearing beyond this crossing)"
Yel thought for a moment, and then spoke,
"I have a little sister" he started
"hm?" Merika surprise, and curious where he was going with that statement.
"Cyn Arki. As a child, she got afflicted with a rare disease, the black plague disease"
"The black plague!!? I've heard the stories...with the most recent incident that occurred being-"
"12 years ago - in Ulla village, its latest victim"
Yel began to recount the tragedy that shaped his life.
'It was all too sudden and without warning,
dark clouds gathered, as a misty fog rose from the earth around us,
and then, it turned deep black.
Every plant life withered,
It facilitated the decay of everything it touched - wood to dust, steel to rust - everything;
and the citizens of Ulla were no exception.
The mist got to the elders tending to the farms first,
then made it's way to the residential area,
and in no less than 30 seconds, the adults' that inhaled it, died - one by one.
Wide spread panic on sight, as everyone rushed around to protect their own
to get them away from the mist, to safety...
but It was as if the mist had a will of its own, and got concerned by this reaction.
It intensified its attempt to consume everything,
and with each passing second, grew and grew.
During our desperate escape, Cyn got caught up by a collapsing structure,
her path cut off, with the expanding mist not far behind her.
CYN!!! I shouted,
my voice grabbed my parents attention, their daughter was being left behind.
They couldn't leave her behind, despite the dying cries of others around us warning so fervently against it.
Risking their very own fates, they spared no effort to lift the collapsed pillars,
I could tell how heavy they were, when I tried to support the effort in vain.
We manage to create some room for Cyn to crawl out,
but some of the Mist got to her halfway through.
Our parents ordered me to grab her and run, as they suspended the pillars.
They were very loud passing this order and I knew then, that they were entrusting me with her life,
for it was too late for them to do it themselves.
I loved my sister dearly, but I loved my parents even more,
however, I was now forced to leave them behind, because they couldn't do the same for us.
Ulla was lost, only a few survived, as we walked on to the neighboring town, Tilla.
There, we got greatly indebted to the kindness of a childhood friend Ema, and her uncle.
It wasn't until a week later, that the symptons on Cyn's exposure to the mist started to settle in,
she grew weak from the lightest of chores, her constitution severely dampened,
she got sickly.
My parents traded their lives for hers, and yet she barely live it,
I had to do something, I have to.
Later, Klein introduced me to the adventurer's guild exam.
My efforts since then, is centered around making the most of my position as an adventurer to secure entry to Fountain city Siphrit, the best in medicine for her cure'
Yel then concluded. "To make a long story short, I'm just desperate lady Merika"
"Desperate to help my sister, desperate to honor my parents' wish, and what they gave their live for, to give her the very best life she can have"
Merika had stopped walking as she stared at Yel in sorrow, she was holding back the tears
It was evident she felt bad, both for what Yel had gone through, and for acting pushy and forcing him to recall such a horrible past.
"Yel...I...I-I'm so sorry" she offered a sincere apology. "I didn't know-"
"It-it's fine, really! You don't have to apologize. I could easily have kept my mouth shut" Yel said, trying to make Merika less guilty of her actions.
"...but you didn't...why?" she asked
"uh...I dunno...maybe I've been bottling it up for so long now...I just needed someone to talk to" Yel said with a gentle smile
Then he took the lead. "Come on, we should keep moving" he said.
"(I know how it is for those in my position. Whether we will it or not, people subconsciously answer the demands of the princess...either to vie for favors in the future, or to avoid getting on my bad side)" Merika thought for a while, and then followed
"(I pride myself in my people's skills; and more often than not, I can easily tell either of those cases. But this time... his words...they're nothing like the others. Yel truly is risking his life, for the sake of his sister, nothing more)" thought Merika as she stared at Yel from behind, her face filled with sadness imagining herself in his shoes.
"(He doesn't deserve to be caught up in this ordeal with the True scriptures. Please shepherds, come what may, please let this one reach his goal without fail)" she offered a silent prayer for fortune
They carried on,
unbeknownst of a 3rd party that was watching them from the shadows, a silhoutte that looked so much like a familiar String watcher, it was Al.
"...target identified, just as planned. Time to proceed"
In deadly silence, he armed 3 small dangerous needles and made his way forward in the cover of the dark
Back to Yel and Merika, they were approaching a small clearing on the other side of the river, surrounded by some purple flowers with petals like fox ears.
"We're approaching the vixen flowers. Keep your steps light as usual. A significant disturbance in the atmosphere and they will release their paralytic toxin on us"
Merika however, was still distracted thinking back on Yel's story
"Is...is that why you took the path of a scout Yel?"
"!? what do you mean?" he asked
"To protect what is precious to you. Unlike a knight, you don't put yourself in the way of harm doing so" she said
"That's certainly one reason. My friends, they take good care of Cyn, and support me like family. It won't do to get myself killed with so many debts to repay now would it?" Yel replied with a playful smile
"That's what I don't understand! You guide me through the forest efficiently, so focused and steadfast. Aren't you a bit worried about what might be happening back there, about your friends' safety?" Merika forcefully asked
"Of course I'm worried" Yel murmured reluctantly, as he face down, eyes closed.
"uh...(It pains him...far more than I noticed)" she realized, upon looking at Yel's gloomy expression
"...Yet I can't afford to falter. They're out there putting their lives on the line to hold that brute back. I have to play my part so it won't be in vain!!"
Yel said loudly, less to Merika, and more to convince himself, if his actions were justification enough to leave such precious friends behind
"Yel...(What is wrong with me...I keep making things difficult...)" Merika looked down herself
Then, Yel noticed a disturbance in the air and looked around, reaching for a small bag attached to his waist where he kept his inventory.
Merika spotted him acting cautious
"Yel? wha-"
"shh" Yel rudely interrupted
"!?" Merika remained silent, but confused
"(...We're not alone...)" he thought, looking around
Then,
he spotted a moon light reflection from the distance
"Look out!" he shouted
"huh?"
Quickly, Yel grabbed and moved Merika out of the way as a small needle shaved passed her hair and pinned to the ground near the vixen flowers.
"wha-what was that!?" Merika heart races as she asked
"A needle...!?" Yel stared closely at the needle and notice it was producing a subtle vapor
"vapor... the flowers! crap!!! RUN!"
Yel grabbed Merika by the arm and they dashed forward
Behind them, the vixen flowers started turning bloody red and their buds were exploding into smoke of spores and pollen.
Yel and Merika quick feet and head start to run ahead put them ahead of the explosions, but they couldn't relent otherwise they'd risk getting caught up in the toxicity that was spreading.
They managed to make it out of the vixen mine field successfully and immediately sought cover in the bushes.
Merika breathing heavily trying to catch her breathe.
She's not used to running over long distances.
"huh huh huh, what...what is going on! Y-Yel"
Yel though was still standing firm. As a scout he was used to this
"It was a calculated move. A needle to the neck, or dead by paralysis; clearly we're not alone, and our guest will not be particularly happy we're still drawing breath" he replied
"Not good...this is not the best place for an encounter with dangers all around us...Who could be so careless!" Merika complained
"I'm not sure... if the earlier incident is anything to go by, I have a feeling our guest is trying to turn the dangers of the forest against us"
"no way..." she said
"yeah...which means we have to keep moving, come on"
Yel grabbed Merika's hand and darted through the bushes.
Al from the distance saw the joustling in the bushes ahead, he could tell his targets were in there.
"...just as I thought. He may be a scout, but he's an intelligent one. He understands the lay of the land very well"
Al proceeds to reposition
"Engaging him in here will be risky; as the dangers I plan to turn on him, he can turn on me too"
Al face twisted into a frown. "It all comes down to who can outsmart the other. But whatever it takes, I must get the true scripture before they make it to the outside"
Yel and Merika were being pursued by Al, the traitor.
The dangers of the forests were standing in the way of Yel and Merika, but also being the only reason Al can't engage them directly.
Will they be able to make it through to the end safely, or will Al's influences from the shadows prove too daunting a task for them to overcome