Chapter 4: A Fated Meeting

CHAPTER 4

“There’s someone there.” I heard a voice.

I stood up and looked around. Behind a rock, I saw three figures, two men and a woman by the looks of it. I think they intended to hide but they were doing a laughably poor job.

“Let’s attack.” One of the guys said.

“No,”

“We shouldn’t”

The other two protested.

“Hello there,” I greeted them with a wave.

All three of them cringed, as they tried to hide better and once again, they failed.

“Let’s just talk to him…” The girl said at last as she emerged from behind the rock.

“Greetings,” she smiled awkwardly.

I smiled back and nodded.

“Was it you?” The guy who wanted to attack asked, pointing at me, “did you clear the dungeon?”

I felt no strong animosity from them nor did I sense any real danger emanating from the trio but it never hurt to be wary of strangers, which is why I held my hand close to my dagger as I replied.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Don’t act stupid with me, you know exactly what I mean, there was a huge floating fortress in the sky and now it is gone, did you have something to do with it?” the man asked.

The one that was the most hostile to me was a young man with brown unkempt hair. He had minimal armor on and a basic long sword at his hip that he was also ready to draw at any moment.

I tried to think of a proper answer to give at this moment. I had to give an answer that would be unlikely to give rise to more questions, something that would turn focus away from me. Telling the truth was not an option, because I didn’t know what the truth was, if I tried to explain my side of the story I would only incriminate myself further.

“Oh that? I had nothing to do with it; I saw it from afar and was drawn here by curiosity, but as I was approaching the fortress, it simply disappeared.” I lied.

It was the best thing I could come up with but it would have to do for now. The trio, especially the man with the sword, eyed me suspiciously.

“Have you seen anything else?” he asked me.

“Nothing,” I shook my head.

“Where did you come from?” the girl asked.

The question did not feel pointed, it did not feel like I was being interrogated, judging by her soft tone it seemed as if she was simply curious. The girl had short red hair and wore armor similar to the man’s. I couldn’t discern any particular weapon on her, but she did have a number of sticks attached all over her belt.

“Um, I come from over yonder,” I pointed at my back.

“You come from the Levantin Kingdom?” she asked.

“Not quite, I am a traveler; I was just…passing through…” I stammered.

I was never the best liar.

She nodded, slightly confused.

“Who are you?” I used the confusion as an opportunity to turn the questions on them. “Why do you come here?”

“I am Meili Ashborn,” the girl started, “The three of us are members of the “Revolving Ark” guild. We came here to investigate the sudden emergence of the floating dungeon.”

“Don’t bother introducing yourself to this lowlife, aye I am sure of it now, there is no way he had anything to do with the dungeon, I feel no power emanating from him, he is just some vagabond, no more no less.” The first man said as he pushed his way past me and started looking around.

He checked the ground, combing through the short grass, he then held a hand over his eyes as he looked up at the sky. He picked up a small rock and threw it up in the sky but nothing happened.

No power coming from me huh? Shall we test that out, I wanted to say but I held it back. He could have been right, the ghouls I defeated earlier could not be indicative of my strength; I had no idea how strong the people of this world were. A misplaced threat could cost me my life before I even knew it. That’s why I need as much information as possible.

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“The floating fortress,” I began as the guy was still looking around, “that doesn’t happen a lot, around here, does it?”

The girl laughed, she thought I was making some joke.

“No, it doesn’t” She finally replied, still unsure whether I was serious or not.

“If this is such a significant event why are there no more people around here, why just the three of you?” I asked next.

“Well this parcel of land belongs to the duke of Alcataine; our guild got the permission to explore the area first.” She explained as if it was common knowledge. “Besides, the dungeon only appeared a day ago, there was not much time to react.”

“Right,”

“Damn it all,” the guy shouted, “it’s really gone.”

“I know, I was quite disappointed as well.” I said.

He ignored my words as he went back to his friends.

“What do we do now? Should we just go back to the guild and report that it has disappeared?” the girl asked.

The third member simply shrugged. He seemed very shy. He was a tall and bulky man that appeared close in age to the other two. He also didn’t carry any weapons from what I could see, save for a large shield that he had strapped over his back. Every time I looked in his direction he avoided my gaze, lowering his eyes to the ground.

“There’s not much else we could do,” the first guy said, while rubbing his chin. “The leader will be so disappointed.”

“That would be nothing new…” Meili said.

He scowled at her but did not speak further. He kept moving first and Meili followed after him.

“Come on, Alt.” She said to the third guy.

“Okay,” he murmured.

“Where are you going?” she turned to me.

“Well as I said I kind of just wander around so I really have no set destination in mind.” I replied.

“Well then if you want to feel free to walk with us for a while, the wilderness is never safe so we could always use some company.” She said.

I was lucky to find someone so early; I could not learn or achieve much by simply staying by myself.

“Oh I would love to.” I said finally.

“Fine whatever, just don’t expect us to save you if you get in trouble.” The first guy said as he stomped off.

“That’s Remen,” Meili whispered, “He always tries to act high and mighty in front of others.”

“I’ve noticed,” I said.

As I walked with them I couldn’t help but gape at the scenery that surrounded me. It was all so new and strange, on the ground I spotted different flowers all covered in multitude of colors, hidden in the grass I spotted all sorts of different insects and small animals that I’ve never seen before. There was a tree that had white, translucent leaves and a small pond where a large azure snake circled and stirred inside the waters.

“You’ve never been here before, have you?” Meili asked after a while.

“No, I haven’t, this is all very different from…from where I am from.” I responded.

“We have almost reached the Goldar Forest,” Meili said as we climbed another hill.

When we reached the top I looked down and for a few seconds I felt unable to utter a single word or produce any sound. My eyes were having difficulties processing this new sight.

What I spotted was a giant forest and when I say giant I really mean it in every sense of that word. Not only did the forest stretch over a large piece of land, it was also gigantic, in a sense that it was made up of giant trees. As we went down the hill and got closer to the forest I simply could not take my eyes off it. It was so mesmerizing.

The trees had black and white barks that stretched high into the sky, easily reaching the size of a typical modern building. The boughs of the trees were lush and dense, made up of dark green leaves. From what I could tell, one leaf easily reached the size of a human palm, if not slightly larger.

Snaking off into the forest was a narrow winding path that was made up of orange dirt. As we were about to step into the forest I noticed a group of winged creatures emerge from the forest as they took off into the sky. The sun shone brightly so I could not take a proper look at those flying things. I only saw them as shades as they flapped their giant wings and flew away.

“Griffins,” Meili said as if she could read my confusion, “They usually live in the boughs of these trees, worry not, they don’t attack humans.”

Right, I thought, of course they are griffins, what else would they be. I felt dizzy at the income of all the new scenery and information and yet most of all I felt an unshakable sense of excitement and the desire to see more.

Walking through the forest I felt like we were the tiniest of ants, rummaging through the humongous forest. The wind blew gently, shaking the leaves, as the beams of sunlight that poked through the trees danced along the ground.

I wanted to ask so many questions but I didn’t even know where to start; for now I simply settled on watching around with my jaw to the floor and not being able to produce any coherent words.

With my enhanced hearing I could hear every rustle and murmur of the forest; it felt as if the forest itself was alive with many different sounds that it produced. The sensation had not been overwhelming, rather it somehow completed the experience, I could sense it all, as if I was also a part of it, and nature was using its subtle ways to communicate its beauty to me.

As I continued to enjoy the scenery I started hearing new sounds, sounds that didn’t feel like they were part of the natural world. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact location but I could hear something that sounded very similar to footsteps.

Before I had the chance to say anything I noticed that Renan stopped in his tracks. He was looking ahead of us. I approached him and took a look. It appeared to be a horse-drawn carriage, turned over and with no horses in sight. Strewn around it were a few barrels, most of them appeared empty while others appeared to contain fruits and vegetables that were presently spilled onto the ground.

“Be careful,” I said to them as I reached for my dagger. “Somebody else is here.”

I focused on my hearing once again trying to locate the footsteps that grew louder and louder. Soon, I realized that it was not necessary. Emerging from behind the giant trees was a group of armed, hooded men.