We built a temporary camp outside the forest to rest. The plan was to tie a rope to each other just in case something were to happen. It was a simple string made out of loxes, and we tied it to each other's wrists. Sleeping for a few hours removed some of the exhaustion, but even after resting, the sense of dread didn't vanish. Selina was still asleep when we decided it was time to venture into the Forest of Spirited Trees. It was incredibly dark in the forest, with barely any light passing through the thick leaves of the gigantic trees.
Just as we set foot into the forest, we heard a woman's voice to the right of us.
"Hey! Why are you going into the forest? You do know it is pretty dangerous, right?"
Erika's face lit up with excitement, while I looked confused at the both of them.
In front of us was a woman with a blue flowery dress. She was slender and pale with blue-silvery hair. There were two weird strings on her head with beads on both ends. She had a flower emblem on her chest and bore bags on her side.
"AZUREEEE!" Erika charged at the woman.
"Oh hi, Erika, how have you been?"
"Things have been tough..." Erika sniffled.
"Oh erm... what happened?"
"Haven't you heard? Wien underwent a regime change and a civil war, and now they are preparing for a war against the Luvian Empire."
"Oh... that does sound troublesome."
Erika hugged Azure and introduced her to me.
"This is my younger brother, Erich Von Stapel. We are fleeing Wien to get to Nautilus to seek political immunity."
I waved, but she didn't even look at me.
"I see, the borders must have closed then," Azure pondered.
"Yeah, that's why we are going through the forest. But Azure, I didn't know you lived close to the forest."
"Haha... well... I need to search for someone."
"Who is it you need to find?"
"Someone's daughter I was entrusted with."
"I hope you find her. And could you perhaps tell us how to get through this forest to get to Nautilus?"
"Ermm... I wouldn't really recommend going through the forest right now... the spirits are a bit unhappy. But if you must..." Azure sighed and threw her a butterfly emblem. "That's one of my border passes I use to travel and trade. If you come across any hostile spirits, show them that emblem and tell them you were sent by Azure. Then I think they would leave you alone."
"Thanks a lot, Azure! You can pay me back by buying more of my stuff once you are safe in Nautilus." She smiled.
"I really gotta set out and find the person I need to find now. See you later, Erika."
Azure went off in her own direction.
"Erika, who was that?"
"She is one of my herbal suppliers when I worked as a nurse. The hospital usually bought medicine from her, and I was assigned with the errand of buying medicine sometimes, and I met her."
"I didn't think someone would even want to live anywhere close to this forest."
"She is a really nice person to talk to, even though she can seem a bit rude. She tends to focus on her work more often than not."
"I saw that... ahem. Shall we continue on our way now?"
The forest was calm, unlike those myths we had heard about it. There were no spirits or evil mystical beings in sight, just thick, massive trees.
Maybe we should have asked Azure for a direction because we had no clue what direction we were going. That's when I sensed some movement on my back. Selina had woken up from her slumber and asked for the situation.
After telling her what had happened, she nodded and created a small crystalline compass.
"Go southwest to reach Nautilus."
After saying that, she closed her eyes, trying to conserve every bit of lox that entered her body to maintain the compass.
Following her direction, we crossed streams and swamps. It seemed like Selina knew a lot about the geography of the forest. I was curious about how she knew so much about the forest and questioned her about it.
According to her, the Fivindus family that was situated close to the forest had conducted training in the forests and explored parts of it.
It made sense though. The Fivindus mansion was closer to the forest than Nautilus was. I asked her if she had been to these parts of the forest, to which she shook her head. She told me that she had only seen maps drawn by one of her cousins, Eirlys, and memorized them.
"Eirlys Fivindus?"
"You know her?" Selina asked, shocked.
"Every known military general knows of her. She constantly writes down the most detailed documentation of our wars. Every general practically has a copy of her work on their shelf. Mostly for confidence boosting because she portrays us military generals in such a fine and elegant manner. We generals adore her. Of course, there is a lot of criticism in her work too. Sometimes we generals cringe reading about our failures in her work. Honestly, it's a bit embarrassing to say that she managed to find such errors in my strategies. She herself could become a great general one day, ahaha!"
"I didn't know Eirlys was so well respected in the military world," Selina said, smiling, proud of her family.
When night fell, we decided to set up our tents. Selina told me that she thought she could walk on her own now. As I set her down on the ground, she pushed herself up from the ground with her hands and stood on wobbly knees, but she was standing.
"See, I'm standing! Hehe."
Erika and I both smiled as Selina was trying to take steps forward. With each step, her arms flailed, trying to keep her balance, but she managed. After a bit of walking around, she sat down by the fire with us.
There was a moment of silence before Selina asked me what I was going to do once I got to the Academy. She asked me if I was going to try to stop the war between Fukviyu and the Luvian Empire.
I shook my head and told her that my job was over and that it was impossible for me to continue fighting.
"Don't you think we could ask the Academy to intervene in the war?" Erika asked.
"The Academy is a neutral entity. It wouldn't take any action unless it mattered to them. And as far as they are concerned, Fukviyu and the Luvian Empire have nothing to do with them," I responded.
"But what about all the lives that will be lost in this war!?" Selina yelled.
"They wouldn't care unless they are a part of the Academy. There's nothing we can do."
"The Revolutionaries," Selina said.
"What is that?"
"They work from the underground world of Nautilus, and they want to create a just and equal city of Nautilus."
"They must be few, and it is impossible to stop both the Luvian Empire and Fukviyu with only their help. And why would they even help us in the first place? And wouldn't they benefit from a war breaking out? It would be easier for them to take over the surface if all the soldiers from Nautilus were taken to the frontlines."
Selina sulked.
"Erich! You don't need to be so mean about it."
"What? I'm just telling her the honest truth."
"It's okay, Erika. I understand."
Staring into the crackling blaze, I could only ask myself why I was so helpless in this situation. Why I didn't have the power to accomplish anything. I thought about Alaric and why he would ever want to work with the Royal Family when all they have done to him was cause pain. Why would he turn his back on his family, his people, and the world to help bring this world closer to destruction?
Deep in my thoughts, I heard a branch snap in the distance. It could have been just an animal passing by, I thought. But then I heard whispers from the dark. It was a language none of us understood. All three of us formed a circle around the fire and prepared our firearms. The whispers grew louder, and I could hear how the grass hissed as something walked through it.
A deer popped out of the bushes and looked right at us. A brown-spotted deer with majestic white antlers.
"A deer?"
Crows then perched on branches above us and cawed. Were these the mystical beings people had warned us about? Nonetheless, we couldn't let our guards down.
"Erika! Bring out that amulet your friend gave you!"
"Right away!"
The moment Erika turned her back, the deer vanished from my sight, and before me stood a human with antlers. He was muscular with tattoos all over his bare chest. He then spoke words in an unknown language before rushing towards me. I fired off bullet after bullet, but he dodged every single one of them.
Selina turned around and yelled out my name. She threw up a crystal wall between the deer and me after I had fallen onto the ground. She manifested her crystalline guns, but as she was about to fire, she coughed up blood. She had overused her loxes once again. The crows dove down on her and turned into two small, black-haired girls that pinned Selina down.
The crystalline wall was shattered, and the deer hooked my arm in his antlers before snapping my arm and slamming me into the ground, making me drop the gun.
As they were about to ambush Erika, she took out the butterfly emblem Azure had given her.
"Azure!" She pointed at the amulet and shook her head vigorously.
The humanoid animals stopped in their tracks and walked up closer to inspect it. They took the amulet from her hand and inspected it closely.
"Did big sis Azure really give these humans her blessing?"
"She did! She did! It's big sis Azure's butterfly!"
We could suddenly understand what they were saying. Was it thanks to the emblem?
"It's legit." The deer handed back the amulet to Erika, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Erika asked what they were, and one of the black-haired girls pointed at her face and said that she was Lucy.
"I don't think that's what she meant, Lucy. She's asking if we are humans or not!" The other crow said proudly.
"Oh! Then we are Lusians!"
The three of us stared blankly at the girls before us.
As in the mythological beings that only appeared in books? The beings born from Desire and Guilt?
"Their eyes are so wide!"
"Did we scare them too much..?"
I got up from the ground, and the deer asked me what we were doing in this forest and how we had gotten our hands on Azure's travel pass.
I explained that we were trying to cross the forest to get to Nautilus, and we just happened to run into Azure, who was friends with Erika.
"Azure made friends with humans? That damn irresponsible woman..." The deer shook his head.
"We are sorry for ambushing you guys... we thought you were one of those bad humans..." one of the girls said.
"So can we pass through the forest to get to Nautilus?"
"We do not know of this place you call Nautilus, but if you wish to exit the forest on the southwestern side, you will need to walk far," the deer said.
"I know, we came prepared for that."
"If that is the case, then I bid you farewell now."
The girls waved their goodbyes and told Erika that Uncle Henotrious was a bit cautious of humans. Before leaving, they gave Erika one of their feathers and said that it was an apology gift. If we ever needed their help in this forest, we could use their feathers to call them. After giving us their feather, they smiled before flying off.
Erika stood there completely shocked, and Selina stood up, exhausted from consuming so many loxes, and collapsed as quickly as she got up.
"Did... did... did... we just meet legendary creatures...?"
"I think... we did... wait... does that mean that Azure this entire time was a LUSIAN?"
Meanwhile, somewhere in the busy markets of Nautilus at night.
The market was sprawling with people, and the sounds of ships' horns and waves echoed across the busy streets. Azure stood in the middle of everything.
"This sure is unlike any Lusian market, maybe I could set up shop here one day?"
As she stood there in the crowd, thinking about the perfect place to put her stall one day, she felt a hand groping her chest.
"The only downside to being in a human society is that humans have no respect for boundaries, with or without the moon."
She grabbed the hand, and the man who groped her ran away in fear. On his hand was the mark of a moth.
"Oh right, I don't have time for this. I gotta find the Princess, I sense her nearby here..."
Azure then ventured off into Nautilus.