Dawn- An age of Darkness

We finished our lunch and I went back to that room. I was still in my shirt so I got dressed in my armor. As expected a total bandit.

I couldn\'t help but remember Biteria and Brenda. Both of them were inseparable and annoyed me and, yet I liked them both. They were my companions and friends. And now they were gone…

My bag was missing a few things and the ID\'s and all that were among them. But I still had the seven silvers that I received from Brenda. They were precious to me.

My sword and knife were pretty much intact. Actually, the sword was even sharper. The geezer must have done the part. And the knife was just like I left it, so it was pretty good too.

Guess I\'ll have to move on.

After I sorted everything I met up with the rest of them outside.

"You said something about Alfeim being surrounded by forests, how long would it take for us to get there?" I asked. I still didn\'t know much about these things.

"About two days."

Two days huh? Will these wounds heal?

"Any danger?" Maybe that was a stupid question considering everything in this world was ridiculed with dangers.

"Not necessarily. The forest that surrounds the forest is sacred and don\'t have even a single undead," Jowy said. He looked proud if nothing else.

The forest surrounds the forest? Just how many frigging forests are we talking about?

"Would we get horses or-"

"We\'d take camels till the forest and then release them," the old man said.

"Camels?"

"There is a short desert worth of a day and half of travel." The old man\'s sarcastic laugh made a solid comeback.

Why the hell are you laughing about there being a dessert?

Groans escaped me without me even noticing.

The old man wasn\'t finished. He looked serious for a moment when he asked, "Alright. But Daarc, in these two months I\'ve seen a lot of changes in you. What would you do when you get there?"

"You\'ll see," I smiled. I knew what he meant.

I did thought about it before but even I was clueless about what I\'d do when I get there. But I wanted answers, and those answers couldn\'t be fulfilled if I couldn\'t get there. Why was I betrayed? For what purpose? And why did they need to play victim? Those were the questions I wanted to ask and I was prepared to fight the entire nation if need be. And since he was a prince it wouldn\'t have been incomprehensible to think that I\'d either end up in jail or dead, but I still needed to know them. I just had to.

"I could tell you one thing though," I said.

"That would be?"

"You\'d probably at the least end up in jail." Well, if we were lucky.

He laughed his ass off. I hadn\'t seen him laugh like that before.

"If you claimed to be a soothsayer then I\'d have believed you, cause after what I\'m going to do, I\'d be surprised if they decided to keep me in jail rather than exciting me."

"You mean execute, damn geezer." I was annoyed but he kept laughing.

"Excuse me, elf here. Are you sure you want to say stuff like that in front of me?" Jowy said, raising his hand up like middleschooler.

The geezer yet again laughed. It wasn\'t much of a concern. Both of us had already decided what we\'d do three full months ago.

"Then it\'s settled." I spread my arms towards the geezer.

"Ya betcha!" He grabbed my hands and shook em\' like a mad man.

Alisa was quite curious of what was happening. I didn\'t want her to be executed or something but, I didn\'t really feel obligated to tell her anything either. Even if I had told her, she probably would have decided to come along anyway, well, probably.

We packed up and left before the afternoon and went to the outskirts of the town. Before leaving I\'d made a visit to Brenda\'s grave. The others had come along too. In this city, she\'d sleep forever. If there was something like the afterlife, then I really wanted her to be able to go the heaven. According to the angel, she did go to heaven, so I could at least rest easy in that regard. But I really wanted to travel with her some more.

"Farewell Brenda." Of course, there were no replies and I left with a smile on my face. A smile that took the most of my courage and will.

The camels were pretty cheap and once outside the wall, I took a look up the wall. This wall wasn\'t that tall, probably two meters at best. It was made from stones and did look rather sturdy though.

There were three and a half people who had come to see us off on top of the wall. Although I couldn\'t believe my eyes, the old man\'s son along with his wife and two children came to send us off. They didn\'t really say anything though, not until the last moment that is.

"This one is Arc and the toddler is Evan." The old man\'s son was quiet this whole time but at the very last moment, he looked sharp.

There were two kids with him. Arc was at least ten while Evan really was a toddler. His wife was beautiful and I was just glad he got a good life here. I don\'t know why but I kind of understood him and his love for his country. So the least I could do was get out of his way. The old man didn\'t look back. The reason was his eyes being watery. He looked forward…

At the moment of our departure Arc let out a scream.

"Grampa! Please stay longer next time!"

I didn\'t know if the geezer met them this time or not but I was glad for him. "you sure you don\'t want to stay behind?" I knew the geezer wasn\'t going to stay so it was just a little tease.

The geezer still had that weird hat. He threw it without looking back and the wind guided the hat to Arc.

The old man lifted his arm in the air and made his horse move forward. He didn\'t even look at me. I guess he couldn\'t, not with that face.

We did the same. He wasn\'t crying but the look on his face wasn\'t really smile material either. If tears and smile went together then that might come close to what the old man showcased. I really was glad for him.

Goodbye Brenda.