Ayla and Naro were enjoying the afternoon in the treehouse. Nibbling on some honey sweets Naro brought along, they had a blast telling each other amusing stories.

“NO WAY! YOUR PORRIDGE FELL DOWN AND TEN BRANCHES LATER IT LANDED RIGHT IN HIS FACE? THAT’S UNBELIEVABLE!”

“Yep, right in the middle. I wish I could’ve seen the look on his face, but it was, well covered in porridge,” Ayla grinned.

Naro cracked up. He was honestly so easy to amuse.

“I WISH I WERE THERE TOO. THE CITY SOUNDS LIKE SO MUCH FUN! YOU MUST HAVE HAD A LOT OF FRIENDS THERE!”

Ayla averted her gaze for a second, but Naro didn’t seem to notice.

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen any other kids around here. Are you the only kid here or something?” Ayla asked.

Naro paused. For the first time that day, he didn’t smile anymore.

“Yes, I’m the only kid in the village,” Naro replied softly.

Ayla was suprised to hear Naro speaking at a relatively normal volume instead of his usual shouting. This was probably the Naro-equivalence of wispering. Ayla thought about his reaction.

Could Naro perhaps be… lonely? She couldn’t blame him, even Ayla had at mister Lades back at home, but Naro probably never had anyone to play with before. That would explain his eccentric behaviour too.

She wanted to cheer Naro up, so she put her hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, you wanna see something cool? I’ll show you my most valuable possession,” Ayla said cheerfully.

Naro didn’t reply but watched her with interest as she took her beloved chestnut out of her pocket and it to the boy.

“A… nut?” He asked.

“Yup. When I was younger, I saw it falling from the sky. It was in the same year that the God’s Tree died, so I came to see it as sort of… a last goodbye from the tree I have lived in my whole life. It’s also the only thing that didn’t get buried when… you know…”

Ayla blushed a little.

“Anyway, I want you to have it.”

Naro gasped.

“BUT… NO! IT’S THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE FROM YOUR OLD HOME! I CAN’T ACCEPT THIS!” He yelled in his normal loud voice. Ayla smiled. She liked that voice better.

“Soon, my parents and I will continue our travels. I want to give you something to remember me by,” she said. “And besides, you never know when I get buried by a mudstream again, so I would rather give it to you.”

Naro was literally crying. “OF COURSE I WOULD NEVER FORGET YOU! YOU KNOW I WOULDN’T… NEVER…”

He hugged her firmly. Ayla was caught off guard and almost fell out of the tree again, but she managed hold on. She hugged Naro back.

“There, there…” She patted him on his back.

Suddenly, she shook Naro off with a serious look on her face. Naro wiped his tears away.

“WHAT’S WRONG?” He asked suprised.

“Listen. You hear that? No birds.”

Naro didn’t seem to notice since he was practically deaf, but he was on high alert now as well. If something were to happen here, they couldn’t yell for help in the village after all, they were too far away for that. Both children knew this, so they remained silent.

Ayla gasped when a large gorilla-like creature trudged into vision. She watched the creature intently as it silently walked under them, making suprisingly little sound with its massive body. Because massive it was.

The creature was almost three meters tall, and just as wide. It’s body was made of tough grey boulders, and Ayla spotted patches of moss growing all over the creature. it walked on all fours, it’s massive stone fists supporting it’s small abdomen.

The golem heard Ayla’s gasp and looked up. The two children stared into it’s green, glowing eyes and Ayla had a hunch that the golem was highly irritated.

“OH, THAT’S A GOLEM,” Naro explained loudly. “THEY LIVE IN A VILLAGE FURTHER IN THE FOREST, BUT THEY SOMETIMES LIKE TO WANDER AROUND HERE! DON’T WORRY, THEY WON’T HURT YOU, THEY ARE PEACEFU-”

Naro was interrupted when the golem smashed his enourmous fist into the tree. The tree shook so hard that Naro’s flimsy treehouse was destroyed immediately. The tree’s trunk shattered and splinters rained down as the two children fell, yelping. Luckily they landed with only a few bruises, but the golem was quickly on them.

It loomed over them, it’s eyes burning with fury. Up close it looked even scarier, and Ayla knew that if it were to come to a fight, the two would be mashed to pulp.

“R…ack.”

Ayla blinked. Did the golem say something?

“G…rowy…rack.”

“D-DID YOU SAY SOMETHING, S-SIR GOLEM?” Naro asked, shaking.

“Gr…owy…r…rack!” The golem lost it’s temper and flung his fist on the ground.

Ayla and Naro jumped back instinctively, but they still got knocked down by the impact. Pebbles and dirt narrowly missed the two children. The golem paused for a second before charging Naro. The boy quickly got back on his feet and barely dodged a second blow. Ayla managed to stand up as well, but she could only watch while her friend was being assaulted by the golem.

This was bad.

This was bad.