I didn’t care, I couldn’t care anymore. The world that I used to know was now gone, I had exposed myself to humans; met a mage; been chased by a druid; and was on a wild hunt to kill a King.

It might even be better if I just started breaking all the rules - maybe it would force another God to come down and then I would know that I wasn’t left all alone. I would give anything to see my Sisters again, to be reunited together and maybe we could figure out how to fix this crazy world together.

But I was slowly and painfully learning that I might be the only one left, and I should try to take all the help I can get. And since I learned the hard way that Carlsen wasn’t trustworthy, maybe this random human man might be of some help, for now at least.

The man still hadn’t gotten up from the ground and my hand was tired from hanging in the air so I let it drop to my side, annoyed by how rude he was being. I had saved his life, what a heedless human.

“So…” the man trailed off.

“Yes?” a hint of annoyance leaked into my voice.

“You said your name is Yin, and you’re a…?”

“A God, a Sister Earth to be exact.”

“Humph,” the man rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, “that’s a new one.”

I crossed my arms, feeling more disgruntled by the minute.

Suddenly the man sat up, the bright moonlight shining down on his jet black hair caused it to look almost silver. The man had quite a unique appearance - he resembled my Sister, Illy, from Luian. He had straight, ebony hair, paired with almond-shaped brown eyes. He was definitely not from Kranen or Iselel.

“Prove it,” he said with a sly smile.

I raised an eyebrow, “you want me to prove that I’m a God?”

The man nodded and I scoffed. What an ingrate, I saved him and he has the gall to question me?

I stuck my lower lip out in fake panic, “oh no, how will I prove that I’m a God?”

The man looked surprised, “uh, well…”

I pursed my lips and stuck one of my hands into the grass, feeling energy pulse down my fingertips into the soft Earth. Before the man could say another word, a whole flower field erupted around him - hundreds of delicate daisies exploded and waved their gentle stems in the soft night wind.

The man jumped up in alarm, swinging his head around to view all the new flowers.

“Is that enough proof?”

“Well, you could be a druid.”

Feeling insulted by his words, I dug my fingertips deeper into the Earth. The ground started to rumble ominously and my breaths came out in short, sharp gasps as I struggled to concentrate.

The man looked around nervously, “o-okay, I-I believe you. You can stop that now.”

I don’t think so.

With one last burst of energy, a massive apple tree erupted from the Earth right beside the man. He lurched away in alarm, tripping over his own feet and falling with a thud.

“Ouch,” the man exclaimed while rubbing his sore butt.

Wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead, I stood up and walked over to the newly formed tree. I noticed that with each passing day, using my powers took more and more effort - almost as if I was slowly losing them. Krivat hadn’t mentioned anything about my powers losing effect, and it had only been about three days - I should still have four days left to kill the King.

I plucked a fresh apple from a low-hanging branch and threw it at the man. It bounced off his shoulder and landed on the ground, rolling away from him. I grabbed another apple for myself and floated up to a higher branch to settle on.

Munching on the apple, I stared down at the man.

“So are you going to tell me your name?” I asked between bites.

The man reached for the apple on the ground and carefully cleaned it off on his shirt, “Jun.”

“Where are you from?”

“Small port town called Jing, on the continent of Luian.”

So I was right, he was from Luian. I had never been there but Illy used to tell me tales of the humans there worshipping a mythical being that resembled a large lizard that flew through the skies and breathed fire.

I was curious about what he was doing in the druid forest, this was as far away from Luian as you get.

“You’re probably wondering what I’m doing wandering around this forest, eh?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly suspicious. Can he read my mind? Is he a mage like Krivat?

The man chuckled nervously, “what’s with the angry look?”

I bit down on my apple and made a mental note to test this theory later.

“Actually, I am curious. So what brings you to the druids’ forest?” He was the first human that I had seen since entering this forest, he must have some sort of special mission or reason to be here. With no discernable exits, it didn’t seem like the sort of place for humans to casually be exploring.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I’m lost.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Lost?”

The man finished off his apple and laid down in the grass, the early morning sun was just starting to peek through causing the sky to have a tinge of pink.

“It’s a bit of a long story, I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

I didn’t have much time to waste, I had made a giant promise to the wolves and I still needed to find the King and bring his head to Krivat. On the other hand, I was incredibly curious and figured I could spare a bit of time to listen to Jun’s story.

Plucking another apple off the tree I threw it down to Jun. I grabbed one for myself and patiently waited for him to start his story.

“Let’s hear it then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jun’s POV

Luian was a beautiful continent. Peaceful and quiet, full of amazing jungles dotted with clear waterfalls. The weather was temperate and even though it did get chilly during the winter months, it never snowed. I grew up with my father, mother, and three brothers. My family were simple fishermen living in the small port town of Jing.

We made all of our money from fishing and relied on the vast ocean to provide for us but after that awful War, it seemed that most of the fish had disappeared. The jungle started to die and the once boundless waterfalls dried up overnight. My family struggled to survive, resorting to stealing from others and farming other small sea creatures. There wasn’t much of a market for sea snails though, unfortunately.

I had heard of an opportunity to make money on another continent. I was told of a city called ‘Kranen’ where their monarchy was still alive and hired young men to work as knights. This was favourable as knights were trained in magic and thus they were paid quite handsomely since they were valuable.

Normal humans did not possess the ability to use magic, only humans that were trained by mages could acquire such powers. The King in Kranen had one of the last known mages, a mysterious mage called Krivat.

I had heard rumours that the mage had been expelled from the kingdom for having relations with the King’s youngest daughter and that the King had killed his daughter in shame. These rumours came out at midnight in drunken taverns so I paid them no heed - what could poor, drunk fools possibly know about the inner workings of a kingdom.

So in the middle of the night, I left my hometown and started the journey towards Kranen, desperate to provide for my family. Being the youngest brother, I was the most valuable for the knights and would be able to work much longer than my brothers.

I travelled through the jungle, forest, desert, and paid my way on cargo ships through the ocean. I had been travelling for months. The only safe passage from Iselel into Kranen was through Ignero, any other way would require travelling through dangerous woods that would most definitely end in my inevitable death.

Reaching the icy continent of Iselel, I realized that the War must have deeply scarred this land as well. Scorched trees and rubble huts dotted the barren landscape.

I came across hundreds of small, handmade graves - the last resting sites for many of the previous citizens of this continent.

As I traversed the land, I came across no other humans. It was clear that there was nothing left in much of Iselel.

That was until I reached the outskirts of Ignero. After setting up camp, I heard the stampeding of hundreds of horses. I quickly doused my campfire with water and climbed up a spindly, sickly tree. Peering through the skeleton of its branches, in the distance, I could see hundreds of small torches lighting up the night sky.

Each horse bore the insignia of Kranen, with vast flags whipping in the wind and the haunting sound of their hooves rhythmically trampling the ground. It was clear that they were running away from something, why else would there be hundreds of knights in the middle of a barren field at night.

I had to follow them, this was my chance to join the army and earn some money for my family. I grabbed my few belongings and ducked down behind a few dead bushes; I figured I shouldn’t run straight out into the field, lest they kill me on sight.

Two by two, four by four, the horses ran through the countryside. The men riding on their backs silent as ghosts. Some carried large bags on their saddles, and other horses carriages behind them - occasionally when one of the carriages passed by, I would hear a few muffled screams that sounded eerily like women.

As the last horse passed by me, I got up and started to run behind - careful to stay out of sight. I didn’t know where they were going or for how long I would have to run but I hoped it wouldn’t be too long. The longer I ran, the farther out of sight the knights became. I couldn’t hope to keep up.

That was until I noticed that the men and horses seemed to be disappearing into a grove of trees. Only a few spindly trees were forming a circle, and when the men went through the trees, they didn’t seem to come out the other side. I watched, perplexed as to what was happening.

I decided it was either I follow them or lose my chance at joining the knights. I felt in the pit of my stomach that if I decided not to go with them, that there might not be any knights left in the city of Kranen - it was obvious they were escaping from something.

I approached the crop of trees as the last knight disappeared. There was a strange glowing object floating in the middle of the trees, I was scared and unsure but at this point, I didn’t have anything to lose. I walked to the middle of the trees and stretched my hand out, feeling a warm pulsing coming from the glowing orb.

“Ah, what the hell,” I murmured as I stepped into it. I felt my feet start to fall through empty air and I squeezed my eyes shut as a rush of air slapped me in the face. Opening my eyes at the last second I saw the ground coming up fast towards me as I landed in a steaming pile of horse crap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yin’s POV

I nearly choked on my apple at his last sentence. Tears started rolling down my face as I tried to contain my laughter.

“Yeah, yeah. Hilarious, I know,” he waved his hand at me in annoyance.

“I-I’m sorry,” I could barely choke out the words. A face full of horse poop was one way to start an adventure in a magical forest.

“Anyways,” Jun continued, ignoring me, “when I got up, I couldn’t see the knights anywhere. The glowing thing was gone, and I was all alone.”

“So you’ve just been wandering around?” He must have been here for a few days already.

Jun sighed and rested his face in his hands, “I’ve only come across one druid so far, he was kind of spooky and didn’t say much. Just gave me some berries and told me to leave the forest.”

That was strange, when Carlsen and I came across a druid he nearly tried to murder us. I decided not to tell Jun this, I didn’t want him to know that I was being chased by another druid.

“Anyways, that’s beside the point. So what are you doing here?”

I opened my mouth to answer, and then quickly shut it. What do I tell him? I didn’t want to explain the entire story, but I also couldn’t think of a good lie. I figured I would just tell him part of the story for now.

“It’s a...long story,” I started, “basically, I need to kill the King.” I couldn’t make myself meet his gaze, in case he could tell how nervous I was.

“Huh, what?”

I scratched my head, eyes darting around the landscape. Come on, Yin, think of something.

“For the mage, the one you mentioned.”

Jun cocked his head to the side, urging me to continue.

“If you help me kill the King, I can get the mage to give you powers! That will fast track your application to the Knights of Kranen!”

Jun didn’t look convinced, “and why are you killing the King for the mage? Also, if you killed the King, then wouldn’t the Knights disband?”

Okay, this wasn’t working.

“Look, I don’t have time to explain everything but if you help me then we can both get out of this forest.”

I was starting to get frantic. This was all new to me, I wasn’t well-versed in the human world and I certainly didn’t know how to lie or how to ask for help.

“Well,” Jun said as he started to stand up, “guess I don’t have any better options.”

My shaking hands started to calm down, I was glad that he didn’t put up a fight. I needed help and I wasn’t about to go and find Carlsen.

“Thank you…” I trailed off, unsure of what to do next.

Jun gestured towards the forest, “so I guess we start with the elk?”

Right, the elk. I had almost forgotten about that.

I jumped down from my perch and started towards the forest, I turned back and smiled at Jun, “let’s go, Jun.”