Gabrio woke up feeling tired. Clenching his right fist, pushing it against the grass, he stood and widened his eyes. Creatures of strange shapes and sizes floated in front of him. Each one dancing along the wind, swaying, and seemingly like creatures made of light.

“I didn’t take some hallucinogenic drugs, right?”

He touched one of the floating creatures with his pointer finger. His finger passed through without resistance. Gabrio thought it was odd, and was about to conclude that he was hallucinating when he heard someone’s voice.

“It seems you can see them now.”

He looked to his side. “What are these creatures?”

“Spirit Bugs, they are beings made of pure light. They are different from us, and they react according to their surroundings. We use them as signs.”

“Signs?”

“To tell us if there is danger that might come.”

Her hand passed through the creatures of light. Gabrio thought that it might be the treeheart giving him these side-effects. From the reaction he got from, Mana, it seemed like they were seeing the same thing.

“This one looks like a string to you?” he asked.

“It is a silly string,” she confirmed.

“So I am not hallucinating, it’s simply an effect.”

“It is.”

Gabrio looked at the floating light-made creatures with eyes in contemplation. “Have your people been doing this? Knowing that something like this was available, does this mean that there were humans or elven-kin who received this same treatment?”

“Yes,” Mana rubbed her foot on the grass. “It has been quite the thing of the ancient past. But as expected, you would know.”

“No, I didn’t know, just pure speculation. No treatment, without ever being tested, would work without it being practiced.”

Mana didn’t answer. She looked to the trees and then to the blurry tree line. “It looks like there might be creatures lurking around. We should move now, we stayed too long in this area.”

Gabrio agreed. He slung his doctor’s bag and handed some of the leather bags he had made to Mana. She took it without asking, wrapping the straps around her wide yet slim waist.

“You look better. I thought you would be too shocked to move.”

“I can cope with it,” Gabrio said. “I just still find it hard to believe that someone would do something so stupid.”

“Do not insult the gratitude of the elven.”

“I am not insulting it. I just don’t understand why you would give me half of your lifespan.”

“I didn’t do it without thinking about it. You were dying after trying to protect me, and so I saved you. What’s so hard about it? Again, do you treat my life as less than precious?”

“Again, I don’t,” he gave up on trying to complain. He was not happy, but he did not dare to further criticize her for saving his life. What kind of ungrateful son of a bitch would he be if he continues to do so?

Gabrio picked up his spear, and checked on his pistols. He dreaded the thought of fighting that kind of creature again. He was running empty, and it won’t be long until he runs out of bullets. He had one hundred thirty-two paper cartridges, which had both the primer and bullet inside of it. At this moment, he only had about fifty-two paper cartridges left.

“Will you be fine?” he looked at her.

Mana sang a song. The crests on her both arms glowed anew, like chains of words strung together. “I will be fine, Doctor. You have to worry about yourself,” she took a step forward. “I’ll gladly carry you this time.”

He looked at her smiling face. “Your changes in your expression are still odd to me.”

“We were not that close,” she said. “We only reveal our faces to those who we are close with. Though it is shameful to admit, you have seen every crevice of my body, so hide with a face perpetually looking like stone, why hide it? We do not share our emotions with humans so easily unless we consider you as a friend. The mother of earth herself helped save you, Doctor. So I don’t see any reason to hide it.”

Gabrio rubbed his forehead. “I thought the world was strange, but your people really do make it stranger. I wonder if there is more than can surprise me more than this.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Before all of this, we thought of the elven-kin prowess as a myth. Your people were fairies, rare sightings, and that we believe that you just held better technology than us. I think it can explained, replicated with tools, but it is strange.”

“Hmm, we had humans in the past who tried doing so. Most of them would capture an elven-kin, and cannibalize us. Thinking that doing so would give you the bond of the spirits. Bonds are not given so easily, and do you think a mother would be happy if you eat her children, then demand power? I think not.”

“It’s strange to me that your people never ruled the world,” Gabrio pointed out, tightening his boots.

“Then you underestimate your people too much, Sir. Even without the power of gunpowder, you people are fierce fighters, no matter how we corner your people, you all fight back with wits when you cannot fight with numbers on your side. We learned that the hard way when your people burned down our forests, and shamed us when we left the forest. With stone walls, stone castles, and stone hearts, and the unity of being ‘human’ had made you folks dangerous.”

“Considering what your people can do, it is strange to hear that,” Gabrio said.

“You think of us as invincible, when we are susceptible to hurt as well. We can make walking armors made of trees, but that is because we needed it to construct the Grand Galleons and the Arks. Even if we have these things during the past, there is no telling what humanity would do.”

Gabrio found it hard to believe that someone could think of humanity like this. Mana sounded and looked like she was not lying about this.

“You praise humans more than you do.”

“Blame the Chancellor of Aon, Doctor. He is a good man, better than anyone, and he had received the bond out of his own conviction. He had done what he can to unite the people, and made the continent of Aon into one country ruled by him. If he is not a wonderful human, then there isn’t a human that could be called ‘wonderful’.”

“I see,” Gabrio stepped over a giant root. Mana inspected the root and tree and stripped a bark from the tree.

“Looks like this can be used,” Mana ‘peeled’ the words strung together in her body and chained it on the part where she peeled a bark. Then, as if it was wakened up, the tree started to shrink and form in front of Gabrio.

Gabrio doesn't know what to feel seeing the tree turned into a guardian. In the torso of the Guardian was Mana who was now controlling it.

“Your people can do this?”

“These are quite inferior to what we used. It doesn’t have the enchantment that we used so it does feel a bit rusty. These are merely armors that we used to travel. Climb on my back, just hold on, will you?”

“Do you know where we are going?”

“We are not that all-seeing. I just know where my people are, and that it is hard to miss the movements of Arkshelled Island when it has the beating heart. Try using all your senses all at once, Doctor. You should see where it is.”

Gabrio raised a brow in confusion, but he did it anyway. Using his senses, he focused all his hearing, smelling, taste, sight, and touch to find Arkshelled Island. It took a minute but he found something large and glowing in a far distance. The beat of this glow resonated with his heart, he wondered if this was the island.

“Is that the island?” he pointed with his finger. Mana followed his finger and smiled.

“Not bad, Doctor. You have good control of your senses.”

Gabrio didn’t reply. He focused his senses and then suddenly he saw his vision lost color. He got startled, he rubbed his eyes. Noticing Gabrio’s panic, Mana turned.

“Are you alright?”

“My vision became gray.”

“Oh, you must have been using it too much. You should be careful, Doctor. You are not an elf so it might be dangerous if you leave your senses alone.”

“That reminds me, with a treeheart, can I do what you can do?”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I am sorry to disappoint, but unless you are spirit-blooded, it would be impossible for you. You do not have the tongue to sing the song we used. But I think there should be improvement with your health, and the treeheart should improve your constitution and physique.”

“That is a lot to take in.”

Gabrio rubbed his head once again. A while ago, he was accepting his death, and now he was being told that he was stronger because of his enchanted heart. From being ill, dying, struggling, he was suddenly healthy, and possibly stronger than before.

The trees become blurry as the Guardian controlled by Mana skirted around the jungle so easily. The longer he watched the trees move past him, the heavier his heart was.

It was hard. To carry on after accepting your death. For the weeks that he had been traveling this forest of dangers. He had thought that he was truly going to die. He wished for his patient to survive. That was his wish. It didn’t mean that he wasn’t happy about being alive. He was glad that he could still live and breathe. What he was afraid of was the burden and pain.

He had thrown it away. That responsibility of what happens next. His goal was to keep Mana alive until she could wake up. But instead he was saved from that end he had envisioned for himself. The burden of her life was now perpetually in him.

He could not act like a child. But he could not help but think of what to do if he reaches the fleet again. Gabrio felt emotionally drained. The hardship that he had gone through made him want to sleep and rest until his head clears.

It was heavy. So heavy that he wanted to throw up. But he was not ungrateful enough to throw the life given to him. Of course, what bothered him the most was the ‘dreams that he was seeing. These strange dreams of a person in a world with iron boats floating on the sea, and metal birds soaring.

The stench of blood coming off from a machete. The white and rough fingers wrapping around someone’s neck. It was a strange memory that bothered him. He thought that it was just another dream that he usually had, but this ‘dream’ was clearer than ever. As if he could finally see through a blurry window.

“Oh God, what is this?” he asked quietly. He didn’t need these cruel dreams. It was like he was always constantly being thrown back to back. The feeling was real, the stench, and the sounds of waves meeting the sands was still clear in his head.

Gabrio wanted to sleep.

It was heavy again.

His shoulders made him want to sleep. The tiredness of it was consuming him, as if he was wrapped with a rope and was about to be thrown into a deep cavern river.

Gabrio wanted good dreams, but he was plagued by these continuous dreams that he would rather not dream about. The man he was seeing in his dreams was lonely, and yet he fought not knowing how many were looking at his face in disgust.

Gabrio wondered why he had dreams such as these. Whatever this dream is, he wanted none of it. He didn’t need these dreams at the moment. Not when he was already struggling on how to deal with the responsibilities that he needed to bear again.