"Why didn't I realise sooner!?"

Alz felt heat gathering on his cheeks as he peered through the trees, alongside a rising sense of guilt within him. The area felt especially familiar to him because it was a path he would take almost daily, whenever he had to collect water for using, the lake.

A slender figure was standing in the lake humming to herself, the very elf Alz was looking for. Maya was taking a bath in the lake to wash up from all the exercise, and he unknowingly saw it.

He took a deep breath to calm his breathing, intending to return to the field. He only came searching for her because he was afraid that she might have been in danger, but this was evidently not the case.

Alz lifted his foot to set off, but he seemed to be stopped by something within, unable to make the step. He stood still for several seconds before softly returning his foot, turning back towards the lake again.

"I should stay in case she gets attacked."

An audible gulp could be heard from Alz's throat as he moved forward with a flimsy excuse that he couldn't even convince himself with. He carefully peeked his head out of the trees, staring in the direction of the lake.

Earlier he looked away almost immediately, so only vaguely saw her silhouette through the darkness. However, now that he was focusing, her slender body revealed itself clearly under his gaze.

However, his adolescent excitement only lasted for a short while before it was washed away by a pain in his heart. This was not to say that Maya looked bad, as her figure was slender with curves developing at the right places, stimulating his senses heavily.

Her skin also appeared smooth and supple, a feminine body that would attract most men. Yet, what caught Alz's eye the most was not any of this, but the small cuts and bruises that were littered everywhere, with many leaving their mark as scars even after healing.

This was not just the body of a woman, but also the body of a warrior. The scars on her body were testament to the effort that she had put into training over the years, irrefutable proof that was carved onto her body.

Alz sighed heavily and started heading back, regaining control over his impulses. Not long after he returned, Maya's figure appeared from the trees as well with slightly damp hair from the bath she had taken.

When Alz's eyes landed on her, the image from before unwittingly appeared in his mind, causing his body to heat up, immediately averting his eyes.

Despite this, Maya didn't notice his abnormal actions, her mind occupied by something else. When she saw him, she quickly walked up to him and asked with reddened cheeks, "U-Um, can I borrow some clothes?"

"Sure, I'll get them for you." It was then that Alz noticed that she was still wearing the same clothes as before, agreeing without a hassle as he rushed off towards the hut.

"Here, these might be a little big though." It didn't take long before he returned with a clean set of clothes, passing it over to her.

"Thanks, I-I'll return them next time." Maya thanked him as she received the clothes from him.

"It's fine, you can have it." Alz replied casually, not minding it in the slightest. He had plenty of spares gifted to him by the female elves of his tribe, so giving away a set wasn't a problem.

Maya was slightly surprised at how warm Alz was being compared to when they were exercising earlier, but it was a good change, so she didn't think too much about it.

Right before she returned, a mischievous smile suddenly appeared on her face, thinking of a prank. She turned around slowly and lightly traced her body line with her fingers as she asked, "Want to help?"

Alz immediately revealed a dazed expression, staring back at her blankly. Maya started giggling as she watched this, heading back to the lake with a satisfied smile.

"Did she find out? How!?"

What she didn't know was that her small prank had caused Alz's heart to skip a beat, his body trembling slightly as he stood still. His emotions were far more rattled than it appeared, tripped by his guilty conscience from before.

This time, there were no accidents and Maya safely returned from the lake. With nothing left to do and the fatigue from the day creeping in, the two were preparing to rest for the day and had been lying on the flowerbed for a while now with a small distance separating them.

Alz had initially offered his hut to her, but she insisted on sleeping outside, leading to the current situation. After all, Alz couldn't bring himself to leave her alone outside, especially with the guilt from peeking incident still lingering in his mind.

The night slowly deepened and Alz felt his consciousness slowly drifting away amidst the cool nightly breeze, falling asleep. However, not long after, a panicked voice came from his side, waking him up from his short rest.

"Must be a nightmare."

"Papa, Papa, NO! Don't go! come back... don't leave us alone..." Maya suddenly started screaming, but her eyelids remained tightly shut and she didn't seem to be conscious.

"Please, don't make Papa disappear, please, please... I won't make Papa bring me out when I'm tired... I won't be selfish anymore... please return him... Papa, Papa......" tears seemed to flow endlessly from her eyes as she continued to mumble to herself, continuing on for several minutes before she finally calmed down.

Alz let out a sigh and stood up quietly, walking over to his hut. Moments later, he came out with a blanket in his hand, carefully draping it over Maya while trying not to disturb her sleep.

Her words might have seemed confusing to others, but he knew what she meant when he said that her father 'disappeared', as he happened to chance upon her father's death in one of the books in the library.

The elves were a race who are immune to sickness and diseases, the concepts of such not even existing in their society. Alz had also only learnt out about such things from the books in the archives, that living beings could actually fall sick.

However, there was one thing that was similar to a sickness in their society, a condition that hovered over the minds of those who knew. While it was called a different term in the capital, back at their tribe they used to call it 'The Return'.

When most elves reached beyond the age of 120, their bodies would start rapidly aging in episodes, a common fact known to the population. While the first episode usually didn't kill, more would start occurring over time, preventing most elves from living past 140.

During these episodes, their silver hair would lose its shine, dulling to a pale white shade as though losing its vitality. Their bodies would rapidly start breaking down, until it went past a limit, returning back to dust and leaving nothing behind.

Perhaps this was the origin of their belief, that the spirits rested in bones. They South believed this to be the Mother Elf retrieving the souls of aged elves, preparing to grant them a new lease of life.

Hence, the term for the condition came about, dubbing it 'The Return' in their tribe. This name might not seem scary, but the actual condition was far deadlier than it sounded, claiming the lives of all elves who suffered from it.

The symptoms of this diseases were similar to the aging episodes of senior elves, except that it could affect elves of all ages, stopping only when nothing remained of the elf.

To make things worse, all known records showed that it was extremely random and spontaneous, capable of striking at any given time without symptoms, dragging elves away from the world of the living in a short span of time.

While not much was known about this condition and its causes, it was thankfully discovered to be extremely rare and non-contagious, so the average elf usually didn't have to worry about it.

Maya's father apparently happened to be one of the unfortunate ones, as Alz had read in the library. Due to the rarity of the condition, every such case was recorded by the capital and Alz had happened to read the scroll documenting it.

The records showed that Maya's father had suffered a seizure during a patrol duty out in the forest five years ago, leaving the young Maya and her mother to fend for themselves.

Yet, there was something he noticed that didn't make sense when reading it, as the condition had occurring more frequently recently.

He initially just dismissed it as a coincidence, until he came across a record that caught his eye, one of the primary reasons why he considered leaving immediately three months back.

This was the record of a female elf who died of this condition, nothing special among the many records that were on the scroll. However, the victim happened to be the wife of the current tribal chieftain back in the Calla tribe, causing a chill to go down his spine when he saw it as he recalled the chieftain's expression and parting words back when they left.