In a forest within the Lands of man, two humans hiked through it as if they were on their way to a picnic, even though this forest was known to have dangerous dens of monsters. Our two travelers however didn't show any signs of caution, chatting, and moving with little care. One of them was an old man clothed in a red tunic and cape, the uniform of a Veteran Hunter. The other was a young girl, wearing a similar tunic and cape but in grey, showing her status as an apprentice. They had been in this forest for almost an entire year for an intense training program. This forest was dangerous, but danger can bring out a youngling’s potential and it had. The older man was quite pleased with his young charge’s progress.

"Well, I believe you’re ready to learn the intermediate spell 'Fireblast'.” he answers the question weighing on her mind. Her green eyes became wide and a big smile formed on her face.

"Really? That means we are going to leave the forest, right? That's what you said." the girl shouted with excitement and jumped up and down.

"Right, right, I guess at your speed it will not even take a month." chuckled the old man. He ruffled her shoulder-length red hair.

"Then, can we make camp here, and you explain to me how it works?", the girl asked hopefully.

"Hm," the old man looked over the treetops. "The sun goes down in around two hours, I would like to go to the river before it gets dark."

"Oh, come on. Let's just go to sleep a little earlier and get up earlier. The river will still be there tomorrow. Please." She pleaded.

The old man stroke his beard in thought. "Well, it’s more safe by the river, in the event you set something on fire."

"But if we go there now it’ll dark and we won't start till tomorrow anyway. So just stay here and explain how the spell works and then I have time to think about it. you always tell me to contemplate a new spell, before I'm allowed to use it anyway, right! So please." She looked at him with puppy eyes.

The old man sighed. "Well alright. Then prepare the camp, while I tell you about the theory of ‘FireBlast’."

The girl gave a shout of joy and quickly removed her backpack and set up their campsite. An hour later they went to sleep. The girl fell asleep right away. The old man lay there chuckling, thinking how lucky he was to have found such a great pupil. Well, it wasn't that lucky for that girl, since the only reason for a kid to be allowed to become an apprentice is if they are orphans. One year ago he had found her in the rubble of a building just barely alive after some bandits raided her village. After he found out how talented she was he decided to make her his pupil. But this was not out of goodwill, it was because he had become quite old and he needed someone to protect this world from the dangers that lurked everywhere.

He knew that once he wasn't here anymore this world would fall into chaos again. So to prevent that he needed someone with the potential to become the new him. A person who can pick up right where he left off. Well, he was only sixty-two at this moment and he lived a pretty healthy life so he should have at least ten or so more years to cultivate her. With those thoughts, Berret Simmler drifted into a sleep from which he would never awake.

I opened my eyes quickly and set up with all the zeal and vigor in the world. Today was the day that I, Natalie, would learn to use the intermediate spell 'Fireblast'!! And then we could finally leave this forest. Don't get me wrong I'm not scared or something, but living here is really exhausting. The food is, frankly, disgusting since there are only monsters here and I don't think they were made to be eaten. Also constantly sleeping on the hard ground while being aware of your surroundings is really not refreshing. At the very least I want a real bed. I brought water in a kettle to boil with a simple heat spell and added the rest of the meat from yesterday's dinner. The boiling doesn't make it tastier but at the very least you can chew it without ripping your teeth out. The weird smell that came out of the pot filled the area and Berret woke up with a grunt. At least that's what should be happening since he does this every morning. But right now he is still sleeping.

"Berret breakfast is ready, time to get up!", I call.

But still, he doesn't move. I raise an eyebrow but then I got an idea. With an evil grin, I sneak closer to him until my hand reaches his blanket. With all my might I pull it from him and shout. "Rise and shine!"

And all my movements and thoughts came to a sudden stop. He laid there with a painful expression and his hand squeezing against his chest.

"Berret?" My voice is not more than a whisper. "No, please." I panic and shake his body. No reaction.

"NO, BERRET WAKE UP! PLEASE!", I scream terrified.

This can’t be happening! He was alright yesterday. Anyway, he is the strongest man she ever knew. He could kill those rock golems with just one hit of his fist. Have you ever seen someone destroying these with just that? I certainly have not. So there's no way that he could die while sleeping, now is there? There's no way, no way!

"WAKE UUUUUP!" I scream so loud that my throat feels like it's going to explode but I don't care. Small droplets of water are tripping on his face but I don't care. I shake him harder. I put all of my power into shaking him. This should hurt even if it's me who is doing it. So just stop this prank.

"Wake up, please wake up!"

A low growl came from within the darkness of the woods. The monsters must have heard me but normally they keep a safe distance away since they are scared of Berret. Why are you coming now? He is not dead.

"HE IS NOT DEAD!" The area around us instantly froze into pillars of Ice. There was no growling now. That's right. Just getting a reminder that Berret is here made them freeze to death. ‘Whew’ that was fortunate.

I don't know how long I kneeled there, crying and screaming but he never woke up. I didn't count how often the sunsetted and how often I fainted from exhausting myself from screaming but no matter how often a new dawn came, he wouldn't wake up.

By the time my brain understood that I myself was almost dead. I had almost no power left to stand, and my gut was aching. Maybe my body forcibly made me recognize that he was dead before I myself would starve completely. Whatever the reason, I took my belongings and his cape and left. I needed something from him to come with me. On my way away from our camp, I broke an arm off of a frozen Monster and poured heat into it. As soon as the typical smell of cooked monster filled my nostrils I bit into it and tore huge lumps of meat from it.

All while walking in the direction of the river and without realizing any of it. After I reached it I followed it. I'm not leaving the forest yet. I have to learn 'Fireblast' . But I couldn't bear to be close to that place. Suddenly a short laughter escaped my mouth. It’s funny isn't it? I’m only eight years old and I have already lost my family twice. Quite a great joke don't you think?

Tears started to dwell up in my eyes again as rage came all over my body. Seems like the food gave my brain enough energy to work a little again. Then instead of anger or grief, I should put this energy into understanding what Berret told me about the spell. He said I wouldn't even need one month, but that would have been under his guidance. There is no telling how long I will now take. So the best way to not disappoint him is doing everything I can to learn it as fast as possible.

I breathed heavily and almost all my stamina was gone but on top of my right hand was a small fireball. It took me almost six months to figure out what my problem was. I didn't know how a successful invocation of the spell 'Fireblast' looks like. Ah, the fireball? I managed this already the first day I went down the river. But since then I tried a lot of different things, but none led to a successful 'Fireblast'? What Berret told me wasn’t much help since it was just theoretical talk, about which mana to feel, and the way it was supposed to flow. But that wasn’t helpful in a practical way.

Yep, half a year and this didn't occur to me. "Haa." I sighed and let myself fall into the grass on the riverbank. With outstretched arms, I stared into the treetops. I failed at my very first task I was supposed to crack, didn't I?

'Don't worry about it, Natalie. This can happen to the best of us' spoke Berret in her mind.

Ah, not this again. Somehow I hear him often giving me pieces of advice. But since there was a lot of stuff he would never say or suggest I concluded that it must be a mean fairy or something.

'Now don't be mean'.

Well then tell me how 'Fireblast' really works! The voice didn't give an answer.

Figures.

'Well, maybe it’s time to leave this forest, don't you think?', it suggested. True, there was nothing I could accomplish here alone, without knowing how the spell even was supposed to look like. But still, it felt like giving up and I didn't like that.

'You are not giving up, just seeing if there is somebody who could show you how it is supposed to look like. It's merely one step out of the box, isn't it?'

"Hmm." I closed my eyes and thought about it.

"Declined. I will know it if I do it. That I have no clue just means I haven't tried hard enough." A tired sigh echoed in my head, but the voice of Berret didn’t reply.

"Anyway, break time is over. Back to business."

I start firing fireballs into the river again.

'Soooo, that's your plan? Just throwing balls of fire into the water? Yes, I see, that is actually quite intelligent, is it not? I have to applaud you, oh wise one.'

That's what I mean, the real Berret would never talk like that.

'That's what you are concerned about? Well, whatever you do you.', he spat out in annoyance. Silence came back into my mind as...

"Graaaaww!"

A monster I never saw before broke out of the thicket. It was around three meters tall, had a fat face with small black eyes, flat nose, blue-green skin and a tree trunk in one of its giant hands. Smaller monsters fled away from it into my direction. For a moment I stood there dumbfounded.

'What are you standing there and looking holes in the air? RUN!'

And that was exactly what I did.

What? You want me to fight that? Yeah right, probably head on and without any idea what that thing actually is. If you want to don't mind me, I will be elsewhere.

'Stop thinking such useless crap! He is coming closer.'

I know, I can see that. Shit, my stamina was already pretty low since I just finished practice. My lungs were hurting like crazy and my stomach felt like it was going to explode.

'If you have to puke do it while running!' Shit, don't say useless thin--blehc.

....

I puked. Bye bye breakfast. You didn't taste anyway. But I think I could have used your energy right about now. Well, whatever.

'Don't worry about this crap. You're still running and that is what counts.'

The giant monster chased me for over half an hour. My whole body screamed at me, but I couldn't stop. It made me wonder, why is it chasing me if it chased other monsters before? Probably because it did know, how monster meat tastes. Yeah, I get it. I would probably chase me too.

Suddenly there were no trees in front of me anymore. Instead, there was a wide field of grass. Very high grass.

'Perfect. Maybe we can hide in it.' I was almost half the distance to the grass as that monster broke through the last trees. And...

"A Geran! Sentries ready your spears!" A loud voice shouted.

Was there someone? Then multiple different voices resounded. "Left, One." "Right, One." "Left, two", and so on. I dared to throw a look behind me and saw around ten men clad in metals and blue tunics run toward the monster, each of them having a long stick in their hands. Distracted by the shouting of those people, the monster stopped chasing me. The People formed a line with two rows and held their sticks high up as if they wanted to pick its eyes out. 'Don't stop! What can they do with these sticks.' I jumped into the high grass, but couldn't keep my curiosity at bay and stuck my head out. Exhausted, with wild breathing and trembling legs I observed.

*sfx for vomiting*

'Let everything out, it will make you lighter when you have to run again.'

The men were slowly walking to the monster which stood there growling. Then it stormed forward. "Thrust!", shouted one of the metal men, and as if they were one, all of their sticks shot forward. Many of those sticks burrowed themselves into the flesh of the monster and the men holding them were pushed back from the still running monster. It gave a horrifying scream as the sticks dug deeper into it and it became slower and slower until it stopped. Those whose stick weren’t in the monster now thrust them into it. It gave a silent whimper before its knees gave up and it crashed into the ground.

"Simmens, report to the station. We need to get it off the road.", one of them said in a commanding tone.

"Yes, sir. There was also a kid it chased. Ran into the field 'ver there." answered a young looking metal man.

"Good God. Hey, it is all clear now. We have killed the Geran." I sat there surprised in my hiding place. I would have never thought that thing could be killed with just a bunch of sticks.

'Yeah, that took me by surprise too.' Which also was proof that the voice was not Berret. He would have known that it was possible. Since he knew everything.

I got out of the high grass and approached the men. But as soon as I was visible they gave perplexed looks at each other.

"A redcoat?", exclaimed someone. "No no, must be an apprentice. But that means.."

"Shut up and back to your positions. The road doesn't protect itself. Hey girl, everything alright? Do you have any injuries?", asked the man who spoke commandingly.

"I don’t think so... just lost my breakfast but nothing serious." I answered back.

"Alright. Simmens escort her to the station and give her some food. But may I ask, your master..." He didn't complete his sentence. Well, it was pretty clear why. An apprentice walked around with his master's cape. There was only one good reason for that.

"He is dead.", I answered in a low voice.

"Did that monster do that?", he asked. I shook my head.

"No, there was no monster that could harm him. He died a few months ago in his sleep."

"My condolences. Wait, a few months? Don't tell me in that forest?", his eyes got wide and Simmens let out a whistle.

Perplexed I answered. "Err, yes. I wanted to complete his training plan to the very end. But then that monster came along and chased me out of it."

"Bloody shit. Then how did you... No, not important right now. Simmens Station!"

"Yes, sir. If you want to follow me, err.", he looked at me questioningly. I tilted my head confused. "Your Name.", he answered with a smile.

"Oh, yes, it's Natalie."

"Then please follow me, Natalie."

And he marched down the road. I was in such a hurry that I didn't notice it beforehand but the street was almost littered with men clad in metal. Every ten meters or so was one of them standing. Simmens greeted them all while we walked past them. It didn't take long to get to that station, and it too was filled with those men. I wondered how that many could fit into such a tiny room that was also filled with tables, chairs and a counter. Simmens put his outstretched hand against his head and called into the room.

"Sir, at 3:34 a Geran emerged and was slain. It now blocks the road."

"A Geran? Seriously?", answered one of them. He looked different from the others since he didn't wear metal and his tunic looked brighter.

"Max, get the horses ready, heavy load to pull.", he ordered someone.

"Yes, sir", answered one and ran out.

"And this?", asked the one without metal and pointed at me.

"She was being chased by it. Lived apparently in the woods alone for a few months after her master died." Simmens explained. The brighter one's eyes got wide.

"In those woods?"

"That is correct, sir", I answered truthfully.

I wonder why everyone makes such a big deal out of it. Appart from stone golems there was nothing that would warrant such a reaction.

'Well, but you had to eat monsters all the time. Maybe that's why.'

Ah, yeah, that would make sense.

"But you're a kid, did you hide all the time? No, how could you hide from monsters?", he asked perplexed. Well, apparently it wasn’t because of the food.

"No, I did not hi-" grumble rumble. "-de." My stomach rumbled. And pretty loud too.

'Well, you lost your breakfast.'

"Ah, right food. I will bring you something right away. Why don't you make yourself at home and sit down.", Simmens suggested.

"Thank you very much.", I answered and sat myself in the closest chair.

"Matthew.", said the man without metal as he sat down on the other side of the table and stretched his hand out to me. I shook his hand and said my name.

"So, do you mind telling me about your master?", he asked.

"No, gladly! He was the best human you could think of. Incredibly strong, he knew everything I asked him and loved me as if was his own daughter." Matthew smiled.

"I can believe that. Since he was a redcoat. What was his name?"

"His name was Berret Simmler.", I told him, with a warmth saying his name. But Mathews face suddenly became very pale. Also, all the chatter and noise in this room instantly died.

"Berret Simmler? The Berret Simmler?", he stammered. I tilted my head.

"Err, that was his name. Did you know him?"

"If I know him? Bloody Gods, who don't know him? Shit, the Hero is dead."