Thinking about this whole trip to the village just makes me more worried about the girls more than anything. They have a slight hint of sadness that they’re trying to hide during the journey. On the surface they’re excited about the whole trip but it doesn’t feel the same energy as when Abae woke me up 2 weeks ago.

“Oh we’re already here.” Prina says, pointing to the group houses with fields surrounding the village.

“Okay then first off find the chief of the village and then we’ll let Abae lead us then.” I say trying to lighten up the mood.

“I can’t take this any longer!” Abae shouts. She then approaches me and says.

“Santi can’t you remember your hometown?!” I look at her in confusion.

“My hometown? I don’t remember much of it to be honest.”

Wait, is she saying this is my hometown? Now that I look at it, those buildings seem so familiar but it feels strange instead of nostalgic. At this point I’m trying to find my home. I found where it’s supposed to be but right now it’s in ruins.

It was at this point some of my memories are coming back to me bit by bit. Oh no, please no d0n’t remember please DON’T.

“Are you okay Santi?” Prina touches me, getting me out of my trance.

“I’m okay I’m okay.” I reassure her.

“It looks like you were getting panicked there for a second.”

“It’s nothing, I just have bad memories of this place. We should get going now, I don’t want to spend more time here.”

“We’ll try our best, Santi.” Abae says as she pats to reassure me.

I have the feeling the more time I spend here the more I remember about everything that happened here. And to be real I don’t want to deal with that yet. At least not now, not with the both of them here where I could deal with it alone so they won’t interfere with facing my past because at the end of the day it’s not their problem to deal with it, it’s mine.

As much as this was my hometown, I don’t exactly remember much of it ever since I left when I was 10. After that I buried my memories of this place due to said memories, I’m not ready to open those just yet.

Good thing is that Abae will probably do the talking and be able to deal with the chief, I don’t remember his name actually. That reminds me I don’t remember the people here just…. Don’t not yet not this time or I won’t be able to finish the job.

We’re walking towards where the chief lives after Abae talks to one of the nearby villagers and asks about it. Although the place just looks the same as everyone else in the village. As plain as the place is, Prina knocks on the front door and then out comes a boy maybe around the age of 8. He seems to be timid and wears a normal tunic along with his shorts. Abae, who looks to be around the same height as her, asks him.

“Is the village chief around?”

“If you’re talking about my papa I think he’s still around in the fields.”

“How about your mama?” She continues asking.

“I think she’s preparing for dinner or something else.”

“Then can you go get her, we're mercenaries to take care of something.”

“Mercenaries?!” The boy’s eyes light up as soon as he hears that, he says.

“I’ll go get mama as soon as I can.” He runs inside as we hear the frantic running inside the house.

After a few moments we can hear the footsteps nearing to us and out comes the mother. The mother looks to be around in her late 20s and with a messed up hair. She takes a look at us and then asks.

“So I assume that you are here for the job?” Abae then replies to her.

“Yes we are, at your service.”

“When do the mercenary guilds hire children nowadays?”

“Don’t worry I’m a priestess so I’m suitable for this job.” She says as she takes a confident stance.

“That’s uhh reassuring?” She says with a doubtful tone.

“Just go inside, take a seat and I’ll take care of you while we wait for our husband to come back from taking care of the fields.” She tells us as she opens the door wide open for us.

“Thank you for that miss..?”

“Just call me Gretchen, no need for any formalities here.”

She escorts us to a living room filled with some wooden sofas and such. She gestures towards the sofas and the three of us sit formally. Gretchen then goes to what I presume to be the kitchen and as we are waiting. Abae seems to look around the room and stares at the decorations around us.

After a while, Gretchen comes out of the kitchen with a tray filled with refreshments and puts them on the table in front of us as she says.

“You’ll have to wait until my husband gets back, I still have other things to do so if you don’t mind, can you have a bit of patience and wait for him?”

“We don’t mind at all miss Gretchen. We’ll wait for the village chief to come back here.” Abae says to her.

Gretchen then goes to another room and as we are waiting Abae seems to notice the boy that’s been watching us for some minutes now and beckons him to go over to us. The boy then asks.

“Why does a girl like you get to be a mercenary?” He points at Abae.

“Because I know how to fight.” She says in a smug face.”

“But you’re like a few years younger than me.” He replies.

“I’m 12, how many times do I have to tell people that I’m 12 before they realize.”Abae complains.

“Abae, you’re gonna grow up, don't worry about it.” I say to Abae.

“It’s taking too long for me. You know how long we take to grow up.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you will grow up either way.” The boy chimes in.

“What Zokun have you encountered lately then, there must be some scary Zokun out there right?”

“Yeah they’re some scaries ones out there you know like those goblins and such.”

“Pshhh goblins, they’re not that scary to be honest.”

“It’s scarily eerie about how they feel like those other kids in town. And what they look especially, with their deformations and such.”

“Believe me they’re weak and small fry.” Abae says as she keeps flaunting and such. I need to teach her a lesson as I slap at the back of her head saying.

“You can only say that because you’re a deshar.” I look at the kid and continue.

“It’s okay to be afraid of the Zokun like the goblins, they’re real nasty to be honest like those kids you say, except they’re smart in how they think like children as well in ways that are unpredictable.” The kid shivers in fear on his seat as he listens to me. Guess I got to calm him down.

“If anything you can fight one goblin on your own.” I then feel a slap on the back of my head.

“Ow” I express myself. I look behind me and see that Prina is directly behind me and says.

“Look kid, if anything, if you spot something like a goblin party nearby you should tell the adults and they’ll get proper help.like us if anything.” She tells as she comforts him. After getting himself to calm down he then remembers to say something.

“Wait, she's a deshar?!” he points at Abae.

Abae removes her hood and shows her inhumane figure.

“Yep, ehe.” Abae says in a joking manner.

“And that’s why you shouldn’t take whatever advice she says against the Zokun, chances are she can beat it easily like swinging a sword.” I say to him

“THAT’S SO COOL!” He exclaims as he studies her and such.

“I can brag to everyone that I saw a deshar first.” He jumps with joy.

“So how do you fight the Zokun then?” He asks.

“Hmm I’m not sure if I should tell you really.” She ponders a bit, gives a shrug then tells.

“You know those scythe the farmers use when it’s time to harvest?”

“Wait, you can use those?” He says with a surprised look.”

“Yeah but it’s a hard thing to master especially with me being a mercenary and such. I can’t show it to you right now since it might be dangerous in the living room.”

“Okay then.” He then becomes a bit depressed at her words.

“But you know one thing about us deshars. We have 5 eyes.” As she pushes her bangs out of the way to show her 3rd eye at the middle of her forehead.

“Where are the other two then?” He asks her.

Abae then stands up from her seat, turns around, and puts her ghoulish hair on one side to show something just below her hairline on her neck. A pair of eyes that have been scanning everywhere ever since it’s revealed to us.

“All of my eyes can see through my hair so it doesn’t bother me when I try to see something with my eyes on my neck.”

“That’s so cool.” The boy exclaims.

“So you can see if people walk behind you right?!”

“Yeah I do actually. I don’t use it that often, especially when I’m not in danger.”

“Still I do still think you look terrifying especially with how your skin and face looks to be honest.”

“It’s fine, I’m supposed to be when I grow up like the elders in my tribe.”

“Huh, can you tell me about them then? I don’t know much about the deshars, All I know is that they’re scary like the Yemokan.”

“Well I confess that the Yemokan are scary people. But one of us can also handle one of them in a fair fight all out.” She expresses with a smug face. The boy was in awe when he heard that phrase.

“That reminds me I don't know your name.” Expresses Abae.

“It’s Drae.” He replies.

“Good to meet you Drae, my name is Abae.” As she gives her hand to Drae. Drae returns it and they both go back to their seats.

“So you mercenaries are here for those weird sounds right?” Drae asks.

“Yeah we suspect that it might be related to spirits and stuff.”

“Spirits?” He stares confused at us.

“ You know the ghosts and the like from those spooky stories.”

“They’re real?!”

“They are and they aren’t that scary most of the time, they don’t kill people willy nilly like in most ghost stories.”

“Oh then what are they then?”

“Well you see ghosts most of the time linger due to having grudges or something they want to fulfill in life but haven’t done so. It’s explained to me by my parents that they are the Von that lingers after death.”

“So if you appease them they might go to the afterlife?”

“Exactly. Appease them and they’ll go away, but the most important thing is don’t promise that you appease them if you can’t do what they demand.” She explains as Drae listens to him intently.

Meanwhile, Prina and I listen to the conversation while we wait for the village chief. If I look around more closely it feels familiar to say the least, the sofas and people talking around to spend time together, I get the feeling of deja vu. But no. I can’t remember yet. Even if it forcefully goes to my head, I need to bury it until we can rest for the day.

It was after a while that the village chief did come back from the fields. As far as how I would describe him, he’s a Quaraman in his early 30s with a hefty look on him with his farmer’s clothing dirtied from the field. Having a black rough hair and black eyes to complement it. He enters the room, takes one look at us and says.

“So you must be the mercs assigned to this job huh?”

“Yes we are mister chief.” Says Abae happily.

“Huh didn’t expect a kid here.” He takes a seat beside Drae and questions him.

“So how’s your time with them?”

“Abae is pretty nice.”

“I see, thanks for hanging out with my son while I finish my work in the fields. I do hope Gretchen didn’t bother you guys too much when arriving here.”

“Oh don’t worry she says she’s doing her chores and such.”

“She must be making dinner then.” He then puts on a serious face.

“Now let’s talk about the job at hand. What did the guild say about the job in the first place?” He asks us.

“That there are noises in the village that have been disrupting the villagers as and it has been like for like a few weeks from what I remember?”

“Yeah everything seems right. Anyway the point is we can’t risk anyone going after those noises especially since it’s in the direction of a ghastly place.”

“A ghastly place?”

“Yeah, at least 14 years ago a massacre of a family happened there and the villagers have been avoiding it like a plague. I saw the aftermath of that and lemme tell you anyone who sees that makes them scared. So we don’t approach it anymore lately or for anyone in the village who knows of it first-hand.”

“I see I see, I suppose we’ll investigate it next morning and see anything unusual from there and deal with it.”

“If you’re going to take a rest for the night may I suggest staying here with us. We have a guest room here for people like you who come at this time of the day.”

“If you don’t mind I suppose we’ll take your offer.” Replies Abae.

“I have to ask my wife to make more than usual.” Says the chief. Then I remember a tidbit.

“Actually it’s best if we make our meals ourselves, it’s just Prina over here eats enough for a family, and she might take more food than usual in your household.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“No chief, I insist that we cook for ourselves. It’s best for us.” I insist.

“Well if you say so.” Replies the chief.

“But that reminds me I haven’t told you my name yet right? I prefer if people call me by my name instead of Chief truth be told.”

“Yeah we didn’t get it earlier.”

“It’s Reyne.” And when I hear the name reverb inside my ears, Some memories pour out of my head.

It was a time when I was still living with my parents. There was this one kid who was older than us. Reyne the man all the other kids look up to. He was like a big brother to all of us so to say. Always helping a person whenever needed.

I don’t remember anything else rather than that. He looks different since the last time I’ve seen him. I don’t want to remember more now, I need to make sure he doesn’t talk about the past that much, not that I’ve ever needed to anyway.

“Hey are you okay over there? You seem to be out of your mind there for a minute” Reyne says while he holds out his hand.

“Don’t worry about him. He gets this from time to time.” Abae says as she makes an excuse for me.

“It’s Abae by the way, this is Prina and this is Santi.” She introduces us to him.

“I see well you’re funny looking aren’t you Abae.” He looks at her inspecting her.

“Well no one sees a deshar nowadays.”His eyes light up.

“Woah for real? I have never seen one in my life so far. The gods have graced me for letting me see a deshar.”

“Don’t worry about it, but before anything I suppose we have to cook for ourselves if you don’t mind us we’ll cook outside while asking for some wood then.”

“Take what you need, and I’ll try to provide.”

“Let’s go set the fire and start cooking.” I say to them

I immediately go for the door and find a space outside the house. I didn’t look properly outside so this might be a good time to take in the scenery and see what we have here.

The place around seems standard, enough space for a campfire and cook something up for Prina, now the only thing I need to worry about is the firewood, I’m not sure if Reyne has enough wood for this, but if not then I need to buy some from the villagers nearby.

I look behind and see Prina carrying the firewood and luckily it seems we won’t be needing to interact with the other villagers. Must be nice to be a village chief if he can accommodate us mercenaries. Let’s see if Prina is feeling anything for today.

“Prina, have you got any special requests for dinner today?” I ask her.

“The usual is fine, but you know me, more meat with a bit of rawness.”

“Grab my bag and get the stuff then, we need to hurry up cooking if we want to eat with our hosts for today.”

“Yeah sure..” She pauses for a second and asks me.

“Do you remember anything from them?”

“Prina what did I tell you earlier, no questions about my past even if we’re here at what you say my hometown.”

“But even so, don’t you want to spend time and see what changed while you were gone?”

“Prina as much as I want to, it only brings bad memories, events that are catastrophic for me and I want them buried for now while we’re on the job.”

“You can’t go on like this.”

“Like you do?” She gasps for a second there and says to me.

“You don’t even know what I have to go through Santi.”

“No Prina, I know what it feels like to be hungry.” She stares in silence at what I said.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. She must be shocked that I know what she is. I can’t deny what I said, being hungry for certain things can make one lose sight of what’s important.

I don’t like the way they look at me, truth be told, looking at me with pity and knowing partly what exactly happened during the day that I left this place. It wasn’t my choice in the first place when that happened especially with….. got to stray from that memory.

If I remember it’ll take a whole night of screaming to get through that, and that might not be a great idea especially with similar noises going on in this village. I know what’s happening here, but I’d rather tell them when we’re actually in my house just so the villagers won’t worry about me anymore.

Looking at Prina right now, she seems to be sulking still. I continue cooking with only the noises in the village to accompany us. The sounds of people talking inside of their houses. The faint sounds of utensils being used as of the moment. The torches and candles being lit with their fire burning.

It is when one is truly calm that he can notice everything around him without effort. It was then disrupted when Abae hugs from behind me that I get out of that state and asks.

“SOOO what’s happening with the food right now?” She says with a jolly voice.

“Well it’ll only take maybe half an hour before this is finishWell ed.”

“Awww but I’m hungry already especially since I can smell maam Gretchen’s food from inside the house.”

“Be patient Abae, you don’t want your food to be yucky.” Abae then gives that yuck face.

“I’m sorry that I messed up that one time.”

“You really messed up Prina’s appetite that time, that’s for sure.” She pauses for a bit before whispering to me just to make sure Prina doesn’t hear us.

“Did you do something against Prina?”

“I might have said something to her that she probably didn’t want to hear.”

“Did she try to reprimand you about not remembering your memories?”

“Spot on Abae.”

“Knowing about you as far as Defari showed me, some things are better left not remembering unless you’re ready for it.”

“You have a feeling of what we’ll be facing right?”

“Just a faint feeling, but are you sure about this?”

“They do deserve to rest peacefully after all these years.”

“Trust me Santi, they will.” Abae stands up and pumps her chest.

It’s reassuring to say the least, since an actual deshar is overseeing this after all, especially since my family line is well cursed at best. She won’t mess this up after all I’ve seen of her these past 2 months.

“You still got to say sorry to her though, I don’t want too much awkwardness when we actually do the job and on the way back hehe.”

“After cooking this one, Abae. You know for a 12 year old deshar, you’re surprisingly mature from time to time.”

“Deshars pretty much have to, especially with the company they keep.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh it’s nothing, just ramblings of a kid really.”

“Well anyway this is almost finished anyway so we might as well finish it up with some spices and we can join with Gretchen and the others.” You know this might be a good time to deal with Prina at least, say sorry to her for that comment I made.

“Hey Abae can you handle it a bit, just sprinkle a bit of salt and some pepper and this one.” I shake the container of the trita pepper.

“Oh, sure then.” She then takes over the cooking pot whilst I head over to Prina sulking opposite of us playing with the sticks on the grass.

Huh I don’t know how to do this properly to be honest. I know I said some things to people in the past and they sulked afterwards but something about Prina speaks innocence to be honest.

Unlike the other people that I was with, they had something to forcefully make them mature, traumas if you say, an event that makes them think like an adult instead of something like Prina, who tries to keep her innocence despite everything.

For example, if let’s say this one is trained to be an assassin from birth and tried to run away from that destiny and wanted to experience other things for a while or a certain idiot who keeps trying to be a hero due to not being able to save someone important to him.

To be fair I’m also running away from something and I shouldn’t exactly reprimand them back then now that I think about it. All things considered I really should apologize to her right now.

“Hey Prina.” I greet her.

“What?” She gives me a moody voice and look.

“Look what I said earlier. I have no right to tell you to back off about me, especially since we’re…….. “Wait, I can't tell her about running away from something, uhh make a cliche line.

“We’re..?”Prina prompts me to continue.

“A team so to say, I mean I’m supposed to train you as Veron requested for me, and I know that as part of my team that you do care about me as a leader especially since you’re curious about me.”

“Uhuh.”

“I’m sorry I’m mincing my words right now. In the end all I want to say is that I appreciate that you worry about me. The thing is I don’t want to remember stuff for now, especially that we’re on the job.”

“Why? Are you gonna remember this hometown of yours that might be uhh I don’t know, sad?”

“You’ll know once we track down what we’re supposed to find tomorrow. But until then I don’t want to remember anything about my life here.”

“Okay Santi I’ve known you for a few good months so I’m willing to trust you on this.”

“Thank you Prina, anyway the food should be ready now.”

I examine the pot, and feel like it looks and smells good enough.

“Thanks for looking over it Abae. We should clean up and get inside at this point.” I tell them.

I carry the pot and bring it over to inside of the house where Reyne and the others are waiting for us on the table.

“Oh you weren’t kidding when you said you need a lot.” Reyne comments as I enter.

“Exactly why I don’t want to use your hospitality especially since Prina back there eats a lot.” I reply.

“Anyway we got to start, Drae is anxious to eat already.” I look over to Drae for a moment and see him getting excited with his utensils on the table.

“Sorry about that, we cleaned up our mess back outside.” Prina says as the two enter the room.

“Well okay then since everyone is here already and the food is ready let’s start shall we?” Reyne says.

We all sit down and start eating our meals. During dinner, the ones who were talking most of the time were Abae, and then Reyne or Drae. They were mostly asking about the deshar’s culture and how they work most of the time with Abae saying only the basics rather than telling them outright their main purpose.

At least I feel lucky enough that they haven’t asked about me. Drowning their conversation with my own thoughts helps me get through it at least. Blanking out my mind, getting through the whole dinner and getting to sleep. It helps to be honest.

The next thing I remember is that we finished eating and right now we’re being guided to our room inside the house.

“Hey if you need anything you can tell me and we’ll get it sorted out at once. You guys still have a job to do tomorrow.” Reyne says as he shows us the room.

The room itself is standard, but doesn’t have that feel that it was being used that much even when it looks clean. No personal stuff and nothing to decorate it with, just 2 beds and a nightstand to come with it.

“Don’t you have another small bed or some cushions for us to use at least?” Abae asks Reyne.

“I’ll bring it over in a bit but for now you guys should relax and get ready for tomorrow.”

“Sure sure Reyne.” Abae replies.

Once Reyne goes out of the room, we resign ourselves to the beds and relax for a moment. Prina then tells me.

“Santi, you better remember your promise for tomorrow okay?”

“Don’t worry Prina, there’s no greater time to know me than tomorrow.” I reply to her.

“Abae tell me, what exactly are we going to encounter tomorrow?” Prina asks Abae.

“Spirit who have been in distraught for over a decade, not exactly the hardest of spirits to deal with to be honest. Besides Prina, take it easy for a moment, I just need you guys to take care of me while I handle the big stuff for the spirits.”

“Doesn’t exactly tell much about what we’ll do.”

“Trust me Prina, whatever you’ll be doing, it’ll be the same as other stuff that we’ve done for the past months.”

“Okay, guess we’ll wait for the other bed then for you to get comfortable with.”

“It’ll be fine Prina, trust me.”