After seeing Fufu I hurried to take the main road that would take me to the city of Nebula. It crossed a forest that was quite different from the Purple one. It was crowded with huge trees that were thrown madly against the sky, as if they had something against it. As I approached one of them, I could see that the bark was as hard as iron and also grey in colour. I wanted to hit it with my axe to see what happened, but I didn't want to break the axe because it would be bad for me to ruin my father's present.

After an hour or so of walking through this desolated place, I got into troubles. First I heard high-pitched screams, probably from a damsel in distress, and then the laughter of monsters.

At the end of the road I saw a carriage that looked somewhere between luxurious and tacky: it was shaped like a swan and the doors were its wings. I didn't like the thing that, being a vehicle, wanted to be a bird... Things should be what they are and not pretend to be things they are not, at least that's what I think.

Well, there were about three goblins beside the two horses pulling the carriage. I didn't worry too much about the number because I was already hardened from fighting them and I knew I could take them out easily.

“Hey, man! Give him another apple now!” said one of the goblins.

His companion offered a red fruit to the horse. He didn’t hesitate and throwing his big mouth on the apple scarfed it down. At the sight of this, the goblins burst into uproarious laughter.

I drew my axe and approached them, even though they were doing nothing wrong, at the time I believed they were a plague and the only way to deal with them was to kill them until there were not a single one left in the kingdom.

But before I had time to fight them....

“What bad luck you beasts have had! Fate has certainly played a trick on you, for you have attacked the carriage in which I was travelling. Rudolph Valentine, bronze adventurer of the Children of the Sun, I will give you what you deserve!”

The carriage door opened with the force of a hurricane and there appeared a man of about twenty or so years old, I liked his blond hair combed in a ponytail. He was dressed in a fine manner, khaki corduroy trousers and a very white T-shirt with the top two buttons undone. He had a beautiful, symmetrical face, the kind that looks like it was made by sculptors rather than by a human woman.

“Prepare to die!” he shouted and drew a sabre, but before attacking he noticed me and leapt with cat-like agility over the three monster heads, then ran towards me. “Good morning, could you take care of those little monsters?”

Well, I fought the goblins by myself, though in reality I only fought one of them because the others fled into the forest before I had a chance to kill them. The one that stayed behind didn't last long, but before I could sink my axe into his skull he managed to scratch my stomach with his claws.

“What a shit!” I said, looking down at my pretty pink T-shirt, torn and stained with blood.

“Don't worry. I can help you," said Rodolfo, smiling and putring his hands on the wound: from his fingers came a white light that healed me instantly.

“Oh gosh! Do you have faith?” -I asked, although it was obvious that he did.

“One of the few gifts I have, and I have to say it's not much, it helps me to heal small wounds, but little else. Maybe it was the best, because having Faith would mean more responsibility," Rodolfo told me.

“I see... hey, it healed very well," I said, running my hands over the wound: there was a mark, but I didn't care too much about that.

“I'm glad, it's the least I can do for having defeated those goblins. I mean, I could have taken care of them by myself, but I didn't want to ruin my clothes," said Rodolfo.

“You've got a lot of nerve, don't you?”

“I beg your pardon. But besides healing you, I think I can reward you in another way. Aren’t you going to the city of Nebula, by any chance?”

“Yeah, I’m going there, why?”

“Well, you needn't ruin your feet walking, we can share this fine carriage I hired in the wonderful city of Cassiria." The sentence was cut short as the swan's carriage sped off.

Rodolfo was silent.

“I think the driver robbed you,” I said and I was surprised when he burst out laughing.

“Well, you're absolutely right, how easy it is to lose what is easy to win! In that carriage I had all the suns I'd won at the Royal Casino in Cassiria... At the moment, I have nothing but what I'm wearing...” he said, and for some reason he kept smiling.

“I'm sorry...”

“Don't be sorry. Material possessions are not the driving force in my life... But since we're both going to Nebula, would you mind if I came with you?” Rodolfo asked me.

“Of course I don't mind... my name is Sabela," I told him.

After having been walking for a while, my stomach started to growl a lot. It was normal, as I didn't get to eat anything at Mr. Oink's and it was already dinner time. The bad thing was that there was no place to eat around there. Only grey trees that did not grow straight, but at angles and some of them were quite tilted.

“Sabela, certain signs have made me think that you are hungry, and I must admit that I am too. Besides, I'm tired from all this walking and it's getting dark. Wouldn't it be better to find a place to sleep? You're not thinking of walking to Nebula even in the dark... are you?” Rodolfo asked me.

“Well, as long as you don't want to sleep in the forest? I don't see any suitable place around here...”

“Don't worry about that, I know we'll soon get to a hostel.”

“Oh, well, that sounds great.”

The night fell sudenly on the forest, but the darkness was kept from being total by street lamps on both sides of the road. Crowds of insects were bumping their heads trying to reach the bulb, again and again, again and again, again and again.

To the left of the road appeared the Teeth Woods hostel. The sign was illuminated by street lamps. There was nothing special about the place, nothing more than a two-storey building lost in the vastness of the forest. We entered and saw a short-haired girl behind the reception desk, her eyes were half closed and she seemed to be about to fall asleep.

“Good night,” she said, showing a hesitant smile, whether from sleep or boredom, I don't know.

“We would like two rooms,” said Rodolfo.

“OK, standard ones cost twenty suns and big ones forty. Which ones do you want?” asked the receptionist.

“And don’t you have small ones that cost ten?” I asked her because I was a thrifty person, except when it came to food or products for my hair.

She gave me a funny look and shook her head.

“Standard ones would be fine,” said Rodolfo, taking some notes out of his pocket and putting them on the table.

“Me too..." It hurt a little to say goodbye to my money, but it was preferable to sleep indoors rather than under the trees.

Rodolfo and I took our rooms keys; mine was number 12 and his was the next. Then we went to the dining room and that made me quite happy: eating was one of the things I liked most in life.

There was no one in the dining room and the tables were dressed with flowered tablecloths. A television hung on the it was showing a Solman cartoon, I recognised the episode: Doctor Luna made everyone believe that Solman was a traitor who wanted to destroy Sun City and that's why the other superheroes were fighting against him.

The walls were covered with landscape paintings, among which a painting of a clown stood out, one that looked like something out of a nightmare: his eyes were bulging out as if from illness and his mouth was protruding with teeth that seemed to be sharp.

We sat at one of the tables near the window, through which nothing could be seen, and soon a fat woman in a plaid apron appeared. She smiled at us and I could see that one of her front teeth was missing. She also had a whitish mark along her neck and I couldn't figure out what it could be.

“We only have stewed meat and vegetables. I can bring it a pot to you and you can eat what you want. What do you say?” -asked the woman.

“For me it’s OK” I said, and it was true: the more I could eat, the better it would be for me.

“I don't see any problem, home wine to drink, please. Would you like some too, Sabela?” Rodolfo asked me.

I wasn't much of a wine drinker, but I figured I could afford it that day because I had just joined the Children of the Sun. Although the thought made me a bit sad, I would like to celebrate with Lucia, dad and Fufu at home, not in that hostel with a stranger.

“Yes, please a little” I said, trying not to think of sad things, and I cheered myself up with the thought that when I got back from Nebula I could celebrate properly.

Well, in no time the lady came back with a pot that she left on the table and from it I served myself a good plate of stewed meat, with potatoes, carrots, small whole onions, peas galore.... Well, the usual. The important thing here is that it tasted wonderful, and in no time at all, I was already serving me another dish.

“Aren't you hungry?” I asked Rodolfo, who hadn't even finished his first plate.

“I'm not a big eater, I'm more of a drinker,” said Rodolfo and that was true because he had already drank two glasses and I was still with the first one.

Between spoonfuls, I felt that gaze falling on me again: as if someone hovering above my head was looking at me, trying to communicate with me. I shook my head, that was nonsense and the important thing at that moment was to eat.

Suddenly, Solman's drawings cut out and some news appeared. One of the journalists they send around the Kingdom to do interviews and stuff like that appeared: Arturo Arteixo.

“We are here at the Helios Research Institute in Sun City with excellent news about the Imbolongolo Enhle scroll. It seems that researchers are on the verge of deciphering this year's prophecy! With you, Dr. Honorato Hombreiro, what can you tell us about the outcome of the new research?”

Next to the presenter stood a man who did not fit my mental image of a doctor: powerful lumberjack chest and a beard to match. It would be quite natural to see him in the Purple Forest chopping wood, instead than in a laboratory doing research. Dr. Honorato spoke in a rather glad voice and said:

“My group of researchers is making incredible progresses! And we have great news! This year, the prophecy refers to the Monster King Maeloc, and we are absolutely sure that it speaks of his complete and utter destruction. Right now, we are deciphering the part that mentions the person who will finally succeed in killing the Monster King. For the moment, we can reveal that it will be an adventurer, man or woman, who has received a Mark, so, it’s a Marked One. But we don't know the kind of the Mark he or she is wearing, but we can assure you that it won't be long before we find it out and Maeloc will soon be defeated!”

I got excited, could I be that person? After all, I received a Mark not long ago, the 900 Lives. Granted, there were more Marked Ones in the Green Moor, but I wasn't doing anyone any harm by fantasising for a while.

“I'd love to be the one to kill Maeloc,” I sighed, unintentionally speaking out loud.

“Really? You have some pretty big dreams,” said Rodolfo.

“Wouldn't you like to be the one to take the King of the Monsters out of the way?” I asked, and Rudolph laughed.

“Oh no, no, no! That sounds too dangerous. My dreams are more... intimate.”

He said, and stared at the glass of wine with a melancholy expression on his face.

“What do you mean by that...? If I may ask, of course,” I said, not liking to meddle in other people's affairs, especially since I had only just met Rodolfo that day.

“A woman, Sabela. There's a woman I'm looking for her far and wide of the Kingdom, hoping to find her and almost certaninly that I probably never will,” he said and drained his glass of wine in one gulp, but refilled it immediately.

“And who is she?” I asked him and Rodolfo laughed, then he shook his head.

“I have no idea, I don't know her name. I only see her in my dreams, at the foot of a beautiful blue mountain. The name is on the tip of my tongue, I think I know who she is and I have the feeling that I know who she is when I'm dreaming, but when I wake up... reality fades the fantasies. But Sabela, I think she's real...” he said, no longer smiling and looking at me seriously.

“But dreams...they're just dreams, aren't they?” I asked him, I didn't want to break his hopes, but it didn't seem right to lie to him just to make myself look good.

“Don't think I'm crazy, but... maybe it's worth trying to find out if my fantasies are something more...” said Rodolfo and I didn't know what to answer him.