In the middle of the colorful forest, the racketing sounds of a wooden carriage could be heard as it steadily moved at a fast pace. The horse pulling it seemed to be at its limit as the sounds it were making were of complete exhaustion.

One of the people riding the carriage, a young woman dressed almost in rags, spoke up seeing the animal in such a state. “My lady, we must stop to rest, the horse can’t take it anymore and if we lose it we might not be able to keep running.”

“That’s right my lady. Besides, we’re already so far away from the border town, I don’t know if we should keep going anymore,” said a second woman who was sitting at the back of the carriage, dressed similarly to the first one.

“No! We must keep moving! I don’t know when my sister’s people will catch up to us! I can’t let her have me!” responded a young lady, who, while dressed in a similar fashion to the other two, didn’t give off the same feeling due to both her tone and the general way she carried herself.

The first young woman who was driving the carriage had a thin body, had a wheat skin color, dark brown hair mixed with some streaks of red on it, and her eyes, while being mostly blue, also had some marks of red in them. The second woman had a similar body to the first one, only being slightly taller, her hair was black with streaks of brown on it and her eye color was a light brown. The young lady sitting at the back next to the second one, had blond hair with thick blue streaks on it, her body was thin and her skin complexion was very fair, like someone that had never been under the sun, while her eyes were a mix of green and blue.

“But my lady, the guard at the gate also warned us not to go too far or might get too close to the Scorched Gate where the wild beast might get us… or worse, the Drokanians,” said the second woman with nervousness in her voice.

The young fair lady bit her lips and looked down at her clenched hands as they laid on her legs, while the other two women looked at her, waiting for her to tell them to stop.

The one driving the carriage looked back at the front again, hoping for the horse to not fall over while the young lady was thinking; however, she suddenly pulled on the reins, forcing the horse to stop.

“Why are you stopping? I didn’t tell you to—”

“My lady, there are people coming this way!” urgently said the woman driving the carriage.

“What?! Are they bandits? Or hunters? What can you see?!” responded the young lady, with panic in her voice.

The woman driving narrowed her eyes, trying to see better the figures walking on the road. “It looks like… two people, both wearing armors and… one of them seems to be carrying something or someone on their shoulder.”

“Are they knights? Could they be my sister’s people?” wondered with fear the lady in the back as she looked forward as well.

“They are too far for me to see a coat of arms… but their armors are intricate, and seem to be artifacts even.”

“Should we run back, my lady? Or run into the forest?” asked the second woman while looking back at the road they had come from.

“Wait! One of them is waving at us, the one with the thing on their shoulder. I don’t think they’re enemies, or at least I hope they aren’t,” said the one that had been looking forward with caution.

The lady in the back swallowed hard, and then said with some courage, “Very well, let’s talk to them. Maybe they’re good people willing to help us.”

As the lady turned to look up at where the people were in the road, she noticed that one of them was missing, or rather, it seemed as if there had always just been one person so she turned to the woman driving. “Huh? I only see one figure. Are you sure there were more than one?”

The one driving noticed that as well, and looked at the people on the road again. “What? I’m sure they were two people walking on the road.”

They were too focused looking forward to the one person walking with something on their shoulder to notice that someone was behind them until they made a sound. “Hey ladies, wassup,” said someone with a somewhat frivolous voice.

They screamed at the sudden greeting. The woman with the brown eyes quickly jumped in front of her lady materializing a brown shield from the earth on the ground, while the one driving turned around in a somewhat clumsy motion and created fire on her hands as she stood ready to attack whoever had shown up.

“Wow! Holy shit! That’s real magic!” said with excitement the man in a black armor with a horned skull helmet on his head.

“Who are you?! Why did you sneak up on us like that?!” asked the delicate lady in the middle while having a scared face.

“I didn’t sneak up on you, I just came over to greet you, there’s no need to get all fuzzy about it.”

Before any of them could keep talking, a loud sound came from behind them again, as if something heavy was dropped on the ground and a heavy sigh was heard from feminine a voice.

“Marcus, why did you go around in the forest like that? You could have ruined this first meeting with the natives,” said the woman.

Marcus laughed out loud. “I just couldn’t stop myself from seeing these people up close. Besides, look Natty! They are doing actual magic! Her hands are on fire and it’s like she doesn’t even care!” Then he pointed at the one closer to him, “and this one pulled that shield from the ground, as if it was alive!”

The woman in front with the fire turned around to look at Natalia, who had dropped a big stag from her shoulders on the ground. She didn’t immediately attack Natalia either, but was looking at her cautiously.

The delicate lady had a desperate expression on her face. She just realized that they were basically pinned down from both sides by what seemed to be extremely dangerous people, so she couldn’t help but turn to Natalia and plead. “Please, don’t hurt us, we don’t have anything and we just want to live in peace.”

Natalia shook her head. “It’s ok, we mean you no harm. We just wanted to greet you and get to know who you are,” she tilted her head to look at Marcus at the back, “and I’m sorry about my companion over there, he doesn’t know what being a decent human being means.”

Marcus shrugged.

They didn’t relax at all from what Natalia said since for them they could just be trying to get them to lower their guards to then take advantage of them, so the woman with the earth shield spoke up first with an accusatory tone. “How do we know you mean us no harm? I only see someone that looks like he comes from the Drokan lands.”

Natalia nodded and withdrew the helmet, revealing her face and letting her hair flow out. The woman with the fire on her hands gasped while the delicate lady opened her eyes wide and spoke up. “That’s… an amazing artifact, but only people from the most powerful houses in the empire could afford to have something like that, or could it be…?”

Following that, the delicate lady fell back down on her knees and shook her head. Seeing this, the one with the earth shield got surprised. “My lady! Get a hold of yourself!”

“It’s hopeless, only the emperor’s people could have such a powerful artifact, this means that they’re here to get us back,” said the lady with a dispirited tone of voice.

The other two women heard that and looked back at the two people. The one with the fire swallowed hard as she carefully looked at Natalia, while the one with the shield was glaring at Marcus.

Natalia had an eyebrow raised and right before she talked again to try to calm down the natives, Marcus let out a loud laugh with a clearly evil sound to it, while crossing his arms and looking down at the people on the carriage.

“That’s right! The emperor of evil has demanded that I bring your souls back to hell with me as a—”

“Marcus!” shouted Natalia.

“My lady! I’ll try to hold them off while you make a run for it to the forest!” shouted the one with the shield.

“Wait! He’s lying, we didn’t come here from any empire, nor from some ‘Drokan lands,’” Natalia said as she glared at Marcus, “or from hell,” then she pointed behind her. “We came from the south-east of here. We followed the road we found after coming out of a place we call ‘Porta Paradisi.’”

Marcus laughed again, without the evil tone to it this time. “Got you good there, didn’t I?”

They still wouldn’t calm down, and the one with fire was even more alert after they pointed to where they said they came from, so she asked, “What do you mean from there? We were told that only the Scorched Gate was in that place. Are you survivors of The Battle for the Scorched Gate?”

Natalia was quiet for a moment, thinking about whether or not to tell them that.

“Hold on,” said the delicate lady with a thoughtful expression, “could it be that you come from beyond the Scorched Gate?”

Natalia paused for a moment. “If the ‘Scorched Gate’ is the portal in the middle of a desolate plain then yes, we walked out of it. We are in charge of exploring the land and getting in contact with the natives.”

The delicate lady got excited. “That means that you’re not related to my sister or the empire! Please, you must help us!”

“My lady! We can’t trust them just like that! They could have ulterior motives!” responded the one with the shield.

“We don’t have an option, either we die in the wild, or my sister’s people catch up to us…” said the delicate lady with a sad expression on her face, then looking at Natalia again, “Please…”

Natalia kept quiet as she looked at the ladies in front of her, while Marcus seemed to be only interested in the magic they were doing.

The delicate lady noticed that Natalia wasn’t answering to her pleas, so she bit her lower lip and looked with some determination back at Natalia. “I can help you with your mission as well. I am…” she stopped herself for a moment, “I am Marie Anne Bardsley, second daughter of the empire’s Great Field Marshal.”

A loud laugh came out of Marcus. “What kind of bullshit is that? Why would anyone from a supposed rich family be wearing rags in the middle of nowhere, with only two magical girls by her side?”

Tears started showing up in Marie's eyes. “I was betrayed by my older sister, accused of things I didn’t do, and while my father was trying to stall for me, my sister used the power behind the crown prince to get me. It was a matter of time before she got what she wanted, so…” she took a breath, “before she could do anything to me, I decided to run, and run as far away as I could from her.”

“My lady…” said the one with fire while showing pain on her face.

Marie looked at Natalia again. “So I beg you! Please protect me and I can take you to my father!”

“And what’s stopping us from, y’know, grabbing you and taking you to your evil sister instead, earning the favor of the crown prince of this so-called empire?” asked Marcus while making a menacing pose.

“You! You…!” responded the woman with the shield, taken aback.

“No, we won’t do that,” said Natalia while shaking her head. “I don’t think it would do us any good if we try to make a deal with someone that could betray her family. Besides, starting connections with a ‘Great Field Marshal’ could also be good for us, and might even let you see that Angel you want to see so much if we take his daughter safe and sound to him.”

After Natalia said that a hopeful expression bloomed on Marie’s face. “Does that mean that you’ll…”

“Yes, we’ll take you to your father.”

Tears swelled again on Marie’s face. “Thank you so much!”

The two women lowered their guard and let go of the magic.

“What? You’re just going to believe them like that?” said Marcus as he looked at the women who were now a bit more relaxed. “I still don’t buy it. These are just her words.”

“Here! I can show you something that will make you believe me,” said Marie as she pulled out a pendant from between her ragged robes.

The chain on the pendant wasn’t anything too eye-catching, but the marble sized orb that was hanging from it was, since it had a bright but gentle blue glow, and what seemed like a spiral turning inside of it.

“This is a gift from my mother so that I could properly handle the water magic that she was teaching me. It’s a one of a kind artifact that only gets passed down from generation to generation in my family,” she said, looking back up at Marcus, “so you won’t find anyone besides myself anywhere with one of these.”

Marcus leaned himself over to have a closer look at the blue orb. Marie was tempted to take a step back seeing the horned skull so close to her, but she only did a slight lean back. After a few seconds of staring at it, Marcus withdrew his helmet showing the face that he was making under it. He had one eye narrowed and the other one wide open looking at the orb, with the eyebrow over it raised high while the other eyebrow was making a frown. He seemed to be seriously looking at the orb, almost making a hole into it.

The two other women were getting slightly uncomfortable with how close Marcus was to Marie, but they didn’t do nor say anything about it.

After another handful of seconds, Marcus hummed and then raised his arms up in the air. “Fine, whatever, I don’t care. We’ll see when we get you to your daddy if you’re a real princess or not.”

“But I am not a princess…” said Marie, slightly taken aback.

“Sure, sure, whatever, let’s just keep going. I’ve yet to see a demon and shit,” responded Marcus after turning around and pulling the helmet back up.

The two women frowned at how rude Marcus was but they didn’t dare say anything when their lady didn’t either, especially when they were the ones begging for help from them.

The one that had the shield before, turned to Natalia, and introduced herself. “I am Joy, a servant to lady Marie.”

“And I am Lyra, also a servant under lady Marie,” followed up the one that used fire.

Natalia did a slight nod towards them. “I am Imperatrix Natalia Laroy,” she said, pointing then towards Marcus, “And the homeless looking man is Marcus Nossa.”

“Imperator! Marcus Nossa,” he responded with one finger up.

Marie widened her eyes and then lowered herself to the floor of the carriage that she had been standing on. “I didn’t know I was talking with the most noble of people! Please forgive my insolence!”

Joy and Lyra didn’t react as Marie did when they heard the titles, but when they saw their lady’s reaction, they got pale and dropped to the floor as well.

“Please, get up, we’re not nobles and Imperator is not a title, it’s just a military rank, so there’s no need for this,” Natalia smiled, trying to calm them down.

“You’re still of the highest rank, I should’ve known better than to talk to you like how we have been doing,” said Marie, slightly more calm seeing that both of the Imperators were calm.

“It’s fine, you can treat us as nothing more than adventurers, or knights on the road. It’ll make the trip easier for us as well,” responded Natalia with a dismissive tone.

Marie took a couple of seconds before standing back up. “Very well, I won’t refuse the kindness that you’re showing us.”

Joy stood back up, followed shortly after by Lyra, the later one noticing the big beast that had been dropped on the side of the carriage since Natalia first spoke to them. “Might I ask why you were carrying that wild beast with you?” she said as she pointed at it.

Natalia turned to look at the colorful stag on the ground. “Oh, I wasn’t sure about when we would get to hunt a proper meal, so I decided to hunt this stag and use it for food later on, instead of hunting the smaller animals in the forest that might not last us as long.”

Lyra paled when she heard that. “Your Majesty! You cannot eat it! It’s a Tainted Beast!” she said as she looked closer at the beast on the ground, “This one in particular is Green Horned Stag. I heard that they’re usually quite dangerous in the wild, and that their meat is toxic enough to kill any man that eats it right away.”

A frown showed up in Natalia’s face, while Marcus on the front started laughing out loud from hearing that the precious hunt that Natalia had been carrying for a few days was a worthless animal. “I can’t believe this!” said Marcus, pointing at the animal.

Natalia did a heavy sigh, turning to the dead animal and getting down to pick it up. “I guess I’ll just throw it away.”

“Wait Your Majesty, there’s no need for that. I’ve heard that there’s artifact smiths that pay for the parts of wild beasts like this one, so maybe when we get to the border town, we can earn some money,” said Marie.

“Very well, we’ll take it with us then.” Natalia said as she was picking up the stag and carrying it over to the carriage. “And, please don’t call us ‘Your Majesty’. Our names are enough.”

As Natalia was placing the stag on the carriage, Joy spoke up. “By the way, I know that there’s still plenty of light on the day, but our horse seems to be exhausted, so I’d like it if we could stop a small river that we passed before and let our horse recover while we prepare to spend the night close to it.”

“I think that would be a good idea, if that’s okay with you, lady Natalia,” followed up Marie as she looked nervously at Natalia.

“Yes that’s okay, I’d like to talk a little bit too later on as well.”

“Oh man, you’re going to slow us down like that? You’re going to have to pay for that later as well…” said Marcus as he looked back at the women on the carriage,“…with your bodies,” finished Marcus with a dangerous tone of voice.

The women were taken aback, with Marie looking at Natalia for help; however, before they said anything about it, Marcus continued, “So you better show me a lot of that magic shit you were doing earlier.”

Natalia sighed, but didn’t say anything as they all started walking down the road.