With great effort, I opened my eyes and lazily stared ahead of me, waiting for my vision to focus. When it did, I let out a short laugh. As I remembered what happened, I found it strangely funny to not be in the Thousand Bolts’ white space. After determining that this was probably the real world, I tried moving my body, and it did, but only just barely, still far from recovering from my fatigue. At the very least, I didn’t feel very feverish anymore, just numb and tired all over.

“Oh, are you awake now?” a voice asked, just as I decided to try turning my head to see where I was. I was lying in bed and there was an old man with white hair sitting on a chair by my bedside. He did not look as old as the white hair would seem to suggest and he had well-defined facial features that led me to believe that he was probably very handsome as a younger man. Not that I’m saying he looked bad as is. He was also simply dressed and had a rather serious expression.

“Uh, yeah. Where am I?”

“You are resting in my cottage.”

“I see.” I started looking around the room. It lacked any kind of decoration and the only other thing I spotted in the room was a wooden desk in the corner. The man caught my wandering gaze.

“If you are wondering where your daughter is, she is with Flora at the moment. They waited a while for you to wake up, but eventually, she remembered that you had left your things in the forest. They left together to go fetch them.”

“What?” I tried to get up, but when I brought my head a foot off the pillow, my vision blurred again and my head ached.

“Calm down, there,” the man said, gently pushing me back down onto the bed. “I cured the poison when they brought you in, but your body needs some more time to fully recover.”

“The poison? Oh, right. Ah, thank you.” I blinked a couple times until my vision cleared up again.

“You’re welcome. Just continue to rest for now. Don’t worry about your daughter either, she has your compass and Flora knows her way around the forest quite well.” I had no other choice than to try to be reassured by his words. I closed my eyes and decided to just try and relax. “Oh, going back to sleep already?” I opened my eyes again.

“Is that a problem?” I asked, thinking it strange to hear such a fast contradiction.

“Well, if you really need to, then by all means, do so. However, I was hoping we could talk first.” All everyone ever wants to do is talk to me, huh?

“Talk about what?” My previous interactions with the Thousand Bolts may have made that sound a bit more defensive than I had intended.

“Well, for starters, I am curious as to how you got poisoned. Both Flora and your daughter were so worried about you that I delayed asking for the details. Now that you are awake, I hope to finally hear about it.” I looked at the man’s eyes and thought for a moment. He was willing to help me, but given that I was here to sneak into the Nature Clan’s capital, I was skeptical of how much I could really tell him.

“Well…I was shot by an arrow.” This much was obviously impossible to lie about. “I didn’t get a good look at who took the shot though.” This wasn’t technically a lie, but he saw through it nonetheless.

“I want to be clear with you that I am not too concerned about your circumstances. What I really want to know is where you were when you came across my granddaughter.”

“I was…” It was especially difficult coming up with a lie on the spot with my body and mind in its current state.

“Wait. It is rather rude of me to be so prying with a complete stranger. I am Hiram, and you are…?”

“Uh, my name is Braith,” I responded with a slightly dumbfounded look on my face from the sudden switch up.

“Braith, huh? I see. That’s not a name I’ve ever heard of before.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“And your daughter’s name?”

“She’s Tasha.”

“I see. Have the two of you been traveling for long?”

“No, not really. I think it’s only been about…five weeks?”

“Only five weeks? Where did you come from?”

“Uh, I came from Befson.” I strangely found myself completely caught up in Hiram’s pace.

“So you came from Holtzan?”

“Well, yeah…” Hiram easily picked up that there was something more to my hesitation.

“Oh, you’re not really from Holtzan. That’s fine, you don’t need to be completely forthcoming with me. I don’t need to know everything about you.”

“Thanks, I guess. What about you?”

“I was born and raised in the Nature Clan’s capital of Eden. A variety of things led to me living out here, though.” I could tell that this ‘variety of things’ was probably quite the euphemism, but I felt no need to pry.

“Oh, okay.” There was a brief silence as we just looked at each other.

“So, Braith, you’ve had a pretty rough time traveling so far?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, for someone shot by an arrow, you don’t seem very upset by it. I’m guessing that this isn’t too out of the ordinary?” I chuckled, but it quickly ended with a cough.

“You’re pretty good at guessing.”

“Well, I’ll try to not judge you on what you’ve done so far, but has it been very dangerous?” Oh, you don’t know the half of it, I thought to myself.

“It hasn’t been the most comfortable time,” I understated.

“Does that include today? Even before getting shot by an arrow, that is.” I was not surprised to see the conversation come back to this. However, by now, I actually thought it was okay to just be open about it.

“Yeah, it wasn’t a very safe thing to try to do. Trying to get into the capital.”

“So you were shot by one of the Nature Clan’s soldiers?”

“Yeah.”

“And it was around that time that you encountered Flora?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.” Hiram wore a serious expression.

“Any more questions?” Hiram shook his head and got up from his seat.

“That’s all for now. I said I wouldn’t judge you and I appreciate you for trusting me enough to tell what you’ve said so far.”

“Well, I had the feeling you weren’t exactly in league with what’s going on in the capital.”

“Still, thank you for answering my questions. Get some rest, you should be good as new by tomorrow.” He went to walk away, but then the door to the room opened. Flora and Tasha came inside, and their worried faces lit up when they saw I was awake. I felt it in Befson, but still, it just feels so strange seeing other people so concerned about me.

“Dad, you’re awake!” she exclaimed as she raced to my side.

“Grandpa, is he all better already?”

“Mostly, but he still needs his rest.”

“Dad, how are you feeling?” Tasha asked right as she reached my bedside.

“Better. A lot better thanks to Hiram. Thank you, too, Flora, for bringing me here.”

“I was the one who had to carry you up here,” Tasha said, fishing more for praise than trying to whine.

“Yes, thank you, too, Tasha.” I would pat her head, but I was much too tired for that.

“Alright, that’s enough now. He needs his rest,” Hiram said for my benefit. Tasha did not move from my bedside, though, until Flora came over to her.

“Grandpa’s right, Tasha. Your dad still needs to rest up. Come on, let’s go. I can show you the archery range I told you about earlier. The hot spring, too.”

“Listen to them, Tasha, I’ll be just fine here by myself.” Tasha eventually relented and they left the room. I closed my eyes and sleep came by much sooner than I expected even with my fatigue.

The next day, I woke up feeling refreshed. I got out of the bed, and saw some clothes placed on the bedside chair. My armour was missing however. Well, it wasn’t really mine. I would just ask Hiram about it later. I left the room and after exiting a short hallway, entered the downstairs living room. The stairs leading up were by the side of the room and there was a table and some chairs on the carpeted floor. I didn’t notice anyone else in the room and right when I went to the stairs to explore further, Flora suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, looking noticeably tired.

“Oh, you’re awake, um, Mr. Braith,” she said a bit sheepishly as she continued down the stairs.

“You can just call me Braith.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Is something the matter?”

“No. Well, no, it’s okay.” I didn’t really notice earlier given the situation, but she speaks with a rather timid voice.

“Are you sure?”

“Um, well…it’s about Tasha.”

“Tasha?! Did something happen to her?” I instinctively grabbed her in a panic.

“Well, it happened in the middle of the night,” she began uncomfortably, her shoulders clutched by me.

“What happened?!” I looked ahead of her.

“Um…it started for her.”

“Started? What started? Please, just tell me what happened?!” I started shaking her. After a moment of this, I realized what I had been doing to her this whole time and let go. I took a deep breath. “Sorry. That was…very rude of me. But please, what is the matter? She is okay, right?”

“Oh, no, don’t worry, she’s fine. She’s just resting right now. Um, it’s really not that bad, she was just really shocked by the…uh, blood.” Blood? Flora quickly realized her poor choice of words. “Oh, no, it’s not an injury or anything. Um, you do know about it, right? She’s just, uh, started to mature.” I stared at her blankly.

“I-Is that… a Battle-Hardened thing?” She looked back at me with equal confusion.

“Um…no, I don’t think so. All girls go through it. Well, that’s what grandpa told me when it started with me a year ago.” We both looked at each other a bit longer, confused about something. Then, finally I realized what she meant.

“Oh! Oh, okay…oh…well...”

“Yes?”

“No, nothing, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. So, she’s fine, right?”

“Yes, she’s fine. Just resting now.”

“Okay…” I shuffled around a bit awkwardly.

“Do you need to go see her right now?”

“No, no, no! I’m fine, it’s okay. Uh, yeah, I’ll just…so, where did your grandfather go?”

“Grandpa’s tending to our apple trees.”

“I see. Well, that sounds really interesting. Mind leading me there?” I asked, not interested at all and just wanting to move past what just happened and to do something else. Thankfully, Flora was willing to oblige. I followed her to behind the cottage where there were five apple trees. Hiram was seated on a stool, perusing through a basket of apples. He turned to look at us briefly when we approached.

“Ah, good to see you up and about, Braith,” he said, looking at the apples. “Guess you probably won’t be needing one of these, then.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, confused by his last statement.

“Hmmm? Oh, right, you’ve never been to the Nature Clan before.” He got up from his stool and showed me his basket. There were half a dozen apples in it. They were kind of small, but looked like ordinary red apples. “These are potion apples. They’re very rare since they only grow with special soil and fertilizer.”

“Potion apples?”

“You’ve never heard of them?”

“I haven’t, but I feel like I already have an idea of what they are.” Well, if the word ‘potion’ was any indicator, that is. But, that would be just a little ridiculous.

“They are magical fruits that heal you when you eat them.” Wow, they literally are potion apples.

“How effective are they?”

“Well, they won’t save you from mortal wounds or regrow limbs, but they’re still very useful. Any injuries or fatigue you have that you would naturally recover from will be instantly healed. Serious injuries and illnesses can also be relieved to some degree.” That does sound pretty good. Getting one of these everyday would probably be overkill on healing.

“Is that what you used for my poison earlier?” Hiram shook his head and then gave a soft chuckle

“Oh, no. I could have used one of these if too much time had passed or if your body went through serious side effects, but these things are a bit too rare to waste.”

“Oh, was the poison not that serious?”

“Hmmm, it wasn’t something to take too lightly, but it was made worse by the state your body was in. You have clearly been overworking your body for some time now. Have you been making sure to rest properly during your travels?” Stress and fighting is probably what Hiram was pointing at, and he certainly wouldn’t be wrong about that implied guess. Although, I had also been using my powers every day to get here faster as well.

“I might have been a bit reckless,” I admitted.

“Well, as long as you remember to take better care of yourself. You should also be thankful that whomever made the poison wasn’t very good at it.” I furrowed my eyebrows.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The poison on the arrow was made from a variety of some fairly common flowers around here. When mixed properly, it can be a lot more potent. On top of those fever-inducing effects, it can also cause nearly immediate paralysis. It would still be non-lethal, but that was never the point behind this particular poison.”

“Because the Nature Clan wants to catch their enemies alive?” Hiram’s expression turned somewhat sour. I really hope I did not just step on a landmine.

“It’s an old type of poison that many of the people no longer know how to mix properly.” Hiram turned his body to the side and started pacing. “Now, they focus on new things. Hmph, mostly to do with metalwork and forging. They even plated the city wall with metal now.”

“So, the metal plating was something that happened recently?”

“Yes, it was something they had the captives from the Bronze Colony construct for them. They also work the forges and do other labour inside the capital.” This piqued my interest. I had failed to enter the capital, but I may still be able to get some information.

“Hiram, what do you know about the current situation in the capital?”

“The current situation?”

“With the prisoners from the Bronze Territory.” Hiram’s expression shifted to a calculating look. His eyes went over to Flora who had been silently standing by the whole time.

“Flora, do you think you can go and check up on Tasha?” Hiram asked. “I’m sure she’d feel a lot better if someone with experience could comfort her.”

“Oh, sure, grandpa.” Flora didn’t seem oblivious to Hiram’s intent, but she left without putting up any resistance and went back inside the cottage. I looked at Hiram silently for a bit after she left our view.

“So, can we talk now?” Hiram blew out some air from his mouth and took a seat on his stool again. I remained standing.

“That depends…how open do you plan to be with me?”

“After all the things I’ve said so far, and the fact that the Nature Clan soldiers haven’t come to get me, I can say quite a lot.” Hiram leaned forward on his seat, with his elbows on his thighs, and forearms bent upwards with clasped hands to support his lowered chin.

“Alright, let me hear you out first.”

“There’s a particular reason I travelled here, well, actually a couple reasons. However, the reason I want to talk to you right now is about the Bronze Territory.”

“It’s interesting to hear someone call it that.”

“Well, I’ve got an outdated map. Also, I don’t really like the sound of ‘colony’.”

“Alright, I understand. Continue.”

“When I was in the Bronze Colony, I overheard some things from the people there. In particular, I heard about the letters that the prisoners here send to their friends and family. You know about that, right?”

“Yes, I am aware of that.”

“Are you also aware about a sudden change that happened with that letter policy starting around two months ago?”

“A change?”

“Some people stopped receiving letters from the prisoners, and the letters that they still got were now strangely praising the Nature Clan.” Hiram’s expression turned very serious.

“Is that so?”

“It’s what I’ve heard.”

“That does sound quite troubling. However, Braith, I am sorry, but I do not have any information about why such a thing has started happening. I haven’t returned to Eden since the end of the war.”

“What?” That was a rather surprising reveal. I figured Hiram was a bit of an outcast, but the war ended thirteen years ago. “What about Flora?”

“She has never been to Eden before in her life.” Another interesting piece of information. It really made me start to wonder what she was trying to do when we first encountered each other.

“But why?” I felt the need to ask, knowing full well I probably wouldn’t receive a real answer.

“Yes, I suppose it is rather strange to hear that. As members of the Nature Clan, even if you do not live in Eden, you’d be expected to visit it to at least form a contract with the guardian tree.” It looked like Hiram was misunderstanding the reason for my confusion, but this was fine as well.

“By guardian tree, you mean that giant tree?” Hiram looks almost offended by that question. He clicked his tongue and returned to a stoic gaze.

“Yes, that large tree in the centre of Eden. It is an ancient existence that houses the guardian spirit of the Nature Clan, the earth goddess, Gaia.”

“A guardian spirit? Wait, you said that people come to contract with it, does that mean there are multiple vessels?” Thousand Bolts did mention he wasn’t like the other guardian spirits, but this is quite the drastic difference.

“I find it interesting that you use the word ‘vessel’.” I froze up a bit. Was I being too open? I mean, now that I think about it, I really should be very careful about telling people that I have a guardian spirit. “Well, it’s the original term. Anyways, no, those of the Nature Clan do not come to contract with Gaia, but with the guardian tree itself.”

“With the tree?”

“The guardian tree is a magical existence that has been rooted in Midgard long before recorded history. Our ancestors worshipped it and in return, it granted us many blessings. As for the guardian spirit that also happens to reside within the tree, she has been around since the founding of the Nature Clan. She had made previous leaders of the Nature Clan her vessel in the past, but when she is not inhabiting one of us, she lives within the guardian tree.”

“Oh, so the guardian tree is like her Spirit Altar, and she waits there until a worthy vessel shows up.”

“Yes, exactly,” Hiram said after a moment of hesitation. “Braith, you mentioned that you had other reasons for coming here. I know that I could not help you with the first one, but perhaps I may know more about the others.” I could tell this was his way of getting me to confirm what he has probably already guessed. It wasn’t so much that I minded telling him the reasons themselves, but the context behind those reasons had to be kept secret.

“I’m searching for some people. Well, two different types of people, for different reasons. One, I have something to settle with. Another…for Tasha.” I was intentionally vague, despite saying how I was going to be very open with him. However, Hiram seemed to know the reasons for my search.

“One for the sake of revenge, and the other for your daughter’s sake. I cannot say putting those two on the same path is advisable. But that is not my decision to make.” The way Hiram said this made me feel that there was a lot left unsaid. “So, I assume you will be back on your journey fairly soon, then?” I had to think about that. Trying to get into the capital would probably be a bust, but I don’t know if Tasha will be so quick to completely give up on it and move on. Also, even if the chances are slim, I still wanted to try as well if I could get some information on those merchants. Oh, and I guess I should also probably try to figure out the deal with the letters.

“Probably, but Tasha’s going through some…new times, and I think she might need more than a day before she’s ready to go. Do you mind if we stay here a bit longer?”

“No, just take your time here.”

“Thank you. Oh, by the way, where is my armour?”

“Oh, I’ll show you to it. I’m not sure you should keep wearing it, though; it’s pretty worn out and there’s a few holes in it, including the more recent one from the arrow.”

“Well, that's all I got. If I keep traveling, I guess I’ll try to pick up something nicer if I can.”

“Your daughter’s armour isn’t in very good condition either.”

“Well, nothing I can do about that either, at the moment.”

“Well, just bear that in mind that they don’t offer much protection, well at least not if your journey’s going to continue to be even half as dangerous as it has been so far.”

“Yeah, I got it.” I was growing impatient with the sudden influx of complaints. I did not expect to get into such dangerous battles when I initially set out. I just wanted to find Tasha’s parents. Ah, but I suppose that was just my incompetence. Thinking that traveling Midgard would be like rugged camping was a silly thought. It was one of many silly thoughts I've had, but I guess it is better to just accept them in move on. I shook my head and then let Hiram lead the way.