A sea of trees engulfs the surrounding area. Their branches reach high up to the sky, only allowing a few lucky rays of sun to touch the forest floor below. The encapsulated air is exceptionally chilly since the sun’s warmth is absorbed by the trees that tower the forest.

The group treks through the maze of trees with Leor guiding the way.

“Hey, do you even know where we’re going? We’ve been walking for ages.”, questions Alden.

“I’ve already told you. We are cutting through the forest to get to the next town,” says Leor. “We won’t make it out of the forest before nightfall, so we need to find somewhere to rest. Somewhere near a water source. Oh, and we also need to gather some firewood. It gets really cold at night.”

Ceri calls out from the sideline. “Umm.. I’ve been wondering about this for a while now, but why don’t you use any ‘Gifts’ beside your swords?”

Leor doesn’t say a word.

“Let’s not dig into his personal affairs. I’m sure he’ll come around eventually.”, reassures Alden. “Oh! By the way, what was that back there? What were those cool things they were riding!?”

Leor raises his eyebrows in slight surprise. “You don’t have those where you’re from?”

“Unfortunately, no. We don’t have those kinds of creatures in Lightendale. We have something similar called Overseers. They look just like hawks, but are made out of Lord Ludwig’s lightning. However, our military can’t ride them like the guards in Thalassa.”

“Interesting… Well, Runners are essentially the same things as Overseers, but as you saw, they are used for calvary. ” Leor pauses to gather his thoughts. “How does your military use them then?”

“Well, I haven’t seen Overseers in action personally, but I’ve heard that they’re mainly used as scouts.”

Alden runs to the front of the pack. Facing Leor, he twists and turns his hand through the air, attempting to charade the Overseers’ movement. “Yeah! They look like this in the sky. They move really fast! Probably even faster than those water horse things.”

The other two give him a strange look as if he were a child describing what he learned in school.

“Right... I believe I heard that they move very fast as well, but that should be given since Overseers are Gifts from Lord Ludwig himself. “

“Why do you guys always ignore me?”, pouts Alden while continuing to lead. He looks back at Leor and Ceri and is surprised to see them walking side by side. It doesn’t seem like they’ve noticed that themselves. Alden snickers to himself as he carefully watches them.

Leor notices a large patch of sunlight emitting ahead of their path. Faint sounds of flowing water can be heard in the distance.

“We made it to our first stop.”

The bright, warm sun floods the open area. Strangely, this single patch of land is void of any trees. Only a river that cuts through the forest floor and a couple of large moss-covered rocks embedded into the grass can be found in the enclosed space. The blinding sun peers over the group, causing them to lift their arms up to cast a shadow over their eyes.

“Wow… this is kind of strange. This is the first batch of sun we see in hours and it’s in such a random spot”, says Alden.

“It’s not random”, says Leor.

Alden and Ceri look at Leor in surprise.

“What do you mean?” quietly asks Ceri as if she’s trying to keep her voice from disturbing the tranquility of the forest.

Leor tilts his head up and stares intensely at the sky. A subtle hint of disdain lurks in his eyes.

“It is said that during the Great Calamity your so-called savior, ‘Lord Ludwig’, conjured massive storms and hailed bolts of lightning from the sky to defeat the Old Ones. The explosion from those lightning strikes was said to be so powerful that it incinerated the land, causing a mass exodus of wildlife. The magical residual from the blast can still be felt today… or so legends say.”

“Wow. Lord Ludwig is amazing” says Ceri with sparkles in her eyes as she takes another look at the landscape.

Leor’s facial expression visibly turns sour.

“For someone who seems like they disagree with the Gods, you seem to know a lot”, says Alden.

Leor refuses to respond. He walks up to the riverbank and takes a sip of water. “We need to go upstream”, says Leor as he points to the right.

A sense of concern washes over Ceri as she observes Leor walk away.