“Oh wow! Crim, look!” I was watching scenery pass out the back of the parted cloth when I heard Ilise suddenly claim to me from behind.

Following what she said, I poked my head through the cloth and looked out the front where Ilise was sitting. She was to the right of my head and when I looked to the left, I saw the Great Lake.

It was a humongous body of water that stretched out far over the horizon. The water was a beautiful emerald green that was clear enough to see right to the bottom of the shore from where we were driving by. The main thing that caught my eyes was a ginormous tree right in the middle of the lake. While my eyes admired the tree all the way to the top, something else caught my attention. There at the top of the tree I felt as if my eyes just met with someone. It really felt like I was looking eye to eye with something in the tree before it disappeared.

“Does someone live in that tree?” I asked, curiously.

“Live in the tree? Now that’s some funny talk, Crim. It would be hard transporting the stuff you need there, let alone live in it.” Ilise answered with a giggle. “If you’re impressed with that tree, wait till you see the Forest of Tranquility, from what I’ve been told, that’s a sight to behold.” She then added.

“You must really like sightseeing.” I said while still admiring the lake.

“Yes! Ever since I started doing transportation for the guild, it gave me opportunities to see great things!” She told me with a smile.

“Is that so.” I said nonchalantly while retracting my head back into the carriage.

“Done looking already?” She asked teasingly. “You know you could sit up here with me to watch it easier.” She then added.

“No it’s okay, I can see it out the back here anyways.” I answered back while my eyes found their way to the parted cloth once more.

“Ok.” Ilise sighed out.

After our small exchange, all that was heard was the chirping of the birds, trotting from the horses and the spinning wheels going over the terrain. Like I normally did, I watched the scenery out the back and it felt like the lake was really going on forever.

By the time the sun was setting, all that was left of the lake was the tall tree slowly disappearing over the horizon. From there on out, the ride was like any other day, just me watching the scenery out the back.

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Three days later while we were around the campfire eating for the night when Ilise brought up how close we are to Marawa “We should be able to see the gates to Marawa sometime mid day tomorrow.”.

Upon hearing those words I felt anxiety rising while thinking about what happened in the memories. Trying to not let it show, I asked a question “And how long from there until the Forest of Tranquility?”.

“Hmm, to the spot where we are going, it should be no less than a day's travel.” She answered. She then changed the subject back to Marawa “You must be excited to visit Marawa and see some old faces, when was the last time you were there?”.

“I don’t know if excited is the right word. The last time I was there would have been while the orphanage was being burnt down.” I answered awkwardly.

“Oh, right.” She replied in a small voice. “Sorry, I forgot.” She added as a frown was forming on her face.

I shake my head to her “It’s fine.” I tell her, trying to not make the air awkward.

Ilise then got up “Well, I should be sleeping for the night, tomorrow is the home stretch to Marawa!”. After she finished talking, she turned around and went towards her tent.

I was happy she decided not to ask more about Marawa and before I got caught up thinking about it, I myself got up and walked to an open area to practice swordsmanship.

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Much like it was near Trennent, I began seeing farms of golden wheat stretching across both sides. It wasn’t too long of watching the golden fields until I heard Ilise up front. “Ah! There it is!” She voiced out. Upon hearing her words, I continued to watch out the back. “You’re not going to take a look?” She asked me.

“I’ll be fine,” I tell her in a relaxed tone. Once she heard my answer, we rode in silence all the way to the town gates.

When we arrived at the gates I heard a guard halt the carriage to talk to Ilise. “Reason for visiting, miss.” He asked. I didn’t hear anything from Ilise and shortly after the guard spoke up again “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize a guild carriage, do you need directions to the guild?”.

“Please if you wouldn’t mind, sir.” She replied.

“If you just continue on the main road here, it will take you to the town square. From there if you take a right and follow the road there it won’t be too long until you reach the guild.” Once he told us the directions, I heard Ilise thanking him before the carriage started moving again.

While the carriage was making its way to the town square, I saw a peculiar gate on the way. I didn’t bother to figure it out if it’s the same gate and just made a mental note of where it was.

It wasn’t long until we arrived at the town square. It was much more crowded in this area than it was on the way from the gates. I was watching out the back when I saw multiple stands with people behind them trying to catch the attention of people passing by to buy the things they were presenting. When I saw it, I began thinking of the two that went to the capital.

We finally took a turn and exited town square and several minutes from there, the carriage slowly came to a stop.

“We’re here!” Ilise claimed from the cloth between us. “Let’s go inside and get something to eat.” Ilise said while popping her head into the carriage. I instinctively nodded to her because I slowly began missing food other than dried meat.

Ilise took her head out of the carriage and when she did so, I exited out of the carriage myself. When I was outside, I realized the carriage was parked to the side of the building. When I walked towards the front with Ilise, I then observed the building that we parked beside. It was much like the same as the one in Trennent but had a difference of it being taller.

When we entered inside, there was a striking difference as the whole floor was like a tavern that had a pair of stairs off to the right.

“Oh I heard about this guild, all the guild related stuff is on the second floor and they treat this floor like a normal tavern.” Ilise told me as we began walking towards an empty table.

We didn’t sit for long until a wench came over “Hello, hello! Do you guys know what you want right away?” The wench asked with a smile.

“Do you guys have any specialties?” Ilise asked her.

“Yes we do! We have a great fish dish that was caught and brought in from Gyuzuu lake.” She answered.

“That sounds good, I’ll take that!” Ilise said before looking towards me. When I noticed both their gazes at me, I panicked and said I’ll have the same. Shortly after the wench left, Ilise got up while saying “I’m going to talk with the guild to have them offload the carriage while we have some food.”. After I nodded to her, she turned and headed for the stairs to the right of the building.

I sat there in silence, waiting for either the food or Ilise to come back but what came first was the wench bringing over some water. While I sipped on the water, I noticed Ilise coming back down the stairs and walking over to me while several guys walked towards the front door.

“Is it not ready just yet?” Ilise asked when she got close. I shook my head to her while she took her seat. “After this we can just relax for the day and head out to the location tomorrow morning.” Ilise explained while she reached for her glass of water. I was nodding to her words when I saw the wench holding two plates and walking over to us.

Before the plates were even put on the table, I smelt a slightly fishy but fragrant aroma. What was presented was slices of bread that had a fish that stretched across the whole plate. When I looked up to Ilise, I saw drool escaping the corners of her lips. “Well, let's not waste any more time and dig in!” Ilise voiced out as she began eating. Following her lead, I began eating as well and when I took the first bite of the fish, the meat felt like it was melting in my mouth.

Just like that, the food on both of our plates were already gone except for the carcass of a fish. With both of us having a satisfied look on our faces, the wench came over and started clearing off our table.

“There's a small inn nearby that the guild recommended for us.” Ilise started saying. “I know you don’t like to sleep but you should at least lay down and let your body rest.”. “If anything I’m surprised you only look a little bit tired since every night all you did was practice with your sword.” She then added.

“I do it because it’s familiar to me.” I told her. “And yeah, that's fine by me. Let’s retire for the day and head for the inn you mentioned.”.

Ilise looked satisfied as she called over the wench to pay up. When we were all paid and ready to go, we took our leave.

The inn really wasn’t that far away like what Ilise said as we turned a corner and walked about twenty steps before spotting the place. Once we were inside the building, the first thing I noticed was a old man that looked like he could be a butler. He was behind a counter that was in front of the doors and to the right side of him there was a hallway and on the left side was a stairway leading upwards.

“Good afternoon to you two, my name is Luttin and what can my inn do for you today?” The man asked.

“Greetings Luttin, my name is Ilise and I work with the guild in Trennent, the guild here recommended me to come here for lodging.” Ilise said with a smile.

“Ahh, it’s you two that the guilds people who were here just a few moments ago were talking about.” Luttin mentions. “Yes, yes I actually have two rooms already set up.” He said after a small pause. Luttin then placed two pairs of keys on the counter “Here are the keys to your rooms, the rooms are just down the hallway to my left and the keys should have the proper room number on them.”. With a smile on her face, Ilise grabs one key off the counter and I follow suit grabbing the other. “If there's anything you two will need then please pay no mind and ask, I will always support the guild here in Marawa.” Luttin told us before we began walking down the hallway.

While we were walking, I looked at the key and saw the number eleven. Before I even noticed I heard from Ilise behind me “It looks like this is my room. Let’s meet back up tomorrow morning at the guild, okay?” Ilise said while she began walking into the room.

After she disappeared into her room I then found mine quickly after and when I entered inside I started to think many inns have the same layout as it only had a bed, nightstand and window. When I looked at the bed, I felt fatigue begin washing over me as I placed my sword against the nightstand. Afterwards I decided to do the one thing that was hard to do with Ilise and I sat down on the bed cross legged and began meditating.