By the time we arrived, night had fallen and it was completely dark.
"Rudy, could you use weather manipulation?" I asked, stopping because of the blizzard.
"Yes, brother." Rudeus reached out his hand and the blizzard disappeared.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it, brother."
I gripped the torch I was holding tightly.
'Why did I act so calmly when I found out Sara might be dead?'
There are things I still cannot fully understand, so I am left with that uncertainty hanging in the air.
And my brother was the same, since they had been friends despite their differences at the beginning.
Simply put, this is a shitty situation.
"What do we do, brother?" Rudeus looked visibly nervous as he quickened his pace despite the thick snow.
"We must hurry. The forest is not a problem for us, the problem is time, understand?"
I gripped the torch again, drew my sword, and we kept moving forward.
---
We moved forward, but a creature stopped us.
A Winter Treant appeared before us.
I swung my sword the moment I saw it.
And in one swift movement, the monster was split in two.
....
I kept moving forward.
We couldn't stop now.
Despite the calmness I showed, my heart felt like it wanted to jump out of my chest.
'What if... I am too late?'
'No,' I thought. 'If I let it happen again, it will be the same as before.'
I slapped my face and shook my head.
"Rudeus," I looked at him as I stopped. "I will go ahead faster, you go look in other places, okay? We need to speed this up."
"Yes, brother, be careful."
I nodded and pushed myself forward using the tree trunks for support.
---
Fsssh!
I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Ah? Is that...?"
Crack!
It was the water... freezing.
And when I managed to see it clearly, a block of ice appeared at my side.
"It can't be... an Ice Treant?"
It was enormous, meaning it had lived for a very long time.
That only meant it was powerful, since Treants become more powerful with age.
That was when I saw her.
Wrapped in the creature's roots was a human figure.
And when I managed to get a good look...
"Sara!?"
Sara... at the base of the tree...
I squeezed the hilt of my sword tightly.
[Daiki, calm down...]
I dashed toward the Treant and sliced the roots holding her. I didn't stop there, I caught her before she fell and left her in a safe place, or well, the furthest one possible.
CRAAASH!
A huge block of ice crashed down on my side.
I lunged again.
I swung my sword and...
"Ah!?"
The Treant launched a direct attack toward Sara.
"Damn it...!"
I spun around and cut the block before it could reach her.
"Tch..."
I took a deep breath and calmed down.
I looked at Sara. Her chest was rising and falling.
"Phew... thank goodness."
I turned back to the Treant and charged.
It responded with another block of ice.
I planted my foot against the block mid-charge and used it as momentum to change direction in mid-air.
In an instant I was in front of it.
Downward slash.
Crack!
However, it used another block to parry it.
The sword bounced off and the impact sent me spinning in the air.
I landed on my feet and, at that exact moment, it shot its roots to catch me, but I dodged them. It seemed quite insistent on grabbing me.
"If I leave now, others will die."
I cut the block of ice it threw at me into six pieces.
"If I stay, Sara will get colder."
I jumped and climbed onto one of its branches.
"I overthought this."
I took advantage of that moment. I jumped and embedded my sword directly into its base.
It began to sway, thrashing its roots around to hurt me. However, it only managed to damage itself.
I pulled the sword out.
I gathered fire magic and combined it with wind, channeling them inside the hole I had opened to cause an explosion from the inside.
Booom!
The impact didn't burn it.
It cracked it open.
It creaked from the inside.
It split into torn fibers and wood fragments went flying. It wasn't enough to defeat it, it was too big, but it was enough to shatter the layer of ice protecting it.
I landed inches away from a tree and slid across the ground until I stopped.
Fwoosh!
A rock bullet grazed past my ear.
Turning around, I saw it was Rudeus.
When I looked back at the Treant, its trunk had already been pierced from side to side.
The massive body tilted and fell with a crash that shook the ground beneath my feet. It sank into the earth and a wave of dust expanded through the trees.
A shiver ran down my spine.
'What if it had fallen in our direction...?'
Rudeus whistled. "Well, I guess you owe me a favor, brother," he said with a slight smile. By his side, Sara was next to a campfire.
"Rudy, you owe me a ton of favors, so that doesn't apply."
"I don't know what favors you're referring to..." Rudeus raised an eyebrow.
"See? Favors don't matter," I gave a slight smile. "Now let's get back to Sara."
"Mmmm, I'll just assume again..." Rudeus muttered. "But anyway, we have to treat her and then see what to do."
"You're right, let's go quickly before another one of these shows up," I replied.
"Did it scare you?" Rudeus asked.
"No, I'm just hungry."
"Ah, well, never change, brother," Rudeus said with a sigh.
I nodded and walked over to Sara.
"Hey, Sara..."
"Mm..." Her eyelids fluttered when I said her name. "Huh? Who is there?"
"Relax, it's Daiki," I said.
"And Rudeus," Rudeus added.
"Daiki...? Rudeus...?" Sara asked.
"You are safe now," I explained as I put her on my back.
Sara didn't answer, but she kept staring at the creature that had trapped her. I couldn't see her eyes, but I felt her heart beating fast.
We started walking, fast, until the Treant was out of sight.
---
A few hours had passed.
When we were finally far enough away from any creatures, I used healing magic to treat Sara's wounds. They were severe. She had several broken bones, but the worst was her right thigh. Her femur was split in two and the area had swollen quite a bit.
Since the healing required direct contact, I had to remove her shirt and pants to place my hand on the affected areas.
"I was hit by a charging Winter Buffalo and fell down a hill," she said suddenly.
"Huh?" Rudeus was startled.
"That's why my leg is broken."
"Ah."
A brief silence fell.
Until Sara spoke again.
"Your healing magic..." Sara watched the green glow emanating from my hand. "It's special, voiceless healing, that is..."
"Impressive? But above all it's practical," I replied.
"I wasn't going to say 'impressive'..." Sara tried to defend herself.
"No? I swore you were."
"No, Mr. Serious." Sara rolled her eyes.
"I'm only fourteen years old, Sara."
"So? You still sound like an old man."
"I guess so," I concluded.
Sara let out a soft, dry laugh.
"'You guess'? Then I guess that..."
She didn't finish the sentence. She got lost staring at the horizon.
Then there was a silence, which she used to change clothes after being healed.
"...I should thank you for saving me."
Looking at me, I could see emotion in her eyes and a smile that seemed on the verge of tears.
"I... we... only did what was necessary..."
I smiled back at her. It was the only thing I could do.
'I don't understand it... I feel captivated. Why?'
The feeling was like being forgiven, as if everything I did had never happened, while at the same time feeling that she had saved me.
'It's a logical sequence given the expe...'
No.
It is not.
It is not calculation.
It is not a consequence.
It is... feeling human.
It is... something else.
"Sara," I said finally, drier than I intended.
"Daiki?" Sara looked at me in surprise, her eyes wide open and a look that said a thousand things, but I could only interpret one: curiosity.
"Thank you for saving me," I took a deep breath. "Now I owe you that bow, right?"
"Yes, but that doesn't matter right now," she answered. "Ah, yes, I will choose the bow!"
"As you wish, although I will inspect it to make sure it's not a bad one..." I added.
She bumped me with her hip as we started walking.
"Don't be stupid, do you think I don't have a good eye for these things? I am an archer."
I allowed myself to laugh a little.
She was safe, and even though Mimir didn't manage to save himself, even though her companions left her for dead and she was plunged into severe trauma, she kept going. Maybe I should follow her example and take that same path.
Well, it's not like I can do much.
After rescuing my mother I will allow myself to live... I don't promise it, I couldn't, but I will do everything possible to make it so.
Yes, it will be so.
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Hiyori_Studio - Unemployed author (and college student, a bit lazy, but attentive)
Wait...
Is it...?
Well, I don't know why I usually upload episodes in the early hours of the morning.
Although well, maybe it's the silence of the night, or maybe my sleep schedule is simply destroyed. It's probably the latter.
Are you guys still here?
I don't have much to say, just that I'm back. Although it's a short episode, I know we need to keep moving forward in the story, keeping my characteristic slow pace, but without taking away from the narrative or making it heavy. Anyway, I wanted to give you this episode because lately I've been taking longer than usual, so here it is.
Daiki: Thank you for reading.
[And thank you for your attention, your patience, and your loyalty]