It had been more than a full day since Ashton fell unconscious. His friends had decided to carry him as far as they could. On the third night of their new life in this world, they had finally reached the edge of the forest. Fauna and Xia made their camp outside of the forest for the first time since they arrived. As Xia was preparing the campfire, she heard Ashton’s clothes rustle slightly.
Ashton opened his eyes slowly. He tried to move but felt like a truck had hit him, he couldn’t help himself and groaned as he shifted in a more comfortable position.
“Ashton!”, cried Xia, “You’re finally up!”
“Xia…?” mumbled Ashton with a questioning tone. He could barely speak, his throat dry as a sand dune.
Xia hugged Ashton tightly, which made him groan louder than he had before. “You scared us”, she weeped.
A flow of emotions swelled up in Xia’s throat, those she tried so hard to push aside while her friend was unconscious. The fear of losing him, her best friend, she couldn’t describe in words how much that scared her. And – even if she could find them – the tightening in her throat probably wouldn’t let her do it. So, she cried. She poured all the water from her body onto Ashton’s clothes, while he could only hug her back.
On the outskirts of the forest, someone else was walking holding all the berries she could amass from her small scavenging trip. I’m not an expert in berries, Fauna thought, but Xia will tell me if they can be eaten or not.
I wonder when Ashton will wake up… I’m scared he won’t. Noone would sleep for more than a day, right ? What if he’s in a coma ?
As she walked back to their makeshift camp in the silence of the forest, a piercing cry broke Fauna out of her thoughts. It was a wailing that pierced through the woods, so full of sorrow that there was no doubt the Gods could feel it.
Fauna stopped walking for a second. She felt her heart sinking. It was only for a moment, but the crying sound of her friend felt like an eternity in her ears. She couldn’t walk. Only one thing came to her mind : Ashton died.
She ran. She ran as fast as she could, letting go of the food she was carrying. After all, there was no point in eating if her friend was dead. Even the malevolent roots of the trees trying to bar her route couldn’t trip her.
She continued running, the forest growing denser and denser while her heart kept beating faster and faster. Come on, come on! Where is the damn camp?
The trees kept moving, getting in her way as she tried desperately to reach the last warmth of her friend, Ashton.
The fairies stopped playing tricks on Fauna, feeling her desperation. Fauna was able to burst out of the forest, ready to say one last goodbye.
“Fauna…”
Ashton! He’s alive!
“No way…”
Tears swelled up her eyes. She couldn’t believe it. Her friend –, who she thought was dead – had awoken. And, like Xia, she tackled Ashton to hug him with all her strength.
Ashton, his body taken prisoner by his friends, had one last thought : That thing couldn’t kill me, but they probably will…
The two girls finally calmed down, not after cutting Ashton’s blood flow for a solid hour.
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“Why did you do that ? You would have died if…”, Xia couldn’t even finish. The words wouldn’t come out of her throat.
“I would have died if I didn’t.”
“We could have saved you !” interrupted Fauna. “We were able to kill it.”
“Only because I buffed your stats,” Ashton shot back. “I paralysed it, stopped your paralysis, and buffed your stats, Fauna. If I didn’t do any of those, the three of us would have died.”
“Ashton…”, tried to say Xia in a meek voice.
“Xia, you two are my best friends. If I died knowing I could have done something, anything, and I didn’t… I would never forgive myself. Not in this life, not in any other life.”
Fauna let out a frustrated sigh. “Let’s make a promise. We will never do something like that again. Noone tries to let themself die to save the others. Either we all survive, or no one does. Ok?”
Xia nodded at Fauna’s idea. Ashton could only agree, albeit reluctantly.
The next day, the three teenagers kept going north, in the hope of finding a small town or – at the very least – a village.
While they were walking, Ashton wasn’t talkative. Something unusual for him, since he always joined the girls in their banter. This silence made the girls anxious. Not capable of bearing it anymore, Xia finally asked what was on their mind.
“Is there something wrong, Ashton ?”
“Hm? Sorry?”
“I asked if there was something wrong. You’re not talking.”
“Ah. No, it’s not that there’s something wrong per se. I was only wondering what our story should be.”
Fauna was confused. “Our story ? What do you mean ?”
“Well, we can’t exactly say we were reincarnated in this world. And we don’t know anything about the geography either, so it’s not like we can just say ‘Oh, we’re from this random village in this random country’. Don’t you think so ?”
Fauna and Xia pondered Ashton’s remarks for a while. Finally, Xia asked. “What do they do in stories ? You’re the nerd here.”
“First off, shut up. Secondly, most of the time they say Japan thinking they will not know the country. Or they say they’re from a random village in the mountains.”
“But we can’t really do that, what if they know the geography of their land ? I mean, what country does not know their villages?”
“Exactly. And we can’t really say we’re from another country either. What if this country we’re in is the only country that exists on this continent ? Or what if there is no technology to navigate on the ocean ? We’ll be suspicious.”
“So what do you suggest ?” enquired Fauna.
“I don’t know. That’s what I was thinking about.”
“How about ‘We were kidnapped and managed to escape in a forest’ ?” proposed Xia.
“They’ll ask where and what happened to the kidnappers. We have to be inconspicuous as much as we can.”
“Good luck doing that with our clothes.” bemused Fauna.
Xia and Ashton said nothing. Fauna was right.
Ashton sighed before suggesting “Let’s stay simple while we know nothing of this world. If there’s an adventurer guild, – which is possible seeing how we fought a monster in the forest – we’ll register as adventurers.
If they ask why, let’s say we wanted to explore the country. If they ask about our clothes, we say we ran from our village because they didn’t want us to be adventurers. If they ask about our village, we ask if we can show them on a map. We’ll point at a random village near a big forest.
And if they don’t want to accept us as adventurers, we’ll try to find a job. I can heal people so I’m pretty much guaranteed to find one. Fauna, you are strong so you could find one. Xia, you always were a good cook so I think working in a kitchen will work well for you.”
“We can’t just do some odd jobs forever, Ashton.” said Xia, frustrated.
“I know. It’ll only be temporary.”
“But, hey, why do you guys want to be adventurers ?” asked Fauna nonchalantly.
“What do you mean?” questioned Ashton, Xia nodding along.
“I mean it literally. Why be adventurers ? We could be healers, spies, whatever we dreamed of when we were younger.”
Ashton shrugged, “I wanted to be a teacher. But, being an adventurer is far more exciting. We can travel the world, – the three of us – finding beautiful sceneries, find a place to settle in later in life and enjoy a relaxing retirement.”
Xia nodded, “I wanted to be a politician when we were in school. I can’t really be a Barbie like I wanted when I was a child anyway. Although… Like Ashton said, I want to explore this new world with you two. We weren’t able to do that in our previous life, now is the moment.
“No parents to stop us. No airport security guard. No borders. No passports. We are free to live like we were always meant to : free.”
Fauna listened intently, then nodded with a grand smile, her white teeth reflecting the sunlight. “I agree! This sounds so much fun. I was wondering if we were all thinking the same thing, and we do!”
Ashton and Xia joined Fauna, and smiled. This might be the first of many happy moments in their new life.