No character class chart. It would contain spoiler I guess. Yeah, the cover is a spoiler. Also, things will probably take one or two chapter(s) to really get started. Just to warn you.

Meeting in the forest

It was an ordinary summer day. A young girl, a child, was running aimlessly through the forest, illuminated by the afternoon sun. She really didn't feel like going back home. Not when that woman was there. Which meant she would have probably kept exploring the forest for another hour, if not two, before going back. The girl had bright, amber eyes and rather long, black hair free of any particular hairstyle. She was wearing light, white and orange clothes. She was moving swiftly and with ease through the vegetation, considering she couldn't be older than ten years, but not enough not to stumble on some tree's roots every now and then. The forest was old there. Almost ancient, if what the elders told her was true. And maybe it was. As she kept running, the trees grew larger and larger, and their branches began to form a net high over her head. As the sunlight decreased, she noticed something. The leaves were glowing. It was faint, but she was sure they were emitting a soft azure light, almost white, with a few shades of green mixen in. She walked closer to an oddly low brach to watch closely, and saw a large number or what looked almost like fireflies resting on the leaves. The girl moved her hand slowly towards a leaf, but the insects immediatly flew away. Or so she thought. Instead, they had stopped a few meters away from her, forming an enticing orb of light. Entranced by it, she walked up to the shining globe, only for it to move away. She started running after it, and completely lost track of everything else. She didn't realize the sun was already setting. She stopped once she had run out of breath, and looked at her surroundings. The trees were even larger than before, their roots so great the earth was hardly visible beneath them. The only lights were the blue ones emitted by the firefly-like insects, which weren't really enought to illuminate the place, which is why she failed to see a lot of things hiding in the shadows, moving around silently.

She immediatly realized she'd got lost. Yet, for some reason, she was still calm. There was a soft breeze there, moving her hair, caressing her skin. She turned, and saw something which wasn't there before. It was a small, greeny flame, roughly half her size, floating in the air, right over one of the many bushes growing around there. It disappeared almost immediatly. The little girl ran up to where it was, but stumbled on a root and ended up falling face-down on the bush. Or rather, inside it. Turned out, it was made of very frail and tin branches, which easily broke under her weight. She didn't immediatly it the ground, or rather, the roots. And when she got up, she found herself in complete darkness. The girl quiclky reached for her necklace and took it off. There was a pendant on it, a small crescent-shaped stone resembling a diamond, which quickly began to glow, emitting enough light to let her see her surroundings. The little girl paid it no importance, but the light from her pendant was exactly the same as the ones she had seen in the forest a few moments ago. She looked around, and realized she had rolled down a short tunnel, large enough for even an adult to easily get through, previously hidden by the small shrub. She had fallen inside a cave. There were small stalactites and stalagmites here and there, but apart from that, she saw nothing relevant. She gave a closer look to the tunnel, and saw enough handholds - mainly tree's roots - to easily climb it. But she didn't get out of there. Instead, she turned to the other side and slowly started walking. The cave wasn't that high, at least not there, and the light of her pendant was enough to light it. She walked close to the wall, until she reached something. It was a person. A man, lying unconscious against the cave's wall. He had black, spiky hairs that reached down to his neck. His clothes immediatly told her he wasn't from her village: he wore white trousers and a white shirt, and even though they were both decorated by red and black lines, the overall design was rather plain. Also, his clothes were consumed, be it by time or by something else. A white, broken helmet with a large, black visor and remains of a golden, simple diadem was resting next to him. The girl walked closer, and noticed something. There was a single wound on him. A perfectly circular hole, going all the way through his shoulder and as large as one of his arms. And from inside the wound, she couldn't see flesh, but only metal. She leaned forward, and suddenly the light from her necklace seemed to explode. It took her around a minute to recover her sight after that flash, and what she saw was the hole in the man's shoulder growing tinner and tinner, a flow of light going from her pendant to the man's body. Before long, the wound had completely disappeared. The man then slowly opened his eyes. Their color reminded her of a summer day's sky.

"... who are you?" he asked.

There was something weird in his voice. It seemed like there was something grinding in his throat.

"... I'm Ara. Ara Haan. And who are you?" she asked, pointing her finger at him, pure curiosity in her eyes.

"My name..." he said, lowering his head. It seemed like he didn't remember it, or at least had trouble bringing it back to his mind.

"... Oberon" he said then.

"What were you doing here?"

"Where is "here"?"

"I don't know. I got lost in the forest"

The man, if he really was a man, tried to stand up, but fell on his knees. He repositioned himself against the wall using his arms, then moved his hands over his knees and ankles.

"You're not feeling well?"

"My legs are damaged. But it seems like some cables came out of their plugs. I should be able to fix something like this"

Ara tilted her head, confused. She had absolutely no idea what he meant with those words.

"How did you end up here?"

"I don't know. My memory circuit appears to be damaged"

"Can you mend that too?"

"Unlikely"

"I can help you get out of here" she said "there's an exit over there"

Oberon examined her with his eyes.

"I doubt you have enough strength to lift me"

"... what should I do then?"

"You can leave me here. It will probably take me a few days before I can stand up"

"I'll come back then"

"You said you got lost"

"But this part of the forest is really easy to recognize: I'll find it again!"

"And how do you plan to get back to your house, if you have one?"

"I do have an house!" she shouted, puffing her cheeks for reasons he failed to understand "And I have my lucky charm! My brother gave it to me!" Ara said as she placed her pendant right in front of his face.

And then, silence. Which didn't really last long. Because children and silence can coexist only when the former are sleeping.

"I'll come back then" she said before turning her back to him and walking back to the tunnel.

Oberon found himself alone in the dark. From not far away, he heard the girl's voice again.

"See you next time!" she shouted.

"Sure" he replied.

Then he wondered why he had answered that way. And decided that it wasn't important. Not in that moment. He had no idea where he was, but more importantly, he had no idea when he was. How much time had he spent inactive? And how did he end up deactivated, in the first place? He tried to search his memory, and realized he didn't even know what reactivated him or how. He moved an hand to his shoulder, and to his surprise, he found nothing. Why was he surprised, again? Was something supposed to be on his shoulder? Far too many questions. But then again, questioning himself was pointless if he could not even step out of there. And so, he started working on his own legs.

Meanwhile, Ara had already left the cave, and was now walking through the same forest, almost aimlessly. She had a vague idea of where she came from, but nothing more. She had put the necklace back around her neck, her pendant hid beneath her clothes, because the small clouds of insects provided enough light to at least see where she was walking. And then , she heard it. An howl, coming from far behind her. She immediatly turned. Wolves? There were wolves in the forest, she knew it, but she thought they never left the higher areas of the mountain. Yet she heard another howl. She turned again, and started running. After only a few steps, shining insects started gathering around her. There were only a few at the beginning, but in just a dozen of steps a real swarm had surrounded her. She kept running, even though she could see nothing but their azure light. The insect kept increasing in number, until they had completely surrounded her. From somewhere behind her, another howl. She didn't stop, even tough she was running out of breath and without seeing where she was going, until all the insects in front of her moved to the side. She suddenly found herself in a familiar part of the forest, rather close to the village. She turned around. All the insects were gone. But in the wind, she heard something.

"We'll be waiting"

She stood there, confused. And she would have probably stood there for quite a long time wondering what just happened, hadn't she heard her brother's voice, calling out for her.

"Ara! Where did you go? Ara!"

She sprinted towards the village, which was were his brother's voice came from. Oddly, she had completely recovered her breath. Aren was near the edge of their villlage, which was rather small, probably around two hundreds of people lived there. Ara ran all the way up to him, and he grabbed her under her shoulders before lifting her up in front of him.

"You know you shouldn't stay out this late" he said "I was worried"

"I don't like that woman"

"She comes here only once every year and stays for a single day, I think you can bear her for just a few hours. And I can't even see what you dislike about her. Ignia's a good person. Also, she's around your age. Calling her woman as if she was already that old is kind of offensive"

"I don't like her" she repeated, giving absolutely no motivations.

Aren sighed, then placed his little sister on his shoulders and walked back to the village. He was tall, considering he was only four years older than her. He had the same eye color of his younger sister, and the same could be said about his hair, reaching down to his waist. His clothes were rather similar to hers as well, but he had a short, slightly curved sword tied to his back.

"Anyway, where have you been all this time?"

Ara looked at the sky, and finally noticed the sun had almost set.

"In the forest. There were lots of shining bugs!"

"Really? That's a rare sight, fireflies aren't that common around here"

"And wolves! I didn't see them, but I heard them!"

"Hey now, how far did you wander? It's dangerous near the top of the mountain, you know you shouldn't go there"

"I didn't go there! They're the ones who came down!"

"Yeah, sure" he replied. He was tired. He would have listened to her story the next day.

They had already reached the village while talking. The houses were all made mainly of wood, and there were a few wells in the middle of the large streets. There weren't many people around at that time, but the few they met greeted them, and Ara cheerfully waved her hands at them, while Aren kept a more formal attitude.

"By the way, Ara. You do remember what day is tomorrow, right?"

"The day of the ceremony"

"Which means you'll have to wake up early. So you'll go to bed right after dinner"

"Eeeeeeehhhhhhh?!"

They then reached a building much larger than the others, at least four times bigger and proportionally more majestic, right at the centre of the village, surrounded by a short wall interrupted by a doorless gate. Aren saw a man there, his back against said gate, and moved Ara from his own shoulders to the ground.

"I have a few things to do now, Ara. You can go ahead"

His sister gave him a slightly annoyed look, then greeted the man and walked to the door, getting inside the large building. Aren turned to the man. He was probably thirty years old, a rather short beard and a pair of small mustache partially hiding his face. He had brown, short hair, wore dark orange, light clothes, a few pieces of plate armor, and carried a two-handed sword on his back.

"Did something happen, uncle?"

"I heard the fox has been talking to herself today too. Do you know why?"

Aren sighed.

"I wish I did. Eun's been acting weirdly these last days, and she seems excited about something. I'm honestly worried about it"

"Don't worry about it too much. She's sealed after all, there isn't much she can do in that condition"

"... you're right on that. But maybe we should postpone Ara's initiation, I have a bad feeling about..."

The man placed an hand on his shoulder, interrupting him.

"As I said, don't think too much about it. I know that you're the village chief, but you should get some rest from time to time and let others do some of your job. I can tell you're tired, the last couple of weeks have been heavy for you, with the travels and everything else. Let the elders take care of Ara for a while, they know what they're doing. And as innovative as you are, it's tradition for the second-born of the Haan to be trained by the elders once reacher ten years of age"

"... maybe you're right, uncle. Thanks"

Truth is, he would have preferred for Ara not to learn their family's exorcism technique, since that meant spending a lot of time with Eun. And, despite having never met her, she had always shown a worrying interest towards Ara. Then they heard Ara shouting from inside the building.

"I told you to stay awayyyy!"

"Come on, let's play together! Just for a while!"

"... seems like Ignia is running after Ara again..."

It was taking Oberon longer than he had expected to repair his legs. He had no superficial damage, but a quick scan of his system revealed a worrisome number of internal failures. Most of them seemed to have been caused by some form of overload. Oberon was now checking his core, a shining globe he was holding in his hand and linked to his open chest by several cables. The globe opened, and he saw something. The El crystal housed inside not only wasn't glowing: it was shattered, but surrounded by a faint, white light, with several light shades of blue, which seemed to flow inside his system. Which meant what was currently powering him wasn't El. It was similar, but different, mainly because it didn't belong to any of the six categories he knew. The globe closed, and Oberon placed it back inside his chest, which then closed too. Further analysis told him there was actually no El at all inside his system, or at least not any kind of El he could recognize. On the bright side, however, almost all of his numerous damages were rather slight, and even though he could repair only few them without any spare parts, they wouldn't have caused any major problem. The damage to his memory circuit was different. It didn't seem like it failed to register new informations or work on the ones he had, but most of his old files were either damaged or corrupted. He had lost his memory, in human terms, and it was unlikely he would have got it back by himself.

Oberon went back to working on his legs. After what probably were a few hours, he had finished repairing them as best as he could. He then tried to stand up, but it didn't go well. As much as he could stand without falling down, his legs were shaky and unsteady. He moved a few steps around. There wasn't any light, and his internal damage compromised some of his sensorial functios too, which meant he could see only in his immediate vicinity. He kept close to the wall, to avoid getting lost inside there. One step. Two. Three. He sat down, lying against the wall, and considered his options. He had thought he could fix his legs even without spare parts, but the damage was greater than he had first thought. If he wanted to move around properly, he needed something to fix his limbs with. He pondered what seemed his only option, and came to the conclusion that it really was the only one. He took off his tattered shirt and placed his left arm in front of him. Four panels opened on it, and he carefully moved his right hand inside each one, going through the cables and circuits. It was a rather slow operation, but he managed to remove the parts he needed from his arm. The panels closed, and he moved his left arm around to check its functions. There were no problems with approximate movements, but anything which required precision was now probably impossible to perform with that arm. Oberon then clenched his fist. As he had expected, the strenght of that limb had dropped considerably. Likely under the average human level. But that was fine. He had the parts he needed to fix his legs, and he got to work immediatly. This time he finished much faster than before, and when he stood up, his legs were steady. He moved a few steps around again, and this time he had no trouble in doing so.

Which brought him to his next problem. Whatever it was that was powering him, he didn't know how long it would have lasted, and with the El crystal shattered he no longer had unlimited autonomy, since that used to be his power source. Which meant he had to look for another one. He walked to where the little girl pointed when she said there was an exit, and he did find one. He easily climbed out of the tunnel, and looked around. The forest did nothing to help him understand where he was, since it was different from each and every one he could remember. There were no visible reference points, which meant walking away from the cave was the same as getting lost. Oberon wondered if it was better to wait for that child to come back. He wasn't even really sure she would, or could, do it, but if she could, then she could also guide him out of there. But then, again, he had no idea how much time he had left before deactivating. In the end he decided not to wait, but just as he moved a couple of steps, a swarm of insects formed in front of him. He stopped for a moment. The swarm wasn't simply flying in front of him: it was forming words. A short sentence.

-Wait. She's almost here-

That was... unexpected.

"What is this place?"

-The place forgotten by the world-

That was downright stupid. Or rather, it made no sense at all. But before he could ask anything else, the swarm dispersed. Had he been an human, he would have probably sighed. Oberon sat down, and waited. And after a while -half an hour he guessed- he heard footsteps, and saw a blue light approaching.

"Heeeey! Are you there?"

"No need to shout" he replied.

After hearing his voice, Ara started running. And tripped over a root. She got back up, and got to where Oberon was waiting, near the entrance of the cave.

"Hi!"

"How did you find the way? You said you'd gotten lost"

"He guided me!" she said, pointin to a small, floating, green flame.

Oberon sighed. None of that made any sense.

"So, do you know what place is this?"

"No"

Silence. That child was either brave, stupid or overly carefree.

"Are you ok now?" she asked then.

"I can stand, if that's what you wanted to know"

"Then I can show you the village!"

"That'd be appreciated" he answered while getting up.

"This way!" Ara said, pointing to the direction she came from. Oberon had honestly expected her to go some other way.

And so they started walking. Well, the truth is, Ara was simply following the green ignis fatuus which was floating in front of her. And Oberon noticed they were walking quite quickly. Weird.

"What continent is this?"

"Fluone. We're in the north here" she replied.

Finally, something sensible. But then again, how did he end up so far from Altera?

"You said village: how big is it? Are there any cities around here?"

Ara shook her head.

"No, there's nothing around the village. Only an huuuuuge forest. Ah, but the capital is a really big city! But it's so far, it's like it doesn't exist for us"

"Capital?"

"Say, where do you come from?" she asked, turning to face him. And falling after tripping on a root, since she hadn't stopped walking.

"I'm... not sure"

"If you want informations, you can ask my brother. Oh, and we also have a big library at home!"

"Alright"

They kept walking, until the floating flame stopped. It then exploded in a flood of light, which gathered to form a circular gate, apparently made of twisting, orange leaves. On the other side, Oberon could see what seemed to be a normal forest. Ara walked through it, and gestured him to do the same.

"Is this how you got here?"

"Only the second time! I did really get lost the first one..."

That was... magic? Not any kind he knew of, at least. But he crossed it anyway. It was rather small for him, and he had to bent down in order to get through. And after he had done so, the gate faded. Right after he had heard a weak howl in the distance.

"This way! the village is near"

Oberon followed Ara. Maybe, there he would have found some answers.

First finished.

Not much really happened here, I know.

Any kind of feedback is appreciated.

Have a nice day. Evening. Night. Whatever.