Chapter 6: The Cheagle Woods

In the last rays of the evening sun, I could spot our targets: the bandits had made a large encampment in the central area of the woods. The same place where mommy had died and where my journey had begun. If only I still had Hresvelgr, I would be able to destroy them in a matter of minutes, but unfortunately, I was unsure of whether my poor old friend still lived or not and had to take the matters into the trust of myself and my friends.

"You took your time, not that I care, though," Sync said when I returned to the entrance of the forest to tell them of what I'd seen.

"How great were their numbers?" Asch inquired, and my observations had been bleak: their ranks were closer to having a hundred people and what's worse, I'd overheard one of them say that should Engeve make opposition, they'd kill both the children and Cheagles alike.

"Damn them to hell!" Asch replied and swung his sword in midair. I'd personally never seen him lose his temper like that unless someone said something about Luke.

Even Sync couldn't keep his air of carelessness this time, "Some bandits these are. Soon the idiots will learn of the true wrath of a God-General."

His reaction startled me; I'd never seen him get angry for someone else's sake. Was he actually not as bad as he let on? He stared at me with angry eyes, "Well, great leader, what's the plan?"

"Kill them and eat them, like they did with my siblings!" Fenrir said. I'd completely tried to ignore him – not only was he annoying, but he acted like a spoiled little cub! He really got on my nerves.

"Don't worry, we will try, Fenrir." I assured him, though I doubted my abilities against such a large group: It was unlikely I would survive long if they all targeted me, and I knew that even if Asch, Sync, Fenrir and I fought the best we could, we would never defeat a hundred people without at least one of us getting seriously hurt in the process. We might have been well trained Oracle Knights, but we were still humans, and could die just as easily.

I knew this was a difficult situation and as the leader, I could not afford to be weak.

"We'll wait for them to fall asleep, then we'll ambush them with the element of surprise on our side. You two," I turned to Sync and Asch, "make some traps to catch those who try to escape, you – just hide, you're enough of a nuisance already," I scolded Fenrir because he tried to protest with my plan. I needed Asch and Sync to do as I told them to, because I'd thought out a plan to achieve victory, but it depended on them.

All three nodded once I told them my strategy. "Wait, what the heck are you gonna do?" Sync spat, "Don't tell me you're just going to goof-off while we do the work?"

I shook my head and gave him a mischievous smile, "Oh no, Sync, you need not fear that," I replied in my most formal tone, nearly giving the green haired God-General a heart attack and left him in Asch's care while I played my part of the plan.

While Rose had suggested we take some guards with us, I'd instantly shrugged her offer away, but that did not mean we'd fight them four-on-a hundred.

"What's it with girls and taking up all the time in the world?" a very annoyed Sync asked me with crossed arms, "I think my leg fell asleep twice while I waited for you!"

I smiled again, "Sorry, it's a lady's secret. Anyway, are we ready with the traps?"

Asch nodded while Sync kept protesting that I'm too young to be considered a lady, but I just ignored him and let him finish his own little rant by himself.

I knew the forest by heart and we hid in one of the trees that had a good view of the enemy camp.
Indeed, as I thought, there were some archers among the criminals, and I knew we'd have to kill them first. "Oh hellion's roar, Bloody Howling..." I whispered, praying that the spell would be strong enough to take them out. Though it did not kill them, it knocked them unconscious without a single sound being heard.

We jumped down to be greeted by Fenrir, who had been deployed as a decoy unit to draw the archers' attacks. Silver Wolves were born with naturally high resilience and sturdy bodies and could survive repeated blows from enemy weapons, so I was not really worried, though I did not want him to die either. When I asked him if he was all right, he simply was surprised to see me there. The poor idiot had lost his way in his own forest!

"M-mercy! Please don't kill me!" the remainder of the bandits that had hid in my mother's cave pleaded after five minutes of Sync going berserk on them, he was really enjoying himself, but I told him to leave them be. That was the biggest mistake I'd ever done, as they'd hoped for that and in an instant, we were surrounded by enemies.

"Great job, Arietta!" Asch cursed under his breath as he drew his sword once more as we heard a lot of footsteps marching toward us. To give you an overview of the situation:

The enemies were superior in numbers to us – true, we'd killed around forty of them, but they were all decoy units and the real forces were now attacking, and now that they had seen us fight, they knew what to expect from us. They all were equipped better than those we'd killed – many of them used axes or hammers, weapons for torturing their targets before they killed them.

"You're dead!" One of them screamed and lunged at me, but then Fenrir bit him in the... eh, I think you understand. Either way, he yelled out in pain and staggered back just in time to be hit by my Spark Wave spell, with some help from Asch's Thunder Blade. Sync dashed to their leader and placed a Curse Slot on him, "Now the fun begins," he said as he clenched his fists and a purple mark appeared on both his palms and the bandit's forehead.

"W-what the hell is that?" One of his subordinates cried out in bewilderment.

"Aah!" I yelled as one of them took me and pinned me down.

"Whatever you did to him, undo it, or we'll kill the girl," a female voice said as she struggled to keep me down. I lifted my head to see the ugliest woman I'd ever laid eyes upon; her voice was young, but her face was scarred and she had stains of blood over her face. She smiled crazily as she drew a beautiful obsidian dagger with strange symbols written on it. In an instant, I felt some spiritual connection to that weapon; I wanted it. "Now, girl, you have a pretty face, but will it be as pretty when I'm through with you?" she said as she pressed it to my cheek and started muttering something.

Sync staggered, "W-wait... What are you doing?" he asked when he saw what she was trying and flew at her, but she took notice.

"Oh gale of the nocturnal wind, chill my enemy down – Blizzard!" she chanted and summoned a snowstorm that blew him away and right into the wall, but he was too fast to hit it, as he recovered just before the impact and lunged off at my oppressor.

"You have some nerve picking fights with me, kid, but you'll thankfully not live to regret it. I will kill you all now!" she said. For a moment I felt gutsy because I knew we had pushed them to their limits. That feeling momentarily faded and was replaced by pain as she pressed her dagger even further into my cheek and I felt something hot drip down my face, reminding me of the imminent danger I was in and that Death was but minutes away from all of us lest I did something.

Just then, I felt as if some hidden knowledge inside me resurfaced; "Sync, take cover now!" I yelled, "Wrap them in a silver embrace!"

"It could not be...!" the bandit said in bewilderment as she realised what spell I was casting, something I myself had no idea of.

"ABSOLUTE!" I said and the next thing I knew, the enemy was dead – or more like frozen into the ground, her expression locked in one last, manic yell and her hand clenching her weapon.

"Thank you for the weapon," I said as I took the dagger out of her hand. Just as I thought, her weapon had been unaffected by my spell, something about this dagger was special.

"O-our supreme leader is dead!" the remaining enemies screamed and attacked us at once, but many of them instantly fell prey to Asch's sword.

"You wanna start something? I'll kill you stupid bastards! Guardian Frost!" he said and slammed his sword into the ground, drawing a circle around himself, which then called forth countless icicles, that pierced the enemies bodies and killed them instantly.

Sync was playing with them – confusing them and making them kill each other by directing their blows on him before jumping away just in time for the bandits to hit their neighbors. He cast a few Turbulence spells when they'd surrounded him, and in total he destroyed them.

Just then, I could hear that even more enemies were approaching. Then, I knew that was the decisive point of no return of this entire plan. I opened my mouth and whistled in a loud, clear tone and readied myself to run. Mere seconds later, together with Sync and Asch – as well as Fenrir – we were running out of the cave, and we were not a moment too late, because just then, all the monsters living in the forest ran into the cave.

Once we were outside, we collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily as we heard the monsters going on a rampage. I stood up first, "Is everyone all right?"

"Ha ha! That was such a blast!" Sync laughed as he jumped up.

"Indeed, they deserved it for what they did." Asch replied and leaned on his sword to get up.

"Hello? What about me?" Fenrir asked, slightly annoyed at our ignorance.

"Still, I feel bad for doing that to them, they did not deserve such a humiliating end." I said, as the roars and growls deafened, I knew that the monsters had done their job well.

I knew that now we had to rescue the children and the Cheagles before it was too late. The bandits had surely already been alerted by the commotion in the cave and the rampage of the monsters, and if we did not hurry, they would kill their hostages and our rescue operation would fail.

"Are you okay, Arietta?" Sync asked me while we ran towards the Great Tree where the Cheagles lived.

I stopped, "What do you mean? Are you?"

He nodded, "I mean with that cut. You're bleeding, dammit!" he looked concerned.

I pressed my hand to my cheek and mustered a smile, "I am fine. It's just a bruise that'll heal on its own."

"I just don't wanna be dragged down by your mistakes!" he said angrily.

"And I by yours," I snapped. He was really getting on my nerves now. "If you're worried about me, then show it; if not, then leave me alone!"

Sync crossed his arms but quickly realised what he had said and simply ran ahead, saying he would just scout ahead of us.

"I think he likes you," Asch mocked. "Sync has never been a good actor."

"Don't be stupid, Asch! He may look like Ion, but he is not him – he'll never be!" I replied coolly, not hiding the anger in my voice. I had misjudged Sync's hearing abilities, because just then, I saw him quickly turn away from me.

"I don't wanna be anything close to him either! And to your information, I don't want you to fall in love with me either. Besides, I'd never date a girl as depressing as you!" he spat and darted off into the distance.

"What the hell is he doing? At this rate, he'll run right into an ambush!" Asch yelled and hurried after him.

I will never feel anything for that idiot! I thought and followed them.

"Slow down, will ya?" Fenrir panted, "I don't have the best stamina in Auldrant!"

"Keep up or keep out!" I said behind my back, preferring to avoid any further frustration from anyone else.

We found Sync in the middle of a bloodbath; he had single-handedly destroyed the bandits' camp and killed their men. "Wish to taste some real power?" he taunted the remaining foes, "Akashic Torment!" he punched his fist into the ground and caused a shockwave, from which light erupted and engulfed the enemies before reducing them to ashes.

"There, job done and over with!" he smirked and ran inside the tree, "I'm leaving you behind if you don't follow!"

Darn it! Why was he so powerful? He was younger than me and had more disadvantages in battle with his temper issues, and yet he was much more useful than I. When he fought for real, no enemy could even stand the inkling of a chance against him.

... or so I thought. In that moment, one of the bandits rose up. Sync had failed to finish him and left him there for dead while he killed the rest of the enemies, and now the bandit charged at Sync, his sword was lowered so that it was like a line.

"No! Watch out!" Asch yelled after Sync, but both of us knew it was in vain.

"Die!" the bandit yelled and swung his sword. The blade slashed in a wide arc and cut Sync in the back. The youth grunted and fell to his knee, muttering curses while he lost a lot of blood.

"You'll make a fine trophy, boy!" the bandit raised his sword for the kill, and I knew that all hope was lost. I knew Sync would not survive that attack, and my mind went blank at that scene. Without thinking, I took up the dagger I'd snatched from the leader and threw it.

"Augh!" a yell of pain reached my ears and the next thing I knew was Asch shaking me.

"Come to your senses, you worthless girl! Are you stupid?" I opened my eyes and found myself face to face with the redhead. His angry emerald eyes bored into mine.

My whole body was shaking, despite the high temperature in the air. I looked around me and saw half a dozen of children and teenagers, some about my age and some as young as six years old. I also saw hundreds of Cheagles; their small bodies making a most colourful show on the ground.
The bodies of the bandits were nowhere to be seen and my hand was clutching the dagger that I'd thrown. Asch and Fenrir were present, but where was Sync? A most horrendous image spouted in my mind.

"Where's Sync?" My voice broke in panic.

Asch sighed, "He's inside the tree. Damn... first he gets cut up and then you faint just after we defeat the enemy. This is why I have been going solo these past months!" he said, though his voice showed that he was relieved it was over.

His grip on my shoulders loosened and I felt lighter. "I'll be back soon!" I told the cheering crowd of children and Cheagles and ran inside the tree.

Despite having spent so much time in this forest since mommy moved here, I'd never once been inside the Cheagles sacred tree. The inside was much brighter than I'd thought, miniature torches illuminating the trunk and blocks of leaves being spread around the room gave it a homely feel. I could understand why the Cheagles lived here.

Sync was sitting on one of the "beds" with a bandage around his stomach. He looked uncomfortable when he saw me and for a moment I was sure he'd wanted to hide behind a monster doll like I often did when I felt out of place. He desperately tried to avoid my look but had to give up when I approached him.

"Do you mind?" I asked without looking at him and pointed at where he sat.

"Go on." His voice was shaky and I noticed that it lacked the hatred it usually held. Now those sentiments were replaced by anxiety and shame.

For a while we sat in silence, both of us trying to start a conversation, only to stutter and return to silence. Where's Asch when I actually need him? He was waiting outside and sent us looks and nods, his way to "help" us along. I really hated him now; he was merely making this even more awkward.

I looked at Sync; I had thought that the bandage only was around his stomach, but I'd been very wrong: It spread across almost his entire back, which was now exposed for the wounds to mend faster. I noticed that he'd gotten a gash in his left cheek, so I quickly raised my hand and slapped him on the right one, which as of yet had been unharmed.

"You idiot, why do you always rush ahead," I scolded, "Do you think of noone but yourself?"

"I... I'm sorry," he said, trying to avoid my face. "I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened..."

"You almost got yourself killed! That's what happened!" I continued, "All because you refused to listen to me and rushed on ahead! If you think you can handle yourself that well alone, go on! Leave!"

"Just shut up! I did it so that you would not have to put yourself in danger!" he countered angrily and tried to stand up, but ended up falling down again due to the pain.

"I can handle myself pretty fine, thank you!" I retorted, "Something that can't be said about you, I'm afraid!"

He looked down and did not answer me, "I am truly sorry. I..."

"I don't want to see Ion die again." I interrupted him, "even if you are his brother – and have the worst personality of any living being I've encountered in my whole life, I still would be sad to see you die."

"Why do you care? I –"

"Was born a piece of meat," I interrupted again, this time imitating his tone of voice, "stop saying that! You are yourself, Sync, and no matter how poorly you have been treated in the past, you are still worthy of life."

"You really think so, huh? Well, what if nobody were to accept me?" Sync asked, his voice sad. I realised that beyond his facade, he was just a misunderstood teenager.

"I still would. So stop saying those things about yourself! I know people can change, so both of us can fix our mistakes. Just give the world a chance!" I pleaded. If Sync were to change, then so could I. We could start all over again.

"I can see why Ion liked you so much..." Sync mused.

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow, "I know he always preferred Anise to me, and only looked at me as a pet, but it was fine with me, because he was my friend and accepted me as who I was, no matter how terrible I might have been, he still was kind to me."

Sync closed his eyes, "Arietta... I will change. So that one day, I can finally understand your words."

I smiled, "This is not a matter of understanding, Sync, but of acceptance. You don't accept yourself because you feel nobody has ever cared about you. Think about it: if I had not cared, would I have saved you at the Tataroo Valley? Would I speak to you now?"

"Arietta," Sync grabbed my shoulder as I rose up to leave, "Thank you. I promise to try to accept."

His face was sincere, he wanted to change. I felt warm all of a sudden, and my frown turned into a kind expression. "And I will try to change as well, so that you or Asch or the others won't be hurt anymore," I promised.

I helped Sync up and felt a spark of electricity run through my body when he leaned on my shoulder for support. In that state, we walked out to meet Asch and as we did, I felt stronger than I'd ever been before.

The sun had just risen when we came outside and the first golden rays of dawn fell bright upon my face.

"Thank you!" all the voices of those we'd saved echoed across the forest clearing and for the first time, I got a clear view of them: Many of the children were critically underfed and some were so thin they looked like they could break apart at any moment. The worst cases were the ones who had been hurt by the bandits and were in need of healing.

I left Sync in Asch's care and started healing the wounded. The redhead quickly applied some apple gels he'd looted from the enemies' bodies and by the time the sun was truly up, Sync was fully healed and the two were arguing about mindless matters again.

Fenrir finally became useful in the sense that there was one boy who had been hurt in the leg and was too tired to walk, so the silver wolf allowed him to ride on his back. I flashed Fenrir an approving look while I kept on healing the children. Their wounds were nowhere as serious as Sync's and it took me some minutes to heal each one of them.

"Thank you, miss," one of the children, a girl of around eleven, said to me when I was done with the spells, "you really saved us. I wish to become like you someday."

"O-oh," I blushed, "It's nothing. Don't mention it."

I kept thinking of that the rest of the day as we walked back to Engeve after we'd assured the Cheagles they would not be harmed any further. As an extra, I spoke with the ligers and made an agreement with them that once my journey was over that I'd return to them, but only if they promised to be friends with the Cheagles and coexist. Strangely enough, they seemed to be in favor of the promise.

After mommy's death, they had been driven away from the forest and had been forced to live on the plains where they were easy targets for hunters and stronger monsters.

"It's all right now," I told a child that was crying for his mother to take him home, "I'll take you back to Engeve now. Asch, Sync, come on!"

"Right!" Sync said.

"Aren't you unnaturally cooperative today?" Asch smirked.

"Oh shut up! You're just jealous Natalia spends more time with Guy than you!"

"I am not!"

"Oh yeah, then are you maybe missing Dist?"

"...You little bastard..." Asch shuddered.

"Ooh... or you're just dreaming about the replica?" Sync suggested and jumped away from Asch's punch.

"OK, when this is all over, I will murder you, Sync!" Asch promised. It's so nice that those two enjoy such a friendly relationship.

For some reason, the way to Engeve seemed much faster this time around than when we went to the Cheagle Woods, probably because of the relief I felt that the children were safe and sound.
Sync obviously was trying to be friendlier towards me, at one point even asking me if I was tired and needed help carrying those who had fallen asleep. I had of course shrugged him off, but he'd offered me help nonetheless.

Rose was overjoyed to see that we'd rescued the children and even more so when she heard that the bandit threat was dealt with. We'd of course not told her the full details of the rescue mission, but she still looked at me and told me I should be more careful next time.

"Someone as young and beautiful as you should not risk her life like that, but still thank you so much! We'll remove all accusations from you and let you keep your... pet," she looked nervously at Fenrir, who was currently chewing at her shoe.

"Fenrir! Sit!" Sync said, causing the silver wolf to reply with some words that better not be written.

"Fenrir... didn't your mother tell you not to use such foul words?" I laughed as I patted him.

"Anyway, I'll let you stay at the inn for free tonight. Consider it our thanks, and also, I'll arrange for the shopkeepers to let you take some of their goods." Rose said, "Now, get some rest."

I thanked her, but also said that we could not accept the items for free, causing Asch to almost choke on the apple he was eating and stare at me with widened eyes.

"Oh well, in that case, I'll at least order them to lower their prices. Also, take these," Rose said and handed me a pretty big bag of items, among which were some food items, a wide variety of gels – including one special gel – and some holy bottles.

My hands were shaking when I accepted the bag and went to the inn with my friends.
I really liked this town and Rose was so kind to us, despite us being strangers. As we passed the townspeople, many of them looked at us as if we were heroes and many of them thanked us for our deeds.

"Oh crap!" Sync said when we reached the inn and found the man who had been really angry with Fenrir yesterday standing by the entrance.

"You!" he shouted, and ran toward us. I braced myself to be hit, but he instead shook our hands.

"You sure saved this town out of quite a pickle. I apologize for yesterday, please, stay here for free!" he said quickly. It's surprising how people change.

"Whew, I'm beat!" Sync said when we finally got a room at the inn. Unfortunately, they had only one room for the three of us, but the problem was that there were only two beds.

"Um... you guys sleep in the beds, I'll take the floor. Fenrir, cuddle up to me to keep warm." I said, feeling my cheeks getting hot.

"Are you sure? I can sleep on the floor if you want. Or you two can –" Asch teased, but shut up when the two of us shot him a glare.

"I'm warning you, little girl, I can sometimes bite in my sleep." Fenrir said before he remembered that I was the same person who had almost destroyed him with my Mystic Arte mere days ago.

"So can I, in fact. I think we'll get along pretty well!" I laughed.

"I'm turning in. Sync, don't wet the bed, please, we don't need more problems than we already do." Asch said.

"Ok, good n – hang on! Who wets the bed?" Sync spat back at the older God-General, who simply turned to the other side.

Some minutes later, they both were sound asleep, despite it still being noon outside. I yawned, I also wanted to sleep, but before that, there was something I wanted to do.

I took out my bag and searched it until I found Anise's letter.

"To Gloomietta from Anise" was written on the top with Anise's messy handwriting (not that mine was any better, though, with me having lived in the forest for so long, I learned the alphabet only some years ago). For a moment I hesitated, fearing the contents of the envelope. What if she wanted to resume the duel from where it had ended? No, then she would have just let me get killed by daddy so long ago.

What would Legretta have done? Would she have opened it or would she have ignored it?
Still, I was myself, and I wanted to know what she was saying. I gently unsealed it and found a letter inside. With shaking hands I took it out and read it in my head in order to not wake the boys.

It said the following:

"Dear Arietta, I hope you'll understand what I am about to say.

The Ion I killed and the one you loved were not the same. The Ion I killed was a replica of the original – the one who saved you and whom you were appointed to protect. The commandant has been lying to you this whole time, as have the other Oracle Knights, because we feared you would kill yourself if you learned the truth.

But the commandant – no, Van, has been using you. I will never forgive him!

I understand you probably still hate me, but please forgive me. I don't wanna fight you anymore. I am sorry for Ion and for your mommy, but Mohs forced me to get Ion to read the Planet Score, if he didn't... my parents...

I wish to start anew, and I hope that one day, we can meet again as friends, not as enemies and start over as just Anise and Arietta.
If you wish to kill me, I understand, but if you can forgive me, I want us to meet. Please, reply in that case to my letter and we'll decide where to meet.

~Anise Tatlin, Oracle Knight

I put down the letter and sighed, relieved that she wanted to become my friend.
I was not surprised about Ion – I had suspected as much every time Largo got furious at Dist when the researcher talked about the Fon Master. Dist was the one who had invented Fomicry, after all, and the one who had revived it, so it made sense.

I had been such a fool in the past, relying solely on my feelings and on my monster friends, never once realising that what I was doing was wrong. Had only I thought things over more thoroughly, then maybe my life would have been completely different. Still, I knew that now was my chance to change, to finally achieve my dreams.

My life begins now!