I - The Story of Love: The Meeting
It wouldn't be surprising to be scared and willing to turn around, retreating, if someone would traverse into an eerie forest and the fog that came with the environment just didn't help at all.
However, considering that it was part of what she signed up for, Alvieha carefully threaded the barely visible path ahead of her, hoping not to bump into any tree nor step onto something she shouldn't.
Well, the young lady pondered as she took wary steps forward, isn't it about time for me to find any life form in this place? Where are the boars and crickets?
The hooded robe she covered herself with didn't really blend with the fog, but it was enough of a mystery to whoever would cross path with the woman. Indeed, she has been walking for at least half an hour and she was yet to find even a bird's nest.
Then again, she couldn't see well.
And because of the fog, the traveller was having unusually difficult time sensing any animals. A few minutes passed and she found herself colliding face first onto a hard, rough surface.
"Ouch," she whimpered. Cupping her nose for any injury, she thought that, at the very least, there was progress in her journey. Sort of.
As she extended her hands to feel the obstruction ahead, the texture and somewhat large size of the object gave her an inkling of a feeling as to what just caused the slight discomfort – a large boulder.
"These things can really be a problem in these fogs. It totally blends in."
As she slowly walked around the large rock, a faint flicker of light from a distance caught her attention.
"Who's there?" No one responded, but the previously dim brightness was obviously getting closer and closer.
Alvieha wasn't a woman who'd be scared in a snap of a finger. It would take quite a while for her to scurry to a safe haven, but the incoming figure that came along with the veiled light was raising her suspicions.
Beneath the sleeves of her robe, her hands were at peace, yet, she was already preparing some incantations in her head. If this unknown man or woman was, in the worst-case scenario, an assailant, she may show no mercy.
Luckily for her – and the one who approached her, it wasn't a case.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" It was a young boy around the age of 7. "Didn't the old priest tell you to go outside with a lamp or something? You could be mistaken for a robber."
The lady simply smiled at her interrogator, amused for some reason, and this was not taken positively by the child.
"What's the matter with you? Did this fog clog your mouth or something?"
The boy was becoming ticked, growing impatient for the lack of response from Alvieha, and the girl knew that. So, she took out from underneath her cloak a piece of paper and a writing implement and quickly wrote her response.
Seconds later, she handed down her message to the boy who tilted his head in confusion.
"Don't you worry, I'm not a bad guy. I'm just lost in these woods, you say," the child parroted. "Tell that again after you actually speak, whoever you are."
Alvieha quickly scribbled on her held notepad and tore a page for the boy.
"H-How can I trust you? You're taller than me, you look like a grim reaper that lost his scythe, and you prefer using a notepad instead of speaking your thoughts. And what's with this traveller nonsense in your paper? Do you think I was born stupid?"
In a few years, I can attest to that...
The child was a finger away from Alvieha and with his already alert persona, the slight twinge in the lady's lips was caught completely.
"W-What are you smiling about, you weirdo?"
In a panic, Alvieha quickly wrote her response once more and handed it to the child.
"Nothing, you say? If I sense that you're just horsing around, don't bother expecting my help, got that? Follow me. It's a bit hard to talk in this strange fog."
Alvieha followed the boy into the dense unknown, and after several metres – or, at least, it was for her, she found herself led to a front door of a home.
"Let's get inside the house first, and then, we'll settle whatever concern you have here." Alvieha simply nodded in agreement.
The young child then twisted the knob, announcing his return to his own shelter to whoever was inside. His visitor also excused herself.
From inside the humble home, a pattern of footsteps came closer and closer and from the opposite side of the door, a woman appeared.
"Xenios, who is that?" Asked the lady who appeared as the young boy's mother.
"I don't know, some weirdo traveller who got lost in the woods."
"I'm Vie. Thanks for having me here."
Xenios the boy quickly turned around to face his visitor, his face etched with surprise.
"So, you can talk!"
"Well, it's not the same way you can," Alvieha smiled.
"Wait... how can you talk with your mouth closed?"
"I talk with my mind, Xenios-kun. I use telepathy. The fog outside is blocking my magic so I couldn't talk with you earlier. Sorry."
"What a strange woman, you are..." And after Xenios shook his head, he approached a table to lay his extinguished lamp on it.
Soon after, the woman who looked like the young boy's mum walked to Alvieha, welcoming her. The young lady was then escorted to the dining area for some quick refreshments and bread that rested on a barely filled basket.
As Alvieha was sipping the tea offered to her, the woman who introduced herself as Servana, sat across her, a warm smile never faltering from her face.
"What brings a traveller here to our part of the kingdom?"
"I'm actually intrigued by this fog," Alvieha concurrently said while enjoying the warm drink. "I have been to a lot of places and, by far, this phenomenon peaked my curiosity by a lot that I found myself trapped by its mystery."
Servana placed on the table the cup she took a sip from. "But, to tell you the truth, this fog has only been here recently, Vie-san." This earned a raised brow as well as an enticed 'really' from the traveller.
"It wasn't like this a few weeks ago. Everything outside was visible and there was barely anything blocking our eyesight." The young visitor kept her eyes on the speaker, nodding from time to time as she took in the information. Servana continued. "Our small village was hard enough to travel to from outside because of the remoteness and the eerie forest with its hair-raising critters, but the sudden thick fog made it worse that it's already become a dangerous quest just to go to the market two blocks down."
"Do you guys have any idea how this all happened?"
Servana shook her head, distraught. "The town's got a big headache on its shoulders. The bakery's almost unable to bake bread, the only fruits and vegetables vendor hadn't had any deliveries for days, even the local butcher closed his shop because the fog's preventing him from decently hunting animals."
As the news rang a bell, Alvieha instantly halted sipping more of her tea and slowly placed the cup on the saucer in front of her, her two hands guiding the ceramic in a calm yet internally frantic manner.
"If we don't get rid of this fog, the townsfolk would be unable to eat nor drink. This town will collapse."
"D-Did anyone try to do something about this?"
"The most capable person in this town is the old priest, but he had no idea how to deal with this. The younger people have already began fleeing to nearby towns. Though they may be farther, at least they don't have any visual problems there."
"How about the lamps?"
Servana took a quick drink before replying. "That's the best he could've done according to him. At the very least, if some townsfolk would go out in this blurry environment, we'd figure out that it would be one of us. But, if this fog doesn't clear out before all the food in town is eaten, we'll be in a very messy situation."
For this fog to stay in one place for at least a week... this is unusual.
Perhaps, I better start looking up on things. But, where should I begin exactly?