At the gates of Bone Village, a cloaked girl walked briskly through the noisy atmosphere of chisels and pickaxes, desiring at all costs to just be seen and forgotten, like a stone set aimlessly at the side of the road.
She had already decided not to impose a burden on anyone by speaking to them. Her path rested beyond the village, through the mysterious Sleeping Forest, and across the river.
Her footsteps, as they lightly treaded the dirt roadway, refused to surrender any evidence of the heavy heart that thudded dully in her chest. The brightness of the setting sun on the horizon did nothing to lift the weight of immense regret that had burdened her mind for three long days.
Sorrow was Aeris Gainsborough's only companion on the path of her life now.
Three long days ago, she had departed from her friends. Wordlessly, she had left them, and traveled to the nearest seaside town she could happen upon and bargained for passage aboard a freight ship. Its destination fit her perfectly; the freighter was heading to Bone Village to deliver monthly supplies to the small group of researchers stationed there.
The voyage had passed all too quickly, but she had known it would. The entire journey, meant to save the Planet, had come into her life and ran its course over so little time, that she doubted the final stage would be of any great length. But where the excursion had failed to surprise her, it had succeeded in wrenching her strength.
She stopped, and stared around her for any sign of an inn. Tourists came here all the time, she knew, because she had once come as a child with her mother. There had to be a hotel, or some sort of inn, with which to house those travelers that had come too far for a single day's event to begin their return voyage home.
"If it weren't for the fact that I'm too tired to walk anymore, I would be apart of the Planet before midnight," she muttered to herself, all signs of fear absent in her voice.
The inn loomed before her, at the end of the road.
She walked toward it, opened the door, and stepped inside.
"Good evening, how much is it for a room?" she asked as she leaned over the counter and pulled the hood back from her face.
The receptionist, an elderly woman, gazed up at her from a book she was reading, her face all smiles. "Why, hello there dear. Are you here on vacation?" she inquired cheerfully, but all the same, awkwardly.
Aeris thought for a moment. Remember, low-profile...you don't want them to follow you, Aeris. "Vacation? Yes. Yes I am," she replied readily.
"That's odd. We don't receive much call this late in the year. Its too cold for most people, with this village being so near the Northern Limit and everything. You are alone, my dear?"
Aeris nodded. "Yes."
The receptionist peered into her eyes. She had expected them to be brilliant, as the young girl's beauty was striking in its own, as well as the aura of peace and kindness that seemed to flow endlessly from her mere presence and fill the room with a lighthearted cheeriness. But Aeris's eyes held no light. It had been quenched, it seemed, over time, as a flame is gradually worn down by a breeze. What remained was a futile spark, barely able to sustain any life at all.
"You must be exhausted," the woman suggested to her own suspicion, more than to Aeris.
"Yes, I am."
"Go on up.
"But, don't I need to pay you first?"
"Dear, we don't receive many visitors this time of year as it is. We'll manage."
"Thank you, thank you very much," she said, and turned and strode up the stairs.
Its just not right, the receptionist named Ilse Meyer thought as Aeris left for her room. Its not right at all. Those eyes...so sad... Looking into her eyes was like watching a butterfly being trampled and torn apart for no reason at all. Something terrible happened to that girl, or something awaits her yet.