"Shit ... I won't be able to escape like this!". Muttered a boy, running in despair.
With several trees around, the boy dodges some and runs without looking back. His feet were bare, making him step on the dirt floor.
"I ... I need to go. I have to catch up with them." The boy speaks to himself in a tired but determined voice.
It weakens for a moment. Almost falling, he uses a tree to get up.
Out of breath, the boy stops for a second to breathe.
"Come on ... I have to go ... move, stupid body ...". The boy murmurs.
He looks down. His body had several cuts around the corner. The various bleeds made it difficult to move properly.
"Without complaining ... Just go"
The boy stops leaning on the tree and keeps running. His eyes almost closed, his breathing labored, his body barely responding. He was ignoring everything and kept running.
Even with all the darkness of the night, he saw that the end of the forest was ahead. He picked up the pace even more, though ...
"What? No ... I went the wrong way." The boy swears by placing his hand on his face, groaning in frustration and anger.
He ended up stopping on a cliff. There was nothing but a flowing river. Your chance to escape is completely lost.
The boy looks down and then looks up at the sky. The stars shone beautifully and the full moon lit up the night a little.
"What a bag ... My hopes are gone". The boy grumbles.
Turning, a hooded man approached him. His steps were so silent that he didn't even notice when he reached him.
"So that's it, isn't it? This is my finish line." The boy comments, laughing nervously.
The hooded man says nothing and just slowly approaches the boy.
The boy already knew that he would not be able to escape. He looks around, but there are only forests and trees, nothing that can help him. He has no weapon and behind him there is only the cliff. Jumping into the river would be a certain death even for him.
"Yes ... It's really the end of me". The boy speaks disappointed and scratching his head.
The man approaches a little closer and stops a few meters in front of the boy. He puts his hand on his waist and pulls out a semi-curved sword with a red line in the middle of the blade.
"Apparently, there's no way you can save me, right?" The boy asks, stepping back a little.
The hooded man does not answer, but silence speaks for him.
"I see ... I expected this to happen at one time or another. There is no way to avoid it"
The hooded man takes the sword to the boy's belly. Doing everything without showing emotion.
"Well ... I'm not going to hate you for that, Jaff. I understand that it's just your job." The boy speaks with a weak smile.
Jaff pauses for a moment at the boy's words and takes a step back.
"I just ask that ... you keep Ninian and Nils safe. And, of course, Take good care of Nino for me and don't let Graves' idiot tease her too much ..."
Jaff clenches his teeth, the hand in which he holds the sword trembles a little. The boy realizes this and lets out a weak laugh.
"What's up, Jaff? You've never been so sentimental. I'm flattered that you at least demonstrate that to me. Hehehe ... Our time as friends was cool, my good friend ..."
Jaff takes off his hood and reveals his sad face. He holds the shaking wrist with his other hand to try to avoid the trembling of the hand that holds the sword.
Hesitating a little, Jaff shoves the sword in the boy's belly, who lets out a groan of pain.
Jaff looks at his friend moaning in pain and pulls out his sword. The boy puts his hand in the hole in his belly and looks at Jaff in pain. With difficulty, the boy takes a shiny white stone from his pocket and shows it to Jaff.
"Keep it ... When you find Ninian again, give it to her ... Don't let Nergal or anyone else take it ... I trust you, Jaffar"
He looks at Jaffar one last time and smiles at his friend. Without saying anything else, he throws himself off the cliff and his body falls into the river, which takes him away.
Jaffar looks at the body of the friend being taken and turns around with his head down. He comes back through the forest and as he walks he looks at the stone that his friend gave him before he died. He keeps the stone in his pocket and walks silently hiding his face with the hood and, mainly, hiding his tears.
In a lonely house on the plain, a girl walks around the house holding a bowl full of apples. She looks at the fruit and counts the amount she has with her fingers.
"Four are enough for Khurdan". The girl says happy.
Leaving home, the wind blows. A breeze that refreshes and makes the girl's green hair fly with the wind. She looks at the blue sky. The sun was beating hard and the girl had to cover her eyes with her hand.
"The plains winds ... I still love that feeling." The girl speaks feeling the wind.
The girl stops admiring the wind and goes to a stable, where a gray horse neighs at the sight of the girl.
"Khurdan, I brought you some food." The girl shows the bowl to the horse.
The horse makes a sound that the girl interprets as joy. The girl goes to the horse and strokes her head and her brown hair.
She takes an apple from the bowl and gives it to the horse, who eats it straight out of the girl's hand.
"Good boy. Eat well, Khurdan". The girl strokes the horse while it eats.
Lyn takes another apple and gives it to him.
"My father fed you like that, didn't he, Khurdan?" The girl speaks with a sad tone.
The girl gives the horse another apple.
"Can I take care of you as well as he does?"
The horse eats the last apple and Lyn looks at the empty bowl.
"Living here alone is so difficult ..." The girl speaks sadly.
The girl comes out of the stable and looks at the sky thoughtfully.
"Dad ... Mom ... I miss you ..."
The girl looks ahead, but when she does, she ends up noticing a body in the distance on the edge of a river.
"A body?". The girl is confused.
She runs to the river and approaches the body. He was full of wounds all over his body and totally wet. His clothes, especially the center of his shirt, were stained with blood.
"How did he get here?" The girl looks confused.
The girl gently moves the man and touches his shoulder.
"No reaction"
The girl sees if the man is breathing and, to her surprise, he was.
"How did he manage to survive with these injuries?"
The girl takes the man's body carefully and places it on his back.
"It's heavy ... Wet clothes don't help"
Because he was soaked, his body was very cold. With all the wounds open and the cold, it is a miracle that he was still alive.
Walking to his house, the girl goes slowly, the weight was too much for her body to support normally, but she forced herself to continue, and little by little, she arrives at the entrance to the house.
The girl enters the house and goes to her room. Slowly going to bed, she carefully lays the man down and rests his head on a pillow. going to a crate beside the bed, she takes off a white sheet and wraps the man up to his neck.
"That should warm you up for now. Maybe I have a vulnerary around here"
Bending down and looking under the bed, she takes out a chest and opens it. Inside, she takes a bag and closes the chest.
"I found the vulnerary, but ..."
She raises the end of the man's sheet and looks at his belly, which by the holes and tears she could see, was well defined, by the way. The man was certainly not just anybody.
"I'm going to have to take the shirt off to pass the vulnerary"
With no other choice, the girl does what she has to do.
"Yato ... I'm sorry, but I have to go". A female voice, which seemed so beautiful and serene, speaks.
"You don't have to go, Ninian! Your reason is completely stupid!" Yato responds angrily.
"I know, but Nils and I still need to try." Ninian responds in his calm voice.
"Ninian, think about it! You ... you may have a chance of never coming back!" Yato exclaims.
"We've been thinking about it for a long time. Nils and I need to do it anyway." Ninian responds calmly.
"Ninian ... Are you sure? What if ... You don't come back?" Yato looks at Ninian in frustration.
"Don't worry, Yato. We will be back. I will be back, for you." Ninian responds with a beautiful smile that takes away Yato's anger.
"Ninian ... I ... I hope you can, and that you come back saved"
Ninian approaches Yato and catches him off guard, pulling him into a warm embrace.
"See you later, Yato ...". Ninian whispers.
"See you later, Ninian...". Yato responds by returning the hug.
Opening his eyes, the first thing Yato sees is a white ceiling with orange lines running down the center. Due to the curvature of the roof, it should be a more rounded roof. He looks at the ceiling and thinks about the dream he had with Ninian.
"Ninian ..."
Looking to the sides, he sees a part of the wall that also has these orange stripes. Another part of the wall is covered with a large brown cloth. Looking ahead, he notices several boxes with some chests on top of them. The floor is green, but with carpet with orange side stripes. It is really a place that he does not know.
How did I survive this fall? Where am I? Who saved me? Those are the questions in Yato's head.
"Oh, are you awake yet?" The girl asks as she enters the room with a bowl and a glass.
Yato looks at the owner of the voice and sees a girl with long eyes and green hair. His blue-green outfit is a shade he has seen a few times.
"Sacae ...". Yato speaks with difficulty.
"Yes, I'm from Sacae. My name is Lyn, from the Lorca tribe. And you, what's your name?" Lyn asks smiling.
Yato looks closely at the girl. Revealing her name to a stranger would be a bad idea, but at the same time, he doesn't feel any evil coming from her.
"I am ... Yato"
"Yato? What a strange name ..."
Yato looks slightly offended at Lyn.
"Don't care what I said. It's a good name." Lyn says trying to justify himself.
Lyn approaches Yato and offers him the bowl, which contained some apples.
"Here, you can eat"
Yato raises his hand to take the bowl and sees that his hand was shaking a little. He looks at her, who was bandaged. Just by moving she was already in a little pain.
"I found you unconscious and injured on the edge of a river. I did my best to try to fix your injuries, but you were very hurt, so it will still be difficult for you to move." Lyn explains.
"I understand...". Yato speaks staring at her hand.
Just being alive is already a miracle. Even though I was tough, I didn't expect to be alive.
Yato looks at Lyn, who is confused to be faced.
If she hadn't saved me, I would surely be dead by now.
"Thank you, Lyn ...". Yato tries to bow his head to say thanks, but the pain makes him go back.
"You don't need that. I just did what I thought was right." Lyn replies smiling.
Lyn takes a stool and sits on the side of the bed. Picking up a piece of a sliced apple, she offers it to Yato.
"Here. You can't move properly, so I'm going to feed you"
The offer takes Yato by surprise, but he accepts. There is not much he can do with these injuries.
"Yato, I can tell by your attire that you are not from here. Could you share your story with me?"
This is a problem ... She saved my life. I don't want to lie to the person who gave me a second chance to live, but telling her my whole story is something I can't do. The best thing I can do is ...
"I'm just a traveler from Bern. I like to travel across the continent, but this time it was different. I was after some friends, however ... I ended up being attacked by an assassin"
Mix truths with lies. That's the only thing I can do to not feel totally guilty for lying.
"A murderer? But why would anyone want to kill you?" Lyn asks a curious question.
"I've traveled a lot and met a lot of different people. Some of them may not like me very much"
"It makes sense ... I think. It never leaves Sacae"
The apples run out and Lyn gets up. She places the empty bowl in one of the crates in front of the bed and takes a glass of water.
"Can you raise your head a little?"
"I think so..."
Yato raises his head a little. He still feels some pain, but they are bearable.
Lyn helps Yato to drink the water and then puts the glass in the same crate.
"There. For now you just need to rest"
"Right..."
Yato watches Lyn doing some things. He looks at the whole room and one thing comes to his mind.
"You live alone?"
Lyn stops for a moment. Yato already understands that it was not something he should have asked.
"Yes... But it wasn't always like this." She speaks in a sad tone.
She turns to Yato. Her face already demonstrated that this is not something she likes to talk about.
"My mom and dad ... They died six months ago. My people were almost wiped out by bandits. Those who are left don't want to follow me because I'm too young, and why they wouldn't follow a woman ..." . Lyn clenches his fists. "No one would follow me ... They left and I was alone. I've been alone for so long ..."
Yato listens silently to Lyn's story. Her outburst makes him think about many things.
Lyn's eyes start to water and she quickly wipes them with the back of her hand.
"No ... I won't cry over it anymore"
What a strong woman. Not everyone can live that lonely for so long. I don't know if I could do it.
Lyn looks at the window and sees that it was already dark. She keeps her things and leaves the room, but before leaving she stops at the door.
"Rest well, Yato. Tomorrow I bring you the things you need". Lyn says and leaves.
Yato, with nothing to do, just looks at the ceiling again. It is a roof that is interesting to look at.
"Yeah ... There's nothing to do but lie down. What a bore ...". Yato speaks discouraged.
This Lyn is a very kind woman even huh. Unless she is playing nice just to deceive me, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I think I can trust her a little.
Yato raises his hand and looks at her. She was almost completely bandaged and with a little red. He lowers it and passes it slowly in the belly.
A great pain surrounds Yato's body and he quickly removes his hand from his belly.
"Jaffar really knows how to seriously hurt someone ..."
How is he doing now? When he finds out I'm alive he will jump for joy. Although this is not something that someone like him would do.
Yato sighs and looks at the window. The night was really beautiful, but it wasn't shining as brightly as when he fell off the cliff.
"Ninian and Nils would love to look at the moon like this ... I hope they are well"
The next day, Lyn did the same routine of feeding Khurdan and then went to see Yato. He was sitting looking at the window. Lyn enters the room with a bowl of sliced apples.
"Yato, did you sleep well?" Lyn asks with a smile on her face. It seems that she is the type to wake up in a good mood.
"No. Sleep little." Yato responds by scratching his eyes.
"You were unconscious for a long time. It's normal for you to have trouble sleeping"
Lyn sits on the end of the bed and already offers the bowl to Yato.
"Can you eat alone?"
Yato looks at his own hand and opens and closes, the pains from before have ceased. He moves the whole arm up and down and also feels no pain.
"Ok. The pains are gone"
Lyn looks at Yato puzzled. "You are very resilient, Yato. No one I know would be able to withstand these injuries. Being able to move is really amazing."
"I was surprised by that, too. I honestly thought I was going to die, but luckily you saved me."
Yato smiles at Lyn, grateful for everything she has done for him, even though they are completely strangers to each other.
"I just did what I thought was right. My father taught me that we should always help others. When I saw his wounded body at the river's edge, I thought I should help him." Lyn counts.
"Really was-".
Yato stops talking when he hears a low sound of footsteps. Lyn also realizes this and gets up.
"Wait here, Yato. I'll see who's there."
Lyn goes to the door and opens it carefully. Opening it slowly, she peers through the crack and sees three men holding axes. Two had the appearance of a normal bandit, but there was one who was blond and had his hair tied with a green bandana that held the hair.
Lyn closes the door and goes to a large chest beside the bed. She opens and pulls out an iron sword. She closes the box, closes her eyes and sighs.
"Yato, they are bandits. I take care of them alone. You will be fine here, Yato ...". Lyn leaves the house.
To her surprise, Yato gets up from the bed and walks over to her. His bandages show that he was not yet fully healed.
"What are you doing, Yato ?! Your wounds are going to open!" Lyn exclaims in concern.
"I'll be fine. I can't let my savior fight alone." Yato speaks, with slight difficulty.
"I can beat them alone. You need to rest." Lyn insists.
"Okay then. Let's do it like this, I don't fight, but I will accompany you to help you as a strategist"
"Are you a strategist? In that case, I can accept." Lyn nods.
The two leave the house and Yato watches the three bandits. Two of them are together and the last, who appears to be the leader, is a little further away, near some houses similar to Lyn's.
"Lyn, these houses are-"
"This is where the rest of my tribe lived ...". Lyn replies directly.
"I understand...". Yato leaves the subject alone.
Yato looks at the two thugs and puts his hand on his chin.
"The guy who appears to be their leader is in the houses doing something. Maybe he is looking to loot the house."
"There is nothing more of value there ...". Lyn speaks and Yato looks at her.
What a melancholy woman. I don't blame her, I already ... she Forget it.
"We can take advantage of the fact that the leader is far from the other two. We are going to attack the henchmen, but ... Can you handle two at the same time?" Yato asks.
"Being just two outlaws, I'm sure I can do that." Lyn says confidently.
"If you say so, I can only believe." Yato says still discredited.
If she ends up not being able to take it, I can intervene. She won't complain that I fought if I saved her life.
"They are in the middle of the plain. There is no tree to serve as a support, you will have to win in the direct confrontation. Ready?"
"Yes I am". Lyn responds with confidence.
I have to admit she is a very strong woman.
The pair approaches the two bandits. One notices them and nudges the other, who was on his back, with his elbow. The two look at the pair and hold the ax more tightly.
"Dude, look at that hot girl over there. The boss is going to love playing with her." One of the bandits spoke vulgarly.
"It sure will. We killed the guy with her and got her for us." The other replied.
Upon hearing this, Lyn grips his iron sword more tightly and his scowl intensifies.
"What a scary face, madam. It won't look like this when the boss plays with you. Maybe he'll even let us participate-"
Lyn advances against the guy and scares him with the speed with which he runs. The guy tries to react by taking a hit, but Lyn dodges himself and lowers his aim with his ax. The guy manages to get his arm out of Lyn's attack, however, Lyn changes the path of his attack and hits his fingers.
"AAAAAAAAAH!". The bandit screams and drops the ax.
He holds his hand and looks at the blood gushing from the places that once had his fingers.
The other bandit looks terrified at his friend's wounds, but his fear turns to fury. He looks at Lyn and runs furious against her.
He swings the ax madly and makes Lyn retreat because of the inaccurate but deadly blows he makes. The guy doesn't let her escape and chases her.
Lyn sheathed the sword and held it waiting for the bandit to approach her. When the bandit tries to land another blow, Lyn pulls the sword from its sheath at an absurd speed and cuts the bandit's arm.
Yato looks at the situation, surprised. Before the thug can do anything, Lyn cuts his neck with the sword.
"I didn't expect you to be that strong, Lyn. It was a big surprise." Yato says impressed.
"Bandits like that are no match for me. No more"
I really underestimated Lyn. She is not as strong as Linus or Lloyd, but she has the potential to be truly powerful in the future.
"Aren't you forgetting anything?" Yato asks.
Lyn looks at him, confused. "I am?"
Yato points to a corner. The other bandit with severed fingers was running desperately.
"Shit! Shit! SHIT! The boss will finish you-"
The bandit stops running when he feels terrible pain in his belly. He looks down and sees a sword in his stomach.
"When you..."
Lyn pulls out his sword and kicks the bandit, who falls to the ground with his hand on his stomach. With blood dripping from his severed fingers and his pierced belly, the green grass is bathed in red. The man dies from the loss of blood.
Yato approaches Lyn and looks at the bandit's body.
"How brutal. I didn't expect that from you, Lyn." Yato says a little surprised.
"Bandits are much more cruel than that." Lyn responds by looking angrily at the thug's corpse.
"Sure. The next one will be the boss"
Lyn just nods and the two go to the set of houses where the head bandit is.
"I don't see him. Did he go into one of the houses?" Yato asks.
Lyn walks carefully to the door of the bigger house. She slowly takes the handle and slowly opens it. When the door opens, an ax approaches Lyn's face and she dodges in surprise. The blow made a nasty cut on Lyn's left arm.
"You filthy whore! You are going to pay for killing Batta's subordinates, the Beast." The blond man grunts in anger and raises his steel ax in an intimidating manner.
"Lyn!" Yato screams worried.
Yato goes to Lyn's aid, but she gets up and extends her hand to Yato.
"Stay there, I'll take care of him". Lyn commands.
She looks at the injured arm. The cut was deep. Lyn takes a green cloth from a mini bag tied to her belt and bandages the wound. The cloth soon becomes darker because of the blood.
"What a boring woman. The next blow is going to be fatal, you bitch!" Batta screams.
I have to intervene. Unlike me, Lyn must not be as resistant to the pain of these injuries. Do I trust her or do something? I don't want her to think that I don't trust her.
Lyn takes a strange position. She has the straight sword pointed at the opponent. The left arm that holds the sword is slightly further back and the right arm is extended and pointed forward.
"What the fuck are you doing, bitch? If you're not going to attack, I'm going to kill you!" Batta growls with rage.
Batta takes a small leap forward and attacks with a spinning blow in the air. Lyn deflects to the side, the blow lightly hits Lyn's right arm, but something Batta did not expect happens. Lyn landed three extremely quick blows to both arms and a lethal cut to the chest, a cut that opened Batta's belly. The speed was so high that it looked like three Lyns attacked.
"What? How do you ...". Batta speaks in bewilderment and falls to the dead floor.
Lyn takes a deep breath, looking at Batta. Her legs give out and Lyn falls to the floor sitting.
"Lyn, is everything okay? Wait a minute, I'll get a vulnerary." Yato says concerned about Lyn's injury.
Her arm was still bleeding a lot. If nothing was done, she would lose a lot of blood.
"There's one in my mini bag...". Lyn speaks breathlessly.
"Right"
Yato takes the mini bag out of Lyn's waist and takes out a vulnerary. He tosses the bag on the floor and opens the bag. Inside the vulnerary, he has a magic ointment that heals wounds almost instantly, but does not heal fatal wounds. Fortunately, this is not the case for Lyn.
"It will hurt a little. In fact, it will hurt a lot." Yato warns.
"I know ... You can pass." Lyn consents.
Yato takes the cloth from Lyn's arm. The cloth was already soaked in blood and with the most viscous texture. He throws the cloth away and holds Lyn's injured arm in her hand. The cut went from the forearm almost to the shoulder, the red and torn flesh worsened the vision, but Yato was already used to it.
"Warning again, it will hurt"
Yato rubs the ointment on the wound. The intense pain that Lyn feels makes her moan in pain. The torn meat is repaired where Yato goes through the vulnerary. When the wound closes, there are no marks left.
"There. You just need to rest." Yato advises.
Lyn examines his arm and runs his hand over where the wound was. No trace remained, leaving his arm as if nothing had happened.
"I ended up underestimating him ... I need to get stronger. Strong enough to exterminate all these bandits ...". Lyn declares to herself.
"You are already on the right track. Your movements were excellent. That final blow was spectacular. Is it some kind of secret Sacaen technique or something?" Yato asks excitedly.
"It's a secret technique that my father taught me. Her name is Astra, but I haven't completely mastered it yet. It was supposed to be five strokes in a row, but I could only use three." Lyn sighs a little disappointed.
"What do you mean ?! You were great. The guy didn't even see what happened. I almost didn't see it." Yato speaks with stars in his eyes.
"Thank you, Yato. I'm going to rest now. This battle demanded more from me than I thought." Lyn speaks in a tired voice.
It makes sense. Vulnerability only heals wounds, but tiredness still continues. Unlike a stamina drink, which only cures tiredness, but is more expensive than vulnerable ones because they are imported directly from Jugdral.
"Okay. I want to go to bed too. Fighting the bad guys in the morning is really bad. I just want to go back to that soft bed." Yato says thinking about the feeling of lying in bed and resting his head on the comfortable pillow he has at Lyn's house."Shit ... I won't be able to escape like this!". Muttered a boy, running in despair.
The two go to Lyn's house and when entering, Yato already runs to the bed and jumps in his softness.
"What a good feeling". Yato says rolling on the bed.
"Yato, don't forget about your injuries. Moving like that can cause problems for you." Lyn scolds Yato.
"My wounds are already healed. Just one more rest and I will be even more ready than before I was hurt." Yato says moving his head on the pillow.
"If you say so, but still ...". Lyn doesn't take Yato's word for it.
"Okay, okay. I'm going to stop. I was already planning to sleep." Yato speaks looking for the right position to sleep.
Yato lies on his side and puts his hand on the cheek. He stretches his legs, the right being higher than the left.
"Good night, Lyn. Wait ... I forgot that it's still day. Well, then good morning, Lyn." Yato speaks and closes his eyes.
Lyn laughs at Yato's speech. She feels that saving him was the right thing to do. So far he has just shown himself to be a good person, although she feels that he still doesn't speak and hides some things from her. Still, she feels it is not because he is a bad person. In fact, he is someone who has so far only brought good changes in his life.
"I think it's better to sleep too ...". Lyn covers his mouth with his hand and yawns.
She watches the bright sun of the day and smiles. Looking at the horizon, her gaze is fixed on the houses from which they have just left. The houses where ... her entire tribe lived.
"I never expected to sleep in that house again. Yato really came to change some things in my life ". Lyn says with a weak smile.
Yesterday, when she saved Yato, she ended up sleeping in the main house of the tribe. As Yato was injured, she preferred to let him sleep alone in bed.
"Wait a minute ... If I went to sleep there, I shouldn't have come back here with Yato". Lyn is frustrated with her mistake.
"Going back there will be tiring ..."
Lyn turns to Yato. The man was already asleep. She ponders a little about the situation.
"There shouldn't be any problem with that." Lyn Affirm for yourself.
She moves close to the bed and to her side. Lying slowly, Lyn lay on her side on the other end of the bed so she wouldn't have a chance to accidentally touch Yato. The double bed is big enough to fit both and have space.
"Sweet dreams, Yato...". Lyn whispers and closes her eyes. Minutes later, she sleeps.
The two sleep soundly. The sound of birdsong and its low breathing make it a more pleasant place to sleep.
