It felt as if a knife had cut through him. If felt so horrible, Rollan could not even describe the feeling. Essix was alive. The only relieve that kept him going was the fact that his spirit animal was alive. Well, for now.

For the next minute or so, nobody said a word. It was awkward silence, but, without the laughing part.

Breaking the silence was his mother, now looking happier than ever.

"Please return him to me."

"Oh yes, about the promise, there has been a technical issue. I am truly sorry for the loss of both your son's spirit animal and your husband."

Aidana's face turned to pure ice. She looked both shocked and angry. "Excuse me?"

"Your husband is long gone. But we needed to break the curse of our tribe. I was afraid the only way of doing that was to lie to you. Now I see there is nothing to fear. Just a helpless mother with a not-so-heroic son."

"I am the definition of heroic, thank you very much," spat Rollan, in rage.

"No one said a word to you, boy. Ah, but yes, there is something to ask you, finally. How do you feel about the betrayal of your mother? How do you feel about us capturing your spirit animal? I would like honest words, boy," said the chieftain.

"Honestly? I absolutely hate you. You are a lie."

Rollan's words fell with a heavy silence. You could almost hear a sound signalling the end of his sentence. With regret, he wished he had never said those words.

The chieftain grabbed Rollan by his shirt collar and pulled him over the ropes that bounded him to a tree.

"Is what you said what I heard?"

"I don't read minds. I have no idea what you heard," said Rollan fearlessly.

"I will repeat my question again. Is what you said what I heard."

"I will repeat my answer again. I don't know what you heard."

The chieftain slammed Rollan to a tree, nearly breaking his skull. Rollan's expression was unreadable. His face was as if nothing had happened and his eyes stared blankly forward.

"Think, boy. Don't say things like that to me," growled the chieftain.

Rollan felt dizzy, but still kept his expression neutral.

A little pigeon flew by. The chieftain seemed happy. He reached for the talons that had a message, and-

"You bird! I- Ow!"

The bird started scratching the chieftain. It then tossed Rollan the little capsule. He opened it up, exposing a tightly folded letter. The words were completely unfamiliar, but also so familiar.

The curse of Hetry
Long ago, there was a hateful woman whom name was Hetry. She was a victim of memories. She hated them. But Hetry once witnessed a night of a shooting star. She then made her wish. A 'gift' to the world. We still do not know her exact words, to this day. But what we know is she wished for this: one person at a time may forget his or her burden of the past. A man named Xavier wished for the 'gift', but he soon sent it off to a northern tribe of Amaya. We did not encounter much more, but from all we know, the curse had been very recently taken to the son of Xavier.

~Professor Adji of Stetriol

From just reading this letter, Rollan solved the entire mystery called life.

You just read that. Hey, look, I'm not Rollan, I can read your mind! This chapter was sorta short. But thass all, folks.

~Alicio