Chapter 4 | Start

Hiromi was already at the edge of the town, waiting impatiently for them. She was leaning on a wear-downed cobblestone wall. The bright sun was still high in the air; it is starting to set. Rowan and Yui finally arrived on the outskirts of Arkfield.

Hiromi looked in their direction and said, "Finally! I've been waiting for so long!"

"Rowan had some issues; blame him for it, not me," replied Yui.

"Shut up," whispered Rowan to Yui. Rowan looked at Yui and she had a sly smile with a smirk on her face.

"We gotta go now or else we're not going to make it to Vlares in 3 days," ordered Hiromi.

"Hiromi's right. We have to move now," agreed Yui.

The three of them started walking down the dirt road to the closest town: Swanford. It would take half a day of walking to get there. They would spend a night at an inn and then head straight towards Vlares. It would take 2 days to go from Swanford to Vlares.

After an hour of walking through thick bushes and bumpy roads, Rowan couldn't keep going anymore. His bones still ached from last night and he was out of breath. He thought he saw a black fox eating what looked liked an imp, but he thought he was hallucinating, so he didn't investigate further.

"Can we take a break, guys?" huffed Rowan, as he drank his canteen of empty water.

"We just took one ten minutes ago," replied Yui.

"Please please please please please please please!" begged Rowan.

"No more breaks until the halfway checkpoint," said Hiromi.

"And how long's that?" Rowan asked aggressively.

"About two more hours," responded Hiromi

"WHAT?!"

-}-{-

The sun was starting to set in the distant horizon. Rowan, Yui, and Hiromi had just arrived at the halfway checkpoint between Arkfield and Swanford. The checkpoint was in a three-way fork. A sign to the very right said to head to the right path to Swanford. The other two roads were going to two other towns: Ruby Village and Stonedale.

"Do we have a break now?" groaned Rowan. He looked to the bushes and saw the fox again, eating another ceature that looked like an imp. Rowan rubbed his eyes and looked at the same spot again. The black fox was gone, but Rowan's fatigue was obscuring his mind.

"Yup, but we better make it quick before night falls upon us. I heard that there are trolls that roam in the night on the outskirts of Swanford," said Hiromi.

"Hiromi's right. We should get to Swanford before nightfall because of the trolls. Swanford has a magic barrier that deflects most monsters," agreed Yui.

The three of them sat down near the dirt road and grabbed snacks out of their sac. Rowan grabbed his favorite snack: bird chips. Bird chips are bird-shaped crackers that fly around in the air. Rowan opened up the package and bird crackers exploded out from the bag. He grabbed each cracker one by one until there were none left. The bird chips tasted sweet but crunchy. He then grabbed his canteen and realized that he had no more water left. Rowan looked towards Yui and Hiromi.

"No," they said in unison.

"Please, just a sip of water!"

Yui was the first one to reply. "We all get equal amounts of food and water. Only use it when you need to. We won't have more water until about three more hours."

"And plus, I thought boys were better at physical activities than girls. Obviously, you're not a normal guy," added Hiromi.

Rowan groaned again and grabbed out his grimoire and looked at it. The grimoire had the exact amount of pages as Yui's (Yui had number marks on each page, but Rowan's doesn't, so he just counted all of the pages on his grimoire). Unlike Yui's or basically anyone else's grimoire, Rowan's was blank. The paper even felt rough and old. When a person attains their grimoire, a couple of new spells will already be inscribed in the person's grimoire.

"Any spells, Rowan?" asked Hiromi.

"Nope."

"Man, I feel bad for you," said Hiromi.

"Well, don't. I'm going to work my hardest to become a wizard. It's a promise I made with Yui."

"And he better not screw it up or else I'm doing to beat him to death," added Yui.

"You guys really are like brother and sister. I hope you have some new spells in your grimoire soon, Rowan," said Hiromi.

Rowan tried to change the subject and said, "I think we should go now. Our break's been long enough."

"You're the one to talk," teased Hiromi.

The three of them packed up their belongings and began heading out. Rowan was now notably enthusiastic about heading towards Swanford. He was in the lead of the three. Even though the dirt road they were walking on was uncomfortable, Rowan now realized how much he wanted to be a wizard.

Rowan and his friends only have a little more to go before they arrive at Swanford. They were still in the forest, which was surprisingly quiet. Birds have stopped chirping. Rabbits went into their holes. Insects stopped their annoying buzzing. The forest was still and silent.

"Something's wrong," said Yui.

"What's wrong?" asked Hiromi.

"Did you notice the black fox following us?" replied Yui.

"Wait, you saw it too?" said Rowan.

"Rowan, I'm way more observant than you are, so you don't need to be surprised."

"Let's just focus on the fox," said Rowan, trying to change the subject again. "Do you know where it is right now?"

"Yeah," answered Yui. "It's right in front of us."