Homesick

Foster woke up in the afternoon, sitting inside of the carriage that had been his home for the past three weeks or so, not counting the rare exceptions that were the days where they could all actually sleep inside of an inn when they managed to reach a town by the end of the day, and quietly looked around.

"Urgh..." He groaned loudly, trying to stretch at least a little bit in here. Foster turned his head and looked out of the carriage's back, "Huh? Wait, when did we reach the forest?" He asked confused, "I thought we were only supposed to reach it by tomorrow?"

"We are apparently a bit ahead of schedule. There was a new bridge that was built, so we were able to cross over the river a lot earlier." Lynol explained, and Foster smiled lightly as he leaned out of the back a bit, "That so?"

The sceneries that he had been able to see over the past three weeks while riding through here were really incredible. This world seemed just so... untouched. Wherever he looked, there was nothing but nature. Sure, there were towns and villages every once in a while, but they were never anything like what Foster knew. They weren't concrete jungles. They were small, comfortable places that seemed like the kind of quaint town one would want to retreat to to spend the rest of their life in.

And not only that, the natural sceneries themselves were amazingly beautiful. Thinking back on it, Foster's first sight of this new world was rather beautiful as well, seeing that forest in the middle of the night from the top of that cliff-side. Of course, he was worried about different things at the time, so he didn't really notice.

But now he had the chance to really take this new world in completely. Talking to Lynol started giving Foster a rough understanding of this world. Lynol would answer any question that he had without even a moment's hesitation, and without questioning it. He was the kind of guy that one didn't meet often, but Foster knew that he could trust him, although they've only known each other for about three weeks now.

Together, they sometimes went on walks around the campsites, because both Lynol and Foster simply weren't used to the sights they were seeing. Lynol came from the frosty north, and Foster from another world. Right now, they entered a special forest. The trees were huge, truly gigantic. All of them could be compared to skyscrapers, as if someone took the term 'concrete jungle' and took the 'concrete' away from it.

Foster wasn't even really able to see the sky above him anymore. From inbetween these giant trees, he could see some floating lights deeper in the forest. This was just a magical forest. Quite literally. This forest was supposedly grown through an Arch-Druid's magic first when people first became able to use magic some millennia ago. And ever since then, plenty of magical beings had gathered here in this forest.

Most of them were harmless to travellers, but plenty of others were incredibly dangerous as well, which is why travelers had to stick to a few specific paths that were outside of the breeding grounds or territories of certain beasts here in the forest.

Because of that, and the sheer size of this place, the caravan had to spend another two weeks in here, and then another few days to reach Arcadum. At this point, Foster really wanted to just go explore this place a bit. Again, he felt like a child in the face of these amazingly fantastical things that could be seen in this world.

"Are you alright?" Lynol asked him, seeing Foster's expression as he stared outside. Slowly, he turned toward his friend, and nodded his head, "Yeah, I'm good. I just never saw something like this before."

"...It certainly is quite beautiful, isn't it? It makes all my homesickness disappear immediately." Lynol replied with a soft smile on his face, and those words made it feel like someone stabbed a knife into Foster's stomach.

"Homesick, huh..?" He let out, slowly dropping back into his seat with an emotionless expression.

Lynol looked back at Foster, and with a curious tone asked, "What is your hometown like, Foster? I told you about mine, but..."

"Oh... Erm..." Foster looked back surprised, before turning away with a wry smile, "I..."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine... I... absolutely and utterly despise the place I grew up." Foster explained, "It was dirty, I was constantly hungry... I had to search through trash to get my dinner, and the only company I had were cockroaches and rats. I didn't even know what a 'home' actually was until I was 12, so I don't know if I can call that place my hometown. Well, from that on, I was taken in by a wonderful, loving family. They were... everything that I could hope for. I loved them, but I hated that place. Which is why I left sooner rather than later. I came back to that town pretty quickly though, and then... I just lived day by day. I have not a single good memory of that place... But somehow, I do still feel homesick sometimes lately." Foster explained to Lynol, staring at the ceiling of the carriage. Lynol smiled lightly, as he looked back at his friend with a blank expression. He didn't know what he was supposed to say.

"Don't worry, I've been dealing with this stuff for a while. It's nothing new, so... But anyway, now I'm in a situation where I couldn't return home even if I wanted to, so it's the perfect chance to start a new life." Foster pointed out with a forced grin on his face. Lynol was about to say something, but he abruptly stopped and jumped onto his feet.

While pressing his mask onto his face, he grabbed the handle of his sword and made it 'grow' to its actual blade form. At that same time, the carriage seemed to stop rather abruptly, while Lynol jumped out of the carriage, "Hide."

With his absolutely insane, ridiculous speed and physical abilities, Lynol jumped onto the carriage. Foster sat there, confused, when the situation caught up to him. This was a monster attack. It happened a couple of times during this trip already, but it was never something too serious. Lynol never reacted like this, at least.

Just a few moments later, Foster could hear people yelling, and monsters screech out in response to being injured or killed.

Pressing his hand onto his chest, Foster thought about what might happen if one of those monsters reached the carriage here. His heart was beating so hard that it nearly jumped out of his chest. His breathing became quicker and he started to feel light-headed.

He was used to fighting against people, and sometimes dogs... and that one time when that crazy dude brought a fucking tiger, although Foster obviously wasn't able to beat that last one... But monsters? Actual monsters? Wasn't the word used to describe them proof on its own that they weren't something that he should deal with in the slightest? And it wasn't like he was heading to Arcadum to fight monsters either, he was just going there because it was his best chance at finding any sort of job... But...

The longer Foster sat there, the longer he just waited this whole ordeal out, the more he started to feel pathetic. He was letting his friend fight, he was letting his friend protect him because he was too scared, now that the effects of the system's influence on his mind from the first few days had disappeared completely.

Foster was disgusted by himself. He was always the strongest one around. He was always the one protecting his men... But now? He was just sitting there, waiting for someone else to do all the hard work.

While grinding his teeth, Foster stepped out of the carriage and formed his hands into fists, with the gauntlets that he took from Simon back then warpped around his hands. He was dedicated to help out, he was ready to fight whatever monster would stand here in front of him.

That was when he thought when something landed in front of his feet. It was the head of a giant wolf, its cold dead eyes staring into Foster's. And that was when he saw that the fight was already over, while he stared at Lynol standing there with his huge, bloodied blade in hand.