15 Löwe Shield

Ever since they had crossed the line of shrubs, they haven't been attacked much less even seen a single wild animal. Rather, other than their own and the towering trees surrounding the two of them, Mia hasn't seen much of anything. Nonetheless, deeper and deeper into the forest, Rasz and Mia went. As they went deeper, the trees all around them became bigger in size as their ages became older as well.

After almost an hour or so, Rasz who was walking a couple of steps ahead of her suddenly stopped. Mia echoed the motion, standing still, even as he went towards the tree a few steps in front of them. Rasz started to inspect its trunk, circling and touching all around the tree trunk in search of something. All the while, Mia stood at side simply looking at Rasz. Since she has no idea what he was doing, better just let the young man do his work.

After circling the tree a couple of times, Rasz stopped moving and crouched low on the ground. From that level, he looked towards the tree trunk and a corner of his lips tilted upwards as he found what he was looking for. Standing back up, he motioned to Mia to follow him, "Let's go, Mia. We're almost there."

Instead of heading northwards — or at least that was what Rasz had told her — as they had been since they entered the entered the forest, from the position of the tree they had stopped by at, Rasz led them east instead. They walked forwards for a while longer until finally, the forest filled trees that Mia had got used opened up to a wide space. It turned out, whatever sign that Rasz had found on that tree just now, had shown them the way to a clearing within the Beast Forest. Instead of the grassed that grown on the forest floor, the ground of the clearing was soil-covered without a single plant grown on it.

At the far reaches of the clearing was a large stone cave. Its gaping mouth was nothing but inviting. There was a certain degree of eerie feeling coming out of it. Mia didn't know why, but her instincts told her that whatever creature lived inside that cave, was better off to be left alone rather than disturbed. Nevertheless, seeing how Rasz had led them all the way here, only means one thing. They are going to awake the monster up and out of that stone cave.

******

Currently, Mia and Rasz were seated on the roots of a tree eating a stale piece of bread that Rasz had taken out from his Packer. The bread was something that he had brought from a small stall at the side of a street on their way here this morning. It didn't have any taste to it, but in this kind of situation, anything can be eaten. Besides, Mia wasn't the choosy type, to begin with, and she has had to eat far worse before during one of her travels with Professor Pang, the professor from the Helion Academy that she had worked under during her fourth year.

"Here, Mia. Have a drink." Rasz reached out a flask water bottle towards her, which she accepted gratefully. This flask was also magical, even though both of them had previously drunk from it several times during the journey here, the water contained inside still remained full and the water level didn't budge even a little. Rasz called Kepter, which was also made by the Worlx Company.

Mia found that the presence of the stainless steel container in her hand, while she was in this densely-covered forest made it feel like she was actually camping and it fits right into the scene. However, when she had drunk from the Kepter previously while they were still on the road traveling to this forest, in the street that screamed Medieval time period, it had felt really awkward. Still, none of the passersby had as much as even glance at her direction for that weirdness.

Mia had asked Rasz about it, and according to him, though the ability to <Travel> might not be common, since only certain people can actually do it, most [Worlds] knew of its existence. Thus, they also knew about the existence of the rest of the [Worlds] and how different and similar they could be from their own [Worlds]. Of course, there also exist, [Worlds] like Mia's which were absolutely oblivious to these facts. These [Worlds] usually were where miraculous magical existence was considered as mere myth and legends, stories to be told before bedtime or written in storybooks.

Right now, they were once again within the cover of the dense forest, around 20 feet away from the clearing. Rasz had led Mia back there and had purposely chosen the biggest tree he could find. This tree, even if you were to ask 5 grown men to hold hands and hug its trunk, those five wouldn't be enough to complete the task. The circumference of the trunk was even bigger than that.

Later, Rasz planned to ask Mia to hide behind the big trunk as he headed back to the clearing. He has no attention whatsoever to involve Mia in whatever dangerous and stupid thing he was about to do in there. He had promised her as much when he had brought her along with him. Nonetheless, even if he didn't promise her that, he would've still ensured that Mia was safe and far away from any danger.

If he could have only sent her away first to the [Lumière World] and straight to the Dream Star Shop, he would've done it already. It was really a bad idea to bring someone who couldn't fight or protect herself with him to retrieve the magical items. In his mind, Rasz silently cursed his Master for putting a <Lock> on the World Key this time when he was in the [Forst World].

Usually, when his Master <Lock> the World Key when Rasz <Travel> into a [World], he would not be able to <Travel> out of the [World], until he retrieved the magical items that he was sent out to get. His Master had used to <Lock> the World Key every time he went to <Travel> previously when he was young so that Rasz wouldn't be able to divert from his designated [World] to go to another [World] whenever he went to work. In addition to the <Lock>, his Master had even added <Home>, so that whenever he was suspected to have strayed off from his assignments, he will be forced to <Travel> back to his Master.

Back then when he was still young and had first been bonded to his Master, he had indeed tried several times to run away by taking advantage of his <Travel> trips. That was the reason why his Master had put <Lock> and <Home> on the World Key in the first place. After several futile tries that always ended with Rasz getting severely disciplined using the punishments that his Master had always been creative enough and seemed to have found the time to create especially for him, he finally gave up on the idea. His Master had then canceled the <Lock> but maintained <Home>. Unless the magical items were something that needed to be retrieved, his Master wouldn't enforce <Lock> onto the World Key.

Were the two items his Master had sent him to retrieve in the [Forst World] that important? It had to be happening just when he had coincidentally met-

Rasz thoughts stopped in its track, as his eyes were wide-opened in sudden realization. "It can't be...?" He surreptitiously glanced at the young woman sitting on the tree root next to him.

"Even if it is true, the World Key shouldn't be <Lock>." Rasz gnashed his teeth down hard as he began to guess his Master's thoughts. "Mia's life could be in danger because of this!"

Either way, even as his blood boiled with anger, there was a tiny part of him who had actually felt glad for this turn of events. Rasz didn't actually feel safe to have Mia go alone to the Dream Star Shop. He would feel better if he was around when Mia struck the deal she needed to get back. Even if he couldn't stop her from making a deal later, at the very least, he would have been able to hear everything regarding the matter. No matter what happened he will find a way to help her afterward.

When Rasz had made sure that Mia had rested and eaten enough, he once again rummaged through his Packer that lay close to his feet. He then slowly took out what seems like a roundish metal plate at first sight. As Rasz went closer to Mia, while holding the object in front of him, it turned out to be a solid shield.

The shield was made of what Mia had assumed to be a type of steel, but based on the yellow incandescent light that had shined from it as it reflected the sun rays that had managed to snake through the dense forest, and the way the metal will partly shine red when it was held at a certain angle, she knew that it couldn't have been any type of steel at all. The shield's surface was decorated with three rings of circle — an outer ring, a middle ring, and an inner ring. In the middle of the inner ring was an emblem — a lion's head. The lion's mouth was opened in a roaring motion, showing off its sharp canines with a fierce expression on its face, as if it will bite off anyone's head that dares to strike towards the shield.

Holding the shield out towards Mia, Rasz motioned for her to take it. Mia then carefully took the shield from Rasz's hands and settled it down onto her lap with the surface pointing upwards. Only then did he began to speak, "Mia, this is a Shield."

Mia then looked down at the shield on her lap, and then towards Rasz in front of her once again, and with a quirk of her brow she repeated his words one-by-one "This is a shield."

Realizing Mia's silent indication, Rasz's ears started to turn red in embarrassment. "T-t-that's not exactly, what I meant to say," stuttered Rasz.

"Arghhh... What exactly am I doing in front of this person? She's totally going to think that I'm a total fool for trying to explain something so simple to her," screamed Rasz in his mind.

While Rasz was still banging his head on an invisible wall inside his mind, Mia who has finished inspecting and appreciating the beautiful, yet sturdy shield on her lap, said to him, "Rasz, I think you actually have more you wanted to explain regarding this shield, right?"

"Oh, ah, yes. Yes, I do."

Rasz cleared his throat trying hard not to show his embarrassment, before beginning to explain to Mia, about the Shield. "This Shield is called Löwe Shield."

"Löwe? As in lion? That explains the lion's head then," said Mia.

Rasz simply smiled hearing her words, before saying, "Well, the symbol isn't the only Löwe part of this Shield. I guess you'll find out about it later when you used this Shield. However, truthfully I really hope you don't actually need to."

Looking back at the clearing behind him, he told Mia, "I'll be heading back to the clearing, now." Rasz then went to pick up his Magic Sword that he had settled on top of a root close to the one he had sat down on, before continuing, "and I'm going to lure out the violent and bad-tempered Bestial being from that stone cave over there." He then pointed at the stone cave at the other end of the clearing.

Turning back his attention to Mia, Rasz had a serious expression on his face. The next few things that he spoke to Mia was clear and loud enough for her to hear everything. Rasz obviously wanted her to fully understand what he was telling her to do. "Mia, I want you to stay here out of sight and hidden behind this tree. No matter what you hear, or what you see later, you must keep very quiet and just stay put."

Kneeling down on the ground in front of her, Rasz touched the Shield on Mia's lap gently, as his brown eyes met the grey on hers. "I'm giving you this Löwe Shield to protect yourself just in case, things go haywire. If that Bestial being happened to spot you, stay put on this spot and don't run away. You'll just make yourself a good sport for that thing if you do run. Just held this Shield in front of you and hold onto it as hard as you can. I promise I'll come running to you within seconds."

"Do you understand, Mia?" asked Rasz seriously.

Mia nodded her head once firmly at Rasz's question. Giving him the sign that not only did she understood his explanations regarding the Löwe Shield, but also what was at staked and she was prepared for it.