7 The Two's Meeting

It was noon when Mia finally woke up from her deep slumber. The first thing her senses registered was the unfamiliar wooden ceiling on top of her. The second was the creaking and scraping noises that people would make when they walked on the wooden floor. The third was the sound of people chattering somewhere below her.

As her blurry mind became clearer, slowly working around, trying to focus her senses and state of mind, she came to realize that she was currently laying down on a bed.

She didn't know who had done it, but her previous muddy clothing had been replaced with a raggedy dress — it was old and worn, but it was a comfortable wear and most importantly it was not wet, nor cold. Not wet and cold. Mia's body shuddered involuntarily at the memory of that endless wet and cold feeling.

Mia calmed herself down, reminding herself that she was currently full of warmth right now. In fact, she felt that she was too warm.

Mia took off the blankets that were covering her body and decided to get out of the bed. However, as she was about to fully stand up, she felt lightheaded and decided to sit down again. When she felt better, she decided to check on her body's temperature. Using the back of her hand, she felt her forehead and neck, and thought that they were warmer than normal, but not burning.

"It doesn't seem like I have much of a fever, but the lightheadedness won't allow me to get up." Since she couldn't get up without tumbling down to the floor, Mia decided to just sit down and rest on the bed for now.

She looked around to get a sense of her surroundings and immediately noticed that nothing within her sight was familiar.

She was currently in a small room — she could reach the door in less than five walking strides from the bed which was positioned against the wall. Other than the bed that Mia was seated on, there was no other furniture in the room. There was one small window which had been left opened to let fresh air in. On the floor, placed right next to the bed, was an old unlit brazier.

The entire room was made out of wood. Based on the creaking sound that Mia kept hearing now and then from outside the room and below her, she was probably upstairs in some kind of a wooden building.

About that merry chattering that she kept hearing…

"Is this some kind of inn?" wondered Mia, for other than the merry chattering, she also heard the faint sound of clinking glasses, and also music coming from downstairs. "There must be people down there. I should get up and have a look. I need to know where I am right now."

Just as Mia decided to try and get up once again, the door to the small room was slowly opened to reveal a young man in a green hooded cloak — he must be around her age or a bit older.

The young man paused at the entrance when he saw that the young lady that he had found in the Orb Forest two nights ago, was now sitting on the bed, rather than laying down. He had been worrying about Mia's condition.

Mia had remained unconscious all through their ride from the Orb Forest up till they reached the Salem's Pub — the closest place that he could think of that provide warm shelter and food. He had been anxious when he noticed that she had a high fever. It was not until this morning that the fever finally cooled down considerably.

"You finally woke up? That's great!" said the young man cheerfully, flashing a wide smile at Mia. He was really glad to see that she was fine.

On the other hand, when she saw that a stranger had opened the door to the room, Mia was startled. However, when the young man showed her that bright smile, she suddenly felt a pang of a strange and foreign feeling had struck her heart. However, before she could actually grasp what that feeling was, it disappeared without a trace.

Focusing back on that stranger at the door, Mia asked, "I'm sorry, but you are?

"Oh, right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," the young man said while scratching his head, feeling rather embarrassed for behaving too familiar with Mia. "Well, I'm-"

Somehow, just as he was about to introduce himself, the young man abruptly changed the direction of his speech. "Do you remember what had happened to you? I found you in the Orb Forest, two nights ago, during a heavy rain. You had passed out on the way here — the Salem's Pub. You had been unconscious since, with a high fever, I was rather worried..."

Hearing the young man's explanations, Mia struggled to remember what had happened back then, but the lightheadedness and her yet-to-recover-fully state of mind made it hard for her to think.

"Two nights ago... Heavy rain..." mumbled Mia in a monotone.

Her body shuddered once again at the thought of that wet and cold weather.

Then, flashes of scenes of a night lost in a dense forest walking through pouring weather came to her mind.

"I- I have been unconscious since that night?"

"Yes. You had been having a high fever, at least until this morning. I'm really glad that you feel better now," said the young man, clearly feeling overjoyed by this situation. He would've felt rather terrible if he had truly been too late to save Mia that night.

Afterward, the two of them suddenly fell into an awkward silence as Mia became quiet and kept to herself. She was currently scouring through her still messy and blurry thoughts regarding that night — she felt as if there were few crucial things that she needed to remember, but just as she began to grasp them, they slipped away.

On the other hand, the young man who had remained standing by the entrance to the room for the entirety of their conversation — for he didn't want to startle the young lady if he was to close the door on them both — still had his focus on Mia. He tried his best to think of a topic to strike a conversation with her so that they will not continue to be stuck in this embarrassing situation.

Just then, as the young man was doing his own scouring through his mind, his eyes fell on Mia's clothing. Then, as if he remembered something, he began to say, "Your clothes..."

Mia who had been focused on sorting her thoughts, upon hearing the young man pointing out her clothing, bent down her head to look at it in silent wonder, "My clothes?" Not finding anything worth to take notice on, she asked the young man, "Is there something wrong about my clothing?"

"That is... No, there isn't," said the young man. Feeling rather stupid for beginning the conversation like that.

After that, taking a deep breath he tried again, "What I meant to say was that, back then your clothes had been wet and covered in mud, so I replaced it- No! I mean, I changed- No, wait! I asked one of the inn's girls to change it for you. Yes, that it... They had a dress to spare, so I asked for it. F-for you — to replace your wet clothing. Not because of I-"

"Yes, I understand," Mia cut off the young man's stumbling words, an amused smile appeared on her face.

Just then, the memories of that strange night slowly came back to her in bits and pieces.

The heavy rain.

The golden clock-like circle.

The strange space.

The white circles.

The forest.

And, the black horse and its rider...

"You were the rider on that black horse?" asked Mia.

"Yes," the young man nodded in confirmation at Mia's recognition.

"Thank you for saving me that night."

"You're welcome."

"I'm Mia, Nightingale."

"Oh... Um... That-" With a troubled face, the young man paused for a few seconds, before hesitatingly introduced himself, "You can call me Rasz."

"Just Rasz...?" asked Mia, her brow tilted up.

"Um... Yeah. Just Rasz," Rasz answered rather awkwardly, and turning a bit tense all of a sudden.

Mia had never expected that her playful questioning would have caused discomfort from the young man in front of her. She thought that she must have accidentally stepped on a forbidden territory of his. Thus, feeling apologetic for that mistake, she decided to try to lighten up the mood a bit.

With her chin propped up on a hand, Mia asked with a jesting tone, "You're not a serial killer or a wanted man, are you now, Mr. Rasz?"

Sensing the joke in Mia's question, Rasz tense expression soften. A soft laughter rang out of him as he played along and answered, "Very funny, but no. Unfortunately, I am just your average upstanding citizen, Miss Mia." Once again, that charming smile appeared on his face.

Just then, Mia had got more than she had bargained for. For this time, upon seeing that same smile again and combined that with him calling out her name with that gentle voice of his, she felt her heart skipped a beat.

Mia wisely turned away from Rasz, a frown forming on her face.

Rasz noticed the sudden change in Mia's demeanor and thought that it was because she had felt awkward for having to stay with a man in a small room for too long. So, being a gentleman, he quickly conjured up a believable excuse to leave the room for a while.

"Are you hungry? I'll go and get you something from downstairs right now." Without waiting for Mia's answer, Rasz had already turned and walked out of the room, closing the door gently behind him. Walking towards the staircase at the end of the hallway, Rasz decided to take his time bringing up Mia's lunch, to give her some privacy.

On Mia's side, she breathed out a long sigh of relief, the moment that she realized Rasz had left the room, thus leaving her once again alone to recover her composure.

When Rasz once again opened the door to their room, he saw that Mia had just begun to stand by the window, looking out at the street below. A surprise and questioning look was plastered on her face. After a while, as though she finally found the answer to the silent question that she had, her looks slowly turned into a terrified expression. As if, whatever she had seen from that one small window was too implausible.

Mia didn't even notice it when Rasz had come into the room.

Setting down the tray of food on the bed, Rasz called out to Mia, but she didn't give any indication that she had heard him.

So Rasz decided to step closer towards Mia and called out her name again. Still, his calling remained unanswered.

With the continued strike of unanswered calling, Rasz became concerned. He decided to just simply approached her right away. When he was at arm's length to Mia, he tapped lightly on her shoulder, thus startling her and thus tearing the abnormal focus that she had on the scenery outside.

"Sorry, but you weren't answering me the few times I called out to you just now. Are you alright?" Rasz asked Mia full of concerned. Remembering her strange expression just now, he then turned to look out the window.

"Is there something worrying you out there?" However, no matter where he looked, everything seemed normal to him. So, he turned back towards Mia and became disquieted at what he saw.

With a face drained of color, she had on an expression of horror. "I-I'm…" Mia began to stutter out an answer, but couldn't because her body had started to shake uncontrollably as she became panic.

What she had come to realize the moment she looked out that small window was that how different the scenery outside was as compared to any of the places that she had been before both in or out of the country. In fact to use the word 'different' was an understatement.

For even though based on the people's behavior and clothing, and the surrounding area in general, suggested that she was in the Middle Ages — where this fact alone already caused Mia to be baffled, thus the surprise and questioning look on her face before — Mia had also seen something else.

Just now, in the middle of the muddy street, walking away from Salem's Pub with a slow confident gait was a unicorn, and on top of it was a dwarf carrying a pickaxe slung on his back.

Mia instantly became horrified. She immediately realized that she wasn't supposed to be 'here'. Wherever 'here' even supposed to be.