Towards Destiny

The year wait has ended, a now seventeen-year-old Noah is finally ready to set out on his second journey to Heaven's Peak. Theoretically it should work out much better than last time, but anything can happen. As planned, he will bring the seventeen-year-old Lynn and ten-year-old Ellie along with him. His training had been an every day ordeal and he is far beyond what David's abilities back then were. Noah adopted the fighting style of the creature from the trial, a more fast pace type of fighting, not giving the opponent any time to react or fight defensively. Just in case, he also practiced David's slower style if it ever needed to come into play. They had the money and the plans set, all they needed to do was wait for the next day to arrive.

The idea was to have one day of rest before the trip. This was mainly due to the fact that Noah had been training with little rest. At dinner time, Edna whipped up a large feast for the group to celebrate the journey that was about to take place, and wish them luck. After dinner, the traveling party went to sleep so they could head out early the next day.

Ellie: "I can't wait to start tomorrow!"

Lynn: "Same, it's going to be super fun!"

Noah: "Well..."

Ellie: "What is it?"

Noah: "The trip will be fun up until we get to the mountain, from there it will be absolute hell for a couple days. It'll mainly be hell for me, but, partially still for you two."

Lynn: "Why's that? Last I checked we weren't doing the fighting."

Noah: "I don't think that you all take the blizzard zone seriously enough."

Ellie: "We deal with snow all the time during the cold season, we'll be fine."

Noah: "We'll see how long that one lasts. Anyways, let's get to sleep. I want to make it to the city tomorrow by the middle of the afternoon."

Ellie: "Why such a rush?"

Noah: "I didn't get to properly experience the city last time. I want to make sure we can do that. Not often that we make trips like this, so."

Lynn: "That's fair. Also, can we stop by my old village. I haven't been there since that day. I think this is as good an opportunity as any to go visit."

Noah: "Yeah, sure thing."

Lynn: "Thanks..."

She sounded somewhat mellow saying those words, but that's understandable. That day isn't something that she's talked about with anyone except for Noah. Lynn has grown stronger in her own rights since that incident. She should be able to hold out mentally while visiting.

Ellie: "Lynn, have you ever been to the city?"

Lynn: "Yeah, I used to go a decent bit before the decree. My father would go there on business and take me along. Noah, what was your first visit like. You said it wasn't proper, right?"

Noah: "So much for sleeping I guess... but yeah, it wasn't proper at all. I passed out from the overwhelming crowd when I first entered. On the way back David was upset still from his loss at the trial."

Lynn: "That's unfortunate."

Noah: "Truly..."

Ellie: "I decided I don't want to spoil the trip, so I'm going to sleep."

Noah: "Good, I thought we'd be talking all night."

Lynn whispered under her breath: "I wouldn't mind us talking..."

Noah: "You say something?"

Lynn: "Oh, it's nothing important, let's just get to sleep."

Noah: "Right."

When the group woke up in the morning, Noah wrote a goodbye not for Edna and Lawrence and left. By this point, Sarah was with David, so there was no point in visiting the farm. Forty minutes into the walk, they finally came upon Lynn's village. The buildings that were lucky to be spared by the fires still stood, but many had been burnt to the ground. At the entrance, Lynn froze still. Noah came up behind her and put his hand on her should to reassure her. With his support they moved forward.

Lynn: "Well... apart from some buildings being gone. It hasn't really changed. I guess that's to be expected though."

She seemed that she was trying hard to stop from breaking into tears. Her smile on her face was a painful one to look at, but Noah and Ellie stayed quiet.

Lynn: "I want to see my place real fast. After that we can get back to walking."

Noah: "No problem, let's go."

Thankfully, all of the bodies were cleaned up, and any blood had washed away. Noah had no clue what he would have done if Lynn had ran into her father's dead body. Even if some bodies were left behind, her father didn't have the eye covers on, so they would likely take his body as proof of having killed a magic user. It was unfortunate, as Clayton would never get a proper burial. That small detailed fueled the fire in Noah's heart even more.

She had to work up the courage to go inside for multiple minutes, and when she did, it was as expected. The place was lucky to have been not burned, but it was still in total shambles from the day of the attack. Lynn started to walk towards the back room, but suddenly stopped next to the counter. She stopped in the place where she failed to heal Clayton. She dropped to her knees and started crying. Noah rushed over and hugged her, to which she hugged back, her face buried in his chest.

Noah: "It's alright. Nothing like this will happen again. I promise. I'll bring about justice for him."

Lynn: "Please..."

They embraced for a few minutes while Lynn gathered herself. She stood up, and with a slight coarseness in her voice, started to talk.

Lynn: "Okay... I'm fine now. Thanks for letting me visit here even though you knew it would be hard for me."

Noah: "It's important to face your demons, that's just how it is."

With that pitstop out of the way, the group continued to the city of Evergreen. They got there about when they expected to. They would have the rest of the day once they were inside to explore. An issue arose when they got to the gates, however. Instead of a Gatekeeper like last time, there were knights stationed outside instead.

Knight #1: "Stop. Let me see all of your eyes."

The three, obviously, complied.

Knight #1: "Alright, now, what's your business here. I don't see any reason three kids should be traveling around with no supervision. I don't recognize any of you as well."

Noah had his plan ready, luckily, incase a situation like this happened.

Noah: "It's kind of a long story, but, basically we are all siblings who were taken in by a nice couple after our parents died of an illness. We didn't want to be a further burden, so once we were able to, we decided to move out."

Knight #2: "Oh? Interesting."

Knight #1: "Well, I don't see any reason to keep them out."

The knights opened the gate and just as the three of them started to walk through, the second knight grabbed Lynn by the arm. Noah turned around, and depending on what happened next, he was perfectly prepared to ditch the entire journey to keep Lynn safe.

Knight #2: "A nice girl like you could easily find some decent paying work. If you ever need some, I can-"

Noah walked towards the knight and grabbed his arm. His eyes showed his obvious anger at the situation.

Knight #2: "Jeez! Someone's fired up. It's just a joke kid, don't get crazy. Go on in."

Noah was lucky that he was able to control himself. He was almost ready to take his sword out of its sheathe and fight the knights.

Noah: "I'm sorry you had to deal with that."

Lynn: "It's fine."

She started to blush a bit.

Lynn: "Thanks for saving me..."

Noah: "I'll help you out whenever you need it, you know that. Anyways, let's get to exploring this place. That's the main reason I got the funds that I did."

And so, the exploration of the city began!