2 The day before...

If despair had a physical form, it resembled the villagers that took hurried steps toward a faltering temple. Their heads were hopelessly down, bodies withering, throats clenched with aching hunger after a long and sustained hunting in the forest. Some had baby roots and leaves with them with a few wild berries, and the rest had arms full of shriveled branches and twigs; a piffling outcome of an entire day's pursuit.

Every so often one would look back at the sun, unconsciously corroborating their safety.

The massive temple of rock and granite was once perhaps the most magnificent existence in these mountains. It had then belonged to a God nobody now remembered the name of. But the edifice still exuded a protective aura, the sole requisite for the village of Roqsar. Two towering sculptures, one male another female had stood upright preceding its main door, until the last new moon. Now, only their legs remained, their bodies smashed into rubble as if the aftermath of someone's wrath. None of the villagers looked up or even gave a passing glance at their shattered splendor as they sauntered to the entrance.

A bell rang deep within the building and it urged the people faster. Few of them looked behind, again, for reassurance that the sun was still there, that they still had some time. Nobody knew what the nights could turn into.

Everyone had gathered in the wide foyer in a long single snaked line, waiting for their turn to get in. Long shadows stroke across the granite tiles cracked and dirty with age. Standing there one could watch the Sun in all its beauty as it slid behind the mountain range. In succession, they slipped in from a small hole in the wooden bar made from broken doors and logs. The barricade was extended along the entire entrance of the temple that once always remained open and welcoming. It didn't help in any way, but being able to lock the doors for the night gave them the sense of security they perilously needed to survive for who knew how long.

The bell echoed, deep and lonely. There was no trailing sound; no birds cried in response, no animals called out in answer. Nor was there any movement outside the temple, or even the slow gliding of the clouds. Like a still painting done with painstaking details by the Elder himself. Like the wind itself held its breath in fear of disturbing that ominous peace.

Less than half the village remained outside as one followed the other into the withering Temple. All men. Four more than a dozen, aged middle to old. Their faces hollow, bony thin, eyes down, wearing rags that hadn't been washed in days. The women and children that weren't taken away by the monster never left the sacred structure.

From a small window in the first floor, a woman looked outside at them. Her quiet eyes scanned the small crowd, running on them again and again, like she was counting. Her face was smeared with soot covering better part of her face. A line of dried dirt came down below her nose to the left side of the mouth. They were marks of constant wiping. Her clothes were baggy and coarse, and she had layers upon layers on her and it gave her thin frame a particularly burly look. They were old and grimy and had numerous dark stains on them.

Her grip on the railing suddenly tightened and she grit her teeth as her body flashed another episode of shock. Her vision swiftly blurred and she shuddered, using the grip to keep her upright. She knew she had gone overboard with the peculiar spells. She looked again toward the village below, on the staircase, looking for anything strange. It was too late. A moment more and the gate would be closed for the night. A dark feeling was creeping in her heart and she willed it vanished. The spells she had used were needed she aided herself, but she didn't completely believe it.

The woman saw a black shadow coming toward the temple, it was fast and from this distance she couldn't tell what it was. She saw it rush behind the broken hovels and take the path leading the temple. From the speed perhaps it wasn't human. Her mouth dried and she took a hitched breath, she was about to shout out but the shape got closer.

'Could it be...?'

Her weary eyes focused on the dark figure. It was the boy, carried by a girl with strange green hair. Her vision hovered over the two of them as they ran closer. The boy was awake but frail, and he whispered something in the girl's ear and slowly turned his head toward the sun behind. He must have told her to hurry, the woman presumed. Her eyes reached the girl's, and the girl looked right at her. She grinned; not a menacing or a taunting one the woman usually received in the village, but with the innocence of a child. The shaken woman almost fell back, like she had been hit by some concealed force.

The pair hurried up the stairs, disappearing behind the stone shelter then reappearing up on the platform before the foyer. The bell had stopped abruptly, and the woman was certain that whoever was on the duty today had seen the new arrival and was too shocked to move.

Much like everyone else outside.

The girl slowly let the taller boy down from her back. He looked weak, more than the woman remembered from the last time she had seen him. He looked around and took some breath, his eyes were bloodshot and his throat moved as he swallowed air a few times. He couldn't believe he was safe.

He wasn't the only one in disbelief.

Behind the window the woman also took a deep breath as her back now faced the wall, slipping down it, slowly squatting into a sitting position on the cold, cement floor. Her head rested on her knees hugged tightly by her arms. She took another deep, measured breath, trying to calm her beating heart. But she kept her ears open.

"Tristan?" Yes that was his name, she thought as someone asked outside. "Where were you? ...And who is this?"

"Forest!" The voice was broken and familiar. He sounded like he was the one running and not the one being carried. "...And I... don't know." He said again after a pause.

"Who are you? Where you come from?"

The question's intent was jarring but the woman could hear a tremble underneath the man's voice. He was unnerved by the girl's appearance, so were the rest. The woman would be too but she had a positive sense about the young girl, something she hoped she was right about.

"I am Olean. I am from the Guild."

The girl's voice was innocuous. She sounded no older than a child. And from what one had guessed from that distance, the girl was a child, at most in her mid-teens.

"Guild? What Guild? And how the hell you get here? And… you alone?"

A different man asked the question, anger coating his fear. The woman could imagine him walking toward Olean as he asked his queries, trying to intimidate the shorter girl. She didn't think it would work. She stood up and peeked down the window again.

Like she had imagined, the girl looked far from intimidated, her large eyes had lost their shine as they curiously looked at the man in front of her. Anything more and this may turn ugly. The woman straightened up and rushed downstairs.

--

When she neared the gate, there already was a crowd gathered. She heard heated words, almost shouts, mostly questions for the girl. She didn't know or cared what they were. People parted as she neared, most in disgust. The smell she wore purposefully worked well as a deterrent. She pushed past the creak in the wall. Not much till sundown but everyone seemed to be preoccupied. Though seemingly safe, she didn't want to be out after the sun had set.

"Umm... th-the Elder asked for the girl." The woman announced.

She managed to sound afraid with enough shudder in her voice. Pretense was a natural gift of hers. The men looked at her, their eyes widened hearing the Elder being mentioned, but some soon narrowed in suspicion.

"...He... knows?"

One of them took a step back and looked at the girl, reevaluating her.

"The sun... it's already sundown!"

That got their attention. The ones outside almost ran inside, the girl looked unaffected by it all. Instead, she looked amused by the rush, not getting the gravity of the situation.

"You... Follow!" The woman ordered when the focus was shifted away from Olean. She decided not to show her frustration yet. The girl obliged, raising no complaints, much to the woman's relief.

It was not easy keeping the girl away from prying eyes. News of her arrival had already spread through the few people that lived in the temple. The woman had lied about the Elder but that she could deal with later. For now, she needed to talk with the girl alone.

The pair marched deeper into the base of the Temple. The woman's eagerness to explore earlier had found her more than a few places inside that not many knew of, and none that had any purpose to go to. She hurried to an abandoned staircase that led downward to an inactive pantry. The girl followed. Some twenty big steps later, they were inside the giant storeroom.

"Are you alone?"

The woman took a quick scan of her surroundings. There was no movement she could grasp even behind the thick walls of the room; another self-taught skill. It was time to face the girl. The woman took a breath and turned. She suddenly stood straighter, eyes focused and sharp, jaw set straight, face liberated from its creases. If not for her clothes she would seem a completely different person. It however, had no effect on the young girl. She had imagined turning her speechless with her sudden transformation. No such luck.

"I am not. Lady Ava was with me."

Olean's lone audience suddenly had nothing else to ask.

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