20 Reminiscent Of The Past (1)

[Note: This was his past, he was dreaming]

It was dark in the room, the boy alienated himself. He was leaning against the door in his room. Something was tugging at his heart. The news was still lingering in his head. He still wants to deny it, oppose to believe such a thing is real. However, all those terrible thoughts devastate him.

'No, No… It's not true, right? Ryan said they will be back right? He wouldn't lie…'

As he faced his face toward the floor, slowly droplets of tears could be felt flowed to his cheeks and dropped to the floor. No doubt about it, Ayrel had taken it hard after knowing that Ryan, Gren and Youm didn't return from their latest quest. Ayrel couldn't tell if he was falling or dreaming. For him, they are someone that he dearest the most, someone who had taken care of him and to lose them means losing everything he ever had.

*Knock *Knock

"Ayrel, come out of the room, you haven't eaten anything since the morning yet." Uncle Ben slowly pounding down the door. The 5 feet 9 inches tall old man tried his best to coax the boy to leave his room. The old man seems feeble, the ravages of time had taken a toll on him.

However, there's no reply from the boy behind the door. Then, the old man left the food there in front of the door and went into his room as it was already late. "I leave the food here, make sure to eat it."

Ayrel didn't even respond to those words. The more he thought about this morning the more he felt exasperated. The man with a moon crest pattern on his wrist again visited them. At that time, the shop was still closed so Ayrel was wondering who had come into. When he was about to leave his room, he saw that Uncle Ben and that man were discussing something.

"So you want to take care of him? If that so, then I tried to talk to him."

After hearing that, he was choked with emotions. His face turned ashen. His sense of fear was trying to tell him that the man is dangerous. Why would a stranger suddenly want to take care of me? I'm fine living here with Uncle Ben.

However, Ayrel was thinking from his side only. Uncle Ben who was already around his seventies felt as he doesn't has much time left. If possible, he doesn't want to left Ayrel solitary in this shop. He was still 7 years old. I must say here, it was much better for Ayrel to live with an adventurer rather than an old man who was near his death bed.

Anyhow, the boy kept on shutting himself in his room ever since then.

As the night falls, the boy had decided that he wants to run away from here. There isn't a place he had in mind but there are people he wants to meet again. His parents. He had already prepared everything since the afternoon. A small pouch around his waist, where he kept his coins. A sack on his back where he kept his food, mostly potatoes and apples.

That should be enough for a run-away pack. He planned to flee the house an hour before dusk. When the time had come, he quickly left the shop without any hesitation. A whole new world opened up in front of him as the door opened. The boy stepped into the darkness and the chill of the night. It was dark that it's even hard to see the path of the road. As time passed by, slowly the images that entered his eyes became vivid but in blue vision. The only things that looked after him were the everywhere spectral moonlight.

Then, he remembered Ryan pieces of advice to him if he had lost in Rura City.  "I'm not that kind of good when it comes to pieces of advice but if you ever lost again, just trust your instinct, go to a place where you feels safe the most." Ayrel clenched his heart and buried those words into his heart. He looked at the moon and he decided to run toward the West. The tree was dancing their awkward waltz, blowing heavy wind, making Ayrel quiver. It was really dingy, and he had no idea where he was.

He runs, runs and runs until he finds himself in front of an enormous mansion, with vast gates and walls surrounding the mansion blocking his vision of the territory of the dwelling house. He looked on his left and right, there's only empty space. Is this the only house around here? At first, he was curious but later, he doesn't seem to care anymore about that, he was wearied.

Then, he climbed a tree nearby that was a few meters away from the gates.  He sat on the tree branches. Slowly he could see is the upper rim of the twilight appears on the horizon in the morning. In the end, he finally succumbed to his tiredness and fell to sleep.

..............................…

Then, after a long deep sleep.

He woke up to the sound of birds singing a melodious tune on top of his head, the bright lights illuminate his face. He could felt there is a temperature rise. The Sun was clearly above his head, It was already midday. He found it uneasy and troublesome to withstand the scorching heat so went down and tried to find a shady tree to take shelter.

The boy took out an apple from his sack and took a few bites. 'I really ran away…' that was his first thought after woken up from his sleep. It was still unbelievable, he felt as he was dreaming last night. Then suddenly he heard some creaking and grounding sounds just a few yards away from him. It was the sounds of the metal gates being opened. He quickly hid himself behind the tree.

An alluring and luxurious carriage came out. He was too tired to figure out where he was last night. Now, he finally came to his mind that he was around an aristocrat's turf. Ayrel thought it was better for him to leave this place as soon as possible. He doesn't want to been caught by any of these people. Even he was a 7 years old child, he at least knew that there must be a line drawn between commoners and nobles. Commoners shouldn't be in this territory. It will bring problems to him if he stays here longer.

As he had packed his sack to find another place to go, he heard sounds coming from the walls that enclosed the mansion. He saw a hint of a wooden ladder that was being put from the inner side of the walls. Then, emerged a red-haired girl around the same age as him. She was trying to climb over the walls. What surprises him was that when the girl jumped and landed with the help of wind magic.

The look in his eyes shines brighter upon seeing same age children could perform magic. He was admiring the girl. However, he was also curious at the same time, why did the girl leave her house? The girl checked her surrounding then cautiously when into a forest nearby the mansion. Ayrel was keen to know about the reason she left her mansions and followed her from behind while trying not to expose himself.

The deeper he followed the girl into the forest, he could hear the sound of rushing water, loud and insistent. After a while, he stopped as the girl sat on the ground near the stream. She sat on the ground with her legs to the side. One leg was in internal rotation and then the other was in external. Afterwards, she dipped her hands into the stream. When she lifted her hands from the water, a sphere-shaped water bubble formed and afloat between her hands.

Ayrel was amazed by what he had seen. At first he was already surprised to see her wind magic but now he was astonished that she can also use Water- Affinity. It was his first time seeing a dual elemental, moreover, it was someone who was the same age as him.

The girl continued, she was trying to maintain the sphere shape of the water. However, Ayrel excitement caught him off his guard as he accidentally stepped on an edgy stone and slid off the slope hills. Stunned, he laid there as the pain from his fall radiated throughout his body.

"Who was there?" The water that afloat in the air falls back into the stream. The girl stood up and looked to be surprised. Ayrel knew that he had messed up. He also stood up from where he was which is at the end of the slope. The distance between them was just a few meters.

"Sorry, I-I didn't mean to…scare you." Ayrel brushes off the leaves and dirt away from his clothes and rubbed his head. The slipped had caused a hurt on his head a little. The girl was trying to say something to him, but he didn't seem to catch what it was.

"Can you hear me? Are you alright?" The girl approached him. He stared at her as she tended to him. The warmth of her touch was welcome against his face even though he was hot and slick with sweat. She didn't seem to care, her eyes locked on his for a moment before she looked him over.

"Your right knee is bleeding!" She pointed out her finger. I looked at it, it was just a small cut and bruises.

"It's fine it will stop eventually." I was embarrassed about that. What an awful way to introduce myself but she was being persistent about that. "No, it's not fine-wait come here." She pulled me towards the stream. Then, both of us sat down near it.

"I'm going to wash that place-okay?" She dipped her hand into the stream then washed the bruises on my knee. There was a little bit of jolt of pain that tickles but Ayrel didn't seem to bother. Slowly, the cut closed bit by bit and the pain gone.

'How did you do that?' Ayrel was about to ask her that but he paused in the middle of doing so when he saw a benevolent smile from that girl. "It's working, I did it!"

However, he felt sheepish about it and quickly apologized to her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that. I've just seen you running here-"

Before he could finish his sentences, it was cut off by that girl. "It's fine, as long as you're not my father. To be honest, I was worried to death the moment I've had heard someone came by, I thought it was Aunt Lacia."

"My name is Seraphine, but you can call me Sera. What's your name?" She held her hand towards him. He gaped at the way she had treated him. Ayrel knew she was from a noble family, he thought that she was hard to get along but it was actually the opposite. She was more casual in person.

He took her hand and stood up. "Seraphine, that's a nice name. Well, my name is Ayrel. Just Ayrel."

"Ayrel…hmm that's also a unique name." She nodded twice and held both of her hands behind her back. Then, she continued. "So where are you from, I've never seen you around here. Well, to be honest, you're the first person around my age I've had met."

Ayrel swallowed his saliva and think twice first before answering those questions. 'Should he tell her that he runs away from his house, well in fact it was never his house, to begin with.' The girl was still waiting for his answer.

"I was separated from my parents. I didn't have any place to live." Ayrel looked away from her eyes. He doesn't mean to earn any sympathy from her but that's the truth, there's not a single lies behind those words.

Afterwards, the silence was the only answer that filled the spaces between them. Ayrel tried to change the topic. "What about you, why are you here alone?" Sera then opened her arms wide. "I just want to see outside of the world, I want to go venture to amazing places like how the heroes do. However, my father wouldn't let me, he said I must inherit his work."

Sera continued. "I wished to run away from here and living on my own, I don't hate them, it's just I want to seek freedom in this life."Ayrel didn't know how to respond to her. Both of them have a different point of views, different background and different goal.

One was a commoner who wants to find his parents. The other one was a noble who wants to escape from her parents and seek freedom. Both of their goals clash with each other. However, they have their own reason for it. Ayrel didn't argue her point of views towards her parent's action. Instead, he respects for having a clear goal to become an independent person and ambition to venture into this perilous world.

Despite that, they respect each other. The more time they spend together. Both of them had learned something new today. It was such a good thing to be able to converse with people around your ages. Today's encounter was something that both of them would never forget.

........................…

"Are you sure you didn't want to stay in my house?" Sera trying to persuade Ayrel. However, that would make thing worsen. "No, I'm fine." It was a lie. No one would like to sleep on thin branches.

"Then, where are you going to sleep?" She was curious to know that since Ayrel told her that he was separated from his family. "You don't need to know that, when you wake up tomorrow, I'm already here."

Both of them let a light giggle.

"What are you? My Fairy Guardian?" Ayrel was charmed by her waves of laughter. She has long red hair that passed her shoulder. Her skin is as smooth as silk. Ayrel was frozen, he didn't even answer back to her.

"Then, I'll be going now or not it will trouble them.  See you again." She waved her hands and went towards her mansion. Ayrel slowly raised his hand as he was about to reply to her waves but decided not to. He was scared of doing so.

As the night falls, he climbed up the same tree and leaned against it. "This is fine, I already accustomed to this… it's just a little bit cold… I should have brought extra clothes with me."

.....................…..

Later the next morning. The glittering sun rays spread various hues of shiny silvers and golds. However, he was greeted by a jolt of pain from his back. He looked up towards the golden sky, some of the shining rays were blocked by tree leaves and branches. Then, he came to realized that he was down below on the ground rather than on the tree.

'Did I fell last night? I hope Sera doesn't see this?'

"Oh, you finally woke up." Sera was sitting leaning onto a tree next to him. On her right hand was a basket. "Here I brought some food with me." She opened the basket and brought out some loaves of bread and drink pouches.

"Awww, I was waiting for you that I fell asleep here." Ayrel was trying to hide the fact that he was sleeping on tree branches. He didn't want her to know that.

"Seriously how could you sleep on a tree branch?" She ignored his false statement.

"I came here before dusk, so I thought I should take a few naps-" Before he could finish his words, his mouth was stuffed with a loaf of bread. "Don't lie, I saw you climbed the tree before dawn yesterday."

"Huh, I thought you already entered inside your front lawn." Ayrel took a bite of the bread. "I forgot to bring the wooden ladder along and left it hanged against the wall, I had to wait outside for a while until Aunt Lacia knew about it and came out then took me in."

"Oh yeah, she also spotted you. This food she was the one who suggested it."

*cough *cough

Ayrel was shocked that he was caught pretty soon. "so…then please thank her for me." He wiped his mouth with his sleeves.

"Wait, why did you leave early? I thought you usually left in the noon?"

"Yesterday was an exception, my father went late to his work." She had already finished her bread and wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

"So still not gonna living with us, I can persuade my father if you want?" She said.

"No, that would trouble your family." After both of them had done with their morning breakfast, both of them headed to their usual spots.

Every day was the same, they woke up, having breakfast together under the shady tree then went into the forest where the stream was. There Sera tried to teach him magic.

During a rainy day, Sera couldn't leave her mansion. Ayrel was left alone. However, she gave him an adult size cloak. Good things there was no magical beast nearby because Sera's father always appointed adventurer to make sure their mansion area safe.

There was also a day when he couldn't meet with Sera due to her father was at home. If that happens Ayrel would only look at her from the tree. He had changed his position onto a new tree. Only Sera knew which tree it was.

After a month, Sera gave him a present. Proper dark clothes to help him with his stealth. Everything was fine between both of them until one day….

The hooded man with moon crest pattern came invaded their territory.