Last Adventurer

Timi Oswald, known by many as the shores last adventurer. A man who endlessly roams around, from the furthest point of the shore to the deepest cave beneath the Hollow Mountains.

In addition to his title as adventurer, he's also famous for his ridiculous attempts at escaping this cursed land. He's built a boat to sail the seas, a balloon to soar above the sky's, and even once tried to dig beneath the entirety of the forest.

Each attempt, each project that consumed years of Timi's life, ended in failure. His boat crashed into glaciers that apparently surround the sea, the air above the mountains was too thin and unable to maintain a flame, and the Dead Tree corrupted the soil itself making digging just as dangerous as walking above ground.

But that wasn't all, Timi has been around for ages and, like a legend, has left behind many stories of his journeys. Treasure Hunter, adventurer, marksman, blacksmith, craftsman, fortune teller, he's seemingly done it all.

"So what's his Gift?" Emile asked.

"That's the best part—" Willow gleamed, "nobody knows. There have been accounts of him doing countless different things, from breathing fire to conjuring rainstorms, he's a complete mystery."

"So how are we supposed to find this guy?" Emile asked.

"Hey, I don't know. My job is to protect you, I'm not a member of Graves." Willow replied.

"Hey, sure! You do you. Let the teenagers hunt down the most mysterious guy around. You can clearly see the Graves are understaffed." Emile retorted.

"And why is it always us!" Emile snapped at Blood, "Why can't your brother's team do this?!"

"Because they want Timi alive," Blood said indifferently, "Blaze isn't very good at holding back."

"That's ridiculous! Of course he can control his Gift! He just says he can't to get out of doing this!"

"Well it doesn't matter anymore, now does it?!"

Emile and Blood continued to bicker while Willow watched. Eventually, Emile put the argument to rest and began to plan out their course of action.

First, Willow was going to momentarily return to Rising Tide to inform King Ulmor and Alexander about their plans to travel without Alexander's aid. Their excuse? Emile wanted to get to the forest as soon as possible to study how the miasma interacted with his Gift.

Hopefully both of the Kings would believe this. After all, it aligned with their original intention of sending Emile there to begin with.

Second, once Willow returns the three of them would set off and cross the sand dunes and return to the Hollow Mountains. Their reason? If Timi really is the shore's Last Adventurer then he's surely received word of Black Gate's fall and, as an adventurer, he would most likely want to investigate what happened to the Kingdom.

Now, Emile was the first to admit this plan is far fetched. It's entirety rests on the assumption that Timi is going to want to see Black Gates for himself, or at least have enough interest in the current conflict to visit the future front lines.

If he didn't, then Emile and Blood were out of luck. After having brainstormed this plan, they realized very quickly that it's practically impossible to track Timi. Nobody knows the guy.

So rather than roam the shore for eternity while blindly hoping they'll randomly run into him, they might as well try to appease everyone by going to the Dead Tree's border to study the miasma.

And with the plan roughly mapped out, Willow left the duo and returned to Rising Tide.

***

Somewhere deep beneath Fallen Sky, through the caves and caverns, past the dilapidated gates and the rows of cold corpses, a group of soldiers huddled together within a makeshift rock shelter.

In the corner of the shelter, a stout boy laid on his back and mindlessly stared at a pocket watch he was holding in the air. Occasionally, the boy would pick it apart piece by piece.

First he'd remove the brass casing, then unscrew the two arms from the back. Once he got the two arms out, the multiple little cogs fell apart until the watch was nothing more than a bundle of scrap metal.

But then, white sparks coalesced around the removed pieces. Like a guide, the radiant particles lifted the pieces of metal into the air and delicately placed them back together.

In just a few seconds, the pocket watch returned to perfect condition.

"I'm begging you—please stop messing with the pocket watch." A woman's voice spoke from within their shelter.

"Brie!" Another woman's voice responded in the dark, "He's worried about her. Let him play with his watch."

"What about us?!" Brie snapped, "I need to sleep, Violet! You need to sleep too! Don't let him win you over with that sad sack act he's got going on!"

"Oh come on, Brie. You know it's not an act." Violet replied.

"I don't care what it is! I just want to sleep tonight!" Brie emphasized.

"Here," The stout boy handed the pocket watch over to Brie, "but hand it back once Emma gets back."

Brie snatched the pocket watch from Roman's hand and rolled over.

"She'll come back, Roman. She always does." Brie said as she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to wash over her.