Chapter 1: Garden Of Oria

A day passed.

After Ignis ran away from the Village of Benerith, He ran for days until he finally made it down to the mountain without realizing he had step in the Garden of Oria, a connecting forest to the mountains. This beautiful forest is surrounded by Oak Trees with a calming and windy atmosphere, admiring the view. Ignis hadn't realized that his stomach was growling as it started making a growling noise.

Growl...

Ignis put his hands to his stomach.

"Oh, that's right. I haven't eaten for a day."

Ignis roamed the whole forest in search of food. A few minutes passed by. Ignis stumbled into a bush of berries, but these weren't the ordinary berries. They were glowing bright green. In desperation, he decided to consume them.

"Well, that's odd... But I guess they are fine to eat."

Ignis took a few of them and went straight ahead. As he explored the forest for minutes, he suddenly felt someone approaching him. He then stopped in his tracks. That's when suddenly a human-wasp like creature appeared in one of the bushes and released a spiral attack straight towards him.

Ignis quickly took cover in one of the oak trees.

"What the hell was that?!" Ignis said in a surprised tone.

The human-wasp creature remained in its position, waiting for Ignis to show up. While Ignis struggled to find an idea, suddenly a few glowing berries which he took earlier dropped off from his bag. As they fell, the human-wasp immediately attacked them despite the fact that Ignis leaned in, which exposed a part of his face.

Ignis leaned back against the oak tree again, wondering what happened just now.

"It didn't attack me... but they attacked the glowing berries instead. Could it be that they are attracted to it?" Ignis said through his mind.

Once again, Ignis threw more glowing berries in different directions. The human-wasp monster created another attack, spitting wind slashes in three different ways, slicing the glowing berries Ignis had thrown earlier.

"I knew it!" Ignis whispered to himself.

The kid's suspicions were right. Now, all that was left was to find something to attack with. Luckily, there was a small rock just beside him. He picked it up and looked back at the human-wasp monster, finding a way to bash its head while distracting it with the glowing berries.

As Ignis held the small rock, fear and adrenaline coursed through him. He was shaking, but this was not the time for that! It was a kill-or-be-killed situation. Finally, he threw another glowing berry to the left, and while the monster was distracted, Ignis dashed from the oak tree and ran straight ahead to the monster.

As the monster spat another wind slash towards the glowing berries, Ignis prepared to throw the rock at the monster's head. After the monster destroyed the glowing berries, it turned its pace to attack Ignis with its stingers heading straight towards him, but Ignis threw the rock right at its face, eventually smashing the head of the human-wasp monster.

"Hah... Hah... I-I did it!" Ignis said in relief.

Ignis then approached the monster and examined it. He searched the part of the monster to see if there was something that he could do for it; however, these types of monsters are mutated and had nothing with them but their bodies appearing larger.

"Nothing useful, huh...? Well, whatever."

Ignis then roamed the Garden of Oria for a few days. He struggled for food and water survived on glowing berries and other unusual plants from the Garden. As it was about to go dark, he searched for a place to rest until he discovered a beautiful waterfall. It had a lot of animals around it, There he took some water and he stayed for the night.

Another day passed in a windy morning...

In the Village of Benerith.

It's been a few days since Ignis disappeared. Elena couldn't get over it, and while Relio was comforting her, the three villagers who searched for Ignis returned to the village.

The villager in the middle approached Relio and said.

"Chief, we searched the whole mountains but we never saw Ignis, not even a sign of his path."

Relio, who seemed not to care whether they had seen the path that Ignis took to leave the mountains and said

"I don't care, besides if he's not in the mountains then couldn't you just go straight ahead in the connecting forest?"

The villager from the left also elaborated and spoke in a worried tone.

"Chief, we can't go even further to the Garden of Oria... That place is dangerous, And what puts a barrier in our way is the recent appearance of the Great Bastra... The Bastra of the Wind, Vera!"

Relio, who seemed confused on such things, asked.

"Bastra? What are you talking about? And who's Vera?"

Aurora then heard their conversation as she approached.

"Not familiar? Bastras are gigantic creatures and they're the ones who protect their own territories, like a guardian. And the connecting forest in the exit of this mountain is part of them. I've encountered Vera a ton of times, but I can't do anything to elaborate without the help of her acquaintance."

Relio then looked back at Aurora, while Elena is still emotionless beside him.

"Then, Chieftess, is there anything we could do? We have to find Ignis as soon as possible! That kid is really reckless if he's by himself!"

Aurora then sighed as she said.

"Although we could get help from Arteros, it will take a few days just for it to be transferred to him by a letter, and another problem is the weather in the garden. It's been windy lately."

Relio didn't expect Aurora to have a contact with one of the members from The Grand Chivalry. He said with a surprised tone.

"Arteros? Like that guy from the Grand Chivalry?!"

Aurora nodded and said.

"Yes, and as for our only way is through the use of pigeon. If we ever get the help from him, Ignis will be found right away."

Relio then decided without any hesitation and said.

"Then we must do it! We have pigeons there from the barn!"

Relio looked back to the villagers.

"bring them and make a letter for Arteros!"

Relio shouted to the villagers as they nodded.

"Yes, Chief!"

The villagers rushed to get the pigeons and took the papers as they headed back to Relio.

Now back to Ignis, who's in the Garden Of Oria.

Ignis continued to explore the Garden until, He discovered a huge crater. He looked down and saw an altar under it. Although the depth of the crater seemed too deep for Ignis to drop, upon his observation that altar seems to emit some light but it was flickering.