Making Amends

"That was... Very exhaustive... For how long we have been walking?", Jeffrey asked, letting a long sigh of relief after we were finally out of the darkness of that gigantic forest.

"I can only wonder... But given how many times we lost ourselves there, I am glad that we even got out of the forest. Anyway, let's take a break from this now, shall we?", I asked, and both Jeffrey and Beech nodded in agreement. Beech should be happy, all it did was remain on my shoulder, not walk like me and Jeffrey did for a long time.

"To where we should go next?", Jeffrey suddenly asked, sitting on a stone while looking at the horizons we had in our sights.

"Well, let's discover it now...", I said while moving my hand to get the papers from the shoulder bag, but not before the fox came out of it, with the map and the riddle paper in its mouth already. My hand, then, just went for its head, giving it some pats while getting the papers from its mouth.

As I opened the map and riddle paper, Jeffrey and Beech approached to look curiously at what was going to happen, the former taking a peek over my shoulder and the latter climbing on my other shoulder to look at it. Again, the paragraph started to magically appear on the paper, revealing our next destination...

"Your will has finally brought you this far, Dagger. If this will still burns inside your soul, inside your body, you should be able to overcome the heat, the fire, the flames, the ashes... The fury of the one who holds the last element. A heated battle will wait ahead"

"For more strange than it seems, I think the difficulty of those riddles is decreasing... It became clear that it's fire when it told us about the 'will burning inside you' and all of that fire-related things. It's so obvious that the last part of heated battle sounds like a pun", Jeffrey commented.

"I think they already expected us to know who is the element by elimination. Fire is the only one we haven't faced yet. Well, anyway, I am expecting us to be getting near a volcano or in a desert to find this god"

"Umm... There aren't many volcanoes on this giant continent, however... Only deserts", he said after I opened the map to check for locations.

Glancing over the deserts and few volcanoes we had drawn on our continent, I sighed disappointedly. The problem was that I didn't know any of those places on the map, so there wasn't anything that made them stand out.

I was about to ask Jeffrey about it, since maybe his grandparents' stories told him about Fire and the place where he lives, but at the moment my eyes slipped away from our continent on the map, my attention was caught by a volcano, drawn on another continent. The name of the volcano was the strangest thing... It almost sounded like a trap...

"Fire's Lair...", I said the name of it out loud and pointed to the volcano on the map.

"Huh? That's... Not true, right? It's too easy", Jeffrey said, taking a closer and careful look at the volcano I just pointed at.

"Yes, I agree... But I think it's your best guess of where he lives. The worst part is sailing there, it's very far away... Maybe a ship from Waterkill can help us"

"Waterkill? I heard they are the best when it comes to building vessels to travel other continents... But..."

"I know... They are an ally of the Coventry Kingdom... But as long as no one recognizes me, it will be fine. Let's just go and try", I said and stood up, looking around to see any reference points to locate ourselves on the map and then taking the direction towards the Waterkill kingdom.

"Uh... Can you tell us a little bit more about your story with the princess now?", Jeffrey asked, just after we started walking.

"Well... Sure... You're probably very curious after I stopped in the middle of the story, right? Let me recall first..."

________

It was now my top priority to correct my mistake. I don't know what exactly I had done wrong, but the princess ran away from me that day, so something must have been done.

But how to discover what I did wrong when she doesn't even talk with me? Every time I look at her, she looks away awkwardly... Every time I approach her, she excuses herself to do something elsewhere. Yes, they were terrible lies, but it wasn't my place to speak against the princess herself... But my patience ran out one day...

"Princess... You were required to go to the last floor of the highest tower in the afternoon", I said to her. That was a lie and she seemed to have seen right through it, tilting her head as though suspecting something. But luckily for me, she just sighed and nodded, looking away awkwardly, like usual.

"Umm, thank you. I will be there", she answered.

And so, I waited for her arrival there. That was probably the last thing I would do in my life... Lock her here in the room and force her to answer my question... The king would probably have my head because of that, but I proceeded to do this either way.

I hid behind the door, so I was sure that once she got inside, she wouldn't be able to make a run for it... Although I think that a door closing behind you would sound even creepier and make her uncomfortable.

"Hello, is someone there? I was told I was required to be here", her voice echoed as she walked in. After I took a peek from behind the door, I saw her and I just closed the door, making sure to lock it well.

"Eh? What's the meaning of th-". She didn't sound scared with what I did, but rather, she was surprised that I was there, stopping midsentence after turning to the door.

"Princess... I am sorry, but... I felt forced to do something regarding what happened to our last training. I-"

"I know, I know... Because of my safety as the princess and as the only possible heir to our kingdom, I should not learn to fight and stay away from weapons. It's your top priority to protect us, after all", she said, looking down sadly with that... It's funny, actually, her safety never crossed my mind during the training... Nor it's related with the problem at hand.

"I... I actually think it's very admirable to see a person who wants to fight for her people, side by side with her knights and knightess. Besides, my top priority is, yes, to protect you, but I should never stand against your intentions, should I now? I will protect you in the middle of the battlefield if you wish to fight with us, but I won't stop you from fighting", I honestly said to her. "What I wanted to talk to you was actually why did you run that day... What did I do wrong...".

"Wrong? You... You did nothing wrong. I think... I think I was just afraid of what you might think of the princess herself learning how to fight..."

"Umm... I too am from an important family that questioned my motives to become a knightess, so I don't think it's my place to judge you. On the contrary, I fully support you, princess"

"There's no need to call me princess... Just call me Isabelle. Our training sessions have more than brought us closer, don't you think?"

"I... I suppose... Then, you can call me by my first name as well, if it's not too sharp for your tongue, Isabelle"

"Very funny, Dagger", she said, giggling a little. "I... I look forward to training with you again"

"I too look forward to that", I answered her... And so... Our relationship was simply repaired with a small silly conversation. I guess words can truly be louder than actions, if used right. Little did I know, however, what this friendship flower was yet to become in the long term.

________

"You sound really close... I mean, I never saw you joke before, yet you did it with your own name to her", Jeffrey commented.

"Yes... I suppose... I guess there's just something when I am with her that makes me feel freer to say jokes like that"

"I see. Well, I won't force you to joke if you don't want to. But... We still didn't get to the romance part, you're just talking about the friendship you two had"

"True... But well... Let's keep the rest for later", I simply said and created the mystery of what happens next... Disappointed with that, he only accepted what I said and we continued to walk to the Waterkill Kingdom.