Chapter 19: Seek the Light

"Look."

As we are about to go back to where we came from, Dalary suddenly spoke out of the blue, making us all stop. I turned around to see her. The other two also did the same.

She pointed her finger under the ground. A black small boar was crawling in the grass of the woods, trying to find an escape, but then, when he realized that we already caught him, he was about to run but fell down because of his weight.

I squinted my eyes, seeing a familiarity in it. Is this the boar who tried to kill us before?

"The boar is still here." My tendrin friend mentioned, still pointing at it. He started to panic. We are bigger than him now. Dalary kneeled down and tried to communicate with him. "What should we do with him?"

"Kill it, obviously," Cainne answered as he crossed his arms. "It tried to kill us before anyway."

Dalary immediately turned her head around and gave him a death glare. I suddenly felt a conflict that's gonna explode any minute now.

"U-Umm…" I tried to speak to them to prevent their argument, but they already stopped it themselves, as she went back into staring at the boar, while Cainne didn't say anything that would upset the latter. I sighed in relief.

We're in the north of the Undead Woods so there would be monsters lurking around every tree and bush.

"We should let him go," Dalary said, still looking down. I turned to look at her, curious about what she said. "He's begging us to let him go. He has a family to come back to."

After that short encounter with the boar, we finally decided to let him go and continue to live. He might attempt to kill us before, but I think it's not good to do the same to them. Revenge is a dangerous thing. It's whether you chose your pride or your sanity.

We made it towards the field where we started before. It's never a short walk since we tried to run from the Cerberus many times, and the previous fight added in our exhaustion

There are some issues that we stumbled upon, like how Dino wasn't there anymore, go along with the wagon. Dalary panicked at that time, but I calmed her down and looked for him.

Fortunately, we found him hiding in one of the small bushes under the trees. He might have gotten scared of the Cerberus earlier, especially if it gives that spine-chilling aura.

We continued to travel in the middle of the woods, trying to look for a riverbank to spend the rest of the night, keeping away the monsters that might be watching us from afar. Dalary also talked to the blackdogs to keep themselves away from us. For her, it was hard to talk to the predators, since they're more aggressive than the passive animals.

The tendrins' ability to talk to nature wasn't just gained by the time they were born. They were being trained and educated through their own schools, sometimes through experience and bond with nature itself, which found Dalary hard before. She admitted that she wasn't the best at it at all, and she never wanted to be. Among all of the tendrins that I've ever met, she's the first and the most different one.

"So you can use magic, huh?" A familiar voice started talking to me from my back, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned around and saw Cainne standing behind with a smile stuck in his face. I also gave him a smile.

"Y-Yeah…" I answered as I looked away. He approached and sat down with me, staring at the calm river that's been flowing in front of us, reflecting the moonlight on the water, like the stars fell down from the sky.

"I've never seen anyone like that before." He said, staring at the river.

"Me neither." I snickered, trying to give him an obviously fake laugh.

"They said that I might be a cursed child," I added, "a child that should vanish in this world."

Cursed children. I've never actually read about them in the books, not even once, so I thought it was impossible to have this kind of phenomenon. Humans with magic… there's nothing that had been written in the papers about it. Knowing that I will maybe the reason behind the whole worlds' chaos and disaster in the future, I couldn't help but be scared of my life. Am I really accepted?

"I think that… y-you're cool." Cainne stuttered, starting to rub his cheek with his finger while looking away from me. I can see his cheeks flushed a little, but twisted his head.

"Really?" I asked in a hopeless tone.

"Of course!"

The determination coming from his shout got me surprised, flattered at his compliments. I didn't expect that he would say it like that. After realizing what he had done, his cheeks got redder than before. He immediately lowered his head, embarrassed of himself. The moon made his golden eyes like real gold, and his skin more glowing than before, adding more to his beauty.

"S-Sorry, I…"

"Aren't you supposed to collect twigs, mister?"

Dalary's voice suddenly interrupted our conversation. We turned to look at her which was crossing her arms while standing up, looking down to the both of us with an intense glare. But she was more focused on my other companion rather than me.

"Y-Yeah, right…" Cainne said, forgetting his task, and stood up from the grass. He bid me farewell and started walking away.

"Geez, that man." She released a sigh. I just gave her a chuckle.

She kneeled down with me and grabbed a pair of gardening scissors from her pocket, in which I didn't know that she had it until now. She may be carrying it for the leaves and small branches that had been hanging on her hair and body.

"Let me fix your hair."

Because of what she said, the realization hit me. The Cerberus actually cut off a big part of my hair. All that I've worked for life just to keep it long as possible was now just vanished with just a sway of claws.

Without any hesitation, I let her dress up my hair with something more suitable than just a hair that was obviously being sliced away from my head. Hair was never an issue on me, but I've worked hard to keep it long until now. It's a shame I couldn't be able to experience it for a while. It's a woman's soul, after all. At least Dalary will give me a new hairstyle.

I felt like everything around me changed.

I was chased by an army from an obsessed king and was given a new hairstyle by the Cerberus that came out of nowhere to eat us for dinner. After thinking about that, I became worried about what's gonna happen to me in the future.

"Dalary…" I spoke as she continued cutting my hair. "I'm scared."

"What will happen to me right now?" I asked her, wishing for an answer from her. She stopped fixing my hair and willing to hear me out. "The world will start turning against me… because I'm a cursed one."

She couldn't be able to answer it for a while and everything around us is in complete silence. She also started cutting my hair after a short while break. She continued to lean anywhere, trying to get the right angle.

"When you said before that… even the world was lit, there's always a dark corner…" She started to speak, in which I eagerly listened. "It could work the other way, right?"

"In this dark world, there will always be light, and you must seek it." She added, giving me a sincere smile. I couldn't help but be inspired by what she said and smiled too.

I've known Dalary for almost all of my life, and I'm glad that she's been listening to everything that I say, and will always bring me back from my anxiety issues every time I started to get lost.

"While I do that…" I said, lowering my head to stare at the water. "…can you be by my side?"

She didn't remove her smile and kept it from her face, still continuing to fix my messy hair.

"Sure."

***

He sat down in his throne of pure gold as he swayed his elegant cloak away. He rested his face on his pale cold hand with golden rings decorating every finger. But he didn't care about it at all. He only cared about serving his kingdom right even that will make him bathe in blood.

It was still dark and cold outside and inside the room, and the only thing that was hit by the moonlight was the marble floors with a palette of peach and dark gold, some parts covered by the gold-trimmed red carpets.

Then, the sound of a door creaking from afar can be heard, defeating the silence. He turned to look at the approaching figure. It was a knight wearing gold armor, carrying his helmet with his arms. Thus, he exposed his golden eyes.

"Did you find him?" He said with his deep calm voice, staring at the knight. His eyes were the same as him, but it was blank and emotionless. He had been waiting for this result for many years. He may never grow old that fast, but his patience does. If the man he was looking for was still living, he would do anything to stop him.

"Yes, your highness." The knight answered as he bowed down to the one he treated king. His white hair dropped down straight, closing his eyes.

The king stood up from his chair, letting his long silver hair, the same as everyone else, fall down into the floor like it was just a part of his cloak. He didn't mind and took a step forward towards the knight.

"Good. Let's hunt him down."