Depart

Tomorrow came like a fleeting bird catching a fish inside a lake. The villagers were eager to ask and praise the young boy but the star in question didn't leave the old house until it was high noon.

An old horse was tapping the road as little dust scattered around and inside its hoofs. Her mane swayed as her body swayed and she was breathing unevenly. There were scars on its stomach and one of its eyes was forever shut. She only made a low neigh as she dragged an empty carriage forward. The driver was a young man with a sad smile. His clothes, though it was not fancy to be considered, it really leaped and bounds against Lyounus.

Pomade and Fred nodded as he quipped, "Why the long face? Bahahaha!"

The driver replied, "Yeah keep laughing, lowly guard. How's the night yesterday? Chillin? Hahaha!"

Pomade pointed out at the burnt hay on the side of the entrance with his smug face. The driver's laugh hit the brake as his face turned sour.

"Hmph! Poor people like you deserve to be warmed by hays!"

Pomade shrugged his shoulder, "I'm the one wearing an armor here, not the one driving a horse who is older than the driver! Hahahaha!"

The driver was infuriated but the build-up rage in his body only resulted in a sigh. "Just let me in, here you go."

He flipped a bronze coin and let Pomade had it. A tax for the transport man, a meal for the guard. He looked at the road forward before he lightly tapped the old horse with his rope. He didn't even see the face the guard made and stopped in the middle of the village. The driver got off from the dickey box before he neatly rolled his sleeves and opened it. Inside it was papers, a glass, a spare of pants, and a little yellow rusty bell.

He picked up the bell, and with a deep breath of regret, he shook it. The sound it made caught the villagers' attention but the oldest house in the vicinity was all that mattered.

Lyounus was already waiting by the rocking chair before he stood up and hugged his grandfather nearby, "Be safe, grandfather."

Gauss whispered, "Live well, child. Remember you are always welcome here."

Lyounus smiled at those wrinkly eyes before he turned back and approached the carriage. (Even with this new time, you still give the same advice) thought Lyounus before he examined the carriage.

The carriage was an open-ended one. No fancy doors, just you and the bad smell from the driver. The wood is made out looked quite old and one of the wheels had lost one single string of a rim. It wasn't designed to be carrying humans, it was designed to carry items such as a stack of hays, vegetables, fruits, etc. However, if there was a profit to be gained, why not.

"Stop looking at it so interestingly kid. You only make it worse," sighed the driver.

"Oh that's a good horse," said Lyounus as he pulled out an apple from his old bag.

She neighed before she started eating her favorite food. Lyounus smiled as he combed her mane with his fingers. Gently rubbing her forehead before he noticed the scar and the missing eye. "You're a warhorse, aren't you? I can see the day you spent on the battlefield, you must be magnificent then."

She raised her hind legs as an affirmation, shocking the driver as he held on to the carriage.

"Kid, are you sane? Why are you talking to a horse? She is just old anyways, my father bought her in an auction, gosh, why would he bought a dying horse. Now I got to be seen riding this useless old garba—".

He could barely see a shadow before he felt a snap of pain coursing from his chin. It sent an electro pulse to his brain before he lost his balance and his vision swayed. His body knelt down before he saw a finger jabbed into his glabella. The Energy Lines inside his body felt a jolt and just before he passed out, he heard a mutter.

"You're lucky, you're in front of my grandfather."

Lyounus caught the unconscious man before Gauss asked from a distance, "Child what happened?

"I think the driver has worn out his energy, don't worry grandfather, I know the way to the city."

He threw the driver inside the carriage before he sat on the dickey box. Slowly and gently he led the ex-warhorse to outside the village.

"See you again, Fred, you too Pomade," said Lyounus as he rode past the gate.

"Huh? Oh yeah kid, good luck out there!" shouted Fred as he saw the carriage entered the main road into the woods across the bridge.

"Wait a minute, Fred, don't you think something is odd?" asked Pomade as he rubbed his chin.

"Of course something is odd!" shouted Fred.

"I knew it, the one driving the carr—"

"Why the hell would you get to be the one that keeps that bronze coin!"

"Wha?"

The two of them rumbled with words that Lyounus could no longer hear. The forest was dancing a tune as if it was welcoming him. His face was occasionally covered with the shade the trees made while the insects would play their mating call.

"You welcome me, nature. Though it was me who would burn you to ashes if things went as it was. Ha, who am I kidding, only I, in this world, that knows what would happen."

A butterfly from a wildflower steadily flapped its beautiful wings before perching on his right shoulder. Lyounus smiled as he glanced at the calm butterfly.

"Hmm, At least my humanity is still there, albeit, slightly."

His eyes turned sharp as the killing intent froze the butterfly in place before he slowly picked it up with his hand and smiled, "Your hitch ride stops here."

He retracted the killing intent before letting the butterfly flew away. The old horse neighed as they traverse through the forest with indomitable speed.