Chapter 12 - Meetings

The first thing I noticed was that he looked pretty young, probably 18 or 19. Sweat beaded on his tanned skin and his brown eyes were filled with a mix of fear and gratitude. He shuffled awkwardly on his feet and cleared his throat, "We errr... we want to thank you for the timely rescue," he said in a careful tone. "I'm Ivan and I'm the leader of our group." His friends nodded behind him and I saw that there looked just as young as Ivan, all in their later teens. Most of them were looking at Rath while the archer, a tall raven-haired teen was staring at Leone's chest. When he saw me watching him, his head snapped up and he blushed in obvious embarrassment, and I heard a giggle from beside me.

I gave the archer a sharp look and then turned my gaze back to Ivan, "I'm Nathan," I said, and reached my hand out. "And your welcome for the rescue." Ivan nodded and shook my hand, "That's a mighty beast you've got there." I gave him a smile and nodded in agreement, "Yeah he's one hell of a ride."

"Is it a dragon?" asked the bronze-haired boy from behind Ivan. He was wearing long, brown, and black robes, and was clutching his staff in both hands.

"You idiot," replied the brown-haired girl from beside him, as she rolled her eyes. "It's obviously a wyvern." She turned her hazel eyes to me, "Right?" I nodded my head at her and wondered if she'd ever seen another wyvern. This was a fantasy world so something like wyverns existing wasn't surprising, and I hoped I got to see some in the future, Rath versus a wyvern from this world would be an amazing fight.

"Were not all book worms like you Lue," said a blonde-haired girl, and I recognized her as one of the longword wielders. The teen next to her also had blonde hair and very similar facial features so I guessed they might be siblings.

I cleared my throat loudly to their attention back on me, "What are doing out here?" I asked bluntly. I was in a hurry to get to the capital and since it hadn't started raining yet, it meant I could still fly for the rest of the day. I didn't want to seem rude but I just didn't care for small talk right now.

Ivan visibly deflated at my question and went to answer, but was stopped by the sound of rumbling, and we all looked up to the first few raindrops come down from the sky. I hadn't noticed, but the temperature had started to lower. I was still dressed in the same clothes I had when I arrived here, and surprisingly there were still in good condition, but I realized they weren't for colder weather when I felt a chill go through me.

"Shit!" I cursed. "Come on let's get into the cave, then we can talk." I had really hoped that I'd be able to continue flying today, but it seemed that nature was against me.

"What about the corpses?" asked Lue. "They're worth at least 20 copper apiece." I looked back to the corpses thoughtfully. I could store them in my inventory, but then that would raise questions that I didn't want to answer. My decision was decided for me when Domino spoke up, "We don't have much Nathan." she said frankly and I sighed.

I saw eyes widen as I stored the corpses one after another and I held back a groan, there was gonna be so many questions. The rain had started to pick up and I hastily ran to the cave. I stored Rath and ignored the questioning looks sent my way by Ivan. I also noticed that Ivan and his friends were keeping as far away from Lilah as they could, and I didn't blame them. Lilah looked terrifying and her inability to talk just added to it.

"You know Spatial magic?" said the bronze-haired boy when we arrived at the cave.

"I guess you could say that," I answered as I examed the cave. It was wide, flat, and slopped down slightly. There was plenty of room, so me and my summons took one side of the cave while Ivan and his friends took the other.

"Tommy, some light please," said Ivan. The bronze-haired teen nodded, spread his palms apart, and a moment later a blue orb of light appeared and with a wave of his hand floated to the center of the cave. A light spell?

"I know it's nothing impressive," he said when he saw me looking. "But I'm only rank 3, so it's the best I can do."

"It's fine," said Domino, and she turned to me, "We staying here for the night?" she asked, and I nodded, "Mhm." I wasn't fond of going into the rain to find someplace else, and although the cave wasn't ideal, it would do for one night.

"Store me then, I'd rather not sleep in a cold cave," she replied then looked to Ivan's group. "No offense."

"Non-taken," said the blond girl. "I'd rather not sleep here as well."

"Send me to storage as well," said Zombieman.

I didn't argue or ask him why. It was completely understandable and if I could send myself to storage then I would. It wasn't even night and I was already starting to shiver. I sent both of them to storage and heard a gasp.

"You can store people in pocket spaces," asked Tommy, and I just nodded. I didn't have time to make up a lie and I really hoped he didn't ask me any more questions.

"What rank are you?" asked Lue in a curious voice. "I can't tell and I can't see your mana at all. Are you using a spell to conceal it?" I really needed to find out more about magic when I got to the capital, even if only to give believable lies when asked about my summoning.

"Trade secret," I answered, and hoped they left it at that. "But now it's time for you to answer my first question."

"Why are you out here in the middle of the forest?" I asked for the second time.

He once again visibly deflated and he had a weary look on his face as he spoke, "You've heard about the war right?" I nodded. "Well, that why we left," he continued. "We use to be members of the guild Silverswipe which was located in the capital." I saw Lue and Tommy grimace at that.

"Fucking guild master," muttered the blond-haired teen in anger.

Ivan glanced at the teen and nodded, "When the war started our guild master told all guild members that we wouldn't be joining any side."

Lue let out a hollow laugh, "And we believed him." I had an idea of where this was going and I could tell it was nowhere good.

"2 days after that announcement he made another," growled Ivan in barely restrained anger. "He said that the guild would be joining the second prince and that we would be handsomely rewarded when the prince took the throne." So it was betrayal then. Things were looking a bit clearer but I still had no idea why they were in this forest.

"So you left?" I asked.

The blond-haired girl snorted, "Half the guild left. Most of us didn't wanna get involved in the war for one reason or another. We," she motioned to her group, "We're only there because it was our job and how we made coin."

"You still haven't answered my question," I said. While their story was interesting, it wasn't what I wanted to know.

"Don't worry we're getting there," Ivan replied. "You see, we weren't born in the capital. We're all from a village close by." The temperature was getting lower as I listened and Leone must have taken notice of my shivering, as she cuddled up next to me and Gible jumped into my arms a moment later, both providing some much-needed heat. The Raven-haired archer shot me a jealous look, and I smiled back as I leaned closer into Leone's breasts.

"Our village went into debt around 4 years ago, because of an outbreak of Pozler, a nasty disease that can kill if not treated. We had to borrow money to buy the needed treatment and medicine to make sure our village wasn't wiped out," he continued when my attention was back on him. "The person we borrowed money from was a rich merchant in the nearby town, and originally he told us that we had a full year to pay it back." He shot me a look, "Be careful when making a deal with a merchant, you never know how they might cheat or screw you over." I stored that piece of information in the back of the mind, as I glanced at the others.

I saw the anger on all their faces and Tommy had a white-knuckled grip on his staff. "A week after everyone had been healed, the merchant sent a messenger telling us we had 3 months to pay him back, or he'd take over leadership of the village," Said Ivan rubbing his hands together and turning to Lue, "Get a fire going if you could." Wait! why are they just now making a fire if they could have made one this entire time?

She nodded and Ivan turned back to me, "So merchant tells us that and the village starts panicking, while this happening me, Tommy, Lue." he pointed to the raven-haired archer, "Rent." he then pointed to the two blondes that look like siblings, "Trudy and Marks."

"We all decided that we'd get the money and the quickest way for us to get it, was to join a guild, as we could all use either mana or kor. Even though we're not that high ranked, we knew guilds would still accept us because they were always looking for more manpower, and this is a minor kingdom, so they don't have much to choose from," he said and took a deep breath. "We left the village in secret. Our parents wouldn't have let us, so we didn't ask them." The familiar pain and sadness rose up at the mention of parents, but I pushed down and focused back on Ivan. I felt Leone cuddle in closer to me and glanced up to see Lilah standing close by which to my surprise gave me a safe feeling inside.

"We traveled to the capital and managed to join Silverswipe fairly quickly. We did odd jobs at first and eventually, we had enough experience to do some hunting. It took us 2 months to get the necessary funds which did shock us at first." he let out a laugh. "remember we spent most of our lives in a village which didn't have a guild or anything of the sort, so even though it was normal pay for others, for us it was a huge amount. We sent the coin back with a letter and eventually got a reply saying the village was safe, but," he said, and he looked guilty. No, not just him I realized as I swept my gaze across the room, all of them looked guilty for some reason. "We didn't wanna go back home. Our parents begged us, but we were making something of ourselves in the capital and earning good coin, so we decided to stay much to our parent's regret."

"So now your heading home," I said when I realized he was finished with his story. It wasn't a question, it was obvious they were going home. I was actually pretty shocked that they had shared all that information with me. All I had asked was what they were doing in the forest. Even though I didn't care much I still felt kind of sorry for them and hoped that they could make up with their parents. Gods only knew I wished I could make up with mine. The pain, sadness, and this time anger and regret appeared once again and it took more effort to keep them down this time, but I managed it. Not now. It wouldn't do any good to lose myself. I expected them to ask me my reason for being in the forest, but to my surprise, they didn't, and things returned into silence for a while after that. Lue had gotten a fairly big fire started in the middle of the cave while Ivan had been talking, and I felt a lot warmer.

"Your eyes," said Trudy breaking the silence. "I've never the color before."

"huh," I said when I saw that everyone was looking at me. "Wait you mean me?" My eyes? A sudden thought struck me like a thunderbolt and my eyes widened. Oh my god, I thought to myself. I still don't know what my face looks like. I felt the urge to facepalm, and I moment later a smacking noise resounded in the cave as I did. My new body felt so natural that I had completely forgotten that it wasn't mine originally. I felt like an absolute idiot. I could have just asked Leone to describe my face to me.

"You ok, Nathan?" whispered Leone into my ear. I nodded and looked at Trudy, "What color do you see." I could have waited to ask Leone later, but the way Trudy had said it had me curious as all hell.

"Like royal blue, but... glowing, or at least it looks like it's glowing," she replied and tilted her head at me as if confused with what she was seeing. I didn't have any answers for her, as I, to my dismay and regret, had yet to have seen my hopefully charming and handsome face.

There was a sudden yawn beside me, and I looked to see Leone's eyes drooping slightly.

"You wanna head to sleep?" I asked Leone. "because it doesn't look like this rains gonna let up anytime soon." The rain pour had gotten stronger and the sun had fallen, allowing the blue orb of light and fire to cast dancing shadows upon the walls and floor of the cave. It was an eery, yet beautiful sight, and I found myself staring into the fire, that swayed almost hypnotically. I felt relaxed and calm staring into it.

"The ingredients cost a lot to make the fire, and a mage needs to be the one to light, it," Lue said, and I glanced at her before returning my gaze to the fire. "The fire's meant to help you relax and relieve you of stress after a day of hunting." That made sense I sleepily thought, as my eyes drooped. I had a worrying thought about sleeping next to strangers, but then happily realized that I had Lilah to watch over us. That thought bought a smile to my face, as the fire lulled me to sleep.