THIRTY-SEVEN

Even when I found out the source of the adhesive force that held us back from the tree I couldn't feel them on my skin. It was as if they were an energy that exerted their influence and left a feeling of presence without a tangible origin.

And I only started feeling their presence when I was aware of what they were doing.

"Your leg" Sky managed to say when her eyes came to a focus.

I hadn't realized that in the spur of the moment, I stood on my leg while dragging Sky out of the tree.

As the realization hit me, I instinctively shifted my weight to my left leg and leaned on Hassan, who stood beside me looking puzzled by what just happened.

Using my right leg felt odd. There was no pain as if the fracture hadn't happened. It was clear the strange leaves were responsible for this... The origin of the mysterious leaves remained unknown because the info wasn't found in the knowledge of the Blizzardkin I was rewarded with. (The leaves are not one of the things the Blizzardkin uses)

"I doubted those leaves would work," Sky said, her breathing becoming softer and more controlled with each passing moment. Her voice was as faint as Hassan's but her countenance negated the fact that moments ago she was fighting for her life.

"What leaves?" I asked blankly, my mind still shocked by the tree incident.

"Just something I bought with my coins. It's called Veridin Mender's embrace and is supposed to bring complete physical restoration to a broken living being.

I didn't think it would help you at all" she said

A wave of gladness and gratitude washed over me. Relief flooded in knowing she was safe, and deep appreciation swelled within me for the help she had always offered.

"Thank you so much Sky"

"It's nothing. We're just looking out for each other."

Deep within those once vibrating eyes, I glimpsed a subtle sense of significance; a feeling born from the act of aiding another beyond one's self. From what I had observed of Sky, that seemed like her motivation above every other thing; a feeling to stay essential to the people around her.

"What was that?" Sky asked looking at the tree trunk. The tree seemed to be the source of the parasitic miniature plants because after Sky had destroyed them a new set simply rose to take the place of the previous ones.

" I have no idea"

The cold lands proved perilous, with even the trees and ground seemingly intent on our demise. Every measly thing was likely a menace, threatening to kill us if we let our guards down.

"What are we going to do now?" Hassan asked.

That was a very important question. Initially, our focus was escaping the snow, but upon finding warmth, a new uncertainty arose. Were we to continue wandering purposelessly through the cold lands, hoping to stumble upon something specific?

But then I recalled something... I was gifted some things after the mental battle with the king of the creatures of the Blizzardkin. One of them was a puzzle piece to find the grand quest of the Cold Lands and there were supposed to be two hundred of those.

" I received a puzzle piece of the grand quest of the cold lands after battling the king of the creatures of the Blizzardkin clan "

"Another quest?" Sky asked with a familiar sense of doom creeping into her countenance.

"Yeah. There's two hundred and I found one"

" Maybe that's the goal. Can I see the puzzle? " Hassan asked

"What is the goal?" Sky asked

While they talked I reached out into my player's profile to bring out the spoils.

"What am I supposed to do now? How can I make you see it? " Struggling to maintain my focus, I asked the question to them, determined to keep the floating box from vanishing.

"Make it appear like you made the profile appear" Sky answered

The instant sky said that, her words seeped into my mind turning into thoughts that materialized; the puzzle to the grand quest of the cold lands appeared, accompanied by the gleaming frost fire dagger.

The puzzle piece appeared as an unassuming, earthy brown fragment; an irregular shape that could be easily overlooked and dismissed. Its ordinary appearance seemed contradictory to the idea of being a vital component of a grand quest.