A Friend

Away from the city, I was sitting on a fallen tree that was blocking the path... I could watch away from here a group of men that was searching for me. They were working very hard on that, but in the end, my weak improvised disguise fooled them.

I wonder how it did the trick... I tried to cover myself to look like an old woman, but my voice is definitely not old enough to sound like so and my armor should be appearing at least a little, mainly the areas close to the neck, the wrists, and feet. But it seems like I was celebrating it a bit too soon, the group of men started to approach me... They must have figured out who am I... Or at least I thought so...

"Excuse me...", one of them started to say, "Would you have, perhaps, saw a knightess or anything similar to that?". He was very polite, but he and his group were not so smart... I could see in their faces that they had absolutely no clue of who I could possibly be, they just thought I was a random old woman.

"Umm..."

I put myself in a fake thoughtful mood, pretending to be trying to recall if I saw someone like they described.

"I don't remember, my memory isn't like it used to be", I lied and sighed a little. "I am sorry I couldn't be of any help"

"That's not to worry. Thanks for cooperating...", he said, obviously disappointed.

Then they started to walk away in defeat, finally giving up on finding me. I could still listen to their voices from here...

"Dammit... She's nowhere to be found, I wanted to be rich with the money for her head..." the same one who talked to me said.

"I wanted that too... How did she get away so fast anyway?", the second one asked.

"Quit complaining you two... We just lost our chance, but it's not like it was in vain... After all, we formed a group to hunt her and we have become friends because of that!", a third one, apparently the leader of the group, said to those two.

"True... I guess we should celebrate this newborn friendship with a drink!", the second almost shouted, raising his fist to the sky.

"Oh, so you're an alcoholic? That will...", the first one started to say, but the conversation faded away, I could no longer hear them when they were already so far away, walking towards the city from which I escaped.

Despite being hunted by the whole city, the fact that I was causing people to create new friendships made me quite happy. I suppose that's a kind of a reward for tolerating the false claims of me being a rapist... It's ironic, however, I bring people together but I myself don't have anyone to be together with right now.

Actually... Thinking more carefully about this, I have someone to be together with right now. You might think it's strange for me to say that... My parents rejected me, my brother disapproves of my acts, the princess who is my lover is in her palace and I have no friends, as a criminal.

But if you know why I was sitting here in this fallen tree instead of getting far away from here the fastest I could, you know of who I am speaking... Despite meeting only today, I was waiting for it, an animal I met in the forest and if it wasn't for it, I would never have escaped the city. The mythical fox...

To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was going to come to me again... It can be anywhere. It might have run back to his house or family... Although the former the fox said it didn't have anymore. It might have gotten lost too. But I waited for it right there, by the fallen tree, under the orange sunset light. And he did not disappoint me.

"So you searched for me... I am so glad...", I said to it once it jumped into my arms and then climbed up to my neck, tickling me before it went back to the shoulder, where seems like it made its home.

"You seem to be quite energetic... Why is that?" I asked it and then looked more carefully at him... He had something on his mouth, a sheet of yellowish paper, apparently... But it was bigger than the sheet of paper I carried with the riddles.

"What's that?" I asked it and happily, it leaned his head forward, as if handing me the sheet of paper. I grabbed it and unfolded it. It was... It was the map we needed to start the journey. I suppose I have chosen very well the friend that will help me out a lot on this long journey.

"Aren't you smart? Well, anyway, let's get this over with..." I said and examined the locations over the map... There were so many places on the map. I picked up the other sheet of paper to confirm the second paragraph, the riddle for the first element.

"Deep down you will find the first element. It's an element essential for the key and essential for your life. With patience and purity, she shall give you the element if you prove your worthiness".

If I was interpreting that right... I think the element we're seeking is water. Purity and patience are things that we often relate to water, after all. The places the riddle can be talking about are probably the deep places then, like a river, a lake, or even the depths of the sea... But that was very unlikely, too many places to search... It needed to be something more unique, somewhere worthy of being the lair of the element. And that was...

"The 'Underground Lake' "... It was unique, a magical cave that I only have heard about but many people are not allowed to enter... But I was about to go against that. If the element Water is what I needed, a forbidden entrance was not going to be the thing that would stop me.

"Let's go... I think we have discovered where we need to go", I said to the fox and started walking, confidently, using the map as a guide. I don't have any idea of what we will face there, but whatever it is... I will discover it soon...