It’s been one and a half days and two nights since we left our old home back in the woods. Let's just say the whole ride was treacherous. We still haven’t arrived at our final destination. I wonder how far it is and when we will ever get there. Being a child and sitting in different people’s laps as we traveled was making me uncomfortable and so I just wanted to get to the destination as soon as possible. There were times that we took a break and I watched them all take turns driving the carriage. However, we were all mostly tired.

Sleep was one of the most difficult things to do during our journey; it was not easy to sleep in a moving carriage. I looked around to see most of them slowly trying to fall asleep, but just their eyes were on the verge of closing, a bump would wake them up leaving them startled. Everyone had dark eye bags underneath their eyes, so you could tell how sleep-deprived they all were. It had been like this ever since the morning. Just like everyone else, mom was struggling with sleep too. I wonder how dad's friends did this on the way here and can still continue.

Dad and Aston finally stopped the carriage, since they were the ones who were driving, and everyone got off and started to stretch their bodies. It was sunset already.

“Why did we stop?”

“There is a cave here. We can catch up on some sleep. It was Aston’s idea and I thought that would be great for all of us.”

Everyone lightened up on the idea of a ‘sound sleep.’

Galtero tied up the horses as Jeremy and Aston went inside to see if the cave was safe enough for us to sleep in. Anna and dad went hunting for food. Mom and Diana stayed in the carriage with me and Arthur. Arthur threw up right after we stopped. It was definitely motion sickness since he hadn't been feeling well during the whole ride. Mom came back after taking care of Arthur. Right after she came back, they started talking and giggling about their past life, while Arthur was trying to play with me using the sticks he was holding.

Arthur slashed the air with the stick using it as a substitute for a sword. He wanted me to join him too so he picked something up and came over to me. It was a thin but strong stick. I took it and pointed it toward him while looking up. I was sitting since I couldn't stand, so Arthur looked really tall. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but it felt natural. For the first time in this weird magical world, I felt as if belonged here. The way I was enjoying this swordplay told me a lot about who I was meant to be.

Arthur tried to slash at me like a sword, but he made sure he was slow enough for me to follow. I dodged it and blocked it with my tiny stick. Arthur slashed at me and I blocked that one too. I looked back to see my mom and Diana still chattering away. I used my chance to slash at Arthur. He did not dodge it in time, so the stick slapped him right in his face.

Oops!

At first, he was shocked, then slowly his eyes started to tear up and he began to cry loudly. I looked where mom was sitting. She was looking over here. She came over to our just created play space and picked me up. She also got rid of the stick by throwing it away.

“What happened, Arthur?”

He started to cry even louder. I obviously wouldn’t have slashed back if he was going to be a baby about it, but too late. Arthur tried to calm down and then he looked at me.

“I fell on my face and got hurt. But I am okay now!”

That got me. Was he trying to cover up for me or was he trying to protect his pride?

“Okay, but be careful the next time. Okay, right?” Arthur nodded and gave her a small smile.

Not long after, Dad and Anna came back with a deer in their hands and Jeremy and Aston came back saying ‘it was safe.’ I did not even realize that Galtero had already set up a fire.

Mom made some delicious deer stew later, well according to others. I was stuck drinking milk again. You have no idea how much I wanted to eat and drink something other than plain old milk.

“You know, I am happy that we finally got out of that carriage. At least we do not have to smell those diaper bombs for a while.”

Everyone laughed as Aston made a gross face. Well, it technically isn’t my fault you know. I did not even know when I was going to soil my diapers. It’s definitely not easy being a child, I mean who likes to poop in pants anyway? Especially with the itchiness that came along with it.

The sky was yet again filled with billions of stars. The night time breeze was cooling the strong heat from the fire, so it felt really nice sitting there.

‘Help.’

A small, fragile whisper made its way into my ear. The voice sounded sad and in a hurry as if it was in some kind of trouble and urgently needed someone to listen to it. I looked around to see who it was but found nothing. I waited for some time to hear the voice again, but it never came. The others might not have heard it; I could tell that by the way, they kept on talking.

I guess it was just a figment of my imagination.

When the laughter and chatter died down, I knew it was time to go to the cave and sleep. Mom came and picked me up. As we walked toward the cave, Diana and Anna joined us. Anna started to fidget.

“What do you both want?” 

“Well, I wanted to ask if Alex could sleep with us?”

“What about Arthur?”

“We asked, but he said he wanted to sleep with the big guys like Aston and Galtero.”

Mom chuckled when she heard what Arthur had said. She turned to me.

“Do you want to go?”

Mom was a light sleeper so I knew I could not sneak away if I needed to train my mana, so it would be best to sleep with Diana and Anna. They looked like heavy sleepers. I nodded and smiled with my hands reaching toward them. Their faces brightened upon seeing my gesture. Diana came to pick me up, but Anna got to me faster than her. She quickly picked me up and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. As we walked, Anna's katana would sometimes poke me on the leg.

Dad and Jeremy checked the cave one last time before we went inside. When they nodded to us as a green flag, we all went inside and made the place comfortable enough to get some sleep. We went as deep inside the cave as we could, to avoid any surprise attacks coming our way when asleep. We swept up a lot of the tiny and big rocks so that our beds wouldn’t be bumpy.

Mom gave me a little bit of milk before handing me to Diana and Anna. When we got to our little bed, I saw the middle part of the blanket all fluffed up and soft. They carefully laid me there. It was softer than the crib back home and it was comfy too. Anna and Diana laid down on either side of me. They put their hands over my stomach. They both smiled at me as I smiled at them.

It was kind of really crowded since Diana’s chest was so big. I leaned closer to Anna, so I had a little bit of space to myself.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I did.

'-elp.'

My eyes slowly opened up to the sound of that voice.

'Help. Please.'

It was the same voice as I had heard earlier. It was trembling and had a sad tone to it. It was the voice of a young woman and it almost felt as if she was crying. I slowly sat up, trying my best not to wake Anna and Dianna up. I slowly crawled out of the bed.

'Help my child, please.'

Child?

The voice was coming from the deeper end of the cave. The voice got stronger and louder as I crawled toward it. Even if the voice got louder and stronger, it still sounded so sad that it sounded like she was somewhat crying too. What must have happened to her that made her this sad?

I realized my knees were hurting due to crawling on all the rocks, I could not crawl anymore. Hence, I crawled toward the wall of the cave so I could try to stand up and start walking. I put a hand on the wall with a strong grip and tried standing up. It was hard at first, but I was able to stand up. My legs were wobbly, but I could manage walking just a bit.

This is when I took my first step.