Aria's POV:

"Let's head into the library first." I heard from Ethan as we were preparing to go out in the mana beast-filled forest.

"Why?" I retort because he lost a child. How could he be so irresponsible?

"They have a library," he replied with a stern voice.

"Fine, but why?" I rebuked with a calm voice. 

"Because they have a library, we could find something like a map of the forest for directions. We can't just go and ask a beast "Hey have you seen any humans here? One named presumably Daniel?" now?" he returned with a stern voice. 

But I have to admit, he is instinctively smart in serious situations. "Alright, let's look at any geographical map about the forest," I admitted to his remark about the library.

"Map, map, map, there!" I yell out to Ethan as I am standing before 20 books of maps. Each containing maps throughout the human kingdoms. The biggest one being the one we live in, The Kingdom of Dion.

"Let's see, Violl's Garden, here!" I state, pointing my finger at the map by the coastal area. The village area, named Violl's Garden because of the close distance to the coast area with a lot of beautiful meadows and beautiful scenery with special flowers, so much liked that the second queen Viola named it, "Violl's Garden". 

"Alright now, to the right, the Nightmare forest," Ethan exclaimed while pointing to the right of Violl's Garden.

Nightmare forest is named after the deepness and the creatures which live in the forest and how much it scared Viola when she felt the presence of an emptiness pit. The Nightmare forest is one of the darkest pits of mana creatures homes', second to the fairyland for all mana beasts, The Eternal Beast Domain. Where all the adventurers wish to travel and hunt for any beasts and complete their quests and assert their power.

Lesser Chaos-rank to Nullity Disaster-ranked beasts is found in the Nightmare forest. Lesser chaos is the equivalent ranking of B-rank, while the Nullity Disaster-rank is SSS ranked. But somehow they only live in the forest, like someone has resurrected an invisible barrier separating the forest and the Violl's Garden.

"Right, we have the map," Ethan exclaimed, ripping out the page. waking me up from the thoughts of an emptiness pit.

"Why did you rip out the page?" I doubted Ethan's decision.

"This is a life or death situation, we cannot care about physical expendable items before life," Ethan said with a serious tone. I have never seen Ethan this serious before, sure, he has been serious but never this serious.

"Right," I said decisively. "Let's go towards the Nightmare forest!" I remarked what awaited before us.

"Firstly, we need to look for what creatures lie here. By the river there are sea urchins and minor sea serpents as there is salt in this river, making them able to live there." Ethan said while looking at the map.

"Deeper into the forest lives Shadowpanthers and Clearhawks. And even deeper in, there lives the fearful Titanbear, able to kill armies, plural. But the possibility of Daniel being there is low, as it has only been around an hour." Ethan said as he was recounting the time he searched for the kids during hide and seek. The time is 5 o'clock and we had already been here for an hour. 

"And down in the caves, there are Shadowbats, Soundtigers, and Titanspiders," Ethan said with a low tone, which shows the fear of the S-ranked mana beasts. "Right, let's start looking in these places," Ethan said while pointing out 3 places. In the position of a triangle. "Why those places?" I asked dumbfoundedly. 

"Because, we were playing hide and seek before this serious mishap, and kids wish to find easy and explorable places where one can hide, such as there," Ethan announced as he pointed at the gray-colored map. 

"Not to mention, that the probability of entering this place -" Ethan says, pointing towards a small black streak of paint, a path into the forest. Next to a blue streak of paint, about five times wider than the black streak. "Is quite high. So we begin to search through this entrance and then start looking into a wider area." Ethan says, forming a small shape of a triangle.

"Here is a cave, and this is a place close to a hill, these places are close to the river," Ethan explained where we were going to search. "A cave, to hide and explore in, a hill where he can sit and think about nothing in his carefree life, like how he sits under the tree outside," he observed while pointing with his thumb out the window. "And a river because he can just follow it, when he wants to get back home or get back to the place he hid," Ethan said while pointing where the river leads, observing the possibilities where Daniel could be.

"Alright, let's start looking by the river, as it is easily followable into the forest. It also leads close to the hill where I pointed out. And it also passes the cave I told you about." Ethan said after assessing the places where he could be.

"Right!" I stated as I have nothing to add. "Oh and Ethan," I spoke with a low tone.

"Yes?" he answered with an exhausted tone after concentrating so much. "I think you are a bit smarter than Andrew," I say to correct myself from before.

"Told you, I am smarter than him," he remarked my words as he was standing there and flexing his body. 

Maybe not so.

"Lydia!" Ethan yells as we are outside in the garden surrounded by the stone fence. 

"We are going to search for Daniel now!" he continued as he was waving towards her and the children.

"Alright." Lydia mouthed as she had no energy to yell. "Take care." I hear from a long distance. 

We head towards the river at the entrance of the forest. "We are here now, let's follow this river for about 250 meters, further than that might be fatal for us as there are Hornedbunnies and Soundhawks. A-ranked beasts," Ethan remarked with a frail voice, showing the fear of the names of A-ranked beasts as we are just B-ranked adventures. 

"Right," I responded with a nervous voice. "But even deeper in, there are the Shadowpanthers and Clearhawks. S-ranked." Ethan included with a trembling voice.

We followed the river for 10 minutes, treating everything with caution, because, one wrong step, might lead to death. I need to be extra cautious, I think to myself as I clutch my stomach. We pass this large tree, covered in vines and moss standing taller than every other tree, with dead branches.

Even trees have it hard to survive in this forest.

As we pass the big tree by the river, we spot the small hill that Ethan pointed out in the library, "We are here, the first place to look, there might be things hidden beneath the hill as we could otherwise see Daniel from down here." Ethan said while pointing towards the top of the hill.

As Ethan is pointing towards the top of the hill I spot a brown ragged cloth hanging on the tree like a flag. "Wait!" I exclaimed, almost yelling. "I see something over there, on the tree." I notified Ethan as he was about to continue further into the forest.

"Where?" he asks perplexed.

"Up there," I reply and start pointing towards the tree branch where the brown ragged cloth hangs. 

"Ah, there, it must be Daniel's, since all the boys wore brown ragged clothes. Meanwhile, the girls wore blue clothes." Ethan said, pointing out what everyone wore. 

"Come on, let's see if he is still there," I said, starting to run towards the hill. Running as fast I could.

"ARIA DON'T!" I hear behind me. I managed to run 30 meters before Ethan warned me. 

As the words "don't" sank into my mind, we heard a thunderous roar from above. A roar that can make the ground tremble. It was a white big bird flying above, covered in pure white feathers. With a body as big as a human, together with wings that stretch far over 5 meters, it was a Soundhawk. Clearly, this is a fearing species on the continent, but this is a lesser being of the Clearhawk. I recount as if I am reading the Bestiary Encyclopedia. 

Clearhawks must be even bigger and more threatening. I think to myself as a tremendous pain soars into my head. My eardrums almost burst because of the roaring sound from the mana beast. As I put my hands to my ears, trying to block out the sound, I feel a warm liquid sensation drip onto my hands. Blood.

I look back towards Ethan standing with his hands also covering his ears and I start trying to run back towards him. I couldn't hear anything, no footsteps, no trembling, no sound from Ethan's mouth shouting for me to run. I might die at this point. 

"Forgive me, my child," I muttered as I ran towards Ethan with my hands covered in blood and blood dripping from my ears. Forgive me. I managed to think out before I lost consciousness.