'Curse you! Curse you! Elliot. Why do I have to be such an idiot'- I thought to myself.

"You want to accompany me.??" He asked. There was a ting of amusement in those grey eyes of his.

"I wish I could but....Nathan is alon-" I was cut short by Zeo in between.

"Your friend will be fine and I am sure he will not wake up until evening. So..if you wish..you" He said literally pacing with his words. Was he in a hurry?? 

I thought for a moment. As he said, Nathan might not wake up till evening so I didn't have much of anything to do here. And then maybe I can get to find some police station and get an idea of where I was? Aside from that, it seemed like this guy here really need company today. So I agreed finally. And we left the house.

We were walking through a forest. It was a clean afternoon with a windy weather. The cool breezes made a shushing sound as they escaped through the dancing leaves. The forest wasn't that dense but it was certainly not a city park. It had tall, slender pine trees whose tops seemed to touch the sky. Really, where the hell am I?? Did the waves brought me to Canada or maybe Alaska ?? Well, that's a really silly idea, though. 

While our walk through the forest I tried ask Zeo about the place I was in and the explanation I got as a reply was not something I was expecting.

"As I had told you yesterday, You are in the Terra Clan of the Elf Realm. The Terra Clan is the user of Earth element. There are several other clans like the Aqua Clan with Water's elemental, Ventus Clan with the wind, Ignis Clan with the power of fire and a few others. There are Elf sorcerers and some other kind of creatures too. "

"Huhh?? Clans? Elementals?? Sorcerers?? What is all this about??" I asked confused. 

"Sorcerers means Elves which are capable of magic. Every clan have these sorcerers. The sorcerers of these clans may be the user of any type of element irrespective of their clan's principal element. But those with their elemental 'mana'(magic force) matching with the clan's element are descents of the main branch of the clan and are considered stronger sorcerers. They might also have higher ranks of 3 or 4 levels in the hierarchy. Those with inferior magical abilities are ranked 1 or 2 as per their comprehension of magic."

Although the explanation was well organised and simple, my walnut-sized brain found this hard to believe. 'Is this 1st April? Or am I dreaming? ' I thought.

" You know, after all this shit you have told me, I am hundred percent sure that either you're fooling around or I am trapped in a really weird dream. Now that I think of it I really have a good imagination." I commented.

He chuckled and then pinched my cheeks with his cold hands.

"Hey, what was that for?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

"To make you believe that you are not in a dream and let me assure you I am not lying."

"Now hold this bag and follow me. I am going to collect some herbs from here." Zeo added as he handed me a cotton bag and got down to pick some plants.

"Are you a doctor??" I asked with interest.

"No, but my sister holds a small clinic in the village nearby. She is the one who helped your friend...remember." He replied. I nodded my head but my mind was still swirling around the whole magic thing.

"If you say that you are an Elf and the people here can do magic and stuff. Why don't you show me some of those magic powers of yours??" I said.

"I can't show you...because..I can't do magic." He told me."What do you mean you can't do magic?" I asked.

"Well, not every elf is capable of doing magic..and I am supposed to be one of those who can't use magic." He said with a bit of a disheartened tone. I immediately regretted asking such question. After that I didn't ask any questions and neither did he tried to make me talk. 

After about two hours of collecting a few of these leaves, roots and flowers, he got up. 

"Let's leave..it's going to get dark soon."  He said and started moving down the trail we followed to get here. I followed him silently. It was getting darker now. The sun' bright rays were already on the brink of the horizon. 

"Well, you know my sister does use magic." he started the conversation after some ten minutes of silence on the walk.

"What kind of magic does your sister know??" I asked trying to keep up. This silence was really killing me now. He turned around and looked at me for a second or two.

"Actually, my sister is a 'Soul Manipulator'.." he said. 

"What does that mean?" I questioned in curiosity. He looked at me again. It felt like he was analysing me.

"For Elemental sorcerers the resource of mana is the elements of the environment itself.  But Soul Manipulators can use their own souls as mana resources because of which soul manipulators can use their bodies as weapons. But for Millia , my sister, her manipulation style only allows her to see the future. "

"Wait!!! Your sister can see the future!!" I exclaimed. "Not exactly, she often has visions of a few bits of future but she is rarely able to predict it correctly." He told me. We were walking side by side now. 

"But promise me you won't tell this to anyone.. this is something most people aren't supposed to know" He asked. 

"So why did you tell me??" I was puzzled at his request but I didn't directly look at him, just glanced at the grass beneath me. 

"Because I...trust you..." he said. I turned and caught him looking at me. His moon eyes were pouring  into mine. I felt my heart warming up. He moved his hands almost touching my cheeks.

But suddenly I heard a loud howling sound coming from afar.  To be honestly, I was afraid of even dogs(yeah! I know that's weird ) and these wolf howls were beyond my tolerable level of anxiety. In the grip of my fear, I suddenly jumped and hugged Zeo. Zeo was obviously surprised by this turn of events but did not push me away. Instead, he put his arms over my head and waved it through my hair.

"It's alright, those were just some blood hounds. They won't come here. And even if they do I won't let anything happen to you. "  he assured me. I blinked a few times and when I got back to my senses, I sprang away from him in a jerk. My face must have turned red because I could see Zeo smiling.

While the rest of our way back to the house, neither of us spoke any words. No words are better than embarassing words, I guess. After reaching there, Zeo told me to go back to the bedroom and he would bring something to eat. Hardly, had I entered the bedroom to check on Nathan, I was left stunned with a spiteful tension gripping me.

Nathan was not in the bed!!!