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16

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“So, you don’t remember anything immediately after that?” asked Rylir as he leaned against the bottle Essie was currently filling with a murky green liquid. She shook her head, ice-shard like eyes fixated on the edge of the bottle instead of Rylir’s features.

“Just… crimson lightening and this energy. I can’t describe what it felt like, but… I know it… felt familiar. And then there was that…” Essie stopped herself involuntarily as she shuddered.

“That voice,” Rylir finished. Essie nodded again, her stark white hair falling into her face and hiding her features ever so slightly. “Did you recognize it at all?”

“I don’t know,” Essie muttered, quickly dismissing Rylir’s further prying. “What… I do know is that… I wanted to get away from it. It was unnerving.”

Rylir reached up and scratched his scalp right by the base of his neck. He accidentally found Essie in a vulnerable state earlier yesterday morning, and she had been acting slightly off ever since. She wasn’t using all of her big, scary words and she had a nervous twitch to her hand. There were also a few times where she kept glancing at the door, as if something or someone were about to charge through it.

He wasn’t sure what was going on, and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by prying more than he needed to. The one thing he could do was listen and ask questions as she would allow, which was definitely not much.

“Well, if you think of anything else, let me know. Okay?” prompted Rylir. Essie, eyes blank for a moment, just stared before she nodded.

“Certainly will do,” she said softly before corking the bottle and placing it on the shelf. “Until then, we have tasks to accomplish. Our primary task is herb harvesting down in the valley.”

“The valley? By the village?” asked Rylir. Now he was the one who felt a little nervous. It had been three months since he had been there, and it was going to be odd going back. He could still recall the place where he was nearly beaten to death in the woods and the crime for which he was guiltless.

“Yes,” replied Essie. She was not sure if it was simply because they had spent more time together or if she was more in tune with her hand sized roommate, but she paused in gathering her supply bag as she heard something in Rylir’s tone that caught her attention.

Was it apprehension? Nervousness? Perhaps a little of all of the above?

She too remembered the first day she met Rylir in the woods. He had nearly been beaten to death for some crime his accusers claimed he did. Of course, upon seeing her they fled and left Rylir to whatever fate they thought the Sorceress of Fanged Ridge had planned for him, but that was quite some time ago. Still, while she thought enough time had passed, she elected to make him an offer instead.

“Rylir, if you do not wish to accompany me because of your past experience with the inhabitants of the village, I completely understand,” stated Essie.

“No,” dismissed Rylir. “I… I want to come with you. You’re replanting some of the herbs, right? The ones that die every year? I want to help.” Essie felt a soft smile cross her lips as she glanced at the small man.

He really was a brave one, wasn’t he?

“Very well,” she stated. “Gather your kit and don your cloak. We will depart as soon as you are ready.”

The two of them dressed quickly and, within minutes, Rylir was in his place in the pocket of Essie’s hood and the two of them were speeding down the mountainside in record time. Rylir was getting more used to traveling at Essie’s rapid speed. The spell she uttered each time made her faster than her normal stride, and it made the journey smooth.

The weightless feeling as she jumped from stone to stone initially weakened him to his core and made his knees shake. Now, however, there was an exhilaration to each leap. He leaned against the fabric and furs to heave in gasps of fresh mountain air as Essie ran. The snow barked trees were a mere blur, and it wasn’t until they had practically descended the entire mountain that anything looked different.

Down in the valley below, the snow had completely melted and left behind the moist undergrowth of sprouting trees, bushes, and herbs. Essie crouched and maneuvered through the trees as though she were performing an elegant dance, shifting and maneuvering around without disturbing a single twig.

It wasn’t until she reached a small clearing that she stopped and crouched, completely silent in her movements. She inhaled deeply, taking in the information of the valley forest. Rylir leaned out and tried to do the same, but there was no way he could glean as much information as the wizard he was with from a single breath.

“We should deposit some of the plants here. This moist underbrush will make for an excellent habitat for these herbs,” said Essie as she pinched a cluster from the pouch with her right hand. “Care to participate? Or would you rather watch?”

“I’d like to help,” said Rylir. Essie nodded and reached up with her left hand, waiting patiently for Rylir to climb out onto her shoulder and kneel on her palm. He was lowered to the ground where he took a bundle of herbs from Essie and began planting, carving away the leaves and carefully nestling the roots as Essie taught him.

“Very good,” she commended once he had finished. “You certainly are making a fine herbologist, Rylir.” Rylir glanced up into her features, once again captivated by her complexion which blended with the shadows and left only her ice shard-colored eyes and whisps of stark white hair that peeked out from under her hood.

Was it just him? Had something changed? Or had she always been this striking?

“Ready to move? We should not linger for too long,” said Essie as she extended her hand down for him to climb onto. Rylir nodded in acknowledgement before climbing on and letting her carry him to the next area.

They continued the same process, repeating it over and over until they were near the forest’s edge. Rylir could just barely make out the shape of the structures that formed the houses and homes of people like him.

As Essie took care of the next batch of plants, he stepped over and stared at the town, watching it from afar. It seemed like an entirely different world now. At least, it was different than the world he chose to live in.

He sighed, wondering silently to himself if he missed it; and, oddly enough, he wasn’t if he did miss that world.

Rylir turned to walk back toward Essie when something caught his eye. It was a piece of parchment nailed to a nearby tree. It seemed out of place, which peaked his curiosity. He had undoubtedly picked that up from Essie.

Seeing she was still working, crouched under the canopy of trees, he approached the parchment and stared at it. It was a sketch of a person mixed with a block of text.

Immediately, his insides churned.

Essie had been teaching him his letters for some time now, and he didn’t recognize all of them immediately. However, he did recognize the sketch. The sketch was of his friend, Ven. He was a fellow nomad from a different town that had gone under years ago. Uneasy, he stared long and hard at the text below the image.

The letters he did recognize spelled out something that made his heart sink.

“Nomad Found! Trial today! For crimes of theft, assault, and …” Rylir couldn’t make out the last one, but his head was spinning too fast for him to try and sound out the letters anyway.

Whatever it was, it couldn’t be true.

It just couldn't be.