Gabrio knew the road back to the fleet was long. There were many obstacles in the way, and he understood that this was fairly better than the last.

The mount they rode didn’t need anything other than water and the sustenance it gets from eating the grass around it. Gabrio saw that most of the area they started to travel was a treeless plain that had little grass, and the closer they got the center of the river, he found that there was a cold gust that would blow from the north without warning.

“I wish I had a journal to record the area,” he said. Mana, who was controlling the mount, surveyed the area with eyes examining every red blade grass that they come across.

As they traveling on a dirt path, Gabrio heard the crunch of leaves below them. Not far from the path they were traveling was a river, and behind that river was a small mountain forest. Coming close to the river, the sound of river water rushing through the bank, rocks, and it came to his attention that he did not recognize any of the trees growing. Mana looked clueless at the sight of them. Closer to the side of the river, he saw the rocks and gravel layered on top of the river. Not far from this layer, he saw fallen trees that had come to fall across the river, forming a natural dam, but not all of the water was prevented by the dam.

“We should get some water,” Gabrio said. He dismounted, slide down the river, and filled the water skins with fresh river water. Further examination of the river, he found out that it was flowing through what seem to be a sprint, and had concluded that it should be fine if they drink it, but he thought that he only should once he had decided that it was clean to drink.

The mountains could be seen, no, they were more like hills and small mountains covered in a layer of fog. He had also realized that although they had been traveling through a treeless plain, there was a part of the field that was bald. He had observed that most of the grasses were either green or red, sometimes, mixing together to form quite a rather view.

Going back to the mount, he placed the water skin inside the saddle of the mount, and fixed his gaze on the intersecting hills north of where they were standing.

“Can you still follow where the fleet is located?”

“I can,” Mana sang a song, and the spirits that were blending with the view appeared. They were clearer to Gabrio now after being implanted with a treeheart.

Mounting the beast, they moved alongside the river, crossing giant mossy logs that been uprooted and dragged near the banks. Turning to the left, they decided to enter a forest that would allow them to circle around the ravine they found. Shrubbery, overgrow grasses, and leafy paths that made the beast trudged through ankle-length grasses.

Most of the land was fragmented, to his educated guess was caused by earthquake that split the land. From what he could deduce, the people of this land were traversing using these natural bridges created by falling trees and boulders that rolled to create paths. Of course not all of these fallen trees and boulders became a convenient pathway.

“The spirits are telling me to look out. I cannot bring out my strength with most of my control is in the beast right now.”

“I wonder, how do you control these beasts, anyway? Do you control them by assuming dominance on their brains?”

“Not exactly, it’s mostly letting what we control believe that the place we are looking, they are looking, is the same play they are going as well. It is more a tunnel-vision that allowed them to focus on one thing only. Though what I am doing is puppetry that allows me to control their limbs, so this is a two-level method that I need to assert to the beings.”

The mount came across a giant white tree that had quite a smooth texture, it didn’t have those rough and cracked texture that most of the trees that they had come across have.

Deeper into this vegetation filled forest. Gabrio found himself unable to see fifteen meters from his mount. Though they had guidance from the spirits, and Man looked relaxed. Gabrio didn’t worry, and clung to the large saddle, trying to relax his body, and recover any pains and wounds he had sustained.

“You okay?”

“Fine. Just need to tend to my wounds. Some of them are aching, probably not fully healed as I thought they would. Most of the wounds are close, and there should be problem about opening them, but I have to be careful. How about you?”

“Doing fine, the spirits like the area and they absorb much from the raw and purge energy that they are eating here. They seem to be fond of you, Gabrio.”

“Is that so?”

Gabrio waved at the spirits who were running around them, circling around them as if they were odd creatures that piqued their curiosity. One of the creatures flew up, circled around the big white smooth tree, and glided back and forth before swaying down like a leaf.

“Playful, aren’t they?”

“They are.”

“They treat you as their own helpless cousin now.”

“Is that so?”

“Be glad,” she said. “Most of them don’t care about the treeheart, but from what I can tell, they simply didn’t know that you have the treeheart, and had assumed that you are part of us. I do suspect that the earth mother is the main cause of their fondness towards you. Despite the misfortune, I believe that you were given favors because of your will.”

“No, I should thank you. I was…using you as crutch, and I believe that I wouldn’t have been able to keep on if I didn’t have someone I needed to help. The doctor’s oath that I had taken during my time as an apprentice, was something that I would never go against.”

“It won’t be long until we reach the fleet. We just to have keep on moving forward.”

Gabrio nodded. The mounted beast kept on moving until they reached what seem to seem to be a tree-less mountain with stones and fragile earth. There was nothing much to say other than it took time for them to cross the path with how many loose gravel there was. If it wasn’t for the weight of their mounted beast, and the guidance of the spirits.

Gabrio found it hard to still accept the clear forms of the spirits. His earlier hypothesis was wrong, and these creatures were not something that could be classified as alive or dead. They were life itself, living on, neither good or evil, but they are able to affect one another through the ‘songs’ that the Elven-kin used.

“How is ‘Silence’ able to conjure power?”

Mana held the reins with a single hand. “It does by singing a song that was made by them. The spirits know many language, they understand every creature in the planet. It as they say, ‘from the earth they are born’ and it applies to them as well. We are made from the soil, and through the end of our lifespan, we return to the soil.”

“Multi-lingual creatures huh,” Gabrio nodded. “So this ‘Silence’ is able to communicate through a different language.”

“Yes, but his control is as you have seen, terrifying, and if we are not careful, we might lose our lives.”

“What about the Blinder of Light?”

“He’s different…the way the Blinder manifests power belongs to a different way altogether. Think of it as being gifted into allowing him to control the power itself. The light has a strange way of gifting abilities, unlike we who are chosen by the Mother Earth. It had been long since someone was gifted with a treeheart, thought unfortunately you don’t have the ‘tongue’ to speak the language.”

“But you did say right now that there are many languages that they used.”

“There is, but most of the time we don’t have cases like you do. The Chancellor of Aon is the same, but he has the tongue since he had come from the bloodline that shared the blood. Doctor, you are one of the fortunate ones who have become ‘blessed’ despite having no blood.”

“I had died, right?”

“Yes, in a way,” Mana said without a pause, “the earth mother had resurrected you, she did not bring you to life, but merely restarted your beating heart by implanting the treeheart inside you. I think there should be complaints, and I think that you deserve it, Doctor.”

“Do I?”

“Yes, the earth mother had chosen, and even if they do realize. They can only keep silent, since your heart beats the same way as ours now. They will understand once they hear the beating of your heart.”

The journey continued. Along the way, they found themselves walking through jungles, forest, and pastures. Once in a while, they would stop take a breather, stretching their limbs, before continuing on. The closer they got, the stronger the boom of the artillery. It had been weeks since they were thrown away. There are time where Gabrio wondered how he had survived. Was it willpower? Was it the strength of his desire? But in the end, he knew that he had done so barely. If Mana wasn’t around, and if he hadn’t made an impression to them.

He had heard from Mana how a gray spirit saved his life. How that spirit allowed himself to be an instrument to resurrect his sleeping heart. Gabrio could recall a gray spirit he gave a cloth to. To cure it when it fall.

“To think that a little act of kindness done by a whim would save my life.”

“It was not out of your whim, Doctor. I am sure you had done it out of your nature.”

“Is that so?”

“I don’t think anyone would go out of their way to do what you do, Doctor.”

“Thank you. But if you keep praising me like that, my head just might go big you know?”

They shared laugher. They didn’t stay in the villages and towns that they had visited unless it was necessary. Through their journey sometimes means that he had to take a gamble and visit the villages as a traveling Doctor, and diagnose the sick ones. One thing that Gabrio had noticed was how little they know of medicine, and he did not mind sharing his knowledge as long as it could help. He traded what he knew and was given food and supplies. In their long journey through the Icean Spine, they had come gotten to know each other. They shared long talks under the moon, and have chats during strangely warm sun of the Icean Spine.

The journey had many ups and down. Sometimes, the cold wind that comes from the north where the mountains were blew stronger. The journey that should have took them forty days to fifty days, became longer as they took shelter against the storm and harsh winds. Gabrio became stronger as well, the body that had he had, nourished with treeheart had allowed him full recovery from the wounds that he had sustained from all the fighting that he had done.

It was then that they had finally found the great Brampi River and the bridge that allowed them to cross it. To their surprise, there was a flag that they recognized flying in the tower near the bridge. Taking a gamble, Gabrio pulled out the flare gun he kept inside his bag, launching a red colored smoke from their direction.

It didn’t take long for mounted riders to surround them with the barrel of their rifles pointed at them. “Who are you people? Why did you launch that flare?”

“Is there anyone I can talk soundly here?”

“D-doctor?”

Among them, he saw a familiar figure.

It was Robert.

“Hey, I am not dead. Also, Miss Mana is with me.”

Mana nodded their head at them, showing her ears and unusual hair. Their outfit didn’t differ from what they wore, and the pistol that Gabrio carried, alongside his bag was enough of an indication.

“Doctor,” Robert couldn’t help but grinned,” you’re alive damn it!”

It was nice to see someone familiar finally.