Rain again, it was always raining on that day. Firlana could remember it clearly, though it was more like she couldn’t forget even if she wished too. It was a normal day as any other at first but it was especially dim outside due to the heavy clouds hiding the sky behind them. The dark grey sky perfectly matched the tall grey buildings around her. It was like the city itself was sad and torn, which perfectly matched the atmosphere. There were still riots and occasional fights downtown, so the schools still remained closed due to safety reasons.

As she sleepily got out of bed and left her room, clothes changed, she went to meet up with Dak. She had to go to her dads to get some supplies they decided to go together. Her mom would probably feel safer that way anyway. They were gonna pass through the school to go there so that’s where they met up. She longingly looked at that old building where their peaceful life was not so long ago, now also dim and empty like everything else. The neighbourhood was supposedly pretty far from the commotion so they didn’t worry much about meeting trouble, but were still on guard.

As they slowly walked passed the block, they could hear screams coming from the direction of all the fighting. A chill went down her spine as she listened… it was like they were being massacred…

What exactly is going on there…?

She thought to herself, but then decided it’s probably better for her to never find out seeing as she won’t be able to have a peaceful dream after knowing. They slowed down just in case and in turn, the screams started dissipating. After a few moments of silence, they started hearing a loud sound coming from that direction but it sounded like it was further away machinery working or something like that? She wasn’t quite sure what it was.

After a few more seconds though she was unlucky to find out as she could finally see a massive wave of water coming in from the distance, as it slowly crept closer to them. Both her and Dak were just staring at it speechless as it was growing in size as it neared. At that point, they no longer paid attention to the voices in the distance. They just sat there waiting, as they closed their hands locking their fingers as her body felt the pressure against it.

She tried pushing back when she suddenly kicked up from her bed. It was raining outside, but the night sky wasn’t as full of clouds so she could see that it was starting to get light outside. She was entirely drenched, her clothes covered in rainwater and sweat. Looking up she could see a board in the ceiling had given in, probably due to the roof leakage from the roof, dropping a bunch of water on her.

Almost every time it rained she had this nightmare. She sighed as she laid back down slowly as she thought to herself:

I’ll have to get a new room…

As the morning progressed it had stopped raining and some of the smaller puddles had started to dry out. Dak, Firlana, and Vyria were already in front of the Adventurers Guild. The first two had small backpacks on their back with supplies for their incursion while the latter had only a few small pouches with basic potions and an empty one for useful things they find on the way.

After a few more minutes Stella came along happily while dragging a sleepy Dallia along and not late after Truelip also showed up. All three of them were also carrying small pouches as well.

“Didn’t you buy any food and supplies for today…?” Dak asked Truelip, as he rubbed the back of his head.

“The less we carry the better, no? Even you guys aren’t carrying much.”

“I guess that’s true… But how are you going to fight? You aren’t thinking of getting lucky and stealing your opponent's weapon and using it against them.” he replied timidly

“How did you know?” The blond replied, knowing fully well that she had already done it once.

He sighed in return “Okay then… I can give you one of my spare swords if you need it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Okay then, is everyone ready? Dak asked everyone as they nodded back before they set out.

As they started moving west towards the town's exit, the streets started getting busier as people were finally waking up to go to work, yet as they went further and further away from the center both the buildings and the crows started to go get smaller instead. After about 5 minutes of walking they could finally see the walls in the distance, although they weren’t close to them yet. It was quite peaceful as they all walked quietly and still sleepily out of the city. The birds were singing their morning melodies as cheerful noises came from restaurants and inns.

After a couple more minutes of walking, they were finally at the base of the city wall. They were quite extensive, going up to 50 meters (164’) tall and the front gate was wide open inwards towards the city as the massive metal spikes hanging from the porch were in front of the gate. There were a few people going in and out of the city at a constant rate, but they were all being checked by the guards. In fact, one of them was the boy who was with Truelip the first day. He now had guards armor though it still was slightly tinted red like how his leather armor was, but his brown eyes and hair, which was short and messy, didn’t really stand out much.

There wasn’t really a line, but they did have to wait for two other small groups to go through before them. When it finally came their turn, is when he noticed her.

“Ah, it’s you again…” he replied as he looked around at the people around her.

“Hi, hi. I see you’re busy as usual.”

“So you decided to go outside the city on a quest…?”

“Yes”

Of course, she didn’t really talk much as usual so he just nodded as Stela handed him the quest flyer and he looked at it, felt dizzy as he read it and let them through as he continued his guard duty.

Passing through Stela whispered to the others “Was he shaking…?”

“Don’t mind him, he’s probably cold from being under that porch this early in the morning.” Truelip replied without hesitation.

“Ah, I guess that makes sense” Stela continues “he’s probably bored from standing there all day!” she says while punching at the air energetically.

“Probably.” Truelip added.

Everyone else didn’t know what to make out of the conversation they just witnessed so they raise their shoulders and decide to ignore it.

Looking out into the distance the forest surrounding the city could be seen with a single main road leading towards it. ON the way there were multiple tall grass plains, covering the entire horizon. The weeds went as high as 120 centimeters (3’ 11”) almost up to Truelip’s head. Looking out to her right, Truelip could see a lonely oak tree, sitting atop a slightly elevated piece of land, that surprisingly had yellow grass around it instead, which was also shorter and in fact looked to be only slightly longer than normal grass.

Dak noticed her staring out into the fields and spoke up.

“That’s where most new adventurers go after getting a grasp of thing in the city. Despite its peaceful looks, there is some wildlife that roams these fields so they’re good for training and also getting some money and skills from harvesting their skin, teeth and claws.”

“I see.” Truelip responded as she nodded.

“Of course we’ll be going on the main road which they don’t like to go through since they lose their natural cover.” Firlana said hoping to calm Truelip if she got worried and Dallia who had swallowed when she heard that.

They didn’t speak much else as they slowly walked towards the forest in the still rathe morning. As they entered the forest the how atmosphere changed as they could instantly feel it get colder, due to the canopy overhead preventing from the light reaching them, with the exception of lone rays seeping through the many leaves. The deeper they went the more diverse sounds they could hear coming from the wildlife there.

“After we reach the branch off, we’ll be headed North-West due to the cultists in the South-West.” Firlana informed everyone else with a cautious tone.

“Lana, you’re being too cautious, I’m sure we can take them all on if we were serious!” Stela said with closed eyes and her hands behind her head.

“That confidence will get you killed someday you know” Vyria reproached as she stopped reading her book for a moment, to do so.

“Y-yes! It would be very bad if we lost you Stela!” quietly responded Dallia to the conversation in hand, despite her reluctances to do normally.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll heal me the moment anything bad happens to any of us!” the elf continued.

“But still…” the priest girl, in turn, tried pleading.

“You shouldn’t raise death flags so casually. Only strong people can allow themselves such haughtiness.” Truelip interjected into the conversation.

“Pff, you guys are such killjoys.” Stela said with a lamenting tone at which point no one continued the conversation, hands still behind her head.

Soon after they reached the aforementioned fork in the road. It split into three other roads, going North-West, West and South-West. Of course, they all went to the North one, though Stela had a disappointed expression on her face, though no one spoke up. After walking for a few hours the canopy had cleared out over their heads a little as the warm light, coming from the still rising sun, landed on their chilled faces. After that Dak and Lana who were at the front of the group were mostly staring into the distance above the trees. They continued so until they saw three mountains in the distance, though their high was not their greatest quality. After that Lana spoke up again.

“We should have to go North from here then, into the forest.”

Everyone just nodded, Dallia, gripping tightly her staff, as they moved off the road and headed in the forest they could hear the birds chirping at each other, as woodpeckers were treating trees and even leaves moving could be audibly heard clearly. Of course during all that despite her eyes being closed and hands still behind her head, Stela's ears were constantly twitching and tuning slightly towards the different sounds. It also slightly creeped out Lana as she couldn’t get used to it, but thankfully she was at the front this time, but the mental image was so burned into her memory that she could just feel it happening behind her back. As they were walking Dak and Lana were looking around for something, as it was approaching noon, when they finally saw a clearing in the forest and headed towards it.

“Okay guys, we’ll be setting up camp here.” Dak says as both of them put down their backpacks.

There was a small slightly burned patch of grass in the center with small rocks around it and there were a few logs scattered around which Dallia instantly set on and sighed as her little legs could finally take a rest.

“I’ll go look for some twigs and dry grass.” Vyria said as she finally put her book in one of the pouches.

“Okay, we shouldn’t take long here.” Lana said as they were taking out sleeping bags, pots, bowls, boards and other utensils.

“Then I’ll go hunt some wildlife.”

“What about a weapon…? There’s not one you can steal from them?” Dak scoffed instantly.

“Guess I’ll have to use a rock then.” Truelip replied in turn as she turned around and went in the opposite direction of Vyria, so she doesn’t scare off her prey.

Dak just sighed as he tried to not think about the conversation he just partook in.