“Here, Tasha, eat this.” I heard Flora say this beside me. I turned my head and although my vision was heavily blurred, I think I saw Tasha taking a potion apple from Flora. She then came over to me and was about to hand me one as well. “You too, Mr. Braith. Ah, but we should take the arrow out first,” she said, referring to the bolt still in my arm. I limply moved my hand over to the bolt and gripped it. I pulled on it and winced in pain as it resisted me. I took a short break and then pulled on it again, mustering enough strength to get it out this time. I tossed the bloody bolt to the side and resumed my heavy panting. I did not even have the arm strength left to take and eat the apple now.

“J- Just…give me…a moment…” I said in between breaths, as she still held out an apple for me.

“B-But you’re bleeding now! You need to be healed right now.” Well, I guess…you could juice it or something, I don’t know. I was going to need a bit more time before I could even explain to her the alternatives. My body simply wouldn’t be moving for a while.

“How about we feed him the apple, then?”

“Oh, we can do that. Wait, um, can he even swallow it properly? Mr. Braith?” That’s a good question, Flora. I’ll get back to you on that as soon as I can.

“Dad? Can you hear us?”

“Yeah…” I barely managed to wheeze out. My vision was blurry, which wasn’t that big of a deal since it was in the middle of the night, but my heart continued to pound like a jackhammer, which could not be good for the bleeding wound. This is what I assume; I’m not a doctor, after all.

“By my contract with the guardian tree, grant thee nature’s blessing.” Suddenly, my light-headedness and exhaustion began to dissipate. My heart rate slowed and strength gradually returned to my arms. I bent my fingers and shifted my legs a bit. Then, I just sat straight up and breathed out in relief. I looked at Flora, right next to me, her hands out in front of me, looking at me with just as much a look of surprise as I probably had.

“How did you do that?” I asked.

“I- I don’t know. I was just thinking that any powers I may have gotten from the guardian tree were wasted on me. So, um, I wondered if I could just use it on others.”

“Is that supposed to work?” I asked, curious to learn more about Farseer magic.

“Um, I’m not really sure. Grandpa never said much about that. Just said that the guardian tree lends its powers to help us.”

“Is that so?” I tried peering into the hole in my sleeve to see if the bleeding stopped. I couldn’t really tell, so although it wasn’t the best idea, I just put my finger into the hole to check to see if there was any more fresh blood. That didn’t seem to be the case. “Well, thanks.” I got back up, but stumbled a bit almost immediately. The injury was taken care of, but I was still pretty tired. It would probably be too cheap to so easily get over the side effects of using my powers so much, otherwise. Flora went over to tend to the two Battle-Hardened boys. They remained silent since our first meeting and I thought about how to delicately handle their situation.

“S-should we bury the villagers?” Tasha asked. Just laying it out there huh. Well, I didn’t think any of us are that great at being subtle.

“It’s not up to us to decide. You two, those people, True-Bloods, I think they called themselves, they said that most of the women and children ran off. Do you know if that’s true?”

“Yes, some of us ran away. We were supposed to split up and then meet up again at another nearby village.” This time, it was the older one speaking.

“Do you know where you need to go?” He nodded. “Do you need to stop by your village again?” You might think this is a rather brutal conversation to have with a pair of boys even younger than Tasha, but given the circumstances and the prior life-or-death scenario, I could hardly care less about such criticisms.

“That can wait,” the older boy said after some contemplation. “We should meet up with the others first.” I was impressed with how calm he sounded. On the other hand, the younger boy timidly held onto the older one, almost hiding his body behind him. Perhaps a more natural reaction?

“Alright. Get there safely and tell them about what’s coming. You’re going to want to move and run away as far as you can from here.” He nodded grimly. “Are there a lot of other Battle-Hardened villages in the Nature Clan’s territory, though?” I asked, curious.

“Not that many. We moved here not too long ago. The Nature Clan just kind of abandoned this area of the forests, I think. I think it had something to do with the war.”

“What about the war?” I asked, curious about this as well.

“I don’t know. The elders just mentioned it a few times.” Well, I could hardly expect the full details of this area and the reasons for their move would be known to a young boy.

“I see. Do you need any supplies to help you get to where you need to go?” I didn’t want to be completely heartless about this matter, but he shook his head at my offer. “Okay, take care then.”

“Wait, we’re just going to leave them now?” Tasha asked in surprise.

“Yes. They know where they are going. They probably know this part of the forest much better than we do as well.”

“What if something happens to them?” I didn’t have much energy to argue with Tasha’s excessive concern about others. I don’t think I need to explain too deeply why I was simply not in the mood for that.

“Then they run or hide.” I sheathed my blade and started making my way back into the forest.

“What if they can’t get away?” I stopped. I turned around to look back at Tasha and Flora.

“Then that is unfortunate.” I couldn’t make out Tasha’s face all that clearly, but I knew it was probably contorting as she prepared to continue her protest. “But there is nothing we can do about it. Tasha,” I let out a sigh of exasperation, “I cannot even fight right now. As much as Flora may try, I don’t think she can really fight either. If those same people show up again and we get in their way, they will kill us. I still don’t understand why that Lieutenant-Colonel let us go this time, but we won’t be so lucky next time. Tasha, you are a Battle-Hardened, and Flora is a Farseer. We already know full well how they see your kind.” I could hear Tasha making a random number of short sounds, struggling to put together a rebuttal.

“Please, we can go alone. We will make it. Thank you for protecting us so far,” the older boy said. Perhaps I should feel a bit of shame about having such a young boy defend me right now, but I was still glad to have any kind of support.

“Are you sure?” Tasha asked, almost insisting for them to change their answer.

“Yes.” Tasha looked to the ground and silently accepted this. We parted ways and after wandering through the forest a bit to find the luggage we dropped, we decided to just continue and leave the forest. Daybreak was in a few hours anyways. When morning came, we took a short break. I figured now was time to make a few things clear.

“Flora, you said that your Farseer powers are normally meant to empower your people?”

“Yeah.” Flora looked a bit surprised by the sudden question, but her expression showed that she was eager to answer any of my questions if it would help me in some way.

“I know you said you don’t really know much about them, but can you at least confirm this for me? The magic that lets you move the earth, does that come from the guardian tree?”

“Um, I don’t know. Maybe? I know that I’ve never been able to move the earth around like grandpa can.” She seemed more disappointed than me about not giving a clearer answer.

“Okay, another thing then. When I was fighting with the Nature Clan soldiers and the Druids, I noticed that they were actually quite strong. Physically, that is. Now, I’d expect that from the Battle-Hardened, but why is that the case for the Nature Clan? Are they just superior?”

“Um, I think that’s because of the guardian tree. At least, that’s what I tried to do when I used the power on myself, but it never worked.”

“So, the way it works for you is unique, then?” Flora put on a pensive expression for a moment.

“Well, I’ve never thought about it working like that before.” I let out a sigh. If only Hiram were here. Actually, no, I should be a bit upset with Hiram. He barely explained anything before pushing Flora onto us and telling us to run. Well, I guess he did provide us with compensation in advance. No, forget it. I should stop trying to think of this as some kind of business transaction. I guess I’ll just have to accept this and acknowledge that Flora’s powers work in a helpful but mysterious way.

“Don’t worry about it, Flora. Even if it can work differently, it works just fine for now. Dad and I are plenty strong and you can support us.” I almost scoffed at the word “support” as I thought about her frightened position with her bow.

“I want to be able to do more than just heal, though. I spent years practicing archery, and I just…I just want to be able to help like that, too,” she said, as if sensing my thoughts.

“I’m assuming you’re too scared to shoot because you don’t want to kill anyone?” I asked. I took Flora’s silence to be agreement.

“Well, Flora doesn’t need to kill anyone. None of us should be killing anyone.” I knew this was going to come up again, but I definitely wasn’t going to get riled up the same way.

“Tasha,” I began calmly, “how many villagers do you think died in that attack?”

“W-what?” she asked, shocked that I would think to ask such a thing.

“Just give me a guess. How many?” I pressured her to answer my question.

“I- I don’t know,” she stammered out. “Why does that matter?”

“Well, it was just the men that stayed behind to fight, but judging by the number of huts, it was probably around twenty or so. Twenty Battle-Hardened killed in one night by a single attack.”

“Just because they kill people doesn’t mean we can kill them as well.”

“That’s not my entire point.”

“Then, what is your point?” Tasha’s voice was quickly rising.

“My point is that despite not wanting to kill them, I know you’re going to tell me that we should stop them. While going easy on them, you want us to try to take down a group that wiped out an entire village of Battle-Hardened with just a small portion of them. We are three people, and one of us can’t even fight.”

“We are not just three people, though. Flora is a special kind of Farseer, you have a guardian spirit, and I am more than strong enough to handle myself.” Tasha was completely correct and by now, it was clear to see that she was much stronger than any ordinary Battle-Hardened, but this was far from persuasive.

“Mr. Braith has a guardian spirit?!” Oh, right, I never did say that explicitly. However, I thought she would have guessed by now, so I was really thrown off by Flora’s reaction, especially given how quiet she normally was.

“Yeah, and it’s a really strong one, too. It’s one that keeps on getting stronger!” Tasha replied excitedly.

“Tasha, you should have figured out by now that it’s not that simple. It only works for a short time, and has side effects when I overuse it. Also, there will be no getting any stronger if I die.”

“Tasha,” Flora began, cutting back into the conversation, “I think your dad has a point. We shouldn’t be chasing after those people.” Woohoo for the pacifist.

“But, we can’t just let them get away! Besides, what if we run into them again? We can’t just run away from them!” My thoughts briefly went back to the Lieutenant-Colonel, and I noticed my fingers tremble slightly. I made a fist to stop it.

“If they attack us, we will defend. But we cannot be reckless if it’s just the two of us fighting. Especially if they go after Flora in the middle of the fight. This is why, Tasha, if this does happen, I will not be light with them. All of my attacks will be aimed to kill.”

“No, you can’t do that!” I briefly looked over to Flora to see if she would have anything to add. She had an expectant expression on her face for some reason, but she only silently observed.

“If you don’t want to kill them, then fine. I will not force you to, but I will not take such risks. Whenever you don’t aim to kill, any slight misstep has a greater chance of failing to bring them down. At least when you go for the kill, even missing might still deal a serious injury.” I then turned to Flora to convince her as well, just in case. “I’m sure you understand as well, Flora. It’s the opposite for you, though. You probably want to be able to take them down with non-lethal force. But, if your aim is even a bit off, you might accidentally hit a vital area. This is why we cannot force battles where we have to desperately fight.” I smiled a tiny bit when I saw Flora nod in response.

“You’re right, Mr. Braith. I really do believe in my aim, but when I imagine the arrow killing someone, I don’t think I can do it. But, I won’t remain like this.” What?

“Flora, what are you trying to say?” Surely she doesn’t mean she’s actually okay with killing people. In this kind of situation, I’m not sure if that’s a bad or good thing.

“I didn’t want to try mixing something I’ve never made before, but I’ve seen grandpa make it a couple times before. If I can make a paralyzing poison, I can aim to only barely hit their body. Even a grazing blow should apply enough poison to bring them down quickly.”

“Are you referring to the poison that was used on me?”

“Yes, but a much stronger type.” I remember Hiram mentioning that. I guess he was talking from personal experience. “I don’t have to worry about killing anyone, and I can actually help fight.” She gave us an expression brimming with determination.

“Yes, I know you can do it, Flora!” Tasha gave her a hug and put on a similar expression. “We will fight them, and we can beat them without sinking to their level.” You think this is enough to sway me?

“Have you forgotten about that Lieutenant-Colonel? Do you have any plans on how to deal with him?” Tasha’s chipper expression dampened a bit, but not to the point of fear I was expecting.

“He is really strong. He won’t be easy to beat. But, we’ll think of something.” I hate arguing with kids. For now, I figured I’d just avoid giving any explicit agreement or disagreement. If we don’t encounter them again, that would be for the best. Also, even if Tasha wants to track them down, it’s not like any leads are going to come up. And if any do, I will try my best to ignore them.

We finished our break and continued our way out of the forest. Early in the afternoon, we finally made it. The sun shone warmly on our skin. We were now stepping into lush and vast grasslands as far as the eye could see. There weren’t any settlements in view, but we continued eastward. It was a bit worrisome camping out in relatively open ground, so whenever we came across any stone outcroppings, we would camp there to have just a bit of cover. We traveled for another couple days without any incident, but we ended up coming across something that renewed Tasha’s fire.

It was a village. Emphasis on the “was”. Just like the Battle-Hardened one in the forest, this village had been ransacked and burned to the ground. The attack did not happen long ago as there were still bodies littered across the ground yet to fully decompose. The dead village stood in stark contrast to the clear lake it was settled next to.

Potentially even more horrifying than this ravaged village was the fact that I could not react the way one would expect. With this scene clearly visible under the light of day, Flora had to step off to the side and throw up. Tasha stared at the scene with cold anger. As for me? I browsed around the village and wondered if anything noteworthy was left behind. I didn’t find anything like that and when I felt Tasha’s questioning gaze fall upon me, I tried to pass off my wandering as searching for clues. Even if there were any, I would have ignored it, of course. When Flora had recovered, we continued.

We traveled across the grasslands for another few days and we felt the temperature start to rise. We had left Befson early in the spring, and it was now almost summer. However, it was more than just a changing of the seasons that brought about this heat. As we got further east, the greenery of the lands gradually thinned and the ground started to turn to sun-baked earth. The map didn’t show the exact cut-off, but I figured we had just crossed over from the Northwest Grasslands and into the Lost Wastelands. In this new terrain, there were now far more rock outcroppings. They still weren’t exactly common, but you couldn’t walk more than a mile without coming across a few of them. As we took a break by one of them, I thought about what could have led to these formations. I came up with no theories on that, and not just because of my lack of knowledge of the geological sciences. Flora said she suddenly felt something approaching and although I didn’t see anything in the immediate distance, we still packed up.

Just as we finished, I could see clouds of dust starting to build up on the horizon. At this time, I learned that Flora had the keenest eyesight amongst the three of us, although I probably would have guessed that if I asked earlier. She said people riding on horses were coming towards us. It wasn’t clear that they were coming after us, but I had a bad feeling about this. However, trying to hide seemed impossible on this open ground. As they got closer, Flora confirmed that the riders were wearing fur like the True-Bloods wore. I could not imagine natives wearing fur in this environment so I assumed that the riders must be some sort of cavalry brigade of the True-Bloods. I charged up to a total of three bolts in advance. I then sized up the rock outcropping and judged it to be about twelve feet in height.

“Flora, do you think you can climb on top of this outcropping here? There isn’t that much room at the top, but there should be enough space for you to set up an archery position.”

“Great idea, dad!”

“Um, I can try.” She was clearly nervous about this, but I preferred to ignore that.

“Alright, we’ll hold onto your bow and quiver and throw it up to you.” She unequipped herself and tried climbing up the grooves of the outcropping. The riders came in closer and even I could see they were riding black horses now. Alright, we needed to do this quicker.

“Tasha, get underneath Flora to push her up, and then, I’ll push you up.” We did our strange, three-man tower and Flora got to the top. We tossed up her bow and quiver and I charged up to the fifth bolt. I was a bit wary of trying any more than that, especially under the sun’s scorching rays. The last thing I wanted was to aggravate a sudden heat stroke. The riders stopped about a hundred yards short of our position, perhaps thinking this was just close enough but out of range of our archer. I could make out one of the riders taking something off his saddle and bringing it up just in front of his face.

“The three of you!” his voice came booming in, apparently amplified by speaking into something like a megaphone. “I am Captain Belloc of the First Cavalry Brigade. If you are not Battle-Hardened or Farseer, drop your weapons immediately so we may peacefully question you.” Peacefully question, they say. Obviously, we did not comply. “If you do not throw your weapons to the ground, we will treat your actions as hostile, and we will attack!” Tasha rolled her shoulders a bit, as if suggesting she was getting tired of waiting.

“Tasha, do not take this battle lightly. We have never fought mounted troops before.”

“It’s fine. If I just knock them off the horses it’ll work out.” To be honest, as long as these were “ordinary” humans, I think that was possible with our strength. However, I would rather not underestimate them.

“It’s not that simple.”

“I can handle it. Just make sure not to kill any of them.”

“I will try.” Tasha gave me a nervous smile. I did not reciprocate.

“Last chance!” Belloc warned. Upon seeing our continued defiance, he set the voice amplifier back onto the saddle and signalled to the other dozen riders. As they galloped towards us, Flora let fly one of her arrows, but it just barely missed one of the riders in the front. It looked like Flora was still yet to get over her anxiety. I could only hope it wouldn’t take until the end of the battle for that to happen.

I split off from Tasha and went to the other side of rock outcropping as I awaited their arrival. The riders closed in, and I saw their scimitars gleaming in the sun. Two of them rode by either side of me, trying to flank me. I moved back to the rock outcropping just as they were about to enter striking distance to prevent that. One of the riders quickly fell back behind the other as they prepared to attack me serially, instead.

Feeling like a maverick, I performed a leaping strike on the first rider. My blade clashed with his and I crashed into him as he rode into me. I ended up landing awkwardly onto the horse, now seated directly in front of and facing the unconscious soldier with a bloodied chest. I was somewhat surprised to see he didn’t get knocked off his horse by the momentum, but that was not my greatest concern. The horse continued to gallop forward and the rider who was following behind sped up and was now right next to me. He slashed at me and I blocked the attack. We kept the exchange for another few attacks, appearing even mostly because I lacked maneuverability in my position. Finally, though, I found an opening that wasn’t hindered by my shaky seat and slashed at the rider’s arm. He dropped his scimitar and I swiftly followed up with another slash, but he steered his horse away from me just in time. It was at this point that I had realized I was starting to get kind of far away from Flora and Tasha. Thankfully, she was not being completely surrounded. This was because there were still another six riders coming towards me, though. They split off to either side of me. They rode in closer, flanking me with three riders on each side, one following right behind another. I dug my heels into the sides of the horse, hoping it would cause it to stop. It didn’t.

As my next course of action, I reached into the rider’s bag with my left hand, hoping to find something to help my situation. I pulled out the first thing I got my hands on just as the first pair of new riders came in to slash at me. I threw it at the one on my left to distract him as I slashed at the one on my right. Perhaps I had gotten more used to my position, but my attack came in fast and sharp and cut deep into that rider’s arm. I quickly looked to my left and saw that he was drenched in water. I think I threw a canteen at him.

I kicked at the horse’s side with my left foot, hoping it would steer it in one direction or the other. The horse steered right into the rider’s horse and the impact was almost enough to unseat me. I slashed at the confused rider and he dropped his weapon as he grasped at his bleeding chest. I did hold back a little bit, but judging by how much blood came out, I wasn’t sure he was going to make it. Over on my right side, the next rider in line had rode up to me and attacked me. I tried to duck as much as I could, but the unconscious rider was kind of in the way. The slash glanced off the back of my hide armour and I quickly shot back up to slash at him. He tried to steer away, but my attack came in just in time to connect with his scimitar, which hit it with enough force to knock it out of his hand.

Before I had time for any kind of celebration, though, the second rider to my left and the last rider to my right rode up next to me and attacked me at the same time. I shoved the unconscious rider in front of me to my left while kicking at the horse with my right foot. I blocked the incoming attack on my right as my horse steered into his. The attack on my left was interrupted by both the sudden turn and the fact that the unconscious rider was briefly in the way. He still didn’t fall off the horse though. I slashed at the rider on my right once more as the one on my left got in closer again. I cut deep into the rider’s arm and he rode off as his scimitar clattered to the ground. The one on my left tried to cleave my neck and I ducked just barely in time.

I then swung at him as his blade passed over my head, but it was a bad angle and I missed. When he came in to attack again though, I had recovered and I blocked it. I immediately followed up with another attack aimed at his scimitar, hoping it would knock it out of his hand. His arm was brought low and his body was forced to lean downwards by the force of my attack but he held on. I kicked at the horse with my left foot to steer into him and slashed at his shoulder just as he was straightening back up on the saddle. He rode away from me, having lost his weapon and gained a grievous wound. I prepared to face off against the last rider still chasing me, but he actually pulled away from me. The other injured riders fell back with him, and then, I saw them turn around and head back to the rock outcropping.

By this time, I noticed that we had actually gotten quite far from Tasha and Flora. I had no idea how to make the horse turn around to follow him, and it would probably take too much time to figure out how to turn around and get seated properly on the saddle. I put my left arm onto the shoulder of the unconscious rider and pushed up while digging my heels at the side of the horse, trying to stand up. It was a reckless idea if I didn’t have high confidence in my strength and dexterity. I was now no longer seated and in an awkward squat-like position on the horse. I lifted up my left foot very quickly and then kicked off the horse with that same foot while pushing off with my left arm at the same time. It did not work out quite as intended. I jumped off a few feet off the horse, but before I could get away completely, my leg collided with the still-seated rider. I spun around in mid-air and then crashed and tumbled across the ground. I picked myself back up quickly and sprinted back to the outcropping, charging up one additional bolt through my legs as I dashed off. As I approached, I saw Flora miss another shot and the riders started scattering. Some were a bit slower at that than others, probably the ones I had seriously injured, but it looked like they were actually retreating. Well, I wasn’t completely satisfied just yet.