Rume was about to leave the boundary of the village, and was closing in on the forest. She had been at this part of the village, right next to the forest a few times now. However, she never went within there, so she was a bit nervous.

But that said, she didn’t falter. She never heard anyone being killed nor harmed from entering the forest. Not only that, she recalled the words of the beautiful lady she met earlier. Somehow, that made her feel more at ease, even for just a little.

Right next to the forest, she stopped. She prepared herself by taking several deep breaths. She will be entering a new territory now, a place where she had never been, a place completely unknown to her. This was probably like going on her first big errand.

She gripped the basket in her hand tightly to strengthen her resolve.

“Alright! Here I go!”

She took her first step into the forest. Instantly, as she walked a little deeper into the forest, she felt the overwhelming sizes of the trees surrounding her. The trees appeared gigantic with her height.

“...I wonder where I can find those herbs.”

The little girl looked around, but she couldn’t find it. Perhaps it can be found further within the forest, so she continued forward. She forgot what the herb was called. Well, the name was quite complicated for her to remember so easily. In any case, she remembered all too well what it looked like. She was confident she could distinguish the herb from other plants with ease.

Her steps were slow for being wary of the surroundings. The thick leaves of the tall trees sure did bring some shades below. Good thing she went in the forest about in the middle of noon. She wasn’t exactly sure what time it was, perhaps it was already past noon. In any case, what was important to know was that the sun was still high.

At a moment she wondered and imagined how this place would be at night. The scene of utter darkness with eyes glowing beside her came up in her head. It wasn’t a really good idea to do that, so she dismissed the thought.

Time went on and yet she hadn’t found anything. She thought it was strange, she expected she would find those herbs easily considering this was a forest. She was already further within the forest. However, she had been moving in a straight line all this time. Therefore, she was somewhat confident that she won’t get lost.

After a few minutes, she looked back.

“I didn’t go so far, did I?”

To be honest, she began wanting to come back for a while. It felt so distant now that she began to feel a bit worried. Knowing which direction was one thing, but getting distant from the village was another thing.

She pondered whether she should come back. She could come back, but what if she was just a few steps away from discovering those herbs. But getting farther away was scary. 

In the end, gathering her resolve, she decided to take a few more steps forward.

As she turned around, something flew by her eyes. In reflex, she backed away.

“--What was that?”

She turned around to find whatever it was. She took a full turn, but didn’t find it. For a moment she saw it, it was tiny so that must be why it was hard to see it. Or perhaps it has flown away.

However, she had a slight feeling something was floating above her head. She never looked up yet, so she decided to do it now.

And there it was. A small glowing creature hovering above her head. It was the first time she had ever seen something like it. She did not waver nor was afraid. This new creature was not intimidating but rather mesmerizing.

“Haha!”

She giggled and laughed as the tiny creature circled around her head. The creature had a pair of wings flapping about, it somewhat resembled the shape of a heart when placed together. The wings had beautiful patterns which Rume could not trace with a glance. 

Then the bottom of its body to its tail glowed with yellow illumination, reminding her of a torch. The radiance was not very obvious from a distance under the sunlight, but looking closely, one could easily see the glow. Its head had what looked like two antennas which glowed the same light from its bottom part.

Then the body itself was dark brown, this was like a butterfly. However, Rume had already seen a butterfly, the difference was that butterflies glow through their entire body, or in other words, butterflies were like colorful lights given form.

In contrast, it has what seemed like four arms, or it could be legs. They were just in a form of stick, so she had trouble determining which one it was, perhaps they were supposedly legs. Its pair of black eyes were so tiny that Rume found it cute.

“You’re pretty! What are you called I wonder.”

She tried to slowly reach for it with a smile on her face on discovering something new and pretty. However, like any butterfly, it avoided her hand.

“Oh.”

It flew away from here before stopping a couple of meters from her. It was hovering in the direction she was going, so she decided to follow it with a little sprint.

She giggled at the sight as it flapped its wings.

“Wow! Look how you fly.”

Seeing it fly around made her want to keep it. However, she felt like it was somewhat cruel to keep or imprison a creature such as this. Thus, she resisted her desire to capture it.

But at least, she at least wanted the creature to land on her finger or something. She never got to do it on a butterfly, so she hoped it would happen this time.

She extended her finger forward right below the creature as it tried to stay away.

“... Come on, it’s fine. I won’t hurt you…”

She tried all she could. She tried slowly reaching out, but to no avail. It was totally avoiding her. It was very disappointing.

She kept trying until it finally flapped away in a quick speed and away from the direction Rume was heading. Seeing the creature had strayed away from her path, she decided to leave it be.

“Aaaw. There it goes… Too bad I didn’t get to touch it.”

She sighed in disappointment, then looked forward. Just then, her eyes widened after seeing something right on the protruding roots of the trees. Green herbs spread out and curled among the roots. She looked around and the same herbs were around other trees. What made her smile was that these herbs were familiar. In fact, these herbs were the one she was looking for.

“Yes! There they are!”

She rushed towards a tree and immediately laid the basket on the ground as she plucked the herbs carefully. She felt a sense of relief.

“Hehehe… might as well fill up the basket.”

It was best to get as many herbs as possible. After getting everything under one tree, she moved on to the next one. A short time had passed, the basket now filled with the green herbs, she stood up and prepared to move out.

“Wew. Finally, time to get back.”

She turned around and recalled if that was the way she went through. Instantly, she concluded that was it, she was quite confident about it.

She took a couple of steps, just then she suddenly stopped in her tracks. She held her breath in surprise as she remained silent.

A creature, the same size and appearance as a full grown wolf, stepped out and stood in her path. This creature was another new creature she encountered. The creature was furry, it had four legs with sharp claws. Its fur was greenish dark with a few strands of brown. It had fierce greenish eyes.

Its head, similar to a wolf, had short fangs protruding from its mouth. Its ears were pointy, its black nose had two pieces of hair on each side, resembling those of a cat. It has a long dark green tail with a brown furry and pointy end.

The creature turned its head at Rume, she trembled as she stared at its eyes. With the creature’s fierce form, and size which was bigger than her, Rume couldn’t help but step back with fear.

Frightened, she couldn’t move any further as she froze. At the same time, hoping that the creature would go away. They stared at each other for a short moment before another one came flying towards the first creature. The second creature jumped at the first, the latter squealed at a moment.

Surprised, Rume rushly stepped back causing her almost to fall, luckily she was able to keep her balance. She thought to wait it out, the creatures might leave her alone and leave. Otherwise, if she tried to escape, she might lose her way. She doesn’t want to get lost.

What if she gets lost? What if she would be unable to return to her village?

Then she will lose her home. Mr. Esmon might get more sick without the medicine she was carrying. Thus, all she could do was pray the creatures would go away.

However, it did not go the way she prayed it to be. After the two creatures rattled with each other, they turned to look at Rume. After that, the two slowly spread out, with each moving slowly on each side as though preparing to attack their prey.

It was apparent that the situation was getting dire, Rume could tell it. If she won’t move now, she will undoubtedly get attacked. With her shaking breathing, she forced herself to run. She turned and ran away with much force her legs could manage.

Her breathing turned rapid, her heart throbbing intensely, her forehead beaded with sweat. Fear all over her. As she ran for her, she held her basket firmly.

She didn’t know if they were still chasing her. She was all focused on running away. She couldn’t find the luxury to pay attention to her surroundings that could tell if they were still on her tail. She couldn’t turn in any direction but straight ahead. She didn’t even notice which direction she went from where she originally was.

She was already getting tired of what felt like such a short time. She wanted this to be over already. Unable to sense if those creatures were still chasing her, she decided to turn her head while running, just to take a peek whether they were still there or not.

In a second, as her eyes shifted to the corner of her eyes, she saw the two creatures running towards her. She panicked. At the same time, her foot hit a root of a tree, never seeing it coming, she tumbled to the ground.

She felt pain on her foot, and even worse pain on her knees. The palm of her hand throbbed in pain as tiny pebbles were caught beneath them as she tried to protect her face. But she didn’t have the time to cry over the pain, she had to keep running. A little bit of the herbs spilled from her basket, but that didn’t matter, she quickly stood up and continued running.

As she ran, the pain on her feet and knees was getting more intense. Due to the fatigue and pain, her speed was slower than before. It was at that moment that the two fearsome creatures were starting to get close to her.

After a moment, all of a sudden one of them jumped at the side of her.

“Ah!”

In shock, she turned to the side while trying to dodge away. However, as she did, a rock hit her ankle, along with all the pain she felt all the way, she fell down again.

But as she hit the ground, she kept rolling down, she felt like falling, ricocheting on the ground as she fell. With every roll, it hurt, each impact gave her wounds and bruises.

She rolled down for five seconds, no, perhaps seven seconds or a bit more.

After that, about to fall unconscious, with her eyes closed, feeling all the intense pain, she felt every motion of her body had finally stopped.