Althea Anfeald

I had a dilemma, one that made the blood in my head boil. "How am I supposed to stop these darn shroombeasts from outsmartin' me?" I thought aloud, my lone voice echoing through the forest.

A duo of the aforementioned shroombeasts, living mushrooms with a pair of beady black eyes on their stem, made their way onto a frosted tree branch above me. With a snicker, they shoved a pile of snow off the tree branch that slammed against my head with an icy cold plop.

"Cut it out already!" I struck the trunk and the whole tree quaked, silencing the snickers of the living mushrooms. Seconds later, a bigger avalanche of snow from higher up on the tree plummeted down onto me. The stifled snickers from above erupted into more hearty, headache-inducing clicks.

"Oh, real funny…"

I laid defeated on the ground, snow disintegrating into mist against my sweltering skin. In the fall, the orange-capped shroombeasts I'd gotten used to dealing with on my own were calm and cooperative once it came time to gather them. But as the end of the year approached, the winter shroombeasts were rude, territorial, and cold-hearted. A perfect storm for a frustrated fourteen-year-old alchemist in training.

"Alrighty, Althea. Three ways to approach this:"

1. The usual, old-fashioned way: Cutting all the shroombeasts up. I'd have to catch them first, which meant wasting valuable daylight, but it'd be better than heading home with nothing.
2. Luring them like my mama does, by talking to the shroombeasts all nice-like. But according to Mama, in that same stern voice I could almost hear in my head, 'the mushrooms don't like your tone, Althea. They'll never listen to you if you speak like that'. I didn't think much of it, but until then I'd never felt pressured enough to test so. Food had been running thin at home lately and the forest was growing colder and colder day by day, leaving the third option...
3. Giving up.

After that final, unacceptable choice crossed my mind, I rose right out of the snow and cursed at myself for even thinking of it. Come on, you're an Anfeald! Anfeald's don't just give up! We need the money from selling the winter potions so we can afford to eat, got it? Get your head in the game, Althea!

I had the questionable, but well intentioned idea that this was a good chance to try out something new today. Know, what? I'll just make em' listen, I yelled out into the forest. Yeah, that could work!

"Hey! Shroombeasts," I caught the attention of the taunting duo above. "Look, you're gonna end up coming back home with me whether y'all like it or not! So, we can do this easy-like or I can make this tough for you. Whaddya say—"

Volleys of snowballs pelted me from all directions, thrown from multiple trees occupied by shroombeasts. Okay, mama was right, that was a complete, total failure...

"...That's it," I erupted from the pile of snow I was buried under, brandishing my hunting knife above my head. "Option one it is!"

 

After around an hour of chasing and incapacitating shroombeasts to take back home, I set down my half-full pack basket in the snow. As I stretched and contemplated to myself, I took a deep, much-needed breath. 

"Alrighty, lookin' good enough for today! We can make up for lost time by gettin' up a bit earlier next time, right, mama—?"

After my question was answered by the forest's silence, I froze in place.

"Ah god, not again," I quickly shook off that mistake, clapping my hands against the sides of my face to pep myself up. "You're on your own now, remember? Mama's not out here to help all the time, so you gotta carry your weight out here for everybody's sake. You've got this, okay!"

Putting on a warm smile, I slung the pack basket over my shoulders and began to head down the path back home.

Then, I heard something that sent me into full alert. 

The quiet, yet distinct sound of boots in the snow was unmistakable. 

On instinct, I ran and dove behind a large tree. Well it wasn't exactly large, it's more that I was quite small, but that's beside the point...

...Peeking out from my average-sized hiding spot, I saw three figures walking side by side in the distance. They were young demons, wielding weapons that were much too worn-down for hunting anything. Actually from the looks of it, I was sure they'd never even hunted or fought a day in their life. 

For my first time seeing demons, at least in person, I wasn't surprised or frightened at all. Honestly, their appearance was more beast-like, rather that of an evil spirit. They also looked to be a couple years older than me at least, but it was tough to tell. All of my knowledge on their kind was from card games and the horror stories Mama would preach whenever I tried asking anything about them. Never really worked though, I knew there were much more threatening things wandering about in those woods.

The closest town is about half an hour away from here, so what're they doin' all the way out in the woods? I thought, making sure to keep it in my head rather than aloud. I waited as the voices grew closer, until I could finally make out what they were saying. 

"—That's why we're going to slay one of them!"

As I heard those words, I clenched my hunting knife with bated breath, prepared to blindside the intruders if it came down to it.

"We're going to be the ones to take out one of those sin beasts, then they'll have to believe in us!" a light voice yelled out without a care for what could've been lurking in the forest. It came from the shortest of the demons, who looked to be a Goblin-Type due to his green-tinted skin and fangs.

That runt? Taking down one of those warped monsters? That's the best joke I've heard all week.

"But, but they're supposed to be really strong and scary," a teal skinned demon, whose type I couldn't identify, spoke up in stutters with her long, piked lance dragging in the snow. "We should leave it up to the rangers, they're the ones trained for hunting the sin beasts and—"

The third and tallest one, who shared the same light-blue skin as the other demon, stopped in their tracks with a crossbow in their hands. I figured they must be the other's sibling due to their similar appearance. "Jeez, are you serious?" they said.

"Yes! I am serious," she responded, collapsing into the snow. "If we get attacked out here there's nobody to help us! We can't just expect things to go smoothly, and aghk—!"

The shorter blue-skinned demon was interrupted by her sibling pinching her cheeks. "That's exactly why we need to do this, Unni." the sibling said. 

"That... makes... zero... sense, you... jerk!" Unni kept talking, despite her face being stretched around.

"Well. You're a big baby. So I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"What, is that a joke? I'm older than you, you're the one who doesn't understand!"

Those two bickered back and forth like that for a while. It was a waste of time in my eyes. The only sibling I had was almost half my age and he never talked back to me. At least, not yet, that is.

Finally, with a longsword that was much too big for him pointed to the sky, the goblin boy interrupted the bickering siblings. "Edris is speaking the truth, Unni. A great man once proclaimed: Strength conquers all else!"

"Oh... yeah...?" Unni slapped Edris' hands off her face. "I sure wonder how that's going for him..."

In response to her comment, the Goblin-Type boy crossed his arms with a big frown on his face. "Yeah, he's… he's somewhere out there, fighting for scaredy-cats like you! I have this to prove it."

My eyes practically bulged out of my head at the sight of the foil trading card the boy held high above him. 

Holy Saint, no way! It can't be! A seven-heart Legends card? I didn't even know they could have that many! My aunt, who'd been all around the world of Occidera, would sometimes bring back packs of the now out-of-print Legends card game- made to commemorate legendary rangers, crazy strong hunters who devoted their lives to slaying the fearsome sin beasts that terrorized the world. 

The boy continued his bragging, "They put my old man on one of these cause he's fought thousands of beasts, meaning I'll follow suit, of course." 

I was too busy blessing my own luck to listen to him gloat. Forget chasin' shroombeasts, I thought. There's finally someone I can play cards with right here! Outside of my immediate family, I never had any friends to call my own. Mama and Auntie were usually too busy or tired to indulge me, and Mama's wife didn't get 'the point' of the game at all. It wasn't that bad most of the time, but surely there was much more to life than endless trees and pathetically attempting to play cards by yourself. This situation just proved it, there were five whole kingdoms just waiting for me to explore.

Maybe I was just being an overeager child, but like always, I was already daydreaming about the new phenomena of the outside world. What I had always wanted to see the most was the fantastical, twinkling night sky of the northern kingdom that you could only view from their humongous capital city. Speaking of, I'd been reading about the kingdoms even more now that Mama was stuck to her bed, indulging myself in the tales of skilled alchemists that would venture around to make a steady living. Yeah, a famous alchemist has a nice ring to it, I nodded off to myself. I could do that easy-like!

I jumped up with my back against the tree, ready to hop into the open and make a good first impression. But then I recalled mama's #1 rule.

'Don't talk to demons, no matter what.'

I slid down back against the tree, my head held low and mouth shut as I listened in on the distant conversation. Surprisingly, they were still bickering.

"See, you're the baby here," Unni said to the boy standing with his head held high. "All the older kids make fun of us cause you're always waving around those cards..."

He grumbled in response. "Well, they'll stop once I show them we're strong! Nobody else can say they've slain a beast at our age."

"Plus, they'll totally pay us, like, tens of thousands solars for a monster's heart." Edris chimed in, to their sister's visible disdain.

The group passed by without noticing my presence. After waiting a few minutes to ensure they were far gone, I rose from my hiding spot and continued down the path again. Guess they really are serious about tryin' to fight one of those monsters, huh? I gotta let Auntie know before they get themselves hurt, or worse...

Thump.

"Huh?" I responded to the distant rumbling that made the bottom of my feet tingle.

THUMP.

Once again, that heavy force rattled the trees. Then, what followed the next thump was a piercing scream that echoed through the forest.

 

***

 

Far off the path the group of young demons had walked along was a wide clearing in the forest, surrounded by tall trees. Unni, with her piked lance broken in two at her knees, sat wide-eyed and frozen in the snow. The horrific tales the adults in the village would pass around couldn't compare to actually seeing it. This wasn't some made up bed-side bogeyman. It was a true sin beast in the flesh.

The towering shadow that loomed over her was cast by a monstrous, broad shroombeast with a mouth resembling a deep, jagged pit, occupied by rows of teeth. The beast reached out towards the paralyzed girl, who could only watch as her short life flashed before her.

Then, a woosh cut through the air. A crossbow bolt snapped against the hard stem of the beast and drew it's attention elsewhere.

"Hey! Look here, damn beast!" Edris yelled. As intended, it's focus changed to her sibling, who continued slinging insults to draw the monster away from her.

In any other circumstance Unni would have spouted off, "Hey, what are you doing that for?" or "Don't be stupid, Edris!", but the words wouldn't come out. She could only respond to their act with a downpour of tears.

The shroombeast approached Edris, each step shaking the trees as they scrambled to reload their crossbow.

Right there! I got you right where I want you, they thought with a shaky smirk. Edris was prepared to fire off another shot, just as the beast's log of an arm reared back. But before it could slam into Edris, the goblin boy pushed them out of harm's way and took the blow in their place. 

With his sword held ahead of him, he managed to block the strike with his blade in time, but he was still sent flying through the air, slamming against a tree. The boy gasped for air as he struggled to his knees.

"Neill!" Edris screamed out. They reached for the crossbow, but the damn thing was broken when they'd landed on it. They'd gotten up and taken a single step towards their injured friend, when the beast's devilish expression stopped them in their tracks. 

That monster reared its face, curled into a toothy grin. Edris believed it must've been testing them, taunting 'go ahead and try it' and they would've done it too. But no, that wasn't it at all. 

No, that over glorified beast thought this was a game. It was hunting us like it's sport, wearing a look that without a doubt screamed, I'm next.

Edris' legs weakened and folded like pudding, as they cursed their feet to move forward, but they couldn't gather the willpower to do a single thing.

Preparing it's next attack, the shroombeast dropped down on all fours. As Neill sat up, struggling to recover from the blow that winded him, the beast sprung towards him in a single leap. Both of his companions watched, helpless to assist in the slightest. 

But then, to the surprise of all three kids, the monster's fast descent was interrupted, it's head crashing against a large wall of rocks that had sprung out from the snow.

"—What?" Neill managed to push out through shaky breaths.

From the same tree the boy sat against, a strange glass object- a vial filled with shining green feathers- flew down and shattered against the beast's cap. 

In the wake of the burst glass, a gust of wind blew forth, blasting the beast away from the boy. Then, along with the heavy breeze came a short figure that leaped from the tree. They glided forward on the wind, the large knife in their hand shining against the glow of the setting sun.

The same question filled the mind of all three demons: Who's that?

Their answer came in the form of a human girl, biting off way more than she could chew.

 

***

Althea Anfeald

I'd be stupid to try saving these three on my own, is what I told myself before running headfirst into the clearing. But there was no telling what might've happened to the three demons if I ran and left them there with the Mushroom-Type Sin Beast, so there I was to save the day. Hopefully, that is...

Using the wind potion's heavy breeze to my advantage, my blade cut through the air, then rang out against the shroombeast's side as I flew past it. I slid in the snow far out of the beast's reach, then assessed the damage of my strike. 

"Darn, blade's chipped. Body's too tough. Guess I won't be gettin' much use outta this then..."

"You... you're, you're a..." I could hear the blue-skinned girl, with tears streaming down her face, at my back.

I turned my head towards the shivering girl and stayed silent. Can't just stand by or run away, Thea. May not be allowed to talk to them, but that doesn't mean you can't help.

After putting my blade back in its sheath, I traced my hands along the sealed, compact vials that rested on my waist belt. Each vial contained elemental-based potions and concoctions, always handy in a cinch. Those brain-numbing studies in alchemy under Mama would finally pay their dues.

Okay, these are a last resort. I only have two sets of each on hand, so I have to make them count here. 

I took a vial in each hand, one filled with brown powder and another with a simmering orange liquid, then sprinted at my target. I kept in mind that this beast, even if it was close to towering above the trees, was still only a shroombeast at the end of the day. I had hunted it's kind down easily earlier. Well, easy for the most part.

No reason to be scared here, I repeated. The fact that I'll win is pretty much guaranteed. Even if this one here has a hard outside, all I'll have to do is attack it from the inside. Simple as that.

The shroombeast blocked in preparation for my next attack. A testament to how strong it must've been, because weaker sin beasts normally don't use strategies or act according to their mistakes. But that's just what I was counting on.

First, the brown vial I threw on my advance forward crackled against the beast's raised arms, expanding into rocks that locked them together. Gotcha! Too smart for your own good, buddy.

Second, the orange vial I had in my other hand exploded against the rocks, enveloping them in a scalding hot liquid. The beast's trapped arms melted down onto the snow below. All according to plan so far. 

My dash ended with the second to last wind vial exploding against the ground under me. A storm of snow and broken branches carried me above the arm-less beast, it's gaping mouth awaiting below.

"This is it!" I yelled out as my second orange vial flew down towards the shroombeast's open mouth. 

Then, as the air around me stood still, it hit me.

Never underestimate a beast of sin. 

Auntie always repeated that and I'd still broke that rule! Every ranger worth their mettle understood that well, and I knew- from the goosebumps on my arm as the air subtly shifted around me, threatening to pull me in- that this mistake would cost me.

A cold, quaking roar erupted from the beast's cavernous maw, bending and splintering the trees around the clearing at it's whim. 

The force of it's defensive measure launched the vial right back towards me. Thankfully, I managed to catch it and prevent the lava potion from bursting everywhere, as it would've been fatal, even for me. Regardless, like a hunter missing a crucial moment to catch their prey, my plan to take down the monster was foiled. 

The wind that kept me safe in the air died down, sending me straight towards that dark hole below. The assured mindset I'd gone into battle with began to fall apart. 

Gotta do something, anything. Think, Thea, Think!

If the shroombeast roared and sent the vial back towards me at this distance, I wouldn’t be able to dodge it like before. I told myself that again and again, no solution in sight that'd help me win the battle with just one potion left.

Then, far behind the grinning monster waiting to devour me whole, I caught a glimpse of the boy supported to his feet by his friends. At the sight of those three, looking up at me with their eyes on the brink of tears, the fog in my mind cleared. They all had friends, family, and the world I'd never even known to return to. So it was out of the question. Giving up just wasn't an option. 

I assured myself, If I do nothing, they're going to die! 

Hesitation be damned, I grit my teeth and pressed on despite the lingering doubts weighing me down. The beat in my chest grew heavier, loud enough I could hear it pulse inside my head, but still I raced below.

The shroombeast's wall of teeth slammed down on my arm- all the way to the shoulder. 

On the arm that was stuck between the grinding jaw of the beast, I clenched my fist with the final lava vial in hand using all the might I could muster. Cracked glass dug into the skin of my palm, then a violent, overwhelming heat erupted forth.

The beast roared once again and threw me to the ground, but it was too late. It's flailing body lit up, enveloped by a storm of flames. In seconds, it's charred form crashed against the ashen snow.

I laid in the snow in silence, as the forest plagued by the sin beast regained it's familiar, peaceful quiet. Soon after, the young demons approached my body, still as a corpse in the snow. 

Then I rose. 

Despite missing an arm, my thoughts were crystal clear. 

Alrighty, just as practiced. With a drawn-out breath, I closed my eyes. Seconds later, the bone sparked forth. Next, the tendons, ligaments, and muscles all crawled into place as if they had a mind of their own. My entire right arm had regrown, just like it hadn't been bitten off a minute before. 

"Nice!" I took a look at my arm, good as new, and flashed a smile. "Guess it all worked out in the end."

All three of the demons that were watching my feat screamed in unison.

Well, this makes for a pretty bad first impression, don't it...

 

Following the swift conclusion of my battle against the sin beast, I was totally clueless.

What should I even say here? 

I hadn't even met anyone around my age before this. I definitely never expected the first people I'd meet outside of family to be demons either. Luckily, I wasn't allowed to say anything according to Mama, so I stayed quiet.

"Your… arm, and you're..." Unni whimpered with wide eyes.

"—You're like, really tiny!" Edris pointed out.

Huh? That's seriously what you're gonna focus on after all that! Guess regrowing an arm isn't that crazy to a bunch of demons...

I met the sky-blue eyes of the shorter fish demon, who kept peeking over at my arm. I couldn't help but stare down towards the snow in response.

She finally said, "Are... you okay?"

In response, I hesitated, my eyes darting everywhere but into the girl's, then I quickly nodded.

For anyone else, losing an arm like I had in my battle against that monstrous mushroom would've been gruesome, to say the least, but for me it was basically comparable to getting a papercut. Well, even that was an overstatement, because that injury didn't hurt at all. Mama was going to be angry about my cloak being ruined though...

I decided it was time to head home, as the situation was wrapped up with my only reward being an awkward encounter. If I didn't get back soon before the sun finished fading below the trees, that'd be one more thing for Mama to nag at me about. But as I turned to leave, standing in my path was the Goblin-Type boy with the end of his sword held to my face. He'd bandaged his injured head with a piece of his own shirt, but from under his light hair, I met his intense gaze.

"Why! What'd you do that for?" he yelled, pointing his finger at the mushroom beast's burned body.

"What, you serious? I saved his life! Guy must have a pretty big ego to be angry about that."

The boy's face twitched at my accidental comment, "Hey, you better watch it!"

Ah, oops! I was thinkin' out loud again...

"Jeez…" Edris put their hand on the boy's shaking shoulder. "You need to cut it out and be thankful, man. If it wasn't for them, we'd have been toast. Let's just call it quits and make our way back before—"

"No," he slapped their hand away. "You don't get it either! You might be okay with this, but me, I... I'd rather die than be weak."

After that, instead of trying to calm him down, the other two stood by with their heads lowered. My narrowed eyes softened after hearing his words. I couldn't understand him, or that way of thinking at all. I thought, how could anyone say that? There's no way somebody could actually think that, right? Was it a demon thing that I just wouldn't get?

"I'm sorry, but I was only helpin' you out. I don't see the problem here. Probably cause I'm human and you're a—"

"You think that's what this is about? Of course you don't see!" Neill gripped the sword's handle, with a flushed face exposing his bare teeth. "This isn't about being a human or a demon, we're both people! And a person like you wouldn't understand my pride. A person like you... couldn't even begin to understand what strength is!"

He swung his sword down at me and I made no effort to dodge or counter. There was no point in doing so anyway. I could only stare at him with that same soft look on my face. 

Then, a hand clutched the blade out of the air mid-swing.

"Auntie?" My aunt, Corvetta, stood at my side, towering over the boy who had lashed out at me. I couldn't understand why the demons had suddenly become visibly frightened at her arrival, as much as when the giant shroombeast attacked them, until the goblin boy spelled it out.

"You, you're a human," he said under his breath. "Wearing that and you're just a damn…!"

Corvetta, who they believed was just human, donned a ranger's uniform- a six-heart badge sewn into her tattered black cloak. Every feature of hers- from the wispy, vivid strands of burgundy hair shrouding her sharp eyes, to the scars that decorated her body- all suggested she was only human. But what was glaringly unnatural, as Mama would point out, was the violet shimmer in her pupil.

"Is this what strength's supposed to be?" She said, as the boy fruitlessly tried to wrestle the blade out of her hand. "Attacking somebody who won't fight back?"

In response, Neill yanked the sword's handle towards himself. But rather than slicing Corvetta's fingers, the blade buckled under her grip and snapped in two. He dropped the broken sword and fell backwards, crawling away while muttering under his breath as my aunt closed in on him.

"What's that?" Corvetta said, glaring down at the boy. "Got nothing to say about how a person, a half-demon like me, wouldn't understand you? In that case, I can give you— nah, all of you, a lesson then, if you want to understand what power is."

Corvetta marched forward, her sharp black wings unfurling from under her cloak as she reached towards the handle at her belt. Unni collapsed into the snow again and Edris was backing away like he was about to run for his life.

Holy Saint, she's really laying it into 'em now. They kinda did bring it on themselves, but even this is a bit too much...

"...Auntie," I tugged at her cloak. "Looks like you spooked them enough already. I think they get it."

Corvetta took a look at my blushing face, then back at the trembling kids. Her wings stood down, retreating back under her cloak. "Fine, you all are off the hook. For now."

At the snap of my aunt's fingers, the demons lined up before her. She concisely questioned them, getting their names, addresses, and other pertinent information. My earlier assumption that they were older than me was correct too. Despite being only a year older, they were huge in comparison to me due to being demons. Well, the fact that I was small for my age probably also factored into it, as much as I hated to acknowledge it.

Once her investigation was finished, Corvetta handed them a ward charm- which radiated off so much putrid, dark magic it made my face scrunch up- to repel any other beasts that might've been lying in wait and sent them on their way back to the nearest town.

Auntie faced the setting sun and spun around her head, cracking her neck. I turned back around towards the sin beast's burned corpse, surrounded by pitch black snow.

"Alright, Thea," Corvetta said. "Let's make our way home before your old lady gets heated again. Knowing her, it's much too late for that anyway."

"Oh, but wait. Aren't you supposed to, like, dissect it first? What if it starts moving again?"

"Nah, no worries. Another crew will take care of that once I report this incident to the guild. For now, I'll just be bringing it's heart along with me."

As she dug around the beast's remains, I saw a streak of blue in the corner of my eye. From behind a tree peeked out one of the small shroombeasts that had taunted me earlier. 

"Huh, you wanna fight too?" I waved around my blade at it. "I can go again!"

Chittering erupted behind me as more of the shroombeasts were quickly closing in. Before I knew it, I was surrounded from all sides by mushrooms. But strangely, instead of attacking, they tugged at my tunic and looked up at me. When I speed-walked away to shake them off, they ran close behind. Some of them even voluntarily crawled their way into my open pack basket.

"What in the world? There's no way this is normal, they were being jerks earlier..."

"Beasts of Sin are similar to demons," Corvetta gazed into the defeated beast's black heart, which pulsed with a faint beat in her hand. "They submit to their stronger kin. Not unheard of for lesser beasts to be tamed like this."

I let out a giggle as two of the shroombeasts playfully hung on my neck scarf. "So, that's why they were bein' extra rude recently. They were takin' the lead of the big guy here!"

"Right, but it still doesn't add up," she said, as her boot rhythmically beat against the snow. "The beast was devouring its own kind, but since they're not naturally powerful or hostile, it shouldn’t have gotten that big. How'd this one gather that abnormal power?"

I was thinking, well that's super worrying, but then Corvetta continued, "But, I guess it wasn't that strong if you beat it, yeah?"

"Yeah!" 

Wait, that wasn't a compliment at all...

Later, as we walked along towards the distant cabin, Auntie's torch tool illuminated our path through the night's darkness. I'd been avoiding the question, but I finally decided to speak up.

"So… am I in trouble?" It was clear I was going to be punished, both for fighting the sin beast instead of running for help and for talking to demons like Mama explicitly told me not to do. Mama'll probably punish me with more studies on something I'll never ever get a chance to use, cause I'll never ever leave home at this speed!

"Nah, you did well enough against that beast."

My eyes grew round at that answer. That didn't really answer my question at all, but I'll take it!

"Really?" I took a chance at prodding her for more praise. "You really think so, Auntie?"

"Now that you mention it…"

Ugh, holy Saint, not this again. Why'd I expect a simple, straightforward answer from her? 

Corvetta crossed her arms and pondered for a single second, then went off. "From what I heard, it was sloppy work. You threw yourself into it with only one plan, then despite that, you hesitated and then you failed to......"

As my aunt's analysis trailed on and on, I groaned to myself. She seriously got every detail right just from the inaccurate explanation those kids gave. Why, why is she like this? A girl can't hunt nothin' in peace with her 'round!

Her rambling continued, "You also need to be more careful with your light magic, you aren't invincible just because it doesn't hurt. Also, seeing as you're all out of them, I'm sure you could've been more efficient with those potions of yours as well, instead of wasting them on—"

"Okay I got it, I got it! I'm not your trainee or whatever, you don't gotta lecture me."

I sped up my pace, walking far ahead of her with my chest puffed out.

"But," Corvetta said with a rare smirk. "In the end, you kept fighting."

"Uh, of course. I had to. Getting hurt in their place isn't a big deal for me. And there's no way I could've lived with it if I'd just let that beast eat em'."

"You didn't have to do it, Thea. But you still did. That's what many people- both demons, humans, and all those in between- fail to learn."

I tilted my head. "I… don't get that though. If someone needs help, you help them right? No matter what it takes."

"Yes, that's the right thing to do. But in our world, not everyone has the luxury to think that way."

My fast steps died down.

I stared down at the missing, singed half of my cloak, recounting the words that were thrown at me after saving those kids. But my blood didn't boil, instead what I thought at that time was, "I think that boy had a point. I guess I really don't understand the kind of world they live in, do I? If that's the case, it's gotta be a pretty unfair one... But, I'm not lettin' that stop me. I want to do my best to learn then, to do better! Even if it's hard, I'm gonna give it my all, especially if it'll help me be strong just like you are, Auntie."

Corvetta looked genuinely surprised for once, then she chuckled to herself. "I'm sure you're on the right track already, kid. Much better off than I was. Just don't forget- fighting and moving forward, even if you believe victory is nowhere in sight- that's all you need. That's what made you strong today, Thea."

The words of praise that I had earned myself made my face beam with pride.

"Speaking of rangers," she continued. "I've got no choice but to formally recommend you to the guild, seeing as you took one out on your own. You can even tag along when I head into town tomorrow."

Woah, holy Saint! Going into town? Me, as a ranger? Gosh, that's exciting and all, but Mama's definitely not gonna like that...

Then, my hair was scuffled under my aunt's hand. "I see that look. You've got plenty of years to go before you could even of attending the academy, so don't fret over it. I'll talk some sense into my sister later and convince her to let you go."

Well, that's one more thing that Mama's definitely not gonna like. But if everything worked out, this meant a chance to leave the forest I'd called home for all my life. I may not have made any friends that day, but traveling and meeting more people would let me start off on a better foot and learn more about the outside world that I would have never known otherwise. I couldn't help but smile at that idea.

But, unknown to any of us at the time, there was an unknown evil lurking in the same clearing of the forest that was once my home. Although I was unaware of the path it would send me down, that inexplicable force and I were tethered by a blood red thread, one which I'd be unable to escape from no matter how much I fought.