One month and a half earlier

  ti: Terrafide

  Location: Astral Pteau

  It has been a few days since we left everyone iunnels. Sihen, Me Maple and Sparrow have been travelling to Basileia, located in an area called the Astral Pteau.

  Upon reag there, I was amazed that there were so many kinds of stohat I had only seen in books. It took every ouny willpower not to stop a lost looking at them. Though I jump off Willow every now and again to pick up shiny rocks that I like, then I use my speed to get ba no time.

  We brought lots of carts with us, so we could carry food for everyone, but I have started filling them up with random rocks I found. I wao take some animals as well, but we had to feed whatever we could find to Willow.

  Though this pce has one major dow is scorg so much that I barely ha. This must be how people feel going through Fimbulwinter, but the opposite. Maple leased to see me being affected by the weather for once.

  Though lucky, I was able to recim the clothes Capti made for me, which are ued by not only the cold but heat as well, and when you add in my legacies power to create ice, I feel as good as hough my repeated use of my legacy started causing a problem.

  “Hey, Maple, what are you doing back there.”

  “Nothing.”

  “I have been hearing grunting sounds for a while now.”

  “Your ears must betray you then.”

  “The only reason me and you are alive right now is thanks to these ears, so I don’t want to hear that from you.”

  “Fine, I am sorry then.”

  A short silence follows this, and I say, “Are y to use yacy.”

  “Of course, I am, but nothing I am doing is w! Orb tell me how you pulled it off,” she says while whining.

  “I don’t know, it just sort of happened.”

  “That isn’t helpful.”

  “What do you wao do? Reverse engineer something I don’t uand.”

  “You could at least try.”

  “Ok then, I was lying to you. This is how I did it, say the following: I love and want to marry Willow.”

  “Orb, I don’t speak the saviour’s song.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just keep repeating those words, and yacy will activate. I guara.”

  “I love and want to marry Willow. I love and want to marry Willow. I love and want to marry Willow.” As she keeps saying this I start to snicker a bit, “Hey Orb, why did you snicker?”

  “I am sorry, it’s nothing keep going on.” I know I shouldn’t do this, but it is simply too funny.

  While I ugh, Willow the 2nd suddenly es to a halt.

  “WHOA BOY,” I say as I am tossed off of Willow, which causes me to crash into the ground. “Willow, why did you stop?”

  Using his nail he points at something beside me.

  Looking over, I see a decrepit woman with fiery scarlet hair on the floor, with a rge gold bow beside her. She is wearing a whitish grey one-piece skirt with red designs, and a bck sash around her body. She most noticeably had an e sun tattoo on her left arm.

  Immediately going over to check if this woman is alive, I hear that she is breathing, and her heart is beating. As I sigh with relief, I hear her murmur something. Getting closer to her, the weak eaks. She says, “Food, sleep and sex I need.”

  “Huh, I think I miss heard you. Could you say that again.”

  She grabs me with her raisin-like arms, pulls me close, and says, “I NEED FOOD; SLEEP AND SEX NOW!”

  With my mind bnking for a few seds, I pick her up, then I jump up and throw her on top of Willow, and say, “Maple, feed her something,” as I fall back down.

  I go up to her sizeable golden bow and try to pick it up, but it is cumbersome; using all my strength I barely budge it. No way that whither woman carried this. I use my legacy to see if it helps, but it hardly does. All it allows me to do is drag it. So, I pull the bow o Willow and use my iake a pilr underh it, then, using all my strength, throw it on Willows’s back.

  When it nds, I see Willow recoil at its weight. “Sorry, boy”. But I also see that woman dev a rge amount of food, which makes her body full of life again. She soaked up all that food like a sponge.

  After I nd on Willow’s back, I see the woman start to choke on the food. I quickly move to hit her in the back, which helps her stop. As she stops blog, she looks at me, hugs me, and says, “Thank you so much.”

  But as she touches me, I feel incredible softness followed by immense unfort. I break her hold on me and move back.

  “Is something wrong, boy o be shy. e a a hug. I will let you even cop a feel.”

  “That will be unnecessary.”

  “Ahh, into men, I see.”

  “You shouldn’t jump to clusions. I don’t like being touched by strangers.”

  “I see.”

  What the hell is wrong with this girl? Hasn’t she ever heard of boundaries? But whatever, I have more important things to figure out. So, as I sit down in front of her, I say with a smile, “First, what is your name, mine is Orb.”

  She rubs her while expressing that she is thinking hard. After a while, she tells me, “Just call me Atanta.”

  “People don’t usually have to think about their names.”

  “That’s because I am used to being called beauty, darling, oddess, so I tend tet my name.”

  Letting out a sigh, I say, “So, what were you doing in the middle of nowhere here.”

  “Oh well, you see, I was in a bar drinking, then some merts told me of a pce filled with geous crystals, so I decided to visit it by taking the back route.”

  While I pute what she is saying, I see Sparrow make a shocked face. “Hey, Sparrow spit out whatever is b yht this instant.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about me.”

  “I wasn’t worried in the slightest, I asked a question. NOW ANSWER ME.”

  “Yes sir,” he says while flustered. “It is just that, the back route which we are on is dangerous, hot and almost twice as long without any water in miles. This is quite on knowledge regarding the way to Basileia.”

  While staring at him viciously, I say, “So why did y Maple and me on this route then.” I start verting his snow into ice.

  “Oh god, st-st-stop; let me expin myself. I did it because by using the tuo shorten the distahen with your id Willows’s speed, I was sure it would have been no problem, so please stop turning your hand.”

  The girl looks at me and says, “What did you just do?”

  “I shoved ice up his iestic him.”

  Turning around, Atanta says to Sparrow, “Don’t worry. After a while, things in your ass will feel nice.”

  As Maple turns red, she says, “You shouldn’t be talking about all these things openly.” Turning her head to me, she says, “Right, Orb.”

  “No, to my knowledge, she hasn’t said anything weird.”

  “Huh, you ’t be serious.”

  “Capti told me about all his escapades when he was young, it was along the same lines. Isn’t this just normal?

  He told me these words exactly. People outside might judge your way of living, but I am having fun, and they not, so they all suck my Co-”

  Φ “STOP!” I scream. Am I the weird one? If this is what outsiders are like, I o get used to it.

  Φ “Sorry, carry on,” Maple says, trying to tain her embarrassment.

  “I like how your friend Capti thinks,” Atanta says while trying to hug me.

  I catch her head and sit her down, saying, “You’re still suspicious, so none of that. Please expin to me what you are doing on the back route. I doubt you just somehow didn’t know.”

  Standing up, she proudly says, “Because it was much more fun that way.”

  “What’s fun about dying of dehydration.”

  “If you were to walk across this entire p, you would fihan a hundred (Probably) people who walked through this route, but I say I have do. I am twenty-one years old. I am in the prime of my life. I should spend all my time wisely, and have as many experiences as possible.”

  “So, enlighten me on what it was like to walk on the back route to Basileia.”

  As she looks dumbfounded, she stops to think and then says, “It was an experience.”

  “Wow, how amazing that seems to be incredibly fruitful,” I say with a sarcastie.

  Getting up close to my face, she says, “If I hadn’t dohis, I wouldn’t have been able to meet you two legacies. That is something else most people ’t say they have done.”

  Is the visual indicator of a legaon knowledge. Capti should have known about it then. I don’t see the reasoning for him not telling me.

  “I also got to meet this amazing creature,” she says while she rubs Willows’s back.

  Maple says, “Willow doesn’t like straoug him. It is a special privilege that only me and my friends have.”

  Hearing Maple’s words, Atanta starts rubbing his Willows back harder.

  Maple, Armed, says to Atanta, “Stop. Willow might freak out”, but Willow’s scream of happiness entirely overtakes Maple’s voice.

  “Huh, what’s going on? I had to nurse and feed Willow to get the right to pat him. Even then, he never made a sound this loud,” but Maple looks closely at what Atanta is doing ahat she is pushing her breasts against Willow. “Willow, you traitor, after everything I did for you, this is all it takes for you to wag your tail,” Maple says while hitting Willow.

  Looking at this woman rubbing Willow with a big smile on my face, I think to myself: she probably just did this for some fun like an idiot, I don’t have to be wary of her, but there is still the fact that she carries that big bow around, so I should keep one eye open. “So, Atanta, what are you going to do now?”

  “Oh, I still pn to head to Basileia.”

  “I see. Would you like a lift then”?

  “Really,” she says giddily like a child.

  “Yeah, it’s no problem, but you must promise me ohing.”

  “Sorry, I am not into little boys.”

  “I don’t want that. I want you not to tell anyone what you have seeoday.”

  “Promise,”

  -Break-

  In this dark and barren nd, a shining light appears as we tinue forward, and when we look upon it, I realise that this must be the pce Basileia.

  “Orb, it seems we’re finally here,” Maple tells me.

  “Yes, we are”, I say as we all look up at the city with Giant walls like a barricade on top of a hill.

  “We should probably stop here, If we get closer, they will spot this giant monster,” Sparrow says.

  “Willow isn’t a monster. He has a name.”

  “Oh, sorry, I mean Willow.”

  “Who said you could say his name.”

  “I am sorry.” Sparrow mumbles, “What am I supposed to call him then.”

  “What was that!” I say, While turning the snow into ice.

  “NOTHING.”

  “I thought so. But Sparrow is right. There is a group of dead trees over there, so let’s use that to hide.” Turning my head to Atnta to tell her goodbye, I see she is fast asleep. If I was to leave her here, I am sure she would be fine, but I would rather not risk injury, so I take her with us.

  So, after hiding irees, I grab Maple and say to Willoill be back soon. Just wait for a bit. We will be in and out within seds.”

  Orb and Maple say their goodbyes to Willow, the man who has ice up his but smiles to himself.

  Φ Finally, I will be able to get rid of Orb. He doesn’t know how high the security is in there, when they spot him; it’s over. He will be detained in no time. All I have to do is run down the main route, and I will make it back to civilisation in no time. It’s my victory, you brat. This is the power of information. Now all I have to do is trol my heartbeat. I have been practising this erip here.

  Φ So as Maple and I are about to leave, we are grabbed and stopped by Atanta. “What the hell are you doing, Atanta.”

  “If you try to sneak in blind, you will be spotted. Without a doubt, Basileia is known for its incredible security.”

  As Atanta says this, I hear someone’s heartbeat accelerate. Walking over to sparrow, I say, “How did a man who covets information like you, not know that Basileia has high security.”

  Sweat tickles down his face as he says, “I fot”, with a smile.

  I break one of his fingers and say, “You push your luck again, and your biomass will decrease, substantially.”

  While Sparrow cries in pain, I say to Atanta, “You were fast asleep mere minutes ago. Yet you look wide awake right now, with absolutely no sluggishness. Please expin.”

  “Oh, that’s simple. I preteo be asleep.”

  “Noould you do that.”

  “Because you guys looked like you were doing something fun, and I don’t want to be left out.”

  “Well, too bad this doesn’t involve you.” I don’t pn oing a hurt due to my problems.

  Grabbing me and spinning me around, she says, “Oh e on, please, I am useful so let me help, please.”

  Annoyed by her stant pleading, I say, “Hell no.”

  She stops and puts me down, saying, “Then how are you going to sneak in? Anyone could tell that both you and Maple are legacies. Basileia is a popur vacation spot for Nobles and rich merts. If they saw a legacy, without a doubt, they would try to capture you. Your existence is too rare. So, your only option is to either spend Sparrow or Me.”

  Further annoyed by the sense she is making, I say, “I don’t want to get you involved in our problem.”

  Grabbing my shoulder, she tells me, “I happen to be a good luck charm, so as long as you’re w with me, it will turn out fine.”

  Letting out a sigh, I say, “Fine, but how are you going to get in?”

  “Leave that to me. All you o do is watch.”

  So, getting on top of Willow, we all move to the main route to Basileia, and whe close, Atanta hops off. “Just watch,” she tells me as she walks and waits oh to Basileia.

  After some time, we see a very well-made carriage and guards e dowh. Atanta gets out in front and goes up to talk to one of the guards. Soon after, she is escorted to the carriage door, where she stands for a minute before bei in. Just like that, she rides the carriage till she enters Basileia.

  “Orb, she made it in.”

  “Well, I guess she did. Now I guess me, and you are just going to wait.”