Testing My Luck in the New World

Happy to be finished with the tiny apothecary, we left Amoranth on foot and made for the dirt road running along the city's wall. Just past the city was a sprawling field of wheat where dozens of people toiled away. A few gave us kind waves as we passed, but most ignored us. Feeding an entire city took a lot of work.

We hurried along and once we were good and far enough away from any possible spectators, I opened the map menu. Curious still since her last look had been interrupted, Yua leaned against my arm and looked upon it as if it were some sort of revolutionary magic tool and, in a way, it was.

Staring from our spot on the outskirts of Amoranth, I dragged the map towards Guerraway and skimmed the lands between, which were now thoroughly detailed thanks to Miss Bellenfort.

"Let's see. If Guerraway is where we want to go, the fastest route to get there would be to go..."

Mostly north. Shocker.

I'd already noticed the perfectionist detail of that drunkard's map, but it was so exquisitely made that the safest route to Guerraway practically begged for attention. The path did zig-zag through trees and around small mountainous ranges a bit, but it deftly avoided all the dangers she marked for us. The same one we stood on lead right to where we needed to go. Though, it was actually just a line that cut through the plains where the grass and soil had been trampled flat over years of travel. The distance between the two cities was a little longer than the distance between Amoranth and our chain.

Assuming that the road was born from years of traders passing between the two cities, I turned to Yua.

"With this, we'll be there in no time. Are you ready to..."

"Ehhhh?!" she gasped. "Alex, look! Look right there!"

Excitedly, she pointed towards a small village marked just below and to the left of Guerraway called Pumaria, right in the eastern center of the same forest we'd come to plunder. It wasn't at all large and, in fact, I'd completely missed it. It was so out of place and so well hidden in the depths of the Dumort Forest that I wouldn't be surprised if the people of Guerraway didn't know about it. And just the sight of it had her tail whipping my side.

I guess Miss Bellenfort was no slouch at her job if she caught wind of it.

"Do you know that place?"

"That's my village! That's where I was born and where my parents live!"

"Really? Then that's the northern tribe you mentioned when we met? Why didn't you say you were from there when we accepted the quest?"

"Because I really didn't know. We don't call the forest Dumort. To us, there is no name. It's the same for Pumaria. We just call it the village or home. The humans must have named them on their own."

"Yea, we tend to do that... But then how do you know it's the right place?"

Sure, a village hidden in a forest wasn't exactly a rare occurrence, but it sure was convenient. And there were many forests in the world. In fact, Miss Bellenfort's map shows no less than three.

Smiling giddily, her ears and tail sharing a delighted spasm, she pointed towards the western-most tip of the Dumort Forest where the trees gradually thinned into a curious short spiral on the map.

"There. I recognize this part of the forest. It's where parent's say goodbye to their children before they send them off for the dungeon challenge. It's where I last saw..."

Biting her lip, her joy suddenly faded. She stared almost blankly at the map as she no doubt remembered that moment five long years ago. Remembered having to leave her home to chase her dreams, her love and passion for fighting that led to her being chained away in the city. The same city that once stole away her hope of tasting freedom again. Until we met, of course.