Dawn- An age of Darkness

The forest thinned as we marched on ahead. The scenery around us changed in rapid motion. We managed to get out of the forest just after the afternoon. "Whew! Didn't think we'd make it."

"Grass! Oh, grass!" Dick started dancing. It was kind of amusing. He almost kissed the grass. Actually, a second later, he did.

"Alright, me and Daarc will hunt while you guys secure water, fruits, and firewood. Let's make camp over there." Lianne barked out orders. 

I didn't protest. She must have had something to talk to me about. Something she couldn't say in front of the others. The others didn't really say anything either.

***

Lianne led me to the open fields. There were wild animals here and there. A good place to hunt. "So what are we hunting?"

"Birds."

"Birds?" I asked again. If she wanted to hunt birds then bringing me out was pointless. She could have done it herself. 

"Yes. I want you to use this." She threw her bow at me. She handed me one arrow and the color from my face drained when I learned her actual intention. "You're going to hunt with just that one arrow. And if you miss, you'll secure this arrow again and start all over."

"Um… Miss, Lianne? You didn't forget that I don't have an arm right?" I sweated profusely.

"You still have half of it left. Why not make most of it?"

"I am serious. Jowy, can use two bows at a time, you know."

"Those are crossbows!"

Lianne just straight out ignored me. "It'll take time but you'll get used to this. Using bows with just a hand is achievable with long-term practice."

"Wouldn't that take forever? And why me?" I really didn't want to be here anymore.

"Then I suppose we should hurry up and start!" She smiled. "It's to show you my appreciation. And it should only take about twenty years or so."

Would have been better if you weren't too appreciative.

And twenty, years!

I didn't know anything about bows. I never used swords but they were always an interesting weapon of choice for me. So when the opportunity came I tried my best to learn the way of the sword. But the same couldn't be said about bows. They were too boring. But then there was another problem. Just how the hell was I even supposed to stretch the string with just one arm? Was that even possible?

I couldn't say that to Lianne though.

She'd have ripped me to shreds.

I took aim at a swan in the distance. I used my mouth to stretch the string. It almost felt like a game rather than an actual hunt.

I couldn't tell if it was an actual swan though: cause since when did swans start having horns?

Before I could fire Lianne came close. Too close. "Lift your arm a little and focus more on your lower half. If you're footing is unbalanced then you won't be able to dodge enemy attacks." Her breath fell on my shoulder.

It was hard to focus in this kind of situation. But I had to. 

And did she forget I was holding this with my mouth!?

Before my mind could drown in pleasurable thoughts I steered it away from it. I took a deep breath and fired: more like let the arrow go, it kind of hurt my upper lips. The arrow flew over the bird by at least a meter and it flew away. 

Not even close to the target.

"Now go get it!" Lianne smiled brightly. 

I obliged reluctantly. I should have known.

The arrow was about fifty meters away from us. If I had to do that for the rest of the day, I was in for a hellish evening. And I knew, this really was a hellish evening. 

I counted every single arrow I fired. It was more like the number was etched into my mind as I had to run all the way. And not to mention every single time, my mouth ached like hell.

But fate wasn't kind. I couldn't even hit a single bird. I was tired as hell. Why the hell did I have to ask Lianne of all people to teach me anything?

"I suppose we should give it a rest for today. Looks like you don't have any talent for the bow. But maybe you could at least get decent enough to save your life if the situation ever demands it." As usual, Lianne was blunt. 

She had a point but if I had to go through this kind of hellish training then wouldn't not trying have been better? Besides, why did I have to shoot with just one arrow, and not to mention from my mouth!?

When I asked that to Lianne she only giggled. 

The two of us walked back. I was a bit sad I couldn't catch anything. 

"That bracelet," Lianne began. I had a bad feeling about this. "It could turn you into a person you desire. But of course, you've to have intimate knowledge of that person. For me, it was my mother."

So basically I looked like the empress because Lianne had wired this bracelet to look that way. I sighed, I sighed twice. "You said Jowy's your cousin, then-"

"Jowy's father took over the throne as well as mother." Lianne spoke normally. I guess this didn't bother her as much as I thought. "My mother had three children with father. I was the youngest and most loved one. Both by mother, and father. And though Jowy's father married mother, he never became intimate with her and didn't have any children. Since young Jowy just really liked mother, as his own mother had died of illness."

I guess their family history was a lot more complicated than I thought. I still didn't care though. Stuff happened in the past. 

But maybe this wasn't as bad as I thought. After all, if it weren't for the bracelet I might have never met the mage. 

Speaking of the mage, I took a good look within my ring.

Maybe my silence was rubbing Lianne off as she just glared. It was understandable as she was giving me her family history and I was showing no emotion or interest. Not fury nor surprise. Just plain nothing. 

I popped my head into the small black window. I still couldn't make it big enough for me to fit. The body of the girl was totally frozen. I touched it and it wasn't even the least bit cold. 

Is this crystal?

"Hey Lianne, think you can melt crystal?" There was no response. "Lianne?"

I looked around. Lianne was gone. I looked around some more and she was a lot further ahead than me. She was walking rather fast.  I guess I might have pissed her off instead. 

Maybe getting angry or sympathetic was the better way to deal with this situation?

***

We were quite far from the forest and it didn't smell bad. But now we didn't have any fresh meat. 

"I can't believe you guys couldn't even manage to get anything. Were you guys even trying?" Dick yelled, clearly upset that he won't get to eat meat tonight. Did he forget we won't get to eat any either?

Lianne had her eyes closed and didn't reply. 

So, all eyes were on me. It was like they were a group of owls in sync. They turned their head so naturally. I didn't say anything either and slowly drank my veg soup one sip at a time. 

We were in an open field and there weren't any trees close to us. The grass was tall enough to fully hide Biteria. My cute bunny had become fat. It didn't move like it used to and now it hurt when it rested on my shoulder. 

My whole body felt sore if it stayed on top of me for more than ten minutes. 

"Are you sure we can't roast this thing? It looks pretty delicious," Dick said, poking Biteria with a stick. 

Biteria didn't even react to the guy. I guess to her, Dick wasn't worth the effort anymore.

"I'm pretty sure she'd eat you first."

I kind of wanted to eat things too. But my puffy lips had different ideas.

He laughed so hard that he fell on his back. "You do have a point there. I still have bite marks on my hand." He should have been glad that he still had that hand in the first place. 

"We should rest well. We might reach the capital tomorrow if we're lucky," Lianne said.

"By the way guys, does anyone know how I could meet a spirit?" Boriosa had shared some of his memories with me and I knew how spirit magic worked- or at least I thought I knew. I kind of forgot most of the stuff though. Maybe I was too agitated that night or perhaps because Boriosa's magic had deteriorated so much that the transfer was only temporary. 

I did remember the basics though. Basically, anyone could- in theory- cast spells without using any mana. In this method humans- even dwarves could use magic. However to do so, one first needed to enter a contract with a spirit. 

But how would have I entered into a contract if I couldn't even find one? I kept an eye out in the wilderness and searched during the day but I couldn't find one. I didn't even know what they looked like. I was totally lost.

"No idea. I don't know anything about magic. I can only use a few spells but that's all," Dick said.

"Useless."

Dick exhaled deeply and glanced sideways. I guess I hurt his feelings. 

I turned to Lianne. 

"The spirits choose the mage. That's why you don't see too many spirit mages. But magic itself is rare, so naturally, spirits are even rarer."

How does that make sense?

I sighed and looked up at the sky.

  I guess I'm not going to be able to do anything with this knowledge. 

I did have knowledge but they were vague and I couldn't make out much. But at least I knew things.

We were in front of the fire but my body gave a shiver. 

It's this cold and not winter yet? How frigging cold will it get once winter comes?

Winter was still about half a month away. I'd probably be frozen stiff.

"By the way, as I've said before, there's a girl frozen in my ring. Anyone have any idea how I can free her? Boriosa said my holy magic could be the key."

Lianne sighed. "Well, if it's crystal-like you've said, fire won't help. I'm guessing he meant using holy as a means of regenerative magic. Can you do that? Perhaps something similar to what you did to un- ahem! Father?"

I guess even she could slip up sometimes. 

"Perhaps." I didn't really know how I could do this. I could barely heal scratches. I couldn't just get people out of cryo or something! What was this, some sort of sci-fi future?

Servesta was quiet and had his eyes closed but Jori too was rather quiet. All day he'd tried to buy the cane from me but I didn't give in. Maybe he was frustrated?

"Something's coming," Jori barked. Or maybe he wasn't.

So he was focusing on our surroundings?

Something was moving in the grass fields. Biteria looked around with us and stared at one direction. We stared at the same. Whatever it was, it wasn't big as we couldn't see it because of the grass.

"It's coming!" I drew my sword. It could have been a goblin mage, so I didn't want to give it a chance.

It came close. Just when I was about to slash, I saw something furry. It was a bunny, much like Biteria but brown in color.

"Wait, that's it?" Dick held his head in frustration.

What? You just wanted something to beat up, didn't you?