Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Did something rob us last night?" That was the first thing that came to my mind.

Brenda tilted her head and inspected the scene. "That shouldn\'t have been possible. We kept guard all night, remember?" There were no footprints.

Did something fly here or something?

"But still…"

When we looked around the first suspect was none other Biteria herself but she didn\'t really seem like the culprit. To my eyes, she was innocent no matter what. Besides, her stomach was declaring all sorts of noises since morning to imply that she was hungry. Or was it all an act? Did make me wonder. Besides last I remember, Biteria was carnivorous. And we only had bread left. it did make me wonder indeed.

"I\'ll go look for something. There should be some more berries nearby. And if I find anything else, I\'d bring it back," Jowy said.

"I\'ll help." I went with him. I still wasn\'t convinced about Jowy but I couldn\'t just ignore his presence forever. And what could be a better way of making sure he pulled nothing suspicious than spending time with him alone and getting to know him more?

Just as Jowy said, the whole place was filled with many kinds of fruits. One particular fruit looked spectacular. It was red in color with purple stripes and had the shape of a pear.

"I wouldn\'t touch that if I were you, if I wanted to live that is." Jowy spoke nonchalantly. "But you\'d probably still live."

"What do you mean?" I said. I was just about to touch it and my hands were floating in the air.

"It\'s the most poisonous fruit in these lands."

Was this common knowledge or something?

My enthusiasm dropped in an instant.

I wanted to eat it…

I spent the next couple of moments sobbing inside. "Okay…."

That had caught me off guard. It seemed beauty really was poisonous.

"Why didn\'t you guys wake me up? That way you guys could have had some rest and this might not have happened." I couldn\'t help but ask. After all, they all had to stay awake and keep watch but why did they let me sleep all night?

The green fields were endless. The grass was barely reaching my shoes: they were small.

"Given your condition, I couldn\'t muster up the courage to wake you up. It was my mistake. I never thought this could happen. I went to take a leak and…."

For some reason I felt more disturbed by that than disappointed, but contained myself. However the problem remained. Even if it was stolen, there would have had to be foot prints. It wasn\'t like the thief disappeared out of thin air, did they?

But more importantly, why did all the important things happen when everyone started to take a leak? Was this some sort of divine omen or something?

After searching for a while we picked the dullest berries. The bright ones were all poisonous. However, we couldn\'t find any animals: edible animals that is. Their numbers were rather low compared to what we saw yesterday. Which meant, we might end up meeting our lovely purples friends up ahead. I most certainly didn\'t want that reunion.

"This is all we got," I said.

We were back at the camp. I flashed our catch: a bunch of berries and some wild nuts.

"I see. We\'ll just have to keep an eye open on the road." Brenda didn\'t look too happy with our find.

I couldn\'t blame her: I wasn\'t either. "Yeah."

It wasn\'t much of a breakfast but it was definitely better than starving. And without complaining we all shared the berries and started the day of with some dried black bread: the worst kind of bread.

Once again we set out on the road. The entire area was filled with nothing but grass and plants alike. There wasn\'t much of a road either. So, we had no choice but to eyeball our way through.

I had a very bad feeling about this grass. For the last hour or so the grass continued to become larger and larger as we went ahead. I really didn\'t like where this was going.

Grumble! Someone\'s stomach made a declaration of starvation.

I looked around and the noise was coming from the new girl.

That reminds me, I haven\'t asked her name yet.

"What\'s your name?" I said.

The other guys didn\'t pay any attention. They didn\'t even care.

"Ali-alis-" She seemed a little flustered.

Ali alis? Is that even a thing?

It didn\'t make sense to me so I asked what did. "Alice?"

She made her resolve. "No-no, its Alisa." She almost sounded like a baby.

But that\'s-

It was a nostalgic name. I used to call my little sister Alicia, by Alisa when she was young. I called her that even when she got older to make her mad at times. She looked so cute when she got mad. But I guess she\'s gone forever….

All the names in this world were more or less weird to me. But this one name made me reminisce about my past. It was a memory I never wanted to remember again. No matter how many days passed it always brought back the same heart-wrenching sensation I had back when I saw the body of my little sister hanging from the ceiling.

"Ni-nice to meet you Alisa. I\'m Daarc." But I buried my feelings and tried to be considerate.

"I know, they already told me about you…"

So I was the only one who was left out, huh?

I didn\'t really say anything else to her but I gave her two berries I was holding onto. They looked more or less like a typical strawberry with purple dots: hopefully not poisonous.

Generally, I ate my meals right away but I still used to save at least one or two pieces of fruit if possible. Made me feel safer.

"Thank you," she said. She sounded enthusiastic. Although it was painful to give up food, it was still satisfying to see someone so happy: kind of. Maybe?

"Looks like we\'ve got company…" Jowy said in a loud voice.

I looked outside and there were at least ten goblins around us led by a massive Hob-goblin. However, these goblins looked greenish-purple and they had knives and clubs.

I kind of saw this coming when I first saw this type of grass: the tall grass that could very well have reached up to my shin. Brought back unwanted memories. I really wanted to be wrong though.

"Old man…"

"Sigh* that\'s not my name you know…"

The two of us got off the cart and the rest of them stayed back.

I suppose I didn\'t really get to use my new sword…

This situation might not have been all that bad. I had the geezer by my side and Jowy could always back us up. I didn\'t feel afraid- not anymore. I most certainly hoped so.. My still shaking hands might have had a different opinion though.