Arix hadn't looked at the stars like this in years. He had been staring at them for a long time. This was their first camp since they reached the mainland. And their first rabbit too. Upon reaching the bottom of the cliff, Tarin caught a rabbit he saw running around, and they all cooked it over a fire while resting.

  The moon was full tonight, crickets started their singing again like every night but Arix was too focused on stars to hear them. His eyes were dry and face silent. While sitting over the campfire with his knees drawn up and his body bent slightly forward and his arms wrapped loosely around his legs, he thought of the time when he was only ten years old.

  His father had just left for the mainland, and Arix was sobbing in his room at night, looking at the same stars. Elena arrived at his home late at night and went to his room. After sitting beside Arix and looking at the stars with him, she whispered, “Do not worry. Your father will come soon.”

  Arix turned sideways and looked at Elena—her bright smile and glowing face lit by the moonlight. He never forgot that face in his whole life.

  “I will leave this Island too, if my father doesn't return in a few years.” He said, sniffling, his nose running from all the tears.

  Elena looked at him, her eyes wide with amazement for a moment, then turned to the stars and smiled. “Then let’s go together,” she said.

  But tonight, she was not with Arix. He was alone and lonely. He couldn’t think of anything else—not about his father or his goal, not about the danger or the creatures that lay in the mainland. Just Elena.

  Tarin was already fast asleep. But Lyra couldn’t sleep either. She was holding her bread while staring at Arix from the other side of the campfire. The rabbit was small, so she needed extra food to fill her belly. After finishing her bread, she went to Arix’s side. “Can I tell you something?”

  Arix took his eyes off the stars and looked at her, but he didn’t reply. Lyra was standing, her shoulders slumped, looking down. Her eyes filled with tears. “I am sorry! I couldn’t move. I was just standing there while Elena was tackling that monster by herself.” Her voice began to crack as she said, “I should have hel—” She sniffed. “—helped her. Then maybe she didn’t have to die.”

  Lyra began to wail. Arix looked at her, stood up and while brushing the dirt off his pants “It’s not your mistake Lyra. I was not strong enough to save her.”

  “No, bu– but I stood completely fro– froze.” She sniffed again. “I sho– should have at least tried to help.”

  After a short pause, she continued, “Maybe if I had helped, she would have been alive.”

  “You couldn’t have helped. That monster was way out of our league.” He turned toward the sky. “And what’s done is done. I’m pretty sure Elena didn’t want us to just mourn over her forever.”

  “But you lo– loved her.”

  “Yes, I did. And that is why I will make sure that no one loses their loved ones again.” He narrowed his eyes and thought to himself, “Not in front of my eyes, at least.”

  After seeing that Lyra was not stopping crying, he tapped her shoulder and said, “And we will free this land from all these monsters. But first…” He removed his hand and turned to stare at the big mountain to his left. “I have to find a weapon. As I lost mine, I can’t do much without one.”

  “Now let’s go to sleep,” he said while lying on the ground, facing the mountain. Lyra, after a while, went to sleep too. But Arix couldn’t sleep that night. He kept staring at the sky, thinking only of her.

  In the morning, Arix saw two birds traveling north, toward the mountain. He kept looking at them for a while. Meanwhile, Tarin woke Lyra up, and afterward, they all got ready to move forward.

  They left the campsite and moved forward toward the tall grass, at least as high as their hips. On the cliff, which they had descended the night before, there stood a figure. It looked like a horse, but it had two heads with two long necks. Dark brown hair ran through its body, with two tails that wiggled around. Its red eyes kept staring at Arix, Lyra, and Tarin as they walked forward.

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  A strong gust of wind blew right through it, and the giant from the forest came to stand beside him. “You failed again,” it said in a very dark and cold voice. The giant didn’t reply. Its gentle smile never left its face.

  The leaves rustled in the wind, and the trees creaked. “Our Lord will not be pleased,” it said and vanished into thin air. The giant also turned around and entered the forest again, guarding it so no human could leave again.

  Arix and the others didn’t notice him and kept walking through the grass. Small creatures with wings that flew around them, and small creatures with long legs that kept hopping from grass to grass, kept stealing Arix’s attention. He had never seen these creatures before. Following one of these bugs, his eyes landed on Lyra. She also seemed amazed by these harmless little creatures. A few little creatures with wings came and sat on her blonde hair. Her mouth fell slightly open as she blinked, not believing her eyes. “Wow!! These little creatures are so cute.”

  “They sure are,” Arix said, turning his eyes to Tarin, who looked annoyed by these bugs. “These little fuckers are so annoying,” he shouted, swinging his greatsword, trying to hit those little bugs. But he couldn’t land a single hit. “Ahgggg…” he screamed, swinging his greatsword even faster. Little flying bugs kept landing on his shoulder and greatsword, which made him even more annoyed.

  Arix gave a little smile to himself and looked at the sky. Clouds were running through the sky, the sound of multiple bugs echoing in his ears, and grass fields stretched as far as he could see. “Elena would have liked this place,” he thought to himself.

  He looked to his left, where a few four-legged creatures were grazing on the grass. “Those look like horses. I read about them in one of the fantasy books,” he said.

  Tarin and Lyra turned to the left to look at those horses. “I read that we can ride them,” Lyra said, while many butterflies had already made a home in her hair. “If that’s so, then it will make our journey better.” Tarin finally gave up on the little bugs and let them wander all around him.

  “We should focus on a weapon first,” Arix said. They kept walking straight through the grass.

  At noon, they reached a big gate that seemed to be the entrance to a village. They entered it to find themself in a town, full of houses made of wood.

  “It looks abandoned,” Arix said, looking around him to find empty and old houses with no one around. “HELLO!!” Lyra shouted, making a tunnel with her hands around her mouth so her voice could echo. Nobody answered.

  Straight ahead of them, they saw the tree they had seen from the cliff. Its trunk hovered parallel to the ground, and dozens of small, thin branches shot straight into the air from it.

  “That tree is so massive. I haven’t seen any trees like this one.” Arix’s eyes widened as these words left his mouth in amazement.

  “We should explore that tree tomorrow. It’s going to get dark soon. Let’s go into one of these houses and spend the night there.” Tarin looked around him to find a suitable home for the night.

  Arix, Tarin, and Lyra went to different houses to explore for resources or any information they could find. Arix entered a house with only one room. It had three beds resting in the corner and a table in the middle, with chairs all around.

  There was a painting hanging on the wall beside the beds. Arix went to the painting and took it down from the wall. It was covered in dust. After clearing it, Arix saw something written on it. “Me and my Papa and my Mummy. The best Lom family around.” The text was clearly visible at the top of the painting. Below the text, there were three figures. They looked the same height as humans but had tails. Their eyes were white, and their bodies were thin—thinner than any human Arix had ever seen.

  “These seem like the creatures that lived in this village,” Arix whispered in the empty room. “But why did they all leave this town?” Arix put the painting in his bag and left the house.

  Not long after, Tarin found a two-storey house, which they all decided to use as their camp for today. They entered the house and went upstairs to set the campfire beside the window. From that window, they could see the streets and other old houses. Those houses were filled with dirt and cobwebs.

  They had already seen spiders in the forest, so it didn’t amaze them. But it was still new to see all these new creatures they had never seen before.

  It was not dark yet when they finally completed setting up the camp for today. The campfire was in the middle, and three bedrolls were around it for Arix, Lyra, and Tarin.

  The room they were using for the campfire and sleeping was old. One desk sat on the left, while a few dirty clothes were put on the table in the corner. There was a spider in the corner which frightened Lyra a little. Arix picked that spider and threw it through the window.

  They were standing at the window, looking out at the streets and empty houses, letting time pass, when a figure came and stood behind them at the door.