Dawn- An Age Of Darkness

The fire burned brightly. It was comforting but my mind was preoccupied with loads of thoughts. The three of them were facing me. I didn't really pay attention to them.

Ah! Another day passes. When will this end?

"Daarc, I need to-" Alisa paused.

"What is it?"

"It was my fault," she said.

My eyes widened. I didn't expect her to say that. I really didn't. For a moment my heart throbbed in pain as I witnessed her tear-jerking expression. She really was sorry.

With resonance to my silence, she added, "She died for me. If I wasn't there-"

"It's okay. She didn't once blame you. And for the first and last time, you were unconscious. She died because of me! So don't say that."

She might have meant that as an apology but even so, it only hurt me. It reminded me of what I wanted to forget and yet again, my heart throbbed.

She looked at her feet. She didn't know what to say anymore; she was a child after all.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"What?"

I didn't reply, even I couldn't comprehend why I'd said that but there was nothing more to say.

We still hadn't had dinner. The other two were cooking: bread. Monsters weren't common in this place- at least that's what Jowy told me. I didn't believe him though. There weren't any movements in the forest but I still remained vigilant.

Soon my peripherals got triggered. What was that!

"What's wrong Daarc?" Jowy said.

"Thought I saw something there," I said.

I looked and saw nothing. There wasn't any sound in the bushes either.

Was I imagining things?

"Could have sworn I saw something white there…" I muttered to myself.

"Don't worry. That happens to the best of us, but you can rest in peace. This forest is protected by Lady Imazael. She protects these lands."

"An angel?" That name sounded a lot like the angels.

"Well, she kind of is like an angel…" Jowy said. Jowy's face became a little red and he looked at the fire instead of me. If I wasn't wrong, I'd say he blushed.

I didn't continue the conversation and chomped on my piece of bread. It was tasteless but that was all we had. Cooked bread is still bread. Even that mush the pirates gave me wasn't this bad. Come to think of it, that mush might have even been a little delicious. The heat must have gotten to me.

I didn't really care about Jowy's preferences. And if it wasn't an actual angel, it wasn't that interesting a topic to me.

"By the way, you guys know something about a Jamsau?"

When I said that there was silence. Even moments ago the three were chatting but now they all looked at me with utter silence.

"Where'd you hear that name?" Jowy said.

"In a dream maybe…"

"Don't utter it in public." Jowy was insisting. He was serious. "And even if you dream those dreams, don't say it in public."

"Okay?" I got that I shouldn't have said stuff in public, but did he forget that we were in a forest and there weren't any public here?

The old man drank the rest of the bread soup in one go. "Remember I said something about the god of underworld? That's him."

Okay so, this Jamsau guy was the guy behind all this drama? If it weren't for him, all this fighting and all that wouldn't have happened?

"And, ah-" It was hard to say, more like embarrassing. "I had this dream where I was floating and it felt like there was something beneath me. I actually talked with one and that place was just dark. Something about being the darkest place and stuff. I saw another place where there was water everywhere but the voice kept saying 'water.' Am I going crazy?"

Both of the guys just looked at me without a word. Alisa looked a little skeptical but I couldn't help but feel she knew something.

"Once, in my younger days, I dreamed of a girl. A girl in darkness. She kept calling me to free her. But once she saw me, she said, 'you're not the one.'" The geezer sighed. "Dunno if you've met that person, but I don't have an answer for you."

In the end, Jowy just kept quiet and the old man sighed. Neither of them said a word to me.

"Excuse me?" I tried to get an answer.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the dreams. They were just dreams. The weather's hot and you were tired, maybe that's why?" Alisa was being awfully realistic for a kid. But maybe she was right.

"The kid's right, rest up." The old man was hiding something; there was no doubt about it. But I didn't press on.

After all, dreams were just dreams, right?

God of underworld, huh? So that dream… some kind of memory from the past? But how come I'm getting it now? Why me?

There were also those other two dreams of darkness. What were they, who were they? I didn't know and I didn't have any way to know either. I could only wait and see for now.

After finishing we went to sleep. Jowy insisted that guarding wouldn't be necessary. So we listened to him.

However, I stayed vigilant. I couldn't trust Jowy to that extent, at least not yet. I kept on thinking about the world and my own world for once. Maybe my world was flawed but it definitely was much better than this world. At least I didn't run the risk of being killed a thousand times a day. After midnight, I couldn't keep my eyes open. Maybe I really was tired. But I still pushed on. I couldn't let my guard down. I really didn't want to.

And as a result, woke up all groggy. I couldn't shake the feeling of being terrified of the forest all night and fell asleep at the last possible moment before sunrise. I got enough rest yesterday afternoon, so it wasn't that much of a big deal.

But there was something on top of me. Something very familiar, so familiar that I was almost on the verge of tears.

"Biteria!"