Hard...

I woke to realize that I was being carried again. But something was different. When I opened my eyes, I saw the ground. The softness that was there last time was all gone. Instead I could feel bones digging into me. I realized I was lying across someone's shoulder. This person was not Ifera. This person was much shorter than Ifera based on how close the ground was. I started to wonder if it was Ifera's smaller form. But even the shorter form I saw before in the bandit cave, was not this short. Did she become really short for some reason? If this was Ifera, she had become much thinner as well. Her shoulders were digging into my stomach making this position very painful.

"I.. Ifera?"

"Eh? Uh…"

"Can you put me down. Your shoulder is digging into me… it's kind of painful."

"Ah… oh…. Sorry about that…"

Ifera put me down… or so I thought. It wasn't Ifera. It was someone else. This girl seemed quite young. She was around the same height as me, maybe an inch or so taller than me. She had a thin and delicate body. She didn't look strong at all. I didn't know how she was able to carry me.

"Who are you?" I asked a bit warrily. I didn't know this person or why she had been carrying me.

"Ah… my name is Cindy. Nice to meet you!" She replied.

It looked like she thought I wanted to know her name. So she didn't bother telling what she had been doing.

"Um.. nice to meet you Cindy. I am Ren… Can you tell me why you were carrying me before?"

"I was looking for herbs with my brother when we found you lying by a tree. I didn't think it was safe for you to sleep by yourself in a place like this, so we tried to wake you up. But no matter what we did, you wouldn't wake up! So we got worried and decided to carry you back to town."

"Your brother?"

"Yes, he is scouting ahead right now. He should be coming back soon."

"So you two live in Tiaanway?"

"Uh.. yes we are from Tiaanway"

I wasn't sure about what was going on. Just where was Ifera? Why did she leave me under a tree? My mind was really muddled and I couldn't figure out anything. I could only go back to Tiaanway at this time. Hopefully before Ifera finds me again.

As I was thinking about what to do, I heard a noise coming towards us. Soon a young boy appeared out of the bushes. He seemed even younger than Cindy. I looked at me with surprise and then when to talk with Cindy. After whispering for a few seconds he looked at me and said, "Hi Ren, I am Mark. I am Cindy's younger brother."

"Hi Mark, I asked Cindy about the circumstances and it looks like you guys saved me. Thanks for helping me out."

I thanked both Mark and Cindy. Cindy blushed but Mark replied, "You have to thank Cindy for that. She is really kind hearted and wouldn't leave you there. When I said that I would carry you, she refused and carried you all by yourself. We have been walking for 1 hour and she carried you the whole time."

After hearing that I bowed my head to Cindy and said "Thank you very much!"

"Ah?… it's no trouble at all!" She replied while being flustered and turned away her head.

Both me and Mark looked at her with an amused smile. We decided to continue walking to Tiaanway soon after. Cindy offered to continue carrying me but I declined saying that I was fine and I could walk on my own.

"Cindy is trying to train her body. That's why she wants to continue carrying you." Mark secretly whispered this to me as we were walking.

I was flabbergasted. What kind of training is this? I shook my head and asked, "So, are you two adventurers?"

"Yes, we are F ranked adventurers. We became adventurers as soon as I turned 15, which was 6 months ago. Cindy is 1 year older than me but she decided to wait for me so that we could party together."

So Mark and Cindy were only 15 and 16 years old? They did look young. Cindy was around my height and Mark was a few inches taller than her. Since they had revealed their status, I decided to tell my own.

"I am also an adventurer but I am still unranked. I only recently started adventurering."

"Did you also just turn 15?"

"Ah.. no. I am 17 years old."

Mark looked at me with surprise. I looked younger than him and Cindy and my short height didn't help. Mark seemed to have decided to stop asking more questions for now and we resumed walking.

I briefly told them about myself and what I was doing in the forest. They had not heard about the bandit subjugation squad. They asked me a few more questions and things got quite again as if everyone had a lot on their minds.

After 15 minutes or so, Cindy came closer to me and whispered in my ear.

"Can… can I really not carry you? I… I really need to train…"

"Eh….?"