Chapter 3

A wooden ceiling.

When Arscythe slowly opened his eyes, this was the first thing he saw. He stayed in a daze for a while, until the memories rushed in. He was attacked. He tried to fight back and escape but failed. Moreover, his right arm was torn off.

Thinking until here, he looked at his right arm. He still has it.

'A dream…? No, it was real'

Arscythe raised his right hand to his face. He clenched and unclenched his hand, feeling the blood flowing through it. He confirmed that the sensation was real and was bewildered.

'I-I nearly died. What happened? What about the--'

When he remembered the bear, he quickly sat up. His body ached all over but he ignored it. He tried to stand up from his bed but he quickly fell on his knees.

"Ars!"

At that moment, a crisp voice came from the doorway. Arscythe looked over and saw Isabella rushing towards him while tearing up. She dug onto his embrace the moment she reached him and bawled her eyes out.

"Isabella..." Arscythe patted her back to console her.

"Ars... hic, I-I thought you won't come so I..."

"I'm sorry... I won't leave you anymore."

She must've been afraid. He fainted after that white light exploded, so he must've been lying in that forest for who knows how long. He was right. Isabella got worried after he failed to come home even as the darkness settled in, so she went out to look for him in the forest.

But he was more curious about what happened after he fainted. Where did the bear go? Was it scared by the light and ran away? What about his arm? He remembered that it was torn off by the bear; the evidence was on the ragged shirt hanging in the corner of the room. There was still his blood on it. However, there was nothing he could do but console Isabella at the moment and ask questions later.

After some time, Isabella finally let go with red eyes. Arscythe wiped her remaining tears away. When he's done wiping her face, they both sat on the bed. Arscythe then asked the question he was most curious about.

"What happened to the bear?"

"What bear?"

"….."

Arscythe was dumbfounded. Last he remembered, he saw the metallic bear not far away from him. When that white light exploded, he fainted. That was it. Thus, he did not know whether that bear ran away or died to that light. What he did know though was for some reason, he was left unharmed except for the aching body.

'What is that light?'

"Did you not see a metallic bear near me?" He asked again while rubbing his temples.

"Metallic bear? N-no. There was nothing there besides you except blood..."

Seemingly remembering something, Isabella suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh! There was an egg in your hands and a blue thing besides you when I found you."

'There was no bear? Is it really because of that light? And my arm too...' When Arscythe heard it, he did not believe it at first. His mind has already cleared up and he was sure that he fought the metallic bear yesterday. But then again seeing that he's in his house and Isabella seems unscathed, he had no choice but to believe it. He surmised that maybe the cause was the white light he saw before he fainted.

"I put it in the drawer. You can just check it out later. Brother still needs to fill his stomach first. Come on, I boiled some soup to warm you up." Saying so, Isabella got up and waited for him to follow.

Arscythe smiled at his sister's consideration and tried to stand up on his own but failed.

"Ah! A-are you okay?" Isabella rushed in to support him. He nearly collapsed again but he managed to support himself by leaning on Isabella.

"Yeah. I'm fine, sorry. My body's still aching but it's all good. I can walk somehow."

He tried to shake Isabella off because he knows he's heavy, but she instead held him more tightly.

"Just let me support you."

"Thanks." He smiled in response.

They both made their way towards the kitchen and Isabella sat him up on the chair. She then took a bowl and poured some piping hot soup into it. She sat next to Arscythe and placed the bowl down. Then, she scooped it with a spoon and blew air to cool it down.

"Ars, say aahhh."

"I can at least move my arms, you know. I can eat it myself." Arscythe said with a frown.

"You still need some rest. Just let me do this, okay?"

Arscythe nodded his head and just did as she said. She must've been shaken really badly after seeing him covered in blood in the middle of the forest. He can feel warmth filling up his heart at the same time as his stomach. Energy slowly came back to him.

After eating and resting for a bit, he can more or less stand up alone. He went to the sofa and just laid there. He closed his eyes, contemplating something.

Isabella finished washing the bowl and found the resting Arscythe.

"Isabella." He spoke to her in a serious tone.

Hearing her brother call out to her, Isabella tilted her head. She faced him directly and waited for him to continue.

"I've made up my mind."

Saying so, Arscythe opened his eyes. Inhaling a large mouthful of air, he slowly spoke up.

"We'll get out of this forest."

"Huh?!... W-why? We got all we need here, plus--" Isabella was flustered after she heard what he said. She tried to object to him but she was interrupted by Arscythe.

"We're not safe here. I'm sure that I met that metallic bear that attacked me. If it's still alive and it finds us here... I'm... not sure that I can protect you."

"Ars... W-what about our parents? What if they come back here?"

Right, this was the thing that weighed on his mind the most. The only connection left that they have with their missing parents is this place. If suddenly, one day, their parents decided to come back here to pick them up, and they were both already gone, they would miss their only chance of meeting their parents. But if that's the case, then there's only one thing that they can do.

"We'll find them ourselves. There must be at least some trace of them."

"B-but..."

"It's okay. It's not like we'll never come back here. We'll leave a letter too, telling them that we set out to find them in case they came back here." Arscythe said with a smile.

"Uuu... okay."

After some time, Isabella finally gave up and agreed to leave the forest.

They then talked about their plans; where will they go, what will they bring, etc. They will set out tomorrow morning. Isabella asked if his body can take it, to which he nodded immediately. For Arscythe, the faster they leave this forest, the higher the chances they won't encounter that bear or any similar beasts. They both prepared the things they will need the whole morning and rested the whole afternoon.

After eating dinner and taking a bath, Arscythe directly plopped into his bed. His body has almost recovered its strength. Like this, he surmised that he will be fully energized tomorrow. He became even more curious as to what that white light is. He was sure that it was some kind of a miracle, as it even reproduced his arm back.

While contemplating, he suddenly remembered the thing that his sister said. She said that when she found him unconscious, he was holding an egg and beside him is a blue thing. He reached out to his drawer and took the items out.

He was surprised to see the size of the egg. He can barely grasp it with one hand. Obviously, it was not a chicken egg. He tried knocking on it. It was very sturdy. When he tried to find out how sturdy it was and lightly hammered it with his fist, his fist was left throbbing. He then took a metal cup and tried it next, the result: it left a deep dent on the cup. He was curious even more. But with no way to break it, he just let it be for now and put it down.

Next was the blue thing. It looks like a palm-sized stone; the only difference is that it was colored in blue. Like the egg, he did not know what it was. He then put it down next to the egg. He had no idea where these things came from, but he surmised they all have connections with that white light. These two are the biggest clues that he had to find out what the light is.

When he was about to call it a night and turn around, a light swallowed both items. He was surprised. The light was like the white light that he saw that day. When the light completely disappeared, along with it was the blue stone.

Arscythe raised his brows.

'Did the egg… absorb the blue stone somehow?'

More mysteries kept popping up.