Chapter 7: A strange yet familiar Letter

Axel continued to comfort and tried his best to calm Linda down. Who's now become a 'Hybrid' and Axel felt he's the one responsible that caused Linda to turn into what she becomes, a Hybrid. From deep within her heart, Linda felt a feeling she never felt before.

A feeling of boiling anger; slowly, her sobbing becomes quieter and quieter and then silents.

Axel looks down at Linda; who suddenly becomes very quiet, and with her head looking down, he slowly asks her worriedly,

"L-Linda...are you all right?" asked Axel worriedly.

As soon as Axel looks at her face, she suddenly looked up and shouts at his face. She berates him for turning her into this monstrosity, and she yells at him that if he really wants to protect her, he should've been fast enough; to quickly defend her from the Wicked Neko. With the rage boiling inside of her, she screams at him with anger,

"If you're that fast, you should've been able to kill that little beast. But no! You're just not quick enough to defend me from that beast of a cat! Look what you did to me!"

"Because of you, I'm now cursed to become into this Monstocity! Are you happy with this? Axel Thundermaw!" shouted Linda.

With guilt in his heart, Axel just continues to listen to Linda as she continues to shout at him while he looks at her with a sad expression on his face. When she finishes berating him, he just looked down at the ground and muttered to her,

"I know...I wasn't good enough to protect you, I'm sorry..." said Axel looking depressed.

Linda looks at him, and she suddenly realized what she has done and said to her friend. Her eyes started to water as her anger quickly turned into a feeling of immense sadness and regret, tears streams down her face as she hugged him tightly. She told him that she was so sorry. And she pleads with him to forgive her actions as she continues to cry; harder.

Axel looks down at her, slowly moved his hand over, and softly puts his hand on her back. He gently pushes her towards him, and before she knows it. She's being pulled into a hug as Axel looks at her with a soft smile. She doesn't know why but, how can Axel be so calm after what she did to him. He then slowly moved his hand up to her head and softly puts his hand on her hair; he gently rubs her long pink hair, and as he continues to rub her long hair. He calmly tells her,

"Listen, Linda, if you don't want to forgive me, it's ok...I was the one who caused you to be cursed. After all, I'm the one who turned you into this...I should be the one that is sorry, not you."

"You've done nothing wrong, and yet, I...was not good enough to protect you, so...it's all right if you don't want to forgive me," said Axel calmly while he continues gently rub her hair.

As soon as those two sentences come out of his mouth. Linda starts to cry even more, and she pleads with him again to please forgive her actions; she said to him while sobbing in his arms,

"Axel, please forgive me! I didn't know what I was thinking. I was so enraged that I didn't know what I was saying. Please, Axel, I begged you, forgive me..." said Linda, now whimpering.

Axel continues to smile as he listens to Linda pouring out all of her regretful action; he continues to rub her hair softly and once again pulls her into a hug; he looks down at his friend and said to her with a calm and gentle tone,

"...I forgive you, Linda," said Axel calmly.

Axel accepted her apology. Linda is both glad and relieved that Axel forgives her after all of the bad things she said to him; she's very happy to have a friend that is very kind and caring. Linda smiled happily, and she gave him one of the biggest hugs she ever gave and Axel; is almost suffocated from it, Axel tells her while being squeezed by her tight grip,

"L-Linda, I think you're hugging me too tightly," said Axel in high pitched noise.

She realizes this and immediately let go of him as Axel took some time to catch his breath. She again apologized, but Axel told her not to worry. Linda then looks down, then looks at Axel and asks him quite bluntly,

"W-Why didn't you get mad at me when I shout at you?" asked Linda.

"Because that's not who I am," said Axel, while looking at Linda. "I understand that you're mad at me because of my late reaction to intervene."

"But when you shout at me, I don't shout back; it's because I understand why you did it, it's out of your sadness and anger."

"As a normal person's reaction, yes, they will shout back, but to me, I don't see it that way. Even though we just met each other for the first time, I feel like we've been with each other for long enough and already become friends."

"And a true friend will always support their friends in any situation," said Axel giving Linda a warm smile.

Linda is really surprised by how calm and gentle; Axel answered her question. Even though she hurt his feelings, he didn't fight back, and when she berates him; he listens and doesn't shout back; he understands that she's in pain, and he too also felt her pain. Linda now sees him not as a stranger anymore. But as a friend, a friend she lacks in her life.

She closes her eyes as she remembered the time where Axel saved her from the boar attack; Axel turns to look at Linda and asks her,

"Linda, are you all right?" asked Axel.

She then opened her eyes, and with watery eyes, she once again gives Axel a big hug. But this hug is out of happiness, the happiness of having a friend who truly cares for her. As tears stream down her face, she said to Axel while sobbing,

"Thank you, Axel. I'm happy to have a friend like you," said Linda sobbing softly.

"No need to thank me, I'm always happy to help you," said Axel calmly, also hugging her.

The two hugged each other for hours, happy to finally put an end to their argument.

Hours Later

As the sun slowly rises over the horizon and the night sky slowly turns into the morning twilight sky. Axel and Linda are still hugging each other, finally able to put an end to their argument and becoming true friends. As soon as the sun shines on the forest, Linda once again felt a sharp pain on her shoulder and is on the ground throbbing in pain, clutching her shoulder, Axel rushes to her aid, and once again, he notices something is changing with Linda.

Her claw-like nails revert to normal, and her cat ears slowly disappear along with her tail, and then she passes out. Axel, in a panic, quickly checks her breathing and is relieved that he can still felt her breathing. He carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her to the tent, and once inside, he carefully lay her down on the mat; he softly smiled and; tells her,

"I will always be there to help you, now take some rest," said Axel, walking out of the tent.

As Axel stepped outside the tent, he hears a cooing sound from above. He looks up and sees a pigeon flying down to the ground where he's standing, Axel stretches out his right arm, and the pigeon safely lands on his arm; he said to the pigeon,

"Hey, there little buddy," said Axel.

The pigeon just coos at him and Axel give a slight chuckle, then he sees something attached on one of the pigeon's leg, it's a letter, he said to himself,

"Huh, I wonder who could have sent this letter to me," said Axel, taking the letter from the pigeon's leg.

He puts the letter inside his pocket as the pigeon flew away, Axel gazed up at the sky for a moment, and then he took out the letter from his pocket. He looks at the letter for a minute and is talking to himself,

"Again, how can someone be able to send me a letter even though they don't know my location, strange...I guess I'll read it later when Linda finally wakes up," said Axel, putting the letter back into his pocket.

A few minutes later

The calm and cold morning wind breezes through the entire forest as Axel sits down on the grass, meditating, he slowly breathes in, and then he slowly exhales. Axel tries to calm his mind even further, to reach a state that is known to be hard to learn for every elemental user,

'The Art of Instantaneous Movement, or Calm Instinct.'

He continues to breathe in and breathe out, then, Linda called him from afar,

"Axel, what are you doing over there!" exclaimed Linda.

Axel immediately stops his meditation when he hears her calling him from afar. He is a bit annoyed but just stays still and tells her from afar,

"I was meditating. Linda, please, if you see me meditating, wait till I'm finished; with my meditation," said Axel.

She quickly apologizes for disturbing him, and Axel told her that it's all right, then he remembers the letter he kept in his pocket earlier, he then shouts for Linda's attention,

"Hey, Linda, can you get over here for a second? There's something I need to show you," shouted Axel.

Linda quickly jogged towards him and stopped once she is beside him; she looks down at him and asks,

"What do you want to show me?" asked Linda.

"Come here," said Axel, gesturing Linda to move closer. "I just receive a letter that was sent by a pigeon, I don't know how someone would know where our location is to send this letter, so I call you here to check it out."

Linda sits down beside him as Axel opened the letter, the two read the letter, and it goes as follows,

Dear Axel.

I send you this letter to let you know that it's been a long time since I saw you. I've been watching you every day, and I see that you made a new friend with you. I hope we can meet each other again one day.

Sincerely, One that shall not be named.

Axel and Linda are both speechless as they finished reading the letter; the two have so many questions clouding their mind. How can this person know who they are; how can this person able to watch them from miles away. And better yet, why is this person hoping that he/ she can meet them again one day. Even though they never have seen or heard anything about this mysterious sender. The two regained their composure, as the two looked at each other and asks themselves some questions,

"How can this person know where we are?" asked Linda.

"Beats me, I even never heard of this person, although I notice something familiar about this letter," said Axel, examining the letter.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Linda, looking at Axel quizzically.

"It's the handwriting," said Axel, rubbing his chin. "I feel like I've seen this handwriting before, but I can't put my finger on it of who wrote this."

They both examined the letter a little more. Then, Linda notices something on the back of the letter. She tells Axel,

"Axel, take a look; I think there's something behind that letter," said Linda, pointing at a small object behind the letter.

Axel turns the letter around, and he sees a small piece of map attached to the piece of paper. He can't really make out what's on the map, but he can make out a shape on the map, a mountain. He tells Linda,

"It's a small map, and from what I can see that there's a mountain on it. So whoever sends this letter must be living on top of a mountain. And it says here, to find the mountain, we should head east," said Axel. "Well, it looks like we have an adventure on our hands."

"Oh, wow, an adventure, how exciting!" said Linda, excited to go on an adventure.

"You seem to be excited. You see, I've been traversing through the land for a long time, so I guess going on an adventure would be fun," said Axel. "Now, let's prepare our stuff for the long journey ahead."

Linda nodded, and the two heads back to the campsite, preparing their bags for the long journey ahead of them. While packing up, Linda realizes that she doesn't have a bag on her. Luckily, Axel keeps a spare bag on him, and he gives the 'spare bag' to her, to which Linda happily accepts and starts to pack her stuff into the bag.

While packing up, Linda remembered something, and she said to Axel,

"Actually, I've been wandering the longest," said Linda, looking at Axel.

"What do you mean? How long you've been; wandered?" asked Axel with a confused look.

"For 8; years," said Linda, bluntly.

"8 years?!" exclaimed Axel, surprised. "Wow! I thought I wandered the longest, but it seems I was not. I'm surprised that you have the patience to wandered that long."

"Well, like you said, If you been doing it for long enough, you'll get used to it eventually," said Linda, finished packing her backpack.

"Indeed," said Axel, also finished packing his backpack.

Once they finished packing up, they set east to find this mountain told by the Mysterious Sender, and the adventure begins.