Chapter 4: A New Bond

I feel warm, my arms and legs feel like they are being softly touched by a goddess. My body is tingling as I hear weird sounds around me. I would like to see but this moment feels Amazing, I would hate to ruin it.

"Wake up" this loud booming voice in my head yells, not caring about how I feel.

But I did listen, the warmth was from the sun, and the sounds were coming from behind me. I'm being dragged in a cart. I sit up and I see small rodents and other creatures all around the cart, moving slowly like it's being dragged by an old Familiar. I sit up and I realize that my body feels fine. I look at my leg and there are some scars but that's it. I look down my shirt and I see 2 scars where the arrows went through. But I'm healed

" What happened, how is my body…"

" Idk, I haven't done anything"

Confused, if it wasn't my familiar, could it be the one dragging the cart? I look and all I see is a large bug dragging the cart. God I hate bugs, they are so gross. But I don't see anyone leading it, where are they?

" Helloooo"

This small man with large glasses and an old dirty hat pops his head out under the cart. I need to stop passing out and wake up and people popping out of nowhere, this is becoming a serious issue.

"Why are you under the cart"

"Ah you see, I dropped some bread and I went to go pick it up, but my bear got caught in the wheel and I've been stuck down here for what seems like forever, please help me"

A man with a high pitch and fragile voice is stuck under his own cart. I think I've seen it all. I look around me and find an arrow. I'm guessing this was the one inside me, gross but okay.

As soon as I touch his beard he yells as loud as he can

" Owwwooowoowow"

" Look I need to cut it off or you're gonna be stuck" I start sawing away but with such a small arrow head this took like 5 minutes. When I was done he stood up and teary eyed looking down on his chin. I looked under the cart and holy cow it was stuck in the front left tire. That…. His beard was bigger than him, honestly guy I see why you didn't want me to cut that, that's impressive and gross

" Well thank you boyo, what's your name?"

I don't want to answer this man question, he's very weird

" You fell into my cart and I healed you, and you won't answer my question. Kids these days with no respect for their elders"

" I'm Zeph. but other people call me demon"

" Ooooo with such a scary nickname you don't seem like it. To me, you seem like a weak kid who almost died"

Well to me you seem like a crusty old man who probably married his Familiar. Behind me I hear this weird crackle, I see that it is Greed. Rolling on the floor.

"What's up greed?"

" It's right, he is. while I was out he kept calling his bug Linda and saying how much he loves her."

Okay that's kinda funny, I tried to hold back my laughter while the old man was confused at my absence in the conversation.

I stop my giggles and reach out my hand

" Thank you for healing me, what is your name"

Asking that simple question sparked a fire in his eyes, he scurry's to the front of the wagon and grabbed some strange objects from a trunk. And hides behind a bush.

" So, young boy"

Oh no

" You wonder who this strange and powerful man is"

Why did I ask him

" I have fought creatures as large as mountains, and flown faster than a lighting hawk."

Is this man senile

" I once defeated an entire army all by myself with my sheer strength and awesomeness"

Oh god something has to be up

" I have had many names, one from a princess and one from a god, but you may call me...…Bob"

He jumps out of the bush with a fan as a shield and what looks like a cutting knife for what I imagine is his sword. An old tattered cape wrapped around his neck and leaves stuck in his ear and hair. Wait, if he had a knife why didn't he tell me that so I could have cut his hair faster?

…..

…..

Me and Greed are rolling on the floor laughing. Not even that, wheezing and crying. My hands are on my stomach from the pain this man brought me with his words and appearance

"B…b…BOB, who names their child Bob"" screw my Familiar hatching, this is the greatest moment of my life.

He chucks an apple at my head and It connects and it hurts, but I still laugh and then I finally sit up, grasping at the air.

Greed sits up too and tries to seem serious.

"So. bob…."

We began laughing again, I have no clue why but this is so funny to me.

He chucks more apples at me and I stop.

"So bob, where are we"

" Glad you have asked my young apprentice, we are…."

He looks at the sky and then his hand like he's trying to see a note he wrote on there

" Do you have a map"

" Oh yes. Yes I do, thanks boyo"

Why does this man keep calling me boyo. He goes back to his trunk and pulls out this map bigger than him. He looks scattered brain, examining every nook and cranny of the thing and then points in a small green area.

"We are in…. Ummmm… "

" Let me just look"

I grab the map and I see where he was pointing.

" Why? Are. We in the forsaken forest"

" It's a short cut" he says giggling like it was a reasonable answer

The forsaken forest is known for dark fog, that if you encounter, you will cease to exist. Bandits once hid her with treasure they stole from some noble's wagon. Both the bandits and the treasure vanished as if they never existed. The only reason we know this is from lone survivors that barely made it through their trip. Soldiers have gone through to try and find the cause of the fog but they never returned.

Nevermind, I hate this man. I stand up and look this man in his eyes, his poor child-like eyes. And smack him for being so dumb

"Owwwwww, what was that for"

" For killing us by driving through here. We are gonna die and it's your fault

" How are we gonna die?"

I swear bob is insane

" It's THE FORSAKE FOREST, the name itself tells you it's bad, the fog is gonna get us"

" Fog, I've never experienced fog"

" What do you mean….. Wait, you've been here before?"

"Oh yes, I've been here many times hehe"

" Oh… Your lying, we are gonna die"

"No boyo, I've gone through this trail very often, it's the fastest way to elf kingdom"

" Elves? What are elves"

"Boy, you have much to learn about the world that you live in. And are you telling me you never heard of the other races."

The more I think about it, our kingdom never really told us about the outside world except that we are stronger than the rest. Could there be other races and our schools and kingdoms never told us.

" You promise you've been here before and have never experienced fog?"

Still questioning this man's sanity I ask him one more time and say he will show me he's been here before. I hop in the wagon with him and we start riding on the trail. After an hour we stop next to what seems like a campsite. Some burnt logs and a pot.

He has actually been here before

Bob said that we are 1 more day away from the entrance to the kingdom so we would be stopping here for the night, he said there was a river nearby that was full of fish. I was confused why this old man I have never met is taking me with him, and he's sometimes funny, but it's still weird that he healed me and didn't take me to the knights.

We are both in the river, and he's tryna catch fish with his hands and his hat, and I'm sitting on a rock, watching the water flow over my feet. Something is soothing, as if time feels still. Greed is jumping in and out of the water trying to catch some fish.

"Hey bob, why did you heal me?"

Startles at my question, slips and punches a fish instead of catching it

" Why were you running away?"

"There was a bombing at a tournament I attended, they thought I was a suspect cause I defeated a bird, or not me but Greed over there"

Greed is sitting in a rock with a big smile, teeth showing

" Did you bomb the event?"

" No"

"Then I helped you cause you are a good person. Also what is he? Is he a new species?"

" Not gonna lie bob, I don't know. To be honest I don't know if he even has any elemental abilities. What's your Familiar"

"Oh linda, she's a Rhino Firefly"

" I've never heard of that species"

Linda looked upset, so I decided to go over there and examine this large specimen. She's bigger than the cart and longer too, her body is a shiny brown color and I can see that she has wings. She can fly? And her head has a horn, and her mouth is big, big enough to fit me. She has 6 short stubby legs which explain it's slow speed. For such an old looking creature it's eyes were incredible. Large dark brown eyes with what looks like dots of black and white, I didn't know that was possible. I can see myself in her eyes.

Wait.

Looking at myself in Linda's eye's, I thought I saw something weird. I looked into the water and what I saw was right this weird black x is now in both of my eyes. I started panicking hoping it was fake and smacking the water, hoping it was just my mind playing tricks on me, and thankfully it was. The Black x's disappeared just as fast as i saw it

" Hey Zeph, what are you?"

Why did he ask this now, its random

" Well to my friends and family, I am a miracle. But to myself I'm just me, Zeph, why do you ask?"

"When I removed the arrow from your right side, I realized you had 2 holes on your left side, I didn't heal that, how did you?"

The arrow that the bird pulled out healed before he healed me.

" What about my leg?"

" Your leg was injured? I didn't see that, all I did was remove the arrow and placed you in linda's mouth till she healed you"

What? I… Was… Inside…. Her mouth. I vomit into the water, I'm so glad I did it down stream. Bob giggled at my suffering and so did Greed. I'm gonna kill them both. But it's good to know that linda heals, I hate the idea in hanging out in there but healing is healing

I look back at Greed, did he somehow heal me? Not possible, how could he. And why are my eyes different now? It's weird and confusing but I should focus more on catching dinner than what's going on with me.

We all head back to the camp with a pile of fish. Well I had fish, bob had what looked like seaweed and…. Rocks? I don't understand this man. I cook our fish because I'm afraid that he will light himself on fire. It's good that I caught a lot of fish Because I gave Greed and Linda all the fish but 5. They ate it so fast too. Linda growled with what I imagined was fullness or happiness, but Greed kept saying" yum yum yum" in my head which was funny but annoying so I understood that he likes it.

...

The sun was going down and Linda was asleep, Greed was on my shoulder watching the bugs flying around. Greed had an eating issue. But compared to other days this has been a good one, the moon looks so close that I feel like I could touch it. And I wasn't chased like a criminal or knocked out.

Me and Bob yawned at the same time and I realized he was leaning on a stick to keep him up, he stands and walks to Linda, and just crawls into her mouth.

" Do you want to join me boyo, hehe it's nice and warm" linda burned at the end of his sentence and all I smell is the fish that it ate.

" Naw I'm good bob, have fun"

He squirms more into her mouth till his head is gone and I'm alone. I ask Greed about what's going on with me but before he answers he starts sniffing the air. I could hear what he was saying and all I heard was " danger". Next thing I know the fire goes out and with a large gust of wind. It smelt like a gas and I realized what was happening.

Before I knew it I couldn't see the cart, or even Linda and Bob, the fog swallowed them, before it could get me I climbed a tree with Greed and we watched the stuff he had disappeared. Bob lied. We are gonna die aren't we?