Dying Tree

…

"Hey, hey, Oppa, did you know—"

Anna, the little girl, blabbered about all kinds of stuff as they walked the woods, but Sung-jin ignored her because he got distracted by something else.

'What's this?'

He thought and stopped in his stead. And making the girl that held his hand stop as well, she got a bit surprised by the sudden halt.

"What's wrong?"

She asked curiously when she saw him bowing down to the ground. However, he didn't reply and stood bend over with his hand touching something on the floor.

'Is this what I think it is?'

He took something from the ground and stood straight up again, and looking inside his palm where the thing he collected was, his joy skyrocketed.

'Oh! It's a leaf!'

He silently got more excited as the leaf in his hand crumbled in pieces when a wind came by it and touched it.

"Let's continue this way; I think we are on the right track."

Taking Anna's hands, he assured her that they were close to their goal, and he quickly continued walking in the direction he thought the tree was in.

'it's the first time I see a leaf in this forest, and though it wasn't alive, it's still an indication that this is the right path.'

He looked straight up and thought that it was soon over and he could finally go back to the inn and get some well-deserved sleep.

'We just need to go a little further, and we will get there.'

He smiled as he walked with the girl in his hand. Looking at her with his eyes, she quickly understood his intention, and she smiled back at him.

…

"Huh, I think I remember this place!"

Anna suddenly yelled, pointing her finger ahead of her and jumping around ecstatic. However, to Sung-jin, it didn't seem like any particular change to the scenery could cause such an outburst.

"Are you sure about that?"

He questioned her, a bit doubtful about differentiating between what looked like the same old trees.

'I have noticed that more and more leaves have been on the ground lately, but other than that, I can't see any changes.'

Looking curious at Anna, awaiting her answer, he stood still.

"Yes, I am! Look here!"

She pushed him over to a tree and showed something that was engraved on it.

"This is marks, right? Have you engraved them?"

Touching the dead bark with the mark on it, he looked at her and questioned. He sounded impressed when he felt it. Since she wasn't the biggest person, engraving this must be a challenge.

"Yes, I did. Mom and dad taught it to me. When I engrave them, I always know where I been, and I can follow them."

She puffed her chest out and told her reasoning for the mark with pride in her voice.

"Okay, so that means there are more marks then?"

Caressing her head, he wanted her to show where the marks went and if there were other marks in the first place.

"Just follow me. I know the path now!"

In her excitement, she hurriedly took his hand and shoved him further down the path, where trees with marks slowly got more prominent the further they went.

"If you don't mind me asking… Why haven't you made marks before now if you knew how to?"

Sung-jin questioned the reasoning why the marks would out of nowhere begin to appear and why she didn't do it when they first met.

"Uhm… I remember I fell asleep, but I got woken up by a scary sound, so I ran away and when I looked back I couldn't find the marks."

Her answer seemed reasonable; however, he still would have continued making marks if he was in her situation, despite losing the others. But that was only because of his vast knowledge that he would have done it differently compared to hers.

"It doesn't matter. At least we know where your mother is now."

He told her and assured her that everything was going to be fine soon.

"But somethings bothering me, though. If you got separated from your mother and these marks is the direction to her. Why didn't you just stay there and wait?"

An important question was asked to the girl, and though everything made sense at this point, this particular thing about Anna's situation bothered him.

"Uhm… I can't remember it. The only thing I know is my mother pushed me away and told me to run and never come back."

She calmly said a distressing fact that made Sung-jin flinch.

'What! How can you say that with such a straight face!'

Sung-jin looked perplexed at her and thought how mad someone must be to return after getting that said to one.

'This definitely stinks way too much of a fight coming up soon, and I don't think it will be easy. However, it takes courage to go back after you get pushed away like that.'

Still looking perplexed, he prepared himself for the worst thing to come because if he did that, he could only be happily surprised if it wasn't as hard as he thought. And looking at the little girl that just smiled and jumped around in front of him, he didn't know what to make out of it.

'I still don't know how to classify these people. I like to call them npc's because they give quests, but they can die, so are they just normal people?' Is the girl an npc or just an ordinary person?

He wondered about the existence of the innate people in this world as he figured out that it wasn't essential to question it in the first place.

'I guess we are the invaders… I never really thought of that since I never had a relationship with a npc, or rather a human in this world, other than the ones I got teleported with. And what is expected in this world is just fantasy in ours.'

He shrugged his shoulders at his newfound look at this world. And looking at Anna, he thought it was normal for her to be scared, but the fact she wasn't just proved that this world is just much more different than his, also in terms of human values.

"Okay, just forget about me asking that."

Awkwardly looking at Anna, he tried changing the topic. However, only silence befalls as they continue walking the path with the marks.

…

"Huh! Is this the place?"

Sung-jin exclaimed when he saw a tree with leaves that stood in the middle of an opening in the forest. He looked back and saw that they went by the last tree with a mark on it, so he figured this was where Anna got separated from her mom.

"Yes! Yes!"

Anna ran forward and yelled, but she didn't get far before Sung-jin took her arm and pulled her back. She looked confused at him, and she didn't understand why he would stop her from going to the tree.

"Don't be too hasty; it might be dangerous."

He pushed her behind his back and took out his weapon, the Goblin's Knife, and prepared for the worst that could happen.

'This isn't the blossoming tree the quest says I need to find. I would have gotten a quest notification if that was the case. And even if I was at the right place, this tree…'

He used his quick-witted brain to put the pieces together, and he could tell that something wasn't right here.

"This tree is dying…"

Saying it aloud, he examined the tree, and he could determine that it wasn't alive anymore and it was beginning to rot. The atmosphere around the tree wasn't pleasant either, and he could feel something ominous surrounding it.

'Either I'm too tired, or there is actually something wrong here—'

He tried to think about the situation, but he got interrupted.

"What's that over there?"

Anna pointed at something that stood under the tree, and after looking himself at what she found, he couldn't determine it either.

'It looks to be some kind of rocks?'

He questioned but didn't think further about it and just took Anna's hand and began to walk.

"Let's go take a look."

Firmly having her hand in his, he told her to walk with him and walk slowly towards the tree. The ominous feeling he got before only got stronger the closer they got.

"Huh!"

A weird sound from him was made as they were about to be up close to the tree, and a serious expression was seen on him.

'These two stones aren't just stones; they are gravestones.'

Looking a bit disturbed, he looked at Anna, and he had an important question he wanted to ask her.

"What's your mom's name?"

Kneeling down to her so he could look her in the eyes as he questioned about her mother. However, the question he wanted to know didn't have to be answered by her verbally. Anna's expression was a clear enough sign that who was buried here was someone dear to her.

"I'm sorry about that…"

He embraced the girl tightly after finding out about who was buried here. But despite his best efforts to comfort her, the tears were inevitable, and she buried her crying face in Sung-jin's chest.