It's Just A Small Problem

"Argh…What just happened?"

Sakura sat up as she massaged her nose. She just fell into a hole.

She fell face first, presumably breaking her nose in the process. 

"Astra, what was that?" She asked as she slowly stood up. 

"The heck…"

Sakura sat up, realizing that she had somehow fallen into some hole. 

"Argh my nose…!" 

She slowly stood up. Falling face first on a rocky surface from that kind of height wasn't pleasant to experience, after all.

"So, how do I get out of here?" She asked looking aimlessly in the darkness. She could faintly hear the sound of water flowing. 

Skura thought for a moment.

"Fair enough. Which way do I fire?"

"Key"

Sakura was about to fire to her right side however, she noticed someone else in the cave.

'Wait there's a person there.'

She walked to the person who was lying on the cave floor. The rocky floor made it hard for her small feet to walk through.

She nearly fell several times while she was walking.

'Hm… an old man? How did he get here?' When Sakura reached the old man she noticed the wounds and bruises on his body.

Sakura looked at the hole on top of her and nodded. 'Seems about right.'

"Anyway, is he still alive?"

"Can you heal him?" 

< It would take 3EP.>

"Do it." 

Life was more important than EP after all.

So she gave Astra the command to heal the old man. 

Soon a gentle green light shone in the dark cave and started to heal the old man. While the old man was being healed Sakura went to the right side of the cave and started to cast her water ball spell to create a hole through the wall.

"Water ball." 

A powerful piler of water shot from her hands. It was the same kind of technique she had used to fight the spirit, previously.

*Groom 

The ground vibrated with great intensity and soon daylight seeped into the cave.

"Well, seems like I am getting good with the control aspect of magic." sakura nodded in satisfaction after seeing the cleanly cut hole.

"Now for the old man." Sakura looked behind her and saw the old man, still healing. 

"Let's just wait for him to wake up." She sat beside him with her video game.

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(Half an hour later.)

*Cough *Cough

Walter woke up while furiously coughing. "Argh… what was a dream!" He muttered while rubbing his head.

But he soon realized it wasn't a dream as he found himself in the cave. "What the!" 

He looked at his body and soon realized the injuries he sustained from falling were gone. 

He touched his neck where he was severely injured, but felt no pain there.

"????" 

"Winner!"

He suddenly heard a sound which caused him to turn back. There he saw a child sitting with a weird device in her hand. The child was wearing a foreign white and red dress. Which seemed really expensive. 

"Hell, yeah. Didn't I say Iori is better than Kyo!" Sakura exclaimed. But she suddenly noticed the old man looking at her.

"..."

""...""

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After their initial awkward encounter had ended, Sakura had to explain how she got here and found Walter. Of course, she didn't say where she came from and just made up a story with Astra's help. 

Her backstory was that she was a foreign noble who got lost in the mountain. A pretty straightforward story, but it gave her the leeway as there wasn't much chance of plotholes.

Sakura at first didn't want to take the identity of a noble but Astra suggested. According to Astra, her clothing was too colorful to be called a commoner's clothes. And her fair skin also didn't help.

Walter got a little emotional when he heard that Sakura had been surviving in this forest, all alone.

"Come with me. I will ask the village chief to help you go back to home." Walter suddenly said as he patted Sakura's head.

'What the… does he think I am a child?' 

Sakura looked at her small hands, 'Fair enough.'

"Woah!" While she was observing herself, Walter suddenly picked her up and placed her in his basket.

"Now, stay there for a while, little one. We need to reach the village before dark." Walter said as he picked up the basket on his back. 

'Oh! That's a pog way to travel I guess.' 

'Well, that's convenient for me. Maybe I should call myself Sakurarako from now on.'

"It looks like it's raining," Walter said as he saw the outside. 

"Here keep this on." He gave the cover of the basket to Sakura and asked her to cover the basket from above.

"Okay." Sakura covered the top with it, only leaving a small window for her to look outside.

"Okay then, kid. Are you ready? Tell me if there's a problem." 

Sakura gave her confirmation and the two departed from the cave.

*Crackle *Boom!! *Whoosh!

Thunder roared as rain poured like a waterfall. 

The moment Walter came out of the shade he got completely drenched instantly. Sakura on the other hand was also slowly getting drenched. The rain was just that heavy.

To Sakura's surprise though, the old man kept walking in the heavy weather. He crossed the muddy path and cleared the forest as he made his way toward the village. 

'He's tenacious.' sakura commented.

Sakura kept watching since she couldn't play her video game in this weather. 

Walter kept walking in the heavy weather. The treacherous path wasn't easy to travel. From time to time he needed to look upwards for falling rocks or branches. The heavy rain made it even harder to see and the wind was extremely strong to the point it was blowing big branches away, making it dangerous. 

However, Walter kept going like he was used to it. 

As the rain calmed down a little he soon reached a raging river that was clearly being flooded by the rain. Walter then started to go along the side of the river, upstream.

Along the way when the weather started to calm down and darkness started to spread through the forest. Sakura was conversing with Walter while he was walking. She asked about life in the mountains and what it was like to live here. To Sakura's surprise, Walter seemed very happy to be living in his village. However, he complained that there were few youths in the village creating problems. He went on about how the youths somehow learned magic and started bullying the elderly for resources. 

After complaining about them Walter started to converse about the surroundings of the village. The conversation soon shifted towards ghosts and urban legends surrounding the village.

He even tried to scare Sakura by saying, "If you won't be a nice person, the tooth witch will steal all your teeth!" 

This of course didn't scare her, instead, she was speechless.

*Rustle *Rustle

As the night descended Sakura started to have doubts if they were lost or something.

"Are we there yet?" She asked Walter.

"Yes, little one. We are almost there. We just need to get around this corner and… the village should be right… there." Walter pointed at the other side of the cliff as he cut down the bushes in his path.

Sakura looked at the direction Walter was pointing at and saw wooden walls and houses on the other side of the cliff. The two sides of the cliff were connected by a huge boulder leading to the village. There were two guard posts at the entrance.

Everything in the village looked normal. However, there was a small problem.

She asked Walter, "Um, Mister Walter. Why is the village burning?"

"..."