CHAPTER 7

GATRIA and company decided to stay at the edge of the forest by Gatria's request. She wanted to investigate the barren land that her essence couldn't revive and also to see if the spirits dwelling in this once great forest were still around.

Forest dwellers spirits were beings that could use the Mistress of Nature's essence to care for the forest under their supervision. It was a lucrative partnership. The Mistress of Nature would provide them essence and protection for their continued survival in the forest where monsters that could see and eats spirits were rampant, in return, the spirits would watch over the forest they were living in since the Mistress of Nature couldn't possibly supervised them all.

It had been so long since I spoke to a forest dweller spirit, Gatria mused as she stood away from her companions who already set up camp near the edge of the forest. I pray that some survived after nearly two centuries.

She was planning to summon the forest dwellers spirit once she reached Belrac to speak to them, but after what she just witnessed, she couldn't wait that long.

Kneeling both knees on the forest's ground, she pressed her palm against the soil to feel the trees around her.

Unlike the trees at the entrance of the forest that Gatria 'spoke' to, the trees here were anxious and panicking because of the barren land. Gatria could feel their fear that it brought tears to her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she took out a knife from her ring storage and held it close to her palm. Unbeknownst to Gatria, all her companion's eyes were on her, watching her every movement and anticipating her next move. And before their eyes, Gatria cut her palm without even wincing and as it bled, she pressed it against the soil and whispered gently with her eyes solemnly close.

"Blood of Nádair, I implore of you to come into being,"  light green hue surrounded Gatria. "I call upon the forest dwellers spirits. I beseech thee to materialize before me."

As the last word left Gatria's lips, a soothing light presence appeared before her together with the sound of sobbing.

Gatria quickly opened her eyes and floating in front of her were two crying forest dwellers spirits surrounded by light green hue.

"Your Highness! It really is you! It's really Her Highness!"

"I thought we were just imagining things when we felt Her Highnesses' essence in the forest! It's really you, Your Highness! It's really you!"

"How are you two doing?" Gatria asked gently, but the spirits were still crying and sobbing heavily as they continuously bow their heads.

Healing her cut with her essence, Gatria raised her hands with palms up and let the forest spirits sit on her palm.

"Have you calm down now?" Gatria asked.

The forest spirit with the longest hair nodded and bowed. "We apologize for showing Her Highness' our tears, we were just so happy to be summoned by Her Highness again. We've been waiting for so long, Your Highness."

The short-haired spirit nodded. "Some already perished as the barren land spread far and wide, while some relocated, but we couldn't leave the great forest of Tazman. We promise Her Highness that we will take care of it, but the essence that you bestowed on us centuries ago has already been used while trying to fight the barren land. We couldn't keep the forest safe anymore."

Gatria shook her head. "It was my fault." Then she bowed her head to apologize. "I'm so sorry. Please, forgive me."

"Your Highness! Please raise your head!" The trembling voice of the long-haired spirit echoed in an attempt to stop the Mistress of Nature from bowing her head.

"Please! We implore you, Your Highness!" The short-haired spirit pleaded. "It was not your fault. We heard about what happened from the whispers of humans that passed by the forest. It should be us apologizing because we didn't do anything at all. Even after you saved us from going extinct, we were too weak and couldn't do anything to help Her Highness!"

Gatria finally raised her head and smiled as she shook her head. "You don't have anything to apologize for. I'm just glad that there are still many left of your kind. I'm happy."

"Your Highness...!" The two forest dwellers spirits went back to crying while prostrating and Gatria had to gently move dried their tears.

"Stop crying you two." Gatria tried to calm the two down and when they finally did, she told them her intention. "I called because I have questions."

The long-haired spirit adorably put her hands on her hips and grinned, no sign of tears in her face. "Ask us anything! We will definitely answer Her Highness!"

Gatria was glad. "Then... do you know anything about the barren land? I tried to imbue it with my essence, but it didn't work."

The short-haired spirit sighed and her shoulders fell. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. We didn't know as well. We, too, used the last remaining essence Her Highness' had given to us before to try to revive even a small portion of the barren land, but unfortunately, it only went to waste."

The long-haired spirit nodded. "Hmm. Nothing happened. After that, we didn't know what to do to save the forest and some of us had fallen prey to the barren land and perish, so most of us left and relocated to the sacred forest. It was just us two here."

"We apologize that we couldn't answer Her Highness' question."

Gatria shook her head and with a gentle smile, she blessed the two with her essence. "This forest is dangerous for you both. I will investigate what happened, but I don't know how long this forest will last. So go to the Sacred Forest and share my essence to everyone. I will visit you all as soon as I can."

The two spirits graciously accepted her essence and jumped in the air with glee.

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

"Thank you so much, Your Highness!"

Gatria nodded. "You're welcome. By the way," she just remembered something at the mention of Sacred Forest, "when you arrive at the Sacred Forest," with her essence, she materialized a big leaf in her hand with a written message inside and rolled it. "Give this to the Elven King."

The two spirit accepted the rolled leaf with great care. And after profusely thanking her and bowing to her so many times, they bid their goodbyes and disappeared with the rolled leaf without a trace.

Gatria stood up and walked towards the edge of the forest and stared at the barren land in front of her. She was too preoccupied to see Drago, Zarek and Grath's astonishment. It was their first time to see a spirit because the spirits tends to keep a distance with everyone. But not only did Gatria summoned them to speak, they even bowed to her! 

Oblivious to her companions thoughts and was too focused on hers, she continued thingking. Even the forest dwellers spirits didn't know what's going on, Gatria took a deep breath and sighed. It had to be my resentment. I have to get to the bottom of this before it spreads further than it already have. That was her plan, but even after a night passed and morning came, Gatria still didn't know how to get to the bottom of the barren land's mystery. 

♕♕♕

TRAVELING ON a barren land made Gatria felt like she was walking on sharp glass. It was painful. There was nothing but death in the air. No essence of nature could be felt. It felt as if she had been abandoned by the deity that blessed her. She couldn't do anything but bear the torture as they traverse the barren land to reach Belrac.

"Another hoard of monsters incoming!" She heard Grath shouted, and everyone immediately went to an offensive move, but her.

She just watched the four-meter-long lizard with spiky skin all over their body to surround them, hissing and baring their fangs at them.

"Careful!" Grath warned everyone seeing the familiar lizards. "These monsters are heavy and have hard skin! It's hard killing them!"

Treven promptly crushed the two crystal balls in his hand and willed the shards to shield everyone for added protection. With Drago on the front-center, Grath on his front-left, Zarek on his front-right and Gatria behind him, Treven was in a perfect position to protect everyone.

Treven's shield boasted its indestructibility against physical and elemental attack, and right off the bat, it was put to a test. The lizard slammed its tail at Drago and Drago didn't budge nor sustain even a minuscule of damage.

The soulshard shield was insanely strong that it gives everyone a freedom to fight and give their all without worrying about dodging and defense.

Grath dominated the four-meters lizard on his side with her strength and flaming claws while Zarek wielded his scimitar that seemed to have a consciousness of its own.

While on the front, the advancing Lizards were blocked by Drago.  With his physical strength and his razor-sharp sword, he was cutting the lizards to death without difficulty that when the lizards realized that their thick spiky skin couldn't save them from the slaughter, they started fleeing in fear. But one of the Dragon's race abilities was their outrageous leaping power that could take them to great heights with incredulous speed. In short, the lizards had nowhere to run.

As Drago push himself up to leap, an ear-splitting whoosh sound was heard, leaving dirt explosion that covered everyone like a fog and in two heartbeats, Drago landed in front of the fleeing lizards and with his sword, he delivered them all to their deaths.

Just as he finished the last lizard that tried to flee, Drago turn over his shoulder to check on everyone and that's when he saw a lizard behind Gatria who was unmoving and just watching him.

Consumed with so much worry, Drago had forgotten Treven's soulshard around Gatria. All he could see was the lizard and the danger it might bring.

"Gatria!" Putting all his strength in his legs, he leapt once again and like a madman at warp speed, he landed in front of Gatria, sword ready, but Gatria's words halted his movement to save her.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." After these words left Gatria's lips, swords rain down, piercing the thick skin of the lizard, delivering a quick death. "Though thank you for worrying over me."

With the lizard dead, Drago's mind cleared up and a soft chuckle escaped his lips as he sheathed his sword. "That was bad of me to forget that you're no damsel that needs saving. I apologized, Your Highness."

Before Gatria could answer Drago, Treven's loud voice took all the attention.

"Sheesh, Gatria!" Treven clicked his tongue as he willed his soulshard back to its crystal form, "you could've just let your swords rained down earlier to save ourselves some trouble."

Gatria gave Treven a stern look. "I'm trying to conserve my essence. We're traveling in a barren land filled with resenment and it's not exactly an ideal place for me."

Treven rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, Mistress of strictness. Anyway, let's cut those lizards tails and its hide."

"Huh?" Gatria was confused as she glanced at the dead lizard behind her. "Why?"

"It sells for a good prize." Drago, who was a registered hunter in the Hunter's guild before answered, and Gatria squinted her eyes at Treven.

"Are you short on money?" She asked. "Don't you have too much already?"

Treven sighed as he pushed Grath, Drago and Zarek to butcher the lizards. "Gatria, my queen, you can never have too much money."

Gatria shook her head at Treven and looked at the three doing the butchering. That's when she realized something and glared at her best friend. "Treven, why are you acting like a pompous prince and just standing there? Help them!"

Treven immediately pulled a pleading face. "Gatria, how could you say that to me? You know how weak I am. Even if I tried it a whole day, I can never penetrate that lizard skin."

Gatria was about to scold Treven for being overly dramatic when Zarek spoke.

"I can do Treven's part, Your Highness. It's fine."

Treven's eyes glistened in happiness while Gatria sighed and summoned her sword to help, but Drago stopped her.

"Just rest and conserve your essence. I can do your part."

"But—"

"Please?"

When her sword disappeared from her hand, Drago showed a soft smile on his lips and went back to butchering.

Meanwhile, Gatria stared at Drago for a long time as if looking for something on his handsome face. If Treven didn't loudly cleared his throat, Gatria wouldn't have snapped out of it.

When she looked at Treven, Treven was looking at her questioningly. She just shrugged to answer him and got up to check their surroundings. Monster's blood always draws other monsters, so she decided to keep watch until everyone finished butchering.

After a long while, everyone finally finished butchering and cleaned themselves up with the water provided by Treven from his storage ring. Then they were off to Belrac once again.

The heat of the barren land had died down because the sun was finally setting and when night fell, as usual, they set up camp where they stopped and made a campfire.

Following their simple dinner, Gatria distance herself from others for privacy and she sat on the barren land, pressing her hands against the dead soil.

There's really no essence here, just resentment, Gatria thought as she heavily sighed. That only meant one thing... the soil is dead down to its very core. Her essence was not enough to restore the forest, that means there's only one thing left she could do.

It was to bleed for Azitera.

If it was up to her, she didn't want to because continuous usage of her blood of Nádair meant losing her strength, but after seeing the state of the great forest of Tazman, she couldn't turn her back on it.

But even after deciding that she'll bleed to restore the forest, she still couldn't forget Drago's words.

Working together to restore Azitera. Can I do it? Can I allow myself to work with humans again? After everything that has happened...

"Someone is beating herself up."

Gatria turned over her shoulder and saw Drago behind her. And seeing him, somehow, she felt she could find the answer to her plight.

Gatria patted the space beside her. "I have some questions. Mind if I asked?"

Drago smiled and went to sit an arm-length beside Gatria. "Go ahead. Ask away."

Gatria gathered her thoughts first before she opened her mouth. "I couldn't forget your words, but as you know, I hate humans. Working with them again is very hard for me. But... I know I can't let my resentment ruin Azitera. Trusting the good apples in the barrel, hoping that they were not secretly rotten inside scares me. Because I'd been there. I trusted those apples in the barrel and look where it got me. My kingdom was sieged and my people payed for my mistakes." A lone tear fell from Gatria's eyes. "I want to be the bigger person and forgive, but how could I forget such agony and torment? They drained me dry to nourish their kingdom and filled their coffers. They took my blood. They weakened me. They imprisoned me. They destroyed my kingdom and killed my people. I'm maybe blessed by the deities, but I'm just a normal queen who loved her kingdom and her people. I... I honestly don't know what to do.

Tears kept falling from her eyes. "I know that not all of them had a hand in my suffering, but the rest of them didn't do anything as well. They believed those lies that their kings feed them without questioning its credibility— after everything we've done, after we cared for them and nurtured them, they raised their swords and pointed it at us, saying we're wicked and evil. And those good apples in the barrel just watched it happen. So can you blame me if I said I hated them all?"

Drago was silent for a long while as if he was absorbing every word that came out of Gatria's lips, and then, after a while, he spoke gently.

"I apologize for invalidating your feelings with my words. That was not my intention." Drago took a deep breath and looked at the sky. "I could only imagine the pain you've been through, so please forgive my tactlessness. That said, my opinion hasn't changed. Everyone should work hand in hand to restore Azitera to its former glory. But even though I said that, thinking about you and your hatred... Working hand in hand will certainly be a challenge. So, how about I help you with that, Your Highness?"

With wide, surprised eyes, Gatria parted her lips at Drago, who smiled at Gatria's reaction.

"I may not be able to dissipate your anger or quenched your thirst for vengeance, but I can help you, albeit so little.

Gatria was still stunned. "How... will you help me?"

Drago showed an enigmatic grin. "Leave it to me."

Gatria was still not so sure and it showed in her face, so Drago added.

"I swear on my sword, Your Highness."

Gatria visibly eased up. "I don't know what you're up to, but..." she smiled. "I can't say that I'm not looking forward to it."

Drago smiled back before he looked up at the sky and watch the stars with Gatria.

A soothing silence fell between the two individuals who shared the same adoration for the beautiful night sky filled with stars.

And at that moment, Gatria noticed how soothing it was to sit beside Drago and silently watch the stars.

How long has it been since I felt this kind of comfort? Gatria asked herself before closing her eyes to savor the feeling of serenity that she had long forgotten.

CECELIB | C.C.