"We're ready" Roselle and I answered.

"Su, stay here and take care of our stuffs." Tiffany instructed and we started to sprint to where the horrifying sound came from.

We hid in the bushes and saw a boy with purple-coloured hair, about our age with swords in both of his hands, fighting against several humongous orcs.

The orcs were light dull green with tiny heads and bulky bodies. They're equipped with horny helmets and orc armor.

Elianor appeared behind us panting. "O-orcs...I...escaped...but.. he appeared...and.." Elianor stopped as she catched her breath.

"It's okay, take your time to breath!" I reassured her.

From what I understand, Elianor stumbled upon the orcs and managed to escape from them. However, the boy appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of the orcs.

As one of the orcs steps closer, the boy ran towards it while dodging it's attacks swiftly and attacked the orc's arm. He looked so cool fighting the orcs, but one of them hits him with a large wooden axe. He was thrown over several metres away and injured his left arm.

He couldn't fight back, so I shot an arrow to the orc's head. The orc saw us and walked towards us. Tiffany looked at me with anger burning in her eyes. I was supposed to wait for her orders, but the orc was going to kill the boy. I couldn't just wait here. I ignored her and ran towards the other orcs.

I took out my dagger and attacked one of the orcs. Elianor jumped in right after me after she had catched her breath.

I dodged the axe coming from the orc. I ran behind it and stabbed it's back repeatedly until it fell down. Icky green liquid spilled out from it's back.

Meanwhile, Elianor blocked another orc's attack right behind me with her sword while Roselle threw her needles precisely on it's heart. The poison spreads rapidly causing the orc's veins to tense and bulged out with it's skin colour turning to black. The orc starts to weaken and lost it's consciousness.

Tiffany appeared and spun her halberd around to prevent the last orc from getting close to her. The orc backed away and lost its balance. Tiffany saw the chance and immediately struck the orc's chest. In a matter of seconds, all of the orcs had been defeated.

I turned my head towards the boy who was sitting not far behind us and saw his light purple eyes staring at us with astonishment.

"Who are you girls?" the boy asked with a confused look on his face.

"Urm... Hi, I'm Tiffany, this is Elianor, Roselle and Adalinne. We're just here to help you." Tiffany answered and introduced us. "Thanks, you saved my life... I never thought that girls can be that strong..." he gave us a weak smile and tried to stand up.

I took out some bandages from my bag and wrapped it on his injured arm. "I-I know that it's not my business or anything, but what were you thinking? Fighting against those orcs alone?" I asked him and felt terrible after what I had just said to a complete stranger.

"I'm sorry if I troubled you, I was just trying to get stronger so that one day I could..." he stopped talking and tried changing the subject "What are you doing here anyways?".

"We were just passing by and heard the orcs. We were on our way to the castle." Tiffany replied.

"The castle? Why are you heading there?" he asked.

"We want to become royal knights. Maybe you should be one too, you're quite strong." Tiffany said.

"Well, I'm not strong enough." He protested.

"Hmm... Not many people could use two swords at one time. Maybe you should loosen your grip a bit. I saw that you were holding your swords too tightly and your moves were a little bit stiff. It could tire you up easily." Elianor, AKA the swordmaster gave him advice.

"I'll try it later, thanks again, I should go back home now. Good luck on becoming a royal knight!" he said as he waved us goodbye.

"Hey! What's your name?" Elianor asked.

"You'll know it later!" He smirked and walked away.

"Well, that was weird..." Roselle said. "You're one to talk..." Tiffany teased her while walking back. Roselle hits Tiffany's shoulder lightly and followed her back.

I looked back to where the boy had walked to and only saw the mist covering up the view. There's something about him that gave me a weird feeling, but I still regretted asking him the stupid question. I might hurt his feelings...

"Adal, are you okay?" Elianor asked while holding my arm. "Yeah, I'm fine." I smiled at her and we went back to where we sat.

We continued our journey and soon after, we finally walked past the magical forest. "Based on what Aunt Ana said, after we past the magical forest, we should follow the path to town. Once we're there, we can take some rest and freshen up a bit before we enter the castle." Roselle said leading the way.

After several hours, we reached the royal town of Laricienne. The town was very big and it looks amazing. It was full of knights and people riding horses. The citizens were busy with their daily lifes, selling stuffs and working. This was our first time coming to a town so we got quite lost with all the hustle and bustle in this town.

"Okay, stick together girls! We don't want to get lost here. First, we should find a place to stay for the night." Tiffany gathered us to an empty corner between two double-storey buildings. "I saw a kind-looking lady there, maybe she could help us to find a place where we could stay." Roselle said while pointing towards a small cottage not far from the centre of the town.

We went to the cottage and asked the lady who was sweeping the floor. The lady styled her hair into a bun and wore a light brown dress. She looked up to us and smiled. "Good evening, madam. We don't want to bother you but do you perhaps know a suitable place for us to stay?" Susanna asked politely. "Oh, good evening young ladies. What brings you to this town?" the lady answered while examining our outfits and weapons. "We came here to volunteer as knights. We would like to rest for tonight and go to the castle tomorrow." Tiffany replied.

"Young ladies volunteering as knights? Well, that's a noble act to the kingdom. I would gladly offer you girls to stay in my house tonight." the lady offered us and quickly pulled us into her house.

Her house looked small from the outside, but it's quite spacy on the inside. There's a long, dark brown sofa and a coffee table where she puts some letters. Near the kitchen is a wooden staircase leading up to the second floor.

"Have a seat! My name is Marionette. You may call me Madam Mari. Let me take some water for you girls to drink." she said and went to the kitchen. "Oh, you don't have to bring us anything! It's more than enough that you had offered us to stay in your lovely cottage." Roselle said.

"It's okay, you girls must be very tired. Please, make yourselves at home. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me. Here are your drinks, and the upstairs rooms are all yours." she said as she served us some hot chocolate.

"We would like to thank you very much, Madam Mari. We apologise if we are disturbing you." Susanna said representing all of us.

"No, not at all! I love having guests in my house. It makes my house much more lively." Madam Mari said happily. "Ever since my husband and both of our sons died in the war, I felt so lonely. I hope that you girls could help to end the war." Madam Mari said with hope shining in her dark brown eyes.

"We are truly sorry for your lost. Your husband and sons must be really brave and they had died a noble death as heroes to our kingdom. We would try our best to continue their fight and end this war." Tiffany said.

We talked for a while and after a small dinner prepared by Madam Mari, which made Elianor ate almost half the meal, we went upstairs to our rooms. There are three rooms upstairs. Tiffany and Susanna shared a room on the right of the staircase, Elianor with Roselle on the second room which consists of two single beds, and I'm sleeping by myself in a small single bedded room at the far left corner of the second floor.

After what happened last night, it scares me to just think about sleeping alone here. It's more dark and humid compared to the other rooms. The others refused to exchange rooms, so I went to Elianor and Roselle's room and shared their bed.

I've forgotten the details about the nightmare, but I'm still scared to fall asleep, even when I'm sleeping between my friends.

But I have to get some sleep so that I won't be tired or sleepy tomorrow. It would be really embarrassing if I suddenly fell asleep infront of the knights.

I just hope that whatever the nightmare was, it's not happening again tonight... Would it?