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A young forest ranger was walking by the gates of Sumeru with a bag full of medical herbs in her arms. She was a little bit in hurry as her master had asked her to bring in some medical herbs as it was an emergency case. 

While walking hastily, she noticed an envelope nearby the bush. Curious she was, so she picked it up to see a familiar handwriting.

"This!...This is master Tighnari's handwriting!" The ranger thought to herself as she began walking hurriedly towards where her master was.

.

.

Tighnari sat beside Y/n's mother as her breathing rate slowly came down each minute. Her hands were going cold as Tighnari kept holding firmly. Black scales was seen till her neck as it had spread more.

A few moments ago, She had went mad and violent. To calm her down Tighnari had no choice but to drug her with high dose of anesthesia so that she could go to sleep but then it had its own cons. Eleazar kept spreading throughout her though she was asleep and was slowly taking her life away.

"Mr. Tighnari....at this-...at this rate, madam would!" The nurse was slightly panicking. Tighnari sighed.

"This was expected to happen one day....of all days it happened today too. I had already informed Y/n regarding this matter unless she didn't-" Tighnari was cut of his sentences by Collei, the forest ranger who came running with the envelope in her hand.

Tighnari quickly got up and ran towards Collei, checking is she was okay. She was still trying to catch her breath.

"Collei! I already told you that you shouldn't run too much. It's gonna hurt  you!" Tighnari exclaimed. 

"No...That's not important here master...here...look!" She quickly brought out the letter which was familiar to Tighnari.

He took no minutes to realize that Y/n was not informed of the matter as her letter was with Collei. His expression turned to a worried one.

"Collei! Where did you find this lette—Collei!?" Tighnari held Collei's shoulders as she was shivering with fear looking at Y/n's mother.

The young ranger is in fact a patient suffering from eleazar and was horrified to see another patient reach her end due to the illness. She stood still as shivers went behind her and her eyes turned dark with no more glimmer. She was no longer in full conscious of her mind. Her lips were trembling when she tried responding the Tighnari.

"Collei! Collei! COLLEI! Listen to me, take deep breaths. Don't be afraid, you're completely okay." He tried comforting her. She gave him a glare as she tried listening to what he had to say. 

"There, follow me. Three, two, one...inhale....exhale. You're completely fine and safe here, nobody's going to harm you." Tighnari said as he pulled Collei into some other room so that she could calm down.

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The rain finally came to an end. It had been raining for almost five long hours, which also delayed the trip to the site of investigation and possibly ruined your new footwear. Alhaitham was walking in front taking the lead as he didn't want to get chased down by any sort of creatures. 

The silence between you both were too awkward today. Maybe it was because he and you learnt to accept each other in just a day's span? Honestly you were too tired to think about it as that one dream kept bugging you on and on. 

It was just crumbs of memories. Once you woke up you either forgot most of it or you remember just some bits of it. Bits that made no sense but rather made you feel uneasy.

Alhaitham stopped walking but due to your lack of full consciousness, You ended up bumping his broad shoulders which sent you back a bit. Your forehead hurt a little as you rubbed the area that hurt with your hand.

"Ouch...What did you suddenly stop for?" You asked to Alhaitham only to receive no response.  For a moment a shiver went behind your back.

"Wait...don't tell me there are more Rishboland Tigers around here!" You freaked out a little but by then Alhaitham was back to his senses. The look he had was a rather concerned one with made you feel like something was wrong.

"I received a message on my Akasha Terminal from the Amurta Darshan stating that one of their colleagues had some news for you and they were sending it via a messenger bird which would arrive any moment." He said as he turned around to look at you.

Alhaitham's tone was one with disappointment. It sent you to think that something had gone wrong back in Sumeru and why specifically a messenger bird to convey when Akasha Terminals existed?

"Well do you know what the news is?" You asked nervously.

"I do. But I dare not break it to you first. It is something that I feel you....you should come to know yourself. " He said slowly as he began walking once more.

You felt a shiver behind your back. It surely isn't something that would pertain to the mission, right? You deeply prayed it wasn't as you kept following Alhaitham.

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After a while he stopped by a stream. The water was running gentle and it was almost crystal clear. You could see a very clear reflection of yourself. You brought your palms forward, into the water as you clasped a handful of water and splashed it on your face.

 Alhaitham stood against a tree as he brought out a book to read. 

"We'll wait here for the messenger to arrive." Alhaitham said as he began flipping through his page. 

You were on your knees sitting on the banks of the streams. You turned around and gave him a nod then began dipping your fingers into the stream. You saw small fishes move in the direction of the stream as they swam through the gaps between your stretched out fingers.

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Not long after did a bird arrive. The bird came flying towards Y/n as it sat down on one of Y/n's arms. Y/n took out the letter that was sent to her through the messenger and was surprised to see it was a familiar envelope. 

—The same ones her mother used to send to her when she stayed back at the Akademiya for days due to work. 

A smile formed on Y/n's face as she was glad to have received a message from her ill-mother. Alhaitham took a notice of the smile but he couldn't help but frown. 

He was being guilty. 

He didn't know how to face her after what would happen any moment.

He closed his book and stood there silently, with his head shook. Y/n went and sat beneath a tree to read the letter....

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END

a/n : HA CLIFFHANGER FOR YOU ALL!! No but things might get a bit hard from the next chapter and maybe who knows they both might warm up to each other..  :)

Thank you for the 7K Reads!! I hope you're having a good day :D