Fly walked a little close, as if scared of our surroundings.

  Which was honestly a little funny, since we were walking through one of the most peaceful places I’d seen in ages.

  Hundreds of tiny chirps from thousands upon thousands of little birds drowned out the very light rain falling upon the world around us. There was little, if no wind, and the light rain had made the meadow of flowers give off a lush and vibrant smell.

  It was midday. The air was clean, thanks to the rain. The world was bright, cheerful and the countless little colorful birds all around us made it even more so.

  Yes.

  Not scary at all.

  “This place is weird,” Fly said worriedly, as she stepped even closer.

  “How so?” I asked. Maybe she’d tell me why she found such a cheery location and moment so terrifying.

  “Why are there so many birds here…?” she asked carefully.

  Oh…? So it was the birds. Or rather, the amount of them. I wonder why. Maybe being a bird herself, she found it odd so many would gather so closely like this.

  “Well, there are a couple reasons. This is one of the first gentle meadows between the nearby inland sea and those mountain ranges to the west of us. Plus the surrounding forests block the winds, yet the canopies of the trees are light and thin enough to allow plentiful sunlight,” I explained.

  “So… they like it because it’s pretty?” she asked.

  “Well, yes. And all those conditions allow them to eat gracefully. You see the conditions create these fields of flowers, and the fields of flowers and this dense forest make it a trove for insects. The kind they love. Plus, most importantly, a severe lack of predators. It’s a great place to eat, sleep, and mate. Basically it’s just a very quiet and peaceful place,” I explained further.

  Fly huffed as some birds hopped out of our way. Most didn’t seem bothered by our presence at all. Sometimes I, or Fly, had to step over some that didn’t even move out of our way.

  Their numbers, and their obvious lack of indifference to us, were likely the cause of Fly’s unease. It was almost unnatural, in a way.

  “Sounds like a lot of nonsense. Why aren’t they flying away from us? Birds usually do,” Fly asked, further proving my assumption true.

  “Well, I bet if you stepped on one they’d get the idea. Maybe,” I said.

  Fly groaned, and I knew it was because she didn’t want to do that. Though if she didn’t wish to because it was simply cruel and wrong, or because she feared repercussions was another thing entirely.

  “Want to try picking one up?” I asked, suggesting a method to cure her of her strange fears.

  “Uh…” Fly hesitated, and I smirked. So she was scared of them. I wonder why. Had she always been scared of birds? Some people were, so I’ve been told. Though I wasn’t sure if I’d ever met anyone with such a silly phobia.

  Though I suppose no phobias were silly. Not to the people who had them.

  “Why’re we here Vim? Does someone live here?” Fly then asked.

  “Hm? No. We’re making a very tiny detour. About half a day out of our way. No one lives here, at least… I don’t think anyone does.”

  “Then why are we here?” she asked worriedly as she stepped closer, as to avoid walking near a larger bird. It hadn’t moved even as she drew closer.

  Fly reached out and grabbed my arm to steady herself as we walked through a rather dense grouping of birds. Since she was so focused on not stepping on any of them she needed my support to stay upright.

  For a few minutes neither of us spoke as we zigzagged through the flocks of birds.

  Honestly it was interesting how uncaring they all seemed to be. I myself being ignored was typical. Understandable. I had no presence. Not the type at least that animals usually cared about. Fly however was a different story. Not only was she a very animalistic non-human, she was also closely related to them in the sense of her ancestry.

  Though maybe that was why they weren’t bothered by her. Maybe it was bloodline that made them so relaxed. Maybe to them she was just another bird. Another one of their own kind.

  It was an interesting thought, but not one I'd voice aloud. Little Fly had enough on her plate right now; she didn’t need some weird existential crises to burden her little shoulders alongside all the stress.

  Once through the denser group of birds, we had some luxurious freedom for a moment. Fly and I were alone for a small moment, not near any birds, but Fly still didn’t separate from my arm. She held on even as we passed between some trees and entered a denser part of the forest.

  “So… Why are we here again?” Fly then asked again.

  I smiled at her. “I’m looking for something. I think I remember where it is, but if we don’t run into it by the time we reach the end of the forest we’ll just head out and I’ll try again another time,” I said.

  “What are we looking for?” Fly asked.

  I noted how she included herself in my task, and nodded. “I buried something here. And…” I began to tell her about it, but we rounded a large shrub taller than even me, and found a flock of birds.

  This one was more dense than the last, and these ones were noisy. They chirped at each other as they all danced around, hopping and pecking at the wet grass and eating all the bugs.

  Fly groaned at the sight of them… but beyond them was my destination.

  It was barely visible through the line of trees opposite of the open meadow, but I could make out its very unique form. It wasn’t like the tall thin trees around us, although a similar shade of green.

  “I do believe it’d be a pain to stroll through them, as neat as it is…” I said gently as we paused in front of the crowd of birds.

  “Strolling isn’t what I’d call this,” Fly complained.

  I smirked and nodded. “Indeed. So why not fix it for us?” I asked her.

  She shifted a little and then glanced up at me. Her feathers raised upward as she frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Fix it…?”

  I nodded again at her. “Scare them off. Run into the huge group, making noise and whatnot. They’ll fly off if you do,” I suggested with a light wave at them all.

  Fly looked away from me and to the birds. She went still and I watched her mind race as she understood what I had just suggested.

  Then without a word, or any hesitation, she rushed forward. She released my arm, and immediately began to shout loudly as she jumped straight into the huge flock of birds, flapping her arms wildly as she did.

  Fly yelled out wordlessly as she ran forward. The birds finally noticed her existence, and did so with gusto. The world became both noisy and chaotic as thousands of wings flapped, and every bird in the vicinity flew into the air.

  “Hahaha!” Fly’s boisterous laughter was all I could hear through the thunderous wings and feathers as she continued to run around as the birds flew in every direction. Some seemed unsure of where to go, so flew around us for a moment before flying upward and into the sky.

  While Fly ran around, the world quickly became quiet and more lonely as the last few birds escaped the trees and shrubs, and flew off elsewhere.

  I sighed as the world went back to being quiet, and Fly slowed to a stop nearby. She was huffing a little as if she had just committed a great feat, what with a huge grin and a stuck out chest.

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  “Feel better?” I asked.

  “Yeah!” she happily nodded at me, and a little loudly too. The thousands of birds had been loud even to me, so I had no doubt her ears were likely ringing something fierce.

  Some feathers lingered in the wake of the chaos, and for some reason something told me a few weren’t from the tiny birds, but Fly instead.

  Stepping over to Fly, I smiled at the young girl who still had a huge grin on her face. Odds are those few small moments of running around, scaring the birds, had been more stress-relieving than anything she’s done in years.

  That alone made coming through this forest, going out of our way a little, all the more worth it.

  Patting the young girl on the shoulder, I smiled and nodded. “Well done,” I said.

  She huffed at me as her grin turned into a gentle, if sad, smile. “Will they ever come back?” she then asked.

  Oh…? Regret? Already? Funny.

  “I’m sure. And probably earlier than you think. So let us do what we need to and be off,” I said as I stepped past her.

  Fly groaned as she followed and we walked through the now empty meadow. We passed through a small cluster of trees and entered another meadow-like opening in the dense forest. This one though, instead of having birds, had a mighty tree. One that was very unique for not just this forest, but this whole region.

  A willow.

  Just as I remembered it. At least, so I thought I did. Had it always leaned that way?

  Oh well. At least the large tree was still here. For some reason I felt surprised, but knew I shouldn’t be. As I had just told Fly a few moments ago, this place was peaceful. A small corner of quiet, peaceful and untouched world that was hidden away.

  “What kind of tree is this?” Fly asked, pausing in front of it.

  “A willow tree,” I said.

  “Is it special?” she asked as we neared it.

  “Not really. The world won’t notice it disappear if it did. Nor would it suffer for it… But…” I went quiet as I wondered if it’d bother me or not if it disappeared.

  Likely would, somehow, even though it made no sense. It wasn’t like this tree was actually special. It was just something I found one day and decided to use as a landmark. Nothing more.

  Fly hummed. “Willow? Looks like… vines. Or grass. Is it sick?” she asked, sounding just as concerned of it now as she had been those birds earlier.

  I chuckled at her. “No. In fact it’s a type of tree that’s very stout and healthy. They can survive immense damage, compared to other trees, and endure even harsh weather conditions. Their bark sap also contains a type of medicine, a rather strong one,” I said as I stepped towards the willow tree.

  “Oh…? Medicine?” Fly hurried to follow as we stepped under its leaves. Thanks to how big, and old, the tree was there were many that reached the ground and then some. I had to move some of the strands aside as to draw closer.

  Fly followed me up to the tree itself, and brushed off some of the elongated leaves and branches that had clung to her as she walked through them.

  “They’re just long branches, drooping,” Fly said as she studied the thing.

  “Yes. Basically,” I said.

  Studying the tree, I tried to remember which side I had buried the thing.

  While I slowly examined the base of the tree, and the roots and ground around it, I realized I couldn’t remember at all where I’d buried the item. Hadn’t I done it a few feet away? I’m usually smart enough to not bury the stuff I tried to hide near trees right next to them. Since the trees could overgrow, or destroy the item with the roots if I buried them too closely. Especially a tree like this, willow trees weren’t known for their gentle roots and…

  “What are we doing Vim?” Fly asked.

  “Just grabbing something I left here a long time ago…” I said as I stepped away from the bird, to round the tree.

  There. That spot. I wasn’t sure why, but it felt right.

  “You… left something here? Why?” Fly asked as I went to kneel down near the spot I felt was right.

  “Not really sure to be honest, Fly. Sometimes I do things without much thought or reason,” I said honestly as I slid my hand into the moist soil. It wasn’t as wet or cold as I thought it’d be, but even if it had been as solid as rock it’d not do much to stop me anyway.

  As I dug, Fly drew closer. “Are you hurting it?” she asked as I pulled a root out of the way.

  “A little. But it’ll heal. It has hundreds if not thousands of feet of these roots beneath us. Plus it’s resilient, at least this type of willow is,” I said as I continued digging.

  Scooping the dirt away, I found a root. I dug around it, and beneath it, and eventually my fingers hit something a little too hard to be just a rock or root.

  Feeling the thing in the dirt, I smiled at the feeling of a corner. Something too sharp and pointed to be natural. Something man made.

  “Did you find it?” Fly asked as I began to dig the box out of the ground. She drew closer, leaning over nearby to watch me dig the metal box out of the earth. I had to shift a root a bit, but only a few moments later I pulled the metal box out and sat upward to study it.

  “A box?” Fly asked, sounding a little excited. As if we were unburying treasure.

  “It is,” I said as I scraped a bit of dirt away, and searched for the thin groove near its edge.

  “So… you buried it there?” Fly asked as I found the groove. I pushed on it, and snapped open the lid of the metal box. The steel snapped, breaking, as it opened.

  Within was a small bundled up piece of leather. A familiar type of leather that I’d not felt in a long time.

  Grabbing the object, I hesitated a moment at the touch of the leather. It felt smooth, like silk, but I knew it was so strong it could endure my own strength.

  It didn’t deteriorate. It didn’t wear. It didn’t get scratched, and couldn’t burn.

  And the only weight it had was from the object it was wrapped around, not from the leather itself.

  “What is it…!?” Fly excitedly drew closer. Thanks to the hole I had dug, she had to step over to my side and lean around me, since she wasn’t tall enough to look over my shoulder. Not with me on my knees.

  Instead of answering vocally, I unwrapped the leather and revealed the small book.

  “Oh…” Fly’s excitement immediately died down, and she sighed at the sight of the small black book.

  I chuckled at her. “I thought you liked to read,” I said.

  “I do. But that’s no fun. I was expecting something shiny,” she complained.

  I nodded, right. One usually did want something shiny when you dug something neat up from the ground.

  Though… this small book was worth more than a chunk of gold as big as her. Not that Fly would likely understand even if I explained as to why.

  As I slowly stood, leaving the steel box on the ground, Fly bent down to pick the box up. She seemed to find it much more interesting than the book, or the bundle of leather I had wrapped around it. I opened the book, not to read it but to make sure it was all in one piece.

  It was. The writing was still perfectly legible. Nothing like that shoddy decrepit book that Celine had left for Renn.

  Monarch leather really was useful, sometimes.

  I wrapped the book back up in the leather, as to keep it protected, and went to slide it into my bag. I still had a monarch leather pouch at my waist, but it wasn’t big enough for the book. It was only big enough for a single heart, or something small. I had given Renn my two other bags, so she now had three of them.

  She needed their extra protection and durability more than I did. At least, at the moment.

  “It’s heavy,” Fly complained with a grunt. I glanced down and found her trying to lift the box. It seemed she hadn’t been strong enough to do so.

  “Oh… Want me to lift it for you?” I offered. I hadn’t realized she had not been able to lift it on her own.

  Fly huffed in exhaustion as she stood and stepped away, shaking her head. “Is it important too? How’s it so heavy?”

  “It’s a special metal,” I said. Though it honestly shouldn’t have been so heavy she couldn’t lift it… maybe she was weaker than I thought. How heavy was that box, I wonder? It was only a few feet big.

  It was too bad Renn wasn’t here to lift it for me and give me an idea. Maybe it was far heavier than I thought.

  Fly stared down at the dirty box, but didn’t seem to have any intention to try and pick it up again. If anything she looked a little bored now.

  “Want the box Fly? Otherwise I’ll just leave it here,” I said.

  “Hm? No. Are we done?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Let’s go. If we get out of the forest before nightfall we can make it to our next destination not long after the morning,” I said.

  “Oh? Another Society location?” Fly asked as I stepped away from the box and the hole I just dug.

  “Yes. A small family lives nearby. A family of… simple, but nice people,” I said.

  “What are they?” Fly asked excitedly as she hurried to follow me, uncaring at all of the box we’d just left… or the book I had just hid away.

  I smiled at the young bird, and went to tell her a little about the family we were about to visit.

  We’d not be staying there long, on purpose, but there was nothing wrong with her enjoying the time we spent there. Or the time we spent going there, or the time we spent afterward as we left.

  After all I wanted this little trip to be a happy one for her. As much as it could be, at least.

  Especially since soon the world may become chaotic. The kind that made little birds like her have to struggle just to survive.

  Last time the world became this chaotic, even the strong hadn’t survived. Even the mighty had broken.

  If they hadn’t lost their lives, they had lost their minds. Their souls. Their reasons for living.

  It had taken everything I had to hold the Society together. What few who had survived. What few who had remained. It hadn’t just taken my everything, it had taken so much more too. Lilly’s wings. Celine’s life. Family and friends. Entire kingdoms and armies.

  It had taken so much just to endure. Just to survive…

  And this time…

  Well…

  Some clouds rumbled over head, and Fly groaned. “Really!” she shouted in complaint to the world, as rain began to fall. Heavy rain. The type that preluded a storm. A real one.

  Smiling, I nodded.

  Yes. The world noticed it too. It always did. Just to taunt me.

  It knew this time I’d not be here to protect them. So it was weeping.

  Weeping with all its might.

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