Epic Seven: Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Philophobia

Chapter 3

When Al opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a vast green ground, and then, he startled. He realized he was falling down fast and it would be fatal if he did not do anything. The vast green he saw was all but leaves from a large forest. Al took a deep breath and extended his body, arms, and legs. When he was near a tree, he quickly rolled his body and tried to reach a branch but the branch was not strong enough, and it broke afterward. Al tried his best and he could not do anything but embraced the impact. He went through branches one after one until he landed on the ground and lost his consciousness.

When he woke up, he quickly felt the pain. It hurt so much that he could not move his body and limbs. Gasping, he slowly got up just to realize his left arm was broken, and he could even see his bones. Withstanding the pain, he looked at his broken arm and saw if he could fix it, but he knew he could not and he did not want to take the risk. He tore out a piece of cloth from his coat, combined with a branch to temporarily fix his arm. When he did not know what to do next, he suddenly heard something. A person, perhaps a young girl, was singing. He wondered who it was but it possibly meant someone was nearby. Holding his wound, he tried to get up and moved slowly to where the voice came from.

When he stepped through a tree, he saw a young and beautiful girl, who was singing in the center of an open place. Her voice was so beautiful and attractive that made Al completely forgot the pain. She had long brown chestnut hair, and it was smooth like a small fountain. She was also wearing a simple design emerald dress.

"Wait!"

Al spoke weakly when the young girl walked away. It seemed that she heard him but she did not answer. She just smiled and kept walking. Although Al did not understand who the girl was and her strange reaction, he still tried to catch up with her. And suddenly, she disappeared just like the way she made her appearance.

"Al?"

A familiar voice calling for him. Al turned back and saw Cerise. Together with her were and Ray and two fluffy carbuncles, creatures that looked like a fox with three tails and two horns, and they all had fluffy fur.

"Cerise? Ray" Al spoke and he collapsed

Cerise and Ray quickly rushed towards Al and caught him, before they put him down under a shadow of a large tree.

Checking all over his body, Ray replied, "It's really serious. What happened?"

"Will he be okay?" a worrying voice of Pavel came from the fluffy yellow fox.

"He will. But it will take a long time for him to fully recover. Also, there are numerous scratches, cut, and bruises all over his body. It looks like he was falling down from a high place, probably a mountain," Ray diagnosed Al's body and replied.

"But why did he end up here?" the voice of Elena came from the white fox.

"Let's take a break and wait for him to wake up," Cerise suggested and all of them agreed.

Later, Al woke up and Cerise gave him some water. It did not take long for him to fully regain his awareness. He was shocked to see Pavel and Elena were transformed into carbuncles. After that, all of them retold what happened to each other.

"So, you encountered a sorcerer from Wicthaven, who tried to summon an ancient being and failed. After that, you encountered the pink hair girl who I also fought, and then all of you were transferred to this world. Then you met a Suin who had rabbit's ear, who was carrying a watch for his queen, but Elena accidentally broke it and Cerise made a proportion to fix it for him," Al spoke and breathed heavily.

"Don't push yourself. Let me do the talking," Pavel, who was the yellow carbuncle, spoke for him. When Al was laid down, Pavel then said, "After that, we met a long red hair girl, who looked exactly the swordswoman from Ritania we met before. But she claimed she did not know who we were referring to. At least, she said she would be able to fix the watch if we brought her the required materials. Then, I and Elena met up with a strange creature, who claimed he was a caterpillar, despite not looking like one."