Moon Glaive

Chapter 5: Indu

"Is it really so urgent?" Axer asked. "It's dangerous to travel at night."

"Err...so...the thing is...my father...doesn't exactly know I'm here right now..." Indu sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, refusing to meet Axer's eyes.

However, what greeted her was his rambunctious laughter as if it were the funniest thing he'd heard. He clutched his stomach, almost rolling across the cave floor. It was so loud Indu feared they would attract unwanted attention.

"I don't know if I should call you reckless or brave." Axer's laughter finally stopped, but his ear-to-ear grin remained.

"Brave." Indu stubbornly said.

"Then brave it is." Axer's eyes twinkled. "I must say, you're quite courageous. When I was as strong as you, I would never dream of entering a mountain without the necessary equipment."

"I brought a knife with me!"

"Indu, that knife can, at best, kill a rabbit. If you were to meet anything stronger, you could say goodbye to this life."

"I-I didn't think it'd be that bad." She truly thought so. These mountains were only home to wolves and bears. Even that troll was an exceedingly rare anomaly, and even then, she'd been told it was spotted somewhere a few kilometers opposite the mountain.

When she and her mother used to traverse the mountain path, the strongest thing they'd found was a bear, but as soon as it saw them, the bear scrammed. As such, she'd always believed the mountain to be safe until news of the mountain monster appeared. That was what prompted her to discover the truth.

"No, that's not true." Indu thought.

That was only the excuse she had been telling herself in her mind – a justification for her actions that held no weight nor truth. No, the real reason she had done something as reckless as adventuring in the night was simple – she yearned for her mother.

Not a day went by when Indu didn't miss her mother. Not just her but her entire family as well. Although they had each other to keep strength, the lack of her mother's presence was a void that couldn't be filled. She was a glue that tightened and secured a family together, and when it vanished, the family inevitably fractured.

For a few years after her mother's terrible death, her father fell into a depression. He drank bottles of alcohol at night and threw himself at his administrative duties during the day. Drinking, working. Drinking, working. He followed that schedule for years to relieve the pain of losing his wife, her beloved mother.

Only when Indu couldn't bear it anymore and fell to her knees, begging her old father to return, did he slowly change to what he was in the past. She had also been grieving, so she understood how terribly heartbroken her father was, but Aniya was only a year old. Indu had to step up and fill the void her mother left in hopes of repairing her fractured family. Even now, ten years after her death, there were still noticeable cracks that could never be fixed.

It had already been months since Indu had gone up the mountain trail to relive the memories of her mother. She could have come earlier or later, but for some reason, she only acted when news of the mountain monster became a hot topic.

"Maybe it was fate. Would I have met Axer if I didn't go today?" Indu looked at Axer, who was enveloped in a layer of mystery. She had many questions but too few answers, answers she wasn't sure she could get.

"Alas, it doesn't matter. After I get to the village, we'll go our separate ways, never to see each other again." She shot a sad glance at Axer, who was turned around, so he couldn't see her expression.

"Here, wear this. Tell me when you're done so I can turn around." Axer held out his robe with his right arm, which Indu quickly grabbed.

The robes were much too big for her, but at least they covered every inch of her skin. She quickly donned the garment before calling out.