Spirit Forest
"Oh no..."
Galad's face hardened the moment the skeletons appeared. She clicked her tongue, then turned to look at me.
"I'll open a path. Escape when I do."
"You're not going to ask for help?"
"This has nothing to do with you."
With those words, Galad charged straight at the skeletons. Watching her, I drew the sword sheathed at my back.
Shiiing—
The blade slid free with a clear, ringing note and began to scatter brilliant light. In the next breath, seven glittering stars rose into the air around it.
I knew full well this was meddling I had no business doing. Galad was right—the smartest choice was to get out of here. But I didn't want to.
Following my heart, going wherever my feet carried me, simply doing what I felt like doing. Wasn't that what adventure was? Everything that had made me who I was now had come from the journeys I'd already taken. This time was no different. I would simply do as I pleased.
I finished preparing to take a great step toward a new adventure.
Prrrrh—
Nightmare came up behind me, making his presence known with a proud snort. He seemed to have realized at once that I had no intention of running; he stamped a forehoof and settled into a fighting stance of his own. I nodded at the sight. With Nightmare's powerful kicks, ordinary skeleton warriors would be smashed to pieces in an instant.
Dozens of skeleton soldiers had already shown themselves—not one or two, but a force of staggering size. Even now they kept pouring in from outside the forest; the black mage must have been summoning them without pause.
Galad and the villagers were holding the skeletons back, but the situation looked grim. In this village, Galad was the only one who could truly fight them. The others couldn't soar through the sky the way she did. They simply gripped axes or wooden clubs and threw everything they had into resisting the undead.
I broke into a run toward the front. The instant my short legs kicked off the ground, a faint surge of mana burst forth and shot my body forward. Two more strides and I was standing before a skeleton.
My leading leg planted itself like a solid pillar, absorbing the force that followed. In the same motion, blue starlight lanced from my sword and pierced straight through the skeleton's skull.
Don't stop moving. Keep your breathing long and your body fluid.
Just as in training, I had to link the seven forms together as naturally as flowing water. One skeleton fell with each form; when the seventh form ended, seven stars sparkled along the path my blade had taken and reduced seven skeletons to scattered bone fragments.
The skeletons weren't truly dead. Their spines and skulls had simply been blasted away, so they collapsed for the moment. Given time they would reassemble. I wasn't worried, though—Nightmare came right behind me and stomped their bones into powder.
I moved as if shielding both Nightmare and the villagers. I would cut the skeletons down with my sword, and Nightmare would charge in to finish them. When the distance was too great, I fired Magic Missiles to drop them instead.
"You...!"
"I came to help."
Galad finally noticed us and glanced back. Fierce winds coiled around her body; she looked as if she had become one with the wind itself as she smashed skeletons apart. She bit her lip while staring at me, then turned her gaze toward a tree—yet even then she never stopped fighting. The moment her fist shot forward, a miniature storm erupted from it and pulverized two approaching skeletons.
"You..."
Having finished communing with the tree spirit, Galad looked at me again. From her expression I realized I still hadn't told her my name.
"I'm Ceris."
"Ceris. I formally request your aid. Will you protect this village while I am gone?"
"Where are you going, Galad?"
"The mastermind behind this is outside the forest. I am going to eliminate him."
I nodded while shattering another skeleton that lunged at me. A faint smile touched Galad's lips. As always, her smile looked just like the forest itself.
She crushed a skeleton that charged her with a single punch, then stretched a hand toward me. A gentle breeze gathered and wrapped around my body. The wind was soft and warm, and it began pushing away the foul mana around me as if standing guard.
When I looked at her in confusion, Galad spoke.
"It is the Spirit's Blessing. It will shield you from wicked attacks. Do not refuse it—accept it."
"It feels strange... like a soft breeze."
At that very moment something streaked toward us from the far side of the forest. The attack was aimed straight at my head, but the little wind coiled around me suddenly expanded and twisted its trajectory aside.
Thwack!
"This is..."
I frowned down at the ground. The thing whose path the wind had bent was a long arrow. Even after burying itself in the earth, the shaft still quivered with leftover force.
"I'm counting on you."
The instant Galad finished speaking and started toward the far side of the forest, two more arrows flew at her. Just as they seemed about to strike, her body moved with liquid grace. The wind swirling around her caught the long shafts gently and turned them completely around. The arrows shot away as if launched by the wind itself and vanished into the trees beyond.
I shook my head. Galad's movements were fascinating, but I couldn't afford to stand there gawking. Skeletons were still pouring in without end. I tightened my grip on the sword and swung it at them. Seven stars glittered in their wake, and together with Nightmare a small storm swept through the undead ranks.
I was still smashing the endless tide of skeletons when every last one of them that had been crossing from the far side of the forest collapsed at once. The foul mana that had clung to their bones vanished without a trace. That meant true death for the skeletons—the risen dead had finally found rest again.
"Hah... hah..."
I gasped for breath. My legs, which had never stopped moving, trembled as if all strength had drained from them, and my heart—squeezed of mana to its limit—pounded as though it might burst. Even after everything ended I still refused to let go of my sword; a sliver of unease remained. Who could say when this vast horde of skeletons might suddenly rise again?
I steadied my shaking blade and held my ground. How long I stood like that, I couldn't say.
Then a small figure appeared from the far side of the forest. Long, flowing green hair swayed as softly as the leaves of the trees.
"Hah..."
It was Galad. Her whole body was covered in wounds that spoke of a fierce battle, yet she had returned alive. Only then did I finally allow myself to sink to the ground.
Galad staggered closer on unsteady feet and gave me a small smile. That smile, so like a gentle breeze, was the signal that the wind had returned to this forest. The breeze that came back with her softly caressed my exhausted body.
Still smiling faintly, Galad walked toward the wide lake as if she still had something left to do. Stepping on the wind itself, she crossed the water and alighted before the great tree, then stretched out her hand. The moment her palm touched the massive trunk, a tremendous wind rose and began sweeping away the skeleton bones scattered everywhere.
[Ceris.]
It was Galad's call—no, the call of something speaking through Galad's body. Wrapped in a vast wind, it looked straight at me.
"Yes?"
[Thanks to your aid, this forest is safe once more. That deed is more than worthy of the name hero...]
The moment those words ended, a soft breeze rose and coiled around my body. It felt similar to the Spirit's Blessing Galad had given me earlier, yet different at the same time.
[I shall gift you a small wind. The wind will grow with you, sometimes becoming a fierce storm, and it will serve as a token that lets you form bonds with those who walk with the wind.]
As soon as the voice finished, a tiny light bloomed from deep within the great tree and flew toward me. Soft and endlessly warm, as if it held the very essence of the forest, it was a seed no larger than my palm.
[Ceris, hero who carries a small wind. May I ask one favor of you?]
"What kind of favor?"
[Please accept this seed.]
"This seed? You want me to deliver it somewhere?"
It answered my question with silence. I eyed the seed suspiciously and asked again.
"Is this something only I can do?"
[It is not. You are free as the wind.]
When I showed signs of refusing, the seed that had flown to me began to drift away. I quickly reached out and closed my fingers around it. The seed was warm; the gentle energy of the forest flowed from it without reserve.
"Carrying this around won't put me in danger, will it?"
[I swear upon my very existence. You will never be placed in danger because of it.]
"Hmm..."
[Simply... when a drifting wind happens to touch that place...]
The moment the voice finished, a gentle breeze swept in a great cloud of leaves. With a soft rustle they began to swirl around me.
"What is this..."
The leaves didn't wrap only me. They coiled around Nightmare standing at my side as well. The fact that he—normally so sensitive to danger—simply stood still told me this was no threat.
Fwaaah—!
In an instant the wind scattered and the leaves flew apart. I blinked and looked around. The moment the leaves vanished, the world around me had changed completely.
The clear lake still overflowed with clean water, and the house built beside it remained intact—but the tree that had once towered into the sky, the one Galad had called a spirit, now stood withered and twisted, dead.
"What...?"
Where had the villagers and Galad gone? Not even a hint of presence remained. The emptied village held only a hollow silence, as if no one had ever lived here at all.
For a moment I wondered whether everything I had experienced had been nothing more than a fleeting dream. Yet the warm heat of the seed in my palm told me it had been real.
"Hmm..."
Just then Nightmare approached. He held a saddle and bridle in his mouth, looking for all the world as if he were telling me it was time to leave this place. In the end I mounted him and rode out of the forest. The seed tucked in my pocket still radiated a gentle warmth.