There was Vealis and his company, Kaelen with his bare chest, Kaito with his katana, and Riven with her saber. There was also Azren, but he was not alone; he had a few friends with him.

  One was an extremely beautiful woman, but something about her was odd. If one were to describe her, she was like a turning page of a book—one moment, she possessed a gorgeous beauty, and the next, she appeared completely ordinary. When she was in her beautiful form, it was nearly impossible to look away from her. As proof of this, Kaelen and Kaito, who would have otherwise been opposites in some way, were both gazing at her in secret, like children looking at sweets in the market. But not Vealis —he was much older than they were and had the good temper to restrain himself.

  Another was a man with a metal lock around his mouth and sharp eyes that focused intently on everything. Wearing a long silver robe, he stood like a protector behind the beautiful woman, towering over her with his height and shielding her from the sun.

  "En yer kr (about time)," said the woman with beauty. She wore a long, slightly green dress that blew with the wind and had long braided hair that fell to her waist. She was indeed a Feather Kin, and the words she spoke were in the language of the Feather Kin.

  "Na mai (as promised)," said Beladona after shifting into her human form.

  "Where's the other one?" Vealis asked, a moment faster than Riven, who had the same thought and was about to ask the same thing.

  He was getting impatient, for he was the first one to arrive and had been in that place for more than a few hours.

  "How should I know? I'm not his caretaker," said Beladona, growling at Vealis. This was, of course, an act, for she needed to show them that Thalric wasn’t dependent on her. "But we should wait a bit longer. We cannot start a journey without all the members."

  "Nobody said we cannot," came a voice—a female one at that. Fortunately, Beladona had not seen who it was.

  Then they waited. Despite Vealis's grumbling and Riven’s nonstop nagging, they all stayed put, for Beladona prevented them from moving ahead without Thalric. He will come, just you wait," she said to assure the others. But it did no good.

  After a while, when the sun tilted slightly west and the air grew warmer, Vealis finally spoke. "There’s going to be only six of us on this journey, it seems. The little one must have taken my words to heart and run away. Can’t blame him for valuing his own life," he said.

  Then he turned to the woman with beauty and bowed in respect. "If the generous Feather God royalty won’t mind."

  The woman once looked at Beladona, then smiled at Vealis and nodded back to him before turning to the man behind her. The man nodded back at her and stepped up, walking toward a giant tree nearby and tapping it a few times in a lyrical way.

  In the meantime, Vealis looked at the others in the group.

  "Does anyone have an objection?" he asked. Riven shook her head and stepped up as if she had been waiting for that moment, then followed Kealen and Kaito, who had the same opinion as Vealis. Beladona glanced at the frost once again and did not move. Vealis tried to talk her out of her persistence, and in the middle of it, suddenly, a rustling sound came from the frost, and Thelric jumped out from behind a bush. He was half-naked—no shirt and no coat or hat either—but still had a bag and boots with him.

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  That jump of his nearly frightened Kealen, Kaito, and Riven, throwing them into a scream. The three were already prepared to thrust their hands and swords at whatever dark thing it was.

  Luckily for Thelric, Vealis was fast enough to recognize him and stopped the three before death befell him.

  "My good fellow, what had happened to you?" Beladona asked, more perplexed than concerned about Thelric. And she wasn't the only one asking about it; Vealis was also curious about what caused Thelric to appear like an escaping prisoner from a jail (not from the prison gap, for those who were put in there would never be able to escape).

  Thelric stood still, as if he hadn't heard anyone's question, for he himself was still processing in his tiny head what had happened. When he was done, he could only mutter that he was safe from all those wretched things. He was clearly talking about tree branches that had robbed him of his things, but the others never knew that, and what they imagined was the danger in the forest.

  "Vernra! (Remarkable)" said the Featherkin princess. "The direction from which the frost he came is crowded with dangerous predators, that even we have a hard time facing, but he still came out alive." Although she said it in a feather kin language and only Beladona and Vealis understood what she said, everyone could see that she was really praising Thelric. And Thelric himself had no idea of it. He was very glad that he saw Beladona again and also the others, though he didn't have many familiarity with them.

  It was then that Beladona came and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "You did good." Although she appeared to be smiling, in truth, she was sighing, for she had no knowledge that the area near her house had been crowded by those beasts. It had been a long time since she had come to her house, at least a decade. And it was only to take care of Thelric that she had come back.

  "Thank you," said Thelric, who thought it was for following the map.

  "Did he really defend against all those dangers and arrive here?" Velais was doubtful, for he himself knew how tough the beasts in the Featherkin's forest were. And he was not alone. Kealen and Kaito, who had once entered these forests with brave hearts, had faced those fire beasts and honed a pretty good skill for themselves from their experience.

  When they heard Thelric had done the same, they saw what Beladona’s words meant—that this little guy was not what he appeared to be.

  Riven was clueless, as she had never stepped into these forests to settle and only roamed through the Albion lands to hone her skills, but she had heard stories of those fierce beasts and knew well enough how terrifying they were. But of course, all of them were wrong, and Thelric was not a killer at all—if not for his scream. A scream that was loud enough to scare even the fiercest of those hunters to run away without looking back.

  Fortunately, for the two sides' misunderstanding, none knew what truly happened, and Thelric were able to keep a little bit of false respect for the time. After that, Beladona took the chance to treat Thelric's injuries. They were only slight bruises and scratch marks, but among them was a deeper ones he had gotten from falling onto those thorns under the tree. Then, he put on a new coat that had been in the very bag he had carried along the way. It was unfortunate that he never bothered to look deeper into the bag before and only saw a few things to eat in it.

  "This way," called out Azren in his slow voice to all. They all then looked and saw a hole in the trunk of a giant tree. It had been opened by the man with a metal lock on his face by his hand. He kept holding it as the tree seemingly tried to close it again constantly.

  "This will lead us to the end of the forest," said Azren.

  "Thank you," said Velais, as he once again showed respect to the Featherkin royalty (the woman) with a nod. Then, he was followed by Riven, Kealen, and Kaito, and they jumped into the hole in the tree.

  They instantly disappeared as they jumped, going deeper into the hole. Looking at it, Thelric became fearful and tried to ask about its safety, but alas, Beladona grabbed him and jumped along with him at once, and screm Thelric the same way he had done when he fell from the tree.