story_rfrost_1_1

'Elias, hope you're doing well.'

'I hear you went south. Right now, we might just be on opposite ends of this continent.'

'Sami is a tranquil and peaceful place. I like the environment and atmosphere here a lot. It reminds me of my home, at times.'

'I'm looking forward to Ash's reaction after she finds out we treated her map listing dangerous regions as a tourism guide.'

'Our goal is unanimous. There has to be a reason behind the crossing we made, and I'll find the answer.'

'The answers to strange questions are always hiding in strange places. Maybe one of us will be able to locate it.'

'Good luck.'

The hunter holds her breath and waits, finger on her trigger.

In her sight is a fowlbeast, wandering back and forth in the forest, leaving one footprint after another in the snow.

It too is a scavenger, seeking other life to allow its own to persist in this harsh environment.

It seems to have seen something, standing its slender neck straight, sharp beak aimed towards its prey.

In one and the same instant, it spreads its wings, and the hunter pulls the trigger.

So close!

Very close.

This is some rotten luck.

Some fowl are good at catching onto how the air moves. Some have especially sensitive claws, so they can sense the slightest tremor in the ground.

For every different kind of prey, there's a different trick to concealing yourself.

Alright, that's a lesson learned. Luck's not so bad looking at it that way—what kind of fowl did I lose just now?

You didn't. Its time just isn't up yet.

Is that written in the prophecy too?

You still don't believe it.

I'm just... unable to comprehend it.

You've always seemed like a smart hunter, since we first got to know each other. Ample experience, and keen too.

Let alone how healthy you still are. I honestly can't believe it when you say it...

Experience isn't the end-all, nor is judgment critical. Your being on this journey at this very moment is already enough.

'On this earth, there are special rules to survival?'

Exactly.

Right now, we should continue setting out north.

If what we already know is accurate, it's just deserted tundra north of the forest. The further north we go, the less prey we can catch.

Chances are we probably just missed our last meal.

Don't be so uneasy. The prophecy only mentioned my death, but you—you'll find what you've been searching for all this time.

Several days before

A journey to where your life ends?

I've seen it. I've seen my death in the prophecy already. But before it happens, I have a request.

Please, take me north. We'll start from here, and bear north straight, until we emerge from the woods. If I still haven't breathed my last by then, then let us keep on northward.

I've spent enough long, untroubled years in this little wood cabin. Before I die, I want to see some sights I've never seen before.

I'm old and frail now. This is a journey I can't complete alone. So, I must ask for your help.

Sir, if this is truly your last wish, then of course. I'll help you any way I can.

But what I can't understand is, how are you certain your life's almost over? I'm not even sure how much 'head straight north' can count as a dream...

How funny. Even in Sami, nobody would call a Sarkaz 'Sir.'

I respect you a lot.

The prophecy remains clear. In the end, I will surely reach the place.

This is my final request. Take me with you, just as the prophecy showed.

I won't have you help for nothing. At this journey's conclusion, I will provide a reward. And you will find what you've been searching for all this time.

The place where only one moon shines.

We're definitely advancing north, according to the compass. But the plant distribution and atmosphere in our surroundings show no stronger characteristics of a polar climate.

Whether it's the compass or common sense, something's gotta be wrong.

Sami allowed a Sarkaz to retire here—because many a thing here poses more trouble than an old devil man.

Let us go on. We haven't strayed from the course.

Why are you so sure? According to you, you'd never been here before, nor were you at all familiar.

True, I have never set foot beyond the forest.

But it's not experience we depend on to recognize reality. When you realize experience cannot allow you to see reality clearly, you will be one step closer to touching upon it.

Alright. Those sound like the words of someone with experience.

Regardless, I have to admit too much of this world is beyond my common sense... So, are we still heading onward?

Yes—*cough*, *cough* *cough*... We head onward.

Maybe... we could take a break for a moment.

A fine suggestion. We still have time, and so do I.

Frost sweeps away a patch of snow by a tree, lays a layer of fallen leaves on top of it, and invites the old hunter to sit.

Thank you.

This is day nine.

Prey is dwindling for sure. Supplies are scarce too—and we still need to figure out how to get back.

Don't mind me. After we reach the end of our journey, you will return alone.

I'm sorry, I still have some doubts.

Does the prophecy have some kind of concrete information, if you believe so firmly in it?

Like this journey's destination, or what kind of preparations we should make?

Or even more fundamentally, did this prophecy tell you should go someplace, or was this journey just a wish of yours...? I'm not quite sure.

Your confusion is understandable. When most have a problem, they can only act once they receive a definite answer.

But prophecies never give answers. Prophecies do not work that way.

But it did state clearly you would die?

Death is hardly an answer either.

I heard the people here mention 'prophecy' before I met you, too. Is it a common skill around these parts?

Truthfully, each and every one of us is capable of prophecy. We see the dark clouds gathering, and so know rain is about to fall. It's simple as that.

I'm still finding this hard to comprehend.

Then we can stop talking about prophecy, and turn simply to our travels.

Of course. You told me before how you'd been to a lot of places, too. If you still remember, that is.

Spires that bring down the rain, lakes under the sea, trenches buried beneath the ground, cities on the backs of behemoths. And as well as that, 'a nonexistent home.'

The stories all start intriguing, but you never finish telling them.

Of course I remember them, whether they were travels or stories.

A journey should conclude when it's still worth reflecting on, and a story should end when its audience is still interested.

Ooh, that's definitely not an excuse to dismiss your audience.

Then let us pass the time. Allow me to finish telling my last story.

Remind me, where did I get to? No, no need. I remember now.

In the end, I accompanied that cursed, vile beast as it found that caster. Indignantly, it asked: 'Where, after all, is my home?'

'All beings have an origin. Since they have an origin, there must be a place they are born. Yet why do I not? Could it be my existence was never meant?'

The Caster answered: 'This is the rule of the curse. You exchanged your home for wisdom, and the power to make all people fear. But now you forever lost your home; true, you should not exist!'

The beast was full of anger, and desired to savage the Caster to death. But still it calmed down.

Revenge was of no avail. It would not solve the contradiction its own existence posed. And an irrational existence is preordained to disappear.

Finally, the cursed beast chose to run, incessantly. So long as it never stopped in any one place, no part of this land would come to mean 'home,' nor 'away' to it, anymore.

How wise of the beast, to solve the crisis of its own existence so. However, I had no energy to continue to run with it. I could only choose to stay in my little wood hut, and while away the rest of my days.

A very metaphorical story.

Through metaphor, one is acquainted with reality.

Not through experience, but through metaphor.

You come to understand.

So, the end of your prophesied journey is also something to do with 'home?'

That is exactly what I expect.

I'm still very curious. Before you settled down in Sami, just how many places did you go?

More than enough. To the point my life could have ended at any point, and it would be no regretful thing.

At times I was a mercenary, at times a hunter, and times more still a simple traveler.

Both you and I share that passion for adventure, it seems.

'A scene never before seen is a priceless treasure.'

We had to go far no matter what, to appreciate something worth the view.

Just as that vile beast that could never stop.

Another layer of metaphor.

Well, then. It's your turn.

Fellow traveler, surely you have plenty of stories worth sharing yourself.

I've definitely got plenty of stories about my travels I could tell, but I'm worried they might be just as hard to understand for you.

You come from a very distant place.

Distant for sure. Farther away than we can even perceive.

Then perhaps, you could say, it is far enough to be ancient?

Now there's a tricky question to answer.

Never mind. I won't seek an answer. To appreciate a story hardly requires making every detail clear.

Please, continue telling.

Alright, if you're okay with listening.

I've told this story to practically no one, but if you're going to understand where I come from, then it'll serve as a fine case.

It's not some adventure to be proud of. It starts with an emergency landing.

'A journey into the unknown always makes me happy, despite the risks that often come with it. You understand, I could never refuse the call.'

'People always find gain in their travels. At times, it's scenes that bring happiness. At times, it's other ways of looking at the world.'

'Like that wise old hunter said, we're unable to tolerate the existence of questions with no answers. Just as if every lock has some key made to match.'

'But that's only wishful thinking. It's not the logic of what nature makes. It's kind of like a Zen thing, isn't it?'

'I'm trying to figure it out now. It might help us answer our question.'

We're here.

So this is what's north of the forest?

This is 'home.'

You mean these ruins?

Stumbling, the old hunter sits down, the long and arduous journey having taken the last of his energy.

He gazes at the ruined, broken walls before him, his expression like a man admiring the most beautiful scenery.

Atop these ruins, there once was a grand city.

More than once it was destroyed, and more than once it was rebuilt.

Would a city really go in a place as desolate as this?

And below the barrage of fire was once a sea of flowers, and above the scorched earth were once skyscrapers.

'Kazdel.'

As the prophecy told, it will in the end become the home of all Sarkaz.

Hold on, something's wrong—

In an instant, the boundless scenery surrounding her collapses.

What's going on...

Frost looks all around. Before her, and behind her, all that remains is endless tundra.

The path they came by is gone without a trace, like the morning dew, and the magnet of the compass in her hands is deathly still, pointed straight ahead.

The good news is we probably didn't lose our way.

If this is also part of the metaphors you talked about... Sir?

Frost only now realizes that the old man beside her is no longer breathing.

The old hunter looks towards the cold empty expanse, his face full of serenity.

A journey to where your life ends.

This is your last wish granted, then.

Frost sits down to the side of the old hunter, and the two hunters together admire the landscape at the end of their journey.

There's—only one moon in the sky.

Opposite where the sun sets, a single moon appears faint on the horizon. A pale silver silhouette, in the same shade as the boundless tundra.

Frost only learns later that upon this great land, this is a sight so very rarely seen.

'A scene never before seen is a priceless treasure.'

Alright. This is a reward I'm willing to take.