Noras eyes finally opened to the clear starry sky.
She could hear nothing but crackling of flames around her and the smell of cooked food. The warmth of an open fire covered her body in a comfortable ray bringing life to her pale skin.
'Am I Dead?' she thought however she quickly denied this a pain rushed from her arm.
She looked down and saw her arm wrapped up in a cloth that is made from top and trousers leaving her knees and belly button bear. The makeshift bandage was wrapped around her neck holding it up.
Did someone save me?
A makeshift bed was made for her to rest in out of soft leaves and some flowery petals and a small wooden pot sat neatly on a flattened rock in ams reached. She reached out and grabbed the pot before drinking the water inside.
The cool water felt good on her dry lips.
She grabbed a wooden plate of berries and fruit next to her as her stomach started to rumble. wolfing it down in seconds she looked towards the campfire and her saviour and froze.
Sitting by the campfire was the nightmare she just experienced. The monster! It turned its emotionless head to staring at her with a slight uncomfortable noise of rocks scraping.
Grabbing hold of a large stick it slowly stood up and wobbled over to her.
Not again. Nora thought as the stomping grew closer and closer.
She could not look away from its soulless eyes like she had been swallowed by the abyss.
Slowly the devil kneeled down and stretched out its clawed arm towards her.
Nora flinched as the claws slowly unclasped, believing that they would soon penetrate through her body.
But the pain didn't come.
Slowly she opened her eyes in confusion and saw a small wooden human women in a fancy dress.
steadily Nora reached out and grabbed the figure confused on what was happening.
As soon as the doll left its hand, the monster gave a pleasant whoo whoo noise and turned around back to hobble back to the campfire.
What...
Did the monster just give me a children's toy...
And the way its using the fire to boil some water and a stick to walk around...
It's just like old man Tim!
Is the monster not a monster! But instead just a strange species that she's never seen before!
Then did the mo... person... just save her from the wolf...
Quickly Nora realised that the strange person in front of her wasn't in fact a monster but just an elderly... strange species that she has never heard of before.
This is not exactly uncommon in chaos forest as there are many rumours of strange species and unimaginable places around the place.
She once was told a story about a mysterious race of fish that live in a sprawling empire at the bottom of a large lake of water called an ocean. Apparently the gods of water, rivers and lakes reside in a majestic underwater palace in the centre of a city larger than the entire chaos forest.
Maybe this metal person is just another strange rare race that has become lost in the dark woods.
Maybe it also comes from a large empire of metal people and seen metal gods.
Wonder flashed across Noras face as she began to observe the metal man in front of her.
-
Ashe at the time was using its systems to analyse herbs in hopes of creating a pain reliever to help the child calm down.
They had spent the night foraging for berries, fruits and herbs to help the child recover. They were successful in finding many edible berries and even a small stream that would be drinkable after boiling.
Next he built a bed out of commutable leaves they had foraged from nearby trees and allowed the sleeping child to rest. they removed the Childs clothing and removed strips of cloth to make a bandage.
After boiling the bandage in water they used cool water to clean the girls wound and wrapped the bandage tightly around the girls arm and waste.
Ashe was careful to keep the fire running as they had used a bit of energy and a loose wire to start the fire on a small bit of cloth. They didn't want to waste the little energy they had on restarting the fire.
Ashe then began to whittle away at branches and logs to create the tools he needed and cookery for the girl. The left over wood was enough to make a small doll for the child when she wakes up.
When she woke up the girl was in a state of panic so Ashe gave her the doll and a friendly beep. They had already realised that the child didn't speak any language that Ashe had recorded so they decided to wait for a while to begin translation.
[Translation progress 1.2%]
Ashe could not help but sigh in their heart as they realised the girl didn't talk much slowing the transition progress down.
As Ashe was using a bakeshop mortar and kettle to blend the herbs into a paste that should relieve pain, the girl got up and slowly sat beside her grimacing in pain.
Ashe immediately made wooing and beeping sounds that the girl recognised that the person was worried about her.
" Thank you for saving me!"
Ashe quietened down wanting to hear more of the language to speed up translation.
" I am eternally grateful, and will one day repay the senior for this debt." She continued but gained no response. Thinking that the strange being can not speak, she only felt a slight disappointment.
"My name Is Nora Darktree of the Darktree tribe about 10 km west from here. I would like to bring you back to my tribe as a show of appreciation for saving my life."
Nora looks at Ashe and notices the herbs.
Noras Eyes widened in shock, "are you an alchemist, can I see you refine a pill. I've only met one alchemist in the past and alchemist John never lets me see how he refines pills."
She looks up at Ashe with excitement in her eyes. Ashe however mistakes her question with her asking for the medicine. They confirm her question with some happy noises and continues to work.
Nora immediately starts to study the paste with a determined expression. She wishes herself to one day become an alchemist and refine pills that can help her tribe gain strength, maybe she could transform her tribe into a small town or even a city.
She has never been to a city before as there aren't many cities in the chaos forest. She has heard from town folk tho that cities were massive with hundreds of thousands of people from hundreds of different races. She will have to visit one when she joins a sect soon.
She spends the rest of the morning chatting to Ashe about her dreams of joining a sect, becoming an alchemist and one day becoming an immortal like the tribes chief.
Ashe Applied the paste to the girls cuts and bruises to Noras displeasure but she calmed down when she noticed how the pain started to lesson over her body.
As the sun rose, to Ashes shock most of Noras scratches and bruises had fully healed and, if the rate continues, by tomorrow morning her wound will have completely healed only leaving a faint scar.
This went against much of Ashes simulations on how the girl would heal, but they ignored it as Ashe felt a sense of accomplishment as a notification sounded.
[Translation complete]
[Recorded language: common tongue]
Ashe quickly went through their new memory files and was shocked about what they heard.
Nora is species known as a cat-kin coming from a tabby clan. She lives in a small tribe 10 km away from where they are and dreams to become immortal one day. According to her only the chief is immortal in their tribe but if she cultivates well enough, she too will become an immortal.
she spoke about the nearby town that had many immortals and then said she heard that in cities everyone is immortal. She says that in a few weeks she'll leave to the nearby town to take an exam where she would be chosen by sect all across the region.
She got a bit gloomy when she mentioned a goblin named Eric and an elf called Harris, then she wished she could learn alchemy from Ashe and surprise her tribe.
Ashe was flabbergasted with the information and realised just how far they had traveled. A fuzzy theory emerged from one of the files stating about inter dimensional travel.
The theory states that worm holes are holes in reality that could open at any time forcing the surroundings through the hole and out of our reality. It could then presume that other realities may exist through these holes.
This is what must have happened to them!
Ashe now believes the most likely situation is that they are not in the same reality as the alliance and no help was coming.
Nora noticed the pause in Ashes movements and asked what is wrong.
Ashe looked down for her and a few seconds past, then Nora could not believe her ears.
"My name is Ashe"