My savior, the awesome black dog, turned its head and said to me,
(Ari) "Are you both alright?"
(Yen) "Yes, thank you for saving my life. Are you from the Army?"
(Ari) "Yes and no. Unfortunately, the army doesn't exist anymore. Most of them are probably dead or captured."
She transformed back into her human form. Canji looked at her with fear in her eyes.
(Canji) "Does this mean the capital is also destroyed?"
Ari looked back at her and nodded her head.
Yen stood up from the ground and looked at her in disbelief.
(Yen) "Stop joking around! The Capital is the home of the best of the best in our country. That's impossible; they would never lose. The mighty king would never lose his epic battles. Considering he was one of the best knights in the world, how could he lose? I'm grateful you saved my life, but you said my idol, the reason I wanted to join the knights and serve him, just lost. No, that's impossible!"
Yen transformed into his human form and fell on his knees with his head down. Ari looked at him and grabbed his shoulder to comfort him.
(Ari) "Listen, my father was sick and growing weaker year by year. We kept his illness a secret, known only to a few high-ranking people and his family. There's no doubt that when the other three kingdoms knew about his state, they would have invaded and tried to take as much land from us as they could. But don't lose hope. He died because he believed in me and believed that I would find comrades who would shoulder the fate of our kingdom and the world. You said you wanted to become a knight and serve my father. Join me! You and your sister can help me reach my goal."
Yen looked Ari directly in the eyes with determination and said,
(Yen) "You are right; I know who you are. You are the commander of our army and the second princess of our country. Ari, the Hound of the Dead."
Yen bowed down to the princess and said, "My lady, I swear to you that I will help you with your goal no matter what." At that moment, Canji did the same thing as she noticed the princess's hands were bandaged with part of her cloth.
(Canji) "Princess, I swear, like my brother. Even though I'm not skilled at fighting, I have other useful skills. May I take a look at your wounds, Princess?"
(Ari) "Yes, you can also call me Ari. There is no need for formality when I need your help more than you can imagine."
Canji cast a Fairy Light on the princess's hands. Ari looked at her healed hands and said, "a healing power that's impressive. Not many people have such a gift as you."
"Well, you two, I'm going to tell you about my mission. We need to go to the dark continent and conquer six dungeons to gather six powerful artifacts and weapons to defeat the invaders and save the rest of our people. But first, we need to get out of this forest and head east to the Kingdom of Olymp. I hope they are still standing at least."
(Yen and Canji) "Understood, Ari."
And so, our group of heroes headed outside of the Flower Forest. Thanks to Ari's hybrid form (a form when you are still human but can use one characteristic of your transformation without fully transforming), she could smell the man-eating flowers from far away and find the safest route out of the forest. She explained to them that there are two ways to cross the forest. The first one is to fly over it, a very convenient way, and the second one is to have a guide with a strong sense of smell, as the man-eating plants have a distinct smell.
As they got out of the forest, Yen told Ari about Max and Jop, and how he swore to save both of them. He believed that Max would make a powerful companion. But what Yen couldn't foresee was that Max and Jop were about to break free from their imprisonment, and that something in Jop would awaken!
To be Continued