#1 - Alone in the forest

Maybe this isn't the story you're looking for, but it's the one I want to tell. I know you'd love to know what happens in Greenfar in more contemporary times, but don't worry, we'll get to that another time.

My craft may seem frivolous to you and even presumptuous, given that I can choose which part of the past to serve you, but make no mistake: knowing when to tell the main stories and the seemingly secondary ones is one of my main talents.

This is one of the main side stories. It happened a few centuries ago. I confess that I have an appreciation for this passage, and I hope you do too.

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The morning light before sunrise was the best time for a meditative walk outside on the forest trails. It was his time to connect with his familiar surroundings and keep his keen hearing up to date.

The sound of foliage and animals placed him precisely in relation to the weather, the season and the space around him, a skill he had perfected over more than 20 years in his trade.

But no training was needed to identify a child's cry.

Zer moved nimbly and silently until he saw a pale hand behind a stone at the edge of a stream. The woman's arm stretched out towards the water and her body was lodged between two stones, as if she had tried to crawl over the rocks to reach the water.

A strong musky smell came from her ankle, and the blackened skin where there were three inflamed punctures indicated the action of some kind of fast-acting poison. Death shouldn't have taken more than two minutes to arrive.

Whatever had bitten her could still be nearby. Zer put his right hand on the hilt of his sword and followed the sound of sobbing until he found a dirty girl with a purple tongue crying in the middle of a bush of berries known to be unfriendly to the stomach.

The crying stopped and the girl's eyes widened as she saw that bald man in red clothes approaching.

"Nobody told you that those berries would give you a stomach-ache, right?" - the monk's gentle voice made the little girl's shoulders relax, but soon the crying returned.

Zer gently pulled her out of the bushes and settled her on his shoulder. She couldn't have been more than three years old. Observing the surroundings, he decided it would be best to take her to the village and ask for help to get the woman's body.

"You need some tea, little one, or your tummy won't stop hurting any time soon." - she squeezed him tightly and nuzzled her sobbing face into his neck the whole way.

The woman's body was covered up to the neck, on a platform in the center of the village's vitarics care room, while three men looked at her intently.

"The cause of death was poison, but its formulation is somewhat unusual. In all my years as a Vitaris, I've never known of any animal that possessed these combined toxins. I'll send a message to some Pakaris I know, they should have information on what kind of animal could cause this damage." - said Monk Hígo.

Zer brought his hand to his nose, the musky smell still strong: "If I had arrived earlier, could this have been avoided?"

"I doubt it very much. The potency of this poison is such that the effect is almost instantaneous. And you could be lying here too."

"Guilt is an anchor in our hearts, Zer." - said the third man, quiet until then. "Don't choose that burden for yourself. Think that at least you saved the girl, and she can have a good life." - said Rhano, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"About that..." - said Hígo as he picked up a dry piece of paper from the side table - "We found this note on the rocks, but the water erased some of the ink."

The other two monks looked curiously at the manuscript:

"...I understand you. Forgive me.
...daughter, Quel. She needs training."

Rhano stared at the paper, while Zer sighed in disappointment that they had so little information about the girl's origin. With an affectionate tone, Hígo said: "It looks like we'll have a slightly younger apprentice than usual."

 Realizing that the note could be a request for the girl to remain with the swordsman monks, Zer's eyes filled with hope, but before he could agree, he was furiously interrupted by Rhano.

"She's not old enough to join the apprentices, and there won't be anyone to look after her here. Let's send her to some village and find a family that wants her." His tone was completely different from the one that a few moments before had softened Zer's guilt.

Hígo and Zer looked at each other in amazement. Rhano could be one of the harshest monks, especially with young apprentices, but his decisions were usually fair.

"Rhano... she's very young indeed, but there's no reason why she shouldn't be taken in. Even more so with a written request for training."

"A half-finished note is now a 'training request', Zer?" - Rhano's gaze was a mixture of indignation and anger.

As a good Vitaris, soothing the inflammations of the body and sometimes of the soul is part of his routine, so Hígo said calmly while covering the woman's face: "There is no reason for this discussion. Any out-of-season request for a child's training must be deliberated by the elders. Take the case to them."

Zer waited for a response from Rhano, but instead of speaking, he saw him reducing his own breathing rate - one of the first practices they taught their pupils for when they needed to rebalance.

"I'm going to check on the girl." - said Hígo as he handed the note into Zer's hands and left the room.

The heavy silence indicated that this furious reaction still needed to be explained, but it wouldn't be at that moment.

With the paper in his hands, Zer looked compassionately into the other monk's eyes and said: "It seems her name is Quel." - And left after Hígo, leaving Rhano alone in the room, breathing almost without moving.

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The Tales of Greenfar are originally written in Portuguese. If you find any major mistakes, please be kind and let me know 🌻

🔖 New chapters every Friday!

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Next chapter:

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What has already happened in Greenfar:

• Prologue: The beginning of Greenfar