Dream Beyond Life's Edge

The Hero's Festival

"Lia, wake up. Everyone has arrived, we should go now."

Awakening her from her dream, a familiar male voice spoke to her. The person owning the voice gently shook her body back and forth, trying to wake her up.

"Noah?" Still very sleepy, Talia yawned then rubbed her eyes. As soon as her eyes cleared, she stared straight into the blue eyes of a certain blonde-haired girl.

"Yeah, I'm Noah," Alexia said in a male voice.

"I feel like punching you in the face so hard right now."

After going back a step, Alexia stopped holding back her chuckle and started laughing until she choked on her own saliva.

"How'd you turn your voice like that? Is it wind?" Talia asked, full of interest.

"It's two: ae-ras and aqua-res." Alexia said simply.

"Ae-ras!? That's insane! And of course, you used that just to play a prank." Talia's eyes rolled at Alexia's use of high grade magic for such a random thing.

She shifted her gaze from Alexia, looking around for Florres and Noah, only to see an empty field. Her heart sank, as the feeling of disappointment from having to wait came. "Aww, I guess we're not going yet."

"Don't worry about it, they're getting close. Just any second now they'll pop their heads out."

"Alexia, Lia! Sorry we're late!"

"Hello everyone!"

From a far, Florres and Noah shouted at them. While holding each other's hand, they walked towards us at the usual pace. In just an instant, Alexia blitzed behind them and tapped both of their backs.

"So slow! You two made Lia wait for such a long time that she fell asleep." With no malice, Alexia rewrote her own memories and told them the incomplete truth.

"Don't you dare write yourself out this. You were also late!"

"Hmm... Yeah, I guess I did." Facing the undisputable facts, Alexia admitted her spreading of deficient information. She folded her hands together and smiled. "Okay, since we don't have that much time left, let's just go."

"Sure. Just place your things inside the shadow first. Lohi-ris."

After Noah's shadow magic incantation, a circular shadow formed on the ground in front of him. One by one, we all inserted our stuff inside the black circle. Once we finished, Noah reconfirmed our preparations for today.

"Okay, no one left anything right? Food, wand, money, extra clothes, anything else?"

"Why would I need extra clothes?"

"Let's go already."

"I'm all done here."

With all their preparations confirmed, the four went into the forest, starting their walk to the festival.

#####

As they neared the first village—Lipest, they decided to meet Julius, a friend of theirs who lives here. Since he's the son of Lipest's chief, he often goes to the other villages with his father. He also gives them a lot, more often than not, hard to find or intriguing information, sometimes even both. Even the information about the person from the city came from him.

They arrived at a big house probably 2 or 3 times bigger than Talia's house. It's located in the village's center surrounded by other houses and buildings. An azure fence surrounds the well-kept lawn in front of the house, keeping people from trampling on the blooming flowers and serving as extra protection.