Book One - The Dragonkin Empire.

Arianna.

  Alice's side.

 I'm leaning in the shadow against the wall while I watch the scenery of trees, I'm inside a small forest at the foot of a mountain, unlike the rest of the barren wasteland that surround us before life in here is thriving healthily and the landscape is painted in an amazing green, I even see some butterflies every now and then. I watch while Arianna, the woman that freed us from the demon's clutches, strolls gently through the trees while taking the fruit they have to offer and putting it in a basket that's on the floor, it has a high handle so she doesn't have to bend every time to pick it up.

 I try remembering the events of the night I met her but only manage to recall fragments from here and there, everything remains fuzzy since the moment we were taken by the demons until today, amidst my chaotic memories I remember the death of Van but I've already buried that fact deep within my mind, I feel insecure if I think about those moments so I drive my thoughts away from those memories. Lost in my thoughts I didn't notice that Arianna stood nearby watching me.

 "Want one?" She offers me a big apple, I take it and hold it between my hands for a moment, smelling the sweetness before letting it on the floor beside me. In the North a fruit is a rare treat and one as red and big as the one I got is impossible to find there, it's not even possible for the nobles. "If you don't eat you won't heal." She enters the house leaving me a heavy silence. After she enters I stay where I am, even after my body ends up aching with numerous cramps until I'm called inside.

 "Come in, dinner's ready."

 She calls me through the ever open door. I take my time getting rid of the pain and slowly go into the house. It's a house made of wood, it has an ample living room and through the door in the back it stretches a hallway to the left and right in which at each end there is one room, though only the left one has a bed. I sit at the table and look at the frugal meal, it only consist of one apple, a loaf of bread and fresh water, these meals are way to little for me but Arianna eats it calmly, chewing slowly with a grave face.

 I swallow my thoughts and start eating feeling the sweetness of the apple spread quickly through my mouth, I force myself and push it down my throat but it's too sweet, I try the bread, chewing firmly but the bite sticks inside my mouth and is also hard to swallow.

 I force myself and keep eating a little because I don't want to be disrespectful to Arianna that's offering me the food but I stop soon after leaving most of the meal. I look around but the house appears more desolate than it did when we first came here, with barely any furniture. I watch my host eat in peace, apparently she doesn't mind that I left my food, she doesn't even look my way. I watch her intently, I think she's a strange person, she doesn't talk much and she does everything calmly and with elegance.

 "You should eat more."

 "I'm not hungry."

 "Are you worried about your brother?" My brother is resting on the only room with a bed, I don't know where Arianna sleeps, though. The living room separates the hall that lead to the room by a door, Lixk is resting in the left one. Thanks to a few herbs I found and Arianna's constant care the fever has already disappeared, but in truth I haven't think of him until she brought it up. I actually can't think of him, because every time I do I remember that he won't be walking again. It was the day after we got here that I checked his leg, the bone was completely damaged and beyond repair, it doesn't matter what I do my brother won't be able to walk without support again, I'm worried of how he'll take the situation when he wakes up... if he wakes.

 "It was unfortunate what happened to him, but he is still alive, he'll manage somehow, and you have to eat, force yourself if necessary."

 Arianna finishes eating and leaves, she often goes outside even though the sun is almost gone and comes back late. Lately I've been going to sleep as soon as it's dark so I get up immediately when she walks through the door, go to a corner of the house, wrap myself with a blanket t warm me up and quickly drift to sleep before it is completely dark outside.