The noise of birds chirping wakes me up. It was a bit before noon from the looks of it, and Ael and Amiel's voices were nowhere to be found. My guess is that they left early in the morning.
I stayed up for a few hours past midnight until I got tired. Luckily, my body was healing, so I got tired pretty quickly. I was only up for a few hours until I fell asleep again.
Pulling up my shirt, checking my wounds below the bandages and cloth, I can see the visible line where my flesh was falling apart, held by a few stitches. All are still red and in the process of healing.
"Now, does that look ugly?" I let out.
Knowing the anesthesia had worn off, I go for my bag and grab a can of potatoes I brought from the bunker. I don't cook it up like Ael did last night since I just wanted to get something in my stomach after going hours without eating. Just going over for the bag, my stomach growled a few times.
I scarfed down the food pretty quickly, but carefully enough as not unstitch the stitches Ael just did for me yesterday. After eating, I take my cloak and put it around me. Making my way downstairs, I exited the building. Near me, a tree stood by; below it, a small but thick branch had fallen from it. Getting an idea, I walk up to the tree and grab the stick to support my weight.
I had a walk ahead of me, and this stick was going to help, especially in the snow. That was because I was going to go back to the edge of campus and see if that veil was still there. I needed answers right now, and this was the only way I was going to get any.
I thought of telling Ael and Amiel about the whole situation, but decided not to. They would think I was going crazy, and who would blame them? I still don't fully believe myself. All this was a hazy idea of what I was—it made me feel schizophrenic.
I made headway towards the forest. Last time we were leaving from the southbound side of the academy, well, from what I remember, but that was too far for me to walk. The medical center stood closer to the mountain on the north side of campus. If I were to walk all the way back to the southbound, it would take me about half the day with these injuries still healing, even if I had a stick to support my weight. If I were to go northbound, it would take about a quarter of the day and cut my travel time in half.
There was also the fact that it was already close to noon, meaning I had only a few more hours left in the day. Since it was winter and the Lune Empire was on the most northern side of the world, the sun barely hit us around these times. The sun was angled more towards the southern part of the world, hitting the equator at a nice angle during the winter. Though during the summer, the sun did lean more towards the northern side, making the days in the Lune Empire longer. In between those two seasons, the sun hit the equator directly.
As for a country closer to the equator, such as the Sol Kingdom, it received the most sunlight over the years. About twelve hours of daytime, and twelve hours of nighttime.
Either way, the point was that I had a short amount of time and had to make good use of it. I had to be back before Ael and Amiel were, I could not let them think I was crazy. I had to confirm it myself first.
Barely arriving at where the forest and the campus met, I made my way through. The snow there was built a bit higher than on campus. It was about a couple of inches high, enough to go to my shin. Probably because snow doesn't melt as easily with all the trees blocking it from sunlight, this meant I had to pick up my feet higher than usual, but also take it at a slower pace.
With each step, I made sure to use the stick to lean on it as much as possible. I could feel a slight bend in it, but it didn't seem like it was going to break.
As I went deeper into the forest, it became more open. Not because I was near the edge of the forest—no, I was deep in the center of it. It was more open now because some trees were knocked down. Some of these trees were weirdly shaved, where the bark came off. I stop before walking forward.
"What the-" I let out surprised.
I scanned my surroundings a bit better this time. It wasn't only the trees knocked down that were partly shaved; there were some trees standing that were shaved as well. To make it weirder, it was fifteen feet above ground level, as if someone climbed up gathering the bark from the tree.
"Someone was here."
I started frantically looking around for any signs of anyone else. I looked for footsteps, mist coming from someone's breath, smoke from a fire, anything that could tell me if they were nearby.
It couldn't have been Amiel and Ael, they said they were going to explore the campus. They would not go into the forest. Why would they? And to scrape bark off a tree this high. No, something wasn't making sense.
Thinking of possibilities, I get a flash of a girl in my mind, her doll-like face and porcelain skin. I started to remember our short time together and how we met. My mind goes into a daze.
'Eira.' I thought.
Our time together floods my mind with how I met Eira near the quad and our time in the cafeteria. There was no way she was out here. I paused, stopping to think to myself, 'There was someone else here. Someone whose intentions I did not know of.' To make matters worse, I was a man in the most vulnerable position. Wounded and out in the open.