Time That Flies Fast

TIME THAT FLIES FAST

Coming down from the mountain, a young man encountered a woman who's most likely to be a mother. She's holding a child in her hand while leaning in a tree. The young man smiled at them before continuing to walk down.

"Y-young man, where do you plan to go?" the woman asked.

The young man stopped from its track and turn to face the woman. He points himself, checking if the woman was talking to him.

"I'm looking for a food" he answered.

The woman looked at the young man with confused face, "What for? There's a lot of food in the village you just came from"

The young man shyly smiled, "Well, we will be leaving the village tomorrow. It's embarrassing but we don't have a lot of money to buy food from the village."

"Leaving the village? Are you an adventurer?" asked by the woman. The woman knows that people from the village can't and won't be able to leave.

"Yes" the young man proudly answered.

"That explains why you are quite unfamiliar despite me living that village for my entire life" the woman said as she softly laugh.

"You don't need to look for foods. It's too dangerous to hunt at this hour. Come at our house and I'll give you some foods"

The young man was confused when the woman suggests to help him. Although, she was quite suspicious he still accept her suggestion and thanked the woman.

"Wow! Really? Thank you! Oh, my name is Eli" the young man introduced himself.

"I'm Giya. This is my son, Keya" Eli smiled and waved at the child.

Giya, Keya, and Eli walk back to the village. While walking, Eli can't help but be curious why they were outside of the village.

"Umm, may I know what you were doing outside of the village?" Eli asked.

Giya smiled, "Well, we were planning to go visit Keya's father. We were resting when you came"

Eli got more confused. Eli knows that the village was not too far from where they were resting. It's just weird to stop and rest immediately.

"Rest? Where did you came from that makes you tired?"

If Von was there she would probably be glaring at Eli now for being to nosy.

"From the village. Oh, you didn't know the curse isn't? The people in the village are all getting weaker day after day. All of us will soon perish. I think we only have 60 days or less left." Giya explained that make Eli surprised. It was his first time hearing about this curse.

"How did you get that curse? Is there a way to get rid of the curse?"

Giya reminisced the past. She remembered how all the people from the village got the curse because of a mistake of one person. She remembered how terrified everyone was when they realized that all of them bears the consequence because of that one person.

Up until now, no one knows how to get rid of the curse. Maybe, it's the gods punishment for them for doing something forbidden and trying to be too greedy for power.

"The mayor of the village discovered a sealed magic and tried to use it. He failed to use it and it seems like he made a mistake while trying to use it, thus cursing everyone from the area. At first, we didn't know that we only have a little time left. Not until, an adventurer named Esperanza explain to us what is about to happen to us."

Eli stopped when he heard a familiar name. He asked while in shock, "Esperanza came here?"

"You know him? Yes. He came here, a year ago"

Both of them were too busy from talking that they didn't realized that they already arrived at the village. Giya lead the way to their house.

"Do you know, this village really holds a lot of dark secrets? The mayor of this village was too greedy for power that he even wanted to challenge the king. Anyone who visit the village became a test subject or the mayor's slave. The worse was getting killed. Then, the mayor will create a scheme so a lot more people will visit the village. No one got a chance to escape from his trap."

Giya heavily breath some air and sighed before continuing, "But, the accident happened. Ever since everyone realized that we will soon perish without a trace, everything changed. The mayor stopped his plans and starts to ask for forgiveness to those people that he caused harm. He even start to change the way he govern the village. Everyone did the same, they stopped doing something unnecessary but start doing the things that will make them happy." Giya went silent after explaining.

A minute passed before Giya started to ask a question. "Say, if you knew that you're gonna die soon, what would you do?"

"I..." Eli can't give an answer since he doesn't understand. He is not a human but only a weapon.

Giya gave a sad smile, "We, the people of the village want to give the other people something that will let them not forget about us. But, I don't think we would be able to. We grow weaker day after day. We can't help any other people but only ourselves. We can't leave this village because of our weak body. We... we sinned too much..."

Eli wants to encourage Giya and comfort her but he doesn't know how. Both of them went silent until they reached the door of Giya's house.

Giya prepared the food while Eli silently wait.

Once Giya was done, she gave it to Eli. Eli received it but was not able to give her even a smile. He was too occupied by what he learned and was thinking about how he could help them.

"Where is the father of Keya?" Eli asked.

"He's at the prison, located at the heart of the kingdom" Giya answered.

Eli knows where the heart of the kingdom is. It is the place where Von lived before.

Eli just then realized that Giya won't be able to see her husband at their condition. The heart of the kingdom is too far away from this village. Considering their condition, they might even die after a couple of days.

"Would you like us to accompany you to get there? I think we'd be able to reach that place before your time is up" Eli suggest.

Eli saw how Giya's eyes glint. "R-really? We could see him?"

"Yes. But, I still need to tell Von about this" Eli nodded.

•••

Even though he said that, he is worried that Von will disagree. He knows that Von doesn't want to go back home.

He inhaled before knocking at Von's door.

"Come in" as Eli heard Von's voice he became more nervous.

He opened the door and look for Von that is sharpening her dagger. Eli gulped his own saliva.

Von chuckled, "Why so nervous, Eli? Don't worry, I already know what you want to say. I was following you all this time. You can accompany Giya and Keya. I'll tag along until we meet up with Esperanza. I got a letter from him, 2 days ago"

Eli blinked and was still progressing the things Von just said. "What?"