Sandman's Sand

THUMP!

Mia saw and later heard the loud thumping sound as the heavy body of the Sarangay fell face-first on the forest ground, a slight quake could also be felt coming from that one fall.

Mia wasn't sure what Rasz had done — she had only followed his instructions to let out a gentle breeze using <Wind> when he told her to — but it seemed like the Sarangay won't be threatening their lives ever again. They had managed to defeat the vicious Bestial being!

******

"You just thought I looked like one of those poachers aren't you?" asked Rasz, arching a brow at Mia. He was currently crouching on the ground near the Sarangay's head, taking off the four gemstones that the Bestial being had worn on its ears. These four gemstones were the QuadriTraum that Rasz had came to Collect.

"Well... Is it that obvious?" Mia hadn't noticed it, but she has had on both an expression of disbelief and condemnation when Rasz started took off the gemstones.

Back when Rasz had explained to her about the Bestial being which was guarding the QuadriTraum, she had expected to see a chest or a special box or something where the gemstones were safely kept inside, with a monstrous guardian protecting it from thieves and whatnot that was interested in the precious treasure. However, it turned out that the QuadriTraum was actually an important part of the Sarangay, as much as its limbs and horns were. Mia was speechless by this newly founded information.

"It is when you narrowed your eyes like that at me." Rasz laughed, thus inviting Mia's even more piercing gaze towards him. Rasz gulped down in embarrassment.

"Well, isn't what you're doing right now called as such," said Mia rather sharply, at this moment she had her arms crossed on her chest.

"I don't kill, Mia. It's within my job description." That's right, Rasz's Master had forbidden him to kill any being that happened to be involved in or related with the items that he went to Collect, but it wasn't because his Master was fond of all living things. 'To make things more exciting,' his Master had said when he had asked once, out of sheer curiosity, and truth-be-told, with a little hope that his Master turned out to be a kind person, but all that imagination came crashing the moment he heard his Master's answer.

"This thing — This Sarangay, as you called it, is still very much alive, you know," Rasz said, wiping all thoughts of his devilish Master out of his mind. He would rather spend every second of freedom he had right now with the young woman in front of him, focusing only on her. Even if he knew this might be another fun game created by his Master for him, he didn't care either way.

Mia lifted her brows in surprise. "Really?!"

"Yeah, you can try and check it yourself if you don't believe me," said Rasz, motioning for Mia to have a look at the Sarangay.

Mia walked to the opposite side from where Rasz was crouching, where the unconscious Sarangay was facing, and then crouched down. At first, Mia didn't notice anything, but then she heard it, the sound of slow and gentle breathing. She reached down her hand towards the being's snout, and surely, she felt it, the Sarangay's breath. Just as Rasz had said, the Sarangay was alive!

Mia faced Rasz and raised her brows in a silent question. Rather than answering her straight-away, he raised his own brows at her, playfully.

"Okay, alright. It's alive. Are you going to tell me what had actually happened, or not?" Mia admitted her defeat, urging Rasz to tell her what he had done. After all, what with the Sarangay previously ramming on the Löwe Shield non-stop, though Rasz had told her what she needed to do, he hadn't had the opportunity to explain the rationality behind the plan.

"I put it to sleep," Rasz answered nonchalantly, with a shrugged of his shoulder.

"Sleep? With what?"

"This." Rasz took off something hanging from his belt and lifted it up for Mia to see. It was a sachet.

Wondering what was inside the sachet bag that could've caused the terrifying Sarangay to fall into a deep sleep so easily, Mia moved to crouch beside Rasz to have a look at what was inside. A smile bloomed on Rasz's face seeing Mia's curious face. While still grinning from ear-to-ear, Rasz opened up the sachet for her to see the contents.

After seeing the contents of the sachet, Mia furrowed her brows. "It is a sachet full of sand," declared Mia.

"Yes."

"I'm guessing it's not ordinary sand then?" asked Mia.

"Again, yes." Seeing that Mia was still waiting for his answer, Rasz reined in his teasing and complied, giving her the answer, "It's Sandman's Sand."

"Sandman? As in The Sandman who put people to sleep, and then sprinkled some sand into their eyes, blessing them with good dreams. That Sandman?"

"You sure know well about folklore, Miss Mia. As well, as you know mythologies I assume?" asked Rasz, while closing the sachet and once again tied it to his belt.

"Yeah, well, I'll be graduating in Archaeology next year — fingers crossed," Mia answered truthfully.

"An archaeology student, no wonder..." thought Rasz.

"Oh, do you know about-?" Suddenly realizing that he might not understand what she was talking about, Mia asked Rasz.

"Universities? Ah, yes. Heard of it, and seen few of them too. Never been lucky enough to be in one, though."

"Is that so..."

"Well, we should be going now. Our next destination will be another few days ride from this Beast Forest," said Rasz getting up from the ground.

"Wait. I thought you said you aren't a poacher, Mister Rasz?" Mia asked while staring pointedly at the four gemstones in his hands

"I'm not." Seeing Mia's still not believing him, Rasz explained to her, "After a few decades — around four to five decades later — the gemstones will grow back, okay? The gemstones will be as preciously brilliant as it were on this day."

"Really...?" Mia asked suspiciously. Rasz gave her a firm nod, not avoiding her sharp scrutinizing eyes even for a second. "Okay, fine. I believe you," said Mia exasperatedly.

Finally managed to convinced Mia, Rasz secured the QuadriTraum inside a small jewel box that he had produced from his Packer — which he had safely put away who-knew-where away from all the ruckus of the fight — that locked itself right away after he had closed its lid.

"Oh, one more thing I'm curious about if you had the Sandman's Sand, why didn't you use it since the very beginning? It would be easier than having to go through all those fighting, just now," asked Mia, curious.

"The Sandman's Sand has a few strict conditions to meet before it could be used. That is the target must not be in their right state of mind. For example, making the Sarangay gone totally mad with anger. I had wanted to use this condition before, but then the Bestial being started to calm down itself and started to think how to defeat me. So, I had to find another way to destabilized his emotions. Another way that came to mind was using the euphoria of a sure victory. That's what my plan was all about just now. Back then, when the Sarangay saw that we were in a miserable state, and reaching the end of our straw, its emotion was control by elation at our total demise. That's when I can use the Sandman's Sand," explained Rasz fully to Mia.

"You know, I always thought that using magic means that you could just simply blasted off or conjure something with a snap of your fingers. Not having so many conditions to meet and what not like this," said Mia, as she realized how complicated the reality of all magical things was.

"I think you've been influenced by the stories they made up in your [World] isn't it?" Rasz said simply. He then added further with a warning tone, "Magic always means you have to give up something in order to get another thing. Everything must be compensated equally. Remember that Mia."

"Let's go. It's better if we leave the Beast Forest before it gets too dark. We have one more item to Collect before I could send you off to your own destination."

"One more..." Mia repeated, her eyes shined bright with hope. "And then home."

She was so focused on getting back home, that Mia didn't realize that Rasz's expression had turned sad when he knew that the best of his life were coming closer to its end.

******

After taking a brief pause to rest their body at the area near the line of shrubs, which marked the border between the wild animals' and their chief's resident, Mia and Rasz continued their journey back to the Beast Forest's entrance that they had entered from. The walked back turned out to be uneventful, different from the time when they had first entered the forest.

Seeing that Mia and Rasz had come out of their chief's living area with their lives still intact, both surprised and scared the forest's fellow residents.

For the last few centuries since these wild animals and their predecessors had lived alongside the Bestial being, not once had any intruders that had come to steal the treasure that their chief owned had been spared, much less had recognizable bodies. However this time, with these two humans, other than the few wounds here and there, where most of them had been inflicted by the wild animals themselves, there was not one of those wounds which were fatal and definitely none that seemed to come directly from their chief.

Except maybe on that young man. From the looks of things, he hadn't been badly hurt by the Bestial being. Though they smelt traces of blood, most of it that scent had frighteningly belonged to their chief. Other than that, the wild animals had also smelt something strange that wasn't there before coming from him. None of them seemed to like that smell — the scent of something forbidden.

All of the animals stayed far away from Mia and Rasz the entire time, out of fear for defeating their chief or because of the reek permeating from Rasz.

It was almost sunset by the time they finally reached back to where the had left Black alone outside the Beast Forest. The black horse neighed in happiness when it saw that its riders had come safely back from that terrifying forest — it had even felt glad at seeing Rasz.

After preparing themselves for their hour ride long back to the small village that had been staying yesterday, the two once again mounted Black. Rasz helped Mia to settle herself on the saddle first, before mounting the black horse himself. However, surprisingly Rasz had settled himself behind Mia — thus indirectly telling her to lead Black instead of him.

Rasz's actions puzzled Mia, but before she could ask him what was going on, she felt Rasz wrapping his arms around her waist tightly, leaning himself towards her.

"Sorry, Mia, but I'm going to have to ask you to steer Black back to the village," Rasz said to Mia's ear. "I assumed you know how to ride a horse right?" Mia nodded in confirmation at Rasz's inquiry.

"Rasz, why-?" Before Mia could finish her question, she felt Rasz's head leaned down on her shoulder gently and his full body weight settled on her back. Though she felt discomfort from having a man positioned himself too intimately on her, for the last few days she'd spent with him, she knew that Rasz wasn't the type of person that will suddenly take advantage of her like this. Even more so was the fact that the heaviness of Rasz body from behind her, seemed like...

Having a bad feeling, Mia called out to the young man behind her, "Rasz...?" When she heard no answer, she called out several more times, but still, similarly, there was no answer. At last, Mia was sure now that Rasz had definitely fainted.

Reaching down towards the saddle bag below her, she took out a rope and tied it around herself and Rasz. She has no idea why Rasz had suddenly fainted like this when a moment ago he had seemed fine. Mia knew that it was best that they get to the village as soon as possible, but with an unconscious rider behind her, she knew that she should focus on getting there safely rather than faster.

Thus, after making sure that everything was properly settled for the journey back, Mia pulled on the rein steering Black back to the small village.