Hey all!

So here's the second part of my story. Continued from "Forest", if you're curious.

Encounters.

"Hello!" I waved at the green shirted man in front of me.

"Look, if you're selling me something - I'm not buying. So please, just go away!" The man rubbed his large brown goatee and pushed himself past me.

"Ouf!" I fell to the ground with the force of his arm pressing against me. Confused, I stood up and brushed myself off. What had made that man so angry? I certainly had not prepared myself for that. I had never been angry, nor had I seen anger from Telset or Lamia. To tell the truth, I felt kind of uneasy. My stomach turned to think that there might be others like this man. But I eventually pushed these thoughts out of my head and decided not to let one person change my opinions of the entire world around me. I tightly clutched the pendant around my neck and continued exploring this stone-walled area just outside the forest.

"Young lady!" An older woman approached me from behind, "I will buy the pendant around your neck!"

I turned around, rather surprised. "Excuse me?"

"I will buy the pendant around your neck. I'll pay good money for it!"

"Ummm..." I stammered, "i-it's not for sale? It was a gift from my parents."

"I'll pay 5000!"

I started walking away, but she followed me. I could hear her heavy, plodding footsteps mimicking my own.

"Please go away, I don't want to sell this."

"10,000!"

"I am not selling it."

"Excuse me," a purple jacketed man tapped the woman on the shoulder, "but would you mind leaving the lady alone? She obviously does not want to sell such a precious item." Grumbling, the woman began to walk away. "So, are you alright?" the purple jacketed man continued.

"Yes, I think so. She just surprised me is all."

"Be careful around here. This world is filled with people like her. People who only exist for money. It's not good, but don't worry miss," the man smiled, "we are not all like that."

"Well, that is good to hear," I chuckled.

I turned back to thank the man for helping me, but he was already gone. I looked around a bit more and noticed that he was wandering around, helping others in the same way that he had helped me. I smiled and continued walking.

Suddenly, I felt something rather sharp pressing against my back. "Give me everything you're carrying girl," I felt cold breath on my neck and shivered, "or this sword goes through your back."

I immediately imagined what it would be like to die. I had always been taught that death was an inevitability and not to fear it but right now, I admit that was rather afraid to die. I had only left the forest a short time ago and had not seen enough. Otherwise, perhaps I would have been fine with it. Perhaps. But maybe not.

And in that instant of thinking, I began to realize why Telset and Lamia wanted me to leave in the first place. They wanted me to experience things like this. They wanted me to meet others like myself, but also to see this dark side of the world. Had I not left, I would not have met that mean man with the green shirt, the strange older woman, or this fellow that was now threatning to kill me. However, I also would never have encountered that kind purple jacketed man. At this point, I began to think that maybe the world outside the forest was a balance of both extremes - good and evil, light and dark. Maybe.

I braced myself for the thief's assault, but noticed that the pressure in my back seemed to have disappeared. I turned around and noticed a tall, thin black-caped man laying on the ground clutching one of his hands, which was covered in blood and seemed to have the fingers cut off. Standing above him, was a large figure wearing a blue, helmetless suit of armor. He smiled at the man on the ground and playfully tapped him in the head saying,

"You do that again, perhaps you'll lose more than just your fingers."

Although I was happy to have been rescued from that situation, I was upset at that amount of brutality that was used to do so. Still, the man in the blue armor intrigued me. Why had he bothered saving me anyway?
How did he know I was in trouble? I had not called for help. I looked down at the bleeding thief, then up at the man blue armored man in order to thank him, but he was already gone.

For some reason, I felt compelled to track down this strange man and learn more about who he was, and why he had saved me. I noticed him walking slowly down the road in front of me and ran after him, intent on thanking him for helping me.

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There you go. Enjoy!

Hope you're all well,
Kalinka.