Enigma of Sin

Kayn's and Lara's travels proceeded smoothly. Lara would get fussy if she was stuck in the carrying satchel for too long, so Kayn decided to only leave her in there while she slept. He would walk as she slept and run when she was awake as he would lift her and move her around like an airplane.

Kayn traveled through the night most of the time as he didn't need much sleep and Lara didn't seem to have any troubles sleeping while he was walking. Though, he always made sure to stop a few times throughout the day to let Lara run around a little and make some food.

When they came across a village on their road, they would stop for a day or two and stock up on more supplies. Kayn found that it was important to display his ears whenever he arrived at a village though, otherwise they would look at him with weary eyes.

Kayn didn't want to have any unnecessary trouble along the way, so he kept his hair that had grown a bit long tied back so his elf nature was on full display.

Days turned into weeks and quickly a month passed as Kayn made his way west through the Great Forest. His plan was to exit the forest deeper within the Mancean Empire so that he was nowhere close to Carnet just in case they were still looking for him for whatever reason.

According to a map he obtained from an elder in a village after helping take care of their rune beast problem, there was only one more village to visit before he and Lara would exit the forest and finally enter into Mancea.

When Kayn was only about half a day away from the village, he noticed a large sign that was picketed into the side of the road. It had a large heading with smaller words underneath.

The large heading read "PROCEED WITH CAUTION" in all uppercase lettering. Underneath were the details about why one should be cautious to approach.

Village Tisla has issued a warning to travelers or merchants wanting to approach the village. In recent times, strange things have been occurring.

Multiple children from the village have gone missing with no evidence or clues as to their whereabouts. Any information provided to the village chief that leads to the discovery of the children will be properly compensated. Phantom Death has begun to spread throughout the village. It is advised that if you have a mana core, you do not approach the village as only those with cores have the risk of contracting the disease.

"Whelp, that sounds ominous. Not going through there then." Making his decision, Kayn decided to travel to the north a little bit before turning west to follow along the base of a nearby mountain until he reached the border of the Great Forest. Hopefully this way, he would be able to avoid whatever was happening at the village.

Kayn was definitely interested in the disease known as the Phantom Death as he had heard about it from Kinzie before, but he wasn't about to risk going somewhere with deadly diseases with his little sister. That wasn't even including the fact that young children were vanishing from the village. The best move was to just avoid the entire situation.

The only issue with traveling inside of the forest was that rune beasts were more likely to attack. The roads in the Great Forest were regularly patrolled by elven forces, so they were mostly free from any rune beasts.

Kayn also didn't have to worry about bandits at all since they were always dealt with swiftly once they appeared since they were almost never elves to begin with.

Kayn was truly impressed by the united front the elves of the Great Forest had and how they cooperated with each other for the betterment of their dwindling race.

Unfortunately, traveling inside of the forest itself meant that Kayn couldn't let Lara play during their breaks anymore just in case some random fast rune beast tried to charge in and snatch her away. Fortunately though, he was able to keep her entertained as she had started making sounds and trying to speak words and Kayn was kept busy trying to correct her.

She was definitely a smart child and her motor control was also quite good already, but this only made Kayn dread the day he would have to keep her from running around and getting herself into trouble.

"Papa!" Lara suddenly yelled out loud which startled Kayn as he had been walking while focused on his senses.

He finally decided to use his travel time to follow the suggestion that the second entity had made to him by using the atmospheric mana to expand his sensory field rather than trying to use his own mana.

It was quite the task, but he was making progress slowly but surely. Snapping from his daze he looked down at Lara who was staring back at him before she said it again, "Papa!"

Letting out a sigh, Kayn tried his best to correct her. He could only assume that she had picked that up from Titus when they were still with them. "No Lara, I'm brother, not papa. Brother, can you say brother?"

"Brapi?" Lara replied as she seemed to have thought about it for a bit, which Kayn found odd for her age.

"No, no, brother."

This went back and forth for a few exchanges with her continuing to say brapi before she scrunched her face up like she was upset before shouting aloud once more, "Papa!"

Kayn could only shake his head at this point, he would correct her when she got older and understood more. Until then, he would just deal with her calling him papa.

Kayn continued walking north until he hit the base of the mountain and then turned west once again. He really wished he could ride a horse or even a forest lizard as he and Lara would definitely be out of the Great Forest by now if that was the case.

Night had set in and Lara was sleeping. Taking this opportunity, he took a short break to cook some food for himself before setting off again.

He wanted to take a short nap, but also knew that he shouldn't sleep until he got somewhere safe. If he was by himself, sure, but with Lara with him he wasn't about to risk it.

Shortly after starting up a small fire and cooking some meat he was startled by a voice that appeared out of nowhere. He didn't have his senses on full alert, but he was still paying close attention to his surroundings, so how did he miss this presence sneaking up on him?

"Mmmm fresh meat, I can't wait to taste it."

Kayn looked towards the voice and saw an elf walking out of the shadows. He appeared quite feeble and he had long dangling arms that ended with untrimmed sharp nails on his fingers. His hair was quite messy and unkempt and even the clothes he wore appeared to be stained with old blood.

Kayn's guard instantly rose to maximum as his senses expanded out to search for any others in the area, but only this debilitated elf was in the area. The odd thing about this elf was the air that surrounded him seemed to be filled with the stench of blood and death.

Kayn wasn't able to actually see another person's aura or their mana core level from a distance yet, but he could definitely smell the blood that wafted in and around this elf's being.

However, in order to try and keep the situation from escalating and if the elf only wanted food, Kayn would gladly give him some to get him to go away.

"Are you okay sir? Also, if you would like some meat, I have plenty and I can share it with you if you'd like, though the portion I'm currently cooking isn't ready yet. If you wait just a bit, it will be ready."

"Okay? I'm more than okay! Ahahaha!" A sickening laughter suddenly erupted from the man's mouth and Kayn was able to see that each of his teeth were razor sharp. "I get to taste a really young one today! Not to mention some matured meat, I can't wait!"

Without any other indications, the man quickly leapt forward as if vanishing from his current position and slashed down at Kayn with his hand filled with claw like nails.