Ryne narrowed his eyes at him as he thought it over. Those who lived traveling from nation to nation often highly prized the bonds of family. There was probably someone close to Illya that had been sick or injured and been helped by one of the People of the Forest in the past. It wasn’t that strange of a reaction to Ryne. In fact, many people had offered to help him for similar reasons over the years.
But what he said next very much did take Ryne by surprise.
“I never saw her, but apparently she was just a little girl. She discovered a rare poison that was being used against a dear friend of mine and saved her life. You people really are incredible.”
Though it was rare, there were definitely other People of the Forest who’d left the village and wandered the world like Ryne had, but there was no way they’d let a “little girl” leave. Their laws and customs prized protecting their children above all else. As such, no one was allowed to leave the village until they reached adulthood. It might have been years since Ryne last set foot in the village, but there was no way their laws had changed so drastically in that time.
As such, there was only one little girl that Illya could be referring to.
“Was that something that happened recently?”
Illya was a bit taken aback by Ryne’s sudden interest. “Y-Yeah, just a few months ago. Is she someone you know?”
Ryne’s shoulders slumped. It lined up perfectly with when Misha had been traveling.
What were you thinking...? Oh, you probably weren’t. You probably just help anyone you come across who’s in trouble.
Ryne’s face clouded over as he thought of his much too friendly and softhearted niece. However Illya interpreted that expression, he handed Ryne a water bottle without a word. Inside was some alcohol he had purchased on his last visit into town.
Smelling the contents as he opened it, Ryne took two mouthfuls before handing it back. “For now, let’s worry about getting to town. We can worry about what comes next after that.”
Unbeknownst to him, Ryne’s face bore a concerned but nevertheless proud smile.
After getting the two to a medical clinic in the nearest town, Ryne quickly took his leave. Illya insisted on fetching him a ride, but in the end, Ryne couldn’t bring himself to travel with a total stranger, so he politely declined the offer.
When he learned that Ryne was hoping to resupply on salt, Illya did give him plenty of his own, insisting he couldn’t charge someone who had saved his life. In addition, he had given Ryne a wooden card with his family crest on it and a letter, telling Ryne to use it if he was ever in trouble.
Reading the letter, Ryne discovered it said Ryne was a close friend of Illya’s family, and it asked the receiver to do whatever they could to help him. Illya insisted it would be useful with any merchant that bore the same crest.
“Merchants are so dutiful no matter where they come from, huh?” Ryne sighed, throwing it all into his bag and marching away. There was neither hesitation in his footsteps nor any trace of regret.
As he followed a road winding its way through the forest, suddenly the loud cry of a bird overhead caught his attention. Looking up, he saw the large bird circling overhead. Taking off the cloth he was using as a head covering, he wrapped it around his arm and lifted it into the air, prompting Kyne to swoop down and land on it.
“Welcome back. Where have you been?” he asked, scratching Kyne’s wings with a much softer expression than he had ever shown to the pair of merchants.
Ever since he’d taken Kyne out of the forest that was her home, she had occasionally swung by to pay him a visit, but otherwise she’d flown freely across the countryside. Aside from when she was just a baby, she had been given free rein over the entire forest. With her huge wings and her sharp beak and talons, there was no need to worry about Kyne’s safety, so Ryne had left her to do as she pleased.
The bird stared at Ryne with her beady black eyes, drawing Ryne’s attention to something held in her beak.
“What’s that?”
Kyne gave a pair of short clucks before dropping the object into Ryne’s hand. It was a small nut wrapped in thin green paper.
Ryne frowned at the sight of it. It was a nut from a tree that only grew in the homelands of the People of the Forest. As such, it was used by them as a sign to make their presence known to other members of their tribe.
“The next town over, huh? Closer than I would have expected.” When exposed to the heat of an open flame, the thin sheet of paper that had been wrapped around the nut revealed a hidden message. It had the name of the next town over, and an intricate drawing of ivy. That was a representation of the sender’s name.
When a member of the tribe left the village, the village elders bestowed a sign on them to represent their name. Similarly, they were made to memorize the signs that referred to the others. The point was to make it harder to discern their identities if their messages were to be intercepted, but as far as Ryne was concerned, it was all a waste of time. They already used a written language unique to the People of the Forest, so no one who intercepted the message would be able to read it anyway. And even if they could, what would they be able to do with a person’s name?
But the village chiefs had continued the tradition through the generations, so it would be even more effort to try and stop the practice. When comparing the hassle it would be to negotiate with those tradition-obsessed old fogeys and the hassle of using these bizarre code names, he had decided complying was the easiest solution.
“What does Ash want now?”
After hesitating for a moment, Ryne wrote his own name and the number “1” on the paper and returned it to Kyne. With a large wave of his arm, he sent the bird back into the air. Watching Kyne fly off into the distance, Ryne started after her.