Alice hadn’t slept this whole night. She sat at the couch downstairs and her normal bright hazel eyes stared in front of her with a dull colour and red shots through it. Her nose was puffy and she looked like a wreck. That’s also how she felt, she needed Konstantin but she couldn’t tell him. It couldn’t get past her lips, she couldn’t say what happened or why she was feeling so down. She had not seen him maybe she had been lost but she was sure her foggy mind had brought her towards the Bed & Breakfast just outside Magnolia Town. She was sure of that, because this was her safe place considering the city. She noticed the dawn and stood up, lingering and holding with her right hand onto the back of the couch, but she let it go into the end. Without her own noticing, it was her brain on automatic pilot, she changed her clothing while she continued to walk, she was now wearing a pair of black jeans, a gray t-shirt with long sleeves and her hair up into a ponytail. She had accidentally left her blue backpack on the couch but she wouldn’t need it today.

With long strides, not thinking about anything, she walked those 30 minutes to the city. Everything did remind her of Ophelia and normally she wouldn’t have mind but her companion was gone. She had cried, god she hated crying almost more than anything, which wasn’t entirely true there were worse things. But it made her feel weak and vulnerable however with the loss of Ophelia she had every right to cry. She just needed to do something, she needed to distract herself, she would want to change into her armour, fight someone for a crime or something, be right into fighting someone. With a sigh she noticed her legs had simply carried her back into the city of Magnolia and into the street that contained the quest board. She shrugged towards no one, it was too early to actually expect a job, the night jobs would almost be over, maybe the smith or the baker wanted anything. She continued to check and noticed a quest from Khalash Saton. She had not want to see him again, she had made that agreement also with Ophelia. Her pet had represented her bright moment, her switching from Phantom Lord to now her being a Knight, leaving Oak forever and going to Marigold to find herself and eventually end up in Era. Now she was gone. She shook her head and grabbed the note from Khalash, it looked like it was put up mere seconds ago and she turned to walk to his store to see if indeed he needed her help now. The door was open so she entered and talked to Khalash a bit about the task of the job. Thank god he didn’t ask for Ophelia, he might have forgotten her already. She put the quest in her pocket and took the food packet in a basket from Khalash. Time to walk some more.

Wordcount: 515/1000

She felt like some sort of red riding hood. She didn’t had the hood, she had the bright red hair. She took a deep breath as she had just stepped out of the shop with a basket dangling on her crooked left arm with some food and a bottle of some drinks, she wasn’t sure what it was, she absolutely didn’t care. She just had to do something. She set her course to the woods, the last and first time she had been there.. no, it was no use to think of that. She took long strides to walk a bit quicker and get out of the city and reach the forest edge soon. She didn’t get much of a direction from Khalash but she was sure she would be able to find it, he had said to go straight to the centre, where the bigger trees were. That would be a long walk too, but she would focus on what she could see, think about the flowers, herbs, trees and leaves that she saw. Sometimes she spotted the hind legs of an animal and she was very careful at that point. If she was heard by the shy animals, it might be that the predators were hearing her as well and interested, she wasn’t sure but she had to go further into the forest than the time with Oph.. yeah well she was now alone.

Finally of a long time walking she noticed a bigger tree that was standing quite alone, she looked up and couldn’t even see the top of it clearly, which sat a lot for the neko. She had also noticed a maroon coloured door in the tree so she walked over there and knocked on the door. An old man opened it, ”Goodmorning. I came to deliver food from Khalash?” He stepped aside and invited her to come inside. He asked her to place the basket on the table where another basket stood, that one filled with herbs. It were different ones than the one she had brought the last time to Khalash. The old man handed her that basket and she took that and put it on her left arm again, ”Thank you.” She wasn’t much in the mood to talk and she believed the old man noticed. He let her walk to the door again but before she could step out of the beautiful tree house, she really liked it, but didn’t feel the need to ask to see more, it seemed to go upstairs as well, this whole three must be part of his house. ”Try this. It’s very good.” He handed her something for food, a tree root? She shrugged, thanked him again and walked out, back to Magnolia, which would be a long walk in which she would consider to chew on the root. She immediately felt more energy in her body, the way she got it with the potion that Khalash had given her. She looked left and right to see if she could spot the tree that looked like it’s roots but she decided not even to look for it as she had no knowledge of it. She headed back to Khalash what seemed to go quicker and she gave him the basket with herbs in exchange for the jewels. She immediately left after that again.

Wordcount: 1073/1000