For about two hours, they were running straight in the forest without any known path. Darkness was still there, but they could see the rays of the sun rising in the corner of their eyes. Only leaves and crickets were making any sound, except for their loud breathing, which could be heard from two of them.

  Lyra’s vision was getting blurrier, not from all the running she was doing but from the tears, which finally decided to come.

  Tarin didn’t shed a tear, but was silent. He had never shed a tear in his life, except for when his father left without saying a word. He went into a corner of his room and cried silently, making sure that nobody noticed him. Today was not that day. He didn’t know Elena as well as Arix did. He was not close to her. There was no emotion in his eyes today.

  Arix was different. He was shouting, screaming at Tarin and stamping on his back with his hand. “Let me go, LET ME GO, YOU BASTARD. I will save Elena, I will kill that monster.” Sheds of tears were not stopping from coming. Tarin could hear his crying from behind but replied in silence.

  A ray of sun flashed on Tarin's face. Tarin, completely ignoring Arix and his screaming, shouted, looking at Lyra, “We should follow the sun. Maybe it will lead us out of this hell of a forest.”

  Lyra snapped. She looked at Tarin with her wet eyes, then faced forward. No words left her mouth.

  Arix was crying so loudly that Tarin could not hear anything, not even the crickets anymore. He had known Arix for a long time. For three or four years. He had never tried to make Arix his friend; he hadn’t even tried to talk to him. Arix had approached him a few times and considered Tarin his friend. But Tarin didn’t think of anyone as his friend. He had never seen Arix cry or scream in pain like this before.

  Not even Lyra had seen Arix crying like this. She had known Arix and Elena for about a year now. They used to meet in a tavern. Arix was mostly positive in her eyes. Elena and Arix were both used to teasing each other so much that Lyra had already thought of them as a couple.

  While running in the forest, she diverted her eyes to Arix, looking at him crying so loudly. She remembered a moment in a tavern, some seven months ago. It was a normal night like every day. She was sitting with Elena, Arix, and three other fellow gentlemen she didn’t know at the same table. “They are all drunk,” Lyra thought. She didn’t drink, nor had she ever. She was having her favourite, apple juice.

  “So, do you like someone, Arix?” one of the fellow gentlemen spoke, hiccuping his way through the words. The other gentleman was fast asleep at this point, and the third one was lost in his own mind. Lyra looked at Arix sideways; she was a little interested too in what his answer would be.

  “Like, do you mean love? Yes, I love someone. And she is the prettiest woman ever.” He slammed his mug with half beer onto the table. “She has the most beautiful eyes in the world. Her hair is dark and long. Her nature is so gentle that anyone will fall for her.”

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  Elena turned toward Arix slowly, grabbed his collar, wobbling around because of being drunk. “Who is this woman? Why have you never said anything about her to me? And why don’t you like me?” She couldn’t handle it anymore and fell on Arix, who had already fallen onto the table. Snoring already, Arix said in a low voice, “You are that woman, Elena.” Unfortunately, Elena didn’t hear a word.

  After a while of running, Tarin stopped. Arix was silent by now. He looked to the right of him, at a tree so big they could not see the end of it. Tarin put Arix by that tree, sitting beside him. “Let’s rest a bit. I am tired,” he said.

  Lyra was tired too. She sat at a different tree, looking at Arix, who was silent but was not saying anything. But his silence would not last for long.

  After a while, Arix’s eyes got wet again, and tears started running. His lips were quivering. “If only I was stronger, I could have saved her. If only my sword could have hit that monster deeper. She was sitting next to me.” He put his head to his knees and hid it like he didn’t want to show it to anyone.

  Tarin looked at Lyra, expecting her to comfort Arix, but she didn’t do anything. She kept staring at Arix without saying a word. Tarin nodded sideways and took the matter into his own hands. “You couldn’t have saved her. She chose to save us. She will be remembered.” He didn’t know how to comfort anyone, as he had never done it before. And obviously, it didn’t work. Arix didn’t stop crying, and Lyra didn’t say a word.

  The sun was above them. They had been resting for about two hours. They hadn’t eaten anything in a day, but they were not hungry either.

  “We should move,” Tarin said and got up. So did Lyra. Tarin held Arix’s hand and helped him stand up too. But he didn’t pick him up this time, as it’s not needed anymore. Arix was not crying now. He was silent but kept staring at the same place.

  They all started walking, with Arix in the middle of Tarin and Lyra, moving slowly and wobbling. Lyra, walking behind them, kept looking around for danger, and often her gaze turned toward Arix, but she didn’t say anything to him.

  Lyra looked at Tarin, who was leading the way. She didn’t know if he was leading them the right way, but she trusted him a little.

  She looked to her left. Two birds were sitting on a branch, cuddling with each other and making a beautiful sound she had never heard before. There were no birds or any other creatures on the island—only humans. Looking at all these small birds and big creatures, everything was new to her and exciting. But she was not excited to look at these birds, nor was she excited about what was to come.

  After a while, they saw the branches thinning and the light of something better coming their way. They started chasing that light, thinking it would lead somewhere better—and it did. It took them a while to reach the end of all the branches, but upon reaching it, they saw something they had never seen before.

  The forest ended. There were no trees, and they were standing at a cliff. Lyra had never seen a view like the one she was seeing right now. In front of her stood a field full of grassy meadows. It was half the size of the island itself, she thought to herself. On the far left, she saw some creatures with four legs, eating grass in a group. On the far right, she saw a lone tower, standing in the middle of all the tall grass, with no one inside it, it seemed.

  In front of her, she saw a town. It seemed like a usual town, but in the middle of that town stood a big, large tree. It was the only tree she could see in her view, except for the forest she had already left. The tree covered half of the town. But it was an unusual tree. Its trunk didn’t fall to the ground. It was hovering parallel to the ground, like a cantilevered arm. Dozens of thin, vertical branches shot into the air from the horizontal trunk. The bark was dark and deeply fissured.

  And after the town, far away in the same direction, she saw a mountain. It was the biggest mountain she had ever seen. Its tip was white.

  “Maybe that is Everfrost Mountain,” Tarin said, looking in the same direction as Lyra. “We should head toward the town; that seems the way to the mountain,” he added.

  Lyra nodded, and all three of them started heading down the cliff toward the town. Arix followed them silently, with his withered look.