Chapter 33: 34-Searching

Once again, Rowan found himself left alone.

However this time, there were no tears. 

Maybe deep down he noticed Almar was pushing himself, but denied the truth for fear of being left alone. He had only just gone through the terrible experience of losing his friends and family, now he had to face the loneliness all on his own. The first time, Almar was there to accompany him through his loss, but now there was no one. 

The elf spoke like the Mother Tree was living and would help him afterwards, but Rowan didn’t know if he fully trusted those words. The tree certainly didn’t act like a living person towards him. Maybe he wasn’t communicating with it the right way? How long would he need to stay here? Even if he could leave, how would he break out of the barrier? What was Almar trying to say about life mana? Rowan had never heard of that kind of mana before. It wasn’t an attribute  he was familiar with. Granted, Rowan only had scratched the surface on the knowledge of mana and its attributes. Now that another teacher of his was gone, he felt even more lost.

That was when it hit Rowan.

Almar had been both a friend and teacher to him, even if only briefly The elf had been doing his best to help the boy by passing down what knowledge he could while hiding his own pain. 

And Rowan had done nothing in return. Only selfishly focusing on himself instead of helping Almar get through his own loss. Almar had it worse as his whole home, family, and friends were destroyed in one night. It could not have been easy to return right after witnessing so much destruction. 

However, Almar had returned and it was for Rowan’s sake.

Then a thought struck Rowan.

Why didn’t Almar use the Mother Tree to heal himself instead of Rowan? 

The answer came immediately.

Almar had used the only chance of healing on Rowan because of the favor he promised his grandfather. The elf had mentioned there was only one chance since the original Mother Tree was heavily injured. 

And it used what remaining energy it had to heal the boy instead when it could have used it to heal itself.

The self hatred of his own weakness rose up in his heart once again. He had put it down the last few days since he was busy focusing on meditation and other lessons that Almar was trying to pass down to him. It had simmered down over the last few days, but it roared up again this moment.

If only he knew how important those lessons were and that they would be the last things the elf would teach him.

Rowan's heart pang with regret. He had tried hard  learning everything, but even then he hadn’t fully absorbed everything Almar taught. Rowan could only blame his own incompetence for that.

Thoughts and memories raced through his head as questions sprouted up at Almar’s final words. 

Almar’s final words had become jumbled up at the end, making it difficult to figure out what he was trying to say. The elf may have said it to comfort Rowan, but it only left him with more questions.

Question that could not be answered right away, and maybe never will be.

Rowan looked at the Almar who looked strangely at peace. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought the elf was sleeping. 

May he reunited with his fellow elves in his passing.

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Rowan decided it was time to honor Almar’s wish and prepare for his burial. However there was one last thing to take care of.

There was a coin somewhere to be found. Almar had told Rowan to take it somewhere, but failed to mention where exactly to take it and where it was right now. The only thing Rowan could do was search for it. Hopefully it was somewhere in the vicinity, maybe on the elf’s body or in the tent that he barely used?  If it wasn't for the occasion, Rowan would have feel like he was going on a treasure hunt.

It also seems like the perfect time to take stock of what Almar had left behind.

Surely he wouldn’t be blamed for making use of tools that were left? Otherwise he would have just buried them  with Almar.

Rowan peeked into the tent that Almar had set up. To his surprise, it was completely empty, as if the elf had never used it before. Now that Rowan recalled, he never saw Almar enter the tent. He always just sat in front of the Mother Tree Seed, meditating. It made perfect sense to Rowan now what the elf was doing, but not when Rowan just started. 

As it turned out, Rowan had to double back where Almar was since there was nothing to be found in the tent. The elf remained in his final position, sitting crossed legs in front of the seed. Rowan stared at the elf, trying to see if there was objects like a pouch on the body. If his eyes couldn’t spot anything, he would need to try searching the elf manually. 

That was an idea that Rowan wasn’t too comfortable with. It felt close to desecrating the dead even if it was a good reason. The fact that Rowan was close to naked, with only the deer skin covering his business regions didn’t help. If Rowan was in a human city, he was sure he would be arrested by the guards. 

Another thing was even though he had gained control of his arms, his hands had not regained the same sensitivity when they were human arms. Before, he could pat something and tell how the surface of the object felt like. Now his hands were made of tree bark and there was not a lot of feeling transmitted through them. Something Rowan wasn’t sure if he’ll ever regain. When he thought of plants, they never screamed in pain when a person ripped them out of the ground or just poke them. Plants were able to sense something as he saw flowers lean towards sunlight after a given time, but nothing more than that.

Only time would tell. Maybe he needed to experiment more with his new arms or configure the mana channels on it one more time.

It turned out there was something on the elf afterall as Rowan spotted a small bag at Almar’s waist. Rowan knelt down, reached forward and emptied its content which turned out to be only one thing.

There it was. A coin.

Rowan studied it. It must have been important if Almar mentioned it as his last words. It was a pity he didn't mention where to take it. The coin wasn’t part of any currency that Rowan knew of. Truthfully, he only knew one type of currency and this coin was not part of it. His family was a knight family after all, not a business one. Rowan wasn't an expert, but it looked to be made of metal like bronze. In the center of the coin showed a depiction of an open treasure chest. The coin didn't look old like it was part of some ancient civilization. If he had to guess the coin was forged only in the last few years. For what purpose he had no idea. Rowan returned the coin back to the pouch and got up.

Now that he had the coin, Rowan took stock of the items that remained. There was the bow and arrows that Almar used. That was an obvious choice to keep. There was also a knife, good for carving wood and animals. Other than those tools, Almar had nothing else. Oh, there was the coin too. 

It made sense in a way since Almar had said the dragon burned down everything. The elf had not been exaggerating when he said those words. Rowan studied the elf one more time.

 When you bury someone, do you change their clothes? Rowan considered stripping the elf of his cloth, but then gave up. Totally not because the cloth would not fit. He decided to leave the elf with his dignity.

Now the question was how to bury Almar? There wasn't a shovel he could use in the camp.

Rowan scratched his head (something he could only do now after regaining control of his arms) as he pondered the question and winced. That was a mistake. He forgot how rough his new hands were. Instead of scratching, it was more like scraping his head which he was sure would leave a mark.

 Then the boy paused.

This gave Rowan an idea.

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