"Ugh!" Zerlan wakes up after having quite a strange dream. He looked around the sky had turned dark. "How long have I been sleeping?" Zerlan tried to get back up. "Grruu!" However, his stomach made a sound.

“Ouch… not again! I forgot that today I haven't eaten!" Zerlan rubbed his stomach while he walked away.

He hoped that there would be trees with edible fruit. After walking for some a minute, Zerlan didn't find anything, his stomach rumbling even more.

“Huh… I guess I can't seem to go to that place! I will starve to death here!” A feeling of pessimism began to eat away at Zerlan's body, but he didn't want to give up. His feet were still walking hoping that in front there was a place that provided food.

It didn't take long for Zerlan to see a black smoke. Logically, the location of a deserted forest has smoke that appears, of course there is activity there. Zerlan immediately walked towards the source of the smoke.

***

She was sitting absentmindedly in front of a small fire that continued to churn, her eyes very seriously staring at the flames.

"Uh!" Then from two o'clock she heard a strange sound. Immediately she put into a standby position with her hands tightly gripping the sword behind her back.

A few minutes passed and the sound grew louder. “Dubrak!” A human body lay in front of her.

She immediately approached the person. She turned the man's body around.

Zerlan slowly opened his eyes. A sweet face with narrow eyes was looking at him. “W-Do you have some food?” A low voice that didn't have much energy left Zerlan's mouth.

"Uh!" The woman quickly rushed to take the baked sweet potato that had just been roasted by her. "This!"

Zerlan took the sweet potato with his very weak hands. Zerlan slowly sat down, then soon he ate the sweet potato very voraciously.

Zerlan's appearance was similar to that of an animal that had not eaten for a year. So fiercely he tore the skin of the sweet potato, although it still felt hot he didn't care, the hunger had destroyed the rational feeling in his body.

“Huh…!” Zerlan breathed a sigh of relief after a sweet potato the size of his hand was devoured by him.

The woman who helped Zerlan put on a surprised face. She saw Zerlan like a monkey eating wildly. "Uh!" Zerlan turned to herself, what his sharp eyes saw was a sweet potato that had just been eaten by one bite.

Goosebumps instantly spread throughout the body, after seeing the ferocious look in Zerlan's eyes.

Zerlan blinked, he realized that the food didn't belong to him. He swiftly suppressed the savage nature. “Huh… sorry I troubled you!”

The woman was surprised again. She had thought that Zerlan would immediately stand up and run towards her to take the sweet potato in her hand, but that expectation was wrong. "That's okay!" She answered in a curt tone.

Zerlan held his stomach, even though he had eaten one sweet potato, he still wouldn't be able to get rid of the hunger in his body. "Damn it! Why do I have to be like this! Moreover, the one who helped me was a woman!” Zerlan's self-esteem is very high. He thought about what would happen if in the future he had to continue to hope for a woman.

"This!"

Unexpectedly the woman shared the sweet potato.

Zerlan was silent. "Should I take this sweet potato?" It still takes time for Zerlan to accept the woman's kindness.

"Uh?" The woman must have been surprised, why did the foreign man who looked like really wanted to eat her sweet potato suddenly fell silent with a surprised expression.

“Are you serious about giving this to me?”

"Huh? Of course, you look really hungry! It's okay you can take it, I'm sincere!"

"Then I'll take it!" Zerlan took the sweet potato, even though his heart didn't really want to take it, but ignoring the kindness of others was a impolite act.

After getting the sweet potato, Zerlan ate it voraciously. His stomach still felt hungry, but it was much less than before.

“Huh…!” Zerlan let out a sigh of relief when he realized that he had avoided death.

***

The atmosphere became silent, four pairs of eyes only looked at the burning fire.

"May I ask a question?" The woman began to open the topic of conversation.

"Yes, of course!"

“What are you doing in the middle of the forest like this with a body that is starving?”

Zerlan became embarrassed, his cheeks turning red. "I'm on the way to an area, and this is a task I must do!"

"What task do you mean?"

Zerlan raised his eyes, he had to be careful in his words because the last message he received was that the area he was going to was a treasure chest. "Who knows! I was just told to head for an area! I didn't have time to ask what I should do after I got to the area."

“Hm… I see!” The woman was not interested in hearing more about Zerlan's story, but her face had a hint of unease.

“Then what are you doing here? Wouldn't it be strange for a woman like you to be in the middle of a deserted forest!” Now it was Zerlan who gave the woman a question.

Zerlan wondered how a beautiful woman could survive in the middle of a quiet forest, there could be monsters, wild animals, or robbers who stopped her journey.

“I'm looking for someone! The one who made me lose everything!” As the woman spoke her fists clenched tightly, the emotion of anger was evident from the wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes.

"I see!" Zerlan did not want to ask further, he understood that the woman's words led to personal matters that he should not interfere.

"I don't think you're an ordinary person!" The woman changed the subject. Now she was curious about the figure of Zerlan who looked like a knight.

Tall posture with muscles that fill the body, of course, will give the opinion that Zerlan is a fighter.

"Uh? Why you can say like that? I'm nothing, I'm just a traveler!”

"Oh, I see!" The woman lowered her eyes, she knew that Zerlan was actually lying.

Their conversation ended in a small, meaningless conversation.

***

The next day…

Before it was too late Zerlan and the woman were ready to say goodbye.

They stared at each other, a powerful aura emanating from their eyes.

“I thank you very much! Thanks to you, I was able to avoid starving to death!” Zerlan still paid his respects, even though he was reluctant to do this.

"That's okay!"

"Next time I will definitely repay you for this!" Zerlan said with full promise in heart.

The woman smiled faintly. "You don't have to bother doing that, because this might be our last meeting!"

"Eh?"

"Goodbye!"

The woman left after saying, the last words were full of mystery which made Zerlan curious.

“Hmm…!” Zerlan was silent as he pondered, thinking about what he had just heard. "Alright!" Actually he was curious where she was going, but he had no right to interfere in her affairs.

____ To Be Continued___