I yell out overwhelming surprised. Blood and pieces of bear meat instantly flew at me. My upset stomach grumbled as I wiped myself clean.

“Eat up,” the sword said. I want to be angry at it, but it mercifully saved my life.

I clutched the sword to the bear. “Could you heat up again?” It did not. How was I meant to eat? I wasn’t planning on eating raw bear meat. Maybe I should rip some things off for myself. As I’m about to something large comes and pulls the bear away. It’s time for me to hide. Abandoning the dead bear, I gathered some berries to devour. Next, I decided to use one of the sturdy trees to hide underneath and ripped some of the branches to rest on with a tiny fire next to me. Trying to sleep in the middle of a snowstorm, I’ll be fortunate if I wake up.

The storm is over. I get to live another day, but I’ve contracted a cold. I have to go to the nearest village called Moon Valley. The fish are frozen. That’s not great but not that bad either. I could sell what I’ve collected and hopefully make enough coins to rent a room in the inn. I could see smoke rising from above the snow-covered trees from the marketplace as I approach.

I try rushing through Moon Valley’s gate but the main gatekeeper Titan stopped me. “Hold up Inka what do you have there?”

“What this?” I ask twirling the sword as I try coming up with a story.

“No,” he laughs, "that’s an alright harpoon but I’m talking about your chest plate. It’s Freymoor kingdom armor.”

I’m puzzled. The magical sword is performing more magic. Swiftly I answer, “I found it. They’re probably looking for it, but I’ll return it as soon as I am ready. That’s not an easy journey.”

“Don’t be silly. You wouldn’t survive the trip. How about you hand it over? And I’ll make sure Lutz takes it on his travels.”

Lucky Lutz was one of the merchants allowed to cross borders. There are five local villages under the Freymoor kingdom. Each village consists of a battalion of ten to twenty sufficient soldiers. They are sent to the kingdom for protection. A merchant from each village is also protected by two knights and are allowed to travel the world to bring back valuable information to the kingdom and luxury goods each village.

“Sure thing,” I say. I carefully drop my loaded backpack and the sword next to Titan. I try prying it up off of me with all my might but it doesn’t budge. He laughs at my botched attempt.

“Let me help,” he gently tugs it up but all he achieves is ripping apart the jacket I was wearing under it.

“No, not my favorite jacket,” I whine.

“Sorry about that. There’s nothing I can do. Go talk to Albert the armorsmith. He might know what to do.” I collect my things and head to the marketplace.

In the center of the marketplace, there is a massive fire that I end up resting next to. I feel a lot better than when I woke up.

By Cristina Collazo