A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 204: Departing

Chapter 204: Departing

I was awoken the next morning by someone knocking on my door. I didn’t get up to answer because I was too comfy inside of my bed, so instead I just spoke instead, asking drowsily, "Who is it?"

"It’s me." I heard the elderly voice of Kronia call out.

"What is it?" I mumbled sleepily as I hugged the bedsheets closer to me.

"It’s time to go now. Can’t keep you here forever, and it’s best to go before they can set up something to stop me and my powers."

"Nnngggg... But comfy..." I whined in dissatisfaction.

Kronia sighed before she opened the door and came in anyways. It’s not like I cared if she saw me naked, because everyone already saw me naked last night.

"I know that it’s comfy in there, but you have to get going otherwise when you do leave, it’ll just be more complicated and annoying more than anything as we’ll have to walk ALL the way around their anti-chronomancy field, and that’s just a hassle and I can’t be bothered to walk that far, even with my chronomancy." She explained exasperated.

"Can’t we go later? I want to sleep a bit longer." I complained sleepily, already drifting back to sleep.

I heard a sigh and then a snap before the covers suddenly disappeared and my face was smacked with a cane of sorts.

"OW!"

"I said, it’s time to go." Kronia repeated, this time with more authority than before.

I knew that it would be pointless to refuse, so I just grumbled and got out of bed even though I didn’t want to.

"Don’t worry, I’ve prepared a small gift for you before we leave. To make your travels easier." She said with a kind smile as she walked out of the room.

I followed, still somewhat delirious when I bumped into someone. I look up and saw that it was Aria, who just so happened to also be sleepy like I was.

But as soon as our gazes met, our drowsiness instantly disappeared as the events at the end of last night came to us. We stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before looking at the floor.

"I guess... This is goodbye..." She said in a depressing tone.

"Yeah... Goodbye..." I wasn’t sure how I should comfort her so I just gave her a quick and simple answer then slithered past her to quickly follow behind Kronia so as to not get caught up in an argument or something.

I didn’t hear anything from behind me and when I looked back, all I saw was Aria with her head down and shoulders drooped. ’I’m sorry, but you have to get over this. I’m not the right person for you.’

When we left the building and arrived onto the clearing, Kronia stopped and turned back to look at me.

"Are you sure that you don’t want to take her with you?" She asked out of the blue.

I was stunned and slinked back an inch. "What? Why do you ask?"

The elderly lady sighed and looked down in dissonance and said to me, "Because I fear for her future..."

"Her future?"

"Yes, her future... If you take her with you, she lives happily until she dies, upon which you bring her back here for a funeral. But... It’s the other thing that scares me, the path you’re currently taking, where you don’t bring her with you..."

"Why? What happens?"

"... I don’t know. And that’s the thing, I don’t want to not be able to do anything for her. I’m vaguely away that she’s still in that future, but I don’t know how or why. I don’t even know if she’s safe or not. I don’t really care what happens, I just want to know if she’s safe in that future."

"Why can’t you see that future?"

"Because of you." She stated.

"Me?" I asked, pointing at myself

"Yes, you are a being that defies fate, much like myself for being a Chronomancer as powerful as I am. And beings like us don’t lie within the confines of fate, and that’s fine, it’s better this way. But when I want to see into the future or even that past of being like us, because of our..." She took a moment to find the word she was looking for.

"Our exiled existence if you will, I can’t think of a better way of explaining it right now, because of this status of our, we cannot fit into the ’proper’ flow of time as ordained by the fates, and so we disrupt fate by simply existing. This disruption is what’s disallowing me to see into that future of hers."

And before I could speak, she spoke up before me, "And before you ask why I can see the first future and not the second, that’s because of how much it disrupts fate. And as for why I can even see half of this, well, I can see my past and any future I might be involved in because I’m the one looking into my own future, but anyone else that’s ’exiled’ makes it so that I can’t see, like you."

"So... What exactly happens in that future?"

*Sigh* "I don’t know, I just know that after a while she disappears, and then I can’t see anything. I tried seeing where looking for her would get me, but nothing." She exhaled dejectedly.

"So I ask again, are you sure that you don’t want to take her with you?"

"I’m sorry, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea. Humans generally aren’t liked by most beings in the desert. And surviving would be nearly impossible for her, the desert is huge beyond belief after all, taking up nearly an entire third of the continent." I reaffirmed my answer.

Kronia just sighed again, this time in disappointment. "I see. Well, let’s not dwell on this conversation."

She ended this topic and just as she started to walk towards one of the many paths, she stopped and turned back to face me once more.

"Oh, I almost forgot, I prepared some parting gifts for you." She said with her usual warm smile.

"Really? What are they?" I asked curious as to what kind of gifts she would give me.

"Nothing much, just a small pouch of ten gold coins, a map of the nearby kingdoms and a sleeping bed, though, it won’t fit your tail." She presented said items to me as they floated in the air towards me. "Oh, and a backpack to carry it all."

"Thank you. I- I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done so, in the future, when I’m strong enough, you can come and find me and I’ll do whatever you want." I said as I packed the gifts into the backpack and bowed to show my gratitude.

"Oh, no need for anything like that, just live out your life as you please. That’s all I ask of you. Now come, we should get going before they set something up. Robert likes to work annoyingly fast."

And with that, she finally set off to down one of the pathways to lead me out of the farm and past whatever blockade they were seemingly setting up.