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Step 1: The Path Forwards.
This time. This time he'll get it right.

Climbing gear, set. His scythe's blade has been temporarily refitted with hay rake to enable easier climbing.

STAB.
Why didn't he though this from the start? After a hour, he has been halfway up the tree.

-when that happened again. No, not the dysentery.
BEES. He broke into another hive again.
-how many beehives are in this tree anyway!?

[******sil is the source of the honeydew that falls to the earth and from which bees feed.]

"-huh?"

Someone spoke to him...or did he gotten himself another of those visions?

He looked around and surely there's nobody nearby.

Huh?

Step 2: The Winding Forest.

As he journeyed up the tree, a dense fog envelops everything in silence. He can't see much farther than his armlength, so as precaution not to slip and fall he crawled atop of the roots.

Bonk.

"Hunh?" His head collided with something...rather soft. It was filled with soft bread and small amount of mead.

It was wrapped with blue cloth, seemingly made of silk and inlaid with silver threads. On it was a piece of paper which reads 'Laerad's Gift.'

He checked the food to see if they're spoiled-not. In fact, they looked like freshly made.

This is going stranger every step he took.

Step 4: The Mountain Summit.

"...*pant* Is it...*wheeze* still far...?"

He doesn't know how high has he climbed. His breathing rugged, and even he had rested, his chest feels suffocated.

Two days has already passed while Rei, blinded by the fog lingering around him-

Slip.

"Oh-"

Due to all the moisture and cold, the strength to grip the tree finally left his fingers.

He fell-

THUD!

"OWH MY BACK wait...?"

Surprisingly, the fall didn't hurt him much. Hell, it can't even called a 'fall', but more like a 'trip'

Suddenly the fog cleared and he can see it. There was a blanket of while below him-Rei was above---FAR above the clouds.

"Oh? It's not everyday I gotten myself a visitor." Said a relaxed voice from behind him.

Rei turned back quickly, hands already reaching for the weapon on his back; only to find a figure of lone, old man enjoying himself on a hammock.

"Uh..."
"Well, what do we have here? A Hero wannabe?" The old man, draped in blue robe rises from the comfy-looking hammock and walked slowly to him. "No, I'm...not a hero. An Apprentice Knight, serving under Great Knight Percival; my name's Reith. Reith Oberyn." He replied, still in high caution.

"Knight? In my place we call such individuals Heroes." The old man said lightly, gesturing him to sit...

-when did those table and chairs appeared? Or exactly, when? "Let us relax and have a drink. You can tell me what happened down there-I haven't climbed down for ages! BWAHAHAHAAHA!"

And so he accepted the hospitality. Over more mead he told the old man his story---about what happened down there, about the missing Great King, about his misfortune...and lastly, the reason why he climbed this tree.

"Oh? So you climbed this high only because you thought something would happen if you do? BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!! Now this kind of person you will not see in lifetime's worth!" The old man laughed and spurted off some of the mead lingering in his mouth.

"You said it if I'm an idiot or something..." grumbled Rei, annoyed by the cheery old man-
"[ᛇ]" He spoke something that Rei can't really understand. Is it a word? A name? "-that's the name of this tree. This tree is not part of this world---originally. It was brought here by some other forces." The old man said, drinking his mead slowly, his eye seems staring to far, far away place. "Say, lad...do you want to serve under me?"

Phbbbbt. Now that's sudden. This time's Rei's turn to spray mead all over the table. "W-what? What do you mean, serve under you?" "-it's just what as I have said. Serve me. Pledge loyalty to me. I can offer you unending life; a life full of excitement of battles. You will not die of wounds, will only eat the best of the foods...and don't get me started on the ladies."

"NONONOONONONONONONO! THANK YOU BUT NO!" Without hesitation (but panicking) he hastily rejected the offer. The old man seems a bit dejected by that. "Why?" He asked again.

Reith swallowed a lot of air to calm himself down before started speaking. "I'm already serving another person at this time. You can't just switch your alliances as you would-persons who did that are either opportunistic trashes-like a flag that has two sides---or backstabbers. If you had decided on something, with all of you, self, heart, mind; follow it until the end. See where will it took you. There's nothing more than that." He said.

"Well said. I wish that son of mine could learn a bit from you, though." The old man smiled rather lonely. He looked like he's deeply in thought for some moments before saying: "I've decided. From now on I'm enlisting you in my Army."

"WHAT? I thought I had already rejected your offer?!"
But the old man smiled widely. "I don't say exactly that I accepted your refusal. It has been decided; you have no power nor ability to change it."

As he said that, Rei finds his body extremely sluggish. Did this old man drugged his drink!? "You..."

"Let's meet again. Somewhere in the future. Until then, take care."

And thus he blacked out....

*chirp**chirp*

"...mmm?"

The sound of bird chirping awakens a young man from his deep slumber. Resting against a lone yew tree which has grown rather big, due to its root reaching into the nearby waterhole, the apprentice knight seems confused.

"...huuuuuuh?" He groaned. Was all of that...a dream?
The horse tied to the tree neighed at him. It seems pretty annoyed.

He did remember that he's journeying out for...something. He searched his surroundings and found a wooden helmet, wrapped in somehow familiar blue cloth. On top of the package rests a small piece of paper which reads 'keep away from fire'.

Rei am now thoroughly confused.