Choices (Part 2 - Selonova)

The team from Amestris and their guide Boris along with his pet bear Toby took shelter in a broken house, just at the outskirt of the forest. Boris told Maria and Danny about the time when he met Olivier Armstrong. Then they slept well under the protection of a large brown bear sleeping right at the entrance of that house.

When the Sun started spreading its crimson ray on the land of Drachma, it also managed to enter the house through the holes on the ceiling, and the rays fell straight on the closed eyes of Danny and Maria. They woke up while Boris was enjoying his sleep with his furry friend.

Now that the sun was shining in the sky, the internals of the house in which they took shelter, were visible more clearly. There were marks and small carved drawing on the walls. While Maria and Danny were examining the drawings, Boris woke up and spoke from behind.

"What are you guys looking at?" Boris yawned.

"Just some writing and drawings on the wall," Danny replied while looking at the drawings.

Boris stood up and moved closer to them to look at the drawings and writings by himself. There were three bubbles in which something was written and one bubble was connected with other with arrow marks. The complete carved drawing of those bubbles was representing a series of places. In the first bubble, a cacoon was drawn which was connected to the bubble in which a house was drawn. The second bubble was then connected to the bubble where there was a question mark. The wall was covered with dirt so, Boris cleaned the wall with his palm to see what else was written on it. After he cleaned it, he was shocked to see what was written over there. Maria and Danny were also watching it, but those words on the wall had a far greater impact on Boris, the words which said – "Krish was here".

Boris was speechless, he fell on his knees and started looking at the floor. He then got emotional and spoke. "All this time, I tried to search for you, and you were here all along… More than 25 years passed, not a single clue…I almost gave up on you…I wonder what you would be looking like now old friend," He chuckled faintly.

There were some tears accumulated in his eyes. He wiped out those tears, stood up and turned around. There was a genuine smile on his face. Maria and Danny were a bit surprised by his actions. So, Maria asked, "Is that Krish person very important to you?"

Boris kept on smiling and replied, "I spent almost my entire life searching for him, and this is the first clue I found after all those years…Yes, he is indeed someone very important to me."

After his explanation, everyone was starting him, even Toby. But, he walked past Maria and Danny, and tousled the bear, with the grin still intact on his face.

"Let's go, we have some important business in Othon," He said.

They picked up their bag packs and got ready to leave the broken house.

"So, how are we going to reach Othon from here?" Danny asked.

"There is a village nearby," Maria informed.

"How do you know that?" Boris and Danny asked simultaneously out of surprise.

"Get out of the house and see for yourself," Maria replied.

Boris and Danny got out of the house and saw there was really a village at some distance. The houses in the village were appearing small from the place they were standing because the village was approximately 1 mile away from the broken house. Everyone was now assured that there was indeed a village nearby but there was a question bugging in everyone's mind, which was brought into the conversation by Boris. "It's really strange that we didn't see any light from the village when we came here last night," He said curiously.

"Let's go and find out," Maria proposed.

"Alright," Boris agreed.

"But, what about Toby? Are you also going to take him into the village?" Danny asked.

"Don't worry, he won't enter the village. He will be wandering near the village avoiding contact from people. We have been doing this from years, and he can easily track me if needed," Boris replied.

They separated from Toby and went toward the village. The village's name was Selonova. It was an almost abandoned village, where only a few families were left. The people of the village mostly relied on fishing from the sea which was 3 miles away from the village. When the group entered the village, they saw the people wearing furry coats, furry boots, and furry hoods. The village life was looking very dull. They went to a shop where a man in his sixties was selling fishes. The shop was in the open, so when Boris and team reached near the shop, the shopkeeper stood up and smiled. "Welcome, you don't seem to be from around," The shopkeeper greeted.

"No, we are just on our way to Othon. Do you happen to know how far it is from here?" Boris asked with a smile.

"Othon is just 30 miles from here," The shopkeeper replied.

"Is there any train or another mode of transportation we can use to reach there?" Boris enquired.

"If you get lucky then you may find a cart going to Othon," The shopkeeper answered.

Boris responded by saying "I see", and then took a deep breath to get out of the frustration. He started thinking about a way to get to Othon and that too fast. Meanwhile, Maria noticed the few fishes in the shops, and asked politely, "Can you prepare some fish for us?"

The Shopkeeper got worked up and said with a charge of energy, "Definitely Miss. How would you like it, raw or grilled?"

"Grilled," Maria answered with a smile.

"Alright," The shopkeeper responded, and quickly pulled out a fish. Then he started cutting it into rectangular medium sized cuts. While he was preparing the fish, Maria asked, "So, why there are so fewer people in your village?"

All of the energy in shopkeeper's voice disappeared instantly. He replied to the question, but with a sad voice while cutting the fish, "Everyone is moving to Othon slowly, that's why the population is continuously decreasing."

"Why is that?" Danny asked curiously.

"There are lots of reason for that. There is no proper connectivity to other places, there aren't many facilities in this village, and the most important reason being the safety issue in this place," the Shopkeeper answered.

Maria and Danny got more curious. So, Danny couldn't help but ask a follow-up question. "What safety issue?" He enquired.

The shopkeeper was finished with cutting the fish. So he put the fish pieces on the grill and looked at them. "This place has been infested with some creatures which come at night and hunt animals and human beings if they find any in the open. So, we stay inside our homes at night, even we keep our huskies inside," The shopkeeper replied.

"Is that why you don't even use lights at night?" Maria asked.

"Yes," the Shopkeeper answered.

Now that they got the answer on why they couldn't see the village at night, even Boris got interested in the conversation going on. "When did the last incident happened?" Boris interfered.

"A week back. They took a man about my age… He was drunk and let his door open at night," The shopkeeper replied.

"This seems very dangerous, isn't the military doing anything about the situation?" Maria continued questioning, and the shopkeeper kept on answering. "They don't care about a village full of old people," The shopkeeper answered with a frustrated chuckle.

When the team learned that the village was full of old people, their eyes and mouth were widened out of surprise.

"What do you mean old? Isn't there a single young person here?" Maria asked.

"No, everyone left long ago," The shopkeeper paused for a moment because of some old memories and then continued, "My son wanted me to go with him but, I have too many memories in this place. I would rather die here than go somewhere else."

In the meantime, the fish he was preparing was ready. He put the grilled fish pieces on a plate and served it. "Here is your fish," He said after placing the plate in front of them.

Because the shopkeeper was a very old resident of that village, Boris thought of asking him the question which was bugging him. "Do you happen to know about the house present near the forest?" He asked.

"Yes, that house belonged to a hunter. I think…he died a very long time ago, maybe 20 to 30 years ago," The shopkeeper replied.

"Was there a kid with him? A boy maybe, 14-15 years old?" Boris asked a follow-up question.

"After he died someone started living in that house. You are correct, I remember a boy, 14-15 years old living with a man in his late twenties. They didn't communicate with the villagers much, and one day they suddenly vanished," The shopkeeper answered.

While Boris was questioning, Danny and Maria were busy eating the grilled fish.

"Do you remember their names?" Boris asked anxiously.

"I remember the man's name, it was 'Artem'. He sold me fish sometimes which he used to catch at the bay," The shopkeeper replied.

Boris started thinking if he happened to know any person by that name, but no one by that name was coming to his mind. Meanwhile, the shopkeeper caught Boris' attention by saying, "There is one thing I can never forget."

Boris curiously looked at the shopkeeper to listen what he was going to say.

"There were never cases of creature attack in our village before Artem's disappearance, but after few months of his disappearance, creature attacks started happening. Initially, we thought it to be the attacks of some wild animals, but soon we understood once we saw them. We also tried to kill them, but we lost a lot of our own. Soon, many of the villagers gave up, they decided to leave the village or coexist with the creatures," The shopkeeper informed.

In the meantime, Danny and Maria were finished with their food. "The fish was really nice," Danny said after taking a burp.

Boris looked at the plate, and couldn't find a single bit of fish meat left on it. He glared at Danny and yelled, "WHAT? YOU ATE IT ALL?"

"You were busy talking," Danny replied calmly.

Boris narrowed his eyes and asked annoyingly, "So you thought you can eat it all?"

"Don't worry, I have more," The shopkeeper interrupted and smiled.

The shopkeeper then quickly grilled some more fish and packed them. Boris took the packed fish and thanked the shopkeeper.

While they were about to leave, the shopkeeper remembered something. "I forgot one thing," He said.

Everyone looked at the shopkeeper with curious faces. "If you want to know more about Artem, then you should go to Ms. Viola. She lives in the sixth house from here," The shopkeeper informed.

Boris couldn't stop himself from getting some clues which could lead him to his long lost friend, Krish. He thanked the old shopkeeper and went toward Viola's house to get some answers.