3 Chapter 3: The Village
We were close to the beacon, but we had no choice but to look for shelter, it was nighttime and we could barely see anything but the beacon and the "Stars?" Rumi pointed out. "this is by far the most mysterious thing we've seen today, besides getting trapped in the tower" Kaito noted, he always had some sort of smile across his face, trying to keep everyone's hopes up.
Minutes later we came across, "A village?" I said, surprised that intelligent life lives here. We stared in awe from afar, it looked like any normal village, but the one question was, who inhabited that place? Tired, we trekked across the grassy plains away from the forest and into the village, it was filled with normal people, humans and all, with that crowd however some people also wandered the streets, slightly taller and with pointed ears, also wearing more peculiar clothing. "Elves?" Mori asked himself, the large crowd of people that roamed the streets stared at us in confusion as they passed by, while walked around this strange place, looking exactly like any normal village would look like.
The streets of the village flourished in golden light as it filled the entire place and festivals with children running everywhere, it was a heartwarming sight. Akari stayed behind the rest of the group with her scarf covering half of her face, she had a soft smile under her face seeing such a sight, it reminded her of her childhood, the golden lights, the decorated houses and streets and all. She then started to tear up, sniffling grabbing the attention of the others, they looked back at her to see her crying. Mori asked her "Akari, you alright?" she revealed her smile to everyone else, tears of joy…"I apologize everyone, but this place just reminds me of my home, where I was always filled with joy" We all came and gave her a big hug. Akari wasn't born in our hometown, she was found in her adopted father's farm, her village suddenly vanished and she was the only one who 'survived'.
We weren't at all shocked with her speaking, all we knew that she was happy and had a smile on her face, we've never seen her smile in a while. We all stopped hugging her and continued exploring the place, meanwhile Akari enjoyed the sight of this flourishing place as she stayed behind our group. We were all hungry, and we still had some money, we wandered into the market and I turned around to the group and suggested to them "You guys wanna buy some food?" the others agreed and we went off, spending about a couple minutes there only buying some fruits. An hour later we found a place to stay, an Inn, we all unpacked our belongings and put them on the table and as soon as we knew it we all fell asleep, ready for a new day, but before I fell asleep I thought to myself. "Why is a village like this here?" but that thought was to be dealt with another day.
