The village lost in the forest

After about half an hour, they arrived at a village in the middle of the forest that was relatively close to the base of the volcano, about a 20-minute walk at a good pace.

Tristan, Laurel, and the remaining soldier looked around with interest. At some point the other soldier had fainted and one of the robed men carried him off somewhere.

On the other hand, Arlan was now walking on his own again instead of being carried by Knara. But instead of observing the city, Arlan walked forward without caring about anything except the feeling that had faded a few minutes ago.

He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't notice the dozens of stares that fell in his direction.

Tristan and Laurel were quite surprised; in all the time they had been on the island, they had no idea that such a village existed so deep in the forest.

The villagers were visibly confused, seeing strangers for the first time in a long time, even for the younger ones it was the first time they had seen anyone from outside their village.

Although the children were curious, their mothers protected them in their arms without letting them go. In addition, the guards surrounding the group prevented anything from happening.

They walked through the village under the eyes of all the villagers for a few minutes until they reached the farthest part of the village under a cliff a few tens of meters high. It was not very high, but high enough that they could not climb it.

On the wall of the cliff was a stone house, which they entered to find a few rustic cells.

The guards pushed the group into different cells and then left quickly and quietly. They were definitely not very sociable people and were overly serious, but they did their job and were naturally wary of outsiders to their society.

As soon as the last guard left, Tristan approached the bars of the cell to get as close to the others as possible.

"We need to get out of here" Tristan suggested with clear conviction.

Arlan walked slowly to the edge of the cell and sat down, leaning against the wall.

"For what, to face those monsters again? We lost Pard and we don't know if Silva is still alive. Let's accept the fact that if they hadn't saved us, we'd all be dead by now" Arlan replied with a clearly annoyed tone.

Pard and Silva were the names of the two soldiers, and the one in the cell with them was called Hackam.

He hadn't forgotten how Tristan had betrayed him, and even if it had been by mistake, he had suffered because of him...even if he had gained some of that later.

Tristan was silent for a few moments, not knowing what to say, until Laurel spoke instead.

"What Arlan says is true, outside these walls we are nothing but food for the monsters. but what do you think we should do? it's not like we could stand up to them, not like those people"

All the confidence they had gained from feeling strong thanks to the tainted food was lost so quickly it was as if it had never existed.

It hadn't been more than 2 hours since they left the bunker and were locked in a cell in a village lost in the forest.

"Wait, that is what we're going to do"

After speaking, Arlan closed his eyes and just listened to the conversation between Tristan and Laurel without contributing anything.

Instead, Arlan concentrated on sensing the strange energy he had felt earlier, but without much success in the first few minutes.

But now that they were locked in with nothing to do, Arlan decided to keep trying.

The hours passed and slowly the light coming through the cell window began to fade.

Night was approaching and no one had seen them again. It was clear that they hadn't forgotten them, but it wasn't as if they had anything to worry about. It was clear that the group posed no danger to the villagers.

During these hours, Arlan made no progress and could not feel the energy again. Tristan and Laurel had grown quiet and Hackam seemed to have fallen asleep.

Time passed slowly, but they felt somehow protected.

At some point they heard the door open and Arlan opened his eyes to see who it was. First came Knara, whom he already knew as the woman who almost cut off his head, and following her came another young woman with golden, thin hair, clean white skin and a white bandage with several unique embroideries covering her eyes.

Knara walked towards the cells with her katana sheathed, but instead the young woman approached a wooden table in front of the cells and left a tray with several deep bowls on it.

Arlan frowned at the sight of the young woman, he had never seen her before but something about her seemed strangely familiar.

The young woman took two plates and walked first to Tristan and Laurel's cells, which were next to each other, bringing them each a bowl of soup and they accepted it in silence.

Then she approached the table again and repeated the process, this time with Arlan and Hackam, who woke up when he felt them enter.

The young woman first handed the bowl of soup to Hackam, who began to eat as soon as he received it. Then she turned and gave the bowl to Arlan.

With the young woman in front of him, he could finally understand what the woman was familiar with.

'This bandage...'

The bandage on the young woman was the same bandage on the woman he had seen in a dream a week ago.

'What is the connection between them?'