Investigation Begins

Alicia was not mad. She knew the people here were very tense due to all the attacks. So she only smiled and said: "This is why I am asking you about this person that you have seen. We are investigating the attacks of the earth wolves. So far the only clues we have that may correspond to the attacks is the person you saw."

Flora showed a shocked expression on her face. "Are you saying that the young man I say maybe the cause of this?"

"We are not sure, that is why we are investigating this. We want to make sure we do not miss anything that may lead to stopping the attacks on the village. Especially since the attacks seem to have no rhyme or reason on why they would be attacking." Alicia explained.

"I see. Well, then I do apologize for my earlier rudeness. Us villagers have been having a very hard time because of all of this." Flora said apologetically before giving a small bow. 

"It's fine we understand. When times are hard, stress builds up. If you could give us a bit of information on the man you saw. What he looks like, how tall he is, and what side of the forest did he enter? The more information the better." Alicia asked.

"He was around one hundred and eighty centimeters tall. He had... I want to say black hair but seemed to have been a tinged red as well. All of his clothes were black and he had dark skin. I do not remember any more than that. As for the side of the woods, he was on it was right over there at the corner of the village." Flora pointed to a location a little west of the destroyed fence.

Alicia took in all this information and gave her thanks to Flora before the three headed to the Lost Forest entrance. "With what we know so far, what are the chances of this being a humanoid demonic beast?"

"Chances are looking to be higher and higher I would suggest having Claire help as well. She has had a few encounters with humanoid demonic beasts." Rose said.

Alicia nodded her head and called both Claire and Frey out. Frey immediately got excited and flew to give Alicia a hug. "Frey from this time on you need to stay out of sight. So be a good girl and hide in Mother's hair okay?"

"Okay~! Frey will do as Mother says!" Frey smiled brightly as she snuggled into Alicia's hair. Once Frey was settled, Alicia turned to Claire and told Claire everything that they had found out so far. 

"Your thoughts are not too far off but there could be a beast tamer involved as well. The best thing to do would be to enter the woods to try to find some clues. Beast tamers have heightened senses so they are able to find their way around the fog with ease. The only one of us here that can do that is Young Miss. So I would suggest having Young Miss go in with one more of us with the rope tied around their waist for safety, to see if they can find any clues." Claire said. Although it was a tad dangerous for them to enter the Lost Forest as long as they took precautions they should be okay.

"I will go with the Young Miss!" Rose quickly volunteered. She did not feel right letting the young miss go in with Starla. Plus it would not just be her going in with Alica. There were a few guards and Blake as well.

"Alright, it's settled then. Rose and I will go into the lost Forest to look for clues." Alicia pulled out two stacks of ropes. They could only go so far in but it was still a good fifty meters of rope. They could only hope to find some clues before they reached the full length of the rope. 

With everything decided, Claire and Starla helped get the rope secure around Alicia and Rose before tying the other end to a tree. Starla and Claire were to each keep a hand on the rope so that Alicia and Rose could give a signal if something was wrong. They came up with a simple system of notification. One hard tug was they found something and two hard tugs if something was wrong.  

Alicia grew a  bit excited to be doing something like this even though it could turn out to be very dangerous. Doing her best to bottle up her excitement Alicia and Rose started off into the forest. Unlike the Demonic Forest, the Lost Forest was a damp dark place. Alica could only compare it to the rain forest back on earth. Very little light was able to peer down from the treetops and the further you went in the less you would be able to see. The underbrush thinned out when light became a lot less. Turning into mossy slippery underfoot.  

Starla and Claire stood waiting at the edge of the Lost Forest each holding their respective ropes. Starla stared off into the forest with a worried expression on her face. Seeing this, Claire said: "Do not worry. They have guards with them and one of them can handle a single humanoid demonic beast by themself." 

Starla was shocked. She knew she had a few guards who followed her but they were nowhere near strong enough to kill a humanoid demonic beast. But now that she thought about it she did not know Alicia's family name since Alicia only said her first name and nothing else. "Claire, who exactly is Alicia?" 

Claire only smiled and said: "In time as long as you stay true to Alicia you will know. Only then will you find out."

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