"Whenever you talked with us about the insect he would have talked with you a short while before it, he also was the one who shouted about it first when it started charging toward us, so I guessed that he might be the one." The leader said with a smile.
Dan smiled as he heard that, then he said:
"Lets get going I don't think your friend would last that long." He was pointing at the injured man who seemed as if he would die any moment.
"You are right, so everyone lets move, we need to make it there soon." The leader said.
"Can you tell me how far is the village." Dan asked after they started moving again, this time both groups were moving together, it seemed as if even though they didn't trust them totally they still accepted them.
"Around half a day or so, we have already passed most of the way." Alexander answered Dan.
They then spent the rest of the way talking with each other instead of just walking silently, Dan found that Alexander and the others were the elite hunting group from a village known as the Last Point Village.
It was known by that name because it was the last village before finally entering the forest, when Dan asked him about it's location Alexander said that the safest route toward it would be if they walked by the shore, and that the only reason they chose to go through the forest was because they needed to return to the village as fast as possible and that usually they would have taken the other way.
Dan took note of what he was told as he found that information quite important as they might use it later when all the people in the Barbarossa would want to land, as knowing the safest route would make them deal with a lot of things.
Just as Alexander said it took them around half a day to reach the village, when they finally made it there, the injured man was on his last breath and he was barely holding on.
Dan did ask Katherine to see if she could help, but even with her help they were only able to make him hold on till they finally made it to the village as his wounds were quite heavy and Katherine didn't have any tools to help him.
The village was protected by big black walls, the walls were around seven meters high they seemed as if they were made with the combination of some type of rocks and some parts of gagnitc insects, it was quite a sight to see.
Even before they made it to the gate Alexander shouted with a strong voice:
"Open the gates and get the elder, there's someone injured." His voice was strong and it was heard by the guards at the gate who took a look at them, they saw Alexander and his group returning, after making sure that they were a part of them they finally opened the gate, of course after they entered they threw a few glances at Dan and his group, after all except some hunters who pass through their village when they enter the forest they rarely so new faces.
After Alexander made sure that his teammate who was injured was getting his treatment he turned to Dan's group and said:
"We rarely have new guests so follow me to meet the chief, he will be the one to decide what will happen to you."
"Ok please lead the way." Dan said.
Alexander nodded and he started moving, the village wasn't that big, at most it had there or four hundred individual but all the people that Dan and his group passed by had strong and healthy bodies, be it the young, the old or the woman.
The houses were simple and made of wood, but where strong enough to handle any kind of weather, anyway the whole village gave a relaxing peaceful and simple feeling.
But as he took a closer look at the villagers he was able to notice something, all those people seemed somehow exhausted, some of them had worried expressions on their faces and some others even had wounds on their bodies, these wounds seemed deep, but they were only on the limbs and none of them seemed in big danger.
"What's happening? Why are there so many injured people?" Dan asked.
"It's nothing, lets just go and meet the chief, he will tell you everything if he sees that it's important for you to know." Alexander said.
Dan didn't say anything else and instead he just followed after Alexander in silence.
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After a while of walking they finally stopped In front of a house that didn't seem any different then any other one in the village, Alexander turned to them and said to Dan:
"Tell your friends that this is the house of our leader and that they should he respectful for him, just keep that in mind."
"Ok." Dan said before turning his head to the others and saying:
"He said that this is the house of their chief and we are going to meet him right now so be respectful, ok?"
Seeing them all nod their heads he looked at Alexander and nodded, showing him that everything was ready, and that they understood.
"Ok then wait for me here, I will ask for permission for you to enter." saying that Alexander entered the house leaving Dan and the others outside looking at each other.
"I guess that we can only wait." Dan said with a bitter smile.
Inside the house, Alexander stood in front of an old man who looked as if he was going to die at any given moment, the old man appeared just like a bag of bones yet he was moving energetically though the room.
"How was the hunt?" The old man asked without even turning around.
"It was great at first, but unfortunately met a colony in our hunting ground, so we lost some soldiers and a lot of our prays, we were only able to being two beetles, the changes to the world are really hard for us." Alexander said whole shaking his head.
"A colony, how far is it?" hearing the word colony the old man stooped whatever he was doing and just turned around as he asked with a sinking voice.
A colony was a nightmare to any village which was close to the forest, so any information about them was treated so carefully and secretly, they didn't want to start a panic wave around the village.
"The colony is small, probably a new one, and it is way too far from us, they won't make it here so we don't have to worry about it." Alexander said, colonies were scary but fortunately this one was small and far enough so they were safe.
"Never underestimate the power of nature and fate, it might be far and small but we still need to keep and eye on it, so make sure to send someone to keep an eye on it and tell us about anything new that may happen in those parts of the forest."
"Ok I understand, I will arrange for a few of the hunters to keep watch over it whenever they have time."
"So anything else?" the old man said as he saw Alexander just standing there.
"Yes there are four travelers outside, three men and a woman, we met them in the middle of the forest when we were returning to the village, they said that they are from a far away place, and three of them can't even speak our language, and only one of them who seem to be their leader can speak it." Alexander explained about Dan and his groups circumstances.
"Traverse... That's interesting, except the people who are sent by the border city from time to time, and the hunters who pass by here on their way to the forest, this place doesn't have a lot of visitors, I wonder where are they are from?" the old man said with interest, then as if remembering something he asked:
"How about their power, being able to make it to the forest and stay in it safely, I think that they are strong right?"
"Yes, two of them showed a great power, while we didn't see anything from the other two, but they to didn't seem as if they were afraid when we got attacked by a Sticky Beetle, so I think that all of them are strong, or at the very least they can take care of themselves." Alexander said, then he showed a weird expression on his face as if wandering if he should say something or not.
"Just speak whatever you want to say, I will hear you." Sseeing his hesitating expression the old man said with a smile on his skinny face.
"I think that we should let them stay, they might even help us when the sun set, and also they aren't normal at all, when we were coming here, their leader told us that we should change our route because an insect was in our way, I didn't believe him and no one in the group did, some even lifted their weapons and wanted to attack them thinking that they were plotting somehow against us, yet those four didn't show any expression of fear at all, and what's even weirder is that after we walked a few meters ahead we got attacked by the Sticky Beetle and till now I don't know what happened and how did they know that an insect was there."
Alexander said after he got the approve of the chief.
"It's really interesting... Where did you say they are?" The old man showed an expression of interest after he heard Alexander words, and he asked about Dan and others' whereabouts.
"They are outside, do you want me to ask of them to enter?"
"Yes do so, I really want to meet them after hearing what you said." The old man said with a smile.
Alexander nodded his head and left the room asking from Dan and the others who were waiting outside to follow him to meet the chief.
Dan and Nero were talking about what to do if the people in he village decided on doing anything funny, the chance of that was small but they still talked about it, and as they were ending their discussion Alexander appeared and told them that the chief wanted to meet them.
Entering the house the first thing that caught Dan's attention was the bag of bones which was the old man who looked at them as if he was scanning them while they were entering.
"This here is our village's chief, and those four are Dan, Nero, Robin and Katherine, they are all travelers who asked to stay in our village to rest." Alexander first introduced everyone in the room before stepping aside and letting the chief take control.
"I welcome you in our humble village follow travelers." The chief said with a smile on his wrinkled face.
"Thank you for your hospitality, we were just passing by and because of our long journey we were quite tired, so we need a place to rest, I hope you don't mind us." Dan smiled and said in return.
"How can I? As I already said, you are welcomed to stay as long as you want." the old man said again with the same smile before adding:
"Can you tell me where did you come from? Alexander told me that you came from a far place and that your other friends doesn't even speak our language?"
"We came from the far west, it was a long dangerous and tiring journey." Dan answered.
"The far west, can you let me hear your language I'm quite interested in the culture and languages of other places, I even tried to teach myself some of them."
"Ok I will, here I go... I really like your little village." Dan said the first part of the sentence in Russian and the second part in English.
"You really know the language of the western people." What come as a surprise to Dan and the other three was that the old man answered him in English, actually not just them even Alexander was surprised, he didn't know that the chief knew the language that those people used.
"You can speak English." Katherine asked in surprise.
"English? Isn't it the West Germanic language?" The old man asked in confusion.