As the 4 Tuskir and the human descended down the steep hillside, carefully and slowly, Gharna helped by Yenna and Azhul carrying rock, the 2 women and the younger boy seemed to talked and mutter inbetween themselves.

"That is pretty much what happened..." Gharna said as she groaned while her shakey legs stepped down another few stone steps.

"It is impressive if not concerning to say the least..." Azhul added from the front.

"I am more curious what it meant when it tried telling you it came from the ray of light at the center of our offering spot. Did it climb down on it? Did it sprout like a tree from the stone under it?" Yenna added as he seemed quite excited, possibly due to the strange circumstances around this creature's appearing in their little impromptu temple.

"Regardless of that, it is lost and it clearly is not from around. It bared its teeth at me when i first encountered it, but... it did not attack. I was the one to actually start the fight. I... over reacted..." Gharna sighed as she gave a look to Michael, who seemed to be either looking where he stepped or quietly admiring the view of the forested horizon of pure wilderness.

"Do you think it is a male... whatever it is or a female?" Yenna added with a hint of hormonal curiosity in his tone.

"If, what you say is true, it certainly fights like a den sister." Azhul interjected. "Also Yenna, cool your loins, it looks... wierd. I don't understand your excitement, but such be the young swine and sows. Eager to pork whatever comes their way." She said with a teasing chuckle.

"S-shut up! I was just curious, she- ah! It! It, seems strong, that's all!" The younger Tuskir boy replied back followed by grumbled oinking.

"Well whatever it is, I am thankful to the Hunt Father, it is nicer than it looks while fighting." Gharna added as she chuckled beforehand at her blood brother's behaviour.

++++

Michael was silent as first as Gharna pulled him out of the cave, his expression still defeated as he was finally dragged in the sun.

The young student's eyes squinted as he stopped himself from letting out a hiss when he now finally met this world's sun directly and properly, for more than a few moments and also while calm.

'Ah! Damn it, my years as a house hamster and a night owl, are really making me wish I could crawl under a blanket in a dim light room, right now...' He thought sourly to himself as he followed the four boar people down a carved stone staircase.

'Man, more and more things don't add up... this is clearly not the gravel and root ridden path I took up to that blasted cave. I kind of know what might have happened, but... it sounds so surreal, I'm almost afraid to admit it out loud...'

After going down for quite a bit, the right side of the stair case cleared up as trees became thinner in numbers, at which point Michael stared in the distance as his step just froze and hesitated for a moment.

Before him he had a boundless horizon of a forest, with trees thick and tall like some of the few ancient ones still alive back home. As he saw what he tought an early after noon sun in the distance, he noticed possibly, far North West in the distance, there was a mountain range in view, with snow at the top of it. Glancing about the North seemed to yeald slightly less forested hills which wrapped around a good portion of this forest around and below him.

It was beautiful, although he lived a bit in the country side as a child and went on excursions on mountains as a teenager, nothing truly compared to actual, genuine, untouched and untamed nature. For a flicker of a moment his heart forgot all the tenseness and worry it held, due his stressful situation, and it just had a short amount of time to beat with ease, as Michael took in a long drawn breath in his chest, in a slow manner.

"I-it's so... clean... cold, yet comfortingly crisp..." he whispered to himself while exhaling, his posture straightening, yet his shoulders stood relaxed.

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Yet, this moment could not last long, as a few oinks snapped him out of it, his eyes although not panicked, quickly darted to the three still concious boar people waving at him to follow, as it seems the staircase's end wasn't too far below. He quickened his step while apologizing awkwardly, more out of habit, if for no other reason.

++++

The dirt trail below moved between the trees and after a short walk, the group finally reached the village.

The small village as viewed from the open gates, was surrounded by a wall of vertical logs tied together and clearly stabbed into the ground. Three towers made of mainly a wooden skeleton with a platform with halfwalls at the top, were placed inside the walls at different points to watch over the small community and to watch anything around it. Despite the thick forest around, the area around the immediate village was cleared out quite a bit, with even stumps uprooted, but clear signs of new younger trees being replanted can be seen all over, as well as some sort of bushes. While the market area around the front gate seemed to have been freed up of the previous large bird they were quartering, it was clearly still bustling with different people putting supplies together or working. The forge nearby was letting off thick plumes of smoke along with the thinner ones coming from the various homes, laid behind this first area.

As the 4 den members approached the people about seemed to immediately stare in their direction.

"What in the Brood Mother's name happened to Rok?!" A voice rang out, which quickly made itself known as Runar, the town's guard captain.

"Relax, den brother. He is just a bit... well... his ego took a bit of a beating, as well as his pride." Azhul chimmed in as she put Rok down, who has been concious for a bit, but his legs would still buckle under him.

"Did you really have to beat one of my men this bad? I let you borrow his assistance and you assault him like this? What did he even offend you with?" Runar asked as he crossed his arms, stomping his foot as he snorted angrily

"To me? Nothing? To our lost wanderer, that we found inside our offering temple? Well... it didn't appreciate being stepped on by Rok, especially after Gharna attacked it, thinking it was dangerous." Azhul replied with just as much of an annoyed snort as she stood at her full 6'3" height, while Runhar was about a 5'11".

"Yes. I believe it can't understand us, but I do still owe it an apology for that, despite my agressive presumption, it was nice enough to not harm me." Gharna added as she let go of Yenna and stepped forward, her legs still struggling to not lock up and buckle.

"Not harm you?! Gharna, you look like you have been on the hunt all day. What did this bastard creature do to you?" Runhar said clearly upset as he began unsheathing and axe from his hip and looking behind the group.

"Oh, calm your hog tantrums down! It punched me three times at most and then basically let me tire myself out while it dodged me or made my hits on it, brush off. Despite that it was quite pleasant. It even gave me water. I'm sure if we can find how to speak with it, you won't have anything to worry about." Gharna huffed with confidence as she then felt a tap on her shoulder from her little blood brother.

"Uhm sister..."

"Yes, Yenna?" She asked looking at her baby hog brother.

"It is not behind us anymore..."

At this point, both Gharna and Azhul turned around and wide eyed, looked as there was nothing but the dirt path openly behind them.

Gharna hoping her and her friends did not just have a group hallucination, quickly trotted back to the gate, despite her shakey fawn like walking, and began looking around panicked, before just as quickly snorting with relief.

"It is here! It is fine... phew... my heart nearly left my chest, thinking we went insane for a moment." She said holding onto the gate's frame.

She reached around the wood wall and seemed to struggle a bit, pause, then mumble something. Shortly after a small white light seemed to shine on her form around the wall, which made everyone else slightly jump a bit and seem more tense, but quickly soon enough the white light dissapeared.

Gharna stepped back as she huffed a sigh. "Oh gods... if I understand this correctly... it might be afraid either that this is might be a way to lure it in an ambush or... it might be afraid of large groups?" The sow woman said plainly.

"The first one makes sense, especially since you assaulted it and lost and Rok stepped on it like it was a little meek pet. I would be uncomfortable coming inside this place after beating up two people who lived here." Azhul said as she stomped over to take a seat on one of the tree stumps they used as stools around here.

"Well I am pissed it beat two of our people!" Runhar added with a grumble. "Get that spineless vermin to show in here immediately and explain itself!"

Gharna oinking annoyed looked behind the wall.

"Come on, please, i know you don't understand me, but you need to enter to clear this up."

++++

Michael explained himself to her as best he could through simple drawings on his tablet. 'I don't do well with social stuff, especially with large number of people. God why..." He groaned as the boar sow person, seemed to oink and huff at him gently and in a beckoning manner.

He hesistantly reached once more and took her hand. "You better not be leading me in a trap." He said unsure, as Gharna just kept oinking lightly, while dragging him slowly out from behind the wall.

As his arm got pulled into view, there were several voices clearly speaking in that language he couldn't understand, but they all quickly became mute as he came into view, about a dozen or nearly two dozen boar people staring at him, wide eyed.