Similar to when Alz had first arrived, the group was stunned by the beauty of the rare sight before them. At least to their knowledge, sunflowers were not found anywhere else, so this was the first time they had seen these flowers.

Maya was the only one who was unaffected, looking around in search of Alz. Within seconds, she caught sight of Alz who was sitting in front of them and broke out into a jog towards him. Ignoring the stinging pain in his butt, Alz got up again and waved to the group.

While he didn't expect this beforehand, he knew that she only had good intentions, so he didn't blame her for bringing them here out of the blue.

This was also convenient for him, as he was also planning on meeting up with the others in tribe for some discussions and this saved him the trouble of returning to the guardhouse.

"I thought you might need it, so I brought some help over!" Maya exclaimed as she beamed towards Alz, waiting for his reply.

Alz revealed a look filled with gratitude as he replied her enthusiastically, "Thanks, I really needed it!"

While it was not in the sense she thought, she did end up helping him so he his gratitude was sincere. However, her words also displayed her lack of confidence in Alz which caused Alz to make a sigh inwardly as he replied.

That said, he didn't intend to explain anything to her, so he moved on and walked up to the rest of the group, greeting all of them.

"We came to visit like we said we would!" an elf said as he walked towards Alz with a wide grin on his face.

"Hey Alz, don't just suddenly disappear on us, we were all worried about you!" Kleiz complained as he moved out from the group and slapped Alz on the head, expressing his dissent towards his actions.

When they returned from the wolf's pen, Alz was already missing. They had searched high and low but found no signs of him. Thankfully, Maya approached them and informed them of Alz's plans, allowing their hearts to relax.

After all, with the way Alz left them back before the pen, some of them were even worried that he might ran away from the capital without notice.

"Oh right, here you go." a group of elves walked out from the center of the group and threw a large sack at Alz, causing Alz to stumble and fall as he tried to catch it.

The group roared in laughter at this while one of them walked up and said, "The women prepared this for you. They were also worried about you, so remember to visit them soon."

Alz looked inside the sack and found items such as empty water bags, clothes and blankets for him to stave off the cold wind. He teared up slightly as he saw this, feeling the care behind each and every item within the bag.

"Still, this is really a nice place. I've never seen a place as beautiful as this." the elf who discussed with Alz about the village walked up and commented with amazement as his eyes scanned the field.

"Still, there's really nothing near this place, are you really sure you want to stay here?" he then asked as he looked towards Alz.

"Yes!" Alz replied with a strong nod with a resolute gaze in his eyes.

The other elves smiled warmly in response to his answer and exchanged glances with each other, beginning to do some light stretching to warm their muscles up.

"So, what have you done already?" Kleiz asked Alz with a wide grin on his face as he stretched his elbows, clearly preparing to help.

The warmth in Alz's heart grew even more as he heard this. He didn't want to be dependant on them but refusing their help here would have been rude, so he decided to accept their help just this once.

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Naturally, he had no intentions of bringing them to his workshop though. He showed them the tools he had already made and told them where he wanted to construct his hut and the group all set off to gather the materials for his hut.

Maya's mouth widened in shock, not expecting this reaction from the group. She had originally thought that the group was coming here to dissuade Alz from staying, and it had never crossed her mind that they were here to help.

She knew his tribe trusted him but didn't expect them to trust him this much. Her eyes darkened as she watched from the side, with a strong dejection filling her as she felt the difference in treatments they received more strongly than before.

Alz was the only one who noticed this, but he pretended not to as he didn't know how he could help, choosing to let her think it through herself.

As the saying went, many hands make light work. This was especially true in simple tasks like the one before them. There was also no lack of tools as the group had already brought enough for the group, having anticipated this from the start.

When the skies started to darken, a simple elven hut stood by the side of the field, with a small fireplace near its entrance. This was all that Alz wanted here, and the group had delivered spectacularly.

Alz scanned the elves resting around the field with grateful eyes, as it would not have been possible for him to complete it this quickly without them.

However, when his eyes landed on Maya, he felt a slight headache assault him, as the favours he owed to her were starting to pile up unknowingly and he wasn't sure how to handle it.

After her brooding earlier, Maya had decided to chip in and help out as well, working with the group to complete his house. When he saw this, Alz felt equally grateful and troubled at the same time, not knowing if he should have stopped her then.

Suddenly, heavy steps were heard from the forest direction of the forest, but Alz wasn't surprised this time. Sure enough, the ones who arrived were those he had been expecting, four of the warriors that had arrived with the tribe earlier, split into two pairs with each pair hauling a deer in.

"THE MEAT IS HERE!" one of them shouted as they entered the field. The exhausted elves laying around started to rise and gather around the newly constructed fireplace after hearing this, preparing themselves for the meal.

Alz shoved these thoughts to the back of his mind and rose up, walking over to prepare the fire at the fireplace. His exhaustion from the previous day had only gotten worse with the lack of rest, but he had hardly contributed earlier and didn't want to leave all the work to them.

He gathered some of the twigs placed around the fireplace and started a fire with experienced motions, setting the station up for grilling the meat.

The elves who returned unloaded the deer near the fireplace where two elves were waiting with knives in hand. The two elves rapidly chopped it into multiple parts while the others started to gather branches from nearby to skewer the pieces of meat.

Despite the absence of verbal communication, their motions smoothly flowed without pause, a result of travelling together for the past two weeks. The preparation was done in a flash, and the warriors were now carrying the skewers over to the fire.

Maya was the only one out of the loop, silently watching the fireplace from a distance with apprehension in her eyes. She couldn't find a good time to cut in earlier and was hesitant to join the group now, conscious of being the only 'outsider' here.

"What are you waiting for? Come and join us." a voice suddenly came in from the side as her attention was directed towards the front. When she turned her head, she immediately saw Alz holding a skewer out to her.

"Yeah little girl, there's no need to act so reserved." one of the warriors hollered in their direction.

Maya turned back to the fireplace and saw that all the elves were directing welcoming smiles at her without exception, showing no intention of excluding her from the meal.

Maya's face cheeks reddened when she saw that all eyes were on her. She made a light nod and received the skewer from Alz before walking to the fireplace with her head lowered to cover her embarrassment.

Many of the warriors showed relief when Maya started to head towards the fireplace. They noticed that her mood had become unusually gloomy since they arrived, and she had also been silent for most of the time she was helping earlier.

Even when they tried to talk to her, her replies were short and lifeless. This created worry about her sudden change in mood among the group, but nobody knew how they could best approach her.

As Maya proceeded to the fireplace, Kleiz raised a thumb towards Alz with a meaningful grin on his face, prompting Alz to make a bitter smile.

The others were oblivious to the reason, but he knew that he was indirectly the cause of it, so he felt partially responsible for it. Furthermore, he felt like he owed her too many favours, so he felt obliged to help, there was nothing more to it.

The meal later proceeded smoothly, with the warriors chatting heartily over the meal. Maya was still acting reserved at the start, but the group slowly got her to open up more towards the end, although it was still a far cry from how she acted with Alz yesterday.

After they were done with the meal, Alz suddenly called for the group's attention with a serious look on his face, saying that he had something he needed to discuss with them. The warriors directed curious looks at Alz as they gathered around him, waiting for him to speak.