Passing by is a group of 3 goblins and a hulking humanoid with a large club - Taylor got a glimpse of it, and, as he is guessing, it might be some sort of a patrol. The place he made a mess in an hour or so away from his current position, so these creatures will take a while to report back. And, seeing that he cannot take on the group with his wounded arm, he lets them pass, without them noticing him.

As the footsteps are getting further and further away, Taylor starts moving out of his cover and starts moving further down the cave.

The further he keeps going, the warmer it gets. He starts hearing distant sounds of water drops, echoing through the cave.

-"Must be some sort of a lake nearby, or, perhaps, a waterfall? I could get a better idea of where I am if I manage to find it."

20 or so minutes of Taylor walking through the cavern passes, as the pathway splits into 3 directions. He takes a moment and carefully inspects all 3 of them and takes the left path, where he felt the air being less stale.

Being exhausted, but determined, he starts hearing a distant waterfall and the air starts becoming fresher. Stepping out of the dark cavern, the bright sunlight almost blinds him, as he had spent some time in a darker environment. 

Taking a moment for his eyes to adjust, Taylor is presented with a stunning view: a small alcove on the side of the mountain, filled with bright-green trees, beautiful mountain stones coated with yellow flowers. In the distance, there was a waterfall, tumbling down the mountain into a bliss-pool. The slow wind was warm and charming, spreading the honey-sweet smell of the flowers.

-"Ah!" - Taylor gave out a sign of excitement and appreciation.

-"There are only a few places in the world that could be of such beauty, and all of them are protected and restricted. I can now be certain... I am not on Earth."

And it is true, any natural places on Earth where the human civilization had not yet spread, are heavily protected and safeguarded, preserved for future generations. Being a man that has been through a war, lived in cities with pollution, Taylor could not help himself but take a short rest, taking in big breaths of fresh air, but still being cautious of his surroundings. 

Taking a closer look at this alcove, which he was on top of on a small platform, he notices that he is not that far from the actual ground - only half a mile or so. He also notices that on top of the waterfall there are small plumes of smoke rising up into the sky - seemingly a campfire. 

-"I would have a better chance of finding some sort of human life than trying to find food from those goblins."

Taking a short, 5-minute break, he starts moving down the small stone stairs leading into the alcove. He eventually makes it down and starts moving through the small forest towards the direction of the cliff, in hopes of finding a pathway down.

Walking through the forest, Taylor notices different plants and trees he had never seen before - bushes growing strange white berries, large tree leaves. Nevertheless, the smell was charming.

Using a better part of half an hour, Taylor approaches the cliffside. Spending some time, he doesn't manage to find any pathway down, but he does find the side of the mountain where it would seem to be the best to try and climb down - the cliff was not terribly steep. Regardless, without using any equipment, Taylor tries to climb down. 

Using his daggers to some-what hold onto some edges, he starts climbing down. The first few minutes were easy, but the further he got down - the harder it became. At one point, one of his daggers slips from his hand, causing Taylor to almost fall off, but his other hand had a good enough purchase. Adjusting himself, he looks down below at his dagger tumbling down the cliffside and eventually disappearing into the distance.

-"Argh..."

Finding small purchases and taking rather large breaks in between, seeing as climbing without gear is both dangerous and exhausting, Taylor starts noticing the sun is way past the zenith and soon day is going to start changing with the night. Seeing that, he hurriedly starts climbing further down.

By the time the sun had almost set, Taylor finally managed to climb all the way down, without a big of an issue. His concerns right now are that he is tired, hungry and directionless. Taking the last bite off his chocolate bar and delaying the hunger, he takes a closer look at the environment - small bits and pieces of forested areas followed up by large hills - that is the most he could see from this distance at sundown.

He himself was at the very base of the mountain that is covered by flowers and he could see the distant river flowing down the mountain. He starts slowly heading in its direction. As the sun had already set, he managed to make his way towards the estuary, where he sees another waterfall in the mountain, which flows into the very same river. In width, the stream is about 20ft.

Walking towards the water after taking a close look around it, Taylor takes a handful of water and drinks it. It is refreshing and cold.

After that, he starts heading down the river, away from the mountain, but keeping his distance away.

An hour or so passes as Taylor starts seeing a faint bit of light past the trees in the distance. Taking a moment and a closer look from the distance, it seems to be a small watermill attached to a 2-story house. 

-"Maybe I can find a friendly face there" - thought Taylor to himself, whilst heading towards the house.

5 or so minutes pass, as Taylor starts seeing moving lights in the area around the house along with humanoid figures holding them. Approaching closer, without trying to sneak, he confirms that these are humans.

This whole compound is not large - about 50ft wide area surrounded by a metal fence, with a 2-story red brick house and a watermill to the side. Stepping towards the frontal gate at the fencing, Taylor's form illuminates from the torchlight. Nobody seems to pay immediate attention to him.

He hides his daggers on his belt, steps forward towards the gate and knocks on it. It's not loud, but enough for somebody outside the house to hear. A moment passes as a human man, about in his 30's, wearing a black hooded cloak with a spear to his side approaches the gate.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

-"Who goes there?" - says the man in a low and unwelcoming voice.

-"I'm terribly sorry for such a late intrusion, but I'm a traveler looking for help. May I talk to somebody about that?" - Taylor responds calmly.

The man takes a nice and close look at Taylor, noticing his unfamiliar clothing and seeing no weapons or equipment on him. Clearly, this man didn't mean any threat to him.

-"Alright, that's fine. Sorry for the rudeness, it's just there has been a lot of enemies lately around the area. We can never be too sure. Come in". - says the man in a softer voice, while opening the gate.

Stepping inside, Taylor now notices some flower patches scattered around the nice grass inside the compound. Going from the gate towards the house is a small stone road. 

-"I think the owner might be able to help you. Follow me". 

As they were approaching the house, Taylor notices that there is one more guard that he could see in the area. Currently, he was patrolling around the house. 

The actual house seems to be made out of nice red brick, with a couple of windows on each floor. Taylor notices one open window on the second floor with a faint bit of light coming out of it. There is also a lot of light coming from the first-floor windows.

As they were walking, Taylor was thinking through the possible conversation options, he was trying to make up an identity for himself. 

-"Looks like I was right earlier about the age here. I hope I can get some information from whoever owns this place, maybe a nearby city or something like that. And I'm not sure how much is this money I have worth. Can I buy enough food with it at least? Maybe they have some medication.." - as Taylor says that, he touches the side of his arm where he got wounded earlier. Covered with a makeshift bandage, it didn't seem to hurt at all. If anything, for him it felt like there was no wound there. 

As they got to the doorstep, the guard knocks three times on the double-door. After a moment, a human woman in a nice white dress with braided black opens the door.

-"Is anything wrong, Drake?" - the woman says in a soft and gentle voice.

-"Khem," - the man adjusts his throat - "this person knocked on the frontal gates and seeks some help."

The woman looks at Taylor from head to toe and says - "Well, not often we see travelers in these lands. Please, come in". -says the woman and invites Taylor inside the house. 

Stepping back, the guard she referred to as 'Drake' steps back and goes back to his duties, while Taylor quickly cleans his boots at the doorstep and comes inside. 

The smell of freshly-cooked meats hits Taylor as he comes inside. The interior is warm, charming but simple. In this frontal hallway of the house, there are a couple of small hooks for coats, a small landscape painting on the side of the wooden wall and a brown carpet on the floor. The corridor goes through about 3 or so feet as it splits into 2 sides. 

-"Come, enjoy the meal with us. We'll hear you out, mister?..."

-"Feodor, call me Feodor". - Taylor replies hesitantly. 

-"Alright, Feodor, follow me".

They both slowly head to the end of the corridor, turn left and head into a small dining room, with a wooden table and 8 wooden chairs next to it. At the end of this room, there is a small lit hearth. On the sides of the room, there are a couple of shelves with utensils and books. On top of the wall where the hearth is there is a large portrait of an old human man in glasses and a black jacket.

On the table, there are a couple of dishes: freshly-cooked meats, salads, and drinks. The woman points towards one of the chairs where Taylor happily sits down. She sits on the opposite side of him.

-"So, mister Feodor, I can listen to your request for now, if you wish. The other members of our family will gather in about 5 minutes. Oh, and my name is Appoline, Appoline Willowbone".

-"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Willowbone. Thank you for your kindness inviting me in. As you can see, I don't have a lot of things on me - recently traveling, I've had some unfortunate events and lost most of my belongings. I've come to you,  the closest household I could find, to seek provisions and ask about some things. If you don't mind, of course."

-"Yes, yes, we can provide you with some food and clothes if you have the coin, but you can ask your questions now." - taking a sip from the cup, the woman carefully listens to Taylor.

-"Thank you, Mrs. Willowbone." - Taylor had already prepared some questions, but he didn't think it would be this easy to get an audience, considering his looks. The bandage on his hand was still soaked in blood and he smelled awful from all the things he had to do, but that didn't seem to bother the woman even a bit.

-"I've been traveling a lot lately and decided to get a good view on top of that mountain over there. However, some nasty creatures forced me to leave my things behind and flee. I've only had limited supplies and no weapons, so I tried seeking out help as fast as possible. That's how I ended up here. My first question is supplies - how much and for what cost can you provide?" - Taylor's speech seemed reasonable enough for Mrs. Willowbone.

-"We could probably muster about 3 days of dried rations, it doesn't spoil fast and easy to eat. That'll run you about 3 silver pieces.".

-"3 silver?!" - Taylor thought to himself. "That is currently most of my money, but it seems like I don't have a choice. In fact, I'm not familiar with the prices here, so it actually might be an amazing deal."

-"Alright, I will buy those from you, thank you. Now my 2nd question is - where is the closest city or village I could find a place to stay at?"

-"Oh, well, the closest big city is Ikhae, but that is about 100 miles away from here. If we're talking a village with an inn, then your best bet would be Yrork, I know there is at least 1 inn there. It's about 15 miles away from here. You can't miss it if you go down the road northward".

At this point, a group of 4 people enters the dining room: an older-looking gentleman in a nice black jacket, slick black hair, and a mustache. Following him, there are 3 children - a boy and 2 girls. The boy seems to be in his early teens and the girls still in their childhood. 

Noticing the man, Taylor stands up and slightly bows towards him: -"My name is Feodor, very nice to meet you, Mr. Willowbone." - says Taylor in a very polite manner.

-"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Feodor. Is this our guest, Appoline?" - says the man politely, although looking quite disgusted by Taylor's appearance. 

-"Yes, it is. This gentleman came to us to seek help. I'm going to sell him some provisions and answer his questions. He won't be bothering you, so don't worry." 

The man sits at the far end of the table with the children to his sides. They all start eating the food in front of them. Taylor also joins in, as he continues the conversation with Appoline.

-"My 3rd question is, may I stay somewhere for tonight? I don't mind if it's a barn or anything."

-"Of course, you can stay for the night at the mill, but only for this night. That's the most I can offer to you."

-"I am very grateful, Mrs. Willowbone" - finishing the meal, Taylor stands up from the table. -"Mr. and Mrs. Willowbone, I thank you for your patience. I can buy the rations tomorrow when I leave, but for now, I will go sleep at the mill. Have a good night."

-"Tell Drake that we allowed you to stay at the mill and he'll open the doors for you. Have a good night." -  Mrs. Willowbone says as she shows Taylor out of the house.

Eventually, Taylor finds the same guard that he spoke to earlier and is lead towards the watermill building - a small wooden hovel. Drake leads Taylor inside, then walks back and locks the door behind him.

This small, 10 by 10ft wooden hovel didn't have too many things in it - a couple barrels, sacks, and crates stacked on top of each other alongside a grinding mechanism in the middle - it seems that this place is used to make flour. At first glance, Taylor guesses that the family members are farmers. Or, at least, they own a farm. 

Either way, Taylor finds a nice corner, pulls over one of the grain sacks and sits on it. Unwrapping the old bandage, Taylor finds out that his wound is almost completely healed, which surprised him, as he had not taken any medication. In fact, now that he thinks of it, he forgot to ask for any from the Willowbones, but it seems that he doesn't need any.

With the faint sound of the watermill and a slow wind howl outside, Taylor spends some time thinking to himself, before falling asleep for the night.