Early in the morning, accompanied by the sound of a rolling watermill alongside the bird's singing, Taylor's eyes slowly roll up and blink as he rouses from his sleep. The night was warm, gentle and reasonably quiet, so he got plenty of sleep.
Rising up from the sack he's been sleeping on, Taylor notices tiny beams of sunlight finding their way inside the cabin through numerous holes in the wood, warming and lighting up the rather dark and simple interior of the shack, granting it new colors.
Appreciating the atmosphere, Taylor stands up his full height and does a quick 5-minute morning body exercise. Stretching his left arm, where previously there has been a wound, he doesn't notice any pain and, in fact, the arm seems to have regained all of its senses.
-"Wonderful and interesting. I cannot be completely certain until I do some experiments, but it seems that my body regenerates a lot faster than it has before. That wound I had would take weeks, if not a month, to fully heal, with the proper medicine. Yet here, it took less than a full day, without any medicine. I should definitely look into this..."
As Taylor was thinking this to himself while doing his morning exercise, he suddenly hears 3 loud knocks on the door followed up by a rough, manly but familiar voice:
-"Mr. Feodor, it's time for you to leave, there will be workers here soon. Whenever you are ready, follow me, the Lady has prepared you your supplies." - that was the voice of Drake, the guard Taylor had met yesterday.
-"Right with you!"
Quickly cleaning his sleeping place and placing the sack back in place, Taylor hurriedly opens the cabin's door and walks outside. Immediately he is greeted by the pleasant smell of fresh water from the nearby river in the mix with the sweetness of a nearby apple tree. He is escorted by an already impatient and sleepy-looking Drake, waiting for his shift to finish.
Appreciating the ambiance, Taylor strolls by the yard with him to the front of the estate, where Mrs. Willowbone, wearing a nice white dress, is hiding under a tree's shadow on a bench, reading through a book.
As they approach, Willowbone notices them. She puts the volume to the side, stands up and walks towards the doorstep, where there is an already prepared brown-leather backpack. She gestures for Taylor to come over.
-"Good morning, Mr. Feodor. I've prepared the supplies you requested: 3 days worth of dried rations. The backpack is a gift".
-"I'm very thankful, Mrs. Willowbone. One day, perhaps, I will repay for your hospitality".
-"I understand how it must feel to lose your things, especially to those nasty goblins. They have been everywhere around, but, thankfully, we got Drake and the other guards to protect us. I hope you can get back on your 'adventuring' track as soon as you can. Best of luck, Feodor".
Taylor slightly bows towards the lady, turns around and exits the compound. Remembering the directions he had gotten earlier, he quickly finds the dirt road between the trees and starts heading the opposite direction from the mountain - northward, to the settlement called 'Ikhae'.
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Before leaving, Taylor has put the pieces of the white-suit fabric into his backpack and checked on the rations - 5 palm-sized wraps with dried bread and 2 waterskins with water. Taylor put the remainder of his suit pieces, which would probably be enough to only cover his chest, beneath those supplies. He also put the 2 daggers on top of all of that, while concealing the 3rd one in his pocket, for an emergency.
Already an hour away from the Willowbone estate, Taylor decides to test out his regeneration abilities. He takes up the dagger and slightly cuts his finger. He cleans the blood away and continues walking, checking on the finger once in a while.
-"15 miles, she said...I remember having to run with a full set of equipment for more than that. This should be relatively easy."
30 minutes after the cut, Taylor checks on his finger and notices that the wound has completely healed.
-"Pretty damn fast...I wonder if other people have this as well. Or, maybe, this is just normal for everyone? I'll keep it a secret for now. I hope I can get to the village by sunset at this speed. Maybe I can gather some more information about this place from the townsfolk and find some work. I'll start with the information".
Eventually, the road leaves the forest and continues past the rolling green hills, coated in blooming white flowers. Taylor climbs up one of the largest hills next to him to get a better view of the area. Looking back where he came from, he notices that the mountain, in fact, is not a lonely mountain. It's a large mountain chain that stretches both ways beyond his view. Looking westward, he catches something moving high up in the clouds, just out of view, casting a large round shadow. The shape is moving rapidly away from him.
-"What could of that been? Interesting...".
Looking the direction he is heading, he discovers that the rolling green hills stretch for another mile or so further, followed up by a bright-green tree canopy.
Climbing back down the hill and continuing down the path, Taylor spends the next 4 or so hours without a break rapidly making his way further. Eventually, he takes 30 minutes to himself. He unpacks one of the rations and eats half of it while taking large sips from one of the waterskins. The dried bread is crunchy and is good enough to sustain him.
Having a meal on the side of the road, Taylor starts hearing the clanging of horses. Taking a better look, he catches a wooden cart being pulled by 2 horses, about 200ft away from him down the road. He packs the rations back in his backpack and starts heading closer to the road.
On top of the small, wooden cart with no cover and filled with boxes, Taylor notices a human man, in about his 40-s, holding the reins. The man is wearing a simple ragged white shirt and a straw hat.
As he passes by the cart, the man taps his hat in a greeting manner. Taylor nods back.
As he passed the cart, Taylor took a quick glance inside of it. While whatever the man is transporting was concealed by the wooden boxes, he catches a scent of wheat and grain. Also, near one of the boxes, he notices a sleeping child.
The reason for Taylor's curiosity is the lack of information. Right now, he wants to get as much of it as possible without drawing any unnecessary attention. For the past day, he managed to construct a couple of theories:
One - a rough technological state of the world. Considering the usage of a watermill for grinding, horse carts for transport, nobility, currency, and weaponry - medieval era. However, there were still a lot of questions. Considering how polite Mrs. Willowbone was to a stranger, he is not sure of the political structure.
The next 6 hours pass by without a notice - the bright yellow sunlight is changed with an orange-ish sunset, followed up with the gradual negative change of temperature. Passing through the forest he had seen before, Taylor notices small but bright lights emerging in the dark distance. Small, familiar beads of orange light.
-"That must be Ikhae...I've almost made it, not more than half a mile away."
As he says that, he starts noticing the change of the light's color from orange to bright yellow. Even being a distance away, he catches distant plumes of smoke rising up from the direction.
-"Fire?!"