Observing the valley continued for a number of days. Jessica couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation. Without a way to observe the insides, she was stuck waiting.
Having found a small tree, she was further alerted. Her days of observing had showed that, nothing was coming in this vicinity. Throughout her journey, the forest had shown it was large, with many things inside.
Not always, as there would be days she wouldn’t see anything throughout an entire day. When other days came, she made nearly no progress as she would constantly need to ask herself if it was worth it to expose herself. Though clearly after the first few times, Jessica had learned to hold back as when she saw one, there would always be more.
Thus, this place became alarmingly suspicious as there hadn’t been anything in the vicinity from start to finish. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to confirm any of her suspicions.
As time trickled by, she slowly started to lose her patience. Almost as if waiting for that moment, after getting up, ready to call it a day. Jessica had just stood up and turned around.
There at the edge of the valley, from where shadows seemed to be playing. Constantly blocking her sight from penetrating deeper in. A break came, a person came roaming out.
With casual clothes, that didn’t fit being inside a forest. Let alone a forbidden zone. The man was tall with a bald head. Drawing her attention was a nasty looking scar that was hard not to look at. With a cigarette in his mouth, he brought his hand up to rub his bald head, before settling on the side with the scar.
Rubbing it a bit, he turned back towards the valley before moving further away. As he moved, he was starting to mumble under his breath. It was not clear at first, though once it became audible Jessica was not shocked by the man’s use of curse words. Nor with the amount of hate he was speaking anything new.
What drew her attention most was not the words but the voice. As this was the same voice she had followed to get here. Clearly still upset about the events taking place inside the valley. He kicked a few things. As he continued to mumble to himself, he soon released everything.
Staring up at the sky, “When is this shit going to be over. All were doing is waiting. Wait. Wait. Wait, ahhh, how long are we supposed to sit here doing fucking nothing. Those fucking elves are so fucking annoying. How the fuck is anyone supposed to stay near them. Fucking creepy…”
Closing his eyes, Jessica watched the man silently in the dark. Without making a move, even going so far as the slow her breathing, as she watched cautiously. Looking for anything that might alert her that the man before her noticed her spying.
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However, the man didn’t show anything signs of anything through his anger. He wasn’t leaking any mana. Though that wasn’t strange. Inside the forbidden zone, unless one had complete confidence, they would reign in their mana the best they could.
Attention here was not good. With a single fight, drawing blood. Bringing with it a stampede of other troubles. Jessica was doing the same, which brought no surprise for the man before to do the same. This only made things more complicated.
Jessica could not understand Cassie’s instructions. No matter how she thought about it, clearly these people were related to the item. They were the only thing she had found with continued searching. Without confirmation of how many there was. She could do nothing but search elsewhere. This group would be a last resort without more information.
Watching the man silently sighing at the sky. She was unsure of what to make of the man. The same could be said about him, “So what do we do now?”
All the hair on Jessica’s hair stood up as she felt something wrong. With his eyes close he turned his head, tilted up as he turned in her direction as his eyes half opened. Freezing, she didn’t immediately take any action.
“Hm…” squinting he seemed a bit confused, “I’m I feeling things now? Strange.”
Turning around he started to walk back, as he was halfway between the valley and her, he stopped. Turning in her direction one last time he seemed to tilt his head in wonder.
As he turned around he took another two steps, “You’re pretty good.”
Back peddling as fast as she could, the man had disappeared. A loud explosion rang out where she had just been hiding. The entire green scenery was now black as smoke and residue black powder continued to burn as the mixture with mana continued to fuel the flames.
Without turning back around, she couldn’t see anyone to begin with. There was no point in attempting to move backwards. At this moment, she had no choice but to run. The valley was too close. Without knowing how many there was inside, now alerted.
Making it not 30 seconds. She was stopped in her tracks, in front of her was a man in casual wear. He had a cigarette in his mouth, a small bundle in his hand. Using the back of his hand to lift the cigarette into a better position. Red ember at the end moving but a tiny distance from the wick coming from between his fingers, leading to the bundle in his hand.
There was a smile on his face, “Where are you going? See I told my friend I felt someone watching us. It wasn’t strong enough so we weren’t sure if it was true. Who would have known that coming out for a breather would lead me into confirming that strange sensation.”
Seeing she wasn’t talking he could only size her up a little, “Hey, friend. You keep what I said a secret alright? That’s all I want.”
Without an answer he seemed to frown a little. As Jessica opened her mouth, the man waited to hear what she had to say. Only what came out of her mouth was not words but mist. With a crinkle in his brow his face quickly changed as the mist started to travel without falling or disappearing.
“Fuck!” Spitting out the cigarette out of his mouth while moving back. As the lit ember met the mist it once again painted the forest in a burst of flames and smoke.