After leaving the town he spent a month at, Quin continued his journey toward Hounxi. He did not waste much time on sightseeing or other things, just the ones that were essential. He did not go hunting for food in the forest during the first few days but instead decided to catch fish in the river -- which still flowed alongside the road. Although he had lost the fishing rod he had brought with himself from Crows’ Road, he bought a new one from the village.

Despite that he knew how to fish, he had only done it a few times before and so it turned out to be a bit more difficult than he had imagined, especially due to the rapid flow of the river. It did not discourage him though, and after a few hours, he eventually managed to catch a quite sizeable fish. Quin liked the taste of it, however, it took a lot more time and energy to catch and prepare it compared to hunting some kind of wild animal in the forest. Fish in the Feryan River were usually quite big and were filled with tiny fishbones that took a lot of time to remove, not to speak about their hard armored scales. Thus, even though he was a bit reluctant to go back hunting because of what happened last time, in the end, he still did so.

Quin did not experience any kind of strange behavior from the egg during those days, however, he started to feel something weird at the end of the first week. The best it could be described was the feeling of being called somewhere. As to where or why he had absolutely no idea, only that he felt slightly compelled.

Obviously, it did not escape his mind that it may have been the work of the egg, but he did not deem it likely. True, it was a feeling of compulsion but in contrast with the ones caused by the egg, this one was not trying to overpower him and he could not feel any malicious intent from it either.

He did feel a bit concerned as this feeling seemed to increase gradually but its intensity was still quite weak. Furthermore, it could not even be considered distracting and so he was not too worried about it.

When he had been traveling for ten whole days, strangely, this feeling seemed to have reached its maximum intensity as it did not increase even after two days have passed.

On the twelfth night, he had finally reached the last road sign, which signaled that there was only about a day’s worth of walk ahead of him. Although he was jogging instead of walking he knew that he had to stop to eat at least twice, so he would probably only arrive late in the afternoon tomorrow.

He has just finished his meditation at night and was about to go to sleep when he heard something from afar. The sound was too quiet for him to identify, but he was somehow sure that it was not coming from a wild animal. Quin listened in for another minute or two but did not hear it again and thus went to bed.

However, he was awakened by the same noise during his sleep several times and just after daybreak, Quin had finally enough. He got up -- still tired -- and decided to check the source of the sound which did not let him rest.

As he got closer, it started to get more and more familiar until he realized that it sounded like a baby’s babbling.

Damn, what’s a kid doing here? Quin was quite shocked at the view in front of him. There was a big area filled with mud, but the reason he was so surprised was because in the middle of the mud puddle stood a kid -- who looked to be around five or six years old -- half submerged and covered in mud.

“Hey, what are you doing there? Are you alright?” Quin asked but the only answer he got was some babbling that was impossible to understand.

The kid was acting... Like a kid, however, Quin found it quite strange that even though the child appeared to be stuck in the mud, they did not seem to worry about their situation at all.

Quin started to enter the mud to get the child out, however, he had to discover that this mud puddle was not something so simple. Although in the center it only reached to the kid’s stomach, but after Quin made a couple of steps he had been already submerged to his naval.

Damn, I should help them to get out but how can I do it? I can’t reach them from here and I don’t really want to get stuck there as well. Oh, right, I should just use a rope and tie one of its end to me and the others to something stable, like a big rock or a tree. He looked around quickly. Alright, that tree looks good, so I-- Damn, I didn’t bring a rope with me! What can I do now? It took him a few moments to realize that he did have some kind of rope. Right, the fishing rod! But will it be able to support my weight? It’s out of steel silk and they say that’s quite a strong material... Alright, let’s not waste any time!

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Doing something like this had its fair amount of danger, but he was afraid that the kid would suddenly decide to walk toward the deeper areas of the mud puddle.

Quin quickly tied one end of the fishing line to the tree, the other around his waist and then entered the mud puddle once again. The line itself was not actually too long, but neither was the distance between him and the child.

It was not an easy task to rescue the kid as in the deepest part, the mud reached to his shoulders and moving through something so dense made him exhausted even before he got to the kid.

“Hey kid, what are you doing here?” Quin tried asking another time. “Are you deaf?” He waved his hand a couple of times in front of the kid’s eyes, which did catch their reaction. However, all that happened was that the kid looked at him surprised for a few moments, caught his hand and then started chewing on it. “Damn, what’s wrong with you!” Quin quickly shook off the child. “You should be at least five, and that means you should be able to talk!” He said angrily but he quickly realized that he would not want to give an opportunity to the egg inside his mind and calmed himself down. With a more relaxed mind, it was also easier to think. This kid probably has some kind of mental problem otherwise, why wouldn't they be able to talk at all and why would they be so happy while being stuck in a mud puddle without having any possibility to go out? How did this kid even got here? I circled the whole thing but it had similar depth everywhere. Damn, I’ve just remembered that I started hearing these sound before I went to sleep and that means that the kid’s been here for hours! Did someone left them here? But why would anyone do something like that? Alright, I’ll think about these things later and now I’ll just try to get this kid out.

Quin decided that he would give the child a neck ride, at least if he managed to do it. He grabbed the kid by the shoulder and lifted them up, and although previously he could not figure out whether the child was a he or a she, now he was fully aware. The kid had no clothes on her so it became quite obvious that she was a girl when Quin lifted her up.

“Alright kid,” Quin said, “I’ll put you up in my neck and bring you out, but you’ll have to hold on to me, okay?” The girl did not give any kind of reaction except trying to bite down on his fingers again. “God, just wait until I’ve found your parents, I’ll have a few things to tell them!”

Quin put the girl in his neck and moved her hands around the top of his head, hoping that she would realize his intention. Unfortunately, Quin had no such luck and she moved her hand away in the very next moment. Could’ve guessed so, damn. So that means that I have to hold her the whole way...

It took a lot more time to get out of the mud puddle than to get inside, especially, because he also had to carry the girl.

“Fuh, we’re finally out,” Quin said and took the girl down. As he observed her a bit more he found out that she had a scar in the shape of a circle at the middle of her forehead. He also noticed that although the girl’s size was that of a five or six-year-old, she looked younger in truth, like an oversized toddler.

She’s really an oversized toddler! Just as he put her down, the girl started to crawl around on all four, intent on discovering the world.