Still dazed by the surreal sight, Josh followed the group through the gates, they had been opened just long enough for them to get inside before quickly being sealed. The realization that there was a second moon in the sky opened up a lot of questions.

The second moon was there all along, if I had just looked up I could have seen it. For some reason it feels like that’s why I didn’t look up. Maybe it is really a dream. There’s no other logical explanation, magic maybe? Maybe.

The leader finished to talk with the guards, the group was starting to disperse but Anya was looking straight at me. She gestured to follow her, I had no better options so I walked after her into the village. This was clearly a village, and not a big one at that. There were some crops here and there, I couldn’t see what they were growing but it didn’t seem like there was a lot. The houses were made mostly of wood with some having some type of bricks. I could see a house with some glass windows, but most of them were just closed with a wooden window.

The road was illuminated by torches placed along the way, the road itself was clean, it wasn’t paved but it was mostly even.

Anya stopped in front of a house, it was one of the better built in the village. I don’t know what’s going to happen now but if they wanted to hurt me, they wouldn’t have brought me to the village.

She knocked on the door, as I got closer I could hear someone moving inside. The door was opened by a woman, she started to talk with Anya, we followed inside after she invited us. The house wasn’t big, from what I could see we were in the living room. The kitchen, if we can call a table next to a chimney a kitchen, was next to the living room. There were also four closed doors that I could see. We sat down Anya now, mostly talking with the woman listening.

The woman wasn’t young, she wasn’t particularly old either. She had brown hair going down her back not quite reaching her hips, her eyes were a dull green going brown in the center. She was a bit shorter than I was, her arms were visibly toned and her body looked athletic.

I focused on the conversation when I heard Anya mention my name, she wasn’t calling me but they were clearly talking about me. This went on for a few minutes, Anya explaining something with the woman probably asking questions here and there. It seemed that they were done when the woman turned to face me, “Josh” she said, she continued speaking in that alien language before emphasising and repeating what I could only assume to be her name. Velara, for some reason I felt that the name fit her, I knew that Anya told her my name but I answered to be polite.

Anya didn’t stay long after that, no doubt helping me took quite some time, she probably wanted to go home now.

Velara showed me the house, she explained where everything was. I couldn’t understand of course but it was nice to be talked to.There was a bathroom, thank God, the room where I was going to spend the night wasn’t big, there was a small bed and a chair in the corner. I dropped the blanket and pillow that I was still carrying. At some point I started repeating some words, Velara picked it up and patiently started to point at objects before slowly saying their names, waiting until I repeated before continuing.

A man came out of one of the closed rooms, he was tall, maybe one head taller than me, with big muscles. He had scars on one of his arms and on his left cheek. Short black hair, neatly shaved facial hair, the man looked like a soldier.

He talked shortly with Velara before moving to the kitchen, he started preparing dinner for tonight. I must admit that with everything going on I put my hunger in the back of my head. But now seeing and smelling food, it came back with a vengeance.

Velara told me his name was Treg when I asked her, well when I pointed at Treg and she somehow understood.

We continued our game of show and tell until Treg brought the food to the table. The food wasn’t particularly good, barely if no spices in tonight’s dinner. However I was hungry, besides complaining about free food is never a good idea, not that I could tell the chef what I thought.

I went to sleep shortly after, I was exhausted after all that walking. The bed was hard but as a silver lining I was already in my pajamas. I snuggled into my blanket and fell asleep when my head hit the pillow.

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I woke up the next morning still tired, my body stiff from the hard bed. The sun had already risen, there were sounds from the other side of the door. The smell of breakfast was faint, but I could smell that something had been cooked recently.

I had hoped that I would wake up in my bed, all events of yesterday nothing more than a dream. Like I would be so lucky, beats waking up outside, I’m going to consider myself lucky that I found this place at all. Glass half full and such things.

I stretched in my bed before getting up, my pyjamas looked dirty from the trek. I will try to ask Velara for a change of clothes, I can’t stay in my pyjamas all day. I didn’t have a choice yesterday but today I do.

Velara was waiting in the adjacent room, she was sharpening a sword that wouldn’t look out of place in a medieval fair. She looked up from her work then set sheathed her sword before gesturing toward the table.

Looks like they left some breakfast for me. Velara is probably a guard judging by her outfit. She looks important, I wonder if she should waste her time taking care of me. Well we’ll see what happens today, hopefully they’ll know what happened to me.

I followed Velara outside, she led me through the village. The villagers were busy working all over the place. Some were working the plots of land, others were repairing the different buildings in various states of disrepair. The guards were walking up and down the streets sometimes knocking on doors and entering houses. There was some tension weighing on everyone, the villagers watched me with mistrustful eyes quickly averting their gazes when I or Velara looked at them. They scurried away tending to whatever tasks they had for the day.

Must not get a lot of new faces here.

We reached our destination, a house like every other one around. Velara talked to a man for a short while before leaving me here. Gustav, I heard Velara call him that, did not look pleased. He looked me up and down before heading to his house. He was scowling all the while, I was clearly an imposition on this man.

Hey that’s not fair, I obviously couldn’t wear Velara’s clothes and Treg’s were a bit too big. It’s not my fault if I look like someone wearing his older brother’s clothes.

Gustav looked like a scholar, or a scribe perhaps. He was short with a little bit of fat, his ass belonged to a chair, he was no warrior. His house looked like Velara’s smaller but with books and writing implements on a desk. It was a quill with some ink and parchments laying on the table. There were some decorations and items in the house with some of them looking like they could be expensive.

You can say what you want about Gustav’s character but he is a good teacher. Velara had apparently left me here to learn the language, after hours of learning with a short pause to eat in the middle, the numbers of words I knew grew rapidly. I even learned some letters. I’m not usually good at languages but I feel like I’m making some small progress. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have a phone distracting you.

As the sun set Gustav was talking in full sentences, nothing complicated mind you but sentences nonetheless. My repertoire of answers ranged from what I learned meant ‘yes’ and ‘no’. I could also roughly understand when someone was asking for my name, but the most important sentence I learned to say today was ‘what is that called’ or maybe it meant something similar. Anyhow now I don’t have to awkwardly point at things and wait until someone understands what I want. Gustav was not as delighted as I was, now that I could speak I asked about everything. The words I learned stuck to my mind and I rarely had to ask more than three times before committing them to memory.

Alas all fun must end, the sun had already set when Anya knocked at the door. I stepped outside after thanking Gustav, he merely hmmff and closed the door after me.

I think that I’m growing on him.

Anya started talking to me as she walked, we were going in the direction of the central market. We passed it this morning but I didn’t have time to properly observe it. It was deserted this late, the marketplace wasn’t big, I didn’t see many people in the village but they still had to trade food I suppose.

Guards were patrolling the area.They were visible by the torches they carried, it was nice to know the village was safe during the night.

The walk felt relaxing, we weren’t walking hurryingly, I couldn’t understand what Anya was saying but I picked up words here and there. During a lull in the conversation I thanked her, that was one world that I did learn today, I’m not sure about what she said after that. It’s gonna take some time before I can freely talk to people again.

I should try to thank the other hunters too. If not for escorting me here at least for not shooting me out there.

It didn’t take long to reach Velara’s place, she wasn’t inside but Treg was. There was some food in the kitchen.

I ate quickly and went to bed, today was tiring too, not physically but mentally. I’ll just have to stick with it until I can ask some questions… and preferably when I can understand the answers too.