The two children ran to the top of the hill as the footsteps of the guards and the sound of water crashing against the rocks grew louder and louder. Despite this, Apolo could never see the guards running towards him, so the boy wasn't so sure how far away the guards really were or why their steps were so loud.

Ignoring the logical question of why the guards never caught up to them, Helena led Apolo to the top of the hill as if her life depended on it until they finally reached their destination. To Apolo's incredible surprise, the top of the hill in question was not a cliff with a deadly precipice at the end, but it was the place where a very picturesque and lively river originated. The clear water of the river constantly flowed from inside a pile of rocks that created the characteristic sound of water crashing against the rocks. However, the river was quite narrow and only a few centimeters deep, so it would be more accurate to call it a creek rather than a river.

—Is it this way?—Apolo asked, looking at the creek with doubt, while he leaned on his knees and breathed heavily, trying to stabilize himself after the run.

—Yes, come on, the entrance to my hideout is super hidden: Once we get in, we'll escape from the guards!—Helena replied as she took the breathless boy's hand again and dragged him to one of the trees near the spot where the creek originated.

Upon arrival, Apolo saw a large pile of dry leaves around a fallen tree trunk, which was quite rotten and full of mushrooms. Knowing that they were heading to a hideout, it was somewhat obvious to the boy that this was the entrance to a secret place. However, if you were unaware of the fact that there was a hidden hideout in this area, it was practically impossible to distinguish this entrance from the forest floor.

Helena approached the rotten trunk and, with a lot of effort, lifted it, causing a large number of worms and insects to scatter in fear. For the keen eyes of someone very awake, this indicated that the place had been closed for far too long, which in turn showed that no one visited the interior of this hideout frequently. Unfortunately, Apolo was not exactly a great detective. On the other hand, the boy could see that underneath the trunk was a well dug too perfectly for it to have been done by a man using a tool. The well had a series of wooden branches covered in moss and in quite a bad condition attached to one of its walls, which were used to descend into it, indicating that there should be a hidden underground room in this place.

Remembering how Helena had moved the fallen tree leaves to hide them from the guards, demonstrating great magical skill, Apolo asked:

—How did you dig this hideout?

While Apolo was not exactly a scholar or a seldom-seen genius, even a peasant would realize that someone had clearly used magic to create this well. Otherwise, the walls of the well would not be so well-made. Besides these clues, for some strange reason, Apolo felt that Helena might, by some chance, be the disciple of a mage, which, for some reason he couldn't quite understand, bothered him more than it should have.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

—I didn't make this hideout; I found it by chance. Look at the state of the boards; clearly, this place was dug many years ago—Helena replied faster than Apolo would have liked, as if it were a prepared response. However, it was also true that Helena was in a hurry to escape from the guards, so she might not be lying.

Without further explanations, Helena began to descend the mossy steps of the hideout while saying:

—Remember to put the trunk back in place before you come down; the guards will arrive soon, and we need to hurry.

With many questions, Apolo watched as Helena went down the stairs. However, the boy's curiosity about understanding this "dream" won over his doubt and caused the boy to decide to descend into the tunnel. To do this, Apolo began to crawl into the tunnel, leaning on the mossy boards with particular care not to slip. Once the boy had half of his body in the well, he began to look for the trunk to cover the entrance. However, before he could finish dragging the trunk to the entrance, the boy abruptly stopped and instead became so frightened that he remained paralyzed, staring ahead. Just a few meters from Apolo were the two guards staring at him as he tried to close the entrance to the hideout!

Apolo didn't know how to react to the situation, so he stood there paralyzed, silently staring at the guards. Clearly, the guards had found them, and the children had failed in their mission to hide from them. However, the two guards said nothing and didn't move a muscle as they stared fixedly at Apolo.

After some very uncomfortable seconds in complete silence, Apolo carefully resumed the task of covering the entrance to the hideout, slowly dragging the rotten trunk toward the entrance, as if the slowness of his movements would allow him to escape the gaze of these two people who were lurking from a distance. Although the idea was quite foolish, for some reason, it was working because the guards were not moving, and they passively watched in silence as the boy covered the entrance to the hideout. Before completely covering it, Apolo gave one last look at the two guards and stopped again, paralyzed, as he watched the two guards smiling at him with a smile that was too wide to be normal.

—Are they my guides? Are they trying to help me understand my mission as an ancestor?—Apolo shouted to the two guards, wearing the silver mask, trying to find the answer to why they weren't doing anything and just watching.

However, there were no answers from the guards. Nevertheless, the two men began to raise their hands in unison and pointed to the ground where Apolo was entering as if indicating his next great goal.

—Do I have to go in? Are my answers inside here? Why the hell are you doing everything so enigmatically? Wouldn't it be better if you just gave me a few pieces of advice instead of having me going from one place to another without understanding the reason?—Apolo asked, more angry than bewildered. The boy deduced that these masked men were his ancestors and were trying to guide him, but Apolo couldn't quite understand why these people wouldn't invite him to sit down for breakfast at the castle while telling him about the life of an ancestor, instead of making him suffer so much with riddles.

However, the guards turned a deaf ear and continued to point to the interior of the hideout like statues. Seeing the guards' attitude, Apolo resigned himself to seeking answers from the guards and finished covering the entrance to the hideout under the watchful eyes of the guards. However, the darkness did not last long because, coordinated with the appearance of darkness, fluorescent crystals on the walls of the well began to illuminate the ends of the steps with a faint light.