Four more days of their arduous journey passed by with only a few minor delays. Their travels led them in between a mountain range covered in mist. As they continued further in, the mist continued to get heavier and thicker. “Hey, are you sure this is the right way?” Aislin questioned, her eyes squinting in an attempt to increase visibility.

“Yeah, we should be coming up to it shortly. Be careful though, there is a drop that leads into the village. We will have to take the road that circles down into it.” Lizali explained.

A minute after this comment, the fog rapidly thinned, and Aislin brought the carriage to an abrupt halt. Stunned, Aislin’s eyes grew wide as she softly chuckled, “Damn, what a sight.”

Everyone clamored to the front of the carriage to see what stopped Aislin and they all had the same reaction. In front of them was a massive crater with a village set up within it. The village appeared to be far more advanced than anything they had seen previously. Houses and buildings made from a material other than wood, some even had signs that appeared to glow. There was a bustling population and the sounds of the happy citizens softly echoed through the chasm.

Baz, amazed at the sight before him, asked, “What the hell is this place?”

Lizali smirked as she responded, “This place? This is my home, the hidden village you were all looking for. Welcome to the Village of the Forgotten Crater!”

The party descended down the chasm walls, following the winding road that circled down into the village. Finally pulling up to the village entrance, two guards armed with weapons engraved with strange symbols stopped them. One of the guards roughly shouted, “Halt! Who goes there, and what business do you have here?!”

His partner bumped his helmet with the pommel of his sword and scolded, “You idiot, that is not how we treat guests who are very clearly not here to do harm!” Turning to face the party, he then apologized, “Sorry about him, he is still new to this. He is having a hard time understanding how difficult it is to even find this place, let alone for someone to plan a raid.”

Popping her head out from the back of the carriage, Lizali shouted, “BOO!”

The first guard screamed, stumbled back, and ended up falling down. The second guard sighed, “Lizali, could you please refrain from scaring the newbies?”

Giggling, Lizali responded, “But Jera, it’s too much fun! I can’t just not do it!”

Rolling his eyes, Jera nonchalantly threw his thumb over his shoulder and explained, “We can talk about that later. But for now, it may be best for you to head back to Old Man Pon’s place; he seemed rather agitated that his helper ‘vanished’ without a word.”

Wincing slightly, Lizali put her hand on Aislin’s shoulder and pointed straight ahead as she exclaimed, “Now, onwards! Quickly, before he decides to cut my research funds again!”

Jera put his hand up to stop them and reminded, “Now Lizali, you know carriages are not allowed within the city. I am not supposed to do this, but leave it here, I will take care of it. In exchange, you owe myself and the newbie Kiv here a round of drinks.”

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Liz thanked him as sincerely as she could and then turned her attention towards the town. “Now, without further delay! Onwards, for the sake of my funds!” She reiterated before taking off

Everyone else gave chase. As they ran through the village Zycor began to slow down, coming to a stop. Taking some deep breaths, he began to look around at everyone walking by. It wasn’t just humans, but demi-humans as well. There were human-human and demi-demi relationships of course, but also human-demi relationships as well. There were even human and demi-human children running around together, seemingly great friends.

Not once in his wildest dreams did Zycor even consider a place like this existed. He saw how humans would treat demi-humans. He believed Baz and Mylon to be an oddity, a glitch. But here he was, surrounded by an entire population just like them. His mind thought of Aisha and the incident in the city when they were younger. He then remembered the situation they were just in when they entered Vestrana. His own form was now that of a demi-human.

Grinding his thoughts to a halt, Nalea appeared next to him. “Is everything alright, Sir Zycor? Everyone else has already arrived at the destination.”

Zycor, lost in thought, replied, “Y-yeah, I am fine. Let’s get going.”

Nalea nodded her head and led him to the shop. Arriving, Zycor heard the yelling of an old man, who he assumed was this ‘Pon’ guy, “...And I believe I specifically told you to not get involved any further with that woman! She does nothing but cause us trouble!”

Attempting to defend her actions, Lizali quietly responded, “Adria has not given me any trouble though…”

“ME,” Pon shouted back, “she gives ME nothing but trouble! Are you happy now? Regardless, you know what I told you. Therefore, your research funding is cut by 30% for the next two months.”

An instant expression of shock appeared on Lizali’s face, slumping down onto the ground in utter depression. “Is there any way you could be lenient with her?” Zycor interjected.

Pon looked over at Zycor and scoffed, “Oh great another one, what do you want?”

Zycor briefly inspected the man. He had a white-gray beard and minimal hair on his head. What really stuck out was how short the man was. Zycor couldn’t help but compare him to Jorvaal, the dwarven blacksmith he knew in Abros. Zycor introduced himself, “Hello sir, my name is Zycor. Liz is a very dear friend of mine who I have known for a long time. We recently were able to meet again due to her leaving. So if you do decide to punish her, I ask that you split it between the both of us.”

Pon’s expression changed upon hearing Zycor’s name. “Ah, so you are the boy! I can’t tell you how much this one has talked about you. Once she started, she wouldn’t stop! Talking about how much she missed you and all that!” Pon chortled.

Lizali shot up and stuttered, “H-h-hey, Old Man Pon! Don’t tell him that!”

His anger instantly returning, Pon exploded, “Who are you calling an ‘old man’!? I will have you know I am only one-hundred and forty! That is still rather young for a dwarf!”

Lizali recoiled behind Aislin. Letting out a hefty sigh, Pon apologized, “Sorry you had to bear witness to that. It would appear we must continue to work on her manners.”

Zycor gave a soft smile, “No need for an apology. In fact, I should apologize to you. It would seem I have indirectly caused you trouble.”

Pon chuckled, “Hoho, what a well mannered and kind young man you are! I feel sort of bad about how I initially treated you. I’ll tell ya what, if you have any questions, I won’t charge ya for answering them, how’s that?”

Zycor nodded and the two gave each other a firm handshake. Baz leaned over to Mylon and whispered, “Do you really think he charges people for answering their questions?”

Mylon thought for a moment, then leaned over and whispered back, “He is a dwarf… so probably.”