“We’re here!” Baron announced to the seemingly deserted ‘village.’ For a couple more seconds, nobody appeared and even Alice was beginning to feel bad for the leader.

Damn, this is awkward. Alice contemplated finding Blanche and discussing just what the hell they were going to do in this ghost town when the first trickling of people emerged.

Out the tents, from behind the carts, and from who knew where else, people began spilling out from the village. At first, it was only a couple of people, then they came in droves by the dozen. Bright relief shined in their face as they scrambled for the hunting party, looking like they were starved for attention.

Startled, Alice took a step back but she was too late. The crowd fell upon her, grabbing her by her clothes and yanking on her hands. Alice grimaced, her instincts yelling at her to force them aside but stifling her urges. She did not need to start another conflict.

“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked her partner, raising her voice to be heard over the clammer. He looked at her, his lips pressed into a thin line, and for a second, Alice thought he was going to ignore her again.

He must have been feeling charitable because he sighed. “My people have fallen upon hard times. Every time we leave to get food, they have to stay behind and wonder if we’ll come back alive. It’s why they’re so happy. Because we all came back safe and sound.”

Alice’s mouth formed a perfect ‘O.’ So that was why. The reason was surprisingly heartbreaking. Alice gazed upon the villagers with a newfound appreciation for their actions.

It must be awful for them to not know whether or not the people they love will return. Alice mused, trying to ignore the bodies being shoved against her body, jostling her around like she was a toy figurine. Wait…what did he mean by falling on hard times?

Alice swiveled her head to ask him but she found him in the embrace of a brown-haired woman, passionately locking lips. The villagers around them were hollering and whistling in devilish delight, cheering on the couple. Alice averted her eyes but couldn’t help a small smile forming at the affectionate display.

Alice tried slipping away from the commotion to locate Blanche but even through all the noise, Alice felt like she was being watched. Lifting her head, Alice spotted Baron.

Unlike practically everybody else in the hunting party, he remained steadfast alone in the sea of people, his eyes on her once more. Alice shivered even with the warmth pressed around her. That creep. Doesn’t he have something better to do?

Still watching her, Baron lifted his arms and clapped—once, twice. Almost immediately, a hushed silence fell over the crowd, the loud noise petering to a halt. Alice observed this with wide eyes. It was honestly a little scary how quickly they became quiet.

“We have slayed the monster that has been threatening our village! With this, we can now begin the Blessed Feast!” Baron roared, his voice ripping across the tiny village.

There was a moment of stillness before the cheering picked up again, louder than ever before. The villagers started moving towards the people carrying the sacks, swarming around them and helping with the weight.

After relieving the hunting party of the serpent meat, the villagers congregated into a single file line and made their way through the village. Alice was amazed at the efficiency in which they moved. Every step, every action seemed coordinated; like they were all sharing a hive mind, or they had been trained to move like a pack.

The hunting party joined the back of the line and Alice was left in the dust with Blanche, who seemed similarly jilted. She made her way over the dwarf, trying to come to terms with how fast-paced everything was here.

“What just happened?” was the first thing that came out of her mouth when she reached earshot.

“I forgot how quickly they did things around here. At this rate, the feast is probably going to happen by the time night hits.” Blanche deflected the question.

Alice followed his gaze to the horizon, where the sun had already begun setting. Spirals of red and orange patterned the dark-hued sky, the last remnants of the sunlight struggling to be seen against the encroaching darkness.

“Nightfall is in an hour at most. Did you see how much meat they brought? There’s no way they’re going to cook that all in time for this feast.” Alice insisted.

The only response Blanche gave to that was a mysterious smile. Alice groaned. “Why? Why do you have to do that? Can’t you just tell me the answer straight up for once? Do you take pleasure in tormenting me?”

“Go find something to do. Don’t help the villagers, you’re only going to get in their way.” Blanche ordered, turning on his heel and starting to walk after the villagers.

“Hey, where are you going?” Alice called to his rapidly fading back.

Blanche lifted an arm and didn’t say a single word. Alice contemplated going after him and whacking him over the head. That’ll teach him a lesson!

Grinding her teeth, Alice looked around the village. It was starting to get windy and the tents were flapping around, the flimsy fabric at the mercy of the air. Alice noted how the carts didn’t seem to be rolling down the street and her interest piqued, she approached the nearest one.

It was stuffed with mining tools like hammers and pickaxes. After looking around to make sure nobody was watching, Alice picked up a shovel that was on top of the pile.

Hefting it up, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as heavy as she expected. At least, it was certainly above the tools she had back in her village. The wooden handle was firm, and the top didn’t look like it would snap off after striking the dirt.

“Geez, is every village better than mine?” Alice wouldn’t say she was a very patriotic individual (she abandoned her village, after all) but it stung to know that seemingly everywhere was more advanced. “At least we don’t neglect children.” Alice murmured.

Remembering that she’d come here to check out the cart itself, Alice lowered the shovel back onto the pile and dropped to the ground. She carefully examined the wheels, rubbing her hand across the spokes. When she pulled her hand away, golden dust dimly glittered on her palm.

“Weird,” Alice breathed. Forget the dwarfs, this village was even more advanced in terms of technology. Alice grasped the handle of the cart and gave it a little shove. The cart jolted forward a bit but it quickly rolled back to its starting position. Scanning the ground, Alice located small spikes on the cart that anchored it into the dirt.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

A tiny squeak permeated the air just then and Alice whipped her head up. She was certain guilt was plastered all over her face. It wasn’t a good look for a guest to come into somebody else’s village and start rummaging around their property.

Why do I always mess up in villages!? Alice shrieked in her head. On the outside, she calmly got up, brushed the dirt off her clothes, and turned to leave. Nothing to see here.

“H-hold on!” a high pitched voice insisted. Alice stopped in her tracks, clenching her eyes shut. Of course they wouldn’t want to let her go. And to make matters worse, Alice knew exactly who had spoken.

“Hey, Lily,” Alice said, remaining facing forward. Maybe if I make it clear that I don’t want to talk to her, she’ll let me leave.

“What were you doing over here?!” Lily pressed, not letting up. Her voice took on a more interrogative edge. “Were you trying to sabotage our carts!?”

Alice turned around at the accusation, her pride flaring up and demanding to rectify this mistake. “Of course not!” Alice shouted. Lily recoiled, ducking behind the cart again. Alice withdrew at the sight of the timid elf, clarity filling up the lapse of judgement again. What am I doing, screaming at a resident!?

Alice coughed into her hand, molding her face into a softer expression and making her voice as lighthearted as possible. This is no way this can work! Alice thought as she stretched her lips into a beaming smile. I’m pretty sure I look as fake as a monster!

To her everlasting shock, when Alice faced Lily with her facade on, the elf actually slackened and dared to poke her head over the cart again. Alice felt her mouth slide down before quickly pulling it back up before Lily could notice. That worked?

“So, what were you doing?” Lily questioned, her hands clenched tightly on the cart like she was worried Alice would snatch it away at any moment.

Alice sighed. She had to be honest in this situation. “I was wondering how the carts didn’t roll away in this wind. And then I got curious because of the dust.” Alice let some of her genuine excitement leak into her voice. “How’d you do that? It’s amazing!”

Lily’s face flushed, turning such a vibrant red that Alice could easily spot it even with such a sizable distance between the pair. “W-well, I don’t know exactly. The crafters create these carts so you’ll have to ask them.” Lily paused, scrunching her nose before suddenly flailing her arms around. “Actually, don’t! They’ll be really mad if they learned you’ve been snooping around the carts!”

Alice chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess anybody would be suspicious if a stranger started poking around. These carts are important to your people, right?” There were so many of them lining the road, and they had been created with more care than the tents. It was clear these carts were held in more value than anything else Alice had seen. But why?

Lily hesitated, her eyes darting back and forth. Instinctively, Alice followed her lead, also surveying the village for any stragglers. Other than the duo, she didn’t spot anyone else lurking around; then again, considering she couldn’t locate Lily until she had announced her presence, maybe Alice wasn’t the best at finding people.

“We’re wanderers,” Lily started. Alice unconsciously leaned forward, her desire to learn more about these people shining through. Lily shirked back in response and Alice let up on the pressure. Right, I forgot. She’s way more sensitive than anyone else I’ve talked to.

“‘Wanderers?’” Alice repeated, the word bringing back long-dredged memories. Where have I seen that before….. Alice’s eyes shot wide open when she reached the revelation. My stats! Is it the same as them?

Lily bobbed her head up and down. “We’ve been a traveling group for multiple generations. It’s our tradition to never stick around in one place. We wander the land, stopping to admire nature and interact with the natives before moving on. We learn, we go, and we adapt.”

Alice felt her face go pale at the possibility. Traveling on the road…forever? Never having a firm roof over your head, always having to be alert in case a monster roamed by? It was hard enough with just her and Blanche, if Alice’s entire village decided to abandon their home and take a road trip one day, Alice didn’t think they’d survive. The concept of moving such a large body of people efficiently over vast amounts of land, not just temporarily but for their entire lives, was as foriegn a idea as magic had been. Maybe even more so. Magic had been an unreachable peak for the majority of Alice’s life that she thought of it more as a myth, while traveling on the road definitely seemed possible.

“H-how? Aren’t you always worried about finding food, water, shelter, surviving against the monsters? Even more, with that many people…” Alice counted all the cons on her hands until she ran out of fingers. She just didn’t see why anybody would subject themselves to that!

Lily sighed, a breathy noise that broke through Alice’s confusion-induced haze. It was the sound of someone reminiscing of bygone precious memories.

“It was beautiful. Every day was like a dream. Sometimes we passed by glowing creeks, other times we traversed among rolling green fields. Being surrounded by nature, meeting new people, exploring the world. We never knew what would come next, except that we would tackle it together.” Lily clasped her hands together and her head was turned towards the horizon, her mind obviously far away from the present.

Alice tried to correlate the haggard looking people with the magnificent image Lily had painted with her words. Suffice to say, it was difficult. Like two puzzle pieces that didn’t fit each other.

“…what happened?” Alice cautiously prodded, unsure if this was going to be offensive. If Lily didn’t know what Alice meant, then she’d drop it. Alice didn’t need another incident with a different village.

Lily startled and whipped her head to face Alice, resembling a scared rabbit. Had she forgotten Alice was still here?

Lily’s face fell as she mulled over Alice’s question, until it was a far cry from the whimsical nostalgia that she had on only seconds ago. Alice started to freak out internally, wondering if she’d made a mistake.

“I…we changed.” Lily said hollowly. “We reached this small patch of land and decided to rest, when we just happened to find iron ore in the ground. A couple of us decided to mine it and save it for money in the next town we visit, but news somehow spread.”

Lily narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth, reliving something dreadful. “It was the day we were supposed to leave. We were already packed up and ready to go when a small group intercepted us. We thought they were travelers like us so we went to greet them.” Lily’s eyes darkened. “They were nobles.”

Alice stifled a gasp. A bone-chilling coldness was rapidly descending onto her body. Nobles. Of course. What else could it be? It was all coming together now, the mismatched puzzle pieces gnashing together in a horrible picture. Alice clenched her hands, her arms shaking with constrained rage.

“We didn’t know what they wanted at first, but we soon learned they had heard of the iron ore. They saw how we mined them, and they wanted us to mine it for them. We refused, of course. It wasn’t in our way to stay in one place for so long.” Lily lowered her head, her breaths coming out in shuddering gasps. “It didn’t take long for us to change our minds.”

Alice exhaled heavily, rubbing her eyes. “We’re all just messed up, aren’t we?”

“Huh? What happened to you?” Lily asked.

Alice paused. That was the question, wasn’t it? How has she changed over the past couple of weeks? She recalled a boisterous girl declaring to the Devil that she was going to fix the world, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. And now…Alice wasn’t even sure if she should try.

“I don’t know,” Alice murmured. “I guess I just thought that the world was pretty black and white. Nobles were bad, commoners were good. But then I went to a village, and even though there weren’t any nobles, the people were still horrible. They turned against their own children, ostracized them for things outside their control….what makes us different from the nobles?”

Alice had been an overconfident child when she’d declared her bold desire to fix the world. She thought she’d be unstoppable. But it seemed like ever since she left her parents behind in her village, all she’d accomplished was getting pushed around.

Alice rested her chin onto the palm of her hand, staring at Lily. “Maybe…this was a mistake.”