After the initial confusion of me uttering a word after all this time, the two chatterers are hit by a sudden revelation.

They profusely apologize about how they talked behind my back. However, they don't have much time to do so. Celia is already back to the centre of the group.

“Wait, Samuel? You are okay now?” She addresses me. “You know, it’s been hard to continue without your help. Please don’t do something like that again. You scared us. And you know, we really couldn’t help it, it’s quite hard to survive even after all the time in the group…”

“Yes, I understand, don’t worry, I’ve been able to reflect during all this time, ” I say quietly, not wanting to bring disagreement again. “Anyway, what was this thing about a settlement you saw? And this species from another world?”

“Ah yes… Further away there’s a village next to the river.” She supplies. It pretty much looks like what you would find in South American jungles. However, I’ve seen a glimpse of the ones living there…”

“And?” Asks one of the slanderers.

“Their skin is… made of bark? They look like tree people. Their hair is made of foliage it would seem.”

“So we really had a close encounter of the Third Kind?” Asks Kevin.

“That would refer to aliens, though, I don’t think we can consider that a UFO sighting or something of the sort.” Is Jessica’s reply.

“Okay guys, I don’t think that’s what we should focus on right now.” I try to refocus the discussion. “What do we do? We are clearly different to them and we don’t know how they’d act around us. It would be nice to be able to rest for a while in a settlement, with fewer dangers hovering over our heads.”

“And how would we be able to communicate with them. They might not even be able to talk for all we know.” Says Curtis.

“If they are in advanced groups like this one, they should be able to communicate with each other. Now the question is how will we be able to appear non-threatening to them so they don’t outright attack us and how we will be able to initiate dialogue. Samuel, you were a Doctor without Borders, right? Don’t you know how to approach people that don't talk the same languages as you do?” Celia inquires.

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“I don’t really know how to do that, most of my missions were planned by the association. I didn’t need to present myself as non-threatening since they knew who we were. However, I’ll try, maybe if they see someone unarmed and not fit for fighting they won’t feel threatened.”

“Okay, but I’ll be with you and the rest of the group should stay not far from us.”

With Celia’s announcement, we continue walking towards where she saw the hamlet. After being some 50 meters away from what looks like the village’s entrance.

As Celia said, it really looks like we’ve been parachuted into the Amazon Forest. The houses’ roof is made of various dried up leaves and the walls are made of a complex set of wooden sticks and planks. They are however much more organized as what we would see in the Amazonian Forest. The central road even looks like it’s frequented by carts. There might have commerce.

Now separating from the group, Celia and myself slowly walk the last few meters, we can already see some curious individuals approaching us at the same pace.

“Raskis!” We hear one shout.

To the shout, another one shakes their head.

Slowly, I raise my hands in the air. “Peace?” I ask, carefully.

To my surprise, I can fluently comprehend their answer: “Yes. We are peaceful, we don’t want war. Who are you, stranger bearing the looks of Raskis?”

“We speak the same language?” I ask the being.

“It would seem so, or maybe this System we saw let us communicate.” It answers. “So, you didn’t answer my question, Raski-face.”

“Sorry. My name is Samuel and she is Celia. We never heard of Arkluns before, but we are Humans. We lost our way in the forest and have been trying to survive the past few days.”

“Humans, you say? We have never seen your kind before. However, you closely resemble beings calling themselves Raskis. The only difference between you is that they have strange lines running around on their skins. It changes colours together with their whole eyes.”

“We call ourselves Plantlings.” Interrupts an old-looking man coming from behind the group of autochthons. “I am called Alan Ubii. I am this village’s chief and Aili Ubii’s High Chief’s brother. I welcome you to Bolset if you don’t plan on violence, obviously.”

“Yes. Obviously, we just want a shelter. We’ve been walking through this jungle for so long we are filthy and exhausted.” Celia takes over the discussion. “We never fought before the system came and have been trying to stave off Flayguars since it came. Samuel here is a healer. Before all this, he was trying to save the most in needs. We really are grateful for your hospitality.”

“This is quite a noble aspiration, Mister Samuel. We are honoured to greet someone like you here. Our village survived here only thanks to plants. We have been able to stave off the monsters thanks to their smells. However, our medicinal plants are quite rare.”

“How many are there in your group?”

“We are 10. We have a Wind Mage too, but we never knew of magic before…”

“You… didn’t know of magic before? Oh you poor souls, come in here we will teach you what we know.”