The next day Chris woke up to the sun right on his face, it was late in the day. He figured he overslept. He got up and looked around for Darius who wasn't around.

Anisa spoke from behind "Brother isn't here."

Chris was taken back and turned to see Anisa sitting at the edge of the hut. Was she watching me while I was asleep?

"Hey Anisa, where did he go?"

"Brother went to the nearby village." She replied.

"There is a village nearby? you guys didn't tell me about it yesterday." He asked her.

"The village is not safe, brother doesn't allow me to also go there."

"Why?" He asked.

"I don't know, brother tells it's not safe, I listen to brother."

Chris thought about Roger, if he comes searching for him, he will definitely check the village out. He decided he will ask Darius more about the village when he comes back.

"So by when will he come back?" he asked her.

"Brother said he will be back by tomorrow, he wanted to tell you, but didn't want to disturb you." She replied.

She added, "Why do you sleep this much Philip, you are weird."

Chris felt embarrassed at this. Then his tummy made a growling sound.

Chris went red.

Anisa just kept looking at him. He started feeling awkward.

After what felt like an eternity she spoke "There is some food if you are hungry, but you have to help me with something."

"What help do you need from me, Anisa?" he asked trying to be extra nice.

"You have to promise first that you will help me."

Chris guessed it will probably be some help in the hut or something.

He replied hastily almost as if his hunger spoke for him, "Yes Anisa I will help you, I promise."

Her face lit up and there was a big smile on her face. The moment strangely reminded him of Ignatius, he wondered how he is doing, and if Sarah would have got the news of her son's disappearance, he doubted though that news would have traveled so fast.

She gave him some dried meat. He was so famished that he let go of all his eating etiquettes.

Anisa sat opposite and just stared at him. What a strange child he thought.

After he finished, she spoke about the help she needed.

"I want to gift brother something, to get that I need your help."

Chris guessed again that it will be to get some materials so that she can make something for Darius.

He said, "Okay, when do we leave?"

"We leave now," she said and handed him a spear made out of sharpened stone, holding one for herself. She carried with her what looked like a sack made out of boar skin.

Chris figured that the spear was for protection against other animals and the sack probably to carry all the materials? He guessed if he asked her she will give some weird answers, so he didn't bother and just followed her.

They were going downstream which meant they were going deeper into the forest. The more they walked the more the surroundings changed, there were rarely any trails to walk, with thick vegetation slowing them down. They used their spear to clear the vegetation as they walked.

Chris started getting worried, he thought of the Panthon that he had seen yesterday, the more they went in so would increase the probability of encountering a wild animal. He was confident of his speed, but he was worried about Anisa. He can't defend them both. Did she think that I have some strong magical affinity?

He asked her "Hey Anisa, can you tell me where we are headed, isn't it dangerous to go deeper into the forest."

"You promised me, Philip, you can't break promises." He sighed and again thought about Ignatius.

"It's not about that Anisa, what if wild beasts attack us?" he asked worriedly.

She stopped, turned, and spoke, "It's ok Philip, I know you will protect me, brother trusts you, so I trust you as well."

Chris now knew that she had a big misunderstanding about his power. He should have told them yesterday.

He was about to tell her. She stopped, "We are here."

She went into a crawling position, Chris wanted to ask her what is she doing, but she just went ahead leaving him no option but to follow.

After making some distance, she started pointing her finger ahead. He slowly looked up and his heart gave away. It was a nest of some creature. There were six eggs on them, almost his own size. He didn't want to imagine the size of the creature it belonged to.

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He looked around, for now, there was no one near. She got up, opened the sack, and tried to push one of the eggs inside it. She looked at Chris who was still lying down.

"Help me, Philip."

He thought out loud "She is crazy!"

Having no other option he rushed to help her in order to put the egg into the sack quickly and leave before whatever creature the nest belonged to returns. The egg was heavy, but somehow they managed to fit it into the sack, the next task was to take it back to the hut.

And then Chris felt something, he looked at Anisa's face. She turned pale, he knew the reason.

He turned to see in the distance a huge lizard looking right across them. It was as dark as the night it had pitch-black scales. Chris didn't need to guess if it was its nest with the way it was coming towards them.

"Anisa we have to run!"

"No not without the egg, I am not leaving without the egg."

"Anisa we need to leave, I am sure your brother would want to see you and not the egg."

"No Philip, you promised, you promised."

What's with people and their expectations in him to keep his promises. He started thinking about how to escape with the egg. His eyes fell on a possible opportunity, there was a downward slope a few feet away from where they were standing which ended with a drop into the river below.

"Ok Anisa here is what we are going to do, we will roll the egg down that slope and we run in the same direction, and we pray the egg is strong enough to not break."

She nodded and said, "The egg won't break Philip." Chris wanted to ask more but he didn't have time.

They both put their backs to it and pushed the egg down the slope and they ran. The egg started rolling ahead of them. Due to its weight, the vegetation didn't slow it down. Chris flinched every time the egg hit a tree but instead of cracking it kept damaging the trees. It was like a boulder falling down.

When the lizard had spotted them it was quite far away, Chris guessed it would take some time for it to come through with all that thick vegetation, but to Chris's horror, it had made up distance very quickly and was right at the edge of the slope. It started coming down and was not very far away, for a creature of this size it was very fast.

The egg reached the end of the slope and fell off the cliff into the river. Chris had to slow down for Anisa. The lizard was drawing close. He held her hand and sped as much as he can jumping over into the river, it was a long fall, longer than he had imagined.

They crashed into the water, fortunately, they didn't hit any of the rocks. They both held on to each other and saw the sack holding the egg stuck in one of the edges of the rocks, they went towards it and dragged it out into the opposite shore.

Chris saw the lizard watching them from the drop, they had barely made it. The lizard was at least thirty meters big and its dark yellow eyes were looking right at them, it gave him shivers. Being so big, Chris had hoped that it wouldn't jump like them, and he was right. But it didn't give up, moving its head around, Chris guessed it was looking for a way to get down.

He knew they didn't have much time, they got lucky earlier, they won't be this time. It was going to catch up to them. He cursed his fortune and thought "Nonstop near-death experiences? so much for a boring life in this world."

Their only option was to let go of the egg. But he knew what Anisa was going to say. He looked at her.

But she was not looking at him nor the lizard. She was looking into the forest behind them.

"Anisa we need to let go of the egg."

"It will not follow us inside this," she pointed at the forest.

He looked at the forest again "Then let's go". He noticed that the lizard had found a way down and was approaching it. It was going to catch up any moment.

"Let's go, Anisa, hold the egg"

"Brother said we must not enter the Anabastha forest."

"Anabastha Forest?" he had heard the name before from Roger.

Chris needed to make a decision quickly, watching the Lizard sliding down the slope he made one. He lifted the egg, held Anisa's hands, and walked into the Anabastha forest.

It was really difficult to move inside the forest due to the vegetation which was really thick. It was quite dark inside as the light was unable to reach the forest floor.

They stopped and looked behind to see if it was following them. It didn't as Anisa said. But Chris could see its dark scales at the edge, standing still and watching them. They were not out of danger yet, and in the back of his head he kept thinking what is preventing it from entering the forest, it had to be something more dangerous and they just walked into it.

After what felt like a comfortable distance, they stopped, he kept the egg down. He looked at Anisa the orchestrator of all this trouble. But for some reason, he didn't feel anger towards her, maybe because he knew she was doing this all for her brother.

She looked at her, she seemed more exhausted than him.

They both looked at that egg and Chris spoke "That omelet better be the best one I have ever tasted."

Anisa looked at him and started laughing, for some reason Chris also started to laugh, they laughed till they couldn't anymore. Once they recollected themselves.

Anisa spoke, "That's not for making an omelet dummy."

"We risked all of it and we don't even get to eat it?"

"We can eat it, but that's not why I wanted it, I wanted it so that brother can make an armor from it, the lizard that chased us is called a "Laubek Lizard", its scales are said to be indestructible, they are often hunted for them. But as you see they are very ferocious and very hard to kill. So I wanted the next best thing, the shell of its egg."

He really wanted to be angry at her for risking both their lives. But he realised how much she cared for her brother. He asked himself will he ever do the same for Ignatius.

"Why risk so much Anisa? You know you could have been killed, I doubt your brother would want that." Chris told her.

"I would do anything for my brother, Philip. Ever since our father was killed, he has been taking care of me. Always protecting me, I am weak Philip I can't protect him. I am afraid what happened to my father will happen to him. Even with all that has happened to us, he still sees good in this world, I must do something to keep him safe."

Chris thought, how much did she go through in life to speak like this?

"This is the least I can do for him, you won't understand Philip, you belong to a strong clan, you wouldn't know what weak ones like us have to go through, you will never understand."

Chris kept quiet, he didn't tell her that by magic evaluation he was even weaker than her.

They both kept silent for some time. Chris knew they can't stay the night in the forest. They got up and went the same direction they came in but in a way that they exited upstream away from the lizard.

When they were just about to exit, Chris felt it, there was something in the forest, not one, two of them. They both were different, one felt familiar while the other felt strange. He couldn't explain it, but it was almost as if they knew he was there.

"Do you feel that Anisa?" he asked her. "Feel what?" She replied.

He looked at Anisa "We need to move quickly." Anisa looked around fearing if the "Laubek Lizard" came back. He held her hand and moved quickly out of the forest. After exiting the forest the feeling faded away, he wondered "What was that?"

They took turns to drag the sack through the water, Chris carried it on his shoulders while taking the forest path. For some reason, the egg felt slightly lighter.

They continued upstream, finally reaching the hut just before the sun went down.

He put down the sack, barely having any energy to stand. Anisa went in and came back with dried meat, she handed some to him and they both sat there eating it.

"Thank you, Philip." She said to him. Chris smiled back.

Then they both just sat there.