Everyone was pin-drop silent for a few seconds, listening to the loud footsteps outside.
The lady and gay guy stood up at the entrance, the lady held her sword firmly with both of her hands and the gay guy held his pipa. He was using the magic waves to fight earlier when Anik entered. Anik had a basic idea about the ancient dramas and it’s known that they can use music as a weapon.
A few seconds later a huge, white-furred, humanoid figure was standing right outside the cave door. It was double the height of Anik and about three times his width.
It roared and dashed towards the cave. The lady ran at him, while the other guy strung the strings making a red-colored wave at the opponent, as it hit the creature, it took a few steps back. The lady used this opportunity and sliced its right hand away in a single strike. The hand fell and rolled away while he roared with pain. Hot blood gushed from its arm landing on the snow, melting a part of it. A little of it fell on her clothes blending perfectly with the dark red color of her dress. It looked surreal. How much strength would she need to slice that thick arm?
Should I go and join? Anik thought clenching his fists. He was still thinking about it when the other guy attacked again and the lady quickly struck again. These two were not even giving that monster a chance to attack.
After about half an hour the creature was laying on the ground; his white fur dyed red. Lady dragged herself back into the cave, while that guy coughed out blood again.
“I told you not to fight again” I looked at him. Should I help him a little? Enough to keep him alive? I walked at him frowning.
“I don’t wish to live” I stepped a step back. Then why was he fighting for this flower with her?
“It’s your choice,” I said and stepped back to take care of the lady. I am helping this lady for two reasons; first that I was the one who crushed her flower, second that she reminds me of the story Ashleen told of a drama in which one person is poisoned with bone-chilling, while the other one looks for ‘nonexistent’ herbs.
Maybe she has something to do with that story. Our main focus was to look for the masters of elements. I’ll ask about it to her later. If it wasn’t for separation from Ashleen, especially when Demon said he won’t be going, then this task wasn't going to feel this urgent but I need to be careful for now. Given how easily she killed the creature despite being injured is enough to make me feel cautious. I can't give myself in just yet, finishing a task by taking care of each detail is important or I might end up here again pondering over what went wrong.
I passed Mana to her and sat down with my back supported by the wall beside me. I slept for a while, after using mana it was hard to keep my eyes open.
…
On the other hand, after taking a small stroll there and playing with the fish again, she folded her clothes and put them in her bag. While taking a stroll, she saw a bunch of Crocs changing their positions, and the Crocs were way near her resting place than the last time.
No risks, I thought and picked up both mine and the silent guy’s bag and started walking away from the shore. I wanted to sleep but that guy disappeared suddenly, I don’t want to be eaten by any wild animal in my sweet sleep.
I can’t bring myself to go deep into the forest either. If there are crocs here then there might be other wild animals. I walked away from the bank, near the bushes where the forest started.
But wait, it’s a river. If there are some wild animals then they’ll come to drink water here. I can’t do something else except wait for him.
I have zero experience surviving in the forest, except watching a few documentaries on discovery. This place is not normal either. There were zombies there last night. What are we gonna encounter tonight?
It’s hella boring, it would be great if even the demon was available to chat a bit.
I yawned, but it was gone in mid because of some movements in the bushes nearby. I held the dagger I took out of my bag a while ago and looked there, closely paying attention to the movements.
The last noise was from at least a few meters away. I looked carefully as if I’d look through the bushes. If my estimate was right then that thing should still be a little away from me, I have no idea how big or small it could be. The grasses are very thick and the shrubs, small trees, and weeds made it almost impossible to take a look. I bent closer to get a better look, suddenly a foot appeared right out from the bush. I panicked and quickly rolled back half-flipping. I have no idea what is my body doing. It was like a reflex. I realized I was about to hit with my foot when again it was blocked by a skilled arm. I lost my balance mid-air and fell on my back.
“Oh it’s you,” I said taking in a deep breath. How did this human come so silently, like no noise at all? I didn’t even hear a tree leaf moving. Where did he appear from suddenly? I stood up again and shook the dust from my clothes.
“Hmm,” he replied and picked his bag up. His clothes were covered with dust, why did he bother to bathe if he was going to get himself dirty anyways? Without thinking much I picked my bag up, ready to follow him.
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“Where now?”
“To them”
Oh, shoot… I forgot to tell him. “umm… hey listen, your friends, I think fatty got injured last night.”
He looked at me suspiciously.
“I am not sure though…” I scratched the back of my head, “but I think they might have gone to Beijing”
“How do you know?”
“How should I explain?”
He said nothing but kept staring.
“See, just say that I saw a bit of future, and according to that, you and fatty were supposed to be injured back in that weird maze-like place. You were going to have an injury in your abdomen, while fatty was supposed to be in a serious condition… but you guys came out safe somehow so I thought that it won’t happen but since you-”
“Is that serious?”
“He won’t die.” I still thought he would be wary of me so I added, “I can’t be sure whether they went to Beijing or not, we can check that”
“Alien?”
“He was uninjured. And he’s the one who was supposed to get you two out on his own.”
He started walking into the forest, I have no idea where he might be going. He’s unpredictable. He might be going to check on them or he might start his search for bronze gate or his memories. Or there might be something entirely different going on; Who knows? All I can do is follow him as he’s the only one who actually would be able to find the gate. Alien and Fatty did find it, but it was this Mr. Silent who left them clues.
I wasn’t in a hurry anyways. I don’t need to worry about Anik. No one will try to kill him after they find out that he’s some super legendary doc. I need to worry about myself first.
After walking for more than half a day, I was close to losing my legs. This person is so fast. Keeping up with him is harder than keeping up with a physics teacher. But there is one similarity; I don’t get what’s going on in both cases. Walking and walking, walking silently is the worst part. Leave alone walking I can run a mile without feeling tired if I am speaking or even listening to the other speak. But this person is more like a robot. He won’t speak, and I have no clue if he’ll listen, after all the only expression he bears is a poker face. What’s the point of speaking if no one listens? And most important part of listening is reacting. I sneaked a look at him, there’s no way his face will ever bear the expressions I would expect after saying something interesting.
At times like this, I miss Vanshika. She’s the best listener; maybe because we share the same interests, her reactions were always worth the tea.
“Hey, bro where are we going?”
“Rest house”
“Why though?”
“Others should be here.”
“But you were going to head somewhere else in the beginning.”
“That’s not worth it”
Not worth it? Then why was he going to do that anyways? In this part of the story, I don't remember what he was doing anyways... Umm, he went to the hospital then he lost his memories again maybe. Or maybe it was before this all happened... Cave, after cave hospital then it was supposed to be Mrs. Huo's entry I guess. She was looking for her daughter and he joined for hi-
What in the HELL…. He..he.. what did he mean? Like… he was going to look for his memories? But throughout the series, he never thought it was not worth it… I remember there was a time when Alien thought that Bro is suffering in this cycle… He even said he'll help him look for the answers- EXACTLY, he thought so but never said this. No one in the entire series said this. But I mean I wouldn’t have said this either if was using even the tiniest bit of my brain. I never lost my memories so I don’t know what it feels like to be living with no past. Thinking about that I wouldn’t have said this to him, but like even if I wanted to, and even if I did, I would never expect him to listen. Like if I were Mr. Alien, even then I wouldn’t be confident. Is it really what I think or maybe he wasn’t planning to look for memories at all? Maybe he was going to do something else and thought it wasn’t worth it. Haaa! Leave it it’s not worth using my brain, anyways I’ll leave soon and then I’ll have nothing to do with this place. We don’t even have a network in this world that I can re-read this novel.
My habit of walking without looking up will land me in trouble someday. He stopped suddenly but this time I didn’t bump into him.
“Yo Ge you are back so soon this time”
It is fatty??
“Hey, you are alive?” I asked poking my head from behind Bro, and walked towards him. He looked uninjured. Everything was in place, his intestines were probably all working all right.
“Xiao mei came as well.”
“Erm”
“Oh wait, what do you mean by still alive?”
“She said you’ll get injured”
“He speaks?” I asked unamused, of course I know he speaks, it’s just that this journey was too long and I had to walk all this time SILENTLY. That was frustrating.
“This used to be fatty’s dialogue” Mr. Alien smiled as he walked towards us. “You are back earlier this time Bro” he added.
“Hmm,” He said and walked inside the rest house.
“Ya, Sis what do you mean by I’ll be injured how do you know these things and how did Bro agree to take you along?”
“Your Bro is too weird, he has made me walk nonstop these days just to bring me back here… what was he even thinking?” My understanding of him changed many folds now. Maybe he’s just as confused as all the other humans on this earth.
“Na what about you knowing the future?”
“Fatty let the guest rest first”
“Yea, I’ll appreciate that,” I said yawning.
The rest house was more like a regular house and these two were outside when we arrived. Most probably fatty was taking a stroll or something and Mr. Alien was busy with his books and maps and a lot of other stuff, which was loosely packed in a bag near the stairs.
“You need to take better care of your stuff even if you think people here are not aware of what these things are.”
“You know what it is?”
“Maybe, maybe not… later, let’s talk about that later, I wanna sleep”
I followed them into this huge house and a lady in her mid-thirties greeted us.
“Ma’am we’d like to book another 2 rooms”
“We have only one.”
“No problem, these guys can adjust somehow”
“…”
“Oh by the way… guys I don’t have money…” I suddenly realized that. My bag had nothing worth a lot of money that I can use here.
“So? You think we are incarnations of Buddha or something?” It was fatty, of course.
“Hey fatty, mind your manners.” Mr alien again helps people unnecessarily.
“I can’t pay you guys back either.”
“Oii xiao mei this is too much, okay? How long are you staying here?”
“Ask your bro”
“Aei, now that, hey by the way why is he letting you follow him?”
“That… I don’t know either.”
“don’t be shy just tell us, we are his sworn brothers after all.”
“I can’t tell you the reason but I for sure is not what you guys want to hear.”
“Then why is he letting you follow him, hey why are you following him in the first place.”
“That I can’t tell you, guys”
“You want us to help you or not?”
“Of course I want”
“Then answer our questions”
“Tomorrow?”
“No, till then we’d already have paid for your stay.”
“Then, I’ll have to thank you guys in advance,” I said yawning. “Your bro is such a bother, I didn’t get to sleep a wink the entire night.”