When Togat awoke the next morning, half of his group were awake and carefully packing their tents. Aizora was making soup in a small cast-iron pot so they could eat it with bread and wouldn't choke from the dryness of it. Togat believed she would awaken an Origin of Cook as every product she touched and incorporated into her food blended perfectly together.
Waking up the other sleeping kids, he also started to get ready to move. Today would be quite a comfortable walk as the sky was clear, the sun was shining and he had rested quite nicely.
After everyone packed and ate, they stood around Togat. "Today we will step into the territory of Snake Lord, but we shouldn't encounter any danger as he and his buddies only stay in the center of it, if what uncle Jent said was true." Togat said, and started walking while everybody followed.
Any creature who gained the Lord title would be as dangerous as the magical creatures, able to kill villagers with ease, but thankfully they didn't hunt that far from their territories because the Lord title made them strong around their own territories, else every village in the demon kingdom would be destroyed in a matter of days.
The journey continued through the outskirts of Snake Lord's land, and while leaving it Togat vaguely sensed something. Turning to others he said ‘‘Quicken your steps, I think somebody is watching us.‘‘ and quickened his stride while also looking behind him from time to time. All of the sudden, screams could be heard from the back of their group and everybody turned to see the twins, Jenzo and Meig, the youngest of their group, being dragged by their feet into the tall grass.
Not by their feet... more like the snakes had got the lower half of their legs in their mouths and were getting back home with their food to finish it.
Togat and everybody else froze at this sight, seeing the screaming twins getting farther and farther away, and then there was...silence.
Their parents told them that this journey would be hard, but they didn‘t think it would be this scary.
‘‘Run!‘‘ somebody said and everyone woke up from their shock and ran. After 15 minutes of panic running their adrenaline was getting low and they started to feel tired. They stopped and looked at Togat. While breathing deeply to try to calm himself he looked at the children while tears and sweat were mixing on his face and falling down his face ‘‘We will camp out here‘‘ and just collapsed on the ground. Everybody else just mimicked him, crying and hugging each other to at least grieve somehow for their lost friends, even if they were more scared about their own life.
Luckily they got out of Snake Lord‘s land in that short dash, but everybody slept restlessly in their tents. The next day was full of slow walking and tired groans of children, some of them still crying, but everybody had red eyes from yesterday‘s events. They dreamt of getting Origins of Warrior and killing these snakes, making soup with it, but some got nightmares.
The next four days were calm, the scenery around the group changing from plains to a narrow patch in the forest and then yet again changing to plains with hills. That meant they were done with one-third of their journey. The group‘s supplies were dwindling as some of them were stolen by wild animals at night while the night watch group dozed off.
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The hills were huge in their width, covered with deep green grasses and other weeds. Some grasses even reached their shoulders. While camping on top of one of these hills they were watching the sunset, thousand orange rays of light bouncing off the green grasses, creating this perfect calmness in the environment. Togat, navigating with the map the elders gave him, knew that tomorrow they would reach the Great Road of Hades, which was set deep into a forest and would take them around three-fourths of the way to the capital. He also told others to look out for any berry bushes, fruit trees, or wild vegetables tomorrow, so they could replenish their stocks of food. Water was being consumed fast too, but there would be a river in their paths tomorrow which they would cross, so it will solve their issue on that front.
Togat still kept up the night watch alone every second day. He was perplexed because a Hellsey frog, one he saw the day before the twins were taken, came back and nodded at him two days ago. Sitting around a campfire, putting some firewood into it he heard a rustling in the grasses behind him. As he was turning and was about to scream for everybody to wake up, he saw the most brilliant Helgrover deer. Its hide was deep red and brown and looked like it was mixed perfectly by the Gods above, the antlers reaching for the sky and splitting in perfectly random ways that gave the animal a regal feeling. Togat looked at it, too stunned to speak while the deer walked closer to him. Jumping to his feet he was marveling at this beautiful creature while the deer was examining him. After walking a meter before Togat, the deer gracefully bowed to him and left. Togat looked at its leaving ‘What the hell just happened, why do these animals keep bowing to me? As far as I can remember animals hated me and would gladly ram into my backside... maybe I look good for them hehe... or they think of me as some unparalleled snack..‘ he shivered at the thought of being eaten by a deer. He would probably be the first demon to get eaten by a deer and parents would tell his story to make their kids behave or else the kid-eating deer would get them.
Going to sleep he kept thinking about it. Already used to sleeping on the ground in his tent he fell asleep and by the sunrise everybody was ready.
Traveling through the forest they found some wild berries which were edible, a dozen of wild potato-like vegetables, and filled their waterskins full before crossing the shady bridge over the river. The river was raging and strong while the narrow bridge was rotting out and the planks which it was made of partly fallen out.
‘‘Everyone watch your step and help out others if something happens‘‘ said Togat as he stepped on it. The planks felt wet and slippery but they did hold his weight. The 20-meter wide river was raging below him as he gulped and took another step. They progressed carefully over it and as Togat was about to reach the end he heard a plank break. He quickly turned around to see Rophasia, a 9-year-old, falling down, while Rocondo, the only 10-year-old in the group, tried to catch her hand, but he didn‘t think that when he caught her hand, the added weight plus the slippery planks would make him fall in too.
After five seconds of silence, the duo surfaced and tried to float above the water, but from time to time they would go under again. They screamed for help as they were being carried away by the river.
Everyone screamed, telling them to try to swim to the beach and they would meet up, but Togat saw some Kokaro fishes surfacing behind the duo, with their sharp teeth they were apex predators in rivers near the village of Latham. He desperately screamed for them to get to the shore but they couldn’t fight the power of the river with their small bodies. The group saw as the duo went under the water and that place started getting faint spots of redness. Rophasia and Rocondo surfaced yet again, but now agonizing screams filled the surroundings. This time going under, only their unmoving bodies floated up.
The group got chills down their spines as they cried silently. Moving as carefully and swiftly as they could, everyone still left got on the ground on the other side of the bridge and collapsed from exhaustion and pain. Togat looked at the bodies of his friends, which were floating away at a decent pace, having only one thought in his head.
'What a cruel world.'