With the suggestions and tasks mentioned at that meeting, everyone was busy for a while. Howard was still working on setting up defenses, but it was still mostly just walls of earth, and he was having unexpected difficulties with just that. Luckily Azul was helping him ward the other predators off with her wyverns.

Howard was at the walls again, contemplating whether he should give up and make them with stone or hedges or something else when he saw movement in the trees. Even though their colony was also in a forest, there were far fewer trees in this valley which made it easier for them to see anything approaching.

He saw something moving again, and this time he could see that whatever it was, was following one of the streams that led to the pool inside their colony. Water often led to colonies here, and it was also wise to stick to water to simply survive. Howard reached out with his mind to see if he could tell what was approaching.

{STAY OUT!} a voice rang through his mind and made him dizzy for a moment. The voice somehow seemed as if it belonged to a young boy.

Unfortunately, that meant that they were people, and one of them was like a ferocious wild animal backed into a corner.

{Selina, visitors are coming,} he warned.

{Wait, really? Can you tell how many?}

{No. Only that there is more than one. I don’t really want to stay but they already know I am watching so I might as well look them over and let them in so they don’t have to swim or dig through a pile of dirt.}

{What if you don’t want to let them in?} Selina asked, her tone tinged with curiosity.

{Then I will call James and they will have to swim or dig through a pile of dirt.}

As he watched, the forms were growing clearer and he could now make out four figures. Three of them seemed much shorter than the first. Even from there, Howard could already see one thing plainly. The taller one had black hair, and one of the shorter ones had very white hair. The other two seemed to have the usual hair colors for natives, or at least the usual patterns. Natives rarely had solid colored hair. It was usually slightly gradient or had highlights.

As they got even closer Howard noted that the black-haired one was a woman, and her hair was still very solidly colored. The white-haired one was a boy, probably the boy who had shouted at Howard earlier.

Still, solid white hair. That was a surprise. Veda had some of the lightest hair Howard had ever seen, but this kid easily had her beat. Yes, kid. Even by Howard’s standards, the shorter ones appeared to be children. They might be something more like infants to the natives, so what were they doing wandering about like this?

They stopped about ten feet away from the dirt pile Howard was watching from and the woman surveyed him with red eyes filled with suspicion. The other two children also had red eyes, and the white-haired boy’s eyes were golden.

“Can you understand me?” the woman asked in English.

What? Howard was surprised. Hadn’t the boy used telepathy before? Why was she using English? Even if the boy had issues with volume control she should have gone through the ceremony too, to have red eyes. Either way, he answered.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I can,” Howard replied, his wariness seeping into his tone.

This time it was their turn to be surprised. Apparently, no one had understood the woman before. Perhaps she just asked out of habit?

“But your hair is light,” the woman said, “The only ones with light hair here are the Sages.”

“Right,” Howard told her, “I can also speak in telepathy, but I have a headache from the backlash of someone screaming directly into my mind.”

The woman glanced at the white-haired boy who looked away. “I apologize. But, if you are the Sage here, what are you doing out at the edge? Where are the guards?”

“You mean the hunters?” Howard asked, “We just settled down so we only have one.”

“Howard?” Jonathan asked from thier side of the dirt pile, “Why are you speaking in English? I thought you were out here working with Azul.”

Before Howard could answer he poked his head over the dirt pile and saw the visiters. “My bad,” he said, “I will go hide so I don’t scare the guests away.”

“Who was that?” the woman asked as Jonathan slid back down the dirt pile and left for his lab. She was visibly startled.

“That was Jonathan,” Howard told her, “He lives here.”

{He had red eyes,} the white-haired boy projected, {Why do you have someone with red eyes inside? Won’t they taint the Sacred Fountain?}

{You travel with people with red eyes,} Howard pointed out, {and no. People with red eyes will not do anything to the Fountain, that is only people with Bloodcry.}

{But red eyes are the Bloodcry,} the boy argued.

{They’re not,} Howard replied, {Since you all came I might as well let you in, but I should warn you that we work differently than most other colonies.}

Howard slid down the dirt pile then solidified it into a stone arch.

“How can I trust that this isn’t a trap?” the woman asked.

“I don’t expect you to trust anything,” Howard told her, “Besides, I think that boy is probably stronger than any of us here.”

“Exactly,” the woman said, “You want him as your apprentice and then you will dispose of the rest of us quietly.”

Howard couldn’t stop himself from making sighing. “No. I have absolutely no intentions to take anyone as my apprentice. The other two Sages might feel different, but none of us will dispose of anyone just because they awakened to Dream.”

“Awakened to Dream?” the woman asked in confusion, but she stepped inside. The two red-eyed children clung to her closely.

“Wisdom is the most common power here,” Howard explained, “but Dream is another. That is what the Oracle of Feroz told me when I made the fountain.”

“The Oracle?” she asked, seeming convinced somehow once an Oracle was mentioned.

Howard led them to the giant redwood and across the root bridge to what they had dubbed the Ceremony Hall. Waiting there were Selina, Sanders, and Dorian.

{Sanders?} Howard asked, {Why are you here?}

{I heard their were guests,} Sanders replied, but his eyes stopped on the woman, {I wasn’t expecting one of them to be a fira.}

{A fira?} Howard asked.

{One of the beings from my world,} Sanders described, {Many people consider them cursed but they are more or less people who gained power over fire. That is what red eyes mean in my world.}

The woman was staring at Sanders as if she wanted to attack him, but Dorian looked more shocked.

{Fira aren’t cursed beings of fire and nightmare?} he asked Sanders.

{Nope, fira are the ones who broke the curse and are free now. Does she look like fire to you?} Sanders asked back.

Dorian blinked and shook his head. {Sorry.}

{So that’s why she can’t communicate telepathically,} Howard realized.

{Most likely. No one would give the ceremony to someone with red eyes,} Sanders agreed and looked at the woman. {How long have you been here? I can send you back.}

“No thank you,” she growled, “I have no intention of going back to that place.”

“No problem,” Sanders assured her quickly, “I was just asking. You are free to stay here.”

The woman frowned. “You seem familiar.”

“No I don’t,” Sanders said firmly, “I am not familiar at all. My name is Sanders and we have never met before.”

Once again, his insistence was suspicious, but he seemed to think she was more dangerous than Dorian who had been here for over a hundred years.

The woman blinked. “I see,” she replied but backed off, “Are you serious about letting me stay here?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem as long as you work and follow our rules,” Selina added, “Most of us don’t come from this world.”

The woman nodded. “So this is like a colony for freaks.”