The siblings followed after the archer. After the first ten minutes of silently following and quiet analysis of the archer, they came to the conclusion that she wasn’t outright hostile to them and was more than capable of taking the both of them should they attempt to flee.

  The dog, bored by the silence and inattention of the siblings, decided to walk ahead of the archer, as it also clearly knows the way.

  The archer moved with military precision, her steps were quiet and muffled, even while stepping on brittle dead leaves. Watching her from behind, Morus and Monica could only see her boots, which seemed to have been custom made for the forest and stealth, so they deduced it must be her shoes that were special, or a combination of that and her own skills.

  Meanwhile, their own shoes seemed to crunch nearly every single piece of dead leaf in their way, as such they tried to copy her movements to reduce the sound of their steps. Monica couldn’t seem to get the hang of it but it seems Morus was a natural.

  The archer noticed the muffled steps and darted her head back just in case one of them ran, only to raise a brow when she saw the siblings focused on the ground in front of them trying to imitate her movements. She turned her head forwards as a smirk crawled up her lips.

  Noticing the movements of the archer in front of them, Morus and Monica looked at each other and gave each other a knowing smile. Then, they started whispering to each other about what was going on.

  “Brother, she made that light out of nowhere.”

  “Yes Nicky, I saw.” Morus nodded at her question.

  “Do you think…?” She mimicked the movements of a magician waving their wand as if casting a spell.

  “I’m not sure. It could be.”

  “I can’t wait to see their village. I wonder what it looks like!” Monica couldn’t contain her excitement as her hands were shaking.

  “Woah, hold your horses. They could be bandits or cannibals waiting for their dinner to serve itself on a silver platter.”

  Before Monica could retort, the archer in front of them spoke.

  “You two, hush now. Come over. There is prey ahead.” She waved them over and had them crouch by the bushes.

  “Do you see it?” The archer pointed an arrow at the animal a distance away from them.

  Their eyes moved from her back towards the supposed animal. It resembled a deer with giant antlers, but at this distance, it was hard for them to tell how large it was.

  Monica kept watching the deer while Morus’ eyes drifted towards the arrow. It was quite the impressive thing to look at, the metal tip itself was broad and flat with two sharp edges, and was estimated to be about 10 centimeters long. The shaft was made of the same material as the tip and joined seamlessly with each other, with what appeared to be glyphs engraved along its surface. One curious thing that he realized was that this arrow had no fletching, he glanced at the quiver hanging on the hip of the archer, and they all had them. With questions in his head, he focused his attention on her.

  As if on cue, she nocked the metallic arrow on her bow and drew, all in one fluid motion. The limbs of the bow started bending with a silent groan, her shoulder muscles bulged underneath her cloak as they easily suppressed the bow that threatened to shake her arms. Even Morus and Monica, who weren’t masters of archery, could tell that she had perfect form, and had no problem taming her bow. Taking half a second to aim at the deer, she inhaled and released.

  The siblings expected a ‘snap’ or a ‘thwack’ from the bowstring, yet there was no sound as their senses only felt a faint tremor in the ground beneath them.

  The arrow itself flew silently through the air, it arced slightly upwards before curving down towards the chest of the deer.

  The deer itself seemed to feel something and lifted its head, looking at the direction where the trio and dog were located, it noticed a glint of something metallic.

  The siblings watched with bated breath, their hearts almost skipped a beat when the deer looked at them.

  As the deer reared itself, the arrow hit its mark, slicing through the animal’s hide and flesh, puncturing its heart, causing instant and painless death. With the momentum it had wrought, the beast fell onto its side and was pinned against the ground with the arrowhead sticking out the other side of its chest, and embedded into the ground.

  The siblings’ jaws dropped, while the archer was already non-chalantly holstering her bow. “Keep up. The village isn’t far away now.”

  They took a second to come back to their senses. Once Monica did, she punched her brother on the arm, “See! They hunt proper game! They’re not lurking cannibals!” She quickly caught up to the archer who was a few meters away at this point.

  “Ow. Okay, you’re right.” Morus rubbed his arm, he decided not to comment on his sister’s leap in logic and followed after them.

  Upon a closer look, the deer could be easily mistaken for an elk due to its sheer size, it was easily as tall as Monica and twice her weight, if not twice of her brother’s.

  “That is a large deer…” Morus commented, thinking about the sizes of deer he had seen and petted in a zoo.

  “Hm?” The archer looked quizzically at him. “It can feed our village for three days or so. But you’re right, this one is slightly bigger than average.”

  “That could feed me for months!” Monica threw her hands up in exasperation.

  “If the meat could last that long, I see no problem with that.” The archer replied with a dead-pan expression as she casually flipped the deer over.

  THUD. She carefully pinched the flat sides of the arrow and extracted the blood-covered thing out of the deer. Then, holding it by the nock, she whipped it downwards as the blood was effortlessly flung away. She took out a cloth and gave the arrow a quick wipe, but there was nothing remaining for the cloth to clean.

  Meanwhile, Chow Chow The Ignored was lapping at the blood where the deer fell, a look of satisfaction on its face.

  “So… How are we going to haul this to your village?” Monica asked. “Do you need our help?”

  The archer smiled, “Thank you. It is unneeded.” Without a second word, she grabbed the deer by its hind legs and hauled it onto her shoulder.

  “Let’s go.” The archer commanded. “Lead the way, guardian.” The Chow Chow immediately raised its head and led the way towards the camp.

  “Wow, you make it look so easy.” Morus whistled, which seemed to startle the archer a little.

  The journey to the village from there onwards was mostly peaceful. Monica bombarded the archer with questions, but was only given replies in the lines of “That’s confidential”, “I will tell you later” or “The Chief will answer your questions once he meets you”.

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  Morus on the other hand, was deep in his thoughts.

  ‘How did we get here?’

  ‘How does mana work?’

  ‘How do we go home?’

  “Do I even want to?”

  “Hmm, brother? Did you say something?” Monica turned around to look at her brother, his face was scrunched together as if he ate something super bitter and sour at the same time.

  “My money…” He gritted his teeth and grumbled, then smiled at Monica “Oh… It’s nothing.” Morus looked at his sister and sighed inwardly. ‘As long as you’re healthy and safe. What more do I desire?’

  “If you say so.” Monica turns back to the Archer. “So! Are we there yet?” She looked around, and other than trees and bushes as far as the eye can see, there was nothing worthy of note.

  “Almost.” They walked past a tree and suddenly everything was different.

  A ray of sunlight shone bright at the siblings and brought them warmth, however, the sudden change in brightness momentarily blinded them. As they adjusted to the light, they saw a path beneath their feet which led uphill. At the end of the path was a wooden gate, accompanied by two wooden towers and a wall of palisades that blocked their view.

  “Gad!” The archer shouted. “Open the gates! We have guests!”

  A head popped out of one of the wooden towers, “Asa!” He yelled back, “That you? You’re home early!”

  The trio and dog quickly climbed the hill, as they reached the gates, its wedges groaned as it opened, revealing the man who had pushed it open with one hand.

  Morus looked up at Gad. Gad was slightly taller than him and had bronze colored skin, seemingly in his early thirties. He did not wear a cloak, so the way his tunic stuck to his skin emphasized his upper body really well. One thing he shared in common with Asa was that they both wore coifs.

  “Nice muscles.” Morus commented and received a large slap on the shoulder. To which he winced, more from the sudden jolt than any actual pain.

  “Haha! Thank you lad! You have good muscles too!” Gad stood between the gates and invited the siblings in. “Welcome, welcome! You too, lass!” He then looked towards Asa. “You need help with that thing?”

  Asa just glared at Gad.

  “What’s wrong?” He then looked at where he’s standing, and moved aside. “Oh right, oh right. It’s been a while since we had guests!”

  Without another word, the siblings moved past Gad and entered the village. The Chow Chow has already darted past them and charged towards the village center.

  Asa let go of the deer on her shoulders, and before it landed on the ground, Gad caught it with one hand. “Aye, there we go.”

  He mouthed at Asa, ‘Chief was informed.’

  Asa nodded and pointed at the deer “Take care of that. I will bring them to the Chief.”

  Monica looked at the buildings and infrastructure around the village, there were a few farm plots, but they weren’t overly vast, a few silos, possibly for grain, and a few buildings that she couldn’t make out their uses at this distance. There was smoke coming out of the chimneys that she could see and the faint rhythmic ringing of metal hitting metal, which she surmised is the blacksmith.

  Morus looked at the people he could see. There were a total of four farmers working in their fields on either side of the dirt-packed road with hoe in hand, a lady in her fifties was sitting on a bench in front of what seems to be a tailor, as she was knitting something. What appears to be a scout on a tower far along the palisades. They all had their heads down and were hard at work, but he could tell, all of their eyes were on them.

  Before they could share what they saw with each other, Asa quickly moved ahead of them. Monica’s look of excitement met Morus’ cautious but steady gaze, the excitement in her eyes visually calmed but her demeanor did not change.

  “Come, Chief is waiting.”

  “Lead the way, milady.” Monica joked.

  After they went out of earshot of Gad, Morus piped up.

  “Your name’s Asa? Does it mean Dawn or something?”

  Asa stiffened for a split second, which Morus didn’t fail to pick up.

  Without turning around, she spoke, the authoritative tone in her voice was gone, albeit it was still distant and succinct. “Yes. My uncle named me so.”

  “I see. I hope we can meet him one day.” Morus led on.

  “I doubt. We… had a fall out.” Asa’s eyes carried a tint of melancholy in them, but it disappeared as soon as it surfaced. “Let’s not waste time.”

  “Sure.” Morus nodded with a smile on his face.

  Monica followed along, looking left and right, taking in the view of this medieval village.

  When they passed the Tailor’s, Asa nodded at the shopkeeper. The two siblings turned to smile and nod at her too. Once they passed, the farmers and the shopkeeper stopped what they were doing and stared at the siblings. After confirming that they were, indeed, of no threat, they resumed what they were doing.

  Before the shopkeeper lowered her head, a sound of something metallic hitting canvas caught her ears, and the glint of something shiny caught the edge of her vision. Her eyes darted around the sibling, trying to find the source of it. Finally locking onto the keychain that was on Morus’ backpack. Her eyes squinted as she tried to discern it, then widened in disbelief.

  She whisper-shouted into her shop as she frantically went inside, “Ban! Ban!”

  The farmers turned around once again to look at what the commotion was about, then at each other, before they shook their heads and shrugged.

  As the tailor was doing what she was doing, Asa led the siblings to a longhouse. She guided Morus into one of the larger rooms and told him, “Rest here, the Chief will be here soon. I will bring your sister to a separate room. Do not fear, neither of you will be harmed.”

  Morus was not someone trusting, but with the abilities that she had displayed over the short course of meeting her, if they wanted to harm them, they could have easily done so.

  “I will put my trust in you. Don’t make me regret it.” Morus said with a smile on his lips, but his eyes said otherwise.

  To that, Asa smiled “You are our honorable guests. Worry not.” Which caused Morus to be taken aback, and many questions arose in his mind.

  He sighed, and closed the door behind him.

  The room he entered was brighter than he expected, light filtered in through the gaps of the exterior walls. A single lit candle sat on a table in the center of the room, which was flanked by two benches and set with simple tableware. A bed was tucked into the corner of the room, other than that, it was mostly empty.

  He breathed out a sigh of relief and placed his backpack down on the ground. But before he could relax, the thing that plagued him for his entire life flared up again.

  Morus started coughing, his chest heaved with each cough, and they grew in intensity. Then the pain that ran through his entire body, as if he pulled all of his muscles at once, he lost the strength to stand up and collapsed onto the floor, with his side hitting the ground first. The fall hurt, but not as painful as the feeling of insects gnawing at his innards, he writhed in pain but it didn’t take him long to curl up into a ball like a pillbug and tried to prop himself to stand up with his head. At this point, he no longer coughed, but his throat constricted and he was no longer able to breathe, something was stuck in his airway.

  Morus couldn’t manage to stand, but he did manage to prop himself on all fours. His face was flush, his eyes bloodshot, and green veins popped on his forehead as he was desperately trying to stay alive. With all his strength, he raised his right arm and balled his hands into a fist.

  THOOM. He hammered his chest and his ribcage reverberated.

  BOOM. A second time, this time his solar plexus, and his breath threatened to escape him.

  THUD he hit his abdomen, it spasmed and contracted, sending a shockwave towards the muscles above it.

  “BLERGH!” He threw up a splash of blood onto the ground. His vision was white and hazy, and he was gasping for breath. The flushness of his face gradually receded as he started to receive oxygen. Still wheezing, he dropped to his knees.

  Once his vision cleared, he looked at the puddle of blood in front of him.

  “Black… It is… worsening…” He wheezed and gasped for breath once more. He climbed towards the table and bench with what remaining strength, grabbing his backpack along the way. He fished out the bottle of water in his bag and pulled one of the bowls on the table closer, he poured a good amount of water into his mouth, gargled, rinsed and spat into the bowl.

  “Yet… I live another day.” Morus sat at the table, he’s starting to feel cold. Cold sweat drenched his forehead, as well as his entire back.

  Knock. Knock.

  “We’re entering.”