The vilge founder and the vilge doctor arrived back in the vilge. They walked the same path as they did when they left. They emerged near the Vilge Founder’s house, which was made of stone.

  Stone foundations anchored the house firmly against the hillside, blending it seamlessly with the terrain. Tucked behind the structure, a barely noticeable path slipped into the brush—its entrance hidden by overgrown grass and crooked stones.

  The secret path that led to the mountain was known only to a few, now including Sierra.

  “We are back, thank you for your immediate action. Please return to your posts,” The vilge founder, Lady Zhisata said.

  She sighed, her eyes resting on the backs of the vilge warriors who escorted them. ‘No questions asked, loyal to the end… thank you,’ she thought, a quiet swell of gratitude rising in her chest. But then she noticed Sierra, the vilge doctor, watching her intently. She had seen that face before.

  ‘How could she do this?’ Sierra thought.

  “Don't look at me like that... we all have a part to py in this world... this is my part,” the old woman said, while she caressed something in her stomach pouch; it was like a habit to Sierra now. “Let’s go now, you need to be back in your hut.”

  Urging Sierra to follow her, she led them through the back door of her house. Their return had to look natural.

  The vilgers hadn’t even realized they had left because of the approaching knights. They only became aware that something was wrong when warriors began cmoring in haste to defend the vilge.

  As soon as they were inside the house, Lady Zhisata warned, “Sierra, I don’t need to say this to you, but by your oath to me, no one is allowed to know what happened here, understand?”

  “Yes… of course,” Sierra answered like it was a matter of fact.

  “Go now, don’t worry, nobody will notice you,” the old dy answered, dismissing the doctor.

  Sierra exited Lady Zhisata's house nonchantly. She looked around, but no one seemed to have noticed that they had been gone. “She is correct,” she said with a sigh.

  She stepped out of the chief’s house. A cow farm y before her, the animals mooing as they noticed her, oblivious to the tension in the vilge. Pushing the noise from her mind, she followed the fence line back toward her home.

  Doctor’s Hut.

  When Sierra returned to her house, one of her students was already waiting for her on the front of the door, along with a hooded boy and some of the old patients sitting on the veranda.

  She was familiar with the patients already waiting for their daily doses of medicine and oils, but she wasn’t sure what the visitor needed.

  With a tip-tap step, the student who was waiting for her approached her. “Teacher, I would like to borrow the records... please!” The student said with a smile. She didn’t even ask where her teacher went.

  ‘Innocence is bliss,’ Sierra thought, gncing at the open door of her hut. By the smell that came out of the door, her two other apprentices were already busy making salves and potions.

  Sierra smiled at her student. Using her hand, she gestured for her student to follow her inside. The two then climbed up to the second floor to the records room.

  “It's on the right shelf... You may take it,” their Sierra said as she opened the door to the records room.

  “Thanks, teacher!” the student went on and checked on the bels of the booklets. Sierra went to her room and pced her things back. She could hear her student’s steps. After a while, Sierra heard her student climbing down the stairs.

  Sierra went to the records room, curious about which record her student took. She began checking around. ‘Birth Records!’ she was surprised. Then the snake-eyed baby’s face fshed back in her mind.

  ‘Oh… no.’

  Sierra tried to move, but as much as she wanted to know, her guilt and fear held her in pce. She couldn’t bring herself to go down the stairs where the visitor and her student were. With a heavy sigh, she exited the records room and retreated to her own room, her thoughts spinning between the present and the past.

  Below the second floor of the Doctor’s Hut, the hooded boy and the female student sat on the veranda along with the patients.

  The female student was wearing a peculiar headpiece, which was a cloth that held half of her hair neatly, giving her a professional look. Like the vilgers, she had the same brown hair and eyes.

  “My name is Sarry, what’s your name?” The female student was friendly with the hooded boy; well, he was the hero who saved the vilge, so that much was normal.

  “Simon, just Simon,” the hooded boy answered with a stoic face.

  Then Sarry opened up the records book. “Age?” she asked as she began to scan the year’s page.

  “I’m 14,” he said, but it sounded like a rough guess.

  ‘Younger than me by 2 years,’ Sarry found the year and opened the page of that year. “Do you know what season you were born?” she asked again.

  “It was snowing… but I’m not sure,” Simon said, a vague memory from the old man who raised him.

  “There is no recorded birth in winter, but you are free to look! Oh, you can’t see,” Sarry was excited but forgot the boy’s state.

  “I can see a little bit. Show it to me,” Simon smiled.

  Sarry blushed a little, and she went closer, showing the hooded boy the pages of the book. She used her fingers to point out the column on the page. She felt a bit embarrassed getting closer to the boy since she had been mixing some herbs earlier.

  “You smell good,” the boy said, dead serious.

  Sarry froze. Her face, already tinged pink, went full tomato mode.

  Around them, the vilgers didn’t miss a beat.

  “Young love!”

  “He’s smoother than goat butter!”

  “Sarry, it’s just the herbs we were mixing earlier!” Shouted her fellow apprentice, effectively popping her blush like a soap bubble.

  Sarry wished she could bury herself under the herb pile and stay there forever.

  “I see...” Simon said in a sad tone. ‘Eleven babies that year, and none in the winter.’ “The next column is the next year, right?”

  “Yes,” Sarry understood what Simon hinted, there might be a chance that he was born in the spring, or maybe the year was wrong. “Let me scan it for a while, okay?” She sincerely wanted to help the boy.