Chapter 5: 4. In The Dark Forest

“Hurry up!”

 

Amidst a dense crowd of people, two girls could be seen navigating through the wilderness of stalls and consumers.

 

“Hey, don’t run so far ahead.”

 

The duo had to squeeze themselves through the gaps between passersby and tip toe their way over the carpet of some ground merchants, to walk up the originally wide street; now marketplace, as they headed towards the large plaza at the other end.

 

Passing through the last wall of people they found themselves at an open space, which also worked as a crossroad towards the four cardinal directions.

 

At the center of the plaza was a floral structure, displaying red and yellow roses on vines, white lilies around the base, and several trimmed bushes of lavender to resemble a fountain that showered the earth with colorful petals.

 

They slowly walked up to the flower fountain whilst catching their breath, and one of them, the girl with short and precisely trimmed ginger hair, took out a not so small box-looking device from her bag, a machinery that didn’t resemble anything that could be found on stalls or stores.

 

Her eyes shone with the sunlight that reflected on the glass in the unfolding front of the machine, her smile was hardly covered as she held it in front of her eyes, shutting one off before moving her feet and hands carefully, and cautiously.

 

“Hm.”

 

“You don’t have to worry, no one is approaching.”

 

“Okay…” She steps back again, and again, slightly moving her arms and head simultaneously as she fits the entire view within the tunnel vision of the small glass that her eyes were looking through.

 

When it looked like the entire scenario was in her sight, she steadied her hands, and held her legs still; as if she had turned into a statue, her whole body became immobile to the point that it started to attract the glances from a few bystanders.

 

She held onto that posture for around a minute before repositioning her hand to press down on both holders, while her right hand’s index finger reached out for the button on the top surface of the device.

 

*Click*

 

And half a minute later, she finally pressed the button, however it wasn’t until a piece of paper slipped from the bottom of the box-looking machine that she finally actually got out of that posture.

 

“That’s enough, right?” Her friend approached her, while looking both ways and glaring at any remaining onlookers.

 

She picked up the paper before it touched the ground and waved it a little, “Gillia, look! Isn’t this amazing?”

 

An extremely detailed painting of the fountain-looking floral sculpture, with a very similar illumination to that of the area and only a small amount of loss in the flower’s colors, had appeared on one side of a square piece of paper.

 

Gillia, the girl’s friend with braised, white hair, took a glance at it and walked away, “yeah, yeah, it is. Can we get going now?”

 

“...”

 

She took a few steps and looked back only to see her friend standing there, staring at the picture, “Mel!”

 

“Wha— ah, sorry,” with quick steps, Mel followed right after her as they went down the road to the east of the flower fountain.

 

It was another spacious passage, but without as many sellers and buyers around. Consisting of very few merchants who sold their wares on the ground with a large spacing between each one, with only two stalls of food and drink.

 

The road went slightly downwards for a while, slowly turning to the left, before meeting another road that went straight from left to right. Where the two girls decided to take the left.

 

There were no merchants or stalls on this road, and it was less illuminated due to the tall buildings on both sides blocking the sunlight. As they passed by a few people standing on the shades, or chatting with each other, the two finally reached their destination.

 

Placed in between two wooden houses, a rather large two-story building seemingly made out of stones, with a small front yard and an unusual rooftop made of some orange material, stood firmly as baffled voices could be heard from inside. At the doorstep was a sign with the carvings resembling a mug filled with beer.

 

“You’d better not forget our promise,” Gillia pointed at her while walking up to the entrance.

 

“I won’t! trust me,” she put her hand over the small bag tied to her side.

 

“Haa…” She rolled her eyes before opening the doors.

 

Once they walked into the building a wave of smells and noise washed over them. Several tables placed across the saloon with four or more chairs around each one, were taken by people who held onto wooden cups, mugs and even bottles of liquor, as if their lives depended on it.

 

The drinks were being poured in by waitresses wearing very modest and blandly colored clothing as they continued to run around the place with little to no rest in between taking orders to the counter and delivering orders to tables.

 

Crossing the field of drunken people, Gillia knocked twice on the bar and the bartender approached them right away.

 

“Welcome to Night Owl. What’ll you have?”

 

She sat down on the stool and pointed two fingers up, “an escapade for two.”

 

The bartender raised an eyebrow, “same as always?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

After five minutes or so, he came back with two cups filled with orange colored drinks and left a folded kerchief on the side.

 

She took a sip of the drink and gave the other to Mel, before carefully unfolding the kerchief and keeping it hidden from other’s sight, “seems like the pay didn’t change.”

 

On the inside of the kerchief was the sketch of a man, with the word “wanted” right beneath and a prize money on the bottom. At the top were a few scribblings which meant that this was also a scout-hiring job.

 

Mel was rather focused on drinking when Gillia put down the cloth and turned to her.

 

“You can still back down.”

 

“Mhmm,” she drank a little more before looking directly into her eyes, “I’m not going to give up here.”

 

With a small chuckle escaping her lips, she called the bartender as soon as they finished their drinks, “alright, it’s your call.”

 

Mel took out a few bronze coins from her bag and put them on top of the folded kerchief, “we’d like to have another escapade, but for take out.”

 

“Right out,” he picked up both cups with one hand and the cloth with the coins with the other, again going away from view for a few minutes before returning but this time with just a piece of paper, folded to look like an envelope and with a seal stamped on the center.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

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He sat down and waved at the duo, “come again.”

 

Once they left the establishment the two breathed out as if they really had an escapade of sorts. They exchanged bags and walked back down the road they came from, while taking a look at the contents of the letter.

 

“So it’s north from here, on one of the merchant routes near the woods.”

 

“Around ten to twenty men. They also want a better description of their faces, abilities and base.”

 

Gillia then pointed out, “the ringleader is known for fleeing and rebuilding his group from scratch if need be.”

 

“Why would they gather around someone like that?”

 

“Either they don’t know about it, or they can’t do anything about it.”

 

They folded the letter again and passed it to each other a few times without looking around, before going separate ways at the next crossroad.

 

It was already evening when they met up again, this time they were both wearing some leather gear that covered their torsos, limb protections made of wood, and dirt covered cloaks with large hoods. One of them was carrying a large backpack, while the other had a smaller bag with wood bottles inside.

 

Their current location was the forest right outside the western gate of the town.

 

They kept on going north right away, without so much as a greeting exchanged, by the time the moon was at its highest, the two were already nearing the northern woods. When, suddenly, they left the unpaved road and started to walk through the grassy lands.

 

After a few more hours, during which they entered the woods, the campsite of their target was finally found.

 

It was a man-made clearing, seeing as several tree stumps were left around the area, where they settled with three separate bonfires around the space illuminating the only spots someone could arrive from, as their back was covered by a steep rise.

 

Lying below some bushes several meters away, the two exchanged hand signals to communicate.

 

Two fingers from Gillia’s right hand were raised at the same time as held her closed fist right next to it. Then she formed a cross with both index fingers. And lastly she repeated the first action but with four fingers instead.

 

Mel responded with a nod, and noted it down on the back of the letter with a pencil made from charcoal wrapped in a piece of cloth. She then pointed to her bag, pretended to be holding the device from earlier and nodded.

 

But the response was negative, followed by a motion to her ears.

 

Mel visibly realized what she meant, but still proceeded to touch her index fingers then separate them slowly until there was a wide space in between, then she pointed to her ears and crossed her fingers.

 

Unable to groan in this situation, Gillia covered her face with both gloved hands while letting out a soft breath. I knew it. She thought, before nodding and waving a hand towards Mel.

 

As soon as she got the okay, her hands reached out for the bag tied to the backpack, she quietly took out the device, opened its front, the folding tube was stretched to its limit, and her posture was slowly put into place and the large glass front going through the bush they were on.

 

*Click*

 

Looking through the device, she was barely able to make out the face of each one of them, but whenever they passed by the bonfires, where several others were seated at, she was able to catch a decent portion of their facial features.

 

*Click* *Click*

 

The distance her view could reach wasn’t far enough to reach the back of their camp, but with a little fix on her posture she could take each lit bonfire, separately, into her pictures.

 

*Click*

 

And, luckily, their main target was right beside one of them. A man around six and half feet tall, with a beard that covered his entire chin and reached both ears connected to his similarly colored hazel short hair. His eyes, reflecting the fire, shone in a yellowish green tone, much like a cat’s eyes.

 

“...”

 

Mel contemplated if it was a good or bad idea to get into someone like that’s wrong side, but she had a job to do, so once she felt it was the right time, she pressed the button one more time.

 

*Psh-Click*

 

““—!””

 

Mel herself wasn’t sure of what had just occurred. The picture that slid out of the machine was well illuminated, as if it was taken in broad daylight, even though it was clearly dark all over the forest, with the only exception being the campsite.

 

The instant Mel turned to look at Gillia, both with an expression of shock stamped on their faces, she was immediately blocked from speaking by her friend’s hand, while she held her index finger in front of her mouth.

 

“Are ya sure it was from this side?” a man's voice reached their ears.

 

“Ye, I’m sure I saw somethin’ shinin’ over here,” accompanied by another.

 

“Ain’t that funny, I saw nothing like that.”

 

“Maybe stop lookin’ at the barrels, an’ pay more attention to the surroundin’. Go this way.”

 

They approached the two girls with each loud, branch snapping step they took, though aimlessly, and seemed to be cutting down any branches on their way to expand their view.

 

The first man loudly exhaled before stomping another bunch of leaves, “well, maybe it was just ya imagining things.”

 

“Shut yer trap, an’ be careful with that thing. Don’t need any of that spillin’ on me.”

 

“Oh, c’mon, the boss told me to carry it around just in case.”

 

“Just in case yer steppin’ on another boar’s tail, haha ha.”

 

Their steps began to change direction as they distracted themselves with their conversation. The girls acknowledged that was their cue to leave, even if slowly, so they started to get a hold of their bags. Gillia passed one of the wood bottles to Mel, and opened one herself, drinking it even as she laid on her side.

 

“Don’t go too far, boys,” a new and rough toned voice joined their conversation.

 

However, it wasn’t from afar.

 

Both of them looked perplexed, the man they saw on the poster, and the man on the picture currently held by Mel. They were the same person as the one standing right behind the bush they were at.

 

He looked directly into their wide open eyes, with a gaze that couldn’t be described as anything but a cat watching over its prey from the dark. His eyes, instead of his lips, seemed to smile as he leaned forward.

 

“How about staying for a drink?”

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