“What? Why me!” He argued, this wasn’t fair.

“Well, out of all of us you seem to be the best choice, it’s not like we won’t be coming after you, you’re just going to make sure everything is safe.”

“Oh? So, I’m bait?” He inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Well Amber and Alejandro clearly don’t want to do it, and I hold far too much value, so that leaves you,” He replied, crossing his arms, and giving him a smug smile.

“I don’t wanna do it either! I think you should go considering- “

She groaned, clamping her nose with her index and thumb in frustration, “You two stop it! Were all going to go in together, understood?”

“I guess that’s the only option left seeing as Nadim is being very unreasonable,” Liam sighed.

“I’m being unreasonable? You were the one who suggested- “

“Let’s just go in, together.” She repeated, her eyes gesturing towards the forest.

As frightening as the outside was, the inside held a different meaning. It felt powerful. The nature surrounding them was in charge, and it made that clear just by its presence. The trees stood tall and shadowed over like kings and queens. The whiff of the plants’ aroma entered their noses as the fallen leaves shuffled beneath them. Not a sound could be heard, besides the whistling of the wind, pin-drop silence, it made one question whether life was present there but that was confirmed with the mosquitoes picking at their skin.

“Ow! Damnit another one!” She screeched, her teeth gritting in pain.

“I find these much more threatening than the Kirents,” Alejandro said, slapping his wrist in an attempt of killing one.

“We haven’t even come across the Kirents yet,” Nadim added.

“Let’s just hope we don’t.”

And just as that sentence left his mouth, something was heard, it almost sounded like, snickering? Who found this scene comical?

“Liam, what’s so funny?” He said, gazing at him.

“What? I’m not laughing?”

“Really? Well, then what’s that noise- Ahh!”

Now stood before him a figure half his size, if not smaller. his teeth stuck out like razors, and he had a wreath crown made of vines encircling his head, his eyes were abnormally large consisting of a hazel brown pigment, and his nails stuck out, long and dull. He was completely covered in mud. He looked at him in the face, narrowed his eyes and, laughed?

“Is he laughing at me?” Alejandro blurted, giving him a startled look.

“Well I don’t blame him; you do come off as quiet…” She trailed off, her voice silencing considering the glare she was receiving, a smile playing at her lips.

“Okay, now I’m laughing,” Liam retorted, chuckling at the scene that just took place.

“Could we maybe focus on the, Uhm, the thing in front of us,” Nadim said, his hand gesturing at the creature.

That only made matters worse, the creature stepped forward and bit him on the finger. His voice came out raspy, but also quite high-pitched.

“I’m no thing, the name is Gally,”

“Oh my, it talks,” This only resulted in another bite to his finger.

“Ow! Okay I’m sorry, sheesh.”

“Is this a Kirent?” Amber asked, looking at him with contemplation, “Not as scary as I imagined.”

“Me? A Kirent? Oh, heavens no, those are much, much deeper in the forest.”

“Deeper? We’ve been walking for ages. I thought we’d be close by now.” Liam murmured, dragging his palm across his face.

“You want to go to the Kirents? You should just turn back now; they are not peaceful!” He gasped, shaking his small head rapidly.

“Well we don’t really want to go to the Kirents, we’re heading to Astilia.”

His reaction wasn’t at all surprising, he was shocked, just like everyone else who had heard.

“No! You can not go there! Do you not know what has happened?” He shrieked, his breathing increasing pace.

“Yes, we can assure you, we do, but were in search of someone and we can only find him there,” He explained.

“I see, but it is getting dark, would you like to come to my village, we have extra huts!” He offered, giving him a sluggish smile.

He glanced at the others for an opinion. Should they stay there? Refusing would be rude, but who could they really trust?

“I suppose it is getting dark, maybe just for a day?” Amber suggested.

They all came to agree, and so followed their little friend to his village. As they drew nearer, multiple chatters entered their ears and they were presented with multiple huts before them, just as he said. They consisted of a rough texture, there were dozens of them, round and held down in the ground firmly, made of hard oak, an oval entrance at the front.

“Wow, this is pretty cool.” Nadim said.

“Thank you,” He said, taking in the view himself.

“I’ll introduce you to everyone,”

“No, that’s not necessa- “

Before he could even finish his sentence, a howl escaped his lips, and the second it did multiple of them, with his spitting image, appeared. Coming out of the huts, they all turned their gaze towards Gally, but that only lasted a second because it quickly shifted to them. Their eyes widened in intrigue. They set themselves in front of the newcomers and looked up in wonder and, for some odd reason, also disgust.

“Why are they looking at us like that?” Liam asked.

“They have never seen people this unusual; you all are quite ugly.” He replied, not an ounce of humour in his tone.

“Excuse me?”

“Let me show you all your huts, right this way!” He babbled, taking no notice of his offense.

They all stared at him wide-eyed, their jaws slightly lowering. Was this how they usually welcomed guests? Although none of them spoke back, they decided it would be better not to offend those who gave them shelter.

He took them to a significantly larger hut compared to the rest. Entering they saw multiple brown mats laid across the floor with rather large leaves placed on the top as pillows. Comfortable wouldn’t be the best word to describe it, but it was acceptable.