Scarlet felt groggy all over but she could see those wide-eyed villagers staring at her. Around her were straw huts and the smell of roasted pork permeated around the camp.
Scarlet stood up with slight difficulty and asked, "Where is this village?"
A middle-aged man with a hand gripped on the sword strapped by his side stared at her warily. He asked, "What sorcery did you do to suddenly teleport in mid-air?"
Scarlet felt gears churning in her head as she rapidly thought of an explanation. "Not dark sorcery! I was teleported here by a mage with malicious intentions!"
The man released his grip on his sword but still stared at Scarlet cautiously. "This is just a nameless new village under the banner of Zoria. I am the village chief Denson"
Scarlet looked around and saw Blorn trees around the village. She thought to herself, "That's strange. Blorn trees are native to the Unpen Forest. What's strange is the fact that I haven't heard of any villages in the Unpen Forest."
She asked Denson, "Is this a new village? Why is this village under Zoria? Isn't this Girid territory?"
Denson stared at Scarlet with a curious gaze, "You haven't been to this area for a while huh? This village had been constructed for a year or so already. As for Girid territory, it's been reduced to a small patch of land now. I'm pretty sure I could fetch a map for you."
Denson retreated back into a hut while a few of the men with swords and spears stared cautiously at her. Des was perched on Scarlet's shoulder as a raven and he hadn't spoken for quite a while now.
In her head she heard Des' voice say, "Time probably ran differently in the prison as compared to outside. One day in my cell is probably a year in Trumoris."
Scarlet tried not to show any suspicious reactions to the villagers but inwardly she was shocked. She was in the prison for around two days and judging from what Denson told her, the war was going horribly. She thought to herself, "It seems that most of the Zorians don't know much about magic nor do they know that their own military has magic."
Des' voice continued to resound in her head, "I'm talking to your mind directly through our contract. You could also communicate telepathically with me too you know. All you have to do is imagine yourself speaking to me."
Scarlet closed her eyes briefly and imagined Des in her mind, flying in front of her. She spoke internally to the imaginary Des, "Could you hear me?"
Des' voice responded, "Yep. So, since this land is Zorian and all that, are you going to burn it to the ground?"
Scarlet opened her eyes and told Des, "No! I don't burn villages for no reason. They are innocents! For now, I'm just going to try to find out what I missed and to see if I could make it back to the capital. Before I arrived at your cell, my bodyguard and I intercepted a letter that said that the Zorians planned on expanding their kingdom to have more citizens."
Des asked, "What's wrong with expanding their kingdom?"
Scarlet continued, "It's not as simple as that. The letter ambiguously wrote that something dangerous would happen to many of the new citizens."