Following Josalyn home we walked into a very shanty part of the city..... There were many houses but the naturally looked small more run down, the difference in cleanliness of the streets was night and day a lot more discoloured, dirty and visible litter.
"This is it...." Josalyn said opening a small wooden gate leading through a small pretty garden to a small very old looking house. The bricks look worn and discoloured, the window frames and door riddled with age.
Josalyn pulled out a key her old shaky hands struggling slightly to thread the key through the keyhole. Slowly her shaky hands managed to turn the key opening the door.
"NANA!!!!" Two childish voices screamed out to her as she opened the door.
"Hello my darlings!" She said hugging them. "Guess what! Nana has found some friends that can find daddy!" she said to them.
"Really???!!!" They said two small heads popped out the side of Josalyn a black haired young boy and girl no older than 7 or 8 looking at us.
"NANA!!! Two of them are elves and there's a weird girl with horns!!!" They said to her in total surprise sounding extremely excited.
"Yes yes... the two elf girls are called Grace and Helen, the Horned girl is called a Tiefaeni her name is Daisy..... The other two are named Emilia and Jay.... remember our manners..." She said to them.
Out popped their heads again, "Hello Grace, Helen, Daisy, Emma and Jack!" They said before disappearing again quickly. Jay raised his hand as if to correct them, but then lowered his hand forgetting about it.
"Will they really find daddy for us?!!" They asked Josalyn sounding extremely excited and hopeful.
"That's what they told me...." She answered them.
The two kids instantly came bursting out giving Helen and grace a hug. "Can you find daddy for us?..." they asked.
Helen and Grace knelt down like a mother talking to their child, "We will try our best." They said with a smile.
"Thank you!" The children replied giving them another hug.
"You know... this is the most affectionate I've seen Grace ever be..." Jay whispered to me causing me to chuckle a little. Grace turned around hearing him shooting him a glare somehow hearing his whisper.
"Okay children.... go out to the garden and play... so we can talk about adult stuff." Josalyn asked her Grandchildren.
"Okay!! Nana." They said letting go of Helen and Grace giving us one last thank you before running off.
"Would you like some Tea?.." Josalyn asked.
"No it's okay.... I think we should get going soon.... it's already been three days....." Grace answered her.
"Ohh okay..." she replied remembering how long it's been.
"Could you tell us where the Cave is located?.." Jay asked.
"I'm not sure myself... but I remember Tolum telling me it's the forest near the west exit..." She answered.
"Okay.... We'll try our best!" Jay said.
"Yes Nana don't worry! We will bring him back." Daisy said.
"Yeah... we better be making our way now...." Grace said.
"Umm... okay.... good luck..." She said walking to the door to open it for us.
"Stay safe..." Helen said kneeling down giving her a hug.
Bidding Josalyn farewell and began making our way out the house towards the western exit.
"Daisy you shouldn't have promised her that we will bring him back..." Grace said to her the moment the door closed.
"Yup... it's been three days... there's a good chance he may no longer be with us." Jay agreed.
"...I'm sure he's fine....." Daisy said with a smile.
Taking the western exit we followed alongside the road. There didn't seem to be anyone else walking. Only carriages and carts travelling on the road similar to how we have it at home, the road swerved around the forest. Every so often some children popping their head out pointing at Grace, Daisy and I.
"Why are the pointing and staring at me as well....?..." I asked a little confused.
"It's because your skin colour is unique...." Helen replied.
"Ohhh I see." I replied giving the kids a smile and a wave, they jumped in excitement tugging on their mother sleeve pointing at me. Their mother waved back and smiled while trying to calm down her children.
"Life here is so different to back home...." I said to everyone.
"How so...???..." they asked.
"I dunno..... Everyone back home just kinda minds their own business....." I explained.
"Hmmm I'm sure it's not too different here." Helen replied.
I looked up into the sky absorbing the freedom, being free of responsibility. A part of me really didn't look forward to spending the rest of my life working living a mundane life.
"So any idea where to go once we meet the forest??..."Jay asked.
"Hmmm..... I can ask some animals.... if we come across one....and Grace is an excellent tracker..." Helen answered Jay.
"You can talk to animals??.." I asked for some reason still shocked that those things were possible.
"Yup is a relatively easy druidic spell." She said with a smile.
"Ohhh would you be able to teach me???..." I asked.
"Of course.... it should be easy." she replied smiling.
Eventually arriving at the edge of the forest..... "Just an eerie forest.... what could possibly go wrong..."I commented staring into it a quite empty forest.
"It will be fine.... we're so close to the city... there's gonna be nothing dangerous here," Helen replied.
"Say that to my body...." I said as chills began running up my spine, the eeriness filling me with anxiety.
"Yeah just follow me...and stay close... I'll keep a watch out for everyone" Grace said leading the way. "Oh and have your weapons nearby just in case." She smiled.
Although eeriness was surprisingly peaceful..... Living up and growing up in a city I've never experienced such silence. The sounds of the wind whistling through the trees rustling the leaves, the small patches of sunlight that managed to pierce through the forest canopy.
"Oi... Daisy why you running off?.." Jay asked.
"I'll be a minute!" She shouted back.
"Okay.... don't fall behind too much!" Grace said still carrying on walking.
I stopped a little ahead waiting for Daisy, as everyone else carried on walking making sure she wouldn't lose us.
"Look what I found!!!" she said once she finished what she was doing walking towards me with something in her hands
"What is it?.." I asked.
"Its flowers!!! Isn't it pretty?!" she said showing me some flowers she picked.
"Yeah they are pretty!" I replied to her.
"Don't fall too far behind!" Jay shouted to us.
"Coming!!!" Daisy shouted back putting a flower in her hair above her ear and went to put on in my hair.
"Thank you." I smiled at her.
"Let's go!" she smiled.
"What was you guys up to?.." Jay said when we caught up.
"Nothing you would understand..." Daisy replied to him and went to Helen and grace.
"How come we stopped?.." I asked.
"I think Grace found a track or something." He explained.
"Ohhh I see..." I replied, Grace was knelt down on the floor looking at a small area of the ground.
"Ohh thank you!" Helen thanked Daisy as she put a flower in her hair.
"Hmmmm this is interesting..." Grace said.
"What's going on?..." Jay asked.
"Well... this looks like we've come across several footsteps all leading the same way...." Grace explained.
"That must be the way then....." Jay said.
"Yeah... but there are some larger footsteps as well...." Grace explained.
"Want me to ask a tree?..." Helen asked.
"This is the only set of footprints we've come across after 3 hours.... this is defiantly... what we are looking for..." She said.
"How many sets of footsteps we got here?.." Jay asked.
"Looks like we have.... 5 maybe 6 unique sets of footsteps.... and then two additional larger one..... A lot larger..." She informed him.
"Hmmm that doesn't sound good..." Jay replied.