By the time we reached Silva Terram, it was pitch black, and I had to be carried by Lydan since I couldn't see much, the trees blocked out the moonlight I usually used to see. We travelled slower since Alys couldn't walk too fast because of his large wound. Blood had managed to make its way through the makeshift bandages, and he had dried blood on his palm. Silva Terram was a beautiful place, filled with glowing multicolour fireflies flying everywhere and illuminating the cobbled streets. The houses were extremely odd; they looked to be formed from the trees, with weaving branches as walls and openings with stained glass windows depicting some sort of aspect of nature. I saw a couple faces in the windows, and a couple people come outside to see what the commotion was about. Lydan abruptly dropped me, barely letting me stand up and balance, and quickly ran to pull up Alys, who had slumped and could hardly move his feet. They stopped, letting him catch his breath.
"Do you want me to carry you?" Zath asked, looking his injured friend over.
"No, I'm fine," he stepped shakily in the direction we were going. "Honest,"
"Alright," Zath nodded, continuing at a slower pace.
We continued on as the people stared, and I wrapped my jacket around me more, panicking about how they would react. I kept my eyes off them just in case one recognised me as a human. I hoped that they didn't in the low light.
Soon, Alizon ran over, looking Alys over for any more wounds.
"What happened to you?" She exclaimed, frantically looking him over.
"I got attacked," he shrugged it off.
"We need to get you to Locito and Laetus fast!" She turned to Zath. "Carry him, it's faster,"
Zath nodded, pulling Alys onto his back within a matter of seconds and giving him no time to react except for a few hisses at the movement. He ran after her, not caring about Alys' groans of pain and ran up a set of stairs made of branches and through the door. Elaria and Lydan ran after them, dragging me along too. I almost tripped up on the stairs; I was saved by Elaria, who grabbed me by my wrist and dragged me up the stairs at a fast pace. Lydan led us through the first room, barely letting me see it, and through the open door in the corridor attached to it, stopping abruptly and making us crash into him. The room was sparsely decorated, save for six beds and tables, with Alys lying on one of them, the cut exposed and blood all over his pale torso. A woman with six arms was cutting his shirt off, staring at the blood with her black eyes and her antennae moving around on her head. She removed his shirt, revealing a few more scars littered over his torso. A few were just small and sparse, and a large one reached from his shoulder to his waist, like a silver river. The woman didn't bother looking at them and immediately began to use the cut shirt to clean the dry blood, causing Alys to hiss and groan in pain, letting out the occasional curse to the woman. She apologised every time, her eyes constantly darting to the door which we were occupying. Alizon called us in by patting on the bed beside Alys. We sat down next to her, watching as the woman cleaned the wound and comforting Alys as she went along.
It wasn't long before a man stopped in the doorway, catching his breath. He was extremely tall, and had white braided hair that was mismatched. One braid was long, the rest were short at varying lengths, then some were long, it was odd. Green horns curled through the braids, looking rockier than the other horns that I had seen. His eyes matched his horns, even the rockyness, and his nails too. He walked at a brisk pace to the woman. She grabbed her scissors and a braid and cut a large length of it off, wrapping it around Alys' wrist and tying it in a knot. It wrapped around three times, and looked to be half a centimetre thick. They both nodded, and the man sat with us, using a small hair tie to tie off the cut braid, re-plaiting a small portion of it before tying.
The woman finished cleaning after a long time of tense silence. She turned to Alizon, nodding, and prompting Alizon to pass her a vial full of a red liquid this time. The man stood up, helping him to sit up and gave him the potion. This time he didn't look peaky, and instead after a couple seconds the scar began to glow, and it became another silver river.
"How do you feel?" The woman asked, looking the scar over.
"Better," he ran a finger over the scar.
"Well, I'm glad it worked," Alizon stood up, stretching and smiling. "It's a new recipe,"
"One that doesn't taste as bad," Alys replied.
"You should rest for tonight, i'll send one of your friends through with some food if you want it," the woman told him.
"I think I'll be asleep before then," he replied.
"I'll keep watch on him, you guys go and relax," Zath told us, shooing us away.
"We should leave him to rest," the man said, a gravelly voice, and began to walk to the door. Alizon nodded and followed.
After taking one more glance at Zath, who was mumbling to Alys, I walked out, walking down the corridor and into another room. The corridor was made out of tree branches, winding into floor and walls, the lights being held by tree branches and a couple woven rugs on the floor. I walked through the next open door into a dining room, with a table made from a dark wood and chairs to match, paintings covering every part of the wall, and a stained glass window with a vase of yellow flowers taking place of a normal window. The man was sat at the head of the dark table, with the woman beside him and the rest sat around them. I sat next to Alizon, feeling more comfortable around her than anyone else.
"What was that potion you gave him?" Elaria asked, looking a little shaken.
"It was a potion that speeds up time of wounds," she replied. "Instead of it taking however long to heal and scar, it took a matter of seconds,"
"Ah," she nodded in understanding.
"Circe is close with the Witch Queen, and is one of her trusted advisors, so she knows more potion recipes than the average Witch," the woman explained. "She knows a few rare ones too,"
"Like the disguise," she mumbled.
"Precisely," Alizon replied, nodding and smiling. "Well, I'm glad you guys got here safe,"
"Yeah, we go here relatively safe," Elaria nodded slightly. "After being attacked by the witch and Zath's old friend who wanted to date him,"
"You guys got attacked?" Alizon seemed surprised at our statement. "I didn't expect that,"
"But Alys was hurt, where did you get that explanation from?" I asked, curiosity biting at me.
"Well, he set off later than you guys, and I naturally assumed the witch wanted him over you guys," she shrugged. "I don't know. I just had a feeling she didn't attack you guys, but I guess I was wrong,"
"Your feelings are always wrong Alizon," the woman replied.
Alizon looked like she was about to respond, but turned away before she could. The woman simply laughed at her childish sulking.
"Alizon tells us you are trying to get back into Domun," the man began. "Is that correct?"
"Yes, we want to return home," she gestured to herself and Lydan, who was too busy observing the paintings on the wall to notice.
"I see," he nodded. "Hopefully that is enough to grant you access to Domun once again,"
"Once again?" She questioned. "Dont tell me,"
"He closed off the borders," he shook his head gravely. "As soon as you went missing he closed them off,"
"He seemed adamant on keeping whatever got in out, and that was apparently the 'safest way'," Lydan added, not looking at us. "It's not,"
"Upper security would've been a better thing to do," she mumbled. "Can you get us back in?"
"We'll have to see," he replied. "I'm sure we can find some way in,"
"We surely must be able to," Elaria mumbled. "I am the Altium after all,"
"It just depends on whoever is on guard and how paranoid they are," Lydan mumbled. It seemed that Elaria didn't hear him, since she didn't acknowledge he had spoken at all.
"You will get in," the woman smiled at Elaria. "It may take some hard work, but you will get back to your home,"
"Well, that's good to hear," she smiled at the woman.
"It is," Lydan nodded
There was a moment of silence, a comfortable silence, one that didn't feel like you had to speak to get rid of it. I had no clue if the silence came from the fatigue we all felt or that we had no conversation topics left, or maybe a mix of both, but I was thankful that it wasn't too tense.
After a while, the woman left the room. She returned later with a plate full of sandwiches and small cakes. They looked relatively normal, unlike the oddly coloured fruits I had seen before.
"Eat as much as you would like," the woman smiled at us, setting the two plates down on the table. Alizon tucked in quickly, picking up one of the larger cakes adorned with white icing and a small black berry. Elaria picked up a dainty sandwich and Lydan finally sat down.
We ate in a comfortable silence, with the occasional word being spoken about the pleasant food. The cakes were extremely sweet, and the sandwiches were filled with meat. They did taste pretty good.
"Did you make those?" Elaria asked as the woman began to pick up the plates.
"I did," she nodded, smiling. "Did you like them?"
"They were amazing!"
"Thank you," she turned slightly pink.
"I think we should sleep soon, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," Lydan stated.
"It would be for the best," the man nodded. "You can stay as long as you like,"
"Thank you," Elaria stood up, making her way to the door. I followed her, along with Lydan.
Alys was still awake in the room. He seemed distant, like he was asleep but with his eyes open. When he realised we were there he acknowledged us, and gained a stern word from Elaria who didn't appreciate him being awake. Zath was asleep, fast asleep, snoring occasionally. Elaria also seemed like she wanted to scold him too, but didn't have the heart to wake him up. Instead, she told us to just sleep and she'd talk about it in the morning. I did just that.