Vincent parted his eyes and was greeted by the familiar sight of his tent canopy, for once the texture of the rough hemp never felt cozier to him,
'My body hurts all over, I feel so horrible'
He Moved his hands over his whole body checking for any injuries when he noticed the bandages around his wounds, they were well applied and taken care of,
He slowly dragged himself out of the tent and saw the golden orange hue of a bonfire, close enough to his tent so that the warmth of it could reach him,
Vincent had a thoughtful look on his face as he went towards the caravan, He peeked inside the carriages one by one until he found a small black figure, about a 4 year old child in size snuggling between fuzzy belts of fur and leather, the featureless black figure seems to be completely oblivious to his movements,
'How can I tell if this thing is sleeping or not?'
Vincent whispered in a gentle voice,
"Hey .. Collective are you sleeping ?"
The figure was a bit startled as it shock its head slowly, it moved its hand like a toddler to wipe the sleepiness off its face, it then lined its eyeless gaze with Vincent's,
The black small figure slowly crept towards Vincent and held his left pinky that he was using to lean on the carriage,
A Voice suddenly appeared in Vincent's head surprising him for a bit,
-Blond you woke up faster than we expected
"Blond .. "
Vincent replied as if confused, the voice echoed back in his head again,
-Hmm Are you not .. we are pretty sure we saw you as a blond in those kids memories
Vincent stumped for words, he cautiously asked,
"Does that mean you can't see ?"
- Hmm .. not that we can't but we did not, we can make eyes but since we can approximately tell where you are from your sound we did not bother, this is how we found your friends,
Vincent sighed in resignation,
"I can't be surprised any more ..
What are you ?"
- We are not sure, all we know we are a collective of minds made into one,
"where do you come from?"
- Not from this world we are sure about that,
"Are you, from the Void ?"
- We know about that form the Children's memories but we don't think so .. our world was .. bright rather than dark,
Vincent and the small black figure moved towards the bonfire, Collective slowly inched away from the fire as it spoke to Vincent, Vincent noticed that however he did not ask any further questions,
After finding food leftovers and cooking something up, Vincent prepared some supplies form the camp and readied a horse, He looked at Collective,
"How about tagging along with me, I doubt they will let you meet the margrave by yourself, in fact, I don't think they will allow you past the city gates .. "
Collective struck a thinker pose, then the small figure warped and a buff of black smoke rose from its body, the black smoke shortly cleared leaving Vincent with a flabbergasted look on his face,
He looked at supple pale skinned child with an androgynous face, raven haired and gray cat like eyes, the child wore s simple black robe that is slightly larger than them the robe seemed to be made of fur and silk,
The four year old looking child innocently looked at Vincent and spoke with a childish voice,
"Hmm Blond .. How Do we look, are we still suspicious?"
As collective looked proud of themselves, a defeated look covered Vincent's face, He walked towards the Child and carried it in his arms, He put the child on the saddle and mounted the horse behind them, he calmly took the reins and spoke in a low dissatisfied voice,
"Don't call me blond .."
The child looked up at Vincent behind them and asked curiously,
"What do we call you .."
Vincent looked down at the child and parted his lips,
"Call me Vin"
=====
North of the Clifford domain in the northeastern blackwood's two shadowy figures made their way through the thickets of trees and pushes towards the south, the two wore white fur garb with metal chest plates, underneath their outer armor and clothes peaked a silvery bluish colored chainmail, covering their right shoulder a bluish metallic spaulders and graves made of animal skin and fur, their heads covered by a white hood,
there were intricately carved details of snakes and sea monsters on their apparels and woven into their garb, one of them stood a towering pram and a quarter, while the other was slightly taller than a full pram which was much taller than the average populace of the empire,
The shorter one halted their movements, soon the taller one stopped as well, Taking his hood off the taller ones long braided red hair draped over his back and shoulders, the red hair deeper colored than blood, he observed with his light green eyes the surroundings, his sharp thick eyebrows resembled two patches of fire,
"Do you really think The lord of the east will be of help, no would he even give us an audience ?"
The shorter one looked at him from under the hood, light blue frigid eyes were barely visible, the sound of a woman came out full of confidence and resolve,
"If he would be of help that is for father to decide, however he cannot afford to not meet us after all what we have gone through to get here,
worst case we break into his house to have a midnight talk"
After resting for a while both of the figures continued their journey towards the Clifford domain gates, a raging storm seemed to be brewing in the distance,