Jade and I was going stay in the hut with the little boy she helped out. I couldn't help but gasped as all the dust of the pealing clay entered my nose. To make matter worse I had to duck as I walked around the small hut.
The place only had one bedroom, a dining room, and a living room. I didn't even wanted to consider where the bathroom was. The woman insisted that we stay in her room while she and her son sleeps in the dining room.
I reached into the only crate we was able to bring inside, since I sent the others with the soldiers. I grabbed two nicely fabricated blankets and tossed one to Jade. Jade decided to take the bed made out of straws as I slept on the floor.
After I placed the blanket on the floor and was about to shut my eyes I heard the sound of Jade's voice.
"Jack," she whispered. "You still up?"
"Yeah," I yawned.
"Do you think our parents miss us?"
I can't believe I forgot all about our world. Memories of my mom starting flooding in. I felt a tear drop on my cheek which I quickly wiped away.
I'm sure my mom misses me right now. She already lost her husband and if I don't return she's going to lose another man she loved.
"Of course our parents miss us," I replied. "I'm sure they think we're dead also. So for all we know they could be planning our funerals right now."
I heard Jade sobbing. "I miss everyone."
"Say Jade, do you trust that Shadow?"
"I don't know," she said. "He did saved us."
"We was better off dead, at least then our parents wouldn't had to wonder if we was alive or not." I responded.
I waited for Jade to answer but there was only silence. "Also Arpo mentioned that a Shadow came to him. We can't trust that shadow or anyone else in this place, it's just me and you."
She didn't respond so I suppose she must have fell asleep.
***
I woke up to the smell of herbs and lavender. For a second I forgot that I was in a hut; in a strange different world. It all seemed like a dream and I was desperately hoping it was.
"You're finally awake," Jade said. She was wearing a purple harem pants, white tee and black sandals. Her hair looked like it was done nicely and her eyes was still as beautiful as ever. I'm happy she's here with me, she's the only reason why I remembered about my life two days ago.
"One of the soldiers brought us clothes from Zenal," she turned around and model her outfit. "Aren't these beautiful?"
"Yeah I guess," as I reached into the basket sitting at the corner of my feet. I grabbed a black harem pants, a black t-shirt, and a pair of sandals. "Where's the bath?"
She gestured for me to follow her.
I stood up and lowered my head as we walked around the house. The little boy mom was making something in the kitchen, and I guess Jade was assisting her before.
We walked outside as the morning sun beam against my face very unexpectedly. The village seemed livelier than when we arrived, it looked like everyone was in a hurry to do something.
"Just go straight down the road, take a left when you reach the end, and keep going till you see the river," Jade handed me a towel and a soap. "You may want to take a change of clothes with you."
She piled the clothes I picked up in my hand. She then made a gesture with her hand telling me to go on.
As I walked down the streets I couldn't help but noticed how depressed everyone looked, yet even though they was working at an unbelievable pace that seemed unreal for their fragile bony body. The weirdest thing is that after they was done with their task—mostly making food, they packed it up and placed it near the entrance of the village.
What was going on in this strange little place? Were they putting all their resources together to share it equally amongst themselves? No, I had a feeling that wasn't the case.
I could feel that something much bigger was happening. Something that I missed when we entered then village.
I reached the river faster than I expected.
I almost didn't recognized my reflection. My black low-cut hair was full of sands, my cheeks was covered in dried up blood and dirt. My jeans was ripped and fill with blood stains—probably from my fight with Clover. My shirt although was still good it was only dirty, and my eyes, my lazy almond-colored eyes was emotionless.
I placed my change of clothes on a nearby rock and filled two buckets of water. I later on went to the hut and started my cold bath.
***
"You look real nice," Jade smiled as I entered the small hut.
I was wearing the black harem pants, black t-shirt and sandals that I picked out early this morning. My mouth started to water as I smelled the rich essence of the finished food.
Jade handed me a plate. She said it was called "Khloa M'nure," don't know how to pronounce that. It was basically dune tiger stuffed with vegetables and pile on with seasoning. It tasted absolutely delicious. Nothing like I tasted before, if only we had this on earth. It was made from the food Jade found in the crate.
"Why are you guys doing that?" I asked the little boy mom who just came back from taking something to the village entrance.
She looked at me confused as if she wanted desperately to answer but couldn't. Matter of fact I think I hadn't heard her talk after all this time.
The little boy walked in as if that was his queue. He looked at his mom, she nodded her head as if they understood each other thoughts.
"The Dung Beetles is a group of bandits that came here two months ago and started terrorizing our village. Every week we have to give them food and supplies or else they will kill more of our people. That's why yesterday everyone was hidden because they thought you was them, and they didn't had the payment yet."
"So you guys give your foods to those bandits?" Jade jumped in, "no wonder you all look on the verge of death."
"What else are we supposed to do?" the kid cried. "We sent messengers to Zenal but they said they don't want nothing to do with us. I guess they must've changed their mind now that they sent you guys."
"We're not here to help you," I said.
Jade looked at me as if saying "stop it" but I just ignored that. Yes it was sad that their village is being terrorized and that they are starving, but if we take the time to help everyone we meet then how are we ever going find the scroll?
On top of that even if we was going to help them, we needed to wait for the bandits to arrive. Probably defeat or maybe even kill them, leave one of them alive so they can take us to their hideout, and wipe all of them out.
That was too much of a waste of time and energy just for the safety of a few tens of people.
"Jack stop being so rude, you really have no heart." Jade smacked my arm, "when are these Dung Beetles guys coming?"
One of the soldiers knocked on the outside wall of the hut. "Generals there are four unidentified carts coming this way. There seemed to be people in it."
The woman took her son and went into the living room. Everybody else that was outside started to rush back into their huts. Within a matter of seconds the streets was deserted again and only the noise of wind can be heard in the background.
Jade followed the soldiers as they made their way over to the food supplies. The old man and a couple of men was standing there just waiting.
Even though they were trying to hide it, I could see it in their structure that they was very nervous and frightened. For a couple of seconds the only thing I was able to see was a mountain of dust advancing towards us, but as it got closer I seen the carts the soldiers was talking about.
There were about four of them to be exact. Two of them had three people on it while the other two had a single person—those two seem to be in the lead. The sail went down and the cart began to slow to a steady pace before coming to a complete stop.
Out came a man in his mid-thirties with a hairless head and a nicely trim goatee—I guess this was the popular style in this land. His face was scar-less and he had a grin on him as if daring anyone to approach him. He eyed us before taking out his sword that was slung behind his back.
From the looks of it he must had been the leader because the rest of the bandits followed along. Each of them having the same style of hair—or should I say no hair.
They wore sandy colored pants that looked like cargos. They had on breastplates bejeweled with items such as: ends of spears, dangling hoops, dream catchers, and mostly with pictures or figurines of beetles.
The leader of the group had a gleam in his eyes when he seen one of the soldiers holding up our red cloaks. I could feel it in the air and I knew something was bound to happen. Stepping outside of the hut was going to be a mistake I might come to regret.