"Well from a chicken of course, except you prefer duck eggs, or goose eggs, but I have to say that chicken eggs are the most basic" said Alina as she laughed.
Ollie looked even more confused, as if Alina was speaking a different language.
"But where are the animals, there are no animals on Caligo" said Ollie as Annie, Maddie, Matt and Curtis all had to agree with him, he was right, there were no animals on Caligo, or at least, there were not supposed to be according to what they knew.
So having eggs all of a sudden was… weird, which was why Ollie stopped to ask questions before he ate anything, you could never be too safe at all, the reason why he said nothing during dinner yesterday was because, one, he didn't want to be rude to ask where the food came from, since they were guests and secondly, yesterday's dinner was mostly food that had no meat in them, the pasta was made from wheat, which Ollie knew was grown on Caligo, and so was the sauce that was probably made out of tomatoes.
Ollie had thought that maybe the mountain dwellers were vegetarians, since they only eat what they grew, but you could not grow animals, which was why he was surprised to see eggs, he had never seen a single chicken anywhere, he did not even heard the chirping of a chick, so there had to be an explanation somewhere.
Alina just started laughing, she started to laugh so hard, so much so that Annie, Maddie, Matt, Ollie and Curtis wondered just what was so funny.
"What's so funny?" asked Ollie.
"You, all of you, and your reactions" said Alina as she laughed as Ollie still did not understand what was going on.
"But it's true, there are no animals on Caligo, they cannot live and survive in the mountain's harsh conditions" said Ollie as he was stating a fact that he knew well.
"You all are silly" said Alina as she laughed.
"Of course there are animals on Caligo, lots of them" said Alina as she calmed herself down, so she would stop laughing.
"Then where are they then?" asked Ollie.
"They are everywhere, they just hide themselves, a lot, but once they are not scared of you, they show themselves" said Alina as she smiled.
"Let me guess, another thing Caligo does to protect itself right?" asked Maddie as she was sure that she knew where this was going.
"Yes, something like that, all the animals on Caligo have the ability to hide themselves, they become almost invisible even, which makes them hard to catch, but they often make noises, which we can use to track them, and then we catch them, and they stop hiding" said Alina as she explained, she always found that weird, but well, that was just how things were on Caligo.
"Especially in the forest, there are many, many animals there, we have squirrels, butterflies, fishes, many of them, even deers, although they are higher on the mountain, and they rarely come down" said Alina as she studied the expression on everyone's faces.
Curtis looked like this was to be expected, while Annie, Matt and Matt were at first surprised, but what could they say? This mountain was strange, the only person who looked like he still could not believe what he was hearing was Ollie.
"But this makes no sense, I heard no chickens, not at all" said Ollie.
"Ahh well that's because we don't have chickens, I went to the house next door to get some eggs" said Alina as she explained and she ate her eggs, she still found this so funny, so very funny.
"I see" said Ollie as he was still trying to wrap his head around this, what all this meant was that everything that they thought they knew about Caligo, everything written in the books about Caligo, were all lies, false lies.
Once he got back home, the first thing he was going to do would be to change all those stupid lies that he was forced to study as part of his training, they were just so false, and all they did was to paint Caligo as some sort of dangerous mountain, that had nothing at all but danger, which Ollie always found boring to read, and well now, here he was with the truth, it was unreal.
"Yes" said Alina as she smiled.
"Well, now I know that all the texts written about Caligo needs to be changed" said Ollie.
"I agree with you, Caligo isn't all that bad" said Alina as she laughed.
"I mean, we live here, and we are all still alive aren't we??" asked Alina as she smiled.
"You are" said Ollie as he smiled.
"So which animals do you have Alina?" asked Maddie out of curiosity, now she knew why Alina had a stable outside, she thought that it was just for show.
"Oh well we used to have a cow, but then it died, so we get fresh milk from one of our neighbours, while we trade them with the wheat we have" said Alina.
"We have more vegetables, while the others have animals, we all trade and share" said Alina as she smiled.
"That sounds nice" said Annie as she smiled.
"Oh it is Annie; we all take care of one another here" said Alina as she smiled.
"Hmm" said Annie as she smiled.
"Which reminds me, we will be leaving" said Curtis.
"When?" asked Alina.
"After Breakfast" said Curtis as the smile on Alina's face dropped as she looked sad.
"Oh…" said Alina as she was getting so used to having them around, that she forgot that they had their own lives, so hearing that they were leaving so soon, just broke their heart.
Annie could not say that the sad look on Alina's face did not affect her at all, it did, Alina looked so sad.
"So soon?" asked Alina.
"Well we have to get going, we have wasted some time by staying here" said Curtis.
"I'm sorry" said Alina.
"Sorry for what?" asked Maddie.
"Sorry for everything, because of me, you guys delayed everything, and I insisted on you staying, and for that I am sorry" said Alina.
"No, don't be sorry Alina, you didn't delay anything at all" said Annie as Alina looked at her.
"In fact, we loved to stay here with you" said Annie as she smiled.
"Really?" asked Alina as her face lit up.
"Really" said Annie as she nodded her head and she smiled.
"It's just that we need to go" said Annie as she smiled.
"Don't' worry Annie, you don't have to explain anything to me I understand" said Alina as she smiled and Annie smiled at her.
"Well I do have to say that it was nice meeting you all, and that I will miss you all, and I wish you all a safe journey to wherever it is that you are going" said Alina as she smiled.
"Thank you Alina" said Annie as she smiled, as Ollie and Matt smiled as well.
"Anytime" said Alina as she smiled, at least now she had new friends.
"Anyway, let's finish breakfast so you can all be on your way" said Alina.
"I just hope that my master will return in time to see you off" said Alina as she smiled and Annie smiled, she really hoped not.
After Breakfast.
"Master, Master, you are finally back" said Alina as she smiled happily and she rushed to Ivor as soon as she saw him walk in through the front door.
"Good Morning Alina" said Ivor as he looked at Alina.
"Good Morning master" said Alina as she smiled.
"How was your outing master?" asked Alina as she smiled.
"Good" replied Ivor.
"That is very good Master" said Alina as she smiled.
"Hmm yes, are our guests awake yet?" asked Ivor.
"Yes Master they are, we already ate breakfast, but they are leaving already, look here they come" said Alina as she saw Curtis, Annie, Matt, Maddie and Ollie walking out of their rooms with their bags.
"Ahh well, what a surprise, you are leaving so soon?" asked Ivor as he smiled.
"Yes, we cannot be delayed any longer" replied Curtis as he gave a slight smile.
"Well it is a shame, but I wish you all luck in your journey" said Ivor as he smiled.
"Thank you" said Annie, Maddie, Matt, Curtis and Ollie as Ivor smiled, but before Curtis could take a step forward, the sky suddenly thundered as the clouds became dark, and without warning, it began to rain, heavily.
"What??" asked Maddie in surprise as she Annie, Matt and Ollie all had the same look on their faces as Curtis just seemed to be watching.
"Wow, it rarely rains here" said Alina as she laughed and she looked at Curtis.
Curtis was thinking of a plan, they could not possibly go out there in the rain, it would be too dangerous, and they did not know when exactly the rain would stop, this was just a very unfortunate turn of events.