The snake hissed nearing to him, but Toren refused to move an inch.
The way it slithered through the branches and across a plump, red apple was too familiar.
He remembered which brushstrokes he used, the juxtaposition, and the pattern he colored to it. There was also the poisonous flower, glowing its deep dark blue rose-like petals and the abstract hues which swirled around the dark forest.
It all felt surreal that he almost believed that he was dreaming if not for the wound at his knee.
"What is happening?" He whisperingly asked.
"You must return to your residence and avoid letting anyone know about your secret room," The snake hissed with a strange, yet comprehensible language. "The colonizers will soon begin their inspections. The members of the organization will have to forfeit their weapons and undergo investigation. Do not participate in it. Pretend to be ignorant about your stepfather's group."
Somehow, he felt like he could trust his own creations.
The spirits exuded a sense of connection that only himself could possibly discern.
He felt like a god heeding to what his hands had bred and breathed upon.
"But how shall I return?" Toren asked politely. "I have lost my way here deep in the forest and I am not familiar with the path leading back to our village."
"Your abstracts have always known the ways," It responded. "You drew them while imagining the map of the world across your brain. Deep down, you have figured the way that your feet had landed upon. Now, go!"
The abstract hues that were swirling and floating around the fresh leaves of towering trees above descended down through the child's forehead.
A slow and drilling headache was what he had endured for half a minute until everything seeped in at the corners of his skull. His eyes lit up and he suddenly knew all the ways around the whole country West.
All the villages and each of their blocks had been crystal clear as if an accurate map was etched in him.
Heeding to the snake's words, he rushed back to their household without looking back.
He arrived exactly right before the inspection had started.
There was a strong and harsh treatment when they invaded and meticulously rammed through the rooms. Nothing hostile was found anywhere, so they proceeded to the next house.
Muren and Coen had undergone initial investigation as they had been clearly sighted at the grand villa shootout.
Since Toren had never gone there, his face had not been familiar, so the soldiers concluded that he may have been just a part of a crossfire.
The same conclusion was given to Airen since she was a woman and no one suspected her for participating in the organization's activity.
Airen and Toren waited patiently, enduring each second like a painful ordeal.
They were anxious and worried for their family.
That night, the men had returned to the residence completely exhausted and wounded.
Airen treated them both with care, while Toren aided her.
Everything had been settled and further investigations were said to resume starting tomorrow. They were planning to identify those who schemed the shootout and be punished with a death penalty by beheading them.
The soldiers had been stricter and uptight with their security and restraints against the villages.