It has been days since Alice said goodbye to the hunter and his family, she is now looking for a bridge to cross the river Caperinn, there should be a bridge close by, if she is counting her route correctly, she found records showing there was a stone bridge with more 500 years old a few months ago, and it's probably crumbling connecting that road to Hintar Forest on the other side.
The bridge had been built to facilitate the transport of medicinal herbs that were in abundance at the time of its construction in that forest, but the unbridled exploitation made those herbs rare in less than two centuries and their extraction economically unfeasible.
It would be really good for Alice if she could get some of those herbs, she had a hard time finding or buying medicinal herbs for a long time, especially at the exorbitant prices that are being practiced nowdays.
Now she could even buy by trading her finds in Riverin, but there isn't a town on her way to Zackar's Red Mountain, perhaps some village abandoned by the kingdom.
Alice has also heard that adorable creatures still live in that forest, Alice wants to see something like that to make up for all the horrible things she had seen lately, especially in Riverin.
Alice loves to see the beauty and wonders of the world, but she has no problem seeing its flaws and horrors when it's necessary.
Alice realized she had broken her promise to the troll after saying goodbye to the hunter, she wondered if there was anything that could make up for her not keeping her promise since then.
That was the only friendly troll she's ever met, she can't ask anyone else about it, and she doesn't know anyone who can respond on behalf of her troll friend, perhaps if she asked the animals and beasts of that forest.
The problem is that finding an object to hold magic and be able to talk to animals, in addition to a very complex task, is very time-consuming, the animals will have died of old age when she can talk to them.
She realizes one more thing as she wanders in search of the lost bridge, the animals in that forest are unprotected now, they don't have the troll to protect them anymore, she could replace the troll, but she can't, at the moment she has to find messages from her grandfather Merlyn.
The river is wide, it's wider than a block, the current is strong, Alice thinks she could survive it, but she would go down many miles with the current and maybe not be able to get across it, when she reaches the shore.
Alice starts looking for some tree that could be used on a makeshift raft, she would also be dragged for more than a kilometer, but at least she will be able to cross without much difficulty.
Before sunset, Alice finds a merchant in his slow cart pulled by a lazy old donkey heading in the direction she came.
"Hello young lady? Would you like to buy some potatoes?" the merchant is stout and soft-spoken, he pulls the cloth that covered the merchandise behind him.
"I can't sir, I have no money at the moment, if you can tell me if you have ever seen a bridge walking along this road and where to find it, it would be very handy" Alice looks into the eyes of that merchant.
"If you have something of value, we can exchange it for some potatoes, but the bridge you are looking for doesn't exist" the merchant smiles at the end showing his crooked yellow front teeth.
"Sir, if I gave you the least valuable thing I have to exchange at the moment, your cart wouldn't be enough to compensate me, and about the bridge, I saw a record about it..." Alice doesn't know how to continue and she just smiles back kindly showing her perfect teeth.
"Beautiful young lady, your lie is ugly, show what you've got, even if it's not worth much I promise to give you at least one potato, and over the bridge, if I buy some potatoes I'll tell you what happened" the merchant repeats his smile, less friendly now.
"All right, look then, but tell me about the bridge" Alice opens her bag of findings at Riverin and the merchant's eyes almost pop out of their sockets, he picks up a bad potato that was on top of the others and throws it over Alice's head with all his strength, Alice pushes the potato aside with one hand.
"Filthy thief! Get out of my way!" the merchant lashes the donkey that responds slowly by pulling the cart again, the man is afraid, he knows that his donkey was never a sprinter, even less now, old and pulling his cart almost full.
Alice gets angry, in addition to being disrespectful, that man tried to attack her, she seriously thinks about teaching him a lesson, but she already had her share of violence in Riverin and she decides to spare him this time.
The merchant walks away slowly in his cart and continues to offend Alice, calling her a thief and saying other insults, Alice turns her back on the merchant dozens of steps away now and she goes back to looking for the bridge going on her path.
After little over two hours, she sees a small village with some houses on the side of the road, on the river she sees the stone foundations just above the water's surface, that must have been the bridge she is looking for, she presses her lips together for a moment.
As she approaches the village at her normal pace, she realizes there are only half a dozen wooden houses and a stone chapel at the center, oddly the chapel seems to be made of the same stone as the rest of the bridge.
In the reports that Alice found there was no mention of the village or that the bridge had collapsed, Alice goes to see if the people there are as hospitable as the hunter's family, she liked to sleep in a friendly house and not outdoors as usual.
Near the village there is a vegetable garden and a small field of wheat and another of barley even further away from the road, most of the garden is covered with overturned potato branches, that merchant must be from here, Alice guesses.
"Hello lady?" Alice greets a middle-aged lady sweeping the leaves in front of her house, this lady's house is the closest to the road.
"Hello girl, may St. Anne bless you" The lady is friendly in her voice and in the smile with which she returns Alice's greeting, a tall, thin young man looks in Alice's direction as he carves the outskirts of the village, Alice doesn't care about his surveillance, he's no threat to her.
"Can you please tell me what happened to the bridge?" Alice cuts to the chase, since last time talking a lot didn't yield any information.
"Yes, yes, but let's go there to the shade of that orange tree to get out of the sun, it's very hot, I don't know how you wear that cloak in this heat" The lady goes under the orange tree beside her house fanning herself with her straw hat.
"It's easier to travel like this" Alice tries not to be rude.
"About the bridge right?" The lady asks a rhetorical question which Alice answers with an involuntary shake of her head. "Well, girl… that was a long time ago, I wasn't even born yet, it was my grandmother who told me, when she was young, there was even a tavern here" The woman looks at the bridge as she tells her story, but her gaze seems more distant, as if she were looking back in time.
"The medicinal herb harvest was very bad, they were giving up for good, so those who lived here because of the tavern continued, when my grandmother was young, they started to remove part of the bridge to build the chapel of Santa Ana, because she had stopped by and she cured Salazar, my uncle who died a short time ago, he had become ill and the saint cured him, in gratitude, everyone got together and they began to build the chapel." The woman starts to look at the simple chapel in the middle of the village.
"Once in a while we have to renovate it, but it's worth it, the harvest is always good, and we've got only a flood so far, that's when almost the rest of the bridge was washed away" Alice is impressed to know that this river could be more dangerous than it looks.
"Only the foundation is left, but what do you tell me, did you get lost at the fork to Sertalinka?" The lady remains friendly and leans on a branch of the orange tree.
"No ma'am, I'm going to Zackar's red mountain, I don't know if you know" Alice tries to match the woman's sympathy with her facial expression, but she can't, it's not natural like the woman.
"Uh huh???" The woman is amazed and without understanding, what would lead a pretty girl like that to go to a hellish place like Zackar's Red Mountain, the woman thinks.
Alice is disconcerted, she doesn't know how to explain it better, the young man seeing the woman's reaction comes towards Alice who watches him from the corner of her eye.