Knock knock-
I woke to sound of soft knocking on my makeshift door.
Alarmed, I rushed to my rifle pointing it to direction of the knocking. My drowsiness quickly dispersed. My imagination raced to multiple horrible possibilities while I locked the rifle. The presence outside seemed to have noticed as well, I could make out its vague figure perking up.
"Hello. Morning, 's anyone there?" A fragile voice inquired.
I cleared my throat, picking a way to respond. The voice sounded like it belonged to an old man. Which I found hard to believe was from around here. In the past few days, I've roamed far and beyond, sometimes even spending nights at other checkpoint holes, kilometres in every direction. No matter how long I spent searching, there wasn't a shadow of civilisation anywhere.
So, it was understandable really. After one week alone, hearing someone's voice, at first I thought it was a hallucination caused by days of isolation. The shock to my mind was great, here I believed I was the last human on earth, caught in a sick time-travel incident or hyper-realistic dream. To a time possibly thousands of years after they abandoned the planet.
Here was somebody, knocking on my front door, saying a normal greeting, speaking in a language I recognised. His voice slammed my against my ears, like a fresh stream in a dry well. I relished the interaction.
"Ah, uh. Hello- ...good morning." I threw off my fur blanket, hauling my bag between me and the door while I gulped mouthfuls of water from a leaf bowl.
"Are ya okay? Ya don't sound swell."
"I- I'm fine. Who are you?"
"Justa old man named Bundy. Saw this litt'e camp here and thought to check it." He spoke gently and took his time. I waited for him to finish, processing his words.
"Where are you from?"
He paused briefly, the shadow of an arm stroked up and down, probably his chin or beard.
"Rockroot village, might I ask where ya come from?"
At a loss on what to say, I picked the name of my home country,"Turkiye, I come from... the village of Turkiye."
"Oh, interestin' name. I've ain't ever heard of this Tarky village before." He said, there was a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"Um, I'm not sure myself. Uhm, I need to get ready, I will meet you in a bit."
"Yes, yes. That would be wonderful." After saying so the old man waited at the front, unmoving.
"Can you move back?" I said. The old man's head pointed in my direction. After a while, I saw the shape of an arm wave and fall.
"Aright aright."
I put on my right shoulder exoskeleton and strapped a mag belt under my arm. While consuming a strip of jerky, I exited through the back; dragging along my rifle. Golden sunlight poured over me as I hauled myself out. My eyes quickly adjusted to the light.
"Oh, what's that you're carrying there?" I turned around to face the voice. The old man gazed down at me with his droopy eyes. He dressed in moth eaten robes, wearing a tied piece of robe for a belt, he carried himself on a thick branch. He didn't look like a civilian from the world I knew.
The old-man, Bundy stroked his beard, his greying eyes pierced through me. After a moments inspection and beard stroking, he spoke.
"Ya the one responsible for ar lost bulls?" he asked out of the blue.
"Bulls..." I chewed on his question, there were bulls around here. If there were I must be dumb or I didn't know what a bull looked like in this world. "What do these bulls look like, can you describe."
"Four horns an' legs, mane's chestnut brown." Bundy said.
I do remember shooting a bunch of four horned animals the other day. At the time, my food supply was low and after a long hunt, I did take a few of them down. Their fur made a great blanket.
"Oh, that's my fault, I didn't know they belonged to you." My empty palm went to the back of my head, I lowered my chin apologetically. It was best to be friendly and diplomatic for a good first impression.
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"No soul lives in this reach. Figured ya must be the one that killed 'em." I guess he made sense.
Thus, began another beard stroking moment, I stood discomforted. After a while, the old man waved his free hand in the air. His eyes shone,"How 'bout you accompany me-"
What?
"I'm visitin' my daughter's daughter in a neighbour's village, ya' see. And I've caught wind of a treasure trove along the way. Might need a young pair o' hands ta help?" He expectedly gazed upon me. I see, reparations maybe. Anyway, it was a golden offer, I can find out more about this world and finally find people.
I invited him into my cave dwelling. Bundy and I had a nice chat, he was amiable, soft spoken and offered what looked like a tea leaf. Accepting his offer, I prepared hot water while he broke up the leaf. Mixing it into the hot water, it produced an alluring purple brew, its aroma permeated the cave and we had a nice drink. When I asked what type of leaves those were, he said it was his village's special product, winking at me.
By early afternoon, we were on our way. I followed behind Bundy. He led me through the forest, despite the lack of a beaten path was able navigated the place naturally.
"What're ya doin' boy?" He furrowed his brows at my standoffish figure. I trailed behind him, in my full exoskeleton set and equipment, power-rifle at a ready. I probably looked ready for a war, he sensed as much, raising an eyebrow. I maintained a minimum three meters between us.
"Watching out for danger." I said.
The old man glanced back shrugging his shoulders. We continued our stroll through the forest, apparently this place was named High Wood, fittingly enough.
"Let's rest the night here." Orange light receded with the sun, faint stars were grew brighter in the sky.
We arrived betwen the gigantic roots of one the trees. "Here." Bundy said. He pointed to a musty hole under the roots. It lacked the space for anything but two corpses and a three buckets of worms of worms, a natural grave. At least the one I used to live was somewhat dry.
The old man squatted to his feet, laid on the grass, then wriggled down the slope into the gap, settling himself deep against a groove. Pulling his robes over himself, Bundy got comfortable. He flicked the tip of his staff at me to follow suit.
Briefly, I had second thoughts about the situation. This place looked like a perfect trap. For all I know, he might be an earth mage and was luring me into death by live burial. Quickly scanning my surroundings, the nearest branch was ten meters high, besides that there was open land. Gritting my teeth, I wrapped a t-shirt over my head and face. I wriggled in after him, settling in another groove over his head, the old man chuckled.
"What's funny?" I asked.
"Just remembered some things." he said.
I wonder what kind of expression he made. With my backpack crammed behind me, I had no room to check the old man's face. Considering his age and all I've seen so far. Occurrences like this should be normal for him.
So I asked, he answered that it was like this just because. The monsters were large and dangerous, little people like him and me need to hide in little places like this where their fangs can't reach. Fighting back nature didn't seem possible, when I prodded about magic, he seemed to know no clue.
Our little conversation started amidst weightless whispers. Bundy was sixty years old, considered an old sage, he had a daughter three decades ago in another village not Rockroot. No clue's what happened to her since then years ago, he mentioned, she left him a granddaughter. Little Red Flowerrose, small like a mushroom and as bouncy as one too. I listened intently. It was interesting hearing all this. Bundy enjoyed telling stories. Soon, we naturally came to the topic more immediate things ahead of us.
"So why do you need me to get this treasure. Can't you get your son-in-law to do it?" I said.
"It ain't that simple, times ar hard and I don't want little red to be left alone." I nodded in understanding, back during the war too, mother would never leave my side.
"What is this 'treasure trove' anyway. It can't really be a treasure trove." I said, if he heard of it then others must have heard of it too. Surely, it was already looted.
"Well yeah, you're right." I heard him scratch his beard. "Travellin' the green is long and lonely after all-" He mulled over what to continue with for a moment. Counting trees and counting migrating wild bull, dodging dire wolves and other beasts. The troubles were many, but after gaining experience they were barely a bother. The true hardship lay in the loneliness, Bundy was getting on in age after all.
"-there is treasure though lad. I wasn't lying' when I said that." I heard the shuffling of rough fabric.
I rummaged through my vest pockets, taking out a handkerchief. It was small but thick, hopefully for now it will do. I passed the handkerchief over to Bundy. "Here. Put it under your head."
"Thank you..." his voice trailed off.
"Say, how much farther are we going tomorrow?" I asked.
"Not that far."
_________
Alita took picture with her phone before dusting away the faint footprints with wind magic and took more pictures.
"Sir, look look. There's no match up with the database, these tracks are completely foreign!"
He sighed at his ranger, of course they were. They were literally shoe prints. Of course there were no magic beasts on the database that had shoe prints.
Dorn Smith looked around the cave dwelling. The place was trashed and the hill collapsed in. Charred wood were littered with bark pieces and leaves across the space. They were remains of somebody living here, only one person's, he only found a single set of footprints and leaf bowls. The party scholar and mage, Saphir, studied the area and the previous magical fluctuations in the air.
"Saphir what can you tell, is it a demon or..." Dorn asked, typing notes of his own in a Federation issued tablet.
"No. I don't believe so. I sense no dark energy, the disturbances mostly belong to a rampage of dire wolves and some other powerful monster. Besides ours, I don't sense anything that might belong to a person." She said, pulling on the brim of her mage hat. Dorn raised an eyebrow, couldn't detect the waves of a person. Someone had been here so that was impossible, unless.
Still, since it came from their trusty A-rank mage, he saw no reason to refute her observations.
"I checked with the regional colony base. Nobody else's been here before us, we're the first." Atin reported. The theory in Dorn's mind solidified.
"What do you think about this." Dorn glanced to his right-hand man. Atin stood cross armed, deep in thought.
"We'll should pursue and collect information of the unknown entity. For now, it would be in our best interest to submit a report first. Can't let someone else take the credit." he said, brandishing his knives before putting up a hand.
"Yea!" Alita ran outside to Atin and they exchanged a glowing high-five. "We're going on an alien hunt!" she cheered.
Suddenly Dorn felt very tired.