The sun gently hit Neferet's face as she stood up, stretching her back, remembering her entire journey in parts.
Turning her head and looking around, Neferet could see that she was in a clearing where there were few trees around her, but she was surrounded by stones with different runes that she did not understand the meaning of.
Feeling a breeze that hit her face and moved her hair, she turned her face, and between the rocks with the engraved runes, she could see a river that ended in a small pond. Slowly rising, Neferet felt a stitch in her head.
But after the puncture, she did not feel more than slight discomfort. Raising her face, she could see the sun, and thinking that it could be more or less noon, he began to search with her eyes.
When her eyes saw between the rocks, she could see how Rebeca moved her ponytail to the rhythm of a light tune. At the same time, the sound of metal banging and some sacks falling was heard.
Dusting herself a bit, Neferet walked over to her and cleared her throat, and she said, "Excuse me..."
Hesitating for a moment, but with a kind tone, Neferet continued saying- "Your name is Rebeca, right?"
Neferet walked among the rocks to see how Rebeca slowly moved backpacks that seemed to have the provisions that her previous team had left, along with a small collection of pistols, swords, shields, a couple of spears, and some rifles on the floor.
Rebeca quickly turned her head, raising a wooden pistol. With large silver ornaments that shone in an intense green tone, just like the emerald eyes of that girl.
Taking a step back, Neferet raised her hands while Rebeca breathed hard and closed her eyes under the gun, saying, "My God, Nefy."
Rebeca put the pistol in her belt as she turned around to continue organizing the small loot she had scattered on the floor while saying, "Brian and I assumed you wouldn't wake up until the night. Just now is that we finish bringing the things, and we take advantage of this small lake to clean some."
Neferet opened her mouth a little and lowered her hands, and she moved a little further away from Rebeca and asked, "What are you doing?"
Rebeca got up, dusting off her knees while looking at the group of objects in front of her. She said, "I am organizing what we take from the dead, and they are not going to use it anymore."
Turning her face while pointing to the sacks of rations, she said, "Take one, anyway. One must be yours. Mine and Brian's are over there, and then we'll split the rest."
Neferet's stomach shrank a little. While swallowing hard, she began to walk slowly after Rebeca, who was saying with her back to her, "That beast left a whole carnage..." Rebeca wandered slowly while throwing a group of silver bullets on the ground.
Brian is watching the scene. He said that when he finished, he would give peace to the remains by burning them.
"It was horrible. The beast swayed and stank," Neferet's voice trembled as she tried to remember the massacre caused by that beast the night before.
Brian's footsteps approached slowly through the trees dragging a couple more sacks and asking out loud, "Rebeca, have you finished organizing things?"
Brian's voice resonated calmly through the trees, his voice hoarse and impassive, "I managed to count at least six dead among the remains that remained."
Rebeca turned her head sharply, looking at the young man who was approaching slowly, taking quick strides. Rebeca screamed, "Brian, you are an animal; can't you say things with a little more tact!?"
Brian looked up and stared directly into Neferet's yellow eyes that were riveted to the equipment lying on the ground, and his hands trembled as he grimaced, letting out his breath, saying in a low voice.
"Huy... sorry..." Brian walked next to Rebeca, who gently tapped his shoulder with two fingers while throwing the sacks of provisions with the rest, and said, "Sorry, Nefy ... I didn't mean to be so abrupt."
Neferet arched her eyebrow a little trying to show how her hands were trembling, and said, "Nefy? Rebeca also told me that way. My name is Neferet."
Rebeca and Brian exchanged a look, then looking at Neferet, Rebeca stopped hitting
Brian's shoulder and told the girl who was looking at them with a frown while making a face, "Er, Excuse me, dear…." He then started to walk directly to Neferet while reaching for her hands. He then continued, "But this morning, on Brian's shoulder, you made a sound that sounded like that. Nefeeeee, so we understood Nefy."
Neferet remembered the ride on Brian's back. Both the smell of his sweat and the feel of his skin made her stop shivering at the memory of the beast, and a shiver of another reason ran down her spine as she watched Brian he would move away from things on the ground and start to touch the water with two fingers.
Shifting her gaze to Rebeca, Neferet let out a nervous giggle saying, "Rebeca doesn't bother me, and it just seemed strange to me."
Rebeca smiled as she felt the soft touch of Neferet's hands. As she said, "You can call me Reby if you want. That's what my older brothers call me. We are all more comfortable that way."
Squeezing Rebeca's hands gently, Neferet nodded as Brian came up from the floor.
He raised his voice, saying, "Can I interrupt you?" Brian's burgundy eyes stared at the water as he moved his hand into the small lake, "Nefy, can you please tell us what happened?"
Rebeca looked at Brian with the intention of shooting him, but Neferet stepped forward, saying, "Yes, it is better that we share all the information and get out of the forest before night falls."
Throwing a small rock at Brian, which hits him on the top of the ear. Rebecca said, "Just tell us the basics, don't go into details. They are not necessary." Rebeca threw and caught a small stone while she stared at Brian, "Right?"
Brian's eyes widened as he lowered his shoulders and began to caress his bruised ear, and nodded silently.
While Rebeca looked at him, pointing for her next stone, Neferet took a step forward and let herself fall, supported by one of the stones that surrounded the small pond, and she looked at Rebeca, smiling as she began to count the day since they parted.
Neferet counted as the group of aspirants who entered the forest. But since, not everyone was used to it.
As two groups moved away, trying to scout the terrain, one taking the lead and the other scouting, both groups got lost in the trees and did not come to fight the beast.
Neferet commented on how the beast swayed on its arm-like forelegs and, using its hind legs, picked up momentum, and described the mouth on the stomach and the eye with four pupils.
What he could not explain was the smell. She limited herself to saying that the beast had a paralyzing smell of how intense it was.
Taking a breath, her hands were shaking. The fear she felt was faintly appeased by the gentle pats that Rebeca gave her on the shoulder.
While Brian drank water from the pond, making a face and then spitting it out and wiping his hand on his pants, Brian said, "Of course, the touch of that beast is the smell."
Brian raised the spear to his shoulder and said, "It seems to be an agile and strong creature, but not so much if it depends on paralyzing its prey with the smell."
The girls looked at Brian, who didn't seem to be worried about the beast. But if he was staring at the forest while holding his spear, bracing himself a bit, he said, "Someone comes."
Rebeca reached out her hand and held her gun, looking in the same direction Brian was looking.
Neferet stood up and squeezed her hands to stop shaking as she hoped it was just other applicants.
Brian began to walk slowly, while with the point of his spear pointing to the ground, he stood in front of the girls while two beaten and muddy applicants came out of the forest.
A boy with light brown hair and soft red eyes, while the girl hiding behind him had black hair pulled into a tight bun.
And with eyes of radiant yellow color, Neferet recognized the boys from the group of rookies who were with her.
Jumping up to meet him, and asked, "You were in the group, right?"
The girl looked at Neferet and began to cry while the young man fell down, saying, "You are the girl who organized us and gave us the orders, thank God and the flame. You're fine too."
As if she had known them all her life, Neferet ran out, taking the boys in her arms while sobbing.
Rebeca, behind the small group, told Brian, "Did you alert yourself for them? They seem harmless." Rebeca turned her back to the small group while saying, "Annoying to bring with us, but harmless."
Brian's eyes were fixed on the forest as he grabbed Rebeca's shoulder and pulled her behind him. He said, "Not them, someone is coming, and I could feel clear murderous intent." Brian took a step towards the gathering group while saying in a low voice, "Go get your rifle. Someone else is coming."