"How... Why? why are you here.... how..... If you...."
"There's no time... I'm here to give you some advice. There's a traitor among you."
The stranger speaks in a mysterious tone and waves her hand around. A sparkling fire ignites and vanishes from the hand. In a split second if one looks close enough it will reveal a bright white light.
"What? How did you know? no... why are you telling me this?"
"I can't tell you more than this. It's all fated."
"Then can't you tell me who it is?"
The figure shocked violently as if something come inside them. when the body stops Gurara could see through the hood that the eyes are glowing in a platinum-white light.
"..... No..."
The short and simple answer makes Gurara knit his eyes brows. Why can't she tell him who the traitor is? However, when Gurara is about to ask, the figure has vanished into thin air. Along with the sound returning to his ears. However, There's no boat sound no wind no anything to show that the figure has dashed away. Gurara pokes his head out of the central hub and spots a brown boat.
He descends down a brown ladder and enters the boat. amidst the heavy rain, he picks up a silver balance with a wired design. It's not circular but square in shape. The material is foreign to him but, he knew just from one touch that this thing was made from a very tough material.
"Gurara what is it?" Seeing Gurara out of the central hub a guy came to see what happened. He dresses similarly to how everyone in the village dresses with a simple green shirt, blue pants, and a long red hair tie in braids.
"No nothing, get back in Grum, the rain is about to get worse."
"What are you doing out there?."
"Checking something."
Grum is one of the 5 elite tribesmen that remain in the tribe. Other than that there's also Goose, Brama, and the last two are Belga and Gurara. With the addition of Layla, there would be 6 elite tribesmen. However, she is temporary doesn't count since she hasn't received any training yet.
"OK, don't stay there too long. I heard that there is a new apex in nearby waters."
Grum went back in. Gurara looks around the place and looks back into the silver bracelet. A complex emotion forms on his face.
------
Michael sits at the front of the cave half awake and half asleep. The rain bit his face sending a clod breeze touching his skin. It's a perfect condition for a night of sleep. In his hazy eyes, he spots a figure at the end of his eyes. This discovery jolts him awake.
Michael looks around the place and finds nothing.
'That must be a hallucination.'
Michael's mind wader again until it's time to switch with Layla. looking at the moon he walks into the cave.
"Layla!"
He called but, she didn't answer. He call again a few times but the girls still sleeping. Is this a prank? He walks up to her and shakes her. However, the girl still didn't give him any response. His heart dropped. he flips her over and put his hand under her nose to see if she was breathing.
'She fine...'
She must have overworked herself. or was it the lack of food? Michael didn't know what cause this. He look around to see if he could wake her.
"AHHH why are you so close to me!?"
"AHHhh" startled by her scream he scream too "You weren't awake! So I came to shake you!"
"OH? OK.... let's switch then"
Michael looks at Layla. She acting kinda weird but he doesn't know what it is. He shelf this into his mind and went to sleep. Strangely enough, this time Michael didn't encounter Pike in his dream.
-----
Morning came but, there was no sunshine this time. The rain is still going on. and Mciahel feels like his stomach is about to eat him. It churns and hurts him, telling him that he needs something to eat.
Layla is not doing much better she seems to be quite hungry as well. They both know that they will die sooner or later if they stay in here.
"Michael, What do we do?"
"Um.." Michael put on his thinking cap and say "There are two options that I could think of. First, we could venture out into the water and find food. and second, we could look around the place to see if we could find anything."
"You're mainlander right? can you think of something better?"
Both of the options sound unreliable to Layla. Being a hunter herself she knows that venturing out in water is a death sentence and looking around the mountain inside an apex predator territory is not a good idea either. They're most likely safe because of how insignificant they are to the frog. The pirate woman earlier is a good example.
"I.. don't know... maybe you try to suggest something useful??"
"That's not my job!"
"Well if you can't think of anything then you won't have any more jobs!"
"..."
"We'll look around the place first then"
With no other option, Michael leads Layla to look around. The cave is a dead end. It resides inside a steep mountainside. Peeking out Michael caught the rain that was falling down from the sky. the surrounding is a mix of trees and dirt. This is common on Boniha island but, the steep increase in height was not. Most of the island is on the same level. So the land is a bit foreign to him.
The weather did not help. With heavy rain, Mciahel could hardly see the surrounding. However, it's not completely the same for Layla.
"Michael!"
"What?"
"There's an Alma fruit!"
Layla points into the rain. up the mountain, Michael has to squeeze his eyes to be able to see what Lyala is pointing at. The Semi-transparent alma fruit is almost invisible in the rain but, with its blue hue. One could spot them If one were searching for them.
The fruit is in sight however, the place where it grows is quite steep.
"Could you get it?" Michael turns to Layla.
"... My arm is still hurting from the cuts"
" My legs are also still recovering from the cuts"
"...."