We arrived at the village, the atmosphere read almost like paradise, everyone was hustling and bustling through, minding their work, not looking at each other. It seemed like everyone was busy, either attending to the crops situated one above the other in the small hills that surrounded the village or even so just playing around the water that lay bare across a waterfall and down through the fields into a fountain where kids played and splashed around.
There must be some type of natural filter system underground if the kids play so happily with fresh water, even though the grown-ups taking care of them, it didn't seem like they had a care in their faces.
So it must be so. The water looked so clean and pristine.
Dragan removed his helmet and it backed up closing in on itself.
I was free to roam around again.
"That's my house up there," Dragan interrupted the silence between us. I looked up, at a large hill next to the other side of the force field surrounding the village.
One small house perched at the top of the hill. There was a forest behind his house, but it looked more like an orchid, where they would probably grow fruits and vegetables.
"Come on, let me show you around," he said.
"But first we have to fix you up," he pointed towards the water fountain in the middle of the square.
We walked towards it, and the kids instantly recognized Dragan and started playing around with him.
"Hi everyone," he said in a sweet deep gentle voice. They were all so chirpy and full of energy.
Before I knew Dragan was flexing and the kids hung from his arms. They looked like a monkey hanging from a tree.
He smiled, this was a rudimentary thing.
I wished I had a camera to capture the moment, it was pretty cute.
"Dragan, so glad you came back from your trip, did the wasteland give you any trouble," said a woman who was guarding the kids. Suddenly making her pressence known, she looked young, like she was in her mid 30's.
"Just a little," he said. Dragan trying to keep face.
Then the woman looked at me surprised.
"Is this a spirit of Zomearon?" she said, the kids suddenly started gauging and poking at me.
"Yes, I found him wandering around Yggdra, we made a new contract," said Dragan, the kids wanted to squish me in half.
I slimmed away from their fingers and dropped into the water.
Angry bubbles form underwater.
I felt the water revitalizing me, and generating new parts of my body. I felt so fresh, gaining back my body with the water around me.
Then I hopped out of the water, bigger than before.
The sun glimmered, and everything seemed to be going in slow motion, I looked back, and saw Dragan put on the biggest smile.
His eyes glimmered with the reflection of water that had splashed through me.
I just smiled back.
I was back to normal.
I swished around him doing a happy dance, then squished up against his cheek. It was put a mere tickle.
"You're back to normal," he said.
And so we said our goodbye to the strangers in the fountain and continued onward towards the market.