Agah Village.
Early in the morning, the sun's rays had just peeked through the foggy horizon. Villagers were woken up by the increasing movement outside of their huts.
"Hmm.." Inside one of the huts, a boy woke up on a wooden bed covered by wool and grass on the inside as a cushion. " Brother? Where are you going?"
Noticing his younger brother awake because of his movements, the young man sat down beside him and petted his hair.
Smiling, he said, "I'm going with the caravan today."
The young boy, still drowsy, only hummed a little as he looked at him silently.
The young man was amused; he asked, "What? Don't you want me to go?" He paused and then continued. "It's not that I won't return."
Instead of replying, the boy took hold of his brother's coat and shook his head. Somehow, seeing his younger brother like this made the young man's heart tighten.
"What's wrong?" He asked curiously.
The boy didn't reply; instead, he returned to his sleep at some point in their conversation. His hand was still holding his brother's coat.
The young man was quiet for a bit. Then he shook his head and thought. "I'm thinking too much."
He stood up and took his prepared leather bag by the side. Giving his younger brother one last look, he walked out of the hut, saying, "I'll be back.".
His parents, on the other hand, nodded at him as they sent him off with their gaze. "I'll be going, father, mother."
"Your late." One of the men going with the caravan said he was searching for topics to talk about. "It's somewhat cold today, though."
Holding his bag at the back with his hand on his shoulder. The young man greeted the others and replied, "I'm not. Instead, why won't you wear more clothes if you're feeling cold?"
The cold fog around the grassland somehow gave it some mysterious charm in their eyes.
"You know it's expensive to buy more wool than necessary. The seamstress in the village wouldn't do the work without meat at all." The man whispered in his ears.
The young man wasn't surprised. He also heard of that long ago. "Your news isn't new."
"At least we can talk." On this cold morning, finding someone to talk to can somehow make them forget what's around them.
Suddenly, a voice came from the front of the caravan. The caravan was the same as in the past. No wheels, just a sled cart for water buffalo to pull on.
"Prepare! We're setting out!"
The young man and the men around him nodded at each other before they each put their things on an empty cart.
Other carts were full of logs and timber after all. Soon the caravan started to move. Some villagers waved them farewell.
Somehow, the young man was struck by a feeling in his heart that this might be the last thing he would even see in this life.
"What am I thinking?" He muttered subconsciously.
"Are you saying something?" The man beside him seems to have heard him say something and can't help but ask for a repeat.
The young man shook his head. "Nothing."
"Well, if you say so." The man turned silent. Then, as though he remembered something,
He neared him and whispered in a somewhat mysterious manner. "Hey, did you notice something?"
The young man who was thinking of his younger brother's face was pulled out of his daydream as he asked, "Notice what?"
"Shh, lower your voice." The man immediately gestured for him with his finger on his mouth. There were men on the front talking, and they glanced at them for a bit.
The man smiled as he nodded in greeting. When the two men saw nothing unusual, they nodded too and returned to what they were saying.
The man and the young man breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.
"Almost..." The former touched his chest as he muttered words the young man could not hear except the first word.
"Now that I think about it, have you remembered that lore spread in our village since we were children?"
You were just whispering about noticing something, but you chickened out after being noticed?
Where's your dignity? Can't you finish what you're saying before jumping to another topic?
The man didn't seem to mind the young man's contemptuous gaze at all. He whispered, "Not not. I'll tell you about it a little later. We've got too many ears and eyes around us."
The young man nodded imperceptibly. Although he didn't know what it was. He got the feeling that it was bad. Bad for those around them, if heard.
The man smiled, seeing that the young man agreed. "Alright, let me continue. "It's the lore, one of the lores of our village since its existence."
Piqued, the young man decided to divert some of his attention to the topic. "What lore?"
"It's about the kind." The moment he mentioned the word "kind," a cold wind seemed to blow below the caravan's feet.
The group shivered at their feet as they started cursing the cold wind and fog rolling around with the breeze.
The young man narrowed his eyes. His heart seems to palpitate a little bit just now, but he suppresses it uneasily. "Damn."
"What the!? So cold! I think my feet are just about to turn numb right now. Did you feel it?"
The young man shook his head, his face showing a grave expression. "I can feel danger."
"What danger?" The man was putting socks made of wool on his feet when he heard that. He looked at the young man and saw his expression.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to feel the surroundings darken a bit in his vision.
...
Garut's Treehouse.
Although he is old, the strength he has gained through time still exists. However, at some point, his body stopped growing stronger.
All the nurturing from the necklace he had was instead used to keep his current strength from regressing due to old age.
Garut sat down listless from his sleep; his forehead was dripping with sweat. There is silence that continues to linger in the air.
A while later, he stood up and opened the window made of dry grass and hay. Looking at the vast grassland, where the fog still lingers amidst the sun above.
He signed, "I don't know if it is a blessing or a curse. Nai, I can only hope that you survive.".
"Prepare to set off five days later."
A man in a cape walked out from the thick branches as he asked, "What about three days later?"
Garut shook his head and said, "Postpone it."
"Alright." The man in the cape nodded.
"Argar, if you want to blame someone, then blame yourself for your greed and wickedness." Then he walked out of his tree house and traversed the bridges made from vines and logs.
"Assemble the elders. This is an emergency."
The man left with a "yes."
Garut's eyes flashed with dangerous light at the moment. He was like a different person from a while ago. "I only hope some will survive to tell the tale."
Meeting room.
The elders were nervous. All of them were shaking their boots.
"Village Chief." One after another, elders stood up and hurriedly greeted the village chief.
The village chief nodded solemnly as he sat and waved his hand at them. "Sit."
Everyone then sat at his cue. Without waiting for them to say anything. The village chief beat them to it.
His eyes were on everyone. For a moment, the whole room rose in temperature. Sweat started dripping out of their foreheads, cheeks, and backs.
The soles of their feet seem to feel much colder right now.
"I believed. You heard it already?" Seeing the look on everyone's nervous faces, the village chief sighed heavily.
It was as though just saying those words and the accumulated stress he had been holding all along this year suddenly found an opening to burst out.
He suddenly looked five years older right now.
"The Kinds have appeared once again."
"I thought those were mere lore to scare the children from playing away from the village."
"Those are true. I personally experienced their horror when I was a kid playing mud pieces with your pigs."
"What should we do?"
"I heard from my predecessor that they looked no different from us. If ever, they would take on a form that we know would confuse us into nearing them instead."
"It's also the reason why we, our village, Would migrate from time to time."
"I see."
"What is kindness?" An ignorant elder who was nervous at the side asked. The meeting room immediately turned silent.
The elder didn't know what to feel at the moment.
It should be shameful.
"Don't look at me like that. I don't really know." The elder cried in his heart.
Please! I also want to know!