"Elder, wait, before you go, can you tell me your name, and if there is anything else that you or your village may require, do let me know?" Also, remember that I am not the citizen of village one, and the rules of that village don't apply to me."
Ram looked deeply into the elder's eyes and made his statement.
Silence and heaviness instantly filled the entire room. There was absolute silence, and a bird could be heard making a sound somewhere nearby.
Ram and the elder stared at each other for a while.
"Thank you very much for the trade; there is nothing else that I require help with." elder said with confidence before shaking hands with Ram and nodding towards Hanu and Prakhar before turning and leaving the open house.
Natasha and her follower looked towards them and said,
"Let's go; there is nothing else to do here."
"Hmm." Ram nodded and started following Natasha and her follower towards the tree gate to exit the wooden village.
"Natasha, can we not really meet your village leader?"
"I am sorry, Hanu; there is nothing more I can do."
Hanu sighed, then, with Prakhar and Ram, exited the tree gate and appeared in the outside forest before the same ancient banyan tree.
Ram still felt the same twisting of the space before coming back to his senses and observing his surroundings.
Then he looked closely at the ancient banyan tree again and said:
"Lets go."
…..
In the wooden village
After Ram and his team left the wooden village, the elder from his home looked towards the ancient tree and sighed, "This is all I can do."
Then he shook his head and went towards a locked room, used a key from his spatial ring, entered the room, and locked it from inside.
It could be seen that the elder was not as happy and smiling as when he met Ram and his team but was very sad, and loneliness and despair surrounded him.
Somewhere inside another house, Natasha could be seen silently sitting with eyes closed as if in deep meditation, and a small tear was rolling down her face. She slowly opened her eyes, wiped her tear, and said softly, "I wish I could ask for help, but I am bound by the rules. I am sorry."
If closely observed, mostly all the houses in the village had someone silently weeping or just going on with their regular work with fake smiles and lonely eyes.
…..
In the forest, after walking for some time,
"Can we speak now?" Prakhar said while looking towards Ram.
"When did I say not to speak? What do you want to talk about?" replied Ram.
"Can we discuss what happened at the wooden village and what did you find out?"
"What is there to discuss? He, out of his greed, just traded treasures and forgot the mission before we were kicked out." Hanu interjected angrily while looking at Ram in frustration.
Ram, after hearing Hanu, shook his head in pity before he replied, "We can talk now."
Hanu interjected him by saying,"Let's not waste our time on talks; let's focus on our mission and go and help the stone village now."
"Don't we need to plan ahead? "We need to discuss if we need to execute the plan," replied Prakhar.
"You are a navigator, and I am the leader, so let's do as I say, and the plan is to go to the stone village directly and help them without indulging in any type of personal trade." Hanu said this with authority while looking at Ram and Prakhar.
Prakhar, after hearing Hanu, shook his head, then looked towards Ram, and said
"Are you going to speak, or do you want me to?"
Ram sighed and replied, "Do you think he is ready to listen?"
Prakhar after sometime looked towards the sky and said "we needed to rest for tonight and would travel tomorrow morning."
"What happened? We still have time, and we can easily travel for another few hours before the sun sets." Hanu said while looking towards the sky.
"I am a navigator and have travelled more than you; I know when the climate changes. The travel route towards the Stone village is through a mountain after exiting the forest. We won't even be able to exit the forest before the sun sets, and I can feel there is a storm coming, so we need to stay put now and travel tomorrow at daybreak." Prakhar said while looking straight into Hanu's eyes.
Hanu doubted the authenticity of what he heard, but he also knew that reaching Stone Village today before the sun set was not possible. So he took a step back, removed the barrier stone from his ring along with the tent, and started preparing to stay here for tonight.
Prakhar and Ram also took out their tents and other equipment and started working on them. After some time, when they were done and the sun was going to set soon, Ram went towards Hanu, who was sitting outside his tent and cultivating.
"We need to talk and strategize." Prakhar is already waiting. Let's go."
Hanu opened his eyes, looked towards Ram, nodded, and followed him to Prakhar's tent.
…..
Inside the tent.
Though it is said to be the tent, it was not any ordinary tent. Since Prakhar was a navigator and travelled a lot, his tent was not as basic as Ram's but entirely something else.
When Ram entered the tent, his first thought was that he had seen something similar in a Hollywood movie about a wizard. This tent was like a small apartment from the inside, with separate rooms and very spacious. It was like an average 2-bedroom apartment. Now what made him confused was that the tent from the outside was very small. same as his, but from inside it was entirely huge, and he was sure he didn't feel any fluctuation in the space, so how did this tent work?
"Hey, I remember Hanu giving us both the same-looking tent, so why is yours different from mine?"
"I merged my own tent with the provided tent, so it's like this."
"Don't we have to return it?"
"I'll just pay the penalty price and buy it directly; anyway, let's talk about the main thing we are here for."
Ram felt for some reason Prakhar was dodging his questions; as far as he understood him, he knew that any chance of showing off couldn't be missed by him, but here he was not showing off and actually being serious. So he nodded and looked towards Hanu.