"I see..." Hector sighed with emotion, he exactly knew who this was.
"Oi, ugly one over there, take this kid out of my face." Tree looked at Hector and said this.
"Ug...l..y?" Hector's face was twitching a little bit.
"Are you Dryad?." He asked it with some anger.
"Dryad? nah, amma Dodona." Sapling turned around, they saw actual eyes on the little stick that was its body, then a mouth that moved as the sapling talked.
"What is Dodona doing here, i have heard legends about you guys being here but i thought they were all fake, aren't you all on Epirus?" Hector asked.
"I don't know?!?!?!? Wha are you asking me that ugly human, now if you don't want some dirt in your fac, get out of my fac!!!" Sapling talked with extreme arrogance and a weird accent that Hector and Anzhel could not understand.
Anzhel was looking at this exchange with some confusion, he never heard of Epirus or talking trees ever in his life.
Hector snapped and went close to the Sapling.
"Listen to me you little flower bud, i don't know why are you so arrogant but you forgot something... That i have hands." Hector pulled the sapling up from the ground.
*BHSSSHTTTT*
"A!!! AQGH!!! CURSES!!! STOP IT!! STOP IT!!! STOP IT!! I WILL TALK PLEASE!!!" Sapling immediately gave up on resisting.
"Now, tell me everything you know." Hector said this and stopped before he fully pulled out the sapling.
"Hmph... alright, i don't know how i appeared here in the pas, but 3 years ago i woke up... since then i have tried to explor this island with all of the senses i hav but no matter what i do, i can't go past that tree." Sapling looked at enormous tree in the equator.
The tree was beautiful, fully brown, and had enormous leaves.
"That is all i know i swear to Heavens, i can only say that you guys need to escape this island fast," Sapling replied.
"Why?" Anzhel asked.
"Because... i can feel it, terrible Neus coming just further beyond that tree, some times in the day there is roaring and screaming of some huma, and i can feel shivers dow my branches, it's so terrible, it feels like someone is getting tortured..." Sapling shivered when it remembered the terrible sound that came from that place just a few days ago.
"I see... so she is indeed here." Hector sighed and looked up.
Anzhel was confused but didn't ask anything, he understood that there was probably an extremely powerful monster that Hector knew about on this island.
"Cut the trees down Anzhel, we don't have much time," Hector said and turned around.
"Yes, thank you for your information Sapling..." Anzhel said this and went to cut the trees as Hector instructed him to do.
Sapling snorted and closed its eyes disguising itself as a normal tree.
--
Time went on.
This time the tree cutting was much faster as Hector didn't care about choosing certain trees anymore, he cut every single one that came to his eyes.
"We are done." Hector looked up and saw it was afternoon, this was more than enough for their ship.
"We are going!" He notified Anzhel.
Anzhel looked down and saw countless branches of trees and little saplings he cut.
"Yes!" He answered and took them to the ship.
*BSHHHHHHTTTT*
The wind was breaking the leaves off the trees as it was making itself known with the cold atmosphere.
The beauty of this place in the day was quickly transforming into a cold dark forest.
Anzhel didn't wait for long and he took the branches and saplings to the ship.
"I will need a few hours to fix the crack, you go rest before that, we are going to sail away in the night," Hector said and started to separate the trees.
"Yes, but do we have to sail away at night? you know, the visibility at night is very bad, we may encounter things we can't see." Anzhel asked.
"No, we need to go in the night," Hector answered not saying anything else.
Anzhel didn't ask more and went to the ship.
--
He looked down on the deck where his friends were sleeping.
"Their injuries are recovering visibly, just how much damage did they get." He sighed and took them to the cabin where he put them in the hammock beds everyone had.
The night was very cold here.
Sun was already down and waves were hitting the shore very fast.
Hector looked like he didn't care about the cold, he picked the ship up sometimes and turned it a little bit to fix the keel.
"Just a few more punches and it would completely break." Hector sighed when he saw the cracks on the ship.
It was completely cracked like glass, the material the ship was made of was hard to find but ordinary trees could be used to fix it for a little while.
*Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack*
Hector was hitting the hammer on the keel.
With a resounding thud, the hammer collided with the wood, sending vibrations through the sturdy handle and reverberating through the air. The impact created a sharp, percussive sound that echoed in the surroundings. The wood yielded to the force, emitting a muffled, satisfying crunch as the fibers surrendered beneath the relentless strike. Splinters danced in the air, caught in the sunlight streaming through the workshop, as the hammerhead left its mark on the surface, leaving behind a testament to the collision of metal against the timber.
Finally, after a few minutes, it was completely dark, the sun was fully down and the air got even colder than before.
About 10 PM in the night.
"Done..." Hector wiped his sweat and looked at the keel.
It looks completely fixed now.
"Hey Anzhel, we are done, please put the sailcloth down, we are going to sail away." Hector jumped up on the ship and yelled.
"Understood." Anzhel went up to the ropes on the sailcloth and pulled it down.
*BSHHHHHTTT*
Hector blew from his lungs and the sailcloth finally moved.
Moving the ship as well.
But before they left...
They were gifted with a sound...
*KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLKLKKLLKLKKK!!!*
From underworld.
End Of Chapter.