Holding the helmet in his left hand, Jean's expression darkened.
"Why is the darkness too concentrated in the direction that he is heading to?"
Jean muttered under his breath as he tried to understand the real source of the darkness.
At some point, he felt like questioning Casper on the matter, but eventually ended deciding against it.
'I shall still have a chance to ask him when returns.'
During this moment, Jean was still holding the pill that Casper had given him a while ago. When the guy disappeared into the foreboding darkness approximately ten meters away from where he was standing, he turned his attention to the pill in his right hand.
Lowering his gaze and thrusting the pill in his hand close to his eyes, Jean studied it for a moment. But since it was dark outside, it was impossible for him to discern its real appearance and colour. All he could notice about the pill was its oval shape and its smooth surface.
'Why did he give this to me and why did he warn me against leaving my spot?'
Jean's mind was in a maze when he tried to understand why Casper had warned him against leaving his spot. The warning itself was enough to confirm to him that what was about to follow was dangerous. But the guy handing him the pill didn't make any sense to him.
For the first time, he felt like the guy had broken his rule of relying on herbal medicine for treatment. The reason he had this thought, was because the pill in his hand resembled the modern medicine especially in terms of shape.
Just at that moment, Jean brought the pill closer to his nose and sniffed it.
After sniffing it for a few minutes, he realized that the pill permeated no smell.
At this point, what was running through Jean's mind was that there were some chances that Casper might have handed him the pill for it to relieve him of the chest pain.
Since when they left the house, Jean didn't take the herbal medicine as usual, it was easier for him to suspect of such possibilities.
But since the guy wasn't feeling any pain, he still had a doubt on the matter.
While still pondering, he felt the ground under his feet vibrate. He was about to step away from the spot when he recalled Casper's words about not leaving his spot.
In the next moment, he unconsciously put the pill in his mouth.
When the pill touched his tongue, it started melting almost instantly. The pill tasted a little bit sour, but the taste didn't last long, as the pill melted and the sourness was replaced by a cooling effect.
After a few moments of hesitation, Jean gulped the melted pill down his throat.
He didn't know why he was doing this, but his gut feeling kept affirming that what he was doing was right.
Although the dread that the vibration had brought along could also be part of the reason he decided to take the pill, he still found it important since it was coming from Casper himself.
'If he had bad intentions, I don't think he would have taken me this far. Despite me not trusting him a hundred percent, in such dire moments, I don't have a choice.'
At this point, Jean didn't have an option but to follow Casper's guidance. He believed that the guy trusted him, and that's why he gave him instructions without too much explanations.
Since the two had been together, never for once had Casper done something that could have made Jean to suspect him. Although this couldn't be enough reason for Jean to fully trust the guy, it was still enough for Jean to trust him in such dire moments.
Now that he had executed every instruction given to him by Casper, he now scanned the premises.
When he didn't notice anything suspicious, he turned his attention to the ground under his feet.
'What could be causing this vibration?'
With that thought in mind, he locked his eyes in the direction that Casper left in. The darkness there seemed to be unstable. It had started to swirl as if being stirred by something invisible. During this moment, Casper was still out of sight.
As the vibrations increased, the ground under his feet started to wabble as if it had lost form. These strange movements of the ground dreaded Jean as he struggled to maintain his balance in order to prevent himself from falling off.
His heart raced in his chest as he gasped for air. His concentration seemed to fade away with every passing moment. He was confused by what was happening by still chose to maintain his spot.
The strangest thing was that, despite the vigorous shaking of the ground he was standing on, neither him nor the bike seemed to topple. It was as if he was impaled on the ground together with the bike.
When he turned his attention to the surrounding trees, his eyes widened in bewilderment.
The trees remained still despite the ground they were standing on shaking. They were like fortress pillars that couldn't yield to any destructive force.
Just as he was on the verge of losing his little remaining concentration, a whirl wind hit the surrounding areas and threw him off his feet.
When he noticed this, he was on the verge of letting out a groan but stopped in the next moment.
A split second after the whirl wind, the vibrations stopped after which the whirl wind followed suit.
Two seconds later, everything came to a stand still as Jean's concentration cleared up.
Sprawling on the ground while facing the sky, Jean sighed.
He then tilted his head to the side and checked his surroundings.
When he had confirmed that everything had returned to normal, he propped himself up. He then turned to his right and looked at the spot that the darkness had concentrated.
Suddenly, he was dumbfounded.
The darkness had dissipated and it was now of the same density as the surroundings, thus he could spot Casper facing away from him.
While he was still contemplating on the matter, a warm current rushed through his body right from the head to the tore. It injected every muscle of the body with warmth that he started sweating.
The morning coldness was swept away in an instance as if it was never there.
Jean didn't understand what was happening. He quickly got to his feet and studied himself out of confusion.
A couple of minutes later, the warmth started fading away as sweat started trickling down his head.
When the warmth was fully gone, Jean's body temperatures stabled.
When he realized what had happened, he was petrified.
The coldness that he was feeling before the beginning of the strange vibration was gone. It now felt like the area was devoid of coldness.
At this point, all Jean could think was that; the whirl wind could have been the one responsible for sweeping away the cold in the area.
Now that he had a possible answer this abrupt question, he turned his attention to Casper. He had multiple questions that he wanted to ask the guy.
They had already wasted over thirty minutes in the area and time seemed to be running out considering how long their journey was anticipated to be.
With this consideration in mind, Jean saw that it would be appropriate if he asks the guy these questions while on their way. He didn't want to contribute to time wastage.
Just at that moment, Casper turned around, stared at the guy with a tired expression that couldn't be visible due to the morning darkness.
Although Jean couldn't notice Casper's tired expression, he was still able to tell that the guy was tired through his enraged breathing.
After a few moments of hesitation, Casper moved towards Jean. when he got to where he was standing, he patted him on the shoulder before letting out a tired grin.
"Congratulations for adhering to my instructions. That's what saved you."
Suddenly, Jean was shocked.
He couldn't believe that ignoring such simple instructions could put his life at stake.
'So, my life could have been in danger if I had dared to ignore his instructions?'
Jean shook his head with disbelief. But Casper's next livened his mood.
"I am glad that you trust me. Despite me not breaking down the instructions for you, you still executed them without question. That shows that we can work well together. But still, I owe you an explanation for what happened here and the instructions I gave you earlier. I would have told you everything, but time is ticking and we need to get to our destination and return before sunset."
Although Jean was happy to have proved to Casper that he trusted him, the guy's last statement of returning before sunset didn't sound well in his mind.
'Aren't we supposed to last on this journey for at least two days?'
With that thought in mind, Jean noticed something wrong from the start of their journey.
Since they departed without any camping equipment or extra food, it would have been hard for them to set up an encampment.
'It was strange that I didn't realize this from the start.'
Jean was somewhat disappointed for not realizing that their journey couldn't involve encampment due to lack of the necessary materials for setting up a camp.
Although there could have still been some possibilities of them camping in a cave, Casper's statement about the time for their journey was enough to throw out such possibilities.
At this point, Jean had the answer to one of his most disturbing question.
'So, the journey is going to take us just a day from three days? This must have been due to the introduction of the bike.'
(^_^;)