Luckily, the night passed without incident. Hagan awoke and began to cook his spoils of war for breakfast. Whilst the meat was cooking, Hagan decided to wash himself off in the river again to be sure the foul smell was gone.
When the meat finished, Hagan was eating as he noticed something flowing through the stream.
'Is that… clothes?'
There was a brown shirt and pair of pants that were flowing downstream, Hagan noticed this and grabbed them, he put them on the same branch his clothes were drying on the night before. After he was done, he stored the clothes in his time pocket and smothered the fire.
He'd decided to head upstream to investigate where the clothes had come from. After all, if anyone was living in such a place, surely they'd be near one of the few water sources.
Hagan walked for hours, stealthily avoiding various creatures along the way. He'd decided to kill a few of the ones who were timid and useless in a fight and store their meat in his time pocket. His method was simple, have it begin to run, then appear through a nearby shadow to kill it.
Eventually, he noticed gray smoke rising into the air and soon encountered a towering wooden fence that continued on the other side of the stream as well.
'Does this mean there's humans here? Or something else that's just as smart?'
Hagan was surprised to see a fence in the vast forest he was in. Especially not one that was almost double his height with sharp spikes crowning the top. The most he expected to see were some wooden huts that were loosely strung about with mighty, inhuman warriors protecting them. Granted, he still did not know who dwelled in the gated area.
He went around the fence hoping to find an entrance, obviously when he got near he would hide his presence and study who was guarding it and see if there was anyone leaving or entering. After a few minutes he found an entrance, there was a clearing in the fence that reached near the top of it, with two wooden watchtowers situated behind the fence.
In then, there was two people in each one, all wielding a bow. The unexpected part however, they looked human. They seemed no different from the people Hagan saw everyday in the city. Besides the fact that they wore different clothes, lived in a wooden fortress, and wielded bows in a watchtower.
Hagan decided to dismiss his armor and sword and approach the gate, if any of the archers drew their bow, Hagan was confidant he could slip through the shadows before the arrows reached him.
So, Hagan walked into the dirt road that was leading into the village. He was incredibly tense and nervous as he had no idea if they would immediately try and kill him, also he had no idea what language they spoke so conversing might not even be an option.
As he came into the view of the sentries, they each readied an arrow but didn't draw, a good sign for Hagan, so he continued walking forward.