Lys and Sara were walking side by side along the dirt road that led out from the main village gate. The afternoon sun beat down on them, with warm and hot feelings spreading on their body. Dust kicked up with every step they took, sticking lightly to their boots.
In the distance to the east, the tree line of Gaiya Forest stood too still. No birds flew above it. No wind seemed to move the leaves. It looked wrong, like the forest itself was holding its breath, giving off an eerie feeling.
Lys kept glancing at it every few seconds. The silence from that direction gave him goosebumps the more he tried to see.
After a while of walking silently, he broke the quiet between them first. "So, who's watching the shop while you're out here? I know Bertha's capable, but she doesn't usually handle things alone for this long, right?"
Sara kept her eyes on the road ahead. "Yeah, I closed the shop before I came to the council meeting. Before coming, I sent her to Madam Vesper with a letter. Asked her to put together a supply list that might help with the coming fight. Bandages, herbs, and better armors. Anything useful."
Lys nodded slowly, processing the words. Madam Vesper's connections ran deep. That made sense. Still, the word "fight" sat heavy in his chest.
He tried not to think too much about what it actually meant. Monsters flooding out of the forest. People fighting in the streets.
Blood and death that wasn't like something he read about in stories back on Earth. Here it felt close. Too close sometimes. And he wasn't sure he had fully made peace with the kind of world he now lived in.
Back then, danger had always happened to other people. But here it keeps showing up at his door without him wanting it.
Before those thoughts could pull him deeper, noise from up ahead cut through everything.
He could hear voices. Raised voices. A lot of them.
Lys and Sara slowed their steps as the road opened up. A crowd had formed where the path met the outer settlement. A group of adventurers, mostly women in worn gear, stood facing a solid wall of settlers who had come out to meet them.
The adventurers looked frustrated, gesturing with their hands as they tried to explain. The settlers stood firm, faces hard, not wanting to listen to anything they say.
"You don't understand!" one of the adventurers called out, her voice carrying. "Staying out here is death. The dungeon rumour you all heard is real. Lower floor monsters really are already coming to the surface. You need to come inside the walls before it's too late."
A burly settler woman in a patched tunic stepped forward, blocking her path. "We don't need the village's help. We don't need anyone's pity. We've lived out here fine all this time. We're not leaving our homes just because of some story about a dungeon."
Other settlers muttered in agreement. An old woman holding a jar of water on her hip shouted, "We built these houses with our own hands! You think we'll just abandon them?"
The adventurers tried again, but the settlers weren't moving. Nobody was giving an inch. The standoff sat right in the middle of the road, tense and loud.
Lys and Sara stopped at the edge of it. They looked at each other without saying anything at first. Sara's jaw tightened slightly. Lys could see her reading the situation the same way he was.
Then Sara spoke quietly. "Lys, let me get their attention. You slip through and go find Tresta."
Lys turned to look at her, caught off guard. "Huh, what are you talking about?"
Sara met his eyes. "You're worried about her, right? So go. Convince her to come. I'll hold things here until you get back."
Lys looked at the crowd again. The raised voices, the stubborn faces, the way the adventurers were starting to lose patience. Sara was walking straight into that mess.
But even though he was worried about her, he knew her well enough by now. She could handle herself that much, he was sure of. So, he gave her a small nod.
"Okay, I'm going in then; be careful," he said.
"Yeah, you too."
-----
Lys moved forward, keeping to the side of the road. He slipped past the edge of the crowd while Sara stepped ahead, hands raised slightly as she called out in a clear, steady voice.
"Everyone, listen for a moment!"
The adventurers shifted aside a little when they saw her, recognizing her face. The settlers' expressions stayed hard, but at least some of them turned to look. Sara's voice carried over the noise as she started talking, with a calm but firm voice.
Lys didn't wait around while Sara was gaining their attention to herself. He kept moving deeper into the outer settlement, threading through narrow alleys and packed earth paths.
The houses here were simpler, many of them little more than sturdy huts with thatched roofs. People watched him pass from doorways, some curious, others wary. A few old men stopped whatever they were doing to stare at him as he passed by them.
He followed the shape of memory toward the house he had visited before. The one where Tresta lived alone. The path curved slightly, taking him past small gardens and drying laundry lines. The air smelled of woodsmoke and earth. Every step he took made the weight on his shoulders feel a little heavier.
'These people really don't want to leave. I get it. But….staying out here… that's not an option anymore. How can I get them to understand that?'
He thought about what Vessa had said back at the council hall. Who else cares more about them? That sentence still sat with him. He hadn't asked for this responsibility, but it looked like he had it anyway. People around him trusted him with this responsibility, so how could he go back empty-handed when lives were at stake?
Up ahead, he spotted Tresta's small hut. The door was closed, but a thin line of smoke rose from the chimney. It meant she was still there.
Behind him, Sara's voice carried faintly on the wind, still trying to reason with the crowd. It grew quieter as he moved deeper into the settlement, eventually swallowed by the distance and the other sounds around him.
Lys stopped for a second in front of the hut. He took a slow breath, then raised his hand and was about to knock on the door. But he stopped from doing that as the door was already slightly ajar. And the sounds of people speaking could be heard from where he stood.
Feeling curiosity in his chest, he stopped himself from knocking and stood there trying to hear what the people inside were saying.