After the few hours of spell practice, Cellestra simply sat in silence with her eyes closed for a while. She seemed to relax, and was slowly moving her hands through my hair which helped to not only unwind her but me as well. A stone road appeared near the horizon and within a few seconds, I could make out the vague outlines of a settlement as well. It was then that a worrying thought entered my mind. Almost immediately, I came to a halt.

“What’s the matter?” Cellestra asked. “Are you okay?”

“Uhm…” I started. “I think I fucked up.”

“What do you mean?” Cellestra looked down into my spider eyes with genuine confusion.

I scratched my other head, partly because I was thinking and partly to get rid of the dirt near the roots of my hair that had started to cause an itch.

“Do you know where Thymhil is?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s at the other end of the—” She cut herself off. “Oh…”

“Exactly.” I sighed, “And here I thought we were going the right way all along. Now, there is some kind of settlement coming up soon, but by the goddess did I screw that up. I never even bothered to ask. Vyath made me think we were going in the correct direction.”

I hit the ground with one of my front legs out of frustration, followed by another, and then another. “I knew things were going too well.”

“Too well?” Cellestra asked, obviously hinting towards the fact that what happened yesterday couldn’t be called that at all.

I sighed. “You know what I mean. Let’s just check out that village and see if they can put us on the right track. While we’re there, is there anything you’d like? How are you on supplies?”

“Still plenty of food,” Cellestra said. “It's not really an issue…” She seemed to trail off.

“But?” I prodded.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to get something that’s not dried. Maybe some apples?”

“Sure,” I said, “I wouldn’t mind some myself…”

“You don’t want anything else?” The elf asked.

I shook my head. “I’m still not hungry. Don’t worry about it.” I then sighed again as I started running towards the settlement in the distance. “Here is to hoping we didn’t go in the completely wrong direction.”

“It can’t be that bad, right?” Cellestra said fairly carelessly, earning a shrug from me.

“I hope not.”

As the village drew closer it became clear that it wasn’t much of a village at all. Rather, some of the buildings I saw from afar had been storage buildings that belonged to farms. These farms extended far around the tiny settlement. Fields of crops stretched outward for hundreds of yards. Among the crops, I could easily make out the standard corn crops I’d seen so far, but I also saw cabbages, potatoes, onions, and wheat. There was one particular field that demanded attention from more than two of my eyes.

“I have the feeling you’re going to like what I see,” I let out as I stared at one of the fields that we passed.

“What do you see?” Cellestra asked curiously.

Sometimes, this sharp eyesight wasn’t as nice. I felt kind of sorry for Cellestra for not being able to enjoy the sight of the many red fruits.

“Strawberries. Lots of ‘em.”

“Strawberries?” Cellestra said in wonder. “Haven’t had those in a while. Those were rare back in the forest and most of the time, birds had already eaten them.”

“Lucky you. There are so many here, I don’t think we’ll have issues buying a few.”

“That’d be lovely.”

“I just hope we’ll be okay without Gwyn. I mean, in theory, we shouldn’t have too many issues, right? These people must know we had to have passed the border, and that that’s not easily done.”

“People fear the unknown, Kealyna. What you say is true, but unfortunately, it is what it is.”

As we got closer and I could see the few houses that embodied this small settlement, I noticed there wasn’t anything like the temples to Elysa we’d seen before. They had towered over the surrounding buildings. If there was any temple here, it would have to be a small one.

As seemed to be the norm here, there were no walls or any defensive structures. The next thing I was trying to look for were people in general. It was late in the afternoon, but it seemed it wasn’t quite the time for dinner yet. I saw a few elves working in the strawberry fields and decided I would ask one of them about directions. At the same time, I’d try to buy some strawberries and check if they had apples, too.

At the edges of each field of crops were irrigation canals with some space occupied by grass in between them. I tried to find a way through the small strips of grass. So far, I hadn’t been noticed yet, as they seemed to be busy harvesting the ripe fruits. I decided to stay out at a fair distance to make clear that I was no threat.

As usual…

I took a deep breath as I prepared myself for what was to come. I never knew how people would react.

“Easy, Kealyna,” Cellestra said softly while patting my back.

“This is quite frustrating,” I said as I was about to speak to the elf with a straw hat and dirty brown clothes, kneeling in the mud to forage the strawberries.

“Hello there. Would you mind if we asked a question?”

“Just a second,” A female voice replied. “I’m almost done here.”

She continued filling up a basket with fresh strawberries. While she was working, I thought it was fair to give her a warning.

“And please don’t be frightened when you turn around. People tend to get scared when they see me, but I won’t harm anyone.”

“I don’t see how you could scare me. You don’t sound like someone I should be scared of with a voice like that.”

Cellestra started grinning softly. Her soft giggles were infectious as they put a smile on my face as well. I poked her with the pole of my halberd to make her stop before I laid down the weapon in the dirt.

“I hope you’ll still think like that in a bit.”

“Do you have some kind of injury, or?” She asked as she dropped a few more berries in the basket. She then stood up and turned around.

I sheepishly raised a hand to wave slightly as I watched her face turn white in shock. “Told you…” I said softly.

“By Nilene…” Was all she managed to produce.

At least she hadn’t picked up the basket of berries. I was positive she would have dropped it.

“As I said, we would just like to ask some questions. Are you okay?”

I think the softness of the voice that I possessed managed to keep her nerves in check, or at least prevented her from running away screaming. Her eyes were locked on my large frontal spider eyes. I had the feeling that if I were to move my chelicerae or pedipalps even an inch, she would run away.

She stared at me without saying a word. I decided to not put any pressure on the poor woman.

“I…I…” She stammered, her knees shaking wildly.

“Easy,” I said softly. “I’m not gonna hurt you or anything.” I hoped my words would get through to her. I knew from the start this would be difficult as it was impossible for word about me to have reached this place yet. I had good hopes things would be easier in the future.

Suddenly, the woman’s knees gave out as she collapsed and fell forward in the dirt, unconscious.

“Crap,” I let out. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

I was about to walk up to the woman to administer my healing light spell in an attempt to calm her mind and wake her up when a projectile hit my abdomen and ricocheted off due to the barrier. Another projectile followed but was also deflected.

I turned quickly to face the attack that came from my only blind spot. When I did, I saw two crossbowmen who were in the process of reloading, and two foot soldiers in plate armor charged in with long spears.

It was clear they were experienced soldiers. There was no fear visible on what little I could see of their faces as the rest was covered by plate helmets. Despite all that, their crossbow bolts hadn’t pierced my barrier, something for which I was thankful.

I left my halberd in the dirt and raised my hands in resignation.

When the spearmen’s charge wasn’t halted and I received two more bolts to the stomach to boot, I decided to call out.

“Quit it. I’m not here to fight!”

Still, they didn’t stop their assault as the ranged soldiers were reloading their weapons once more, and the first warrior thrust his spear forward to strike me.

I had already noticed that even though the soldiers were battle-hardened, their weapons didn’t seem like anything special. The first soldier’s spear went flying with a single strike from my pedipalps. The second tried to back up his comrade, only for their weapon to meet the same fate. To my disappointment, that failed to dissuade them. With hard eyes, they reached for backup swords within their belts. Their strikes were swift, but so was I, and as they brought them down I merely had to extend my hands to stop their movement, knowing they wouldn’t be able to cut my skin. I held a tight grip around their swords, making sure to have it known that I outclassed them, and from there I spoke calmly, albeit slightly annoyed.

“I told you, I’m not here to fight.”