The sweet blessing of a beam of light hit Demien's face as he stepped outside. His eyes were filled with the liveliness of mother nature itself by reflecting on the greenish wilderness.
Demien usually wore a dark, similar-to-blue colored shirt and brown long pants and some old pair of shoes. But due to waking up late and being lazy, he wore his father's old black long shirt, the one his father used to wear when he was young.
Demien thought to himself, "It usually takes about 10 minutes to go to the village. I'm going to be late to meet my idiot friend John at the inner keep. Why again did father decide to build our house so far away from other residents in the village? We are pretty much outside of the village."
His feet were fast like a rabbit's feet, he hurried to the village. The whole village was covered in a big wall that was made out of wood. It was big but not quite as high as its length. The wall was made to protect itself from dangerous and unpredictable wild animals.
Demien stepped into the village and took a deep breath. This was the village that he grew up in since he was little. The air had a scent of flowers, mostly due to flowers that grew in the village of Flower Field. Every villager had a small or big flower garden in their home.
The reason behind this was quite simpler than anyone thought—selling flowers was a big income for these villagers, and this was the main income of the village of Flower Field. Out of every village in Rainheart Kingdom, no other was close to growing flowers as this one village. Even to the castle they would only bring flowers from Flower Field village.
It was not because other villages didn't have flowers, but flowers from Flower Field village were not like ever seen before—rich in beauty and a strong pleasant smell, and one flower could usually last up to two days. It was a gift from heaven itself. This was another common reason that other villagers bought flowers in this village.
The inner keep was located in the middle of the village and at night it was the busiest place in the whole village. Drunken men and travelers mostly occupied the place. Demien's best friend John was the son of the innkeeper. He usually worked at the inner keep as a waiter, and even though it was his family's work, he took some coin from his mother due to working as a waiter.
Demien stepped into the inner keep. It was quite peaceful, not many people were in sight and he could see most of the place was empty. He looked around for a while when suddenly a familiar voice came from a corner.
"Yo, you are early, he he. Did you miss me?"
It was his best friend John. He was sitting at a corner table and he was holding a glass of wine.
Demien walked up to John's table and sat down in a hurry. "Drinking wine in the morning? You haven't changed a bit." Demien spoke as he looked disappointed at John.
"You know how it is in here. I got to do all the work at night. So this tiny glass of wine is the only thing keeping me from going crazy." As he said this, John drank the last bit of wine straight away.
"Okay, I know why you're here, no need for the small talk," John said like he had seen right through Demien's intention and put his hands together on the table.
"You got me, I know I can count on you. So what do you got for me?"
Demien's eyes got sharp as an eagle suddenly, and he stared at his friend John with a hint of excitement on his face.
"Huh, you and your obsession with that stupid forest."
"Yesterday some old man came to our inner keep, bleeding and wounded all around his body. That old man looked like he'd gone through hell. Of course, my mom took him, treated his wounds, and gave him some leftovers to eat. we are not rich you know to treat every bagger "
"You know, he looked like hell, even bones were showing out from his dry skin. he said hadn't had anything to eat for a while. I tried to talk to that old man but he kept muttering something about the dark forest."
"So is he here right now?" Demien asked, rushing and shaking John's hands.
"Noo, that bastard disappeared in the morning. I checked everywhere, not even under a table." John shook his hands away, and Demien could see his face was filled with disappointment and anger.
"What makes me more angry is that, that damn old man didn't even pay for anything. This is a good lesson to mom for being too kind."
So that's it. I was so close to find out what is this forest that everyone was afraid of, Demien thought to himself and got up from his chair. He quietly smiled at John for one last time and said his goodbyes, then slowly walked to the door. Before he left—
"There… they were real, they are actually real."
"That's the old man's last words before he disappeared."
"Maybe that fool was crazy, just don't think about this, Demien."
Demien looked back and John was yelling at him with an unsettled voice.
"Maybe."
He yelled back to his friend John, closed the door, and left the inner keep.
While getting out, his face was filled with curiosity and excitement. He muttered to himself,
"Maybe not."