Chapter 50 - Chapter 50: The Letter - Interlude - Part 1

Chapter 50: The Letter – Interlude – Part Having parted ways with Olivia at the boundary to the village, Lyrika headed down the dirt path between the farmland and headed towards the entrance. The farmland she passed had various shades and colours of crops and it somehow felt like she had walked for ages, just to get to the end of it.

She soon came across the wall on the outside of the village, where like her own, it had guards stationed along the wall, all checking out the surrounding area for danger.

‘I hope Olivia stays away from this lot. They look to have more guards than we had people my own the village.’ It was an exaggeration, but with the number of people she had seen on the wall, and the number of guards that stood around the entrance to the place it wasn’t far off from the truth.

All of the guards had the same features atop their heads, denoting them as being bull-kin. There were a few that differed, having ears of various beast-kin species adorning their heads, but the majority of the guards were bull-kin. She didn’t know much about bull-kin, but from what she could recall they were well known for their strength but also hard-headedness. Generally, if they thought they were right, it was hard to change their minds on that.

At the gate to the village, she had to pay an entrance fee which was normally the case if you didn’t actually live there, so the fee provided her with a permit allowing her to enter and exit the village for a few days.

With the fee paid and the permit in her bag, she headed into the village. Now all that was left was to find the chief.

…

As she walked around, the main thing she noticed was how much more active the place seemed to be compared to her own village. Someone was always doing something, running about, hanging out laundry, buying something, selling something, it was go, go, go all the time. She could not see anyone just sitting down and relaxing. In her village, sure people did their day-to-day activities, but you would normally see people just relaxing in their homes, or sitting on a bench outside, but she saw none of that here.

Wandering around the village, she also saw how much larger it was than her own. The sheer number of people told her this, but so did the houses and buildings as it was just chock-a-block with buildings practically being side by side to each other down the street. You couldn’t just walk between two buildings, you had to get to the far end of the group just to get around them.

This caused a problem, which was how disorientating it was to navigate through the village. She had wandered around for a while now, figuring it would be easy to find, but couldn’t see anything that looked like or told her where the chiefs building was. She could have continued to try and find it herself, but knew she needed to ask someone.

Making her way over to a nearby house, she found a lady hanging up laundry just outside her house and so made her way over.

“Hello, I was hoping you could help me.”

“Oh, yes dear. What’s the matter?” she replied as turned away from the clothing.

“Can you tell me where the chiefs house is?”

“Of course dear.” she said before walking a little ways away and then turning back to her. “Are you new to our village, I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“Oh, yes. I’m just passing through.”

Making her way to the edge of the path that passed through this section of the village, she pointed to a few houses on the other side.

“You just need to get to the other side of those houses, and you will see a sign with two horns on it. That is the chief’s house.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Oh, before you go.” The lady gave her a quick look up and down. “I must say you are a very beautiful girl.”

“Err, thank you.” The statement from the woman seemed a little odd to just say out of nowhere making her want to just leave quickly.

“Do you currently have a suiter? Because if not, my son will be back from work later today and I’m sure he would love to meet you.”

“Oh, that’s…I’m sure your son is lovely, but I already have a suiter. Sorry,” she said with embarrassment on her face. She really wanted to leave right now.

“Well, that’s a shame. Anyhow, it was nice to meet you.”

“Yes, nice to meet you too,” Lyrika said before walking away with slightly faster steps than normal.

Heading in the direction she had said, Lyrika decided to put the odd encounter and the very causal matchmaking she was almost involved in to the back of her mind. Walking down this side of the village she looked out for a house larger than the rest which was generally the case with the chiefs home, but could not find one. She did however find the sign the woman had spoken of, though it was just attached to the front of a house that looked the same as all the others.

‘Odd’

But, she had no reason to think the lady lied and so headed towards the door, where upon reaching it she went to knock, but the door just opened on the first touch. Venturing inside, she found several chairs all in the entrance of the building. This room was quite large, where towards the back was a table and chair, which had a cup of water, some half eaten food and several sheets of paper. Right by the table was a hallway leading to who knows where.

Looking around the room, she saw a few people sitting on the chairs, and before long, a lady entered the from the hallway, before sitting down at the table to finish eating what must have been her food.

This was a little odd to Lyrika, the layout and all that, but she realised that this must be where you wait to see the chief. Things were a little different in her village. You had to request a meeting in advance and then turn up on time. There wasn’t anything akin to a waiting room, or whatever the lady was supposed to do. But given where she was sitting, Lyrika headed over, figuring she had something to do with this system of meeting the chief.

“Hello, I would like to talk to the chief.”

*sigh* “What’s your name?” the lady said as she put her food down again.

“Lyrika.”

“There are three people in front of you. Take a seat and once they have had their meeting, it will be your turn.”

‘Three people in front of me. How long will that take.’

“I really need to talk to him. It’s very important.”

“Everyone has something important to tell him. Now sit down or you won’t get to meet him.”

It was quite a rude response from the lady, but annoyingly, all she could do was follow what she said and so, she took a seat.

…

‘I’m going to die of boredom.’

She had been sitting in this chair for quite a while and so far only one person had headed down the hall for a meeting.

‘This is going to take forever.’

As she felt like she was going to slowly drift off to sleep, she was instantly shocked out of this by the sound of horn that sounded like it came from a good distance away. At the noise, all of the people in the room stood and started to move to the door.

Lyrika had no idea what was happening and so quickly asked one of the men leaving the room.

“Wha-whats happening.”

“A monster has been spotted.” He said quickly turning to her before heading out the door.

‘Well that’s alarming, knowing that a monster has been spotted nearby.’

Was what she wanted to think, but she had no doubt in her mind that the monster spotted was Olivia. All she could do was hope that she was ok and had managed to get away in time.

As she thought about what to do now, she heard footsteps come down the hall, where she then saw the last person to head that way as well as a very large man behind him.

He was about as tall as Olivia and as she looked at him, Lyrika was sure that this man was the chief. The air of authority along with his clothing told her he was important, and was surely the man in charge.

“Ok young lady, the horn has been sounded so you need to head outside. Come on now.” He said as he got to the door next to her.

“Ah, no – wait. I need to talk-” she quickly tried to say as she was more or less pushed out through the door, but before she could continue, someone bumped into her, and the chief headed off in another direction.

What that direction was, she couldn’t see as the area she found herself in was just jam packed with people.

“Great, how am I going to find him in this sea of people.”