To commit to his new identity, Wade Greenberg grew out his beard and hair. He would be unrecognizable in the future. He also started looking for jobs that paid more. There were plenty of positions available working as fishermen on boats. After he learned how to cook, he went down to the harbor and tried to get a job as a fisherman.
There was no vetting process. He was immediately accepted. He expected some sort of training period, but he was just thrown in the lion's den. This caused him to learn of his adaptability. He quickly caught on. He was a fine fisherman.
At the end of the day, the ship's captain paid him and told him if he ever needed more work to be at the marina. He couldn't quit his cooking job yet. There was no stability with the fishing position, but he would show up on all his days off to make a bit of extra money.
Krill had now stolen over a million gold pieces worth of precious art and gold. No one questioned him either. He was going to be rich after Bidi recalled them. He already planned on moving to Tortu and buying some slaves to work in the mines.
The hunt to find Jax was almost pointless. He could be almost anywhere. He had several days to prepare to leave. The soldiers wanted to go home and start their civilian lives. As Krill had now stolen everything of value, he, too, wanted to leave. It had been several months. They were certain Jax wouldn't come back, so Krill commanded them to go back to Gerak. As the acting leader, he felt he had that right.
Bidi and company had now been in the forest for three days. They were all starting to feel paranoid about their fates. On the third day, a large cat-like creature jumped out at them from the fog. It was mammoth. It was bigger than a bear, but it looked like a cat. Bidi was quick to react and casted a paralysis spell, which would hold for twelve hours.
"We have to go back," Asada stressed. "We are going to die out here, looking for people who are already dead."
"They're alive," Bidi shared, "I can sense it. My senses are rarely wrong. We trek on!"
"I'm going back," Asada said, "just because you're the queen doesn't mean you're in charge of everything," she sassed.
"You can go back if you'd like, but I'm continuing," Bidi happily said. "If anyone else wants to go back with Asada, feel free."
Asada looked at everyone, but everyone else wanted to continue. She huffed really loudly and turned back towards the city. They continued trekking into the forest, foraging for food along the way.
They made it to a waterfall a few hours later. It seemed like a safe place to make camp. "We'lol stay here tonight," Bidi said as she saw the dark hue in the sky through the breaks in the branches. "Is everyone okay with that?"
"Yeah," Bran said as he threw down his bag and set up his tent.
The rest just sorta agreed without agreeing and set up their tents. Night fell quickly after that. Everyone fell asleep, but Bidi woke up to this presence she felt but couldn't explain. She knew they weren't alone.
In order to find the people, she needed to communicate with the presence. She knew they were being watched, so she got up and searched around. "Hello!" She shouted, waking everyone up. And just like that, the presence disappeared. Something told her that whatever was making her feel that presence knew where her people were. But the presence was really shy.
Only three days had passed in the forest, and already, they were getting close to intelligent life forms. Bidi hoped they could find their friends soon, because she really needed to get back to help repair the broken world.
Just thinking about it, over half of the population was killed in the war. This would take a long time to recover from. And in Tortu, hardly any people originally from there remain. Only a couple hundred. Bran was one of them.
