Sylphid's Happiness Revisited

Chapter 5

"The main gate is undefended; I don't trust that we should just go over the wall. It's not that tall." Ryu whispered as she was looking at the 15-foot wall.

"Right," Bell whispered in kind, they were at the edge of the woods, the thirty feet that separated the trees and the walls was nothing for the pair of level 4 adventurers.

"If the owner is anything like Ikolas Familia, then, the Xenos are probably being tortured for the owner's pleasure," Bell muttered, coldly as if it was only natural.

Ryu sat in silence just watching Bell, she was surprised, to say the least. Despite everything she has been through with him, he's never shown signs of actual loathing and hatred before. She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Come on let's get to work."

Bell took a breath and nodded, they had agreed to tie a thin string between them so they would realize where the other was, as they slipped on the invisibility cloaks.

The pair dashed towards the walls, 'Hmmm, interesting. The wall is like a mashing of elven and human design.' Judging by the lattice-like design with a solid core.

"Top," Ryu whispered, so quietly that Bell almost missed it. With little difficulty, she launched herself 15 feet landing on the wall and catching a full glimpse of the unblocked village. Noting a couple of things they had missed, at least while looking from a blocked view.

Ryu heard the soft pad as Bell landed about a foot away. 'Close.' She couldn't help but think. They only had 20 feet of black string that guided them.

Bell watched, noticing several things that seemed off about the village. First, was the quality of the housing, he grew up in a village that had been even smaller than this one. Even then, the houses weren't what looked like hastily glued-together pieces of wood, with clay acting like the glue that would have to be replaced every time it rains.

The second obvious note was the lack of people outside, well besides an occasional guard, in the early fall weather it was nice. It was very late but even then, not a single person was visible from their perch on the wall.

'I feel sorry for them, those are nothing more than unsecured hovels.' Bell thought, seeing these structures.

Ryu's mind shot out towards a different idea, 'If a fire got started. All of the houses would probably get lit up like an oiled rag.' She sighed silently as she realized the direction her mind was going.

'We need to continue moving.' Ryu thought lightly tugging on the black string that connected them.

Bell responded in kind, as he jumped downward both left a minuscule puff of dry dirt.

Moving quickly but quietly they pushed through the village finding one of the three nicer buildings not near the manor. Bell looked at the building as they passed, it was still a wooden building but had a large patch of stone attached to the side of the building. He recognized the tools and set pieces from his time with Welf. 'A smithy... interesting.' But he pushed that thought out of his mind.

It took several minutes until they finally noticed a couple of people, besides the guards, they sat around an upturned barrel with a set of four chairs circling it, though only three were filled. Bell could hear a scratching sound coming from the barrel as the three played with a set of cards on top. 'A mouse? Not sure, Ryu is ignoring it.'

Ryu had been ignoring the non-blessed civilians, but the sound of the scratching did bother her. 'If they would be that cruel to a mouse, how far would they go against a creature that could actively communicate and plead?' She didn't let the thought linger in her mind for long.

She could see a new wall in the distance, one that had a gray shine to it in the full moonlight. She judged the wall guessing it was twenty-five feet tall. As they approached, she could pick out more details.