ZE - Chapter 41: Tolfn's offer

Disclaimer:

“Dialogue”

‘Thoughts’

Author notes

Chapter 41: Tolfn's offer

“We can’t go in the forest? Why not?” asked Seth while poking his head from behind Zephyr.

“Is it perhaps your territory or something?” added Zephyr. He asked calmly as he felt no aggression coming from any of these men.

“No, no,” the giant man denied. “We are members of the Yellow Mountain Tribe.” He pointed at the forest. “That is the territory of the Forest Walkers Tribe.”

“Yellow Mountain Tribe and Forest Walkers Tribe?” Seth was confused. He had never heard of any human tribes before.

Zephyr, however, did understand the implication... he had been wrong in his previous assumptions...these were not humans who ran away from the north continent. They appear to be natives of these lands. And they were not the only ones.

‘So humans did survive south of the Wall after all.’ Zephyr thought. This was an extremely important finding and something that the Celestials appear to have put a lot of effort into covering.

“Forest Walkers are our enemies. Very dangerous ones,” one of the other men spoke when he noticed the confusion on Seth's face.

“Two little men, where do you come from?” the leader asked.

“Hey, I'm not that little!” Seth forgot for a moment how intimidating these men were.

The three tribe men laughed.

“I meant no offense, little one. I am Tolfin, son of Guskarr. What are your names?” the leader said.

“I am Seth.”

“Zephyr.”

“And what tribe do you come from? You are not from these lands,” Tolfin asked.

“We came from there.” Zephyr pointed north.

The three men let out some shocked exclamations.

“You came from Demon Wall?!” One of the men asked with clear shock on his face.

The other man was equally surprised. The only one whose expression did not change much was the one called Tolfin.

“Demon wall?” Seth said.

“We came from the lands north of that wall, yes. Why do you call it Demon Wall? The Celestials are the ones who guard it,” Zephyr said.

"Celestials?"

“Lands north of the Wall?” The men looked at each other in confusion.

“But you don’t look like demons…” Tolfin observed them.

“We are not demons!” Seth shouted. “We are humans, like you!... well… a bit smaller.”

“You didn’t know that humans lived north of that wall?” Zephyr asked.

The three shook their heads.

‘And we didn’t know humans lived south of the wall either... but there is no chance the Celestials didn't know,’ Zephyr was sure of that.

“Have you been to the Wall?” Seth asked.

The three remained silent for a moment.

“My father went once when he was young,” said Tolfin. “Was almost killed by a demon with long ears and yellow hair.”

“An Elf... but those are…” Seth stopped mid-sentence. These tribesmen were convinced that the Celestials were demons and it would take too long to explain the truth to them.

“The Demon Wall is forbidden land for us,” one of the tribe men said.

“Anything beyond the dead grass... we don’t go there. Too dangerous,” the other one added.

‘So the Celestials definitely knew there were humans living here... why did they keep it a secret?’ Zephyr could only conclude that they must have had ulterior motives to continue the deceit about the lands south of the wall.

Who knows for how long these lands had been inhabitable. And yet... the Celestials had continued to forbid them from entering and lied to them, saying that the poison cloud still remained there.

He could only reach one conclusion...the Celestials did not want humanity to prosper so they did not allow them to come south.

'They wanted to keep us under control...like cattle...'

“You should come to our village,” Tolfin told them. “My grandmother is the wisest woman in the tribe. She will want to meet the two humans who came from the Demon Lands.”

“Those are no-”

Zephyr stopped Seth from speaking. There would be no point in trying to explain to them what the Celestials were. At least not now.

He considered Tolfin's offer. As much as he wanted to continue his travel south... it appears that going to their tribe would be more beneficial.

They need more information about these lands and their inhabitants.

“Very well, take us to your village,” Zephyr agreed.

“Are you sure about this?” Seth whispered to him.

“Going into the forest after learning that a dangerous hostile tribe lives there seems a bit reckless, don't you think?” Zephyr answered.

Seth could not argue with that. He glanced back at the forest. He was looking forward to finding out what kind of animals lived there, but that would have to wait. Besides, he was feeling very tired and they had no more food on them.

“Also, this tribe may have some comfortable beds for us,” Zephyr added.

Seth's eyes opened widely. “Let's go then!” He exclaimed. He had not slept in a comfortable place in so long that he already forgot what it felt like.

Tolfin laughed. “I like your spirit!” He gave Seth a pat on the back before walking forward and picking up his axe.

The massive weapon had been buried deep inside the ground, but Tolfin rose it back up with one arm and secured it on his back.

“Just how strong are you?” Seth stared in complete shock.

“How far away is your tribe?” Zephyr asked one of the other men.

The man pointed in the distance. “Our tribe is near the base of the Yellow Mountains. East of here. It's not too far; our zarlas can take us there in less than an hour.”

“Zarlas? You mean these lizards?” Seth got too close to one of the mounts, and this one tried to bite him. “Ahh!”

“Be careful... the zarlas' fangs are loaded with potent venom,” Tolfin warned him.

“Of course they are…” Zephyr huffed. These lizards reminded him of that blasted drake that almost killed him.

“Why would you mount on something so dangerous?!” Seth shouted.

“Haha!” Tolfin was amused by his outburst. “Only our best warriors have the honor of using them as mounts. It is a test of strength to dominate a powerful beast like this one.”

“Tolfin, we should leave. We are too close to the forest…” one of his men warned.

“True, we may get shot if we stay here.” He pointed at Zephyr and Seth. “Get on the mounts, we are leaving!”