Hayden wiped the sweat of her brows with a well-used cloth slung around her neck, before putting on thick gloves and grabbing a pair of metal tongs, pulling out a searing hot long bar of steel.


    She quickly hefted it over to an empty anvil, cing it down and picking up a nearby hammer, whacking away at the bar as she attempted to shape the steel into what looked like a sword, tapering both sides evenly.


    The consistent hammer sounds were suddenly interspersed with a loud yell and a thud. “Huh?” Hayden nced outside the window to the treeline, noticing two humans copsed onto of one another. <em>What the?</em>


    cing everything on a bench, she rushed out of the smithy, sprinting over to them. “Hey? What’s wrong! What happened?” As she neared, she noticed one of them had a gaping gash on his back, as though a warrior mineral ant had sliced it out.


    “Drake! Get over here quickly!” Hayden yelled back towards the houses, prompting a few onlookers while a half-naked man rushed out of his home. “Wait, why the fuck are you naked?!”


    “What? You told me toe!”


    “Yes, bute, you know, properly!”


    “By the looks of it, if you want them to live, I won’t have time for clothes. We have to haul them to my ce, quickly!”


    The two strangers were ced on makeshift fabric stretchers before being put down on the floor of Drake’s house. Drake leaned over, examining the two strangers. The first one looked fairly unremarkable, though he seemed a bit familiar. <em>Have I seen him in a light thrower theatre before?</em> He inspected him, checking his pulse and his body for any marks or signs of infection. “Seems just to be a concussion.”


    As he turned to check on the other stranger, there were already a few members of the vige who couldn’t help staring at his face.


    “I know I’ve renounced Yual, but by Yual, his features are impable. Is he a noble or something?”


    “No, he can’t be; he’s covered in blood with a tinge of piss. No noble would willingly stoop so low.”


    “Maybe they are adventurers or something. Didn’t the wound look exactly like a warrior mineral ant’s? Do you think they tried to clear the hive nearby?”


    “I doubt it – no one cares enough about us to do anything. The Versian military has not even replied in thest two years.”


    “Or… they were sent by them!”


    “Then they are pretty useless soldiers!”


    “Would all of you stop your useless gossiping and let me work in peace?” Drake sighed, checking the pulse of the second stranger, who he honestly admitted looked far better than anyone he had seen before.


    “Alright, back off, the show’s over!” Hayden shooed the onlookers away, giving Drake a thumbs up as she returned to the smithy.


    Drake nodded, focusing on the task at hand and lifted the stranger’s body, tilting him over to examine the gash. He noticed traces of poison that was present in the blood that seeped out of the scabbed gash, which still had chunks of exposed meat.


    Drake rummaged through his cab of herbs,ing across a few dried preserved leaves. <em>The healing is being stunted by the poison, it seems – perhaps this medicinal herb will help. </em>


    As Drake ced a few leaves on the exposed parts of the wound, the second stranger yelped in pain as he shot right awake. “Where-where’s Feldon? Who are you? Where is my weapon? The ants areing!”


    “Rx, calm down! You’re safe here!” Drake tried to persuade the second stranger and restrained the body from moving too much in fear that the stranger might aggravate his own wound. However, the second stranger was surprisingly strong despite the injuries, nearly throwing Drake off.


    “Fine, have a whiff of this!” Drake reached out to a nearby table and tossed a handful of bluish powder right at the second stranger’s face, knocking him out in an instant, snoring peacefully as though nothing had ever happened.


    Drake rubbed his sore arms gingerly, aching from the amount of strength he had to use to hold the second stranger down in ce.


    The door to Drake’s house swung open, with Hayden barging in. “I heard someone yelling, is everything okay?”


    “I’m fine. He just had a panic attack.” Drake sighed, bandaging the wound up while pressing the leaves deeper into the wound. “How are you able to be so aware of our surroundings? You always seemed to be the first to react and respond.”


    “Ah? Haha, I guess my experience as an adventurer paid off.” Hayden smiled sheepishly.


    “Since when were you an adventurer?”


    “Since I moved here a year ago.”


    “Now that I recall, you appeared here in very simr situations as well, nearly on the brink of death before I saved you.”


    “And I’ll never ever be able to repay what you and this vige have done for me.”


    “Don’t say that. The weapons you make are of top quality. We would have never been able to survive out here without your help. So, learnt how to make weapons while being an adventurer? Sounds like quite the detour.”


    “Uhm… I had a good mentor. And some education.”


    “Right.”


    Drake and Hayden chatted a bit before Hayden went back to the smithy, the sounds of metal striking metal resounding through the vige once more. Drake smiled to himself, moving to ignite the firece to provide a warm environment for the two strangers.


    An hourter, the firece in Drake’s house crackled as the logs fell on top of one another, with Drake tossing firewood to feed the me. He checked on the second stranger’s wound, noticing that it was healing up at quite a rapid pace. <em>Interesting. His vitality must be very strong, unusually strong.</em>


    The arrival of the two strangers became the talk of the vige, with the rest of the day beingpletely focused on what were the origins of the two strangers. Many recalled how Hayden showed up here once before as well in a simr fashion.


    “What do you think is happening out in the world today? Are they going to war again? Should we run?”


    “No way the war reaches anywhere near us – we’re so far out of the way. Besides, the main attack wille from Raktor, which is more than a week from here, even if you took a wagon. Not that the forest has any proper roads.”


    “The local authorities are building one now, though, haven’t you heard? They areying down railway tracks along it as well. Some parts of the road are pretty close to us – it’ll only take us four hours to get there! Maybe we can go visit Tenar.”


    “Bah, that’s only for the industrialists, peasants like us will never ever get to use them.”


    Soon, evening neared as the vigers began to make their way home. Boys carryingrge baskets filled with fruit and herbsughed and chased each other, while men herded boars and chicken back into their wooden huts. The women called out to their children ying at the open clearing in the middle of the wooden lodges, the smell of fresh food and savoury soups drifting through the air.


    Despite that, Hayden had a solemn face, a far cry from her usual jovial attitude that Drake and the others knew. She flicked a lever on her anvil, revealing a heavy machine gun that fit her perfectly, arge canister of pre-loaded metal pellets already ready to go. <em>They are already onto me – I can sense it. It’s time for me to go. </em>


    Slinging a backpack onto her left shoulder, she cast a sad nce to her now empty smithy, thest of the embers flickering out in the firece. But as soon as she was about to turn and leave, a loud scream emerged, followed by the distinctive sound of an arctech rifle firing into the air as a warning shot.


    [Illegal squatters of the Keru Forest. Your offences are two folds.] A loud arctech radio speaker red out as Versian soldiers suddenly emerged from the forest, walking brazenly into the vige.


    [One. Illegal upation of an area that does not belong to you. Thend is under the ownership of Tenar Logging Incorporated. You will now be forcibly removed from the area. New housing will be provided at your new destination.]


    “What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve been here for over seven years – this is the first time I’ve heard of such bullshit!” One of the vigers yelled. “The Keru Forest doesn’t belong to any onepany!”


    [Two. You have been harbouring dangerous revolutionaries who plot the demise of the Versian Government, seeking to upend the stability of the people. Surrender them, and you will be granted leniency during your trial.]


    The vigers were in a panic as they were herded at gunpoint into the central clearing in the middle of the vige, surrounded by arctech repeaters. They whispered among each other, some ming the two strangers who had just entered earlier.


    “Who’s the leader of the vige? Come forth!” A sergeant yelled, prompting Drake to walk forward without hesitation, unafraid of the barrels aimed right at him that could take off his head in an instant.


    “I am the leader. My name is Drake. May I know yours?”


    “We have received reports that you are harbouring dangerous individuals that are active revolutionaries against the government.”


    “I don’t see why this backwater vige would have anything to do with trying to overthrow the government.”


    “Don’t y games with me. The eyewitness report stated that there were two strangers who entered the vige earlier in the morning. However, we have confirmed with the Adventurer’s Guild and Explorer Guild that none of their registered members have entered the forest.”


    “Do we count as the unregistered members as well?”


    “The penalty for harbouring them is death. You are to show me where they are immediately!”


    “I don’t have them.”


    The stoic reply from Drake earned him a blow to the back of his head, sending him sprawling onto the floor in a slight daze. The vigers gasped while a few children began to cry. “You! The one who made the report.” The sergeant pointed to ady who was cowering with the rest. “Where is the leader’s house?”


    “The third one on the right with the sign of a leave on its archway, you can’t miss it.” Thedy replied hurriedly, earning stares of hatred and astonishment from the surrounding vigers. Before they could attempt to grab and attack him in a fit of rage, the soldiers pulled thedy out of the group before beating back anyone who tried to get past them.


    The soldiers fired shots into the air, frightening them into submission again and tempering their anger. “Two of you, with me. The rest of you, make sure none of them are harmed. We need them in perfect condition.”


    Drake was hauled up and restrained with handcuffs as he was dragged along towards his house. His head lolled about, but from the corner of his eye, he could see Hayden crouching behind a house’s wall, hidden from sight, while readying a machine gun. Drake’s eyes widened, mouthing ‘NO’ to Hayden and shaking his head violently.


    “Stop struggling. It’ll be over once we find the two strangers.” The door to Drake’s house was kicked down on its hinges, the wood splintering off into chunks that ttered onto the empty floor. There were no signs of the strangers nor any space for them to hide, only the brightly burning firece sending flickers of light across the wooden lodge and tables. “Search the whole house! Check under the bed and the cabs!”


    The soldiers began to ransack the house, overturning the area while the sergeant squinted his eyes, trying to spot every nook and cranny. After a minute of searching on the floor for any trap doors, the sergeant was fuming.


    Drake, too, was at a loss, having seen the two strangers here right before the soldiers marched into the vige. <em>Where in the world have they gone?</em>


    “Bring the damndy here who made the report!”


    “Yes, sir!”


    Thedy was dragged in front of the sergeant. “Supplying false information to the military is punishable by vebour and ten years in prison. Where. Are. The. Revolutionaries?!”


    “I swear, I swear on my life I just saw them here ten minutes ago before you moved in. Drake himself was still treating them!”


    “Soldiers, spread out and turn over the whole vige!”


    “Don’t bother; I’m here.” A human figurended from the chimney into the firece, sting out the hot embers that sprayed onto the soldiers, causing scalding and screams while the sergeant quickly pulled out an arctech pistol from his leather holster, aiming it at the firece and fired blindly. The single shot barely grazed the edge of the human figure.


    The human figure dashed rapidly, his image bing a blur before he mmed his palm into a soldier’s chin, causing his head to punch through the thick wooden log ceiling before grabbing the sergeant and hauling him out of the house.


    The remaining soldier tried to fire at him but was far toote as he was kicked right in the guts with full force, his spine breaking as he crumpled to the floor, his mouth choking with vomit and blood.


    Thedy screamed as she scampered outside, leaving the groaning sergeant on the floor to fend for himself.


    All he could see was a wooden mask with only two holes punctured through it, the brilliant eyes staring into his soul.


    “The Ghost of Tenar hase for all who betray the people of Versia.”