Ellera

Silas Forest

Duvessa

I look outside the window of the hovering automobile. I have never been this high before and wow, everything looks beautiful. I can see the beach, the university buildings and even our suites. The river by our district stretches from miles to miles.

About fifteen hours later, we finally reach Silas Forest. Honestly, I've fallen asleep after we got out of the district land. Zuleima woke me up as the hovering automobile lands.

We both get out and then watch the mobile fly away.

"Well, let's go," Zuleima say as she properly put her backpack on. I did the same then we enter the forest.

The place sounds awfully quiet. No animals are making any noise like they are scared of something. Could it be the dark user is nearby?

Zuleima and I had been walking around for an hour now. We are deeper into the forest and we can hear animals, we can see them too if we run into them.

"Zuleima!" I whisper to her and point at the white deer ahead. Deers are associated with earth users and if we were earth users, it'll come to us like a tamed animal. Once the deer sees us, it looks curious, but then something crunch. The deer looks behind it and we see a herd of deers. They aren't white but black and brown. They look infected.

"Duvessa, run!" Zuleima pull me after the white deer run.

I follow behind Zuleima as we run. When I turn back, there were a bunch of deer behind us. They are fast! I bring up my element and created a wall wide enough to stop them from catching it. Behind me, I can hear them run into the wall. Zuleima and I got up to a higher ground then look at the depression below. My wall is still holding up but nothing is colliding with it. I remove the wall and it reveals a pile of infected deers. Will we get infect too if they come into contact with us?

"Let's go," I feel a tap on my shoulder.

We continue walking and came across a little village it seems. Their looks are earth and air user like. Maybe we can get some information from them.

Zuleima and I walk around as people stare at us. There was a particular building that people are coming in and out of and are also hanging outside. We head there and walk inside.

Ew, what is that smell?

I immediately cover my nose and look around. Where's Zuleima? She was just behind me. Someone bump into me and made me take a step back. A woman in a white cloak. The hood is up so I didn't get to see her back appearance. I went up to the counter to a hairy middle age man.

"You look like a kid," he said to me. "And a metal user? We don't get much around here,"

"I'm here looking for a lady," I tell him. "Earlier, I encountered a herd of infected deer, what cause that?"

"Just bad season for the deer," he answer me then slide a cup over to me. I look at it then push it back to him.

"Then do you know about a young woman named Vittoria?"

"I don't know, now get out of my inn,"

Tsk, I move away and head outside. By his behavior, he seems to be hiding something. Does he know who I am? Well he should.

I cross my arms as I stand outside of his so called inn. Zuleima needs to hurry up. I start looking around the area then see someone acting suspicious. Everything looks suspicious here, but the woman is looking from left to right. It's like she's avoiding getting caught. I decide to approach her as she's looking behind herself. Yeah, who is she?

"Hey! Who are you?" I ask. Once the woman hear me, she freezes. She's going to make a run for it. Indeed, she did so I grab her wrist. The woman turns around then I feel a hit on the side of my face. It stuns me and I let go as I fell to the ground.

Did she just hit me with her forearm?

Someone run pass me and it's that lady back in the inn, the one wearing white. They must be together!

I scrabble to get up and run after them.

"Duvessa!" I hear Zuleima yell from behind. I can't let either of them get away, hopefully she follows.

I sprint faster towards the lady in white. She seem to see me and run in her own direction. I would follow her but Zuleima will. Now, I'm pursuing whoever is in that black attire.