Vaeludar was going to ignore everything they had to say about him. If they were planning on overthrowing him, then he would have a problem with them. As long they obeyed his command, he would have no thought of what their opinions about him would be.
So, he led the group onwards through the mountaintops and across the mountain ranges. Vaeludar saw they were losing daylight fast and they had little time before the remaining light went completely dark. Over the horizon, he saw a large grey mist slowly coming their way. It was moving slowly against the wind blowing in that direction, and they had been walking for quite a while. The sky was turning black and no stars or moon would shine at night.
They traveled through the mountain tops and on several mountainsides nonstop without taking a single rest. Vaeludar could feel his legs weighing down upon him, but he would not falter to the failing strength of his legs. During the two hours, he kept looking behind him and saw the griffin walking well and the humans barely keeping up. Their time in the king’s army made them keep up with the Griffin and the hybrid, just barely.
Vaeludar had now wondered if they were ever going to make it to the village. The fog was coming in, the sun was setting with little lighting that was left, and the darkness of the night was coming.
This place was further than I thought or was it that the griffin’s brain was as small as a raisin, thought Vaeludar.
“There is the village,” said Flarefur. The griffin was flying overhead and ahead of the leading hybrid. The griffin then landed ahead of them all.
I spoke too soon, didn’t I? I just had to complain about such things.
Vaeludar looked ahead of the Griffin flying ahead of them. Jealous by the Griffin’s flight, Vaeludar flapped his wings in hoping he could fly like the griffin. For some reason, he wasn’t feeling the need to fly and his wings weren’t answering his call of flight. He just wasn’t flying at all and he wondered how the Griffin could fly yet he couldn’t.
Furthermore, Vaeludar saw many ruined bricked buildings. His eyes saw a few two-story buildings built of bricks. Stones of a long pathway stretched out a quarter of a mile long. Centered along the pathway, there were stones built in many squares. Many squares stretched as wide as a peasant’s house in Geraldus’s village.
Many stone squares rose from the ground by two feet and next to one square would be another. Many of these open squares were separated by rows and lines of stones and bricks like bedrooms that lost their walls and roofs and only leaving the inside room exposed to the sunlight.
Vaeludar and his group walked closer to the village of ruins, which only had three standing buildings and everything else was torn down and leaving square-shaped ruined walls. Of their two hours of hard travel, they made it to the village and they made it just in time too. The great fog the griffin mentioned was coming their way; the direction they were traveling in.
“Everyone, make it to the closet standing building,” ordered Vaeludar.
Vaeludar was the first to run. The hybrid dragged his feet like a running wolf to the nearest house. He saw the house was more of a stone hut built in the shape of a trapezoid. There was a five foot open doorway leading into the building. He entered and looked inside: it was dark. The hybrid spat out a fire and the fire glowed bright to view what was inside.
There was a ceiling directly two feet above his head. He saw in the center of the room a ladder going into a hole, leading to the second level of the stone hut. Four holes were plastered in the walls, which meant those were once windows.
There was a wide open space and it was one room with no other walls or doors. For the people that may once live in the village had no complete privacy unless each building was built two people each: one level for each person living in each hut. That way one person lived in the upper level and the other lived in the ground level.
However, the hut would see fit. Vaeludar couldn’t see anyone or pick up the scent of any humans nearby. He was truly alone in the hut until when the others came in behind him.
The first to enter was the Griffin and the passengers it was carrying. After Flarefur made it in, Marina immediately got off the Griffin and Flavius was the second. Galvin was the next to have entered, with the twin sprinters being the last.
Vaeludar spat several more fireballs from his mouth and made the room glow brighter. Light was shoving darkness out the door and making the guests feel more welcome.
“Suppose someone lived here once and left it all behind?” said Flavius.
“My eagle eyes haven’t picked up any activities when I found this place,” said the Griffin. “And judging by these works, I’d say this village had been abandoned for some long centuries. If it had been a thousand years, the few standing buildings would have collapsed already. So I would say no one lived here for about five hundred years.”
“I wonder what happened them?” asked Wonomi.
Suddenly there was an echoing sound outside. The howl of a crying wolf echoed outside the building. It sounded so soft and close that everyone felt a cold chill running down their backs.
“I think we know now: wolves,” said Vaeludar.
The hybrid walked over to the door and saw the fog rolling in, covering the hut and now the ruined village. With his best eyesight, Vaeludar couldn’t see what lingered within the fog, but the fog couldn’t block any scent from him and the air was clear. After sniffing the air for danger, he turned to see Flarefur.
“Flarefur, there is something I need to ask of you,” stated Vaeludar.
“What
