Kapitel 61: The Only Elder

"Hehe, yes, I did! I'm Fourteen! You were the first ones to get out of that dreadful cave!"

The woman clapped her hands while jumping and giggling altogether. Her laughter was so contagious that the group could not help but smile as they watch her.

"I saw all of you exit that cave a week ago, so I wondered where you all went! It was exasperating waiting for the Accursed One, so I dropped hints for you to follow. And ta-da!" Complete with outstretched arms and a wide grin, Fourteen's eyes curved into crescents.

All of them looked at each other. They all got out of the cave just yesterday not one week ago. Yllana shrugged her shoulders. She's getting used to being dubbed as the Accursed One that it doesn't bother her too much anymore.

"The fog," said Kareem. "It was not as simple as it seems."

"Nothing to worry about! It is not poisonous. It just gives you illusions. We'll go up in those." Fourteen pointed at the cocoon-like structures above them. There was at least a dozen.

"Are those houses?" Yllana asked and Fourteen nodded at her. There were people dressed in the same way as Fourteen who were peaking at them. "It is completely different from…down there."

Midel and the others looked back down. The trees that they saw move were standing straight there was no wind blowing, nothing to move them. It really was just an illusion. Good thing they escaped from that fog.

"You are all welcome at the Floating Isles, there is still more to see above the foliage. You'll be surprised." Fourteen's tone was high-pitched as she said the last word. She jumped to a higher branch and waved at them to follow her.

"Breathe in more fresh air to dispel the remaining effects of the fog," Kareem said.

They walked inside Fourteen's house. Everything was made of leaves and branches. There were rays of light coming through some of the leaves. Some reflected the green color of the thin leaves and shined a green reflection inside the leaf house. Once the light hits the leaf walls, it shined like gems in different shades of greens and yellows.

Inside, ten people could fit in comfortably and still have space to walk on. The windows are made of patched leaves and woven with branches.

"It's so beautiful here. I never knew a place like this existed in this mainland," said Larika. Her eyes shined as she breathed in the fresh air and took an eyeful of the view inside and out of the leaf house. It was so different from her life in the palace.

"Hehe, we try our best Your Highness," Fourteen offered them to rest for the meantime. "Your wounds have healed. It's good. I'll be taking you tomorrow to Elder Iba. We were expecting you anyway, but rest for now."

~~~~~~~~~~

Yllana gazed at the moon as she raked her hand through her hair. The moon was beaming on the horizon. Imagine clouds below you (but it was actually the fog) and the trees above and the moon in between. She sat on the window and sighed. She had never felt so relaxed for a long time. And the change of view was definitely a good welcome to her.

"My Yllana," she called out her name. "What a silly thought," she laughed at herself. "I thought I knew who it was who owned that voice, but something keeps me from remembering."

"Why did you call yourself?" Larika tilted her head to the side.

"I was trying to imitate someone's voice who called out to me…uhm, no, he called out to my soul, I think. I can't really remember."

"Was it the demon king?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I remember that you and Kareem seemed unaffected by the fog. How did you figure it out?"

"The wounds on my body. I have always known how long a wound would heal and how it feels when it is completely healed or affected by poison among other things. The wounds haven't healed on the surface, but I could feel that it already closed so I guessed that something was messing with my senses. Kareem felt the same way since he is a poison master. I just never thought that it also messed up with our perception of time."

"Now that I think of it, then we have walked for days." She just felt her legs were sore after reaching a high altitude that day. 'And I thought I was tired of jumping.'

"It was because we were forced to believe that we were still walking for a few hours and not days."

"Forced? By the fog?"

"By someone who made that fog,"

The night was silent as their tired bodies drifted into dreamland. Larika's thought still lingered on Yllana's last words.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Elder Iba is the only elder we have left here. The others have been missing since entering that cave." We never thought anyone from outside would be able to get out of the fog alive." Her hair was tied up in a bun just like yesterday as Fourteen walked in the thick branches above the leaf houses. They were going to meet the only remaining elder in the floating isles.

"What happened to the other elders?" Vandier asked. He kept glancing at the other isle people who were watching them from afar. None of them went near their group. They were just poking out their heads and frowned at the sight of them. Weird.

"They went into the cave but never came back. There were at least twenty of the elders that have gone missing, any chance that you have seen them?" Fourteen turned around and walked backward on the branches.

Midel thought of the corpses that they found inside the cave. There were at least fifty or more. And none were dressed like Fourteen.

"I think we have not- Look out!" Midel's hands reached out to her as she missed a step. She was facing them while walking backward so she did not notice that she was at the end of the branch and missed her step. She fell…for a few seconds. Then a vine swooped down and caught her ankle and whipped her up to the branch. "I-it's a…*gulp*, alive."

"Ahh, yes. The trees and the vines are very much alive like you and me dear sir! Sorry to worry you about that. Well, have you seen any elder dressed like me?"

"We are not sure. We only saw pieces of dead bodies. Their clothes might have been ripped or burned away if they were one of those we found in that cave." Vandier answered.

"Burned? Why?" Fourteen's brows shot up innocently.

"The dragon?" Larika noticed the confused look Fourteen was giving them. Didn't she know there was a dragon in that cave? "You haven't been to that cave, have you?"

Fourteen stopped walking. A shadow passed on her face after Larika spoke. "Yes, I haven't been to that cave, but we weren't told about a dragon residing there. The nymphs have been using that cave to come here, but there was no dragon as the elders also traveled in and out of that cave."

Larika's jaws dropped. So, it is true. The nymphs were really the ones who have left those treasures in that cave. And it seems it was unintentional. From the look on Fourteen's face, something felt amiss.

"Why did your elders go outside of your territory?" a glint flashed in Larika's eyes. Her voice dropped coldly as she observed Fourteen's shivering fists.

"Because somebody-"

"It was inevitable. We were fighting for our territory against people who were trying to take over the isles." A hoarse voice came behind Fourteen. An old man with a hunched back and beard that reached the ground was slowly walking down. He was dressed in a mix of yellow and brown leaves patched up together to form a neat blazer and robe wrapped around him. But what was more peculiar were the vines on his shoulder that seemed to be connected to his clothes.

"Elder Iba!" She rushed to the elder's side and gently held onto her arm. "You should have just waited for us up there." The elder patted her hand and raised a corner of her lips.

"I heard yesterday that she has arrived. We must be polite to our guests, Fourteen. Ask Twelve and Thirteen to assist you. We need to prepare the meeting table in the foliage. This is going to be a long talk," said Elder Iba. When she successfully pushed Fourteen away with the other isle people, she turned to all of them. "Do not mind Fourteen's words too much, Your Highness. She is still in a state of shock and pain because one of the elders was her only living relative, her grandfather." Those words were for Larika as his eyes swept over all of them.

"And you survived?" Midel asked. He stroked his chin as he studied the elder in front of them.

"I escaped. And the dragon you were talking about was not there when I came back from the south. Follow me, please. The Grand Oracle have a message left for the Accursed One."

They jumped up the branches and into the leafy shadows of the foliage. The higher they went, the thicker the leaves and the darker the surroundings.

Swoosh!

After a few minutes of seeing only green, they all found themselves atop the trees. The surface was flat with the trees' branches and leaves acting as the floor.

"I have never seen the sun as big as this," Kareem's eyes gleamed as he squinted his eyes to catch a glimpse of the shining sun in front of them. There might never be another opportunity like this one, so even if his eyes were teary from the bright light, he still stared with a hand over his brows.

Not far away, Fourteen and two men were busy placing chairs around a large table. As Elder Iba walked beside the table, the vines below the foliage instantly appeared and formed a huge umbrella shielding all of them from direct sunlight.

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