"The village lost a lot of good people that night."

"And you cannot afford to lose any more", Arick nodded, finally understanding the situation. He should have asked Jyl about it much earlier. After residing here for three weeks, he had started to take the peaceful demeanor of the villagers for granted.

Quite the error, considering these people had to fight for survival on a regular basis. It made one wonder why they chose to live here at all, in a place even his own kind, despite their supposed superior constitution, avoided like aer.

"Anyway, with the six of us back here, and once the army won't be able to find us anymore, we'll be fine", Rina commented, trying to lighten the mood.

"Find you?" asked Mirus.

"I guess you haven't heard", responded Alcaeus, a gleam in his eyes Arick didn't recognize. "The elders have decided we'll be moving to a another location more to the south-east. There's a split in the river there so it's easily defendable."

"You seem well prepared." Cecile whistled in approval.

"Naturally. We have discovered several good locations over the years. You know, just in case the village is destroyed or in danger. It'll take a few weeks to get everything up and running again, and we'll need to avoid trade so we don't give ourselves away, but it's for the best. At least until you deliver on your end of the deal with Jyl." Aiden teasingly waved his finger at Arick, a smirk on his face.

"I don't like it!" Lyall grumbled, "It feels like we're selling her off."

"Here we go again...", mumbled Rina, before noticing some friends among the crowd and excusing herself.

The others merely ignored him, already haven gotten used to him bringing out his displeasure whenever the opportunity arose. Lyall, too, quickly forgot he had even mentioned it as the conversation continued.

"Has the village been forced to move in the past?" asked Mirus curiously.

"It doesn't happen all that often", Alcaeus pondered, "But if I remember correctly, grandpa experienced it once. Though I don't recall the reason."

Aiden nodded. "He only told us that story once, and grandfather was still pretty young at the time, so his own memory of it was pretty vague.

Back then the village was located more to the north, closer to the kingdom, and we had better relations to nearby settlements. Though, from what he said, our traditions already differed too much, and the reason for moving back then had something to do with that."

"Well," chuckled Alcaeus, "humans are not known for their easy acceptance of those who are 'different'. Our time with the army showed me that much."

Cecile raised one eyebrow. "Quite a strange thing for a human to say himself. However make no mistake, it's not like demons are that much different in the end."

"That doesn't bode too well", responded Aiden.

"It is unfortunate, but there is a reason why the war has gone on for so long. Luckily, lord Garm has been trying to improve on this, and hate towards humans is lower in Obsidian than in most other regions."

"Speaking of which, you're leaving tomorrow?" Lyall asked.

Arick nodded. "Tomorrow morning, to be exact. The three of us have been gone long enough. Not to mention that the return journey will take time as well."