Laina was having a slow day. She had been working on her farm for the entire day and was getting nowhere. Winter was going to be finished in a few weeks and she still hadn't uprooted all of the healing plants and she still needs to bury them in the ground.

Ever since her father had gone missing, Laina had a hard time with the farm. There was a lot of work and she didn't even need all of the food.

It was just her now and she didn't need to have such a large farm.

Her father had bought their plot of land years ago, with everything he had. At that time, it was him, her mother, and Laina and the farm was big enough to feed the entire family and still have a little bit of food leftover to sell.

But now, it was a very different situation. Her mother had died of disease three years ago and her father was missing for the last six months.

Lania was left all alone. In the beginning, it was hard and she had to ask other people in the village for help, but after a while, she got used to it.

She got used to not having anyone close that she could rely on.

Lania spent several hours working on the field and when she felt hungry, she returned to her home in the village. She ate a little bit, not enough to make her full, but just enough for her to not feel hungry anymore.

She then considered going back to the field, but no matter how much she tried to force herself, she felt too tired to work.

She wanted to go out to the lake and just sit there. Just like she and her father did.

She left the village and headed for the lake. She did not have to walk for long since the village was not big at all and it was right next to the lake.

Lania walked around for a bit around the lake trying to find a good spot to sit down. She didn't want to be seen by any of the other people in the village.

After walking for a few more minutes, Laina saw a good rock for sitting on and sat on it. She gazed off towards the river, looking at how the river flowed into the lake.

She took food out of a bag that she carried and lightly threw it into the water. She could see fish starting to come to the surface to get the food that she dropped in.

She continued to feed the fish and thought about her future.

When her father had still been around, Lania hadn't given her future any thought. She had assumed that she would marry some guy from the village and look after their children while he went to work.

What would be her life or at least that's what she thought. But the disappearance of her father had changed that.

For some reason, the village started to feel small. The faces that she has seen her entire life started to feel dull. Her life started to feel dull. Doing the same thing over and over, with little change.

She didn't know when she started to have thoughts of leaving, but now that was all she could think about.

The only thing that was holding her back was the fact that everything that she and her family owned was here.

That and the small hope that she still had of her father coming back.

He had left to the largest city of Island, Carthage. He, along with a few other men from the village, was going to sell the excess food for money they could use to buy necessities with.

None of them returned. Most of the village assumed that they had been attacked by bandits and killed. It was rare, as bandits were hard to come by, but it was the only explanation that anyone could come up with.

Laina had been hoping that her father somehow escaped. That someday he would eventually come back.

She herself knew that it was unlikely, but she still believed that it could happen.

She had run out of food for the fish and got up from the rock. She took one final look around before she headed back.

She noticed a pair of men on the river. It was too far for her to recognize who it was. She assumed it was a pair that was feeling adventurous.

The Carbo stayed away from the village but if one walked for long enough, they would find themselves facing a Carbo.

It was a general rule in the village to not mess with them. The village picked up a tradition of giving away any excess food to the Carbo.

The Carbo helped the village by staying away from the village and making sure that other animals like the wolves didn't attack the village.

There was a mutual understanding between the village and the Carbo. No one other than their village really knew of the existence of the Carbo. Even if someone said anything, no one would believe them. They could not believe that beasts could possess intelligence.

Laina saw one of the men falling down and knew something was wrong. Her suspicions were confirmed when the other man fell down as well.

Laina thought that they were someone from the village and started to quickly walk towards them.

She had to walk all the way around the lake since they were on the other side of the river so it took a long time.

When she was really close to the village, she chose not to say anything to anyone. If she said anything, the only thing that would happen is making people panicked.

It was almost an hour later that Laina finally approached the two men laying on the ground.

The first thing she noticed was the clothing of the two. It was not what they were wearing but the condition it was in. One of the men had only half of his pants remaining and the other had one of their legs bare.

She could see dirt all over them as if they crawled in the dirt for a while.

She then saw the white Carbo laying near one of the men. White Carbo's were somewhat of a rare occurrence. The village would sometimes find a white Carbo in front of the village. It occurred in very few years.

At first, the village took them in, but they realized that the white Carbos were never taught anything. They realized that they were not worth feeding. From then on, whenever they got a white Carbo, they would feed it until it was full and then kill it.

They tried to make it as painless as possible and as quickly as possible. The village assumed that the Black Carbo didn't want the white Carbo but they didn't want to have to kill them themselves.

So, they gave it to the village to do it for them.

Laina got close to the two men to get a clear look at their faces. Both of them were facing away from her so she could not make out their features.

She came close enough that she could touch them. From here she could see their faces.

She took a few seconds trying to figure out who they were but after thinking for a few seconds, she could not come up with anything.

She realized that they were not from the village.

She was feeling confused. Their village was the farthest from Carthage and the river was going away from Carthage.

There was no other village they could have come from.

The only explanation that Laina could think of was that they came to the village and then went around the lake and up the river and they collapsed when returning.

She then thought of how they both suddenly just fell down. She knew this was not normal. She thought that they could be starving but she could they weren't from their bodies.

It also would not have been so sudden.

She realised that things were becoming more and more stranger the more she looked. She started to back up, towards the trees where she had come from. She tripped on a rock and fell down.

She cursed herself for being so clumsy. When she fell down, she happened to move a few rocks causing a loud noise.

She looked towards the pair and looked to see if they had a reaction. Thankfully, neither of them moved.

Laina got up slowly, careful not to make any more noises.

She saw one of the men start to move. The one that the white Carbo was sleeping near.

Laina froze. She didn't know what to do. If she moved, she would bring attention to herself faster and if she stayed still, he would eventually notice her.

She started to move backward. Carefully, one step at a time. Laina kept her eyes on the man. If he noticed her, she would turn around and make a run for it.

The man slowly got up clutching his head. He was facing away from Laina so he could not see her.

He mumbled something. Laina heard him clearly. The problem was that he was not speaking in the same language.

Laina was getting more and more nervous. She had heard rumors of a bad foreigner could be. She just happened to remember that some would rape young girls just like her.

He certainly looked like a person who would not do that, but she could be wrong.

The man turned to the other man, who was still down. When he turned, Laina could tell that he noticed her.

Without considering anything else, she turned around and started sprinting. Towards the trees so that she could make it to the village.

Laina kept running, and when she didn't hear him running after her, she turned around and looked at where she came running from.

No one was following her. She didn't even know if the man had even the intention of catching her.

She waited for a few minutes. She figured that by now, both of the men were up. If they wanted to give chase to her, they would try to follow where she went.

Minutes ticked by. Laina heard nothing. She suddenly felt foolish for running away without even knowing their intentions.

She started to walk back to the two men. She crouched down so that she couldn't be seen and then walked slowly.

She kept her ears open. If she heard them coming for her, she would run, this time she would not stop until she reached the village.

Eventually, she made it within viewing distance of the river.

She could see the two men. Both of them were sitting down, facing her direction. She could see their mouths moving, so she assumed that they were talking. The river was too loud and so she could not hear what they were hearing.

From the way they were sitting, she assumed they were waiting for something. More specifically, her.

She waited where she was for a few seconds trying to figure out what she should do. The conclusion she came up with was that she would listen to men. She would keep her distance so that she could run away if she had to.

She stood up from her spot and moved away from the tree that she was hiding behind. She let them see her, but she didn't move forward.

She saw a man get up. The one that was woken up by his friend. When he got within talking distance, he stopped.

"Good afternoon, I'm Sam and you are?" asked the man.

Laina was surprised, she didn't think that either one of the men knew the common tongue. She was prepared to have a conversation with gestures but felt like this was going to be a lot easier.

"I'm Laina," she said. She was feeling a little nervous. She had never gone outside the village so she was not used to strangers. The only outsider she saw were merchants that came to their village once a year.

She didn't know why but when she said her name, the man in front of her started to smile. She didn't feel any malice from it. It seemed like the man was feeling genuine happiness.

"May I and my friend come to your village, Laina?" said the man.