Xander felt his stomach grumble as he smelled the food. The fish that they ate yesterday was good, but they weren't that good. They didn't have any spices to make it taste better, and the fish was cooked in some parts more than others.

It still tasted good, but that was probably because everything tastes good when people are hungry.

This meal was different than yesterday's because they were finally eating a proper meal. Xander didn't know how good it would be, but he knew that it would certainly be better than just cooked fish.

Xander watched Laina get up and walk towards the shelf. She took out four bowls and set them on the ground.

Xander was about to ask who the other plate was for, but then he remembered Stratus.

Laina grabbed a piece of cloth that was to the side and used it to pick up the bowl that was on the fire. She poured the contents of the bow into the four separate bowls. When she emptied the big bowl, she set it aside and grabbed three spoons, which she put into the bowls. She picked by two of the bowls and gave them to Sam and Xander. Then she grabbed the two that were left and gave one to Stratus and she kept the other one for herself.

"Thank you," said Sam as he took the bowl. Laina just nodded her head.

Xander looked into the bowl and grabbed the spoon. The spoon was made of wood and looked pretty thick. In the bowl was a soup. Steam was coming off of it as it was still hot. The smell was nice, it was sweet and a little light. The soup was yellow in color, the texture was thick like honey.

When Xander used the spoons to stir the soup, he could tell that it was thick and heavy. He used the spoon to lift a little bit out of the bowl. The smell got stronger and Xander's hunger felt even stronger.

Without thinking, Xander put it in his mouth. Xander thought that it tasted very good. He was trying to see if he tasted anything like this before when he felt his tongue start burning.

"Ahhh!" Xander said. He opened his mouth and let the spoon fall back into his bowl.

He forgot how hot the soup actually was. He could feel its heat through his hands holding the bowl but his hunger made him lose all sense.

Xander felt his tongue hurt like he accidentally bit on it, except this time it was most of his tongue hurting, not just one small part.

"Blow on it to cool it down, so that your tongue doesn't burn off. Sheesh," said Sam and then he sighed. Laina looked at Xander with a small grimace on her face.

Xander slowly felt the pain fade away and realized that he accidentally woke someone up.

Stratus was peacefully sleeping when its rest was interrupted with a scream. It sat up and looked around. It realized that they were in a different place and moved closer to Xander, a little scared.

Xander patted Stratus and tried to calm him down.

"Hey Stratus, u hungry? We have food," he said. He reached over and grabbed the fourth bowl that was set to the side. He set it in front of Stratus and said, "Be careful it's hot." The pain from his tongue was there, and he didn't want Stratus to follow in his footsteps.

Stratus looked at the food in front of it. It sniffed the air and moved closer to it. When it was right over the bowl, it stopped. It realized that the food was hot from the air that was coming out of it and looked towards Xander for help.

Xander didn't notice that Stratus was staring at him and picked up his bowl again. This time before putting the spoon in his mouth, he blew on it a few times. Then he put the spoons in his mouth and enjoyed the taste.

Sam was the only one that noticed that Stratus followed exactly what Xander was doing. Stratus took a silent breath in and blew into the bowl. The exhale made a small noise that neither Xander nor Laina noticed. The steam that was coming out of the bowl was disturbed by the exhale of Stratus. It repeated it a few more times and then lowed its head to lick the soup.

Sam remembered how smart the Carbo that attacked them was and how furious it was. He didn't consider Stratus as anything dangerous because it was never taught how to hunt or anything else, but if they could teach it and it learned from them, it could turn into a very dangerous pet. One stronger than a horse and more dangerous than a tiger.

Sam cleared his head and started to eat the soup. Right now, they couldn't do anything since it was still young, and Sam had no idea how long it would take to mature.

It took the group roughly ten minutes longer to finish the soup. By that time, everyone was full. The soup didn't look like it was a lot, but it filled their stomachs very quickly.

Stratus, with its stomach full, curled up on the bed and went back to sleep.

"Do you guys want to see around the village?" Asked Laina. There was nothing really special to show around the village, but it was better than just sitting in here, not doing anything. The sun was still up, and it would stay up for a few more hours, so there was plenty of time before it was time for bed.

"Sure," said Sam. He was feeling a bit more relaxed after eating the food and less awkward. Everyone was about to get up when they heard a knock on the door.

Sam and Xander were instantly alert. All three of them got up. Laina got up to open the door, and Sam and Xander got up in case they needed to fight or run.

"Relax, it probably just the village head," Laina said, seeing the expression on both Sam and Xander. They both looked very serious. Laina walked over to the door and opened it. There was no lock, so Laina just had to pull the door back.

Outside the house, was a fairly old man. He was a bit shorter than Laina and looked to be fairly thin. He was wearing the same clothes that everyone else was were, except his was a little bit cleaner. He had white, balding hair. His face had had a lot of wrinkles, making him look wiser.

When the door opened, his eyes met Sam's and then Xander's. He looked them up and down and then looked at Stratus, who was sleeping on the bed. He then turned his attention back to Laina, who was in front of him.

"I need to speak to you, in private," he said, looking at Laina. Laina nodded her head and looked back towards Sam and Xander.

"I will be back in a bit," she said to them and walked out of the house. She closed the door when she was leaving, but Sam and Xander looked at the small gathering that was taking place in front of the house. There were not too many people there, only around fifteen, but they all looked at Sam and Xander with hostility on their faces.

When the door closed, Xander looked at Sam and asked, "What do we do?"

"I don't know. We wait, I guess," said Sam. He didn't exactly know what to do right this moment. They could go out of the house but that would make them look a lot more suspicious, but if they just stayed here, they would be sitting ducks. "I trust Laina," Sam said. She had been honest with their questions, and she fed them. If she wanted to hurt them, she could have done it when they entered the village.

And so they sat down and waited for Laina to come back. They were still alert, listening to the people outside, to see if they were going to do anything.

Laina walked behind the village head. After going past eight houses, he stopped and turned around. This was far enough that no one would hear them talking.

On the way there, Laina started to think about what she was going to say. The village head would definitely ask why the two men were here, and she needed to give an answer that the village head believed. She couldn't say they were foreigners coming from the west of the village that would potentially make the village head kick them out of the village or something even worse. Foreigners were not treated well in this village or any other village.

"Who are they?" The village head asked. He didn't know why Laina was helping outsiders. Ever since that incident six months ago, Laina was more distant from everyone in the village, but the village head still didn't believe that she would help outsiders for no reason.

"They are people from four villages over," Laina said. "They heard rumors about the Carbo and wanted to see them for themselves. They found a white Carbo, while they were looking and decided to come back."

The village head thought about what Laina said and asked her another question, "Why didn't they come here before they went out to the forest?"

Laina knew that he would eventually ask that question, so she began coming with an answer before he even asked that question. "They were afraid that we would stop them, so they went around. They didn't think it would be a problem if they were coming back from the forest."

The village head watched Laina carefully to make sure that she was not lying at all. The story made sense and the village head saw the white Carbo on the bed so he thought that it was most likely true, but there was something that still didn't make sense.

"Why are you helping them?" Asked the village head. The people of the village did not do good with outsiders. If a merchant came to them, they would sell and buy things from them, but that was it. No one would try to get familiar with them or let them into their houses. The merchants already knew this, so they would come prepared to sleep in their carriages.

This question caught Laina unprepared. To be honest, Laina herself didn't know why she was helping them. She didn't know why she was going as far as to lie for them either. But the village head didn't look like he was going to just let her think about it so Laina said that first thing that came to her mind.

"I want to go with them." Laina realized what she said after she said it. She had been thinking of leaving, but she never said it to anyone. She didn't even think she was going to actually leave. In her mind, it was something that she could think about as much as she wanted to but something that she would never get enough courage to.

The village head was just as surprised as Laina was. "What about your house and your field? Are you just going to leave them unattended?" He asked Laina, still in shock.

"I ..." Laina took a deep breath in and continued. "I am going to sell the field and the house."

They were the only two things that she still had. Without the house, she would have nowhere to sleep, and without the field, she would have no way to grow food or make money.

It took a lot of courage to say that and Laina realized that she actually wanted to do it.

The village head didn't have any more questions and started to walk back to Laina's house.

"Get back to your houses people, the two men will are just passing by and will be gone in a few days," said the village head. The people in front of the house started to disperse as they listened to the village head. After everyone left, the village head also started to walk away. He paused and turned around towards Laina, with a small smile on his face he said, "Good luck, Laina. If you ever need any help in the future, just know we're still here."