Laina woke up with her eyes closed. She felt the ground beneath her and knew that she wasn't on her bed. She had momentarily forgotten what happened yesterday and felt a sense of panic go through her. She hastily opened her eyes and looked around.

As she saw the bodies of Sam and Xander laying next to her, she slowly began to recall the events of yesterday.

Xander was sleeping on a patch of grass while snoring a little. Stratus was surprisingly sleeping next to Xander. Sam had fallen asleep leaning against a tree. The horse had fallen asleep standing.

Laina got up off of the ground and started to walk towards the village. She wasn't going to enter the village and instead, go around to the river. Her throat felt dry as she had not drunk any water after they walked yesterday.

Laina passed the dirt road that they took around and approached a side of the village, where golden and green crops could be seen. Just from the fields, Laina could figure out that the population of this village was bigger than her village. There were more plots of crops and more people needed to work them.

Currently, Laina could see a few people going around and doing work. There were some people that were using iron tools to dig up the dirt and some people that were using a scythe to cut crops. Right now, most of the people were still sleeping, so only the people that had bigger plots of land were up.

As Laian approached the river, she could see a person swimming in the river. It was a young man that looked fairly handsome. He still had most of his clothes on and was floating near the middle of the river.

Laina ignored him and bent down. She cupped her hands and dipped them under the water. She lifted her hands, being careful not to let any spill, and brought her hands towards her mouth. After drinking a few palmsful of water, Laina didn't feel the need to drink any more water.

Laina stood up and was about to turn around when she noticed the man that was swimming before standing a few feet away from her.

"Ahh!" a small squeak escaped her lips as she was startled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, Lady," the man's voice was rich and confident. He looked genuinely sorry. "I wouldn't have bothered you if you weren't so beautiful."

Laina's face began to feel her face heat up as she heard his compliment. She was one of the most beautiful women in her village but, with the size of her village, that wasn't saying much. She had never gotten complimented for her looks before as most people in her village watched her grow up and didn't see her in that way.

"I don't seem to recognize you. You are from another village from the east or perhaps the village down the road? Well, it doesn't really matter as it doesn't change your beauty. I'm Richard, may I know your name, Ladie?" said the man.

Laina was a little flustered and didn't know what to say. After a few moments of her trying to calm herself down, she said, "Laina," in a small voice.

"I see, Laina. I would think that you were a merchant's daughter, but seeing as it isn't harvesting time yet, I doubt that. Whatever it is, if you even need anything from this village, you can come to me. You see, I'm the village head's son, so I can help you out with whatever problem you come across. Don't hesitate to come to me as I would think it is a blessing to help someone as beautiful as you, Laina." saying that Richard, nodded his head towards Laina and started to way away.

As he walked, water dripped out of his clothes and body and fell onto the ground.

Laina felt her brain trying to understand everything that he just said. After a few seconds of her watching Richard's back getting farther and farther away, Laina shook her head to clear her thoughts. Still, as she walked back to where they slept last night, she fell into a daze. She almost walked into a tree before she stopped herself with her hand.

Sam watched Xander doing push-ups on the ground. Sam suggested that Xander should do them to get a better understanding of their powers.

"36...37...38...39........40," said Xander as he collapsed onto the ground. He took deep breaths in and out to catch his breath.

"How many could you do before, Xander?" asked Sam.

Xander took a few moments to answer. "Around the same on a good day. Usually, I do a few less on average."

Sam had read that the powers of a warlord depend on a small amount on the world and its people. The power is usually an increase in physical ability, but the specific change. Some warlords got an increase in speed or stamina and it looked like they got an increase in strength.

There was no effect on stamina at all and it only came into effect when they were using all of their strength at something. Xander didn't need to push as hard as he could to get up in a push up so the power didn't come into effect.

"It seems like our power can be used when we are trying to pull or push something as hard as we can. It doesn't work for anything else," Sam said to Xander.

Laina was watching them from the side. She had mostly recovered from Richard and could think and talk clearly. She was trying to understand what Sam was talking about. She decided to not ask any questions and just wait for Xander to finish his story. She didn't know how long it was or when he would finish it, but she was very interested in it.

"Do you guys want to eat?" asked Sam. He wasn't feeling too hungry but he could eat breakfast if the other two wanted to. "We can finish breakfast first and then find a buyer."

"I don't feel hungry," said Xander.

"I don't feel like eating," said Laina.

"Alright, I guess we eat later," said Sam. "So, does anyone have any idea on how to talk to someone rich in the village without them potentially throwing us out of the village," asked Sam.

They could just walk in and ask for the village head, but it didn't seem like it was a great idea. It would be like if aliens came to Earth and asked to see the leader of humans. Sam didn't exactly know how the villagers would react and it could go very bad.

"We could pretend like we're someone rich, coming here to take a look around the villages. We could then say that our horse is being too much of a burden and we want to leave it behind," Xander said. As usual, he said the first thing that came to his mind and didn't think about the plan at all before he said it.

Sam decided to consider that plan seriously. After thinking for less than two seconds, he said, "I can think about five ways how that could, I mean, probably, go wrong." Sam looked towards Laina and asked her, "Do you have any ideas?"

Laina scrunched up her brows, trying to think of something. "I did meet this one guy earlier this morning, but he seems... I don't know. He did say he was the village head's son," she said.

"I guess that could work," said Sam with a little uncertainty in his voice. He was a tiny bit worried about this person as he could see Laina getting uncomfortable just by saying his name. "Did something happen?" He asked Laina.

"No, no. He just saw me and introduced himself," said Laina. She started to get a little panicked. She wasn't quite sure what was causing her to feel this way or how to make it stop.

Sam sighed and decided to let it go. He could push Laina a bit more to see if she would say anything more but he decided no to. It didn't seem like anything bad happened and he could piece it together himself when they met the man that Laina mentioned.

"So here the plan: Laina can go in and ask around for the village head's son, and through him, we can find a person with enough money to want to buy a horse. Alright?" asked Sam looking at Laina. She nodded her head and accepted.

After discussing a few more details, Laina started to walk towards the village. By now, everyone in the village was awake, and they were going around and doing their daily jobs. The small village streets were filled with people going back and forth.

Laina walked into the street, and only a few people noticed her. They just stared at her for a few moments, trying to figure her out, before they moved on. Unlike Laina's village, these people were a lot more used to outsiders coming in a trade. The only reason that they were still wary was that it was not common for outsiders to come to their village at this part of the year.

Laina spent a few minutes just walking around the village to see if she could find Richard just walking around. That would make everything easier as she could just directly talk to him instead of asking someone else to take her to him. Unfortunately, even after Laina circled around the village, she could not find Richard's face anywhere.

She did notice that there was a fairly large house near the center of the village. Compared to all the other houses, this was cleaner and had more space between the other houses.

Laina considered knocking on the door of this house but then realized how awkward it would be if it wasn't Rickard that opened. Instead, Laina went towards a group of children that were playing nearby.

The group was made up of 10 children, all of them around the same age. They were playing with a stick, where one of them tried to poke another person with the stick. If a person got poked, they got the stick until they poked someone else. The kids were running around in an open area in the village where the ground was filled with grass,

Laina approached the kids and none of them noticed her coming close as they were too focused on their game. "Can one you tell me where Richard's house is?" She asked no one in particular.

One of the kids had heard her and turned around to face her. With his hand, he pointed to a house near the center of the village. "It's over there," he said, then he started to run away as he noticed that the person with the stick was coming for him.

Laina looked at the house that the kid had pointed to and started to go there. It wasn't the big house that she saw before so she was glad that she chose to ask someone before she directly knocked.

Believing in the kid's words, she went up to the house and loudly banged the door. Laina waited a few seconds, but there was still no reaction. She knocked on the door again trying to see if there was anyone in the house.

"Who is it?" a voice came from the inside. Laina couldn't if it was the same person that spoke to her this morning or not.

"Hi, I'm looking for Richard. I need to make a small request from him," Laina said. As soon as she finished speaking, the door opened, and Laina could see Richard standing in the doorway.

"Ah, I knew your voice sounded familiar. Now, how can I help a lady as beautiful as you?" Richard said with a charming smile on his face.