As they all approached the strange shelter, Jacob became apprehensive.

"There’s fire coming through the chimney. That means someone may be home. We should be careful."

"Who the hell would live so far away from civilization? This person can’t possibly be normal." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Should we try knocking?"

"I don’t see why not."

Lidia put down the massive cart and started walking towards the door while stretching her arms. She lifted up her fist and lightly knocked on the wooden door.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

Without even waiting for a response, she tried twisting the handle to let herself in. To all their surprise, the door was unlocked. Jacob ran up and tried to stop Lidia.

"Wait! We can’t just walk into a random person’s house uninvited!"

Lidia shoved Jacob’s face away from her.

"If they didn’t want guests, they shouldn’t have left the door unlocked!"

Jacob looked at Maria with desperation in his eyes, seeing if she would try and defend his position. However, she decided to join her mom and started walking inside.

’You can’t be serious!’

Doc stayed by the cart and waved to him.

"I’ll stay by the cart and look after it. You all can explore if you wish."

"Thank you Doc. We’ll be right back."

When the three of them entered the small cabin, the interior was quite impressive. The floors were clean and polished, there was a kitchen with a small wooden counter that connected it with the dining room, and there were random decorations littering the shelves giving life to the place. What Jacob noticed is that most of the decorations were small stone statues that seemed to be carved with a strange tool.

They eventually found a living room that had cozy-looking sofas and a small chair that sat right by the fireplace. There was currently a fire roaring in its small pit, which put everyone on high alert. It looked like the fire had just been started. Hardly any of the wood inside had been burned yet.

Suddenly, a deep voice sounded behind them.

"Aw man. I was hoping to prepare a bit more before you all got here."

As everyone turned around, they were met with a massive, handsome man. His features were nothing short of impressive. He had large biceps, a thin waist, dark brown hair, and deep blue eyes. His jaw was sharp and his teeth seemed to be in perfect condition. He also seemed to be around Lidia’s age if Jacob were to guess.

Everyone was immediately on guard and glared at him cautiously. He was carrying a large stack of freshly chopped wood in his hand, which he slowly put down and raised his hands.

"Easy there. I didn’t mean to not have food prepared. You guys move really fast! Just don’t hurt me!"

"You just chopped up this wood? Where were you?"

"There’s a small forest a little way north by a river. I was chopping stuff there."

"How did our friend outside not see you?"

"Oh... he was your friend?"

Jacob looked at him confused and walked toward a window to look outside. Doc was currently tied up with a strange rope and had a blind fold over his eyes. He seemed to be struggling to try and break free from them. Jacob quickly looked back at the tall man.

"What’s the meaning of this?!"

"I’m sorry! I just got a creepy vibe from him, so I tied him up! I can untie him if you’d like."

"You got a creepy vibe from someone almost double your age?!"

"You can never be too sure! I’ve learned to always trust my instincts. Even if he isn’t evil, he would have definitely hurt me if I got close. So, I did that."

"How did you even manage that without him seeing you?"

"Well, when you live alone, you kind of have to rely on yourself for a lot of things. It’s just something I’ve gotten used to at this point."

Jacob sighed.

"Untie him, and then we can talk."

"Sure thing!"

They all walked out to Doc who was still struggling in his binds. The man took off his blindfold from behind so Doc could see his companions are okay before letting the rest of him go free.

"Sorry about that. It felt like you were going to hurt me if you saw me."

Doc spit on the ground as his mouth was freed from a cloth.

"You’re damn right. And I still want to!"

Jacob intervened.

"It’s okay Doc, it was just a big misunderstanding. Let’s just all head inside and talk. No one has to fight anybody."

Doc seemed reluctant but he trusted Jacob.

"Fine."

They all slowly piled back into the small cabin. Doc was rubbing his wrists that tingled from being bound.

The man walked them towards the fireplace and offered them a seat on the nice sofas. Lidia was the first to lay across an entire one by herself. She was probably exhausted from the long trip carrying the cart everywhere. Maria, Jacob and Doc sat on the other one across from her while the stranger took a seat by the fire so he could fuel it when need be.

"Sorry again about that, let’s have a nice talk now. My name is Slimo! It’s very nice to meet you folks! Are you all from Paria? What about Hacrin Village? Maybe Darnish?"

They all looked at him puzzled. Jacob was the first to speak up.

"Uh, we’ve never heard of those places before. We are from Iron Kingdom. It’s just to the west of here."

Slimo seemed shocked.

"Iron Kingdom? I’ve never heard of such a place before. I guess I haven’t travelled too far westward in my time here."

"Wait, what are those other places you were talking about?"

"You’ve never heard of the Paria Empire? Have you all been living under a rock?"

All of them, including Doc, seemed even more confused.

"To be honest, we weren’t too aware of many kingdoms existing in this world besides ours."

Slimo crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"Interesting. What’s next? Do you all know what Zalo’s are?"

"... a what?"

"Come on. I could sense that old man has a Zalo without even trying. You all should know what they are too."

"You mean those powers people get?"

"Exactly. People call that power a Zalo. I believe they named it after some legend of a man named Zalo bringing great authority and power to these lands. I heard rumors that he was a giant! Wouldn’t that be cool?!"

Lidia thought of Gabriel’s power to turn giant.

"Eh, not really."