Symone, Ywain and the mysterious one are now going out of the centre of the capital, they exit the place which is surrounded by huge and thick rock walls to end up on the peasant side, extremely poor compared to the inside of the city. Symone looks at the peasants with a lot of pity, he observes groups of people trying to pull huge horses attached to ploughs to prepare the soil to plant things.

The green elf wants to help them so bad. So he lets Ywain knows that he wants to stop for a moment, but the faun refuses and says as well that this is too dangerous to stop near those poor people :

-"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Symone..."

The faun knows that those people would try to steal them things because they are too poor. The king made them this way by allowing only the rich elves to live in the city. Symone's family is an exception because they aren't all elves but they are all rich, they also have what the king calls "useful" jobs, such as doctor, surgeon or even lawyer so any job other than highly diplomatic ones are useless to the king.

They continue their journey on the small carriage, even though Symone is really disappointed that he can't help people out. The three new adventurers are even followed by some of the villagers, as expected they want to steal some of Ywain's food and trinkets. The green one turns around to observe that small group of creatures, which consists of multiple species such as humans, elves, centaurs, dwarves and even more. Those ones are in fact rejected by the king, as said before.

The mysterious one, has been really quiet since they left the city, they didn't talk that much since they met the half-elf and the faun. The three of them are now farther away from the city, they are in a simple pine forest, continuing again for a few dozens of minutes.

During this part of the trip, Symone can't stay still on the carriage which is obviously too small for him, he isn't comfortably sitting at all. Ywain notices it really quickly, because the carriage won't stop moving in weird ways because of the elf. So the faun suggests :

-"What about taking some time to rest ?"

Symone hesitates, not really daring to look at the faun, a bit frightened to bother his new friend :

-"It would be nice, I'm not really sitting comfortably..."

Ywain decides to stop a little farther in the forest. The faun gives a bowl of fresh water to his donkey for it to hydrate itself. It has been now a few minutes that they are resting in this forest, Ywain lets Symone know that the break is a little too long so it is time to go back to the carriage.

But right before going, they all hear a weird noise coming from their opposite direction, it is yet not that far. A crackling noise. After hearing that weird crackling noise, Symone turns around towards where it is from, a dwarf suddenly comes out from behind some bushes. So the elf just thinks it's going to be a new person to meet, so he approaches the dwarf to start a conversation with them. Even if the dwarf has a dagger in hand and seems ready to use it.

Ywain tries to hold back the elf but it's already too late, Symone is in front of the dwarf, the latter tries to attack the green elf but Symone, reflexively yells in a really high-pitched tone just before running towards the carriage. The one lying on the vehicle and looking at this scene softly giggles under their black fabrics while not trying to help them at all.

A simple fight starts between the dwarf and the two new friends, Ywain and Symone. The dwarf attacks Ywain first, he dodges this first attack easily as if he is used to facing that kind of person. Then Symone runs towards the dwarf with a small knife he just found in the carriage, closing his eyes, scared to physically hurt the one he has to face but with a lot of luck, he stabs the dwarf in the arm, despite the height difference.

Ywain's turn comes pretty fast, but he does not have time to do anything. Because the dwarf has already escaped, letting down their own weapon and taking with them the knife which is still stuck in the dwarf's arm. They let out some random growls of pain while running away.

The other one who didn't move during the whole fight is still sitting in the carriage, arms crossed, as if they were waiting for everything to end so they all can go back on their journey to Golden Hook.

-"We have to go away fast, before some other dwarves come to us." Seriously announces Ywain while getting back in the carriage.

So they quickly go away from this place and advance for several kilometres. Then at some point, Ywain gets enough seeing the one wearing the black dress doing and saying absolutely nothing, so he starts questioning them about their identity. Symone turns around to face the one comfortably lying down on the carriage, he questions :

-“Hey ! Erm… What is your name ? And why aren’t you talking much ?”

But the one he is talking to doesn’t give any answer, they simply look away, as if they want to hide their identity from everyone. Symone understand that the other one won’t talk for now, so he just turns around and simply talks to Ywain :

-"Are there going to be any other scary things like with the dwarf ?"

Ywain takes a few seconds to think, then answers :

-"Uh.. uh well, there's maybe the "death's abyss", that's how everyone calls it.. but it's not that scary."

Symone's eyes are getting wide, he says nothing anymore. At that precise moment, he definitely does not wish to know any more things about what will happen to him. His face simply goes in disgust and fear after hearing this specific step on their route.

After some more hours of travel, the donkey pulling the carriage starts to get tired, so they all three stop at an inn, situated in a really small town full of adventurers and travellers. So there's not a lot of habitation other than that inn. By the way, this building is actually pretty big, which is normal with all of those people coming and going.

While Ywain is booking the rooms with his own money again, Symone and the other one are both outside, both silent, near the carriage. But the elf breaks that silence by talking, he curiously asks :

-"Why are you hiding your face ?"

But no answers from the all covered one, their head was in Symone's direction before the question was asked. The head of the all covered in black is now turned to their own feet. They were admiring Symone’s beautiful green face.

Understanding that they'll not answer this question, Symone simply introduces himself, in hope of having an answer from the other one, even a simple name :

-"My name is Symone Nehemiah ! What about you ?"

The other one take a few seconds, then turn their head back into Symone's direction and say :

-"Just call me Vek."

Despite Symone trying to get more information from the one called Vek, they don't reply to any of the green elf's other questions.

After a few seconds of Symone trying to get more information about the one all covered in black, the latter decides to walk around the place. But as soon as the one all covered in black fabric is walking away from the half-elf, a carriage with a horse is rushing on the road, the one walking away isn’t aware that a horse is directly running to them, they didn’t see it from afar.

But right before the carriage arrives at the one wearing black clothes, Symone instantly catches one of their arms, preventing an accident from happening. The half-elf pulls the other one farther from the road, so closer to him, they even end up completely with their head against the green elf’s torso, their hands naturally grabbing the other one’s back to prevent them from falling backwards. Despite no one can see that, they obviously blush under the piece of cloth that is hiding their face.

After a few seconds staying like that, like hugging each other, Symone finally gently pushes the other one away, wondering :

-“Are you ok ?” The half-elf keeps his hands softly holding the other one’s arms.

-“Yes, I’m fine. T.. Thanks…” They keep their hands on the green elf’s back, we also guess that there are directly staring at Symone’s eyes while blushing.