Alger turned around and headed back the same way he had come from. After a few minutes, he reached the edge of the forest again, encountering no living being on his way out.
Alger climbed the small hill and went towards the caravan. He checked his surroundings to make sure there were no dangers before he finally heading inside the roofed cart.
Right as he stepped in, Ivy, who was half-asleep, asked him,
"Alger... where.. were you?"
Alger already had a lie prepared, and since Ivy was only half awake, she would probably just forget by morning.
"I heard a sound, so I went to check. I found nothing. It was just the wind. Sleep, Ivy. We need rest, just like Orchard told us."
"Yeah...", Ivy dozed off before she could even complete her sentence.
Alger placed his Katana right where he had picked it up from, and went to sleep.
***
The sun had yet to fully rise, but its rays were already spilling over the horizon.
When Alger woke up, the caravan had just started moving.
Mr.Orchard turned around after hearing a voice behind him, and saw Alger standing up.
"Alger, I'm sorry if I woke you up."
When did we start moving?, He asked himself.
Alger looked outside of the caravan to find a hint of the location they were at. He saw unused firewood and a pile of ashes right behind them; from this, he deduced that they had started moving.
Ivory and Dawn were still sound asleep.
"No, Mr.Orchard, you should have woken me up earlier; I could have helped you."
Orchard looked at him, and his face showed that he was slightly grateful.
"Oh don't worry about this old man. You young ones have the... the exam, don't you? You need all the rest you can get..."
Alger was thinking, thinking if he should tell Orchard about what he witnessed last night. But he decided not to. He didn't want to make everyone worry about something that might or might not exist....
After a few minutes, the caravan finally entered the spruce forest. The stone path curved along the hillside before going off into the forest. By now, the sun had probably risen, but inside the forest, it was nowhere to be seen.
And right as they entered the forest, Alger's doubts had cleared... no chirping of morning birds, no sounds of insects, no rustling of leaves... nothing, just complete silence.
Orchard didn't give it much attention at first. But after a few hours, his face showed a little concern.
Dawn had just woken up. Even he had never seen a forest this huge, his face showed a little excitement, whereas Ivy was still asleep.
Alger looked at Ivy and thought,
How can someone be this carefree... I genuinely need to know.
Around noon, Ivy had finally woken up. Right as Orchard started to slow down the cart.
He stopped the cart near a relatively flat area next to the road.
"We'll prepare lunch here before we get going, we can't waste daylight inside the forest...", his voice showed that he was a little worried. But Dawn and Ivy had guessed it was because they were in a dangerous forest.
"Alger! Alger! Look how tall and wide the trees are!" Ivy said, her voice filled with excitement.
"Yeah... Dawn and I saw them a few hours ago."
After stretching a little, Ivy began gathering the ingredients for lunch. Today they were having rabbit stew.
Ivy began cooking the rabbit meat they had caught a day before, although Alger could tell that she was on the cusp of crying... whereas Dawn was helping her set up a campfire.
Orchard was on the other side of the stone path. He was looking into the forest. Trying to find something... anything.
Alger slowly walked towards him.
Orchard's face looked a little more than worried now. He turned around to see Alger was approaching him.
"Alger, correct me if I'm wrong... but even you have noticed it, haven't you?"
Alger's face had a serious expression on it.
"Yes... the silence is a bit too loud."
***
The sun had set a couple of hours ago. Ivy and Dawn had already fallen asleep. Orchard, however, remained awake. The silence wouldn't let him rest. They had covered at least a hundred kilometers today, yet that same eerie quiet still lingered, refusing to fade.
Alger was sound asleep... well, at least that's what Orchard believes.
Alger left behind a dummy made from hay under his blanket. He was standing on top of a branch, looking at the caravan from afar. To make sure it was safe without him there.
Alger had to explore; he had to find out the cause of the silence, which was better than the cause finding them.
Alger turned around and leaped to the nearest branch. And he went flying through the forest like the wind.
Alger was observing everything; even if a leaf slightly moved, he would know. He was moving further and further away from the caravan, but still nothing...
After around two hours of jumping between trees, Alger stopped; he had to take a break, he was exhausted. He found a thick branch to sit on and drank water from the bottle on his side. By now, he had traveled at least fifty kilometers East.
A gentle breeze kissed his face while he was resting... but with it came a smell.
The smell of rotting flesh....
The smell was coming from East. Alger suddenly got on Alert, he looked around to see if anything was there.
Alger attached his bottle back to his belt and headed where the smell was coming from.
After a few kilometers of jumping... he saw it, the source of the smell.
The corpse of a wolf. The corpse had black fur, as dark as the shadows. It was around the same size as the wolves back on Earth.
The description matched from what Orchard had told him. It was a shadow wolf...
But what surprised Alger the most was the way the wolf died. The belly of the wolf was missing, like something had taken a bite out of it...
A few meters away from the corpse was a disgusting pile of intestines... It looked like something tried to eat the wolf, but didn't like the taste of it, so it spit it out.
Whatever had killed the wolf was dangerous....