The blinding white light quickly faded and Mist was able to open his eyes. He was shocked because he was no longer in the Forbidden Forest. Now, he was sitting on a small hill overlooking a large village. Not knowing what to do, he decided it was safer in the village than in the open by himself. There wasn"t even a tree to hide behind here! He could see from the hill the village was bustling and filled with strange creatures and people. He saw beasts with six legs pulling heavy loads. There here people with as many limbs as a centipede! Many strange and wondrous things were in the village.
Coming into the village, he briefly stopped next to a guard at the gate of the village. The middle-aged looking man simply smiled and waved for Mist to enter. Walking through the gates, Mist was able to see things much more clearly.
He saw men with animal heads, animals with human heads, people with blue skin, and green skin. One man had no skin, Mist could see his muscles and veins! The animals were just as strange. There were many different types of beasts of burden. Big hairy beasts of burden, small but dangerous guard animals. There was a monkey looking creature opening doors for people walking into a place.
Mist was so enthralled by the sites of the village he failed to notice someone standing in front of him. He walked right into this person and fell on the ground. Looking up, he saw an extremely large man with muscles the size of boulders. He was covered in black soot but he had a warm heroic smile.
A woman and another man stood next to the dirty looking man. The woman was extremely beautiful and she seemed very intelligent. Mist saw she was holding books! He recognized them as books because Mountain Breeze had a couple of books. Her books weren"t as impressive looking as these, but even still. A person who could read and write was worthy of great respect. The woman wore a long blue and white dress. The top of her dress was covered in little clouds, the bottom part of the dress almost looked like water. Her hair was blond, a hair color Mist had never seen before.
Next to the beautiful woman was a man wearing metal. Mist didn"t know this was the armor he had never seen it before. The River Village didn"t have any warriors. Everyone in the village was either a hunter or a farmer. Some of the men did both. The women typically cared for the families and the homes. This man wore golden armor and had a sword attached to a belt around his waist. He also wore a long flowing red cape and a golden helmet with feathers sticking out. There seemed to be other metal objects all over his body. He even saw a big knife.
Out of the three, the woman seemed the most pleasant. The dirty man smiled but it was the kind of smile men in the village had when they were playing tricks on him. The man in gold metal looked like the hunters from his village after hunting a really dangerous beast. The woman, however, reminded him of his mother with her kind eyes.
"Welcome to Masters Village," the woman spoke.
Mist rose up from the ground and performed a respectful bow to each of the three people. This was the bow he performed whenever he met one of the village elders. The only elder he never bowed to was Mountain Breeze.
"Thank you, elders," he said. Frankly, Mist was too young he wasn"t sure what else to say. He stood there waiting for the adults to continue the conversation.
"My name is Elder Yemay, to my right this dirty fellow is Elder Smith, and on my left is Elder Soturi. What is your name?" she asked.
"My name is River Mist, I am from the River Village. I was chased by the Red-Eyed Evil Wolf and somehow I am here. I don"t know where I am can you help me get home?" Mist said with tears in his eyes. He was trying to be brave like a hunter but he missed his parents and was worried about his sister. He just wanted to go home to hug his mother. He wouldn"t even mind getting a love beating from his father. He knew he deserved one after running into the forest and nearly getting eaten by the Red-Eyed Evil Wolf. He was still scared of that experience.
"Do not worry young man, we will certainly return you to your parents," Elder Soturi responded with a stiff smile.
"The Red-Eyed Evil Wolf, that should be that little pup we put into that forest a few years ago," Elder Smith said thoughtfully.
"It looks like he finally found a candidate for us," Elder Yemay said.
The three people continued chatting. Mist didn"t understand much about their conversation but it sounded like they were the ones who placed the Red-Eyed Evil Wolf in the Forbidden Forest. Mist was suddenly concerned. Once more, tears were welling up in his eyes.
Elder Yemay noticed the change in the little boy. She could feel his terror.
"I"m sorry dear, was the wolf mean to you?" she asked sympathetically.
Mist nodded his head and started crying. Snot was pouring out of his nose.
"He tried to eat me and my little sister!"
Mist was inconsolable for a few minutes. The elders looked at one another sheepishly. They realized they had chosen a rather scary agent to find a young candidate for them. They"ll need to make a couple of changes to prevent this from happening again. They could barely talk to this kid now because he was so scared. All the snot didn"t help either.
"Listen, son, there"s no need to worry about that wolf, here have a candy that"ll cheer you up!" Elder Smith said as he handed something to Mist. Taking the object Mist looked at it, there was something wrapped in a strange-looking material. The material had pictures of a strange fruit on it. He didn"t know what it was.
"This is candy, take it out of the package and eat it, it"s really good stuff," Elder Koos encouraged him.
Mist unwrapped the candy and slowly placed the cubed object into his mouth. As soon as it entered his mouth he was shocked by the flavor. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever eaten in his life! He savored the flavor and immediately stopped crying. He was smiling and happy now. Elder Yemay was immediately taken by the little boy"s happy face.
After a couple of minutes, Mist finished the candy and looked back at the elders. He was feeling much better about the elders and looked at them expectantly. Elder Yemay walked up to Mist and placed her arm gently around him.
"River Mist, we brought you here today for a very special reason. If you"ll come and talk with us I"ll make sure to get you something just as delicious as that candy, deal?" she asked.
Mist happily nodded his head and the three elders slowly guided Mist away from the village gate towards a nearby building.