Everyone listened quietly as August made up a genius imaginary story about how he ended up here.
"...and then I woke up I was already here," he said running his mouth, not a single soul seemed convinced though.
'Oh, no I am in trouble'
One girl turned to the rest of them, "are we really supposed to believe this nonsense?"
"Please, do believe me," August said, "I have no idea how I ended up here either. And I told you I was thirsty. In fact I still am."
He told them everything about how he restrained himself from going near the water stream when they were bathing in there. Which did nothing but fueled their anger.
"So you are thirsty, huh?" A girl spoke before she winked at the others, "then I suppose you should really drink water."
Suddenly she made a gesture with her hands and August did not like it when he realized. Wind started spinning around him, the next moment he was being lifted up in the air.
August tried to break free but his resistance was too little because of his pain and sore muscles for the spell to let him go.
'Dammit. Not again'
August was reminded of his encounter with the entities of darkness when the wind spell of the girl did the same to him. It didn't just lift him in the air but launched in a trajectory that ended in the water stream.
August was thrown into the cold water just like that. While the stream wasn't deep enough for him to drown, it sure provided enough depth to make sure he did not collide with the rocks below.
As he entered the stream August immediately felt the water pressure assaulting him. He threw his hands and feet to grab something but the current never let him stabilize his perception.
Finally he grabbed a rock at the center of the stream and hid behind it from the fierce water current.
"Is it enough or do you need more water?" A girl shouted, letting out a chortle.
August was able to hear their laughter from here as he gasped for more air.
"Drink all you want," another girl chuckled.
"Just tell us the truth, who are you?" A girl spoke, "Don't make us take your life. Are you a spy from the other factions?"
"No, not a spy," he said, avoiding the water trying to rush into his mouth, "I am not a spy, believe me."
"Will a murderer admit that he's a murderer?"
"Yes, he's definitely a spy"
"I say we let him die"
August was fighting for his life against the wild currents of water hearing the young girls speak about letting him die.
He would've saved himself if it weren't for the pain and exhaustion he was still feeling. Not to mention the hunger, water currents on top of all that.
He felt like everything around him wanted him dead.
However, he could not possibly lose hope. He never had. He never gave up. He wasn't the one to run from hard situations. He had battled the echoes and many more other life threatening situations. This was just a measly lesser river. He was not going to die here.
"Enough" A melodious voice resounded in the air. Suddenly the water current was not fierce anymore. As the water displaced around him, August got lifted in the air the same way as before. The wind lifted him out of the stream and he landed on the bank softly.
August coughed a mouthful of water and gasped for air desperately. He gulped and when he felt okay he looked at the strange person who had saved him.
Before him stood a girl who seemed about the same age as him. She had a fair complexion and her chestnut hair swayed in an elegant manner.
She wore a principled robe as her brown eyes looked at him differently. August was wondering about her distant gaze as if she wasn't looking at him at all.
Her kind eyes were devoid of any light.
Only now did August seem to realize that all the girls had bowed their heads to the girl standing before him. Which felt quite odd to him considering most of the girls in the group seem older than this girl.
"Are you alright sir?" the kind girl asked. Then she turned to the girls standing behind her, "you all, how could you do something so cruel?"
"We apologize, saintess" one girl who was ready to kill him about a while ago said.
"...this boy here peeped on us while we were bathing, saintess," the girl who used her spell on August said in a low voice just loud enough for everyone to hear, "he should not be forgiven. I beg of you."
August thought of saying anything in his defense but the girl before him beat him to it.
"Respected Sir," the girl spoke in her kind voice, "are my sisters telling the truth?"
August was surprised and a little bit happy to finally meet a sane person who was ready to hear his part of the story.
"N.. no ma'am it's not true. Just a misunderstanding which I've already explained to them" he pointed to the girls and said, "they are the ones who did not wanted to believe me."
"It's okay I believe you" August was surprised at the girl's words. However this time it was his stomach that beat him as a low growl escaped due to hunger.
"I assume that you are hungry?"
August closed his eyes in embarrassment,
"Y—yes"
"Fine, come with me," she said.
"...but saintess, how can you trust him?" the girl who had used the spell asked. "We don't know him. He might be a spy from other factions."
August rolled his eyes at her words.
'Not this spy shit again'
The kind girl spoke to him suddenly,
"Sir, are you a spy?"
August was taken aback,
'what a straightforward question'
"Uh.. I am not" he replied.
"Excellent" she turned towards the girl, "hear that sister? He said he's not a spy."
The spell girl placed a hand on her forehead while the other girls stared at her dumbfounded, including August.
A girl standing beside her whispered something into the kind girl's ear. August did not need a genius brain to know what she said though. It was as obvious that if it weren't for his survival he would've said the words himself.
'It doesn't work like that'
"I see his words are not proof enough for you," The kind girl unexpectedly smiled, "sister you said this boy was peeping on you while you were bathing. If it is true then you might have definitely caught him in the act? Am I right?"
The girl lowered her head, "no we did not witness him ourselves nor did we catch him in the act. But he was sitting at the nearest spot from our bathing place."
"So what?" the kind girl replied, "that doesn't mean he was deliberately peeping. He could've sat there unbeknownst to your presence."
"...but?"
"Has he done any degenerate things to any of you yet? Or perhaps has he said something outrageous?"
The crowd fell silent, while the spell girl simply shook her head.
"That's why you should never make any careless conjectures." she turned towards August, "I am really sorry respected Sir, we have caused you a lot of trouble."
After the kind girl, everyone else apologized to him immediately. One girl brought his sword and handed it to him. August grabbed the sword in a hurry to leave this place. However his wounds still ached.
"Are you perhaps a warrior by any chance?" the kind girl asked him, "if yes then I'd like to request something of you."
'I smell trouble'
After barely escaping with his life last night, August did not want to get mixed with another trouble for a girl he had barely known. The only thing he knew about her was that they called her saintess.
So what? A kind face and being called the saintess does not make anyone a real saint.
It did though.
'I don't know her and whatever she's plotting. It's better to stay away.'
And August had more important issues to deal with. He needed to figure out where he was now and how could he return back to home.
"My name is Aireen" the girl said with a pleasant smile, "I am the saintess of wind and the immolated. We are on our way back. So can you escort us back to the wind manor? We will pay you fairly, rest assured."
While the probability of knowing more about this place was greater in accepting their offer, something told August that this was another trouble. A big one at that.
"I am sorry Miss Aireen" he said, causing the rest of the girls to hiss at him. He immediately realized and apologized, "...I mean saintess. As you can see, I am not in a condition to escort anybody."
Which was indeed true considering that August was wounded, his muscles felt strain at places and he felt tired on top of that. He couldn't possibly do both fight and protect in his sorry state.
What the saintess said however, surprised him a lot more, "I can't see sir, warrior. I am blind."
The sentence immediately explained why August felt there was something different in her gaze. He opened his mouth to say something but saintess beat him to it,
"And I am well informed about your condition. It's not that big of a deal, we have competent healers and enough medicine for you. We were going to treat you either way, it doesn't matter if you accept our request or not, the only difference will be in the latter case we will be treating you as a gesture of apology."
August was getting treatment, regardless of whether he joined them or not. Which was a good thing for him considering without any competent healer to treat him he would probably die on the way. Not to mention he would die due to hunger sooner than that.
He nodded, "I'd like to ask for time, to think."
The saintess seemed to genuinely smile at his words, "that's okay. Our journey would take a lot of time anyways."
August had agreed to journey with them until he felt healthy enough to leave on its own.
"Uh.. I forgot to ask for your name,"the saintess asked suddenly.
August thought of telling her a made up name first but he let go of his worries.
"It's Augustus," he replied.
"A valiant name" she said, "befitting for the character of a gentleman" then she called, "Sister, make sure to take care of warrior August's meal."
The other girl nodded and gestured to August to follow her along.
Whatever might have happened today, it all worked out in his favour in the end. They were offering their food didn't mean August trusted them yet only he did not have a better option.
He purposefully kept the truth about from where he escaped recently from all of them and fed a made up story to them with truth just as a pinch of salt in the flour.
August sighed and cleared his mind. He was about to concentrate solely on food.
'I need to look out for poison'
Back at the bank of water stream spell girl spoke to the saint,
"Saintess, we are enough to protect you. Then why ask that stranger?"
"I get that you don't know why we need a warrior like him?," saintess replied, "you seemed to have forgotten about what happened to our warrior brothers." the spell girl nodded in silence, coming to a sudden realisation,
"We need warrior Augustus because we are the maidens of the wind. We cannot put our lives in danger that's why we have to rely on a warrior to do so. Last time it was our warrior brothers while we are alone this time, stranded in this forest with no hope to go back."
" It's obvious we need warrior Augustus on our side, we need his bravery and courage if he embraces any. If not then we need him as a sacrifice so that we could sacrifice ourself for a greater good and not to that place. We need warrior Augustus to cross that damned forsaken lands."
A worried expression appeared on her face suddenly,
"We need him to cross the Valley of silence"
— — — — —