Chapter 47: Memories of Walton at Night
Sewell filled a bowl of soup for Darien and Hawkins. If you ignore the two humanoid monsters outside the door, it should be a warm night in the simple cabin.
Darien blew on the soup bowl to disperse the condensed steam on the surface, and casually poked the boneless lamb inside with the soup spoon a few times.
Hawkins had already started drinking. The hot soup, just scooped out of the soup pot, burned his tongue so much that he couldn't taste the soup at all.
The monster outside was in a stalemate with them for a while, but when they saw that there was no way to pry open the door, they left again.
The house seems safe, but who knows whether it is real safety or just the calm before the storm.
After the monsters temporarily leave, there is still a job to arrange for people to take turns to keep watch to prevent any monsters from breaking into the house.
"Then I'll watch the first half of the night. I don't go to bed that early and usually study potion formulas until late at night." Hawkins offered.
"I'll be on duty for the rest of the night," said Sewell.
"I'll watch the two hours before dawn," said Darien.
No one objected, so they continued to enjoy their dinner.
The vegetable stewed lamb ribs soup is light and sweet.
Darien finished his dinner slowly, put the bowl on the stove and began to daydream.
He was wondering what the three monsters that came today were.
The first one looked a bit like a highly intelligent ghoul. He hadn't seen the second one, so he didn't know whether it had a human form or not, but it could speak and imitate human voices. Maybe it was a shapeshifter or a parrot.
If you want to know clearly, you have to go out and see it for yourself tomorrow night.
There was another question Darian wanted to know: what was the pattern engraved on the stone given to them by the village chief Walton? He had never seen such symbols before and he didn't know what they meant.
Who is the god Feroth who protects this village? I have never heard of his name.
I'll be busy tomorrow.
Darien banged his head in pain.
"What's wrong? Do you have a headache? I brought lavender essential oil, you can give me a soothing massage." Sewell approached and whispered.
"Then let's do one." Darien half-closed his eyes. A massage would indeed be much more comfortable.
Hawkins felt that he seemed a little out of place here, so he left early and stayed in his room with the door closed.
Sewell poured some lavender essential oil on his hands, then pressed it on the back of Darien's neck and rubbed it in circles, his shoulders, neck, and back, making every part of him warm.
"Hmm..." Darien closed his eyes and hummed softly in comfort.
"Do you need to press harder?" Sewell asked in a low voice in his ear.
"Put it harder, put more weight on the left shoulder," said Darien.
Sewell poured some more essential oil on his hands and continued massaging with all his heart.
The soothing scent of lavender made Darien relax, and Sewell's strength was just right, and he slowly began to feel a little sleepy.
Yawning sounds echoed throughout the room.
"Want to hear another bedtime story tonight?" asked Sewell.
"No... I want to sleep now..." Darien closed his eyes and was reluctant to open them.
Seville gently picked him up and carried him back to his bedroom. The wizard let him play with him, raised his hands to take off his clothes and put on his clothes, then put on a soft nightgown and tucked him into the bed.
The lavender oil massage was so effective that Darian fell asleep as soon as he touched the fluffy pillow, and his breathing gradually became steady.
It's Hawkins's vigil time.
Sewell sat by the bed for a while, making sure Darien was really asleep, then slowly leaned over and gently kissed his forehead.
A feather-light goodnight kiss.
"Hmm..." Darien moved slightly and muttered in his sleep.
Sewell stiffened, standing upright like a rusted suit of armor.
Darien did not wake up and was still in a light sleep.
Nothing happened in the first half of the night. The village was quiet, without even the sound of birds singing or mice rustling. Hawkins was bored and drew on the floor with the ashes from the fire in front of him.
When the time was almost up, he went to Darien's room, opened the door and called out to Sewell.
Oddly enough, he asked Sewell to sleep in his room while he was on guard duty, so that he could better conserve his energy.
Sewell actually refused.
He remembered that there didn't seem to be two beds in the other room either. How would they sleep?
So when he pushed the door, he was a little curious, wanting to see how they allocated the use of the beds, but before he pushed the door, Seville opened it first.
Hawkins stood up straight at once, feeling an indescribable guilt in his heart. He shouldn't do something prying just because of his momentary curiosity.
"Well, it's your turn to keep watch." He lowered his voice very low and spoke quickly while hiding his guilty conscience.
"Okay, Mr. Hawkins, go and rest." Sewell smiled and nodded at him.
There were no more monster harassments throughout the night.
When Darien woke up, it was bright outside and the aroma of breakfast came in through the crack in the door.
Unlike the silence of last night, the whole village became lively with the sounds of chickens crowing, dogs barking, and people talking. The whole village came alive again.
Darien struggled to get up and then struggled out the door. Sewell had already cooked oatmeal and made some pancakes.
"Why didn't you call me last night?" He looked at Seville expressionlessly.
"The day breaks quickly here. You slept well, so I won't wake you up." Sewell said with a smile.
"I'll be on guard for the second half of the night. I don't like dark circles under your eyes." Darien poked Savior under the eye.
In fact, there are no dark circles, just a faint blue color that is almost invisible.
"Okay, master." Sewell smiled more sincerely than before.
"Good morning, I can smell the aroma of breakfast. Today's breakfast is oatmeal and something?" Hawkins walked out from behind another door.
"Toast, maybe a little hard, fried eggs and fried bacon," replied Sewell.
"You are really amazing!" Hawkins exclaimed.
They quickly finished their breakfast and then went for a walk around the village.
The expressions on the villagers' faces looked very alert. Although the villagers who came back from the temple yesterday had said that they were magicians who came to help the village, the previous missionary in human skin also came to save the village in the beginning.
"It seems we are not very popular." Hawkins said in a low voice.
"That's normal. Let's go find the village chief first. I have something to ask." Darien said.
Village Chief Walton was sitting at the door of his house smoking a hookah.
Clouds of white smoke rose from the gurgling chimney and dispersed, revealing the old face behind it.
"Hello, Walton." Darien went forward and greeted him.
"Ah, hello, Mr. Magician. You stayed here last night and heard those noises, those monsters," said Walton.
"Yes, they are two different monsters, or maybe they are the same kind. Can you tell me how you figured out how to avoid them?" said Darien.
"Come in and sit down. We'll have a lot to talk about, starting from the very beginning." Walton put down his hookah and pushed open the door behind him.
The village chief's house was not big, but it had more furniture than the small house they were staying in.
Darien sat down and waited for Walton to explain everything.
After entering the house, Seville secretly looked around the entire room. In addition to the stone hanging by the door, he also found a wooden sculpture covered by a piece of linen. The linen was too short, revealing the lower half of the wooden sculpture, which was a human-shaped wooden sculpture.
"Let me think about where to start... So many things have happened recently that I really can't tell them all fluently. Let's start with little Sophia," Walton said.
The first incident happened on an ordinary afternoon when a little girl named Sophia ran back to the village screaming.
She said she saw a strange woman with blue skin, long hair so her face couldn't be seen, and spikes and thorns all over her body. She kidnapped little Beth and little Daniel.
The villagers took hoes and shovels and rushed over, but could not find any trace of the woman. They searched all the nearby woods, dilapidated houses and other places, but could not find the woman and child.
Two days later, the remains of the two children appeared on the side of the road leading to the village. The skull was placed in the middle, and the other bones were arranged around the skull to form a pattern like a flower.
"Do you remember what shape it was?" Darien interrupted.
"I don't remember. But someone in the village drew it, thinking it might be useful someday." Walton rummaged through the cabinet next to him and pulled out a piece of yellowed, stained paper.
Darien didn't want to take it, so Sewell, wearing gloves, took it and placed it in front of him.
They put their heads together to look.
"This is..." Hawkins' expression became serious.
"This is an evil formation that draws power from flesh and blood. Those who use this formation are usually swamp banshees. They use such formations to enhance their own strength, but they are not so brave and usually go to the cemetery to dig up fresh corpses. Is there a swamp nearby?" said Darien.
"There's none around here." Walton shook his head.
Darien felt a little confused, but let him continue.
Ever since the remains of the two children were found and buried, the village has been cursed.
First, the water in the well in the center of the village turned dark green and smelled foul. When it was spilled on the ground and licked by a passing dog, the dog immediately fell to the ground and foamed at the mouth.
Over the next few days, the village's livestock were torn to pieces by something unknown, and a woman gave birth to a deformed baby with two heads and three hands.
At this point, Walton covered his face in pain: "Poor Jenny, she was so looking forward to her child that she was distracted and opened the door to the monster outside later that night."
Darien sighed softly. "I don't know how to comfort you... I can only try my best to dispel the haze that shrouds this place. Could you elaborate on that missionary?"
Walton calmed down, nodded, and said, "Of course. The missionary came here after all these things happened. By then, several families in our village had already left."
The missionary, who said his name was Chuck, looked like a very young and handsome man.
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