Day turned to night, the land growing dark around the caravan. John's eyes opened for the first time in hours, inspecting his surroundings through the gaps in the cages metal bars.
'We stopped?' He mused. It had been the first time they had stopped since he had woken up.
'Are we stopping to resupply? Camp for the night? Or did they find something interesting like they did with me?' He wondered, standing up and walking to the cage bars.
He was still injured and weak, but standing up was far from a problem. He placed his hands on the bars near him, the chains on his feet scraping against the ground, metallic sounds echoing out.
"Shhh," a soft whisper sounded out from the other side of the cage. John glanced at the young girl, who had her finger to her lips, indicating for him to be quiet.
John cocked his head to the side, wondering what this was about. His questions were immediately answered by the land trembling, shaking violently like an earthquake.
He shifted his gaze outwards once more, trying to peer through the thick forest before him. However, the forest was dark, no moonlight light piercing through the thick canopy above.
'If they even have moons,' John muttered to himself, knowing so little of this world.
He wanted to use his divine sense to see the land before him, where he was sure the rumbling was coming from, but his instincts warned him not to.
The shaking grew more violent, the cart tipping from side to side, shaking as if it were about to fall apart. He glanced to the side, nothing looks of fear on the faces of the others.
The shaking continued for several minutes before slowly dying down, eventually becoming soft rumblings in the distance. The others breathed sighs of relief, as if they had just escaped the jaws of death.
None of them spoke though, and so John did the same. He sat down and closed his eyes, falling into a meditative trance once more, his focus on healing his body.
John opened his eyes a long time later, the sound of movement within the cart stirring him. He glanced at the others, who were moving about the cart, no longer concerned with being quiet. He glanced to the side, and noticed the sun had started to pour light down on them, although it was still quite dim as the massive trees above blocked most of the light.
'Twenty hours! Nighttime lasts quite long here,' he mused, noting how long the night had taken. Roughly double the time night lasted on his homeworld.
The scraping of metal chains next to him caused him to turn his head, noticing one of the middle aged slaves next to him, glaring at him angrily.
"Were you trying to get us killed last night, boy?" The man asked.
He had a late Dao Transformation cultivation, and appeared to be in his forties, although his true age was much higher. His appearance combined with his cultivation revealed that he was a man of little cultivation talent.
John stared calmly at the man.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I did nothing of the sort," John said flatly.
The man narrowed his eyes with displeasure, and moved one step closer as if to make a move on John, punish him somehow, for unknown transgressions.
John narrowed his eyes, a murderous glint contained within. A gaze that said 'I've killed more than you can imagine. Adding one more to that list won't bother me.'
The man froze in place, his eyes going wide with instinctual fear. He was stronger than this injured youth, or at least his cultivation was higher. And yet he felt as though taking one more step towards the youth would be the last step he ever took. He remained that way for a moment before scuttling away, retreating towards the corner of the cage, muttering something under his breath.
The others looked on with surprise, as if they had expected the opposite to happen. John ignored their gazes and closed his eyes once more. As long as they left him alone, he would do the same.
'I have more important things to worry about than petty squabbles,' he thought.
The scraping of chains filled the cage again, John opening his eyes with displeasure as the sounds grew closer to him.
His displeasure vanished as he noticed the two youths standing before him, both staring at him with wide, curious eyes. There was no hostility or malice on their faces.
"Yes?" John asked, wanting to know their reason for approaching him.
"That," the boy said, "was amazing."
John raised an eyebrow.
"Amazing? What was?" He asked.
"You made Garrod leave you alone without saying a word," the boy explained enthusiastically, "how did you do that? Garrod targets every new arrival, making sure they know their place."
"He also forces you to pay him or get beat up," the girl said, grumbling with displeasure. Despite her sour words, her voice was soft and sweet, pleasing to the ears.
"Is that so?" John said evenly.
"Yup," the boy said, sitting down beside John. The girl hesitated for a moment and then did the same. John raised another eyebrow.
'Annoyed by two brats. Great,' he muttered internally, but didn't shoo them away. He needed information about this world, and perhaps the two youths could provide him with some.
"I'm Luri," the boy said, introducing himself.
"Suri," the girl said.
John raised another eyebrow. Luri chuckled, reading John's thoughts.
"Everyone has the same reaction," Luri said smilingly. "Our father isn't very good with names."
John nodded, understanding that. He too was bad with names, as evident with Kirii.
"John," he introduced himself.
"Well, John," the boy said, "you're clearly not from around here, are you?"
"What makes you say that?" John asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Luri said. "Your clothes are strange, you feel different somehow as well, and you didn't even know of the Serpent of the Immortal Forests. We almost died last night because of you."
'Serpent of the immortal forest?' John wondered. Is that what the sound was last night?
"And," Suri added, her voice soft, "you fell from the sky like a star. So fast that your body should have exploded from the impact, but here you are, still alive. The slavers said that wasn't you, but I know it was," she added, tilting her head to the side as she stared at him. "You're strange."
Luri nodded his head in agreement.
John glanced at the two, then sighed. There was no use hiding it if they already knew some of the truth.
"You're right," he said. "I'm not from around here."
"You're not a Devil, right?" Suri asked, eyeing him skeptically, lips pursed in a line.
'A Devil?' John thought. 'What the hell is a Devil? She's not talking about Asura's…is she?'
