The Dangerous Path

Caitrin then quickly made her way back to Mai's house.

And while running she said to herself,

*If that Pertinger followed that path and If those howls were its kind, then there is a big chance that their nest is there somewhere.*

Then she saw the village and ran faster.

While running she also realized that Tatsumi and Mai were on the balcony of the house, looking in her direction.

And when she finally reached the house, she slowly approached them. 

While breathing rapidly, she said,

"Why are you awake? I thought you fell asleep."

"Even in these kinds of situations, we must be alert to everything." Orano replied.

Caitrin then turned to Mai, and said,

"What about Miss Mai?"

"Actually, I couldn't sleep either. And when you left the house, Mr. Orano told me that you have gone to search something." Mai said.

Orano then said,

"Did you find any clue?"

"Yes, I did. And I think I finally know why this happens." Caitrin replied.

And after they got inside one more time, Caitrin started to tell what happened.

"And that was what I saw. It is just so odd for that creature to go back of the mountain and come after days. There must be something triggering them, but I don't know what exactly."

Orano said,

"If that Pertinger is going back of the mountain, there are two options for it. One is like I said before, there can be a nest of their kind, and might not want to leave here. The second option is, there must be something blocking or stopping them to move further away."

Mai said,

"That explains why they're so angry."

"But for now, we have to move according to both of them."

Caitrin then said,

"But how are we going to do that?"

"Tomorrow we'll go on a walk to explore the back of the mountain. If their nest is there or they have cubs to take care of, we'll help them. If their path is blocked and they can't go anywhere, we will open the road and help them anyway. In this way, we will get rid of the problem." Orano replied.

Caitrin then remembered and said,

"Oh! I remembered!"

Then she turned to Mai and said,

"Miss Mai, I forgot to ask you."

"What did you forgot to ask?" Mai asked.

"When I was searching for the creature and it ran away towards the mountain, I saw a path there. I was going to ask why people here don't use that path. Did something happened?"

Mai sighed and said,

"Like everything here has a story, that path has a story too. Years ago, that was the path that most of us used. But over the years, the snowstorms and avalanches hit that path and nearly destroyed it. That is why we don't use it there anymore. And if you two still plan to use there, please be very careful."

And they continued to talk that night.

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When the sun rise and the village was back to their usual routine, Orano and Caitrin got ready to travel.

And when they were gathering their stuff, Mai approached them and said,

"Did you gathered everything you need?"

While looking inside of his bag and checking his potion bottles, Orano replied,

"We don't anything for now, but thank you for asking."

Then he turned to Caitrin and said,

"If you are ready, we must start searching for the Pertinger's nest."

"Do you still think that is our only problem?" Caitrin said sarcastically.

And then, while they were about to leave, a little girl approached Caitrin, smiled and said, and said,

"Big sis! Big sis! Here you go, I want to give this to you!"

Then she gave Caitrin an old brown backpack that was made out of leather.

She then said,

"Since Big Brother and you are dealing with the dangerous creatures, I wanted to give this to you!"

Caitrin didn't know what to say. Her heart was covered with warm emotions.

She stroked the little girl's hair and said,

"Thank you."

Then as she stood up, Mai smiled and said,

"Don't worry Caitrin. I believe in Mr.Orano. I wish you two the best of luck."

Orano and Caitrin finally left there and made their way to the back of the mountain. As they made their way, the snow was falling faster, and the wind was blowing harder. It got harder and harder to move, but they had no chance rather than taking that path.

Orano said as they were struggling to walk,

"Stay right behind me and look for any kind of evidence."

Caitrin nodded and they continued walking.

The path that they were taking was very thin and it was covered with thick snow. Caitrin was shaking from cold and she was having trouble looking forward.

So she said,

"Are you sure that we have to take this path? If we don't die from falling, we might die from this cold."

"This cold can harm a human body, but it won't kill it. So don't worry." Orano replied.

He then added,

"Also, even the slightest evidence is good for us. If we can find any evidence, that will be a signal for us to leave." 

Caitrin said to herself, sarcastically,

*But how long that will take!*

And after they walked for a while and looked around, Caitrin said to herself,

*It has been ten minutes, but we still didn't find anything. I wonder if the thing that I saw last was an illusion or not.*

But when they were still searching, she heard a howl. It was the same howl that she heard last night. She immediately looked up, where the sound was coming. But she didn't see anything. She tried to get to the edge of the path to see what was going on.

And she slipped.

It was like time froze, and she was living the moment in slow motion. She thought she was going to fall.

But Orano jumped, stuck his sword in the stone, and caught Caitrin in the air at the very last moment. He then slowly lifted her towards the path and put her there. Then he climbed and laid down there.

Now, they were both gasping for air. 

As Caitrin tried to get up, she bowed down her head and said,

"I am sorry, I have heard a sound and thought that I found something. But I wasn't careful enough an-"

As Orano stood up, he interrupted Caitrin and said,

"Don't talk like that. The important thing is that nothing happened to you."

He then turned to her, and added,

"Also, I think I have found something too."

Caitrin raised her head and asked,

"Really?"

"Yeah, follow me."

They started walking and made their way along the path. And after a short while, they have finally reached a point. Where the path was blocked by big rocks.

Orano crouched, examined the rocks, and said,

"Like I thought."

Caitrin looked at the rocks too and said,

"So this is why the creatures didn't leave there and bothered the people."

"Probably. But it still doesn't explain the creature's aggressiveness."

"But how?"

"We have to find that out. But for now, we have to clean this path to move on."

Then he stood up and said,

"Stay behind me."

As Caitrin moved back, Orano took out his sword and cut the rock at the edge of the pile into two, and made all of the rocks fall down. The rocks fell, the path slowly opened, and another path appeared before them.

Caitrin looked Orano in a confused way and said,

"How did you cleared the path that easily?"

Orano put his sword back on his waist and replied,

"The path may have been closed by large rocks, but the stone at the very corner was in a very unstable state. So it was obvious that if we eliminated that, the road would open."

Then he said,

"Come on, we have to get going."

They began to move again and slowly walked the path. And after a brief walk, they have finally reached the end of the path.

But they realized something odd. When they reached the end of the path, they saw a similar path type when they were in the village. And they found a place with a big door. 

Caitrin looked at Orano and said,

"Can we still be in Frostford?"

"Looks like we are. Let's search inside and find out what it has inside." He replied.

There were scratch marks at the door and it was slightly open. It looked like someone got in before the road got closed.

So they slowly got in and looked around. 

It was the food storage that Mai was talking about and it was filled with food. But it looked like it hadn't been used in weeks.

Caitrin said while looking around,

"It looks like no one is here. Is it alright for us to enter like this?"

Orano said,

"We are here for exploring, so no. Also, there can't be. The food here may be still fresh, but there is no sign of living people. Miss Mai didn't tell anything about this too. So if there were people here, she would already have told us."

At that moment, when they were still talking, they heard something fall from behind the storage.

Caitrin got scared and said,

"What was that?"

Orano turned to her and said,

"I don't know. Stay behind me." 

And he slowly started to approach where the sound was coming from.