After we all cleaned ourselves up thanks to the water that Oswin and the others created, we began to explore the goblins' lair. To do this, we divided into several groups, each searching a different part of the place.
It didn't take us long to explore the lair because it was smaller than we expected. My group found a room full of food, such as fruit and meat, that the goblins had gathered before we attacked them. The other groups also gathered and reported what they had found, such as tunnels that extended even further or simply small empty rooms that we entered by crouching down.
"We'll stay here to protect ourselves from the rain," said Anna, who was leading some of the boys along with the wizards to cover the entrance.
Everyone else agreed, most of them going for the food we had seen earlier. I went with them too because I was starving, as we had walked for a long time before reaching this place and I was exhausted.
<<<<>>>>
A year passed after we all escaped from the slave farm. During that time, we had stayed in the goblins' lair, mainly because it was more comfortable and was in an area far from other creatures that could attack us. During this year, we discovered that a week's walk from where we were there was a village that, according to the others, was not allied with the slave traders, which made it safer.
Also, thanks to a map that Ghislaine stole from the village, we discovered that we were in a northern forest, which was not far from a coastal city, meaning we could go to another continent. But since none of us were looking for that, we decided to ignore that city and focus on the forest and the distant village.
While I was helping some people gather fruits and vegetables, which we had been eating all this time, I saw Anna in the distance, on the bank of a river, staring at the water.
I was curious to see her standing so still and staring at the water, so I approached her, trying not to make any noise so as not to scare her by mistake. When I stood behind her, I saw her holding a blue bracelet, which was not unusual as I had seen her wearing the same bracelet before.
"Anna, what are you doing?" I asked, touching her shoulder to get a better look at the bracelet.
Anna jumped when she felt my hand on her shoulder, startling her even though I had tried not to. "What the hell is wrong with you! Don't come up behind me like that!" she yelled, punching me hard in the stomach as she spoke.
I didn't think she was going to hit me like that, so I couldn't block her blow, which sent me falling straight to the ground, clutching my stomach as I writhed in pain.
"I'm sorry," I said breathlessly, writhing and trying not to cry from the blow. "I saw you and thought something was happening." Little by little, I was able to catch my breath, which allowed me to get up, leaning on one leg.
"Ah... it's nothing," I said quietly, looking at the bracelet one last time before putting it on.
"It is something. I've never seen you so quiet, even in that place," I said, standing up straight after the pain subsided. I looked at Anna, who is taller than me, so I had to look up to see her face, and when I did, I could see the same expression she had when she held the bracelet in front of her. "That bracelet, where did you find it?" I asked her.
When she heard me, Anna looked at me with an expression she only made when she looked at the adults on the farm, an expression that I could tell was disgust and hatred, so I wondered if I had said something wrong.
After what I could only describe as hesitation, she said to me while looking away, "This bracelet is the last thing I have from my parents." She said it quietly, trying not to let me see the expression on her face.
At that moment, I remembered that Anna had been enslaved a few years before I was, so she had been taken away from her parents. "Are they still alive?" I asked curiously as I looked at the bracelet, which was now on Anna's arm.
When she heard my question, she turned around quickly and punched me hard in the nose, knocking me to the ground again, only this time my nose was bleeding.
"Why the hell are you asking that when you know the answer?" she yelled at me, before starting to kick me and storming away from where I was.
I could barely get up. Although I was able to brace myself for the blow to my nose, I didn't think it would be so strong, so I was surprised and defenseless against Anna's kicks. Slowly, I began to get up, approaching the river to clean the blood from my nose. At that moment, I felt a hand on my back, and when I turned around, I saw Clare, a girl with brown hair and one blue eye and one red eye.
She was older than me and, moreover, one of the girls who had agreed to the forced opening of the dantians earlier. But we never spoke, so I didn't even know her.
"You're the only one ignorant enough to ask any of us that," she said, laughing as she leaned over and helped me wipe the blood from my face.
After I was a little cleaner, I said, "But I didn't do it because I'm a bad person," standing up and shaking the dirt off my clothes.
"Yes, but you're still a fool for asking," she said, still crouching down as she helped clean my dirty clothes. "I guess because you're just a kid, Anna didn't decide to beat you up," she said, laughing even more as she stood up and looked at me. "No one here asks about each other's past unless they're very good friends or just want to be heard. Anna was always tough because she came here at the same age as you, so she tried desperately to protect herself. But that only made them beat her more on the farm," she told me, looking at the river with a sad expression.
"She was the same age as me?" I asked, pointing at him in disbelief.
"That's right, and she saw more kids leave or die. You were lucky to be dragged to that place while an escape was already being planned. A few months later, and you'd be going through the same thing we are," he said, looking at the river and smiling slightly.
"Yes, I had already thought about that when we didn't take long to escape," I replied, looking at the river out of simple curiosity, and in the water there was a large fish swimming. When I saw it, I quickly threw myself on it, catching it before it could escape. Although it tried to escape and hit me, I was able to pull out the dagger I had and stab it in the head, killing it instantly.
As I tried to get out of the water before getting any wetter and getting sick, I could hear Clare laughing. When I looked at her, I could only see her writhing with laughter as she pointed her finger at me.
"Haha, you're really lucky, Conan," she said, wiping a tear from her eye before helping me out of the water.