The next morning the group got ready early and then headed west. They walked along a road to a forest, the horse carried Clara patiently and was not frightened by the sometimes surprising monsters that quickly knocked down the group's fighters. Then they entered a forest that led to S'warkii. It was already dark and the hunters' village was not yet in sight, so the group had to spend the night outdoors. It had also happened in the past that the group would lie down around a campfire and take turns keeping watch. Clara wasn't afraid in the forest, although Cyrus feared it and said he had to protect her, which in turn led to small tensions between him and Olberic.

"Don't be afraid, it was just a bird.", Or "That's just the wind.", She heard from Cyrus. Olberic sometimes gave the scholar an angry look or said: "Don't pretend she came from Victorskuhl."

Clara observed the tension between the two and finally said: "I'm not afraid. As a child I was often in the forest, even when it was already dark. I wasn't afraid, I even made friends with animals."

Cyrus looked surprised at Clara who was grinning at him. Then he cleared his throat and took out a book: "Excuse me," and began to read.

"When it's your turn with the guard, you have to put the book aside," said Olberic.

"I know.", He said dryly and read on.

Clara giggled softly, who had set up her bed next to Ophilia on one side of the fire and the three men were lying a little further away from the women on the other side of the fire. The two ladies fell asleep first, and Olberic offered to keep the first watch while Alfyn and Cyrus lay down. After an hour it was Alfyn's turn and Olberic lay down, then it was Cyrus' turn. Then again Olberic, etc. Ophilia did not involve the men as a woman, keeping watch was a man's job after all.

The next morning the group left after breakfast and continued through the forest until they finally reached the hunting village of S'warkii around noon. When they arrived here, they actually wanted to stop at the inn first, had it not been for this huge, white snow leopard that suddenly rushed towards the group out of nowhere. The horse shied at the sight of the predator and threw Clara off, who landed roughly on the ground. Olberic immediately rushed to Clara to help her up while Alfyn calmed the horse. The snow leopard, on the other hand, let Ophilia pet it and purred loudly.

"Clara, are you injured?" Asked Olberic worried.

"No, it's okay ...", Clara said as she grabbed Olberic's outstretched arm to get up.

"Linde, where is Haanit?" Ophilia asked the snow leopard. It started to turn in circles a few times.

"Hm ... what is that supposed to mean?" Asked Cyrus.

"I suppose she doesn't know," said Clara. Everyone stared at Clara in confusion.

"Since when have you been able to understand beasts?" Asked Alfyn, who had calmed the horse down in the meantime.

"I said I made friends with animals in the forest. I partly studied their body language. Look how she droops while she walks in circles. Something's wrong," said Clara.

An old man came out of a hut. When he saw Linde, the snow leopard, walking in a circle in front of the group, it was clear to him that these people belonged to the group who had gone out with Haanit to save their master.

"Oh ... you are Haanit's friends," said the man.

"You are the village chief, aren't you?" Asked Cyrus.

"Exactly," said the old one.

"Well, do you know where our girlfriend is?" Ophilia asked him.

"No, unfortunately not. A month ago she was on a hunt. I don't know what it was exactly, but she didn't come back. Only Linde came and was totally upset. It took a while for her to regain some courage woke up. I suppose she was hoping that you would come and look for Haanit. "

"Do you know where she was going?" Asked Olberic.

"I mean, she would have said something about slumber hill," said the village chief.

The 5 friends looked at each other in surprise, then Cyrus said: "We are on the way there, we will keep an eye out for her."

Linde growled softly.

"It seems to me that she wants to accompany you," said the village chief.

"Without a tamer?" Asked Cyrus in surprise.

"It can also be of use to you. Don't forget that," said the village chief.

"All right.", Cyrus said and nodded to the big big cat. Linde sat down and wiggled her tail back and forth. She wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"First of all we have to strengthen ourselves a bit.", Alfyn said.

"If you allow, I invite you, our hunters made plenty of prey yesterday," said the village chief.

"Has it something to do with monsters stalking your village?" Asked Olberic.

The village chief sighed: "Yes, unfortunately. Only nobody knows why. Our village has nothing that is important for the beasts."

"This is all very confusing," said Cyrus, while he tied the horse to a fence and then followed the others into the village chief's hut. They were offered delicious meat and fresh vegetables and the group hit hard, as they had not seen an inn in the past 2 days to get something decent between their teeth. Linde sat behind Ophilia and Clara and gnawed off the remaining meat on a large bone.