The directions to the location of the people that had taken Sophia with them were fairly easy to follow, and after a fair bit of walking, Rick, Daryl and Shane found themselves on a decent stretch of land with tall sturdy wood and brick fences that went around the property from one acre to another and stretched out damned near into the woods on both sides.

There were distant plots of land off to the side of a large, historical three story colonial style house that held cows, goats, sheep, pigs, deer. And some smaller looking areas full of ducks, wild pheasant, and quail, chickens, and rabbits.

There was a corn field, a field full of wheat, a decent sized vegetable garden, another full of herbs and such and even some wild fruit bushes like blackberries and blue berries and even a few apple, and pear trees.

"Jesus, I dunno who these people are but they have to be more equipped to survive out here than we are." Daryl said as he took everything in before he noticed what looked like a clear fenced in field with a pond and damn near died of shock on the spot as he grabbed Rick's shoulder and pointed at the pond.

Rick looked at the tongue tied man for a moment and snickered softly at his excitement. He could already imagine what was going through the man's head.

It was probably something along the lines of, water, swimming, fishing- and that was it. In that exact order. The second they figured out who was in charge and took the measure of the people here and decided that they were safe to be close too, he had no doubt that Daryl would wander off to wade into the pond and scare the fishes a bit.

Hell, if these people cleared with Rick- he'd probably join the hunter in splashing around a bit. It'd been such a long time since any of them had seen such deep, clear waters.

Or at least some that didn't have walkers hiding at the bottom anyways.

"Think they got any catfish?" Daryl asked, looking more than a little bit wistfully at the water.

"I don't know. But if they clear and they decide to let us stay- I say that we ask them if we can do some fishing." Rick said with a wry grin as Shane caught his eye and grinned at the thought of some fried fish.

"I second that brother." Shane said, thinking of how Lori and Carl and the others would appreciate something good for once instead of stringy ass squirrels and frog's legs and canned beans.

The two had lost far too much weight in the time before Rick had found them for him to be terribly pleased. The only thing that made him feel a bit better about not being able to provide for them like he felt that he should have, was that they were both healthy and whole and alive.

Casting a quick glance around the fields, the fenced in areas with the animals- he couldn't help but think that everyone in the group would do well here. There was definitely more than enough food. Water. Shelter...

Setting down roots here, even for just the winter- would save them considerable future losses.

After all, T-dog was injured, the cut on his arm was getting infected. And Dale...Dale was a sweet old fart, but that was the main problem. He was old.

Moving around constantly, fighting constantly, not having enough food or the right kind of shelter- would inevitably kill him. And that would hurt everyone in the group.

Finally, they managed to get closer to the house. Though it was a long ass fucking walk to do so and probably used up the better part of an hour or so. But once they were clear of the fences and such and had their first real look at the house, they could see several people moving along the wrap around porch in a small group.

They were so distracted by the people at the house that they didn't notice the twelve foot hulk of thick, solid muscle dropping out of a tree that they had passed several moments ago and was stealthily following them at a decent distance back with his weapon of choice slung comfortably over one of his shoulders while he absently lifted one hands and waved it, getting the attention of several of the people at the house.

Seeing Ali get up out of her seat on the porch, and slowly stand to her full height, the giant gave the young magi an encouraging smile and watched as she and Alibaba and Sinbad and Kouen walked down the steps and started towards their three 'intruders' intent on asking them what they wanted there when the door to the house opened and Sophia came running out, and ran past the four yelling happily, "Rick, Daryl, Shane!"

Ah, so these three are part of the kid's group. Hina thought in amusement as the three stopped several feet away from Ali and the others, leaving him several feet away from the threesome as the little girl practically threw herself into one of the men's arms and hugged him.

The man scooped the little girl up in his arms and hugged her back while keeping a close eye on the strangers. Daryl and Dale hadn't been lying when they had said that they were foreigners. You could tell just by looking at them that they were foreign.

Everything from the skin tone, to the facial features, to even the shape and color of their eyes was exotic and stunningly beautiful. Even the males were stunningly, masculinely beautiful.

The young girl with the three men that had come out to greet them, hung back a little bit and seemed to be studying them as they each took a turn hugging Sophia and checking her over for any possible injuries and such while Rick locked eyes with the girl and wondered how anyone could have such oddly colored eyes without the benefit of colored contacts.

And then there was her hair. Long, healthy, silky looking tresses that hung well past her waist from a high ponytail, the color was a deep black color laced with colbat blue hues to it that made it look more blue than black in certain light. She was young, about thirteen or so from the looks of her. Her clothing consisted of a purple and black long sleeved shirt with little black, blue, teal, and green butterflies on it and a pair of jeans.

Her feet were bare, oddly enough. and she didn't seem to be carrying any sort of weapon on her.

The men were all wearing t-shirts and jeans, and boots. Each one hand long hair in various hues of blonde, reddish-fuchsia, and a deep blue black similar to the girl's.

"Hello. Who are you three?" One of the men greeted them in a jovial tone. Causing the three to temporarily forget about Sophia and put their game faces on.

"My name's Rick, these are my friends, Daryl and Shane. We're part of the group that Sophia belongs to..." And that was about as far as he got before the man grinned at them and clapped his hands together happily and said,

"Oh good. We wondered when someone from your group would show up. But in our defense we expected all of you... Dinner should be ready within an hour. We're having a little bit of chicken, some steak and pork chops with mashed potato's, corn, fried tomato's and peas with some salad and bread rolls. Do you think you and your group will like that?"

"I-I...yeah, yeah we would." Rick grappled with himself for a moment before saying weakly as he cast the other two a quick glance, worried that they may think him soft in the head for accepting an invite like this so suddenly without really talking to whoever was in charge here.

Neither man said so much as a word. So maybe they were just too hungry to care right then?

"Guys?"

"I'm fine with it. Maybe we can talk to whoever is in charge after?" Shane said as both he and Rick looked to Daryl who was chewing on his thumbnail for a moment as he considered the suddenness of the invite.

On one hand, it meant that he didn't have to waste any arrows hunting for the group. And on the other hand, it could still be a trap.

Still...a home cooked meal was a little bit hard to turn down for various reasons. They needed the food almost as desperately as they needed water and a safe place to set down roots. That and they needed the food for energy to better defend themselves, should the need arise.

Yeah, they should probably take the invite and see what happened afterwards.

"Not having to hunt when the animals are so scarce in these parts would be a change. So would a decent meal. Can't recall the last time we had one."

"Okay then," Rick said as he nodded his head in agreement before turning back to the four and saying, "If it's alright with you, one of us is going to hang around here with Sophia, to make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble. And the others will go collect the rest of the group."

The man that had spoken before looked a little bit more somber, but no less friendly as he nodded his head in agreement before he then turned to Sophia and said, "As I recall, you asked if you could have a bath. Do you still want one?"

Sophia chimed in a little 'yes' as the man held his hand out to her, and waited for her to squirm free of the pair of arms holding her so that she could run over to him and take his hand and let him lead her back towards the house, chattering his ear off the whole way.

His friends seemed to split off and go in different directions with the exception of the girl who hung around long enough to point at Daryl and say, "He stays. We'll wait for the rest of you before we sit down. But the girl needs to eat. She's very thin."

Rick looked at her oddly. But then so did Daryl and Shane, the two looked a little bit less than pleased to be told what to do by a kid. But for some reason, Rick seemed to understand what was going on without being told. And he would be lying if he claimed he wasn't at least a little bit shocked, stunned or surprised to know that the girl was one of the more major decision makers here.

He wasn't sure how Daryl and Shane would take to getting ordered around by a little girl, but he was fairly certain that their masculine pride would cause them to get their asses kicked. Possibly off of the property if they didn't watch themselves.

Especially since they didn't know what these people would and wouldn't take from them. Behavior wise anyways.

"Alright, Daryl will stay and Shane and I will go and collect the rest of our group-" Rick said when he was cut off by the girl when she said,

"Take Hina with you. He'll watch your backs for you." And lifted a hand to indicate to something behind them. The three men stiffened ever so slightly and slowly turned to see what, or who, she was pointing at. And all three instantly jumped and let out various oaths upon finding themselves face to face with a giant with short sky blue hair and glacier blue eyes staring down at them form his tall height.