The market was particularly lively tonight. Many people gathered in the square, the tavern, and near the only inn in the market, pointing at the dozen or so horses tied there and talking about something.
Except for the occasional mention of "Maggie", "Julian" and "the witch", most people were talking about a group of knights who arrived here tonight.
The group of more than a dozen knights, I don't know where they came from, they looked very well dressed, and spoke differently from the countryside. The young man in the lead had blond hair and blue eyes, and a tall figure. The rest of the knights were also young and strong men. As soon as they arrived, they filled up the hotel.
The people in the market did not dare to go into the inn to talk to them. They were curious about what these people were doing here, so they gathered nearby.
The innkeeper came out of the door, and someone familiar with him asked him, "Old Danny, what are these knights doing in a rural area like ours?"
Old Danny went to feed the knights' horses and waved his hand, "I don't know that. If you want to know, go ask."
He saw that those people were not easy to deal with, but he didn't dare to say anything.
"Didn't you hear that there is a witch here and come here to catch her?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Shut up!"
"Bruce has been saying all day that if we can't find Julian tonight, we'll have to ask people to go search the house in the forest tomorrow. Does he really dare to go?"
"Who knows, poor Bruce, Maggie died so tragically, and now his only son is gone..."
"Julian may not be dead. He may have run away. It is possible that a child of his age was shocked and hid. Bruce is too impatient. Hey, but I will definitely follow Bruce to watch the fun tomorrow!"
"What are you looking at! What if she really is a witch? You'll be in trouble!"
It's rare for a big event to happen in this place, and now so many strangers have suddenly arrived. Almost most of them have come out to join in the fun, gathering together and chatting.
A group of brave children ran to the back door and window of the hotel to peek, and saw the dozen knights sitting on the first floor drinking and eating meat. They turned around and excitedly shared with their friends, "Look, they are eating!"
"Did you see the most handsome knight? The one with golden hair!" asked an older girl, and was laughed at by everyone.
A boy who was clinging to the window turned around to talk to his companions, and suddenly saw a familiar figure walking into the darkness. He couldn't help but shout, "Evan, where are you going? Come and see! It's a knight outside! It's a knight!"
Evan is Hesha's younger brother.
At dusk, he saw his sister go out to the house in the forest and she hasn't come back yet. He was restless at home and had no interest in seeing anything new. He was worried that his sister had also been captured by the witch.
His parents were watching the fun in the square. He had just gone to visit them and wanted to tell them, but he didn't dare to speak when he remembered how his sister had repeatedly warned him not to tell them before she left.
He was young and didn't know what to do in such a situation, so he simply gritted his teeth and went to find his sister himself.
Ignoring the calls of his friends, Evan sneaked into the night. Fortunately, the path leading to the forest cabin did not fork, and Evan found the place with fear all the way.
He was a child, peeking out from outside the garden. Seeing that there was no fire in the house, he was afraid to go in and was scratching his head anxiously.
At this time, a voice came from behind him, "Why are you here?"
Mei Li had just found the swamp monster in the forest and was walking back with him when he saw a short figure lingering outside the yard. He thought it was a thief, but after a closer look he realized it was Hesha's brother.
It's so late, what is a little kid like him doing here
Evan was startled, and when he turned around and saw that it was Meili, he was almost scared to the point of sticking to the fence. But he remembered his sister, and managed to regain some courage, straightened his chest and asked loudly: "Where did you take my sister!"
Hearing his trembling voice, Mei Li's face changed slightly, "Didn't your sister, Hesha go home? She came here when the sun went down, but she should go home now."
Evan immediately said, "You're lying! I've been waiting for her at home, and she didn't come back!"
"You're the one who hid her, you witch! Give my sister back to me!"
Mei Li didn't want to argue with the kid, so she said, "Wait here, don't run around."
He quietly squeezed the swamp monster's hand, pushed the door open and entered the yard.
If Hesha is missing, it must be related to the previous disappearance of Aunt Maggie and Julian, after all, they were too close.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that Mrs. Peg had something to do with it.
In any case, ask Mrs. Peg first.
Mrs. Peg was not in her room on the second floor.
Mei Li rushed downstairs again, carrying the shovel that he hadn't used last night, and opened the door to the basement for the second time.
Mrs. Peg was indeed here, and the basement was still the same as it was yesterday, a fairy-tale dream.
This time she was dressed and sitting by the pool, with a tame fawn lying beside her.
Mei Li stomped down the stairs, disrupting this dreamlike scene. She asked bluntly, "Where is Hesha? Did you kidnap her?"
Mrs. Peg looked at her, but had no intention of answering her question. She just said coldly, "Go out and don't bother me."
It seems that talk therapy is useless. Mei Li searched for what he wanted for a while in silence, then suddenly raised his shovel and smashed it against a golden "tree trunk" next to him with unexpected force.
With a snap, the glowing golden trunk broke into pieces and fell onto the white pebbles.
Mrs. Peg's face changed, her red hair floated behind her, and she said angrily: "Get out-"
The sound was sharp, and it was comparable to the swamp monster's cry at night. Seeing how nervous she was, Mei Li was more certain of his guess, and he picked up the shovel and smashed it randomly.
After three or four golden tree trunks were smashed by her, Mei Li only felt a flash in her eyes, and the dream basement world instantly changed into another appearance.
The friendly goblins, the clear pools, the golden tree trunks, everything has changed.
The creepy and bloody basement, with Julian's body hanging there dripping with blood, Mei Li already knew what was going on without saying anything.
The reversal of the scene was so exciting that even though Mei Li was mentally prepared, he was still stunned.
Mrs. Peg floated over furiously. She quickly grabbed her neck with her skinny hands and said in a cold tone, "It's not time to deal with you yet, but you insist on causing trouble for me."
Mei Li was strangled by her neck and saw clearly that the "little deer" curled up by the pool was Hesha, whom she was most worried about. She had not been hurt, but was very frightened and was lying on the ground unable to move.
As long as nothing happened, Mei Li breathed a sigh of relief and swung the shovel in his hand towards Mrs. Peg, trying to force her away. However, the shovel went through her body without any hindrance.
Mei Li: “…” Damn, physical attacks are really useless against ghosts, then am I just coming to get eaten
The force on her throat was not strong, which showed that Mrs. Peg was not prepared to kill her.
However, Mei Li was not optimistic because from Mrs. Peg's tone, she seemed to be waiting for the right time to deal with her.
Tsk, she was being too self-indulgent. She used to think that Mrs. Peg refused to leave even after becoming a ghost because she was worried about leaving her daughter Mary all alone.
Throwing away the useless shovel, Mei Li held Mrs. Peg's hand with both hands, and used the strength she had gained from working for a year to try her best to move Mrs. Peg's iron-like hand away for a moment.
Seizing that little gap, Mei Li struggled and shouted, "Cute!"
"cute!"
The swamp monster was lingering outside the house when Meili rushed into the house. As before, when Meili came home, he waited outside the house because he couldn't get into the house.
There was something in here that stopped him. Every time Mei Li walked in here, he could no longer smell Mei Li's scent.
Her voice of calling reached his ears, and the swamp monster sensed the urgency, and immediately stopped, trying for the first time to squeeze his tall body into the low door frame.
“Buzz—”
Like the sound of countless bees flapping their wings, it suddenly rang out when the swamp monster leaned its body into the door.
A soft light enveloped the entire house, like a loyal guard resisting the invasion of swamp monsters.
“Ahem… um…” Mei Li raised her head.
Mrs. Peg pinched her neck with her skinny hands and smiled mockingly, "Are you calling on that swamp monster? Unfortunately, it can't help you. It's just a monster after all."
"My time is almost up. I failed because of you the first time. I will not allow myself to fail again this second time."
Mrs. Peg's tone became softer, but her expression was ferocious and terrifying.
Mei Li tried to pull her hand away and said in a broken voice: "Whatever you want to do, we can... discuss it... Maybe I can... cooperate with you..."
Mrs. Peg smiled strangely and looked at her with the same contempt as always, as if what she was holding in her hands was not a living person but a tool that could be used at any time.
Tools should not speak, nor should they resist.
Mei Li glanced at Hesha who was shivering beside the bright red pool. She wanted to say something to delay it, but suddenly she felt a pain in her neck. Mrs. Peg's sharp nails pierced into her neck.
"ah-"
The scream of pain reached outside the house, and the swamp monster, who could not enter the house, became anxious. His slow movements seemed to speed up by two points, but no matter how he tried, he could not break through the layer of soft light and enter the house.
After wandering around helplessly for a while, the lanky monster suddenly crawled out of the house.
The soft light covering the house flickered a few times, and the light became brighter, bursting out with a strong sense of expulsion. In this light, the swamp monster began to melt and drip muddy water.
As the muddy water splashed onto the ground, the ground quickly turned into a swamp. He walked around the house, and everything around the house turned into a swamp.
The light that enveloped the room seemed to be running out of power after it became brighter, and it gradually became weaker and grayer.
The swamp monster stuck its head into the gray gap and grabbed the bricks and stones inside. The hard bricks and stones slowly turned into sticky swamp mud in his hands and fell straight down along with his hands.
Evan was hiding outside the garden. He didn't know what was happening. He only heard someone shouting in the house, and then screaming. The sound made him very uneasy. He was hesitating whether he should go in and take a look when suddenly a light flashed in front of his eyes.
At that moment, he saw something extremely terrifying.
A tall monster was lying on the house, mud kept falling from its body, and it seemed as if its body was melting.
It suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, and then suddenly disappeared a moment later. Evan could no longer see the figure, but only the swamp that appeared out of thin air around the house and the destroyed house.
"Monster!"
He fell to the ground, crawled back weakly, and stumbled back up the path he came from.
From the third-floor window of the hotel in the market, you can see the edge of the forest in the distance.
There was a dim light flickering there, but ordinary people couldn't see it.
The blond man, sitting by the window with one leg bent, played with the sapphire necklace in his hand, looking at the forest in the distance, and said with emotion, "No matter how many times I see them, I still think these things are very magical."
"Is that so, Mr. Pollard?" The man turned his head to look at the shelves inside the room, his sapphire-like eyes flashing with tiny lights.
There was a plump owl standing on the shelf, with two white ear-like feathers flying out from its forehead. It nodded like a gentleman and said in an old voice: "Yes, Alex, the mysterious power of nature is always fascinating."
It flapped its wings and flew to the window, looking towards the edge of the forest. "Oh, the last time I came here to check the situation was in winter. The winter here is really cold."