"What should we do?" The chief's voice cracked as he asked.
Zephyr stayed silent, pondering the significance of the information they had gained.
The missing person was moving quickly through the mangrove forest. He seemed to have traveled the same distance the five of them had.
It was certainly odd.
'The search-spell signal is a loud, high-pitched, ringing sound. When I cast it, just like us, the person being located must have also heard it.'
'Did he deliberately move away to avoid us?' Zephyr frowned.
But, from the looks of it, the movement was far too significant to be classified as evasive. Even if the question still stood as to why he would want to evade them, he couldn't have been that fast, right?
'Unless it isn't evasion at all.' The deep grooves between Zephyr's furrowed brows became deeper.
Suddenly, he had a flash of insight.
'...he was coming towards us. We were on the beach when we cast the spell. He must have heard the initial ringing sound and followed it.'
'But why was he in the mangrove forest in the first place?'
'He wasn't supposed to be here.'
Much of it did not make sense at all. As time passed, Zephyr felt an ominous feeling envelop him.
And coming back to the chief's question, Zephyr didn't know what to do next.
If the missing person could go back to the beach and walk faster than they did, he should be able to find his way back home, right?
Simply put, the rescue mission was not really needed.
Drenched in the cold rain, Zephyr rubbed his nose and looked at everyone.
"Is the fish in the mangrove forest particularly tasty or pricey?" Zephyr asked.
A burst of confusion spread over everyone else.
Why was he asking about fish now?
Does he want to go fishing?
Now?
Why?
The chief, Jack, and the other two fishermen looked at each other.
"Sir, the weather is worsening." The chief glanced up at the sky. The dark clouds spewing rain and lightning seemed to have grown even darker. "Fishing during a thunderstorm is bad."
"Yes, it's inviting trouble. Lightning would strike us." Jack nodded and added.
Both of them thought Zephyr was going to turn their rescue mission into a fishing trip and answered.
Zephyr lifted an eyebrow.
'Are they getting comfortable with me? Usually, they would have answered immediately, without even thinking why I asked the question.'
He was amused.
The initial wariness they held for him was disappearing. In a way, that was great.
If something happened, they wouldn't instantly turn against him. But at the same time, he didn't know whether being comfortable with them was the right choice.
"Anyway, answer my question. I want to know why that person would have come to this place."
"Oh!"
Jack realized why Zephyr asked the question and exclaimed. His voice was louder than usual as he embarrassedly smiled.
The chief also smiled embarrassedly, realizing that he had mistaken Zephyr's intention.
"Sir, clams are the only valuable thing in these waters. But they migrate into the mangrove forest during the peak of storm season. There is no reason for someone to come here other than that."
"So, why was your missing friend inside the mangrove forest?"
"Um…"
The chief had no answer.
"Maybe he ran into some danger and had to come here to find safety."
One of the fishermen said.
"What kind of trouble would he encounter here?" A few minutes ago, he had asked the chief about the dangerous animals that could be seen in this area.
And the answer was that there existed none that could kill a person except for boars and crabs.
The boar was large and difficult to evade on foot. If the man had encountered the wild boar, he would have been killed by it.
If he had encountered a swarm of crabs, he could have just run away to the village.
Despite being large, the crabs were not that fast. Outrunning them would have been easy for someone who could cross the mangrove forest in minutes on foot.
The more Zephyr tried to understand the situation, the less it made sense. And, as he was thinking, the rain was growing in intensity. Now, they could barely see a few hundred meters because of the rain.
The visibility had decreased even more. And for some reason, even as the wind picked up, the mist was growing denser. It was turning into a fog.
The cold, chilly wind carried the fog, blasting it over Zephyr's face. His weak body struggled to find warmth as it drilled into his robes.
Shivering slightly, he looked around.
There was no shelter or any place to shield them from the rain.
It would be better to leave.
However, before that, they would have to confirm the safety of the missing person.
"Let's…"
Zephyr was about to give the order to follow the person. But suddenly he stopped.
Far away, in the mangrove forest, he saw something move.
It was near the path they took.
A shadowy figure had swiftly moved and disappeared into the fog.
Instinctively, Zephyr clutched the fishing pole in his hand, squinting his eyes.
The mangrove forest was large. They had walked through a one-kilometer-wide section to reach the eastern side of the forest. It had taken them a few minutes to pave a way and reach this side.
Still, during their entire journey, they hadn't seen a single thing.
No giant wild boar.
No crabs.
Nothing.
When you think about it, wasn't it suspicious?
Zephyr gulped hard as he peered into the wilderness, trying to find the thing that had just moved.
For a second, he wondered whether he was seeing something random. Afterall, stress could induce hallucinations.
At the same time, the fishermen and the chief realized his peculiar movement and followed his eyes.
They too glanced at the wall of foliage far away.
Due to the fog and rain, it was barely visible.
'What is it?'
They asked the question in their minds simultaneously, trying to understand what Zephyr was doing.
However, none of them could see anything.
Even Zephyr, who initially saw something move, couldn't see anything amiss when he looked over there.
'This…' Zephyr rubbed his nose. 'Was I mistaken?' He wondered.
However, just as he was about to take his eyes away, he saw a ripple move across the water.
There was a water field separating Zephyr's group from the mangrove forest. It was a stretch of land covered in half a foot of water.
They had walked over it as they made their way into the opening.
Now, Zephyr could see a vague ripple move across the water surface even as the raindrops made it into a chaotic mess.
Despite seeing nothing, because of the water, he sensed something was there.
It was not an illusion.
His mind was not playing a trick on him.
There really existed something beyond the water field, near the path they came from, silently observing them from beyond where they could see.
"Is something wrong?" Jack scratched his head as he asked.
By that time, everyone else seemed to have realised the problem.
Nervously, the chief signaled for Jack to stay quiet.