Chapter 19

As Aiden slowly recovered his conscience, he felt something warm around his chest. Confused, he put his hand in the area and found some strange clothes wrapped around it.

Then he remembered what was happening before he passed out and quickly opened his eyes.

He found himself in a strange tent. The sheets that made up it had tones of blue, and it looked like the kind of material that even his father would use only on important days.

His bed was pretty comfy too. Compared with his usual sleeping bag that itched and felt every rock below it, this one was like sleeping in a cloud.

He felt that he was falling asleep again, so he decided to sit up slowly. As soon as he began to do this, he heard a voice.

" So you finally woke up, little man." Blunt said, laughing from another bed.

As soon as he heard the voice, Aiden turned around and began to think that his life was about to end when he saw Blunt.

" Don't be afraid; I'm not here to kill you. On the contrary, I'm here to recover faster from the wounds that you caused me. "Blunt said as he showed Aiden his bandaged wounds.

"So... are we good?" Aiden inquired, surprised.

" Sure, you may look skinny, or weak, or small, but you sure have guts, and that's something very important for our village. And even though you hurt me, I did the same to you, and it was a friendly duel, so there is no problem. " Blunt stated with a nod.

Soon after, a few people entered the tent. One of them was Galey, who revealed a wide smile when he saw that Aiden was already awake. Apart from him, there were also two women from Esvert village and a man from Guburg village.

"We were in the tent next door and we heard you talking, so we came to see how you are," Galey said as he drew closer to Aiden.

Aiden tried to stand up, but he couldn't hide his wince when he moved.

"Slowly, kid. The healers from Esvert village are amazing, but even so, you are not yet recovered, " Galey said while helping Aiden to lie in his bed again. "Don't you worry, your wounds weren't that serious, so tomorrow you should be healthy again. Just let the healers do their job. "

After that, Galey left the tent together with the man from the Guburg village, who had been talking with Blunt, and left them alone with the two women from the Esvert village.

Soon, each woman was tending the wounds of each man. Delicately, they removed the bandages from their bodies and applied a pink cream to their wounds before putting on some new clean bandages.

In less than a minute, Aiden began to feel how his wounds were beginning to heat up as if the healer had put hot coal in them.

When his treatment was over, he looked over to Blunt and saw that he was already standing up and ready to leave.

"Are you already good enough to leave?" Aiden asked, surprised. "I thought I had given you some pretty deep wounds when I stabbed you."

"Of course you did, but that's the difference between you and me. My body is much stronger and more resilient than yours. " Blunt laughed in response."Recover fast. I want another fight with you soon."

"I will do my best." Aiden said, smiling.

After that, Blunt left the tent, and after the healers brought him some food, they left too. With nothing else to do, he decided to start sleeping again, hoping that when he woke up, he would be fully recovered.

Thanks to how comfy the bed was, he fell asleep pretty fast. Sadly, his sleep wasn't very long as he was woken up soon after by Galey.

"Hey Aiden, wake up. We need you to try something," Gale said while shaking Aiden's shoulder to make it harder for him to fall asleep again.

"What's the matter? I'm sure that if there's anything that you can't solve, I won't be able to either, "Aiden said while turning around and trying to continue with his nap.

Galey began to speak seriously. "The stone archway has begun to shine, and it seems like the other two tribes also had a "chosen" each. When both of their "chosen" neared the archway, its shine increased. We think that maybe if the three of you touched it, something might happen."

Seeing that he didn't have any chance to refuse, Aiden decided to give up.

"Ok, I will try it, but don't blame me if nothing happens," Aiden said, as he began to stand up.

Seeing that, he finally decided to wake up, and Galey helped him stand up and leave the tent.

When they were outside, Aiden saw how almost all the people present were surrounding the archway to see what happened. The only two people that were touching the archway were Blunt and the girl that helped his tribe reach that place.

Little by little, he neared the structure. When he was closer, he saw how the archway was shining with a dim light and its surface looked much more like the roots of a tree than before. It even looked like it was alive, as it had what looked like bright veins all over its body. As they neared the archway, they saw how the light intensified, and when they were close enough, Aiden released himself from Galey's help and began to walk alone towards the two chosen.

"So you are also a chosen one. I knew that you were different from the rest," Blunt exclaimed while laughing.

"He's not different, you are both equally stupid and barbaric." the girl said while rolling his eyes.

Without replying, Aiden finally arrived at the side of the archway when the shine was at its maximum and placed his hand on it.

Suddenly, the light stopped.

"It doesn't work anymore?" Aiden asked, confused.

But when he said that, a voice was heard all over the place.

"The three tribes have been united. From now on, they will work together to help each other. Those chosen will embark on a ritual hunt together without the aid of others to deepen their bonds to make sure the relationship between the tribes would be strong in the future."