It was miraculous how the moment Lena and Cora had both gained consciousness, each and every wound of theirs vanished. Including the others'. As if the wounds never existed. It was the truth, though. The wounds truly never existed. It was all an illusion and a nasty game of mind played by the Driren. Now that he was dead, their wounds were long gone.

The ache and sluggishness remained. They were all heavily exhausted and wanted nothing but a deep sleep. It was even more shocking to realize that an entire day had already passed when they were out of the illusion. It took them a considerable amount of time to understand where they were and when they comprehended their current location, it was understood that they were closer to their intended destination.

The six of them were already inside the Main City and just few distances away from a hustling, bustling market.

Everyone, except Leon of course, had not forgotten to take the Mortonarta pills and the liquid from the vial created by the genius Dragonesian. Within seconds, their eye-colours changed into the sparkling colours of the respective pills they had taken, accompanied by the disguise of possible Dragonesian scents.

They were now completely under the semblance of Dragonesians as they walked through the market and finally in the middle of crowded roads, where buildings were established on each side of the roads. Leon looked up in fascination as he reminisced the one time he was in the Main City with Jocasta Heirora for his father's conference. The buildings were not tall during that time. The Main City now appeared to be more developed and high-tech with its various invented mode of transportation. The vehicles were of different shapes and sizes. Some huge and some relatively small in comparison. There were vehicles which looked like single carpets covered by a layer of glass and that flew over the buildings like an aerial automobile. As for the most common vehicles, which were used by both Dragonesians and some humans (mostly the wealthy ones) were more or less similar to the ancient cars, yet different. No gas was produced from these vehicles and they completely ran on solar energy, which was evident from the little solar panels present on the machine. These vehicles could not only move on roads and bumpy streets, but also fly like birds and travel underwater like fishes.

The name of this vehicle was Rumble.

Rumbles were always available in red, midnight blue or black colours. It had two doors, settled adjacent on each side. There, however was no window. And only a large screen displayed above the driver's seat to navigate through the areas. One might think that it must be suffocating to travel in such a vehicle, however, it was not. In fact, enough oxygen circulated inside the vehicle. Moreover, sufficient space for at least twelve people, excluding the driver, was present inside, which was an odd fact as it might appear as a vehicle for three people when viewed from outside.

The buildings were no less...peculiar. There were buildings of square, triangle, rectangle, cuboid, trapezium, cylinder, parallelogram and even of circular shape. Cora giggled when she watched how few Dragonesian kids climbed down from the top of a circular tower through a slide.

The Main City was mesmerizing, even for Leon and Alana, who had vague memories of visiting the place during their childhoods.

As the sextet walked through the footpath while glancing at their surroundings without any word, Lucian decided to ask the question that had been lingering in everyone's mind.

"Where to now?"

All the faces turned towards a taken aback Leon, who could only give them an awkward grin.

"I mean, it is not possible to reach our primary destination within today," Leon answered with being cautious of saying out the name of the place they were ultimately headed to out loud, "And we cannot possibly roam around the streets in this broad daylight."

A yawn left Cora's mouth, as if in agreement with Leon's statement.

"We need rest. That is what we genuinely need, honestly speaking," Lena, who had been leaning onto Lucian all this time, sighed, "And for that we need a place—"

"A lift."

Everyone's eyes turned towards Alana when she uttered the two words. However, her eyes, which had already been glimmering purple due to the Mortonarta purple coloured pill she had taken in, seemed to be shimmering more than usual. Her eyes were fixated upon something, the others figured.

When they followed where Alana was looking at, they found a Rumble parked at the very end of the street and near a barren land. And on top of the Rumble was attached a banner.

Offering Shelter, Food & Water For Free + A Lift To The Shelter For Two Nights

"He is not a Dragonesian," said Leon after much contemplation.

"Why so?" Cynthia questioned the Dragonesian boy.

"Perhaps because he is offering everything for free? He will not do it without any ulterior motive, right? Maybe he is looking for human revolutionaries—"

Leon cut off Alana mid-sentence with a shake of his head, "That could be a possibility. But he just does not appear to me as a Dragonesian. He seems too human. Dragonesians always seem to have a majestic aura surrounding them, with their ever so pride and boastfulness about literally everything. He appears to me like a normal human. Even his clothes are different."

Leon answered while observing the man closely. He got out of the Rumble with a wooden basket consisting of red and green apples and went inside a fruit shop. The shop was named as Mullin's Fresh Apples (Human Seller).

The extra part added in brackets at the end of the shop's name only proved for Leon's assumption to be correct. It fell under the Dragonesian Law that human sellers must mention their species beside the name, logo, or symbol of their shop name. And this rule was mandatory, for the majority of the Dragonesians detested to even step inside a shop run by humans. These shops were mainly brought up for humans wanting to buy their essentials as often they were not allowed to enter Dragonesian shops. If only the Dragonesian Guards had not been searching for Leon and Alana maniacally, then perhaps Mortonarta would not have been required in the first place as Main City was still a place where humans inhabited. Although, mostly wealthy humans and those who were in defence of the Dragonesians, were the inhabitants.

"Welcome to Mullin's Fresh Apples—"

The man stopped. To say he was bewildered would be an understatement. He was surprised to find Dragonesians stepping inside his shop.

Quickly regaining his composure, with a kind smile, the man continued, "How may I help you all today?"

"Well for now, how about the lift," Alana said without any filter as she leaned against the front counter, "We are not Dragonesians by the way."

"Except for me—"

A sharp glare sent to Leon was enough to make the Dragonesian realise that he had once again repeated the same mistake of revealing more information than what was required. He mouthed a tiny apology and motioned to zip up his mouth.

"But first, we would like to know whether you would ask for money from us, later," Lucian asked with a sceptical eyebrow raise.

"Oh of course not!" The man waved his hands in defence, the warm smile not leaving his face any second. "In fact, I am quite happy to help fellow humans. Well, except for the Dragonesian friend of yours, but do not worry. I am not someone to discriminate others by their species."

With that, he laughed heartily, resulting in the others to let out awkward chuckles.

"My name is Mullin by the way," the man said as he walked out of the counter and took out his Rumble keys from a drawer, "I am sure we will all get to know one another on the way. You lot seem quite exhausted."

"Oh, we definitely are," Cynthia let out loud.

Mullin motioned them to follow him to his Rumble from the backdoor of the shop.

Everything was going smoothly.

Almost, too smoothly.

"Welcome to my little abode. Please make yourself feel at home," Mullin, the man in his late thirties, voiced out loud as he unlocked the front door of his two-storey house.

The house was located more in the countryside of the Main City, with two to three houses seen from far off. It was quite fresh to see those mushy green plains and lowlands and mountains far off, accompanied by crystal clear freshwater lakes. Mullin's house was similar to any other human house. The structure of houses for humans never truly changed, retaining a similarity to the ancient times.

As the six of them followed Mullin inside the house, the smell of flowers invaded their nostrils.

Leon, who was particularly interested in all kinds of herbs and shrubs, immediately spoke up with enthusiasm, "Is that not a Zianxia? The freshly scented flowers which have sparkling blue petals and leaves?"

"You are correct Leon," surprised, Mullin turned towards the Dragonesian, "Please do not take this in the wrong way, but it is very eccentric for Dragonesians to know much about little things like plants."

"I would like to deny this statement," Leon said, almost looking offended, "Plants are no minor things. They are more important than the Dragonesians consider them to be. Plants provide oxygen and other necessary resources for those Dragonesians."

"You are quite different," Mullin commented, "But good different, of course. I am sure we will have a good deal of chat about plants this evening."

Leon's eyes lit up with the proposal. His dream of finally having someone to talk about plants was on the verge of becoming true.

"Who are they?"

Cora's question brought the others' divided attention to the nine-year-old. She was pointing at a rectangular picture frame, displayed beside some books on a shelf.

It was Mullin for sure in the picture but only younger. Probably when he was in his early-mid twenties. A little boy, younger than the age Cora was now, was in Mullin's arms and displaying his toothy grin. Beside Mullin, stood a very gracious and elegant lady with crystal blue eyes, a subtle smile on her face. Mullin's other free arm was wrapped lovingly around the woman's waist.

"My wife and son," Mullin answered, a grim expression taking over his face.

"Where are they now?" Cora asked curiously and not understanding the meaning behind his dismal appearance.

"Dead."

With no further words, the cheerful guy from before, exited the living room.