Chapter 3

The sound of footsteps continued to advance, and then a female voice could be heard in the distance: "Is anyone there?" "Have I heard something?"

As soon as Lautrant heard this voice, he ran in her direction, after a few strides, He saw a frightened but unharmed Margot.

Margot was a very pretty young woman. Her face possessed elegant and feminine features, as well as a small aquiline nose. Her black ebony hair fell to her shoulders. And her face had the muscles and grace of a professional dancer. In short, it was a dream come true for a villager like Lautrant.

Seeing her, Lautrant could not resist throwing himself on her, visibly relieved. Gentin followed Lautrant but still kept his distances. He was so to says less close to Margot and less tactile than his friend.

Margot was obviously already used to this kind of behavior and was not protesting. But he still asked them what they were doing here at that time. Shouldn't they be preparing for their tournaments?

"Ha! Alas! When I knew you were in danger, I rushed to your rescue! For me, you are much more important than this little tournament of nothing at all!" He said passionately, staring at her very closely.

"Ma! You're so romantic, Lautrant. Yes, it's true, I accidentally got a little lost in this forest. Fortunately a gallant man like you came to show me the way to the village." She said with her hand on her heart.

"I'm here now, you have nothing to worry about! I'll escort you to safety!" Lautrant said triumphantly and as he parted ways with Margot.

But while all this was going on, Gentin had not sat idly by. On the contrary, he scanned the surroundings for any danger, his bow still bandaged, while the two lovebirds continued to frolic happily. And that's when he saw a dead wolf, only a few dozen meters from him. Gentin interrupted Lautrant who was about to move aside and pointed to the wolf. The wolf was lying there, on its side, absolutely no wounds were apparent. In fact, the wolf seemed to be just taking a nap and there was nothing to indicate that he was dead, except that he was no longer breathing and that insects could come and go without fear on his body.

"Margot, did you see what happened?" asked an intrigued Lautrant.

"No, darling, he was already like that when I arrived, but you know he's far from being the only one, there's a whole pack of them like him further down there!" Margot said casually, pointing to the direction she was coming from.

Gentin and Lautrant both ran to the place indicated by Margot, while abandoning the latter where she was. And they discovered the same scene described by Margot, a whole pack of wolves dead without any wounds, missing limbs or scratches on all the corpses. The scene seemed surreal, especially since they would not have heard the slightest sound of fighting or wrestling.

"It must be a blunt weapon, that's all I can see!" Gentin suddenly declared as he crouched in front of the remains of one of the wolves. "No matter how hard I look, I can't see where the blow could have been delivered." He continued, as he scrupulously examined the corpse.

Lautrant crouched down right next to his friend Gentin and began to whisper in his ear. "Says Gentin, if we come back to the village like this empty-handed and say that Margot was just lost in the forest, we'll have the air of two stupid people. In addition, the village chief could be angry with us for having asked for a beaten as there were not that many free people today. Whereas on the contrary if we say that we saved the beautiful Margot from a pack of wolves, not only will we be the hero of the day, but we will also make a lot of cash just for their furs!" There was a form of Eureka in the young Blacksmith's eyes as he uttered these words with a small grin.

"Besides," he continued, "if all goes well, we'll leave this village tomorrow, so even if the truth comes out, we'll already be far away by then." Lautrant added.

As for Gentin, he was smiling more than dazed, easy money was far too tempting a bait for a poor hunter to refuse. Gentin nodded, "Okay!"

Satisfied, Lautrant returned to Margot's side and personally escorted her to the village while Gentin stuck arrows into the dead wolves and cut off their limbs as well as numerous wounds and scratches to make it appear that a brutal fight had taken place here, in order to recover the credit.

By this time, Forsance had already reached the edge of the eastern woods of the village of Taunelr. Forsance felt that time and space took on more sacred dimensions when he was in the middle of the trees, as if the only time that mattered was the present moment and the only space that mattered where he was now. The forest was sumptuous, the beeches and oaks that made it up were similar to pillars that held at arm's length the roof of the building made of copper and gold leaf, so emblematic of this autumn season. Similarly, the dirt road on which Forsance walked was carpeted with dead leaves, and the song of the birds, although discreet, enriched this harmony. This landscape was sublime enough to amaze Forsance every time he took this path.

In spite of all these distractions, Forsance was easily able to return to one of his favorite hiding places. The site was simply an old stump that lay there on the ground and whose insects swarmed under its scots. Around the stump, the void, at least enough emptiness for one to feel at ease, because for a certain reason the brambles and boxwoods have seen fit not to grow in this precise place but all around.

Forsance had settled there, or rather lying on the stump, and was making himself comfortable removing these shoes. After a short meditation, he chooses to take his new book out of his basket. "The harmonization of being" Forsance read the title of the book aloud. Then, after reading the summary, he understood that the book was divided into two large parts. The first part was, in fact, a collection of potions and recipes, using various rare plants that Forsance had mostly never heard of. There were as many gastronomic recipes as there were medicinal potions, and these gastronomic recipes were adorned with various of the most flattering determinants. According to the book, consumed these treats were enough to extend his life expectancy and be filled with energy. As for medicinal potions, some even had the reputation of being able to cure everything. In addition, the collection pointed out that each of these potions could be poisonous in the event of an overdose.

"It doesn't surprise me that this old book was gathering dust in old Quentin's library. All these recipes are simply useless, if you don't have the ingredients to prepare them." He thought in his head. Thus, Forsance put all this information in the back of his mind to focus on the second part of the book.

This part spoke exclusively of physical exercises to be practiced daily to return to harmony with one's body, and thus, to stop conflicts inside the body, and to increase the longevity of one's existence. These exercises were organized in stages to be done one after the other. Only, once we had mastered the first point, this method allowed us to continue to the second point. And that first point in this case was conscious breathing. The Method of the manual wrote several types of conscious breathing including alkaline breathing and fire breathing to be practiced daily.

Forsance was both radiant and inwardly delighted with this discovery because yes, Forsance was the kind of man who rarely expressed these emotions in any way. "Great, a new string to my bow" he said to himself. Without further ado, Forsance began to practice conscious breathing exactly as the text instructed him to do. And in just 10 minutes of practice, Forsance could already feel his face and his hands were shaking with vitality. "This power, this magic, so it was true, oxygen rhymes with energy, it means that by increasing the air capacity of my lungs, I can become stronger!" "I'll continue practicing tomorrow!" said Forsance to himself.

Before going to the forest to look for seeds, such as chestnuts or acorns, Forsance liked to practice boxing and fencing. In fact, because of these past traumas, Forsance developed an obsession with survival. For him, a catastrophe could occur at any moment. That's why he had to be ready at any moment to face anything. Once his exercise was over, which was in all a series of point shots in the void and costs of branches that beat the area. Forsance put these things back in his basket and went back on the road of dead leaves.

But soon enough, on the way, he caught a glimpse of someone else he had never met before, a woman.