The New Story of Lona Falldin

Chapter 17

If I had previously thought that there were too many refugees in the city, now that Indiana and I had left the city after our documents had been checked, I realized that I was wrong. There were simply insanely many of them here, outside the walls of such a large city. Makeshift tents in which people were hiding were literally everywhere, and there were even more refugees who were simply settling around fires, without even the smallest shelter over their heads. Hungry, exhausted, and embittered people glared at us as we left the city, as if we were to blame for all their troubles.

To be honest, I was scared, at least until a little girl, probably about 10 years old, came up to me. She was all dirty, in pretty shabby clothes, and I sincerely hope that the strange dried white and red spots are not what I thought.

- Please give me something to eat, I-I'll do anything you want, just ask. - She clearly hasn't eaten for several days, and to be honest, I really feel really sorry for her, her situation really shows how despite how hard the original Lona's situation was, she was still luckier than many others.

I leaned towards the girl's ear. - Take me where no one will see. Otherwise, I'm afraid they'll just take everything away from you.

- Okay. - the girl nodded, and trying not to show her joy, she slowly led us to one of the tents. It was small, but big enough for two adults to fit in there.

- Emily, is that you? - a tired voice, clearly belonging to a young girl, came from the tent.

- Sister! You're awake! - the girl walking next to us, ignoring the obvious discomfort in her body, rushed inside the tent.

"Will you watch the entrance?" I asked Jones and, after waiting for a nod, followed the girl inside.

Inside, I saw, in addition to an extremely small number of belongings, a scene where a girl was sitting next to a woman wrapped in rags.

- Mommy, I found us some food! You won't sleep so long anymore, right?! - There was so much desperate hope in the girl's words that it broke her heart.

- I promise it won't happen again. - the girl promised with tears in her eyes, her eyes did not miss the girl's battered state, but seeing how I entered the tent, she unfortunately could no longer focus all her attention only on the child.

- Did you want something from us? - the girl asked with slight caution, trying to get up.

- Just help. - I shook my head before pulling out 2 pieces of smoked meat and 1 of 2 healing potions. - I can't give you more. And let me give you some advice. It may be dangerous and even scary, but you need to find a way to get food, and if you're lucky, money, which you could use to buy fake documents for yourself. Noer won't help refugees, that's an unfortunate fact.

- Thank you very much, madam. The girl bowed to me with difficulty. However, unfortunately, the documents will not help us. I went into the city and they do not hire anyone, and because of the slave traders it is even more dangerous there than here.

- Adventurers' Guild, you can find work there, even such as collecting herbs. In these cruel times, unfortunately, it is pointless for you to hope for alms, all that remains is to fight for your future. - Having said this, I was about to leave the tent, but at the last moment I stopped and added. - Drink the potion now, it should help with your injuries.

I didn't stop anymore.

"You gave away the potion," Indiana said in such a tone that I honestly didn't understand whether he was reproaching me or something else.

- I'm sorry. I just couldn't help but help. And don't worry, I know I can't help everyone, I just want my conscience to be clear.

- Good. - Indiana nodded. - Let's go, there's no point in getting on these poor guys' nerves with your well-fed appearance.

- Yes.

When it was a game, I certainly saw that there were quite a few locations with such clusters of refugees. But in real life it was completely different, we walked along the road for half a day and all this time there was a huge refugee camp on both sides of the path. To be honest, it's hard for me to imagine how they all didn't die of hunger. And, perhaps, for the same reason I understand why slavery is so thriving, and many voluntarily sell themselves in order to be fed.

Only in the evening we were finally able to reach the forest, where in my past life I spent whole hours farming herbs and meat, and now I was quite ready to spend days.