They retired for the night with unease, so the boys decided to stay on guard and sleep a little later than the girls, and while waiting, they talked about how this small village is too quiet and the people seemed to talk rarely and even if they did, it's in a hushed tone.
"Maybe it's a tradition to not talk much," Alex theorized.
"Well if that's the case then it's a pretty boring tradition to have," Elijah shrugged.
Both Alex and Elijah stayed up until midnight and the girls were long asleep by then, when Elijah said he's going to sleep, Alex said he needs to go to the bathroom and asked one of the guard where the toilet is.
The guard signaled Alex to follow him. They were walking with only the moon as a light source and Alex had a hard time adjusting his eyes, but while squinting his eyes, his iris glowed a dim sky blue hue and his surroundings became bright, 'Night vision?' Alex thought.
Alex seemingly stopped walking to look around him, the guard noticed the Alex stopped and look behind him and saw Alex is just looking around so he said, "C'mon let's go, you can get a good look tomorrow morning."
This broke Alex's concentration, his eyes became normal again and his surroundings darken again, he followed the barely visible guard in front of him who led him to a series of bridges until they get to the toilet.
Unbeknownst to Alex, Gale was spying on from higher up the trees, silently watching his every move until he got back from the toilet, and seeing that he finally retired for the night, Gale silently jump down in front of the guard.
"Did you see that? His eyes suddenly glowed and he gave a look around," Gale said to the guard.
"I didn't notice," The guard answered truthfully and looked at Gale, "Hmm... You seemed interested in that guy." The guard teased.
"What?! No! Not even in the slightest!" Gale screamed in a hush tone, clearly flustered before jumping on top of the tree again.
The night continued peacefully and dawn came in quickly. The guards posted outside the hut woke up Alex and the others as soon as they saw sunlight filter through the leaves.
"Wake up visitors, the Datu wants to talk to you," The guard said while knocking on their doors.
After waiting a few minutes, no one answered, he tried calling them again and only then did he finally hear footsteps from inside.
And a few more minutes later did the six of them open the door, "Sorry for the delay," Kristin apologized.
"It's nothing, now c'mon, the Datu wants to talk to you," The other guard answered and they started walking towards the house of the Datu, while they were walking, they finally saw other villagers and the whole village seemed to be busy.
But despite the bustling activities, it's relatively quiet, even the bird song is louder than the people speaking, even the running kids are quiet, it's like a ghost town.
After walking through the same bridges, they finally reached the house of the Datu.
"Datu, the visitors are here," The guard spoke a little louder than before.
"Let them come in," The Datu answered.
The guards were the first one to enter and opened the door for the group, they were invited to down on the mattress.
Inside is still the same people, the elders are drinking warm soup, and the Datu is eating a roasted meat covered in leaves.
"Want some?" The Datu asked and offered them some soup.
"Uhh... Sure!" The gang each politely grab a bowl of soup and found it surprisingly great.
... ...