They step beyond the mysterious door into a very different place. The are many trees and snows are falling although not as much as before. The temperature is cool but not cold. 

At that moment, the wind gusts. It is a fresh wind, sweet and weirdly summery, full of aromas of leaves and grass. It blows through the trees as if it might go on forever. And where does it come from, they wonder.

In front of of them, there are 5 large houses made of woods, separated by trees. Upon further observation, the houses are double storey and seems stretched further to the back, connecting them to large hill. In fact, the whole dwelling area is surrounded by hill, except one area which is further behind the place they are standing now. 

"Waah." Ivanna blinks, her eyes shining, as the sound of amazement escapes her. She has never seen such a thing in her life. 

Meanwhile, Kurotsuchi looks around the place as if set on burning it into her memory.

Sekrit starts to giggle, "Olga City and Negara are quite impressive place, but this..." 

As the door disappears, they look at behind them and clearly about 100 meters further, there is a gap between two hill.

"If you exit from there, you will get to that village again." The elven girl says in a matter of fact tone. 

"Hoi. Won't those creepy things get into here if it is  that near?" Clementine's question immediately make the others turn their attention to the elven girl.

"Please call me by my name. My name is is Selene."

"Selene..." 

"Waaa. What beautiful name."

"Ehemmm!" 

The elven girl, Selene gives them cue to stop the pointless talk and continues.

"Those things cannot enter through there because there is a magical barrier by my grandmother."

"Grandmother?" 

She nods. 

"I'm bringing you to her now. In that house." She points to a house in the middle and walk towards there.

"Grandmother? Is she an elf too?" Kurotsuchi excitedly asks.

"How many elves are there in here?" Sekrit adds.

"Elf... Elf..." Hiro happily sings.

Selene closes her eyes, trembles, as she is really vexed.

"You.."

Before she could voice out her irritation, her grandmother's voice reach her by telepathy.

"It's fine, Selene. Just bring them here "

Her irked feeling disappears. 

"Grandma is waiting for you. Please, come this way."

Selene - the elven girl who goes ahead of Hiro sways her hips in a way that causes her behind to wiggle each time she ambles. Not enough to be unseemly, however, in fact, her movements are very graceful.

They climb stairs into a balcony, then proceeded into the living room. 

A thin female figure walks towards them while holding a peculiar stick as her crutch, appearing drowsy in her movements. The fingers holding the crutch seems slightly inflamed from the cold.

Her hair has is gunmetal grey and is long and lush. Her face appears world weary but her eyes are gleaming with energy.

She introduces herself in feeble voice,

"I am glad you are safe. Please treat this place like your home. I am this Selene's grandmother. My name is Helene."

He quickly bows, never trying to read the old woman's status. The other girls also slightly bow.

"Grandma. What are doing? Standing for that long!" Selene holds her grandmother's body and helps her seated in sturdy looking rattan chair. The old woman just smiles. The most angelic smile Hiro ever see since coming into this universe. 

A carpet of long mosses is spread over the floor, and there are a table and chairs that seems to be extended from a tree. In fact, the houses are built without removing the trees. Tree banks and roots could be seen here and there. The vine drapes here and there must have been the entryways to the sleeping quarters. 

Sylvia takes a deep breath, savoring the scent, and let it out slowly. 

**

"How did the two of you live just beside the zombies?" My question makes Helene startled. 

"Zom...b?" 

"Zombies." I correct her pronunciation which the old woman slightly giggle.

"Zombie..." The other girls look at each other, with puzzling faces, trying to grasp that new words.

"So, you call it zombies." The old woman, Helene finally acknowledge my way of calling those creatures. But, Selene seems to irk quite a bit.

"The zombies were not just normal human beings like us 5 years ago." She says that before her expression darkens.

"What happened?" I interrogate.

"A group of dark sorcerers, disguised as newcomers, reside in one of the 5 villages. It turned out they were actually necromancers who performed experiments on resurrecting the dead. We caught them but resurrected villager was weird and bit four villagers. The four then turned into the same, biting another eight. We locked up the five aggressive men, as well as putting the newly bitten eight in quarantine..."

"Why didn't you compel the necromancers to heal them?" Kurotsuchi asks.

"They only experimented. They didn't know how to reverse."

Looking at each our puzzled faces, the old woman resumes the story,

"Originally, I had my cousin living here. She was an elf, of course. Her son, was not an elf married my elven daughter. Their child is as you see, Selene."

She glances at the sorrowful Selene before continuing.

"There were twenty of us, living here. Every male borne from elves is not elf. Every female borne from elf is elf. Our elven family often stay in the villages to help with their problems. We couldn't find a way to reverse but we found a way to kill the  zom...em"

"Zombies." I correct her.

"Oh, yes. Zombies. We found ways to kill zombies but accident happened and the zombies escaped, attacking everyone in the village. We were there back then."

At that, the girl, Selene clenches her hands and closes her eyes.

Her grandmother resumes,

"We somehow returned to our sanctuary here but.... everyone in the elven family except Selene and me, were bitten. Based on our previous experience, the period before turning into zombies varied depending on person. Between a week until two weeks. So, we lock the eighteen of our families including Selene's parents. After over 4 weeks, one by one turned. Realising nothing could be done, they did suicide before turning."

At that point, Selene trembles greatly.

Her grandmother continues.

"By that time, entire villagers were already zombies. When we were experimenting on killing zombies, 8 of the original zombies were killed. There should be another 6. That 6 should be the most dangerous ones as they were agile and strong. Beware, no, if you find them, run."

"How can we identify the 6 original zombies?"

"Their appearance no longer resemble human. Their face deformed and their hairs are white."

Listening to grandmother's explanation, we look at each other.

"Why?" She asks.

"We encountered one before reaching the village. And killed it." Ivanna answered.

"Good. Then, only 5 remaining."

"Anyway, stay here for now. As long as I am alive, the barrier is there to stop anything from entering."

I find her final statement as peculiar. We don't know it would be a flag for something terrible in the future.