"It all began when one of the explorers, arrived on an island on the other side of the stormy mist, at first I did not notice anything strange, but while spending the days on the coast, he ran into some natives, he managed to communicate with them through drawings, and as soon as he gained their trust, the natives invited him to participate in a welcoming ritual, they offered him sacred water to drink, and the explorer when taking it, describes that he lost control of himself and he began to act on impulse, the distrust he still felt towards the natives was what led him to take a sample of the water and run away "I guess he did it out of fear", due to the involuntary reaction and the lack of verbal communication, these violent actions were taken badly by the natives of the island, which initiated a persecution, which we now know ended in the capture and death of our explorer, since he managed to send a distress signal before his capture, we learned that something strange was happening on the island, some time later 5 other explorers arrived in their search, they say that they followed the same familiarization process as the old explorer, and there were 3 explorers who took that sacred water, they say that they experienced the same bodily outbursts so unconscious, they describe that they felt as if someone else controlled their body, they were still scared and reacted violently, but their companions were there to immobilize them and prevent another tragedy, so the natives of the island let them go." "After the effect passed, the adventurers sent a report of what happened to the plant, later the government was interested in their testimony and sent them military and scientific help to find out what was happening, after a long time investigating and observing the natives they realized that the sacred water was made by mixing the juice of worms with water, although sometimes they also ate whole worms, their consumption is what causes that powerful effect on the human body, at first it was suspected that the worms were magical and took control of their predator, but investigations revealed that when eaten by humans, they for some reason die inside the stomach and their remains are absorbed by the body which causes a reaction in the body that translates into that feeling of being possessed, scientists can not yet explain why? of any of these things, even natives have been shown to be immune to the effect of worms. " "But as soon as the government learned of this effect, they immediately thought that, with enough research, they could develop a weapon with which the human body could be controlled, so they ordered that this discovery be classified and treated as a state secret, the government wanted to establish a base of operations on that island, to see how to cultivate the worms that grow and live in bodies of water for large-scale exploitation."
"And what happened to the natives of the island" Ophelia said sadly, anticipating the worst
"They naturally opposed, those worms are sacred to them, first they hid the worms and when they could not do it anymore because of the number of people who arrived on the island and the constant sieges by the army, the natives had no choice but to defend themselves using weapons, that is why when Caspian and I arrived on the island, the army was there on the island."
"But if they had everything under control why would they need the help of an external laboratory like ours?" Caspian asked.
"Although it seemed that they had everything under control the natives, they turned out to be formidable warriors, which made the army major nervous, since the natives with their unusual war tactics managed to cause great damage to the camp so the major made the request to transfer the investigations to the other side of the stormy haze, at first the government refused, because they wanted to keep everything secret, but as soon as the major exposed the risks of those warriors and the fragile position of the government in their investigations as well as losing all information, the government ended up giving in, and they transferred the investigations to safe land for them."
"And why did they choose our magical laboratory out of so many in the area?" Ophelia asked curiously.
"Finally, the reason why they chose our laboratory as part of the project is due to my history in the army and the quality of our research in magic, that is why the assignment of the work came in an emergency and I could not refuse it, nor could I tell them what was happening, and to avoid fraud, the major came to see me at the laboratory last week and to gain the trust of the high command of the government, he asked us to go and pick up the package in person, that was the reason why Caspian and I made the trip to the island of the Caxao tribe."
"The Caxao tribe?" Ophelia asked strangely.
"That's what I call that tribe since their language is different and the sound they have heard most often is Caxao, the worms that alter all our behavior were also called that way, because they come from the island."
"But moving on to the most important thing, I just notified the headquarters of the incident that, occurred here in the laboratory, they are obviously angry, and they will give us a punishment as soon as all this ends. For now I managed to negotiate with them so that they would let us solve this matter for ourselves and get them to accept, it cost me a lot of work and I had to ask for favors from old acquaintances in the army. They want us to round up or exterminate all the worms and make it as unobtrusive as possible, as it's something classified, it has to be as soon as possible, so I have an important job for you."
At that moment everyone got up, got on the wagon and once the wagon was full of jars of water, the horses pulled it and went in the direction of the village field, the field that had been indicated to Caspian at the town hall. Once they arrived they waited for the night and posed as pest control and with a magic lantern they managed to collect and isolate all the Caxao worms from the field. Once dawn came, Ophelia turned to see him and with the sun hitting him in the face, for a few moments she felt peace for the first time in such crazy days, she forgot for a moment the stress of being stuck in her investigation, the urgency of the work, the fights with her sister, they even stopped weighing the days she had been without returning home and without seeing her mother, when suddenly, Captain Lucían took her out of her trance state.
In the distance you could see a wagon with bars, empty inside, with two armed men in front and horses at full speed advancing with the dawn, like a god who brings the sun with him to illuminate everything and burn the unworthy, as soon as Captain Lucán saw how far the wagon was heading towards where they were, he immediately knew the major had betrayed him and ran towards where Ophelia and Caspian were and warned them to flee, he would stay. Caspian insisted on staying with the captain, but as soon as the wagon started firing fireballs at them the three of them had to flee.
"Where are we going, Captain?" said Ophelia, shouting. "We can't go back to the lab, they probably already intervened." "Then it's our turn to flee?" said Caspian shouting. "Not as the person in charge of the mission is my responsibility, so I will let you capture me and talk to the major, you keep running" said the captain as he stopped in the middle of one of the streets of the town.
Caspian and Ophelia kept running, at that moment many things went through Ophelia's mind she thought about her mother and her sister in her friendship with Caspian, what she wanted to do after this, since, although she loved magic she did not see herself doing it all her life and now that the real possibility of dying is in front of her, only at that moment could she realize. But it looked like they were about to be caught anyway since Caspian was running faster than her and was leaving her behind, but suddenly a couple of men came out of an alley and knocked Caspian down right in front of Ophelia.
"Ophelia closes her eyes!" Caspian shouted as he took out a scroll made of a ball from his messenger bag and it emitted a great blinding light.
Caspian recovered quickly while the men still blinded by the flash lay on the ground, immediately after Caspian headed towards Ophelia gave him his suitcase and pointed out that he should go to the outskirts of the village and flee while he distracted the men of the village. Ophelia followed his advice and ran and ran and ran until she reached the open field, where she found a carriage full of fruits on the road outside and taking care that no one saw her got inside and hid between the boxes in lying down, behind all the boxes. At that moment Ophelia felt that she could finally relax for a long time, she remained motionless hidden for a long time, and little by little her body began to demand what she needed and wanted so much. And finally Ophelia fell asleep.