Although Jean had no idea what could have resulted into the squabble between his mom and Dek, he still wasn't interested in finding out. What he needed at the moment was relaying his message to his mom.
The reason behind his choice of the message receiver was majorly based on the fact that his mom had mentioned something about Ferro--The country he was currently stuck in.
His instincts kept telling him that the message was as important as his life.
Just as he was still waiting for the chance to speak to his mom, Dek spoke in a panicked voice.
"Even if it is your right to speak with your son, at least let him tell me where they are before you go ahead with your agenda of talking to him. After all, it is my cellphone that you would be using."
Immediately Jean heard the last part of Dek's statement, he seemed to have gotten a hunch to why his mom didn't do a follow-up call immediately he disconnected the call.
'Could it be that her cellphone died afterwards? Or it got destroyed during their struggle?'
Despite Jean not settling to a specific answer, he was still sure that the answer to his disturbing question lied between the two.
The truth of the matter was that Jean's first guess wasn't far from the answer itself.
What Jean didn't know was that there were two main reasons behind his mom not doing a follow up call from the moment he disconnected the call.
First, his mom had not loaded international bundles in her cellphone. After all, who could she call when her whole family was Jean, who had never left his country before. Second, the cellphone's battery died while she was trying to load it with some bundles so that she could put through the call. Luck enough, before the cellphone died, Dek who was together with Natalie in his house had already collected the foreign contact that Jean had called his mom with.
This was after Dek felt that Natalie was going to take long to load her cellphone with the international bundles. And since their agenda was one, Dek found it important to cheap in and optimize this rare chance that had come their way.
Since neither of the two had preloaded the international bundles for calls, it took some of their time before they could carry out this activity. This could be a clear reason to why the two took some time before they reached out to Jean again.
It was when Natalie was struggling to put on her cellphone when she noticed Dek talking on the cellphone. And without a doubt, he concluded that he was talking to Jean, especially when the latter asked about the whereabouts of the other party on the other side of the call.
The moment Natalie heard this statement from Dek, she immediately found it important to take it easy. She knew that the guy was acting defensive and if they were going to get on a scramble, the situation could worsen as none of them would have the chance to use the cellphone.
And who knows, this could be the last time she would be hearing from her son.
With such thoughts surfacing her mind, it could be a wrong move for her to be reckless.
Taking the last step and standing a couple of feet away from Dek, Natalie took in a deep breath as she tried calming herself.
When she had calmed down, she opened her mouth and spoke to the insecure Mr. Dek.
"If it is about the location leave it to me..."
Natalie said in the calmest way possible but still, her restlessness could be felt in her voice.
Without a second thought, Dek blurted out.
"Are you trying to imply that you already know their location or what?"
Natalie forced out a smile.
"Something like that..."
With her growing impatience, she couldn't go on with the conversation as her left hand swang and grabbed the cellphone from Dek's shaking hand.
Left in shock, Dek was dumbfounded as his eyes widened in bewilderment. He had a lot to say, but he couldn't say a word.
Without wasting time, Natalie kick-started the conversation with Jean ignoring Dek as if he wasn't there.
"Hello, son. Forgive me for not reaching out in time. It was just a mishap that resulted into this. Although I would have loved to know why you disconnected the call without warning a while ago, but the limited time won't allow this at the moment. Just to clarify myself on what I was trying to tell you earlier--The place you are currently stuck in is not a good place and you need to be vigilant from now on."
The moment Jean heard Natalie's explanation, he felt a cold chill down his spine as he quickly scanned the surroundings with a panicked face.
'So, my instincts have been right all this time. No wonder things look strange in this country. Residential homes are rare, forests and plantations are too common. But why did Casper choose to stay in such a dangerous place? Even if it was his father's home, why did he choose to risk his life in this weird place? People run away from dangers but this scoundrel chose to dwell in the dangers. Even Mr. Adranis, he is not that far from the forest.
'How are these people able to survive at this place? Something is not adding up. I need to know the truth before things go south because of my ignorance.'
With these thoughts running through his mind, Jean inhaled deeply before speaking.
"Mom, if I may ask; What could be dangerous about this country?"
"The country you are currently in is an extension of the most dangerous country in our continent. In simple terms, you are neighbouring the country that is populated with dark forces."
As soon as Jean heard these words, a wave of fear hit him. His feet grew cold as his heart raced in his chest. He felt cold despite him putting on a heavy leather coat.
At this point, the urgency of leaving Ferro multiplied by tenfolds. All his mind could think during this moment, was how to leave Ferro as fast as possible.
Dek on the other side of the call shared the same mood as Jean.
At first, when he heard Natalie mention that the place that Jean was was a dangerous place, he didn't take it seriously. But when he heard that the country was neighbouring a country with dark forces, he froze.
Since he knew the country that Natalie was referring to, he didn't see the importance of interfering. All he wanted after hearing Natalie's statement, was to allow Natalie to gather maximum information from Jean so that this could optimize their chances of rescuing their children from the weird place.
During this moment, Dek was standing barely a feet away from Natalie and he had signaled her to put the cellphone on a loudspeaker so that he could follow-up the conversation. Natalie had accepted to put the cellphone on loudspeaker just to avoid Dek's trouble. She needed to concentrate and accomplishing Dek's request was one of the requirements of achieving this.
Although in the living room where they were currently standing had cosy coaches, none of them saw the importance of seating. It seemed as if seating would hinder their efforts-A weird thing to think about.
Natalie's explanation didn't end there, she continued with her explanation by revealing the dangerous country Ferro was bordering.
"The country that is purely populated by individuals, creatures and items that posses dark forces is Whimland. It is between Ferro and our country. Ferro also has such individuals but they are fewer than those that dwell in Whimland. Who's hosting you at the moment?"
This wasn't the first time Jean was hearing about Whimland. Of course he had previous heard and read about it in some novels. But if someone could have offered to take him to Whimland for a tour, he wouldn't have hesitated, not because he was too curious about dark forces, but because the novels never mentioned the real name of the place. Virtually all the novels he read gave the country names like; evolutionary dimension, magic realm among other weird names. So, it was difficult for Jean to believe that such a place truly existed in real life. He just treated these stories as folk tells.
But after the weird experience in the forest at home in Kili city, meeting Casper and now Natalie's explanation, he started seeing the fantasy world he used to imagine about slowly turning into a reality.
With his mind clouded with thoughts, he had even forgotten to answer Natalie's question until she reminded him.
"...Oh! Sorry... Currently I am being hosted by Casper and he is the one that helped me contact you through his friend's cellphone. What you need to know is that we risked our lives just to get to his friend's home as a stray beast almost killed us on our way. But don't ever call again unless I call you myself. This is the only way I can keep my cover and get the necessary help from these guys and return home."
When Natalie heard this, a sea of thoughts clouded her head.
'I don't think there are mundanes in Ferro. How can this be possible? But wait... How has Jean been able to survive all this time in such a harsh weather? Something isn't adding up.'
With that thought in mind, Natalie took in a deep breath before speaking.
"Jean, I hope there's no one around you."
With a panicked face, Jean quickly scanned the surroundings before answering in a hushed voice.
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