Ian ran down the road out of breath, and his speed was probably breaking all of his previous escape records.

Even though the sound behind him had faded away, he didn't dare to look back, and he slipped back to his hut and closed the door.

Fear, fright, frustration, self-blame, and the fatigue that had accumulated over the days of escaping from Black Eagle City struck him, and he collapsed on the grass in a daze.

That night, Ian developed another low-grade fever.

He fell asleep for a while, woke up for a while, and was half-asleep again, and vaguely felt that Granny Su Mu had touched his forehead, as if he had said something, he couldn't remember clearly.

When I woke up in the morning, I only felt dizzy and fluttering, but the fever had subsided. Granny Su Mu sat on the side, felt him move, and asked, "Wake up, get up and eat some porridge and soup." ”

Ian sat up, leaning against the wall by the straw shop, remembering what had happened to him with the mushroom thief, and muttered, "I'm so bad." ”

Mother-in-law Su Mu said with porridge soup: "It's me who is too anxious! You have just recovered, I will let you go to fight the mushroom thief, I am also old and confused." ”

After a pause, he suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "Ian, did you see anything in your room when you woke up in the morning?"

Ian was stunned: "What is it?"

Granny Su Mu still spoke in a low voice, as if she was afraid of being heard by someone: "Or...... Oh, I'm not trying to scare you, I was here last night watching over you, and as the morning approached, it always felt like there was someone else in the house besides the two of us. ”

Ian was startled and sat up straight: "Could it be the person who is chasing me?"

Granny Su Mu smiled: "If it was a killer, would the two of us still be alive now?"

Ian's mind suddenly stirred, and he remembered that he usually woke up from a dream and would see hallucinations of several figures.

Ian was in a state of panic, so he briefly told Granny Su Mu about the recurring nightmare scene and the "vision" he saw when he opened his eyes. Although the plot of the nightmare is slightly different each time, the general content is clear to him. This nightmare was just repeating the horror and misery he had experienced over and over again.

Granny Su Mu sat on the chair, pondered for a long time, and said, "I think, don't care about the mushroom thief first, when your body recovers, run for me to the glazed wood forest in the north." ”

Ian hurriedly replied, "Okay." What are you going to do over there?"

"There's an old witch there, also a pharmacist, an old acquaintance of mine. You can buy her some medicine for her back pain," said Granny Sumu, "and by the way, tell her your nightmare and what I just suspected—the hallucinations you mentioned, and maybe she will find out." ”

"Hmm. Ian answered, knowing in his heart that his mother-in-law said that she was going to find a shrine maiden for him, and that buying medicine was probably just an excuse.

"It seems that the longer you live here, the more you owe......" Ian had finished his porridge soup, shrunk down, and lay down.

Two days later, although the recurring nightmare still disturbed his night from time to time, Ian did feel that his strength had recovered a lot, so he walked north along the main road out of the east side of the village in the direction that Granny Sumu had pointed out. Until he came across a small fork in the road that cut diagonally into the glass forest, and then walked along the dirt path that came and went to the depths of the glass forest.

There, as the mother-in-law described, Ian saw an unusually large old tree, which would take about thirty or forty adults to hug. When I entered the tree hole under the ancient tree, I found that a section of the tree was hollow. In the hollow body of the tree, there is a small clearing, as if a woodpecker had carved a hole in the tree to make a nest.

There was a small wooden house in the clearing, and in front of it was a small patch of various unknown plants.

As soon as they got closer, an old voice came from the hut: "Is Ian here?

Ian was startled when he heard someone call him, and thought to himself, "Could it be that the witch really has the power of the legendary prophet?"

Walking up the steps, the wooden floor creaked. The door was open, and Ian lowered his head to the low doorbeam, and stepped inside.

I saw a short and fat little old lady, struggling to climb out of a rocking chair that did not match her height at all.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time," the little old lady muttered with a smile, "Did Old Lady Su Mu send you?"

"Well, yes......" Ian was a little nervous, it was the first time he had spoken to a witch.

The little old lady took out a small cloth bag from a large medicine cabinet and threw it to Ian, "Well, this is her medicine...... Then," she said, swaying to an ebony workbench with small steps, and with a slight leap of "hi", she sat down on the high chair next to the workbench.

She tapped her knuckles on the table and shouted at Ian, "Why are you stunned, come and lie down! Don't you still want to ask you about your nightmares......?

"Ah, yes, may I ask you...... Oh!" Halfway through his words, Ian saw the impatient look on the little old lady's face, and hurried a few steps to the chaise longue at the table.

"Old Lady Su Mu told you, I'm a witch, so first, don't ask me my name, second, don't ask me why I know this, why I know that, I'm a witch, remember?"

"Yes, yes. Ian replied, thinking that this witch was a witch who knew everything, and her face grew faster than a book. When she first entered the door, she was still smiling, which made Ian think that the shrine maiden was an amiable grandmother.

"Come, lie down on my rocking chair and rest for a while," the old witch saw that Ian was obedient, and became kind again, "Come through the glass woods, um- you are recovering from a serious illness, you should be quite tired, right?" Lie down and lie down, I'll take a good look at you......"

Ian knew that it was best not to talk too much, and the people introduced by Granny Sumu should not harm him...... Besides, talking too much will only get chatter and complaints, so he simply lay down on the rocking chair obediently.

"I already know about you. The Humpty Dumpty Witch said slowly, lighting an incense burner, and adding an unknown handful of powder to the incense burner, and in an instant an orchid-like aroma overflowed through the hut.

The incense seemed to be very heavy, flowing down the top of the incense burner like flowing water, casually flowing everywhere on the table. Finally, it fell straight to the ground like a waterfall along the edge of the table, and spread out.

"If you want to get out of this nightmare, there's only one way, and that's to face it seriously and bravely. The witch seemed to say to Ian, and muttered as if to herself, and she didn't know when another wonderful instrument came out of her hand. A silver metal stand, in the middle of which is a strange cube of ice, crystal clear, slowly rotating.

She smiled and looked up at Ian, who was already asleep.