Reality would always suddenly appear around a corner you knew nothing about, then deliver a cold slap.
Su Er returned to the Castle in the latter half of the night. This expedition into the Forbidden Forest had ended in failure. There were indeed spiders near that patch of woods, but they were not Acromantulas.
It stood to reason that Hagrid would never take a group of young wizards somewhere with dangerous creatures nearby for a lesson.
Still, it had not been entirely fruitless.
Near that patch of woods, Su Er had spotted a Centaur camp and accidentally triggered a magical marker the Centaurs had set up. An alarm rang out. This was his first time seeing Centaurs mobilize as a group to search for an intruder.
If the little badger's instinct for sensing danger had not prompted him to swiftly hide in a nearby large tree and play dead, he might have been greeted by dozens of arrows.
Would they care that he was only a badger?
The Centaurs galloped past beneath the tree in formation. That in itself was perfectly normal, but their condition caught Su Er's attention.
They... all had injuries. The white bandages wrapped around their bodies stood out starkly in the torchlight.
What was going on?
Two Centaurs returning from scouting soon answered his question. Apparently, unwelcome visitors had entered the Forbidden Forest, and several groups of patrollers had been injured in encounters with them.
Unwelcome visitors?
Su Er was rather curious, but he could not understand what followed. They switched to another language. The Centaurs' language seemed to have a system of its own. Horse language... I can't understand it...
Unable to confirm that it was safe, Su Er did not dare climb down. He could only wait until the brightly firelit Centaur camp fell