While I didn't expect this to be brough up at this moment, all the possible reasons for this information being hidden on the beach and revealed when I was already in their village popped up in my head, almost making me reach for the snakebite that was lying beside me. Only the peaceful and calm expression of Jeleria made me hold my hand for long enough to let her explain herself.

\"You see, it's not about knowing IF there is a ship coming from a different island. It's about, which island did you even mean in the first place?\"

Asking this question, Jeleria threw me a playful and sad glance, as if she knew what sort of thoughts that would provoke in my mind.

And even if unintentionally, she was perfectly right!

There was more than one island that this heavenly city was in contact with? What was the nature of the relationship between those islands and this particular one? What was the deeper meaning of this all?

\"Can you go on? I have a feeling that there is a lot more that you want to say right now.\"

I don't know why I said that. For some reason, I had this gut feeling that this wasn't the end, not even the middle but barely a beginning of her story!

\"The question is, can you afford the cost of my story?\"

Throwing me yet another of her playful glances, Jeleria scanned my face, as if wanting to gauge my reaction to her offer. 

\"What do you want, if it's about sex…\"

\"Don't give me that crap.\"

Cutting my words right when they began, she looked at me sternly, as if angry that I dared to disrespect her. In the end, her character was far more complicated than I bothered to assume earlier. While she already admitted that she and other people from this tribe would do almost anything to have a powerful heir capable of lifting them from their current status, when I actually was about to offer an honest dosage of my seed, she acted as if I ridiculed her!

But instead of making me angry, she actually piqued my interest. 

\"What do you want then?\"

Turning my head to face her as a man should face a woman, instead of throwing her nonchalant glances from time to time, I looked her deeply in the eyes, fully serious.

\"Let's continue it elsewhere.\"

Instead of coming clean on her wishes, Jeleria stood up, patted her ass as if she didn't want the dust from the bench to stay on her pitiful cloth before reaching with her hand, grabbing my right arm and pulling me forward.

Grabbing my staff with my free hand, I allowed her to pull me out from the bench and followed her. Walking at a normal pace through the village, the fact that she was the one pulling me somewhere attracted a lot of curious gazes, instantly changing to an expression of jealousy on the faces of both the girls and men that watched us go.

Dropping my hand, the girl stepped forward and raised the cap, showing me and angling hole, leading somewhere underground.

\"Hop in.\"

While I was curious to know some of the answers, I wasn't dumb enough to just follow her words nilly-willy. Only after scanning the entire place with my energy vision and confirming that there wasn't even a single energy signature, nor at the tunnel cap nor deeper underground, I looked at her while raising one of my eyebrows before crawling inside the small hole.

After moving through the dark and tight space surrounded from all sides by solid earth, I finally reached the cave to which this tunnel led. Finally able to stand in a straight position, I moved out of the hole and allowed Jeleria to pass.

\"Okay then, can we finally speak?\"

Sitting on what looked like a chair, I turned my head to the dirty face of the girl who guided me here in the first place. Even if I wanted the answers, if all of this would end up in a ruse that she came up with to keep my dick to her own pussy, I would get really mad!

\"You are not an islander you claim to be, am I right?\"

With everything she already said, it was no wonder she saw through my ruse as well. From the fact how she was the first one to engage with me, how she accepted anything that I did to her, or just from how she apparently lived outside of the village that she claimed to be a part of, I could tell that she was special. 

\"I'm not, yet it doesn't change the fact that I'm really interested in that story of yours. But since you said you want something in exchange, I need to know it before agreeing to it.\"

There were two sides to being strange. One meant that someone might be interesting, quirky and overall, different than the rest. All positive traits, one might think. But on the other side, being strange also meant being unpredictable. With that said, there was no way I would agree to any of her requests before hearing them out first!

\"You see, back when I was way smaller, I was actually sold to the Heavenly City envoys.\"

Hiding her face in her hands, Jerelia sat with her legs crossed and using the darkness of this place alone to hide her charms that would be otherwise in plain sight. 

\"While the envoy picked me because he thought I would grow up to be a nice woman… When I was in the cap they made to deal with all the nearby tribes, one of his experts claimed that my… breasts would never grow up too much. While this alone wouldn't be enough to make them discard me, or rather, kill me on the spot…\"

With how she once again took a break in her story, I could tell how difficult it was for her to speak about those matters of the past. 

\"My sister, two years older… She was hidden away by the older guys since she showed actual signs of real talent. We hoped to shelter her, and make her strong enough to lead us away from this rotten place.\"

\"Let me guess, she found the camp and gave herself away to save you.\"

Guessing the rest of the story wasn't all that hard. Seeing a girl with talent, most likely better endowed than Jeleria, those people agreed to exchange life for a life. But because of the older sister's potential, they didn't just outright kill the younger ones, but instead, freed her and showed how she went back home.

\"Yes. She offered herself to serve them in any way she could, in exchange for my life and freedom. What I want you to do if you want to learn what I know, is to get to this fucking city and if she is still alive, save her from their hands!\"