All attention was on Quinn as he pointed towards a certain direction.
It took a few minutes before a certain thought crept into my mind.
'Wait, if he had installed the device since day three, then why haven't we tracked them sooner?'
I couldn't believe we had been waiting when we had the answer to it all this while, but why didn't he mention it until now?
"Wait, you mean you had this thing all this while, but you didn't use it until now? Why, Mister Quinn?" I frowned as I asked the question, staring at him right in the face.
"Oh that, Miss Emily, sorry for the inconvenience. But did you think it was easy to confirm the location of the person or to trick the person into taking it with the resources? Nothing was easy, Miss Emily. And why, you may ask? Do you think the thieves will go straight to their base? Nope. This required careful planning, waiting, and creating a false sense of relief for the thieves into thinking it's safe to return to their base..." he answered the question as he explained the entire process of his plan.
He smiled mockingly towards me and said, "Now you know the reason, Miss Emily."
The beast stared at the two of us, noticing the enmity between us, and he asked, "Do they always fight?"
"Nope, not really, but when they do, it's always fun to watch, right Edward?" Mark japed.
"You took the words out of my mouth, but seriously we need to stop them," Edward smiled.
We began our journey towards the base of our culprit. Each of us was pissed off. We were looking for a way to vent out that anger, and that's where the thieves come into play.
Everyone was creating a devious plan on how they would treat the thieves when they are caught. This brought momentary relief for all of us as we walked through the perilous desert.
The heat of the sun kept beating us down as we kept moving away from the distant image of the castle.
I stared briefly at the image of the castle and then stared at the direction we were going.
If we don't get our supplies from these thieves, then we are done for. We would become like those bones on the desert floor.
This perilous world was where the strongest live. There was no room for weakness. Showing weakness makes you prey, not to mention nature — any momentary weakness could lead to death.
We kept moving until we saw a distant oasis ahead of us. That was the place where our culprits stay.
"That is the place, everyone," Quinn grinned.
That was our cue. We followed the plan and began to spread out as we approached the oasis.
As we drew nearer to the oasis, we heard some discussion being held at the site.
"You idiot, you almost let them catch us!" A female voice shouted.
"Oh that, Breth, there is nothing to worry about. We haven't been caught since those people are stupid. I also checked and we haven't been followed. So, put your mind at ease," another voice tried to calm the lady who was called Breth.
"Okay, let's get this over with and give the man the stuff he needed," Breth said.
They started gathering our stuff into a movable automobile.
"Whoa... an automobile, how is that possible? Does this mean there is civilization here?" I thought as I stared at them.
I signaled to Quinn, awaiting his answer. We had to stop them now or never, and with the automobile it's going to be troublesome.
'We have to stop them before they enter the automobile, so what is he waiting for?' I stared at where Quinn was.
Over the course of the days, I have become ineffective, always acting before thinking, maybe because of this desert or something else. But why didn't I notice the alarm system at the edge of the oasis?
If any of us had rushed in, it would have alerted the thieves.
'No wonder he hasn't given the instruction.'
I shifted my gaze towards Mark's side and I noticed he had begun disarming the system.
Within a few seconds, Quinn lifted his thumb to make a thumbs-up sign, signaling to us to begin to move.
We rushed towards the thieves, circling them to ensure there was no room for escape.
"So, you guys were the ones who stole our stuff!" Edward shouted with veins popping out of his face.
Everyone was given a surprise when we saw the appearance of the thieves. They were small, like how Quinn theorized, about the height of our waist.
Aside from the abnormal height, they had the same appearance as any human.
The thieves had shock written on their faces. They couldn't believe someone was able to find their hideout.
"Gnome," I muttered.
"Mrake, I thought you said you installed the alert system and checked our surroundings for any intruders," the lady, Breth, was pissed off as she said that.
"What do you want?" she asked.
I looked at her. She was calm... too calm. It looked like they have an ace up their sleeve.
"Hm, don't think your reinforcements would come because we shut down the whole connection in this place," Quinn smirked, looking at them with a sharp gaze like he was reading their minds.
The thieves were full of terror. Their only chance of leaving was cut short. With a shaky voice, she rephrased what she had said earlier.
"What can we do for you, kind Sir?"
Nobody was a fool. The only reason they are being submissive was because we had the upper hand here.
"Who sent you?" Quinn said, looking at them with disdain.
"That will be the leader of the eastern side, right?" the beast answered.
The thieves nodded their heads. The beast looked at us and said, "You can't beat the leader, so don't bother. Take your stuff and let's get out of here."
When I heard what the beast said, I was able to piece something together. The beast was scared of the leader.
'Whoever the man is, I hope we don't meet him.'