It didn't take long to get back to the elven village, but the elders were surprised to see them back so soon.
After all, they had expected them to be out all day looking for clues.
When they heard Moon's report, they looked at us with strange looks, but they still brought us back to the same place as before to discuss it.
Since it was Haley who had found these tracks, she was the one that they questioned.
But to everyone's surprise, instead of asking her how she found these tracks, they started asking her things about the Sprinting Bird. They asked all kinds of different questions, such as the behaviour of the Spiriting Bird, their natural habitat, and many other different things.
Haley was surprised as well to be asked these things, but she didn't have any problems answering the questions that had been asked of her.
With how easily she answered the questions, one might even think that she was an expert on the Sprinting Birds.
However, she was just a merchant that knew a bit more than normal people did.
Once they had run out of questions to ask, the elders fell silent as if they were considering something.
In the end, the green haired elder suddenly looked at one of the elves on the side and said with a sigh, "Go and call Apollo."
There was a bit of heaviness in her voice as if she didn't want to involve him in this matter, but she had no choice in the end. It was as if she knew that she had to bring him into this matter or else they wouldn't be able to solve it.
So the elf that was given this order quickly went off.
Luckily, Apollo's group had come back from their patrol and it took him no time to come to the elder's hall.
When he arrived, his eyes swept across the room until they fell onto our group.
He narrowed his eyes to look at us as if he was looking at something dirty, but then he turned away and looked at the elders.
Without any hesitation, he walked up in front of them and asked the green haired elder, "Is there a reason you called me here?"
The voice that he spoke in didn't have any respect at all. It was as if he wasn't talking to an elder, but rather someone that was under him.
The green haired elder slightly knitted her brows when she heard this, but she didn't say anything to admonish him. Instead, she just calmly said, "There's been a new development in the situation."
When Apollo heard this, he turned to look at me with narrowed eyes again.
He stared at me for a few seconds before turning back to the green haired elder to ask, "Should we be talking about this in front of the humans?"
The green haired elder looked right back at him and said, "They already know. They're the ones who found the new developments in the first place."
The moment that Apollo heard this, he immediately deeply knitted his brows. The disapproval on his face could be seen from a mile away.
He glared at the green haired elder and said, "How could you do this? You've told the secrets of our elven village to outsiders like these humans? Do you know what kind of danger you've put us in?"
The green haired elder didn't flinch at all under Apollo's accusations and instead just calmly said, "They are guests and they have proven that they are trustworthy. Not to mention, this is a matter of life and death for our elven village, so we will take all the help that we can get."
Apollo's face twisted with rage when he heard this.
If there was a table in front of him, he would have slammed his hands down and cracked it in half. But since there wasn't, all he could do was stomp his foot on the ground and make a crack on the floor.
Then he said in a loud voice filled with rage, "And in exchange, you've put us at the mercy of the humans! What if they want to destroy our village as well? Since they already know all about our weaknesses, it should be easy for them!"
The green haired elder said in a calm voice, "They have shown that they are trustworthy and have no intentions of doing such a thing. We should not judge people by their race and judge them by their actions instead."
Apollo wanted to say something else, but he could see the way that everyone in the room was staring at him.
He didn't care what the humans thought, but it was different for Moon and the other elves.
He had his ambitions after all and if he came on too strongly, all he would be doing is hurting himself and his future chances.
So Apollo took a deep breath and asked, "What new developments are there?"
The green haired elder didn't bring up what he had said earlier and instead told him what our group had found during our time in the forest.
Apollo's expression was calm when he listened to the story, but then once he finished listening, he suddenly narrowed his eyes to look in our direction.
But this time, his eyes didn't fall onto me. This time, his gaze fell onto Haley.
As he looked at her, he made the doubt that he felt clear.
After glaring at her for a bit, Apollo suddenly said, "We're just supposed to trust the words of a human? What if this is all a big lie that they're feeding us to lure us into some trap? Do you really think that we should take this kind of risk?"
To his surprise though, he found that no one here actually supported his words.
Haley was about to say something to defend herself, but before she could, Moon suddenly stood up and moved in front of her.