Ryker looked up towards Eke, and smirked.

"Well, all righty then!" he said.

"This way!" he told him, veering slightly off, and headed towards where he had spoken of.

"Come on!" he called out.

"It's only about an hour away!"

"There's always a chance." Ryker responded.

"I mean, the people of the village just... disappeared, according to recorded history." he told him.

"Nobody knows what happened." he went on.

"So there might be spirits there." he continued.

"Restless souls... forever bound to their dead town..." he then said in a spooky tone.

Ryker was silent for a moment, feeling the breeze as well.

"...yeah, it is." he said.

"Feels nice, though." he told him.

"Also, I did just make that up." he then confirmed.

"Because nobody knows what happened. Seriously. They could be dead, and their souls anchored to the village. They could have all just migrated away." he went on.

"It's a literal unknown."

Ryker was surprised by the hug, but returned it happily.

"It is." he replied.

"It really is." he said.

"But yeah, might be boring, might not be." he said further.

"Might be quite enlightening."

Ryker looked over in the distance, seeing a collection of abandoned and dilapidated homes and buildings.

"Yep." he said.

"That should be it." he told Eke.

"Let's see if we can't find anything." he suggested.

"Maybe we'll discover something new, there!"

Ryker followed into the building, looking around.

"Mmhmm." he mumbled.

"Seems so." he said.

"This place has been left untouched ever since... well... whatever the event was that caused this place to become desolate." he told Eke further.

"Also, yeah, it IS kinda cool in here." he admitted further.

"Almost... strangely so."

"There... might be..." Ryker responded, looking around.

"All right, this is... a bit creepier than I had initially thought it would be." he then admitted.

"Yeah, let's head for city hall." he agreed.

"Or the town hall. Whatever." he muttered.

"Hmmmmmmm..." he then mumbled, scanning the area.

"Geez... the place is like some kinda phantom dead zone."

Ryker followed, and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... don't think zombies are real." he said.

"Not in the sense YOU'RE thinking, anyway." he added.

"But I think we need to not lower our guard." he then suggested.

"If nothing else, this sudden cold air CAN'T be natural."

".....I... I'm fine." Ryker responded.

'I think I'm fine...' he then added mentally.

Meanwhile, as Eke sifted through the records, he wasn't finding much of interest... until he found something interesting... and frightening.

It described how the weather had changed... and strange dark clouds had been hovering above them.

"....not... sure..." Ryker admitted.

"There's some weird books here on the occult and such." he told him.

"Looks like some of them are more read than others... like one that seems to involve weather manipulation." he continued.

"Or... something like that. Maybe it's just a side-effect?" he then mumbled.

"Looks like some seriously heavy stuff was being studied in some of these..."