Choose your own adventure: 19

The story so far:
You awoke on an island after a night of binge drinking with friends because of a shitty day. You don't know how you got there, so you go off to find how to get home. After a few adventures you find a village where the natives, a bunch of otters, have all been slain. You follow the trail of whoever killed them and find a secret lair in a cave in the cliff wall. There you sneak around until you find a secret passage, and overhear some leader and his underlings discussing the deaths of the otters, and that there is some spy (aka you) in the cave. You find a passage to a prison where there are three captives, a huddled furry thing, a penguin with a cool hat and a scary sounding thing in a corner. You talk to the penguin, who encourages you to escape with him down a secret escape passage that another prisoner made in the cell next to his. You free a young otter who is too afraid to speak, and a scary jaguar, who guards the exit while you escape. After escaping, the penguin, Pierre, volunteers to bring you and the otter child to Ellestria if you go with him to his ship, last seen due west in Edgeton. While walking west through the forest of fortune, you stumble into some lizardmen on patrol and get into a fight. You manage to disarm one of them, but reinforcements arrive and chase you all to a marsh, which the lizards are afraid to approach. You and Pierre row a canoe you find out towards the island in the middle of the lake, but while doing so a gigantic black lake monster attacks your boat and sends you all flying. You and Pierre manage to swim to the island, but the otter child is nowhere to be found.
You search a small cave you find and inside is the otter child with a mysterious winged creature. The creature seems to know you both and offers you food and answers tomorrow after allowing you to rest underground. But things are not all they seem, as both the otter child and Pierre are a bit creeped out by the winged one. You, though, slowly succumb to her, seeing your friends as horrible creatures as she sucks the life out of you. Luckily for you, Pierre saves you and you all make your escape. As you see sunlight again, you pass out, only to wake up weeks later in a small village in Ladon Fields, south of Edgeton. Pierre and the child apparently carried your body there and nursed you back to health. Now you decide to renew your journey to Edgeton. You decide to travel with two young men, Ox and Rand, on their way to sell wheat to a caravan in Edgeton. While going there, you pass through an old ghost town called Newburry. There you find out that Mina, Rand's sister, had hidden herself in the cart, against her father's wishes. While heading out of Newburry Pierre spies something coming towards your group in the distance.

Now begins Time is a Loop: Episode 19

You tell your new friends that they should turn around and head back to Newburry and hide in one of the abandoned buildings. Luckily there is one nearby with a large enough barn to hide the wheat cart in. Rand and Ox push the cart into the barn and close the doors as Mina, Pierre, the otter child and yourself follow behind.
"We should be safe here," Ox says, looking over at Mina.
"But shouldn't someone watch the travelers to see who they are and where they are going?" Rand asks.
You look up and spy that the barn has an opening near the roof by one of the rafters. You volunteer to watch through the opening to see what happens. Ox and Rand help you up to the rafter.

From the hole you can see the path going east and Newburry to the west. Clouds seem to be rising from the past east, and you watch as some strange-looking creatures come riding in towards town. They seem to be... a group of jackals riding upon horses. Yet the horses are not saddled like you are normally used to, instead they are wearing sack-cloth clothes.
The jackals, (there are about 5 of them) come riding into the town square, which is close to the barn you are hiding in, but not close enough to hear what they are saying. They stop at the square by the empty fountain and dismount their horses. You see the jackals do... something... by the fountain and then momentarily you watch as a creature comes out of the fountain!
You are sure that the fountain was solid stone, and empty of water before, but now you watch as a pale figure rises out of the stone, almost like a... ghost? The Jackals seem to interact with the ghost figure. You watch as soon from the other direction of Newburry as another group of Jackals on horses come riding up. Soon after that come another group from another direction. It seems this is a meeting ground for a large group, and they are... trading or something with the ghost that lives there. You climb down and report your findings.

"So if we wanted to leave, we would be seen by a very large group jackals?" Pierre says.
"Looks that way," Rand replies.
"And the town is haunted afterall!" Ox says.
"Yeah, but why are the Jackals interacting with the ghost? Aren't people usually afraid of ghosts?" says Mina.
"Who knows. But I would prefer not not interact with anything out there. The way they are riding those poor horses like they are... animals or something! Its just too cruel!" says Rand.
You agree, and mention that while the Jackals seem to be hanging out by the town square for a while, it doesn't seem like they are wandering the town itself. We should be safe in here until they leave.
"I agree," says Pierre. "But we should have someone on watch, to make sure."
You all decide who gets what shift watching, and the rest of you decide to try to get some rest. By now it is about night and you have been traveling all day. Mina takes the first shift, and then Pierre, followed by the otter child and then you. Ox and Rand are too big for the beams to hold them.


Mina's shift goes well enough, and you watch as Pierre heads up to take her place. Then you drift back to sleep along with everyone else. Time passes...

You wake up to sunlight. The otter child is pulling at your arm in desperation. You look around. Everyone else is waking up too, and noticing that something is missing.
"Mina! Ox cries.
"Where is Mina!" says Rand. Everyone looks around but noone sees her. Pierre comes down from the rafters.
"What time is it?" he says.
"It looks like morning. Why were you still up in the rafters?" says Rand.
"Its morning? But I just climbed up into the rafters less than an hour ago. It can't be morning yet, we still have two shifts to cover."
"Well it is. You must have fallen asleep on the job. And now Mina is gone. Missing or... worse." cries Rand.
"Don't say that!" says Ox.
"Well I am sorry, but I swear I didn't fall asleep, and I didn't notice Mina missing."
"You WILL be sorry. After I..." Rand gets ready to punch Pierre as Ox jumps between them. "This is no time for that Rand. We need to find Mina first."
You peek out the door, but the Jackals are gone.
"When did they leave?" Pierre says.
"See, you fell asleep and now my sister is lost!"
"I swear I didn't fall asleep!"
"Enough you two, lets just look for Mina." says Ox.
"Ok, but where could she be?"

You think about it and decide to check out:
A: the barn, there may be a clue as to Mina's disappearance.
B: the fountain, she may have been wondering about the ghost.
C: the town, there may be some trail as to what happened to the Jackals.
D: the woods. Maybe she went out to go to the bathroom?

(Vote by thursday. Hopefully this time I won't forget to update on Thursday;)