AHA! A secret path... honestly should have figured that given that you like adding a little fun like that, I was going "he went from playing tag to disappearing..." but a secret path found him, and the chief. You sneaky Indivi you! :P BTW love the Inner park stuff!
Having played this (and the original LD) a ton, I should have realized that there was a hidden path - heck, there's a hidden path to the faeries, and a few other areas too. I just wasn't thinking "secret path" until accidentally hitting the spot where the village was! Oh well... hope you have a great day dude!