We left the last carriage to investigate my missing family members. I needed to find my mom, dad, brother, and grandma. We would first check my home, since that's our only lead, then continue investigating from there. We ran down ransacked, burning, and or destroyed homes—Humlide Inizio was crumbling. I remember previous events, both joyous and harmful. Everything was crumbling down rapidly. Eventually, all we'll have from this village are the memories we made here. It was heartbreaking. One of my biggest regrets is that I wish I had created more memories with those around me who cared. I wanted to find my family so I could make that wish come true.
It took about five minutes of jogging, running, and sneaking. We finally reached both my houses. I lived close to the forest, so our backyard was the whole forest as a playground. The one that my brother and parents had been ransacking. When I went inside, I scoured the entire house for them or, at the very least, some clue as to where they went. With each room I entered, I became more anxious. I hoped they would be huddled together in one of the rooms, waiting for everything to be over, but I didn't find anything. Every room was a mess, with papers, clothes, rags, accessories, and other essentials scattered everywhere. It took about another five minutes, and I came up with nothing. They were nowhere.
I went to the living room, where Adrien and Cynthia were searching for anything that might help us find my family. Lia was looking around. I'm assuming she was getting a read on the surroundings. She's a VIP. Of sorts, so she must live in luxury. Compared to my place, her house is leagues better. However, I wasn't too keen on giving her a penny for her thoughts now. I had more important matters to see.
After even more searching, I couldn't find anything—not one thing, nada. I took my defeat to the couch, which I slumped onto. I looked up at the ceiling. It had a popcorn texture, which reminded me of my hunger. In turn, it made me grumpy. I couldn't think about eating while my family was, god knows, somewhere.
I let out a long, loud sigh as I rubbed my hands on my face. That's when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over and saw Adrien, who had my favorite fruit in his hand, a pear. I found it in the kitchen and thought you would like one. He chimed as he sat down next to me. Thanks, I said before taking the pear from his hand and giving it one good chomp. The texture was like any other pear in its prime. It reminded me of when I lived in the same building with my family, everyone smiling and happy, before I was cursed.
I longed for those times to come back. It gave me the motivation to keep going. After finishing the pear, I looked in the trash bin and threw the remaining bits in. I got up from the couch with a full charge of influence and motivation. "I'm going to check the other house. I'll be back."
Adrien got up shortly. "I'll go with you. We'll be back. Keep looking around here, girls."
Cynthia and Lia nodded as they continued to search around the house. Adrien and I left through the back door and entered the other house. As soon as we arrived, the house looked almost identical to the other one we entered. They were structurally identical and equally ransacked. We first checked the kitchen, seeing that we had entered through it. After we found nothing, we searched the living room, and that's when we discovered our lead.
A note was left on the messy coffee table. The note was addressed to me. The handwriting seemed like my grandmother's, though it looked hurried. As I scanned the note, it read that they were leaving in a hurry and to meet them at the old cottage behind our house. That old abode hadn't seen a human touch longer than I've been born. Why would they go there instead of going to the police? I'm not sure, and I need to find out.
"There at the old cottage behind my house," I told Adrien, standing beside me.
"That old place? Why there?"
"That's what I want to know, too." I paused. "We should let the girls know."
Adrien nodded. As soon as we were heading out the way, we came in. A loud crash came from our left. It came from the other house, then yelling. We rushed to the previous home to see three men crashing in from the front entrance. They wore similar attire to the man we faced earlier, though their outfits looked more for grunts. The frontman had Lia over his shoulder. "This girl is the one, boys!" He yelled.
The ones behind him cheered. Cynthia had a knee to the floor, trying to breathe. I yelled for their attention, and I received it.
"Looky here. More twerps. Are you hiding?"
The man in front looks at Cynthia. "We'll gladly put them out of their misery for you."
Cynthia says nothing, only glaring. I begin to charge my unsteady flames, and Adrien crouches to the ground to summon pillars to smash these guys. One small pillar emerges from the ground for each grunt and hits them all below the chin. The first man drops Lia, and Cynthia jumps towards her to grab her and leave through the kitchen exit; we follow suit. I hear those men yelling, telling each other to go for us. Moments later, they rush out the door to chase us.
As the chase ensued, Adrien continuously summoned walls to hinder our chasers. At best, it stopped them from getting a meter or so closer. We continued this cycle for about 3 minutes before exhaling. First came Lia, then me, then Cynthia, and Adrien. Lia also tripped over a branch, and we came to a complete stop. The men caught up to us as a result.
"Finally..." The man takes a second to catch his breath.
"Now, hand over that girl." He extends his arm forward, as if Lia were an object to be handed over.
"Not happening," I said as I stepped forward.
They found that amusing. "Good, we preferred it this way anyway."
They began to chuckle among themselves as they reached for their weapons. They all had blades sharp and or serrated enough to gut us alive. They did something with their weapons, too. It's like they infused their powers into their blades. An ability I had seen when we fought the other man.
I readied myself to fight, and so too did the others. Lia stayed behind Cynthia. The goon on the left came straight at me and swung his axe. I wasn't going to let him hit me, so I naturally dodged out of the way. He seemed ready for that and went for another hard swing downward, which I escaped from again. That left him with an opening, so I countered with a projectile of mine. The man staggered before composing himself once more. The other two men went for Adrien and Cynthia. They were also helping each other out and fending off the men attacking them.
"Stay still, you brat!" The man yelled as he continuously failed to cut me.
"What? Can't hit a kid, huh?" I retorted as I hit him with another firebolt.
He somehow gained some motivation from my words, as when he went for his next swing, it created a cut on my upper bicep. It stung quite a bit. Though he wasn't satisfied. The man continued with his swings. I would dodge a couple and get sliced here and there. I would follow up with some attacks, but it didn't seem good enough.
My aggressor continued putting pressure on me, leaving little to no openings for a counterattack. I've never fought an adult before, until today. When I'm fighting kids my age, they are sloppy and unrefined. This man has been trained to fight. I can tell even as a novice myself. I was getting overwhelmed.
When my attacks did land, they caused only minor stress to him. I could feel my arms begin to twitch. With every shot I fired, my hands began to ache. I was building up to my limit again. I must find a way to stop this fight before I start to 'rage.' That's when I tripped behind a small tree and landed on my back. Even worse.
"You're done for, kid." The man says, holding his axe above his head, ready to bring it crashing down. This was it, I told myself. I needed to do something now, and that's when I remembered my trump card.
I grabbed some dirt and threw it at the man's face. He quickly removed the dirt from his face, allowing me to escape. As I was doing so, I charged up my flames for a big attack. The pain I felt when charging was incredible, but it was this or death; I knew I had to bear with it. He finds me within his vision once more and runs straight for me. Once he was close enough, he swung again. He missed me. I dodged and blasted him with all I had left. He yelled in pain as we both dropped to the floor.
I hit my head on a tree stump on the way down. My vision became all blurry as a result. I tried to look over at my friends, who were also struggling to fend off their attackers. It didn't take long for me to realize we were at the end of a losing battle. We could turn the tide if we had someone else to help us. I should have told them to stay with the officers. They wouldn't be in trouble if they did so. Their lives are in my hands. I began to plead, beg, and hope someone would come. But no one did.
Cynthia and Adrien both fell to the floor from their attackers. They, too, look almost exhausted of their powers. The other two men only chuckled. I used all my strength to sit up and charge another ball of fire. My ears flared, and my eyes began to surge with dark flames. The pain was immeasurable, but I knew I had to do it. The men started charging for their final attack, and I shot them with one final attack. I hit them dead on. Or did I? I saw something hit them, but I don't think it was my attack.
Both men recoiled from the blow and fell over. I looked behind me, hoping our savior was someone I knew, and it was. It was my father. My dad was tall and somewhat bulky. For comparison, he had the build of a heavy middleweight wrestler. His hair was short, unlike mine, and he had a small scar on his right cheek. He wore regular village clothes, which were torn and damaged everywhere. It looked like he had been in a constant conflict. My father wore a scary face, but it softened when he looked at me.
"Are you alright, son?"
"It hurts all over, pops, but I'm alive."
He takes a moment to observe me. "Thank Gaia. You're still in one piece."
There was a pause, then, from behind us, the man my father had dropped spoke.