24 Precious Jewels

In the Azure Forest,

Penny heard the sound of heavy footsteps behind her getting closer. But seeing the intersection which was a corner path that led to the Frozen Cave nearby and the thought of reuniting with her friends, gave her a burst of energy as she ran even faster towards it.

She was beginning to feel ecstatic when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey you brat! Stop right there or your friends will die! My men are currently chasing after them and no matter how fast they run, they'll never be faster than a gun!"

"But if you come with me I can guarantee you that their lives will be safe!" S8 yelled from a distance.

Ignoring the voice whose words reeked of foolery and deceit, a very low grade one at that, Penny continued to increase her pace.

Shocked at how Penny ignored him, he stammered, "O...okay! L...Let me strike you a deal! I know where your people are kept, if you follow me, I'll take you to them and you guys can become one big happy family again!"

Hearing that, Penny stopped just in front of the corner path and turned back to take a look at the nitwit who thought he could fool her. But that wasn't the only reason, she needed to know the faces of who she'd collect her debt from later.

Seeing Penny's expressionless face and bloodshot eyes, S8 thought she was pale with fear, so he smirked mischievously.

He was already tired from running after the lousy children for almost an hour, bumping into so many thorny bushes, almost bitten by a snake and being hit by countless tree branches, he's had enough.

So after arguing amongst themselves for almost a minute, he convinced S6 & 7 to hide behind a tree while he tries to convince Penny to come with them.

S6 kept yapping about how special and smart the brats were but really how smart could they possibly be? Look, she's already in the palm of my hands in no time at all! Smart my foot.

Feeling rather confident, S8 chuckled and continued, "I know you're scared for your people, that's what this escape is all about isn't it? But don't worry, you just have to come with me and tell me where the rest of your friends are. That's all."

Penny: "...."

S6 & 7 behind a nearby tree: "...."

'Even a one-year old wouldn't believe that!' S7 thought with a palm to his face.

'This is definitely my fault, why did I ever believe S8's plan would work in the first place?!' S6 who had tears to shed but couldn't thought in exasperation.

Penny who didn't say a word looked at the ground, picked a medium-sized gravel and threw it at a random tree.

At the time the gravel hit the tree, a loud yell echoed through the forest and what Penny saw next was two men rolling on the ground till they stopped beside S8 who glared down at his colleagues with confusion and anger written all over his face.

"What the heck is wrong with you, Saber?! Why did you push me off the rock we were sitting on?!" S6 asked angrily.

S7 with a hand over his head replied agitatedly, "It's not my fault alright! Something hard and sharp fell on my head! I thought it was a snake, so..so I....." interrupted by S8's glare, S7 perceived that the situation wasn't right.

Looking towards Penny's direction, he was dumbfounded to see Penny looking back at them with a snicker on her face.

She really couldn't say how she knew they were hiding behind the tree. She just suddenly felt the urge to throw a stone at that particular tree. And so she did!

'How can a brat have such a scary look?' S7 gulped as he looked at Penny. He didn't know if it was her aura or the effect of her blood red eyes, but one of those was really giving him the creeps. 'Just what do they feed children these days?'

However, his thought was disrupted by S6 who discerned that their plan, sorry S8's plan had failed, so he decided to step in.

"Fine then, you caught us but you still have to come with us whether you like it or not," S6 said, getting up from the ground as he dusted his palms and pants while approaching Penny with an evil smirk on his face.

"Okay then, I guess I don't need to run anymore," Penny said with her head lowered as her hood obscured her face.

Thus, making S6 smile brightly while S8 let out a sigh of relief. 'Phew! No more running for today.'

"But...you'll have to catch me first," she continued as she rose her head with a lovely smile on her face which S6 discerned to be smile of mockery.

S6 obviously running out of patience laughed sarcastically, "Hahaha, little girl who are you kidding, are you trying to stall for time? I'm telling you it won't work you're clearly outnumber...."

But before he could complete that sentence, Penny turned and ran into the corner path that led to the Frozen Cave.

"...ed", seeing that Penny still had the guts to make him run, the smile on S6's face was wiped off and replaced with an evil scowl.

"I didn't want to do this before, but you leave me no choice!" while saying that, S6 grabbed a gun from S8's upholstery uncorks it and runs after Penny into the corner path.

Realizing that S6 was blind with fury and ready to shoot at Penny, S8 quickly ran after him while yelling, "Hey! You just scolded me all the way here! Don't make the same mistake!"

However, when S8 heard the sound of a gunshot, he panicked and thought that what would hit him would be Penny's dead body but when he rushed into the corner path, what hit him was a very strong wind followed by S6 who couldn't withstand the torrent.

'THUD!'

Both S6 & 8 landed heavily on the ground covered with soil, stones and gravel of different sizes.

"What the heck just happened?! Why did it feel like I was pushed by someone?" S6 asked in shock.

"Pushed?! More like you were sent flying!" S8 who was being used as a cushion by S6 scoffed and grumbled.

He'll never forget how he saw S6 flying towards him and landing butt first on his face.

Realising their situation, S6 quickly got up from S8's face and looked at Penny's silhouette that was getting faint as she walked further into the corner path.

Not giving up on his chance to finally lay his hands on her, he chases after her again but was blown away, more strongly this time around and slammed against a tree branch, hitting his precious jewels in the process.

"Ugh!" he groaned.

S8 cringed while S7 who was lost in thought was woken from his dreamland by the noise.

"Sulli! What the heck happened to you?!" he asked as he ran towards the tree S6 was currently hugging in pain.

«»«»«»«»«»«»«»

While S7 & 8 were struggling to get S6 off the tree branch without damaging his family's jewels any further, Penny met up with Cy, Avi and Timmy at the intersection of the path not too far from the entrance.

"Hey guys! Did you notice that those men didn't chase after us?! I even ate two apples, one mango and three bananas while waiting beside the trap I set for them," said Timmy who was highly displeased.

"No wonder you arrived late, I'm telling you that your love for food will definitely get you into trouble one day, you glutton," said Avi exasperatedly before hitting his head.

"Ah! Say that again! Who is a glutton?!" Timmy yelled while clutching his head.

Cy ignoring both troublemakers looked Penny up and down to check if she was injured before asking, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah... I am," Penny replied ignoring the dull ache in her head that was resurfacing before looking back at the path she just came from.

Cyrus followed her gaze and saw the struggling trio from afar causing his silvery eyes to darken.

"They all went after you?!" Cyrus asked angrily gaining the attention of the troublemakers.

"What?!" They both asked.

"That's why we didn't see any of them chasing after us! Are you really okay?!" Avi exclaimed and asked again.

"I'm fine Avi...." Penny replied still looking back.

"But...your eyes are really red Penny," Cyrus commented with concern on his face as he looked intently at her.

"Is it?" Penny asked with her fingertips on her cheek to which her friends all nodded in response.

Letting out a sigh, she contemplated telling them about how she was feeling but ended up advising herself against it.

Looking at the blurred figures of her friends, she shook her head and said, "Don't worry guys, I just need some rest. Come on, let's go," before she turned her back and headed for the Frozen Cave.