11 Chapter 11: Relief

She closed her eyes and swung really hard once she saw a foot come out of the bush. Fear and adrenaline pumping into her as she did.

"Whoa! Whoa! Naera! Calm down! It's just us!"

Laeus was lucky to dodge Naera's swing at her. She did it with her eyes closed but an inch more and she would have hit him so hard, he'd be asleep for days.

"Nulu! Laeus! Where on earth have you been!? You had me worried sick!"

Nulu was beside Laeus with an armful of wood while Laeus had their rusty axe resting on his shoulder. Laeus sighed at her and gave her a light pat on the shoulder.

"We're sorry we made you so worried. We had to get a lot of wood just in case. Let's head on home."

She gave a breath of relief at his suggestion  as she despised  the feeling of being outside the walls and kingdom of Topalia that protected her all her life.

Laeus and Nulu went ahead of her, though before she could follow them, something made her look behind her. It was the strange feeling that she was being watched.

"Naera, you coming?" Nulu shouted, as he was already a few distance ahead of her.

"Yeah! Just a second." She shouted back as she searched for something that she could not even name or be sure was even there at all. But, after a  few seconds more of nothing revealing itself, she ran after Nulu and Laeus.

As the sound of their footsteps and voices were no longer heard, a new sound arose from the bushes Naera was looking at before.

A low growl that could not have come from any normal creature from the forest.

They finally reached the Bridge and Gate of Merhu. They stepped unto the Bridge and was enveloped by the warm protection of the force field.

But, they all sighed in relief and when they went through the gate. The force field that was on the end of the bridge was the walls extension  of sorts. But of course, the true power of the walls protection  was in the other side of the gate.

Before they went through though, they had to go through two knights and a wizard that checked them from head to toe and asked multiple questions to make sure they weren't some kind of evil creature in disguise.

They couldn't  really blame them for making sure, but wasn't the power of the wall enough to stop any evil creature at the gate?

She shrugged the thought away though as they were finally back and headed  to their home.

As they arrived, they were all happily greeted by

Laeti and the others.

Tharlo most of all, as he ran to Laeus and clutched his legs giggling. After the happy greeting from Laeti though, she crossed her arms at her twin brother and reprimanded  him.

"Laeus! Where have you been and why did it take you both so long to come home! You had Nulu with you who's much younger than you and must not be outside the wall at this hour!"

"Laeti, I'm sorry alright? I didn't mean to take to so long, and we figured that we needed to get more wood on the spot, to make sure we have enough wood for the next time we need to fix this house."

Laeti sighed at him in defeat and exasperation.

"Fine. But, next time you're going outside the wall, you're taking Quedo. Understood?"

"Alright, alright. I will. Now, can someone help me get Tharlo off my legs, please?"

All of them smiled sweetly and said a resounding  "No." In unison before hurriedly running to their rooms with Laeus shouting in protest as he tries, and fails, to get Tharlo off his legs.