Ch. 12 A New Home II

"What were you and Buck actually doing out in those woods!? Robbing nobles!?" Evan was furious, screaming at his sister. (WHAT HAS SHE GOTTEN HERSELF INTO!?)

"I haven't stolen anything big brother. I already told you what happened. Gabriel found us, I fed him and he's been following me ever since. He brought Gala, I bandaged her wounds and she's become Gabriel's friend, not wanting to leave his side. I've done nothing wrong brother, we just foraged for Rockberries, I even turned in my contracted items before coming home. You can check with Vincent if you don't believe me..." Emmie was on the verge of tears defending herself to Evan. Truly, she hadn't done anything wrong, it was just a lucky encounter.

"Only nobles would be able to train a Broken realm Raven to speak. He has to belong to someone. Maybe his previous owner was killed by bandits or something." Evan thought his little sister had hit the jackpot. A talking bird and some sort of strange species of Fox. He could get a fortune for them on the market if his sister will let him sell them. Work has been slow since the village stopped growing, being the only Earth mage in town. All new arrivals came to him for their homes to be built, but no one had moved into town in quite some time.

Evan had only been able to make ends meet by doing touch-up work to the buildings in town and doing small assignments for the alchemist guild. (I need to get that Raven to trust me, if he's this smart I won't be able to capture him.)

"Brother, if you keep looking at Gabriel that way I'll leave home and never come back." Emmie may love her brother, but she knows how he is. If he can find a way to make easy money, he'd do it, and she won't let him steal and enslave her new friends. "They're going to be my travelling companions from now on. I'll train them up if they'll let me or just let them live behind the house, but you won't be taking them anywhere."

"The bird alone would fetch us enough vazis to live comfortably the rest of our lives Emmie." (She'll understand if I explain how much they're worth, this will make our lives so much better Emmie!) Not giving up on dreams of an easy life, Evan tried to push Emmie towards selling them.

"You can't sell. I'll die first." Gabriel had enough of this, he wasn't going to sit by and let someone decide his life. Gala started growling at Evan, backing towards the window while Gabriel took off from the bench. "Bye Emmie!"

Knowing they couldn't stay around a human that wants to capture them, Gabriel took off out the window with Gala jumping out quickly behind him. (Damn, so much for an easy life.) Luckily, Gabriel remembered the way out of town, so they made a break for the gates. "Gala, stay close. I can fly over the wall, but you'll have to sneak past the guards. We'll head back into the woods for now."

"Yes sir."

A few minutes later and they made their way to the gates. (Two guards, they seem really relaxed, she can probably just run right past them.) "Gala, you're going to need to be quick, don't stop until you get to the woods. I'll find you."

With a look of understanding Gala took off at a dead Sprint towards the gates. She went right between one of the guards legs running as hard as she could without looking back. Gabriel took flight and zoomed by the other guards ear, startling him in the process. (Good, they should be confused that'll buy some time.) Gabriel caught up to Gala and started controlling the air currents to allow them both to move a slight bit faster. (If I get better at wind manipulation, we could move so much faster. No one could catch us.)

After running non-stop for nearly an hour, Gala started looking for a safe place to rest. "Gabriel, there's a small cave a little ways in front of us. Can we stop there and rest?"

"You keep walking, I'll fly up ahead to check it out. I'll be back in a few minutes." Quickly spotting the cave she spoke of, Gabriel sped up in that direction. Didn't look like anything would be living here, no makings on the walls or smell. Gabriel landed just inside the edge of the cave. Taking a look around he noticed the cave only went in about 3m, so it wasn't a place where any large animals could live. (Looks safe enough to me, it's not like we're going to live here.) "It's safe!"

Gala came trotting in not much after Gabriel had yelled. She immediately found a spot toward the back of the cave and laid down. "Gabriel, we need to find some food soon, if we don't eat soon we won't be able to protect ourselves."

(Man, why can't people just be like Emmie? I thought we were about to have it made in the shade, but no, now I have to put in Extra Effort to relax again. Life sucks.)