Chapter 39 part 3

–Hey, just because you guys are fine with rarely washing yourselves doesn't mean I have to be.– Hannah said.

–Okay, so I guess you're having a bath?– Amelia asked. –Why didn't you say something to me? I'd like a bath too.–

–Well, this isn't a heated bath. I'm in the Forest of the Lost, so it's not like it's the warmest bath I've had. I just didn't want to wait to wait for however long it took to get a tub or whatever by where we're at so we could put hot water in it just to get clean.– Hannah griped.

–Well, once you're dry and dressed, make yourself a velociraptor and ride it to the village.– Amelia said. –That'll get you there faster, and plus, you'll have something to help you attack any of the hostiles.–

–You listen too much to your dad talk about war stuff.– Hannah remarked dryly.

–What can I say?– Amelia asked, sounding like she was giggling in her thought. –I guess I'm just a daddy's girl.–

–Tim?– Beth asked. –Can you tell how many… uh… hostiles there are?–

–I can only see three right now, but I also can't see where the fire is, so I'm sure there's more.– Tim replied.

Beth jogged for a few minutes before she couldn't help but break into a run. Not that she expected to be able to run all the way. It was more that she wasn't really sure how to handle what was happening. Though, a thought crossed her mind as she was running, vaguely considering using her magic to make a velociraptor as well and use it as a mount. As she considered that option, she suddenly realized she didn't know where Flare was.

–Uh, anyone know where Flare is?– Beth asked. Flare had a mind of her own sometimes, but often she would follow Beth around and Beth couldn't help but forget about her.

–Last I knew, Flare was enjoying her time with Cinder's family.– Ralph answered. –I think Cinder's youngest siblings really like her.–

Beth nodded, feeling a little relieved. She didn't mind that Flare sought out attention from willing kids, especially ones that they were looking after, kind of, as well.

–Okay, we took down the three that we could see.– Tim reported. –Though, we couldn't save anyone. These people killed first rather than anything else.–

–Did you check their vitals?– Amelia asked.

–Do we have to?– Wes complained. –If we do that then we probably won't be able to save others.–

–Ugh.– Amelia complained herself. –Fine, go do what you can. Beth. Get there now. Check to see if they're alive. If they are, do what you can to stabilize them so they'll be able to survive until we can get to them. Make yourself a mount if you have to, just get there now.–

Beth could only shake her head helplessly. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to do that, but she was confident that Amelia would somehow know if she did that or not. Aside from how much longer it would take Beth to get there anyway. Although, that was also assuming Beth didn't miss wherever Wes and Tim had been before whatever was happening started.

Still, she had been considering making a velociraptor for herself anyway. So, she thought that she might as well. If nothing else, she was sure that she'd be able to help with dealing with whatever was happening. No matter what.

_

Hesha lifted the boards on the floor to get into the space beneath where she could hide. Maybe it wasn't the action a brave warrior would do, but right now she was just flat out scared. Her first instinct was to hide. She'd heard her mother occasionally talk about fighting bandits before, but Hesha never had to deal with them before.

All she knew was that everything was happening so fast and she couldn't even think properly. Almost like how she felt when that weird girl was going to hit her sister the previous day. Something inside her screamed that her sister was in danger and she couldn't think what else she could do.

However, this time the feeling didn't go away after a moment. This time the feeling stayed and was different in that she actually worried that someone in her family would die. Much like some of the people had who had the spotted plague did before the weird girl and her friends arrived.

When she was under the floor of the house, she carefully replaced the boards before crawling to be as far away from where she'd entered as she could. She wasn't sure what might happen, but felt like this would be the best place for her to be.

Footsteps on the boards above her set her heart to racing faster than it had ever beat before. She hardly dared to even breathe, scared that whoever was up there would hear her breathing and know right where she was.

Then as the floorboards where Hesha had gotten under the floor started to rattle as whoever was up there was pulling them up, Hesha had to put her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming as she felt tears flow down her face.

What she saw didn't register in her mind at first. Her mind was filled with the bandits that were attacking them, but then suddenly she realized that it was her sister who was reaching for her sword under the floorboards.

When she realized that's who was above her, she felt immense relief. She was confident that her sister would save them. She couldn't help but start sobbing in relief as she knew this would be over soon. That her sister wouldn't let anything happen to her.

She was about to start crawling towards her sister, who was picking up her sword when Hesha saw a blade come out through Inshet's chest for a moment before being pulled out, startling both Hesha and her sister.

Hesha was startled in the fact that she hadn't heard the sounds of anyone else on the floorboards above her, yet clearly someone else had entered her house. Not only that, but now her sister was killed in front of her.

"What was she trying to get from down there?" Hesha heard someone ask.

Inshet's body was dragged away from the opening in the floorboards, her eyes vacant. Then Hesha felt the terror return to her as she saw another person putting their head down where Hesha was hiding.

She was certain that she would be discovered any moment and either she'd be killed herself or something worse would happen. Something that she was certain wouldn't be anything she could think of in the best of circumstances.

The person sighed. "All I can see is a sword," the person reported.

"Grab the sword then and let's move. There's several more to deal with after this house. We don't have time to dally around," the other person replied.

Hesha saw a hand and arm extend down to pick up her sister's sword and pull it out from below the floorboards. "Got it. Uh, looks like there might be some other things in here. Do we have to burn it down?"

"Well, if we burn it down, then couldn't we look for any treasure that might be there before that?"

The footsteps of the people above her started to walk away, their footsteps echoing around Hesha. Each echo like a nail in her heart as she kept replaying the blade coming through her sister's chest.

"Sorry, but we gotta keep moving. Unless you want to explain to the boss why we didn't do what she said. You'll have to face her wrath by yourself, without me with you, that is simply because I'm not going to risk my neck for you."

Hesha felt herself frozen in place as she heard the footsteps leave the house before she heard something hitting the floorboards. Not footsteps, the sound was wrong, but she then remembered about how the bandits had mentioned about burning the house down and Hesha immediately scrambled to the opening in the floorboards so she could get out from below the floor.

When she reached the opening, she carefully looked out of it, making sure that the bandits had indeed left. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she only saw her sister in the house. She quickly climbed out of the hole and ran over to pick up the torch that she could see had been thrown in before the flame started to spread onto the floorboards and tossed it in the fireplace, where it wouldn't get the entire house to go up in flames.

After she accomplished that, she turned back to her sister, and unsteadily walked slowly over, scared of what she'd find. Scared that her sister had in fact been killed. Yet, while she didn't want to find that out, she felt a pull towards her sister, one that she was helpless to resist. Even though she wanted to just run and find out that this was just a horrible nightmare. Brought on because she used her magic again when she knew she wasn't supposed to. Even though she didn't choose to use it.

As Hesha reached her sister, she felt the presence of another person outside the house. "Oh, what do we have here?" she heard a voice ask, the tone indicating the speaker thought that they'd just been given an incredible gift.

Hesha slowly looked, hoping against hope that what the bandit was talking about had nothing to do with her. Yet as her gaze landed on the bandit, the bandit was looking right at her.

"Another girl that'll make us a mint at the auction," the bandit laughed, her yellow teeth giving Hesha a sinking feeling in her stomach.

The world started moving from side to side and Hesha couldn't figure out why that was, until she suddenly realized that she was shaking her own head. Not wanting what was before her own eyes to be true.

As the bandit started walking towards Hesha, she felt the tears begin flowing down her cheeks again. She couldn't say what would happen when the bandit reached her, but couldn't move at all. Almost as if her body was rebelling against her own control of it.

Then as the bandit bent over to reach for Hesha, she became aware of something moving behind the bandit. Not that she could move any easier now than when she first saw the bandit. Her mind couldn't focus on anything but the bandit in front of her.

"Don't you dare touch my daughter!" Hesha heard a voice scream. While it sounded familiar, she couldn't place it.

Then as suddenly as the voice cried out, the bandit stiffened, then fell over, her eyes glazing over as she fell to the ground.

Hesha felt like her mind wasn't able to comprehend what was happening. Like she was in a daze. Nothing seemed real anymore. She saw her mother in front of her, a sword in her mother's left hand with eyes that were clear from any alcohol at all.

"Are you okay, Hesha?" her mother asked, concerned etched on her face.

Hesha couldn't speak. Probably not even if she wanted to. Everything had become surreal, to the point where she wasn't sure if she was still alive herself. Not that this is what the church said would happen after they died.

Hesha felt her mother touching her all over, checking for any injury after having set her sword to the side. Hesha couldn't be sure what to expect. She wasn't even sure if it really was her mother in front of her.

Her mother finished checking Heasha after a few minutes then turned to Inshet and repeated the process. Hesha couldn't form any thoughts as her mind just had given up working at all. She felt like she was a petal in the wind, not even a leaf, blown about by one wind or another, never sure where it would end up.

Hesha couldn't say how long her mother checked her sister. It felt like mere seconds at the same time it felt like hours. Though, she was able to finally move as her mother spoke again.

"Your sister's alive, but I think she needs immediate help," her mother said, sounding like she might be talking to herself to Hesha. "but you're too small to help carry your sister and I can't carry her while fighting any of the bandits."

Hesha's mother sighed and looked at Hesha. "Alright. I'll get you to safety, and we'll see I can get anyone to come help bring your sister as well."

Hesha watched her mother, her mind remaining blank, not really understanding what was being said. Her body completely unresponsive to anything she would want to do at the moment.

When her mother took her arm and lifted, Hesha found that she could stand, but it wasn't from her wanting to or anything. It was like she was merely being repositioned by her mother and she couldn't resist or cooperate. Like she had no actual will of her own.

"Great, what a time for you to be like this," Hesha heard her mother mutter to herself.

Hesha could hear people fighting outside, but couldn't say what that might mean. For Hesha, it felt like it had become background noise. Nothing that was something for her to worry about. Something that was just there. Like the signing birds every morning.

"Look, I'm going to need you to follow me. I can't drag or carry you with my one arm if I need to fight," her mother said, their eyes meeting, pulling Hesha out of the frozen state she'd found herself in. "Follow me and I'll get you to somewhere safe. Can you do that for me?"

Hesha stared at her mother for so long her mother sighed, looking frustrated. Which wasn't something Hesha was used to having her mother exhibit. Typically when she didn't answer her mother right away, her mother tended to either get annoyed or angry, depending on how drunk she was at the time.

Eventually, she found the strength to slightly nod her head. "Y-yes, I can do that," she said slowly and quietly, almost so quiet she couldn't be sure she actually said anything.

However, her mother seemed to hear her just fine. She picked her sword up and stood up, turning towards the door. "Alright. Follow me closely and I'll get you out of here. I've gotten two of your brothers out, so once you're safe, I'll look for someone to come back and help me get your sister," her mother said, looking out the door.

Hesha nodded, mostly to herself, and calmly walked to her mother. She wanted to run, but at the moment that was the best she could do. Like she was trying to walk in a river against the current. Not only that, but the water kept her from moving her legs fast enough to even be considered running.

A part of her stated to think that there might be something seriously wrong with her, that maybe she had been hurt or something and this was all in her head somehow. Although, as she looked outside the door, she could see other bandits fighting others she knew in the village, dragging children away, being killed, or killing others she knew as well.

As her mother started moving out of the house, Hesha found herself following behind, although somehow she was moving faster than she had a moment before. Although, she only realized that when she stopped moving and thought back to how she suddenly got to where she was.

So much just didn't make sense to her. Her own breathing was sounding rather harsh in her ears. She didn't know where her mother thought would be safe, especially since her house had always been safe until this day. Despite when her mother would get angry with her, it was safe and somewhere she knew she'd be, mostly, welcomed.

She couldn't say how long they'd been moving along, darting from one structure o another, heading to wherever her mother thought would be safe. As she tried thinking about anything while they moved, Hesha felt a headache growing and couldn't say what might be the cause.

Suddenly Hesha ran into her mother who had stopped unexpectedly. As Hesha looked around her mother to find the cause, she saw a bandit who had been just around the corner of the house they were almost at, pull her sword out of her mother's chest.

Then as she saw her mother fall to her knees, a gurgling sound coming from her mouth as blood came out of her mouth a moment later. Hesha felt like the nightmare had returned and she desperately wanted to wake up. She couldn't imagine how she could have come up with such a horrible dream, but she was desperate for it to end.

Let her mother still be at the table, drinking, cursing her children for the loss of her arm, throwing her bottles of alcohol at her and then blaming her for the waste of her booze. Let that be what was really happening and not this hell. Let her wild magic be the worst of her problems.

Hesha was barely aware of the bandit picking her up like she was a sack of potatoes and throwing her over a shoulder as the bandit carried her off. All she could see was her mother's body laying on the ground like it was a forgotten piece of garbage someone had dropped and didn't care enough to come back to pick it up, even when her mother's body was out of sight.

Why haven't I woken up yet? Hesha asked herself as she felt fresh tears start to pour from her eyes, desperate for what she was witnessing to not be reality. Why can't this just turn out to be a dream? A really, really bad dream.

Even a strange shriek around her wasn't enough to draw her attention back to her surroundings. All she new was that she'd suddenly been dropped to the ground. She didn't know why or how, just that she was able to move on her own again. So, she started walking back to where her mother was.

Somehow, even though she didn't know how long it had been that she'd lost sight of her mother, she knew precisely where to find her mother's body. Where the edge of reality should be.

Soon, even though she hadn't decided to do so, she found herself running through the streets in the village, towards where she knew her mother's body was. Nothing else mattered to her at the moment. Nothing else was on her mind. Nothing even registered in her mind as she ran.

When she reached her mothers body, she found she was completely out of breath. Not that she cared. Her mother was exactly right where she lay, no longer moving. No longer breathing. Her eyes staring and dull.

Still, she wrapped her arms around her mother's body and great sobs began convulsing through her body. Letting out all the pain and fear that she'd been bottling up since she first saw the bandits killing someone in the village. Since she'd ran to her house and hidden herself under the floorboards. Since her life had ended and a new one had been forced on her.