The Village Set Aflame

"Fire in a forest...? That doesn't seem very intelligent, what happened here?" Asoh asked out loud. She jumped off of the carriage as Chi-Chi tied the horses up. I stood behind with Chi-Chi while Boo ran with Asoh.

"Okay, they shouldn't go anywhere, let's go," Chi-Chi told me.

I grabbed her wrist and held her back while looking toward the village burning in the distance.

"What are you doing?" She asked me. I looked at the village one more time, then back down at her.

"I'm optimistic, but I'm not stupid. Asoh and you are still untrustworthy people so long as we don't know or see where Charlie and Alex are at, and if you hurt Boo in any way, and I mean so much as accidentally trip her... I'll break your jaw, knock your teeth out, and then maybe consider killing you. Do you understand me?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I get it. The same goes for Asoh. I might be protected by her all the time, but I'm more than capable on my own. Don't make me prove it, and I won't make you prove that you're not lying anywhere. I promise you, Asoh and I only want the best for ourselves, and right now, that's sticking with Boo and you," Chi-Chi said.

I let go of her wrist and started running over to the village as well, keeping her in my eyes.

I hated to admit it, especially after lecturing Boo, but the more things kept flowing with Chi-Chi and Asoh, the more suspicious I got.

"What do you see?" I yelled up toward Boo.

"Nothing important, just burning houses... Asoh, what is that?" Boo asked, pointing toward a pile of burning objects.

Asoh and Boo both jumped past the high wooden logs that acted as walls for the village, and down into the burning pit with the objects in it.

"Bodies! The smell is awful..." Boo paused, crouching down near the charred corpses. Chi-Chi and I stood on the very top of the slope, looking down at Asoh and Boo.

"Shike... there's a person that looks identical to you in this damn pile... you're not dead somehow, are you?" Boo yelled up to me.

The tension was starting to fill the air. I'm not sure where I could feel it from, but the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up.

"No... I'm still alive... what else do you see in there?" I yelled down, looking all behind me.

"Chi-Chi, do you feel that or is that just me?" I asked her. She shook her head, keeping her eye pointed downward. I could see sweat beading on the ridge of her eyebrows. She definitely felt something as well.

"Me...? Sky...? There are so many charred corpses here, of all of us... what the hell happened here?" Boo asked out loud.

"Hello? Are you guys going to burn down more stuff?" A man behind us asked.

Chi-Chi stood up front with her hand on her sword, looking down the slope at a man who held his hands up. It was very clear he didn't want any conflict with us, but who knows what he was capable of...

"Boo, get up here, we got somebody here!" I shouted down at her. Asoh nodded at my warning and the two helped themselves out of the pit with the charred corpses, looking at the man at the bottom of the slope.

"How did you know where to find us? Were you hiding out somewhere?" I asked him, putting on a more masculine voice to seem intimidating.

"No! My village was lit on fire, and I wasn't sure if you were the ones who did it... were you?" The man asked us. I looked at Asoh, Boo, and Chi-Chi as everybody grouped up once more and then shook my head.

"We just got here, we were attracted by the flames... what's your name?" I asked him in the same tone.

"It's Clyde! I don't have any weapons on me... but I wanted to ask if you had any food on you? I'm really suffering out here..." He said, rubbing his stomach.

Suffering? This fire wasn't made a day ago... this was made recently...

When I paused to think about it, it didn't make a lot of sense that Boo or Asoh didn't feel any heat while in that pit... with our previous experience, it seemed like this could've been an illusion.

I didn't want to point fingers at those who were innocent, but Clyde was the only suspect we had as of right now... I kept a close eye on him.

"Hey Clyde, can you answer a question for me?" I yelled out to him. He nodded, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Sure thing, anything you want to know, I can tell you," He said, waiting nervously for the question I was about to ask.

"Does the name Sky Asterio mean anything to you?" Boo asked him, butting in before I could.

Only for a slight moment, Clyde shifted his hands in his pockets, before bouncing his leg and shaking his head.

"The only thing I know from that name is fear... why do you ask?" He replied to Boo.

She was confident... she had caught on as well. I expected Boo to follow through with me. Our lines of thinking were almost the exact same at this point.

"Well, it's funny. I was standing in a pit with a bunch of charred corpses, and I didn't feel any heat. This fire started recently, and everything around this area should still be hot. Why isn't it? I can't help but think there are illusions at work here... not to mention, corpses that look like Shike and I are in that pile, and their faces aren't burning. Want to explain that one?" Boo asked Clyde once more.

"Do you think I would explain that if I knew what was going on?" Clyde asked us once more, but I was no longer having this onslaught of lies from Clyde.

"Can you really explain bodies in a fire that you happened to be next to? If you can, I'd love to hear it," I suggested, but Clyde only stood frozen while thinking.

"I guess I can do this now then," He said.