Chapter 31

Since she was the one that persuaded Hank that she should be the one to drink it. She took it out of the bag and opened the lid and just sat there really wondering if she was going to do this. The first thing she did was just stare at it like an unwanted vegetable left by her nannies that she had to eat before leaving the table.

She then smelled the liquid to see if its smell changed since the few weeks it had been kept in the bottle, and from what she could tell, it was still odorless. She then put her finger in it to test the consistency of the liquid, and it was still the same sloppy goo as before. Eventually, she decided that she had to get this over with, so she lifted the glass to her mouth and took a good mouthful of it.

As soon as she swallowed, she knew that she had made a huge mistake drinking the liquid. A coldness spread through her body which made her freeze up. She also felt that with each second, her strength was getting weaker and weaker. She first tried to throw up the liquid but her body wouldn't listen to her. She then tried to warn Hank by writing on the ground but the liquid made it harder for her to think until less than 30 seconds after drinking the black liquid she unwillingly fell asleep.

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Hank noticed that something was wrong when he saw Adair fall backward onto her wings. Hank then quickly picked her up, but with each second, the glow from her crystal wings continued to get dimmer and dimmer. In his hurry to pick Adair up, he knocked over the jar containing the black liquid, and when it touched the ground, the ground started to sizzle, and this was when Hank knew that they had made a grave mistake having Adair eat it.

He also started thinking of dozens of different tests that they could have done to see if it was safe to drink, such as feeding it to one of the little critters that liked to play dead when they got close to them or just pouring some of the liquid on the grass instead of the brick ground of the town. Or many many other things that they could have done instead of drinking the liquid themselves.

He then started to run with Adair in his mouth even though it was awkward since her wings were so big, he also completely forgot about his previous thirst and tiredness and went into a full gallop. He hoped that he could find a place quick enough or even with the materials to help her. Hank ran for days and with each passing one he felt that Adair was slowly dying until he eventually found something that appeared like a road. He then turned onto the road and started running, eventually seeing fields of some crop he never seen before in the Otto Empire. He eventually came across a small wood cabin and came rushing towards it. As he neared the entrance, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left side. When he turned to look, he saw an arrow inside of him.

Hank was tempted to yell out, but he quickly calmed down and realized that acting like a wild beast would not help him at all. As it could even lose him his one chance of saving Adair. So as another arrow landed in Hanks side, he decided that his best option was just to set Adair down where she was and which was around 200 feet from their house on the side of the road, and then ran away and hoped that the humans would help Adair since he did not have any hope of helping her himself.

Hank also knew that since there were big fields around, there had to be a river nearby that was used to water the crops, so he searched for that. He was also lucky that the arrows were not poisonous or piercing tips because if they had, he could have been gravely injured. Luckily for Hank he assumed that they were just rock-tipped. Finally, he was also lucky that his skin was thick since it appeared that the arrows did not fully embed themselves inside of him, which meant that he should be able to hopefully heal quickly.

Every once in a while, he looked behind himself to see if he was being followed, but he did not see himself being chased. As he ran away, contemplated going back and making sure that Adair was being treated properly, but he ended up thinking that if he went back, maybe he would be attacked again by the farmer, which was not what he wanted. Especially since he had been running for so long without any water or food he had desperately needed before having to rush find help, so he rapidly searched for the river, which he found after running a while through the field of crops.

He quickly double-checked that this water was not black, and as soon as he did, he collapsed in the water and just opened his mouth and started drinking. As soon as he drank the warm water, the fatigue settled in, and he quickly fell asleep.

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Still a while after I saw the beast run away, I kept an arrow notched just in case it was a bait to get him to come out and let down his defenses. When the beast attacked, he was lucky that it was a religious day, and his wife and kids were at the church, because I didn't want to imagine what could have happened if my kids were playing in the yard like they normally were. Honestly he should have been at church as well, but some of the plants in his garden needed some help not dying so he couldn't follow his family like normal and go to church.

He had never seen a beast that was so large in his lifetime. The beast was able to bypass the repelling totems on the road. The beast did look a little crazy, so maybe that was why he was able to bypass them. Or maybe the ones I got were defective. That bastard of a man just lowered his prices on them right before I bought and told me I was getting a deal on it. If that man cheated me out of my money, then there will be hell to pay. Let's just hope he hasn't jumped ship yet and gone to another town after he sold all of his products, else I wouldnt be able to catch him red-handed.

He continued thinking about different ways to get payback at the seller if he got defective products until he noticed his wife and kids coming back in their wagon. He noticed that they stopped right where the beast used to be and seemed to inspect something on the ground.

He wanted to tell his wife the heroic deed he did to repel the beast, and he assumed that they were looking at some blood spots on the ground or something to prove his worthiness, but when he got up close, he noticed a small girl on the ground with big crystal wings just laying there. His wife was already checking her pulse and other things to see if this little girl was still alive.

As soon as he saw the girl on the ground, he started to have second thoughts about what the beast was trying to do. Was it really coming to attack him? Or was there another reason for it to come? Did I fight a beast, or was it a little girl I fought? No, the beast ran away, so why or how did this girl get here. Did the beast drop her off? How didn't I notice that if it did that?

As he was thinking about all these different things, his wife called out to him, "Bob, where did this little girl come from?" He responded with "I don't know" because now that he looked closer at the little girl, it looked similar to the pictures of their god in the church. So did I just hurt God's protector? If I did, I can't let anyone know about this incident at all. Thank goodness no one else was around. If only I also went to church today instead of tending to the garden. Sure they needed tending to but was that worth potentially cursing myself and my family?

He was also worried that maybe he somehow hurt this little girl, so he asked Molly if she was alive. "How is her condition?" His wife replied that she is alive, but something is wrong. She seemed to be incredibly ill. Bob then thought shit shit shit shit. I hurt god. I thought gods were supposed to be immune to mortals. Maybe this one doesn't have it yet since she is so young. He then got down on all fours and started praying.

Molly was shocked because her husband usually was not overly religious; he did the basics but nothing over the top. But now, he was praying as his life depended upon it. She then called out to her son David to grab some hay from the barn and make a comfortable area for her. David was transfixed looking at the girl's wings, so Molly had to call out several times to make him go do what she asked him to. She then asked Bailey to put a bucket of water over the fire so they could prepare a bath. She then called out to Bob again to try and get him to carry this girl to the barn, but he was still praying, so she sighed and brought this girl to the barn by herself.