Ellie paused outside the stone church. She heaved for breath and sweat ran down her brow like a never-ending tide. It had only taken her only a few minutes to find Mavier, who was already rapidly approaching their location, but the combination of sprinting to him and sprinting back towards the church had completely winded the tiny, malnourished girl. Still, she kept her head held straight, her eyes fixed towards the church as she attempted to peer through the dark windows for any signs of life.

“Yeah kiddo, I don’t know about this.” Tanlin murmured from where he stood by her shoulder. “Ol’ Galler was in there for a fair few minutes before Mavier busted in through the back door. What can a blind man do in a fight, really?”

Every word that her big brother Tanlin said felt like weights were being dropped on her shoulders, where he leaned on with an ethereal presence. She knew he was blind, that any fights he would be in would be an uphill battle. She knew that little, even though she had never really been in much more of a fight than the occasional scrap with other kids at her village.

Tanlin nodded his head in understanding at her concerned face. “Welp, Mavier did get in there pretty fast. Maybe that feller got vaporized before he could do anything too bad. Your big brother Galler’s still got some muscle to him, and plus there are those friends of his. Maybe they decided to get off their butts and helped him out.”

Ellie shifted her feet to dodge a small stream of melted stone and slag as she considered her big brother’s wisdom, wiping what felt like another full bucket of sweat off of her brow. All she could hope now was that Mr. Mavier had arrived in time to stop the man in the suit.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The moon shone its unforgiving, cold rays over the broken rooftops of Drassington. Elena felt it was sitting in judgement of her. She felt damned by the heavens themselves.

Horses whinnied all around her, despite the strained shushing of their riders as they strove to follow her orders to remain as quiet as possible. However, compared to the amount of noise that the nearby city could put out even in the middle of the night, her men were rather silent.

Not that they had much choice. Even though the official plan was for Carlos to remain at the city to defend it if necessary, Elena understood the situation far better than those lard-ass bureaucrats who were too busy whoring the night away to realize that they had left together, under the cover of night. All so they would have a better chance for when they encountered that… monstrosity. In the light of all that, the contempt in the gaze of the moon felt like nothing compared to the unpleasant truth that she had been forced to learn through blood and screams. The taste of failure and mortality.

Still, the two fellow heroes riding uncomfortably beside her worried all the same.

“Carlos, remember what I told you. Stay relaxed in the saddle, don’t fight the horse’s movements. I had Bill find the calmest and most easygoing horses in the stables. You don’t have to worry about them bucking you off.” Elena said with a tinge of exasperation in her voice to the boy that rode beside her.

“Yeah yeah. She isn’t some crazy fucking warhorse like what you have, Elena. But still, it’s not like my high school ever had horse riding classes.”

On Elena’s other side, Jim snorted in amusement. “You’d be surprised. My girl went to a right and proper boarding school for a few years before we moved, and they actually had a small stable. She was over the moon for those animals, like you would not believe. Here, I think I have a picture or two with me.”

Leather rustled on denim as Jim eagerly pulled his wallet out of his jeans before waving some well-worn pictures towards Carlos and Elena for what was not the first time of the day. Or the first time since they had met. Still, Elena suppressed her annoyance. She remembered her own father doing the same with his friends, when they were out in the backyard grilling on the weekends. She could just feel the pride and happiness radiating off the older man, still clad in what he called his ‘lawn mowing threads’ of worn jeans and a button-down shirt even several days after his summoning. Pride, happiness, and though he tried his very best to hide it underneath those two, a deep sadness that she understood. A longing for home, and the fear that she would never be able to find it, that she would end up buried in this accursed world. Like her other peers.

I mean, but seriously. What place has to deal with a demon king and a monstrous horror beyond human comprehension within the span of less than 10 years?! At least on Earth I only had to deal with crippling debt and finding a job after graduation.

Elena shook her head and refocused on the real world as she saw Bill approaching her with the usual report from her scouts.

“The road’s all clear, Ma’am.” Bill saluted with a clatter of metal as he brought his horse in line with her own. “We have full visibility for several miles as the forest is still cleared from the fire. I’ve taken the liberty of sending messengers to the villages to pick up those men Reynold mentioned earlier. They already have their own horses and basic weapons, so it shouldn’t be difficult to integrate them into our own forces.”

“Sounds good.” Elena nodded. Any extra men of fighting age would be a welcome addition to their admittedly small force, as each additional sword meant the three heroes could devote more of their attention to fighting Mavier when it came down to it, instead of being distracted by whatever forces the demon might have with him.

“Also, I do apologize if I overstepped my bounds, but I have issued orders for a few of those men to be added to the scouts group. They know this area better than us, so if luck is with us our speed should increase until we get closer to demon territory.”

“No matter. The sooner we get this over with, the better. Thank you,” She said, grateful for his initiative. They were all stretched thin as it was.

With that said, Bill bowed his head, spurring his steed forwards to meet up with a wiry scout further along the road.