Endrian, Elva, and Zakoya arrived at the ship after just a few short minutes by Endrian’s reckoning. As they looked around the area where they had made their escape there were obvious signs that other people had made it out and in some cases it looked like they were dragging others. Seeing the direction of the trail it looks like when the people came out they followed the same path as Endrian and his siblings from the night before. Now that they had a clear path to track Endrian decided to be thorough and do a sweep of the ship. So he moved to the entrance that Zakoya had created and yelled inside. “Is there anyone here? Hello?” He waited for a few seconds but didn’t hear any movement or any response.

Taking a deep breath he moved inside. The stench of death and decay that lingered in the air were overwhelming. Even holding his breath he felt like the smell was saturating into his very pores. He looked over at the pile of bodies at the aft portion of the ship, well it wasn’t really a pile of bodies more like ground meat. He had the thought of sorting through the dead to get a head count, see if there was anything salvageable that would help them survive, and then bury them. Every time he looked at the pile, however, he could feel his guts clench. Like it was rejecting what he was seeing. It felt like there was an absence of something that made it feel wrong. He thought that after seeing so much death and gore on TV shows and movies from his previous life he would be inured to this kind of feeling. He had even seen dead bodies in his previous life as well, but now that he was here and could look at everything calmly he realized that reality often times differed from expectations. He couldn’t even take a step closer to the pile without his body feeling physically ill.

Giving up on the thought of doing anything with the bodies he was able to start looking around. He moved through the hold taking a breath only when he absolutely had to. He found a few more bedrolls and personal belongings. He grabbed all of the packs and bedrolls that he could find. He also found a storage area where there were goods including a shipment of their families recurve bows. Unfortunately pretty much everything was damaged or destroyed. He was able to find some arrows that were still usable and actually found a bow that was still sound. There were some smoked meats that were still wrapped in their protective plant leafs. He grabbed those as well.

Heading to the upper deck he had to be more careful how he moved about as there were a lot less places to get a hand or foot hold. He moved to the door under the quarterdeck which should lead to the captain’s cabin. He figured their best chance at getting a map of the area would be here. There may also be some other goods in there that could be helpful to them now or in the future. He spent a few minutes searching and did find a map of the area. He also found a nice diamond about the size of his fist which he couldn’t help but grab. If he and his siblings were orphaned this would go a long way in helping them. Before he got to do a more thorough search of the cabin he could hear Elva calling out to him. Coming out of the captain’s cabin he said “What’s up?”

Elva gave him a quizzical look before saying “Do you feel the shaking?”

Shaking his head no at first, Endrian then thought of something. He slid down the deck of the ship to the railing and then quickly hopped down from the ship. As soon as he landed he laid down and put his ear to the ground. When he did he could feel a slight tremor. On top of that he could hear a faint rumbling sound. A surge of fear and adrenaline went coursing through his body. Jumping up he said “We need to leave. Now!” and without giving the girls a chance to ask any questions he took off. He wasn’t sprinting but he was running at a fast pace. Surprised, the girls looked at each other and then took off after him. When they caught up Elva asked “What’s the matter with you?”

Endrian glanced at them and said “I’m pretty sure the beast horde is here. I don’t know how far we got from the village but it seems they have caught up with us. We need to hurry.” After saying this he focused on his breathing so that it matched his pace and then started to pick up speed. When the girls heard this they were both startled as well and hastened to keep up with Endrian. Even as fast as they were running the rumble in the distance continued to grow while the shaking increased. It felt like a continuous earthquake that just wouldn’t stop. In a few moments they had made it back to the ravine.

Moving quickly Endrian started to make precise jumps to move down the ramp area. Unfortunately he still wasn’t as comfortable in his fighting form as in his human body, and coupled with the additional packs he was carrying he miscalculated where his foot would land causing him to slip and fall. He landed hard, all he could do was take the hit and roll with it. He felt his shield arm twist when he went down. As he attempted to roll with it he was able to finally get his feet back under him. He could tell that he had wrenched his arm pretty bad by the throbbing he felt in his shoulder. However, he didn’t let it stop him. When given the choice of a hurt arm or being trampled to death by wild animals he would take the injured arm.

The two girls caught up with him at the bottom of the ramp and were going to check him over but he just kept on running. They followed after him as quickly as they could and had just made it to the cave mouth when the first of the animals started to course through the trees around them. They hurried inside and moved to climb up to the bridge. Etopha and Lisyth both yelled at Endrian’s group wondering what was going on. Endrian said nothing but Zakoya let them know shouting “Beast Horde.”

Endrian climbed up using one hand again not trusting his injured arm to hold him right now. A few wild animals were running into the cave under the trio. When they finally made it to the top Endrian told Etopha and Lisyth to bring Ethese with them and to gather at the ledge next to the wall of the cave. When everyone was gathered he moved the girls close to the wall and placed himself in front of them so that he could use his shield to protect them if necessary. Elva matched him and placed herself by his side with her shield to help protect everyone. There were a few flying birds that had flown into the cave and would have hit the group if not for Endrian and Evla blocking them. Fortunately the birds didn’t really attack them rather after being deflected away they just kept on going.

At this point with everyone huddled around the wall of the cave started to shift. A slab as tall as Endrian extended out for additional protection. Endrian was startled when this first happened but quickly realized that it was slow moving and not a threat. He then made the assumption that it was Lisyth trying to help protect everyone. He and Elva adjusted their positions to take advantage of the additional cover the new wall provided. After making the adjustments Endrian asked without looking back “Can you block off the cave entrance?”

Lisyth responded “No. It is far too big. The most I can do is cover part of our group.”

Nodding his head to acknowledge that he had heard her he continued to focus on the incoming beasts. So far most of them were just basic animals and there were not any Tier 1 or higher beasts mixed in. Looking out of the cave they could see that the majority of the animals that were running were avoiding the cave and streaming from right to left in front of the mouth. They spent the rest of the day fending off the stray beasts that would wander into the cave. Endrian was unsure why but the beasts that were running seemed to be much more dispersed than when he saw them from the ship. He could only guess that the distance from the source of their flight was far enough that they had started to spread out. Even though that was the case the stream of beasts didn’t dissipate until the sun started to set and shadows had lengthened.

Throughout the day Endrian and his sisters had seen some amazing animals. There were ones that were like monkeys swinging through the trees, there were wolf and dog like beasts that ran in groups. There were rabbits and raccoons and pretty much any type of animal you could think of. There were birds and bats and flying lizards and even flying snakes. One of the more exotic animals that Endrian had seen was a field mouse looking group of beasts that were swimming through the ground. They would launch up like they were dolphins and then dive under the ground and then come up again a few meters from their previous position. This was both beautiful and terrifying because it looked amazing but both Endrian and Zakoya took some pretty hard hits as these little beast suddenly appeared out of the wall right next to them. They must have been Tier 1 beasts because they sliced through Endrian’s scales like a hot knife through butter. Zakoya had taking a large cut across her stomach fortunately she had been able to dodge the direct hit or she would have had a hole through her body. Endrian took his attack on the right shoulder and across his back even slicing at the anchor point for one of his wings. He would have loved to have killed it or even taken a swing at it, but it was moving so fast that by the time he registered it was there it was gone. They were all thankful that this was all that happened though.

After that they had switched positions again with everyone adding space between them and the wall. Elva also moved positions to place herself between the group and the wall. This was because she had the largest shield and it would take her less time to react to incoming threats than Endrian. Not to mention that both of Endrian’s arms were injured now and his reactions were slowing down. Lisyth worked at building up more of a stone defense between the group and the mouth of the cave. Endrian watched and covered for the rest moving to where he was most needed at the time.

There was maybe an hour of light left when the torrent of animals finally died down. The destruction of the woods was breathtaking. The trees had been stripped and many of them uprooted. The grass and bushes were trampled into nothing leaving a large swath of barren land behind. The short ravine walls close to the cave were only about one meter tall originally but were beaten into an almost smooth ramp on both sides. Endrian and Zakoya had their wounds bandaged and everyone settled down to eat and relax. Pulling out some of the smoked meats Endrian made sure everyone got their fill. Opting to go without a fire tonight in case there were any dangerous stragglers to the horde that had just passed through.

“So what all did you find in your search of the ship?” Elva asked Endrian after everyone had eaten their fill.

“Not a whole lot. I found a number of bags and personal belongings such as bedrolls and clothes. I haven’t gone through the packs at this point so I’m not sure if there is more there. I was able to find a map so if it comes down to it we can hike our way back to civilization.” He said this and was going to continue but was interrupted by Elva.

“That’s great!! Now we won’t be lost forever!” She exclaimed excitedly. Zakoya was also visibly excited by this news.

Reaching into his pack he also pulled out the diamond he had found. “I also found this gem which we could probably sell for some money to help us recover. Everyone like precious gems right?”

“AH!! That’s not a gem that’s a communication crystal!!!” Elva yelled. “We’re saved!” Literally jumping up and down in her excitement.

Endrian was shocked at first which quickly turned to excitement as well. Elva snatched it out of his hands and had a look of concentration on her face as she used her internal mana to turn the crystal on. It was just a short couple of seconds before they heard a voice in the air.

“Trade ship Blushing Volunteer, this is base controller number 2-3, please report your status.”

“Oh thank god. Please help us. We have crashed and are lost.” Elva started to talk excitedly relief and happiness filling her every word and action.

“What’s this? Where’s captain Suzu? Who are you? What’s happened?” the person started to respond in a chaotic and demanding way. Endrian watched and could see that this made Elva flustered.

Stepping up to his sister and placing a hand on her shoulder he asked her “If I talk will they hear me?” Elva nodded at the same time as the person responded “Of course we will hear you. What kind of dumb question is that?”

Endrian smiled at Elva to reassure her and started talking “My name is Endrian. I am the son of Davian and Allyce. We are from the village Landow. The village was overrun by a beast horde. Most of the villagers, if not all, were able to make it out on the merchant ship. However, on the journey the ship was attacked and crashed. I don’t have the specifics of our location at this time but I should be able to find it shortly. There are currently six survivors of the crash that we know of. There may be others but we haven’t found them yet. We were in the hold when the crash occurred so we aren’t able to speak to what caused the crash but we can assume that all the crew and people topside were thrown off the ship when we hit something and started spinning. There is no sign of the crew or her captain or any of the adults who were fighting above the hold. We have been crashed for nearly a day at this point. We have also just passed through the beast horde that ravaged our village. It appears to have thinned out some but there are still a large amount of beasts running together. We have a couple of minor injuries in our group but nothing life threatening.” After saying all this he paused and waited for a response.

For a few seconds there was silence on the other end. Just when Endrian was becoming concerned that the other person was no longer there he heard a different voice come through the communication crystal saying “Thank you for giving us this information Endrian. We will pass this on to the appropriate people. Please keep this crystal on you at all times. Someone will contact you for further details. Try to have your location determined by the time they contact you.”

Sighing Endrian felt a tension he didn’t know he had suddenly leave him. Sitting down and then flopping back he twitched and jumped as his tail got in the way and then he scrapped the bandaged wounds. Giving up on expressing his relief physically he sat up happy and at the same time a little miffed. His sisters were visibly excited. Some sitting and smiling others crying and hugging each other.

“Alright before it gets too dark let’s take the map and figure out where we are. We will need to look for landmarks so I can get my bearing.” Endrian reminded them.

“Here, give me the map and I’ll take care of it. Plus you’re injured so you need to rest.” Elva said.

Endrian gave her a somewhat dubious look. “Do you know how to read a map and how to find landmarks?”

“No but it can’t be too hard. Just explain it to me.” She replied to him.

Endrian sighed and shook his head. He could tell that she was excited and wanted to prove that she was capable of taking control and now that she felt it was safe she wanted to reassert herself. “Elva I know that you are relieved that help will be on the way but until we arrive at Ampleforth we still need to survive here. If you don’t know how to do something then let someone who does handle it.”

“You know how to read a map? That reminds me I have some questions for you. How-” she started to unleash her pent up questions but Endrian cut her off.

“We still need to hurry before we run out of light. The longer we take the longer it will take them to rescue us. Ethese only has a day left at most before she wakes.” Endrian reasoned with her. At the same time he pulled on his shield again and prepared for the journey.

Hearing what Endrian had said snapped her out of her good mood and also made her realize that they weren’t saved yet. So she pushed down her questions and her feelings of irritation so that the could move forward. She did, however, say “Okay Ender. You, me and Etopha will head out. Zakoya needs to rest and Lisyth is best suited to help defend here in the cave.”

Nodding his head as he grabbed his pack that had the map and the light stones. He moved to make his way down to the floor. Etopha heard Elva and wiping her tears got ready so she could go out with them. Lisyth had so many emotions going on that she wasn’t sure what to feel so she settled on blaming Ender for taking her sister away right now. When he got near the drop off he thought about asking Lisyth to make some easy hand holds, but when he looked back and saw the look she was giving him thought better of it.

As he climbed down he thought ‘We aren’t out of this yet. We have to find information as quickly as possible so that we can give them accurate directions to us. We still need to see if there are other survivors. Since the shipping company didn’t have any knowledge of the actions going on then the city or government of whatever probably doesn’t have any news about Landow or the refugees.’ He wasn’t sure about the level of communication between different groups of people here but he assumed they should have been aware of a lot of ships departing in search for survivors and refugees. Of course that assumes they even have that many ships to send.

While thinking about the different ramifications of letting people know versus saving as many as you can, the possible political backlash and the costs, he had reached the floor of the cave. Elva and Etopha were not far behind. So he moved to the mouth of the cave to get some better light and then pulled the map out to look for landmarks to watch out for. Moving his bag around to get the map he winced as he rubbed some of his new wounds unintentionally. Finally getting the map out he looked for the legend that he hoped it would have as well as marking for North. Finding what he needed and some landmarks to look for he moved around to the edge of what used to be the ravine wall so that he could get to some higher ground.

Elva and Etopha arrived by his side as he was moving out and asked what he was doing. After explaining that he needed to get to higher ground so that he could find at least two and preferably three landmarks from a distance so that he could determine which way to hold the map. Then he would be able to triangulate their rough position he would then be able to give detailed descriptions of where the crash site was. They showed a somewhat blank expression as he was explaining but kept moving with him. Their lack of caution was due to a couple of factors. First they were feeling relieved that they would be rescued. Second the beast horde had already run through leaving massive destruction to the forest so they had clear line of sight for miles. Third the information that Endrian was trying to explain to them was nothing but words. They knew he was talking in the same language but nothing he said made any sense to them.

They continued to climb up the hill eventually reaching a plateaued area. After they reached their initial destination Endrian started to look around. Interestingly he notice a copse of trees still standing. Thinking that they would provide a good vantage to get his bearings if he could climb up them. He made his way over to them while noting what the trees looked like. They were very interesting to look at, probably about 20 meters tall each with a very straight trunk. They had many branches radiating off of the trunk though most branches were pretty thin. They would still be plenty thick to support his child like weight though. The leaves on the tree looked like small ferns just grew out of the branches. He hadn’t read about these trees before but they definitely looked unique. Shrugging off his need to analyze everything he moved to climb one of the trees. This would be his first time he would get to use his claws to climb and he was looking forward to how they performed.

He stepped under the tree and the closest branch to him was about 5 meters above him. Taking off his shield and placing his spear next to it he prepared for the climb. Jumping up he extended his claws to dig in and grip the trunk of the tree. Contrary to his expectations as soon as his claws got close to the bark a blue shield appeared around the tree. His claws could find no purchase on the blue shield that had appeared about 10 centimeters from the bark, which lead him to flailing his arms and sliding down to face plant on the ground. When he hit the ground he just laid there. He wasn’t really hurt but the damage to his pride was critical. He could already hear the girls giggling at him. Holding up a hand with one finger in the air he tried to get his sisters to quiet down but it had the opposite effect as they broke out in full blown guffaws. Accepting the defeat of his own making he rolled over and sat up.

“You could have warned me.” He accused the two of them.

Elva was the first to be able to bring her laughter to heel and she responded with “I didn’t know, but I guarantee that if I did I wouldn’t have said a word.”

“Thanks. I’m really feeling the love now.” Endrian retorted sarcastically.

Realizing he was going to have to give up on his current childish desire to climb a tree he grabbed his gear and started looking around. The hill he was on had a good line of sight, barring the copse of trees. So he started looking for the landmarks that he had noted when he looked at the map earlier. He quickly found a large bluff face to the north. To the south and east he could see cut in all the lower hills. It looked like a giant snake had cut a path through rock and dirt. ‘God I hope a snake didn’t actually make that path.’ He thought while looking at it. The bluff face met up with the hill they were on so they couldn’t really see any further north without climbing that bluff and that would take entirely too long. To the south, west and east there was a large swath of barren land. He could see off to the west there was still some forest standing. Shaking his head and focusing back on the task he looked east to see if he could find the massive tree that was marked on the map but it either wasn’t visible or it was gone now.

Now that he had a basic idea of the maps position and approximate distance from the two landmarks he should be able to properly guide them to the crash location. He packed up the map and picked up the rest of his gear. Looking at the girls he asked “Are you girls up for a bit of a run?”

Neither responded but Elva gave him a quizzical look. Taking that as his cue he said “I saw the crash site and I think I saw something. It could be where the others from the ship stayed or are staying. We should go take a look and see if there is anyone that needs help.”

Turning to look out they could see the ship from where they were. With the lack of trees or pretty much anything it was easy to see being only a few hundred meters, or maybe a thousand meters, from their current location. Endrian pointed a little to his right and the girls looked in the direction he indicated. They could see a pretty large mound of dirt to the right of the ship in the direction where they had initially taken off after the crash.

They started to jog down the hill and head in a straight line towards the large mound of dirt. Before they had even got a few steps the communication crystal started to glow and vibrate in Elva’s pack. She called out to Endrian when she caught the glow out of the corner of her eye. They quickly stopped and she pulled out the communication crystal and focused on it. Endrian tried to pay attention to what was happening this time. While he didn’t sense any mana movement, he could see a sigil light up on the top of the crystal. After that they could hear a voice from the other side.

“Hello, my name is Rantak. I am to understand that you are survivors of the allegedly crashed ship the Blushing Volunteer. Is this correct?” Rantak requested with a deep voice as he verified his information.

“Sir I do not know the name of the ship and I do not know the meaning of the word allegedly. What I do know is that we are survivors of a merchant ship that crashed saving people from Landow village when we ran from a beast horde.” Elva said in a slightly confused tone.

“It’s not sir it’s ma’am.” Rantak corrected her incorrect assumption. “Good we will need information on your current location and exact numbers of the survivors to be rescued. If there is a requirement for healing staff to be present we will need a detailed description of the injured.”

Endrian could see Elva was looking overwhelmed by Rantak’s use of diction and barrage of questions. He stepped up and started to answer for her “We are approximately 20 mul below of the Cassirick Bluff face. Sikandrial’s path is approximately 50 mul to the below and to the right of our location. We do not have a defined point of reference to the right as the Heavenborn Night Tree is not visible or has been destroyed by the beast hoard. However, there is a large swath of destruction and if you come to the approximate location you should be able to see the ship easily from the air. As to the numbers of survivors we have two with minor injuries, one under age and three that are fit. There are no adults with us currently. We have also found what looks like a place where there may be other survivors but we have yet to determine if there are any or in what numbers they exist.”

There was a pause on the other end and then “Can you give us an approximate number of survivors assuming the place you are talking about has additional survivors?”

“We don’t have an accurate count of the dead so it would just be a guess but I would say at most there would be thirty survivors in total including the six known. Also I would request that you send at least one additional ship to search for addition survivors that were thrown from the ship during the battle before we crashed. We do not know if any adults or crew survived it is possible that they were thrown from the ship and survived the fall. Most of the people in the hold were children or unawakened children dosed with Nightshade Lotus extract. Finding one or more of the relatives would be very helpful for them or we may have more deaths after this. We are going to have to wrap this up night is coming and I don’t want to be traveling around here at night.” Endrian wrapped up his conversation and turned to leave.

“Who am I currently talking with?” Rantak asked quickly.

“I am called Endrian.” He tossed back over his shoulder.

“We will be at the location as quickly as we can please pay attention we will make sure we signal in all directions with light stones or flares if we don’t see you. We will wait long enough for the sun to travel a handspan across the sky before leaving. Thank you for helping us. I will be sure to look for you when you arrive.” Rantak finished off and then closed the connection.

Endrian didn’t bother waiting any longer and started moving as quickly as he felt safe with to get to the mound of dirt. The girls caught up with him quickly and they took up a proper formation as the moved forward. The quickly arrived at the large mound but there was no obvious entrance and the only person they had who could move earth easily was Lisyth. Not knowing what else to do Endrian yelled at it and kicked it. A moment later the side of the mound split open and an older person rushed out. She was in her fighting form and looked to be some type of raccoon subspecies. Seeing only the children there she looked around asking “Where is everyone else? We need help for my sister immediately.”

“Ma’am you need to calm down.” Endrian said. “Help is on the way.” He then turned and looked at Elva and said “Contact Rantak and let her know that we will definitely need the healing staff.” Turning back to the older woman he said “Can you tell me your name and how many survivors you have in there?”

“We don’t have time for that! Give me that communication crystal. I’ll get us out of here.” she yelled at them.

Endrian saw her making an aggressive move towards Elva who had just pulled the communication crystal out of her pack. He quickly stepped in front of her and moved his spear to intercept her path if she didn’t stop. She briefly paused then swatted at the spear, but Endrian expected this move and quickly pulled the spear back to avid her. Then he stepped forward widening his stance and thrust the spear forward to hit her in the sternum. This spear was his training spear and was blunted for the most part so there was no worries about killing her. She did receive a sharp strike to her chest which forced her to stop her forward movement as well as piercing her skin slightly. He quickly recovered his spear while glaring at this woman. By this time Etopha had reacted and was moving to flank this woman in case of more problems.

“Back off.” Endrian said loudly with as stern a voice as he could muster. “I know this is hard and you are worried but everything is moving as fast as it can. Now let’s-”

“You are just a child and a boy you know nothing!” she cut him off and yelled at him. In the background he could hear Elva talking with Rantak. This was apparently driving her to a frenzy as she charged immediately after yelling at Endrian.

Etopha was caught off guard as she didn’t expect the lady to charge at Endrian after the warning strike he gave her. Endrian, on the other hand, responded quickly. He feinted with his spear by thrusting it at her face causing her to focus on it. As soon as she reacted he lowered his center of gravity moved the spear off to his right. This was a natural move as he pivoted to his right and slammed his shield into the inside of her left leg right at the knee joint. As she was falling Endrian recovered and reversed his pivot bringing his spear back to catch her in the head. With her hands out to break her fall her head was fully exposed and with his reverse pivot the side of the spear slammed into her head catching her temple as she turned her head away from the impact. This laid her out cold. Keeping his eyes on the fallen woman and spear pointed at her neck he said “Etopha go take a look inside and see what’s there.”

Hearing Endrian’s words Etopha woke from her shock and moved inside the mound to take a look around. She couldn’t see too clearly as there was no light source. It was hot and the air was bad and the smell of feces and fear made a pungent aroma that was anything but pleasant. She came back out and said “I can’t see clearly let me get a light stone from you.”

Endrian didn’t move to get the stone but nodded and said “Come over here and get it out of my pack I do not want to ease my watch on her until I know she is thinking right.”

She grabbed the stone and then moved back into the mound. She could see a few hands full of people in there. While she wasn’t as good as Endrian at counting she could still count up to twenty. What she found was that there were seventeen bodies inside. Five of them were obviously dead. Two children that she assumed were unawakened in the dead. Making her feel incredibly sad over the loss of ones so young and innocent. There were two teenagers in their fighting form that were dead as well as one older male adult. There was another adult female as well who was still alive but would be dead in a short while as she had a hole going her on her upper chest. It was amazing that she was even still alive as gruesome as the wound looked. The other eleven people were a mixture of teens in their fighting form and unawakened children that were still unconscious. The teenagers looked terrified and huddled together while watching Etopha. After getting the numbers in her head she went back out and told Ender what she had found.

“Okay according to Rantak we will have to wait half a day before they can get here. So we should move back to the cave. We can get them some food and water while we wait for the rescue ship.” Off in the distance he could see movement at the ship. He wasn’t sure what it was but right now the priority was to move these people to safety.

Endrian and his sisters spent a little bit of time coaxing the others out of the dirt mound. After making the arrangements four of the teens carried the unconscious woman that Endrian had knocked out. The others carried the unconscious unawakened children. Endrian showed them how to perform a fireman’s carry so they could make good time. The last task he had was to go in and try to talk with the dying woman.

“We have a couple of options for you.” He said looking her in her eyes. “First we can carry-” before even finishing she shook her head no. Nodding he continued “We can leave you here, a rescue ship is coming there is the chance that the healing staff can save you.” She smiled but she couldn’t talk. Instead she weakly grabbed his spear and lifted it towards her. This was not one of the options he was going to say. Honestly speaking it was absolutely something he didn’t want to do. However, this was her life it was her’s to decide. He looked at her and asked her if she was sure. She smiled and shifted to her human form. She was older with grey in her short and bright violet hair. There were wrinkles on her face and eyes. Happy crows feet had left an indelible mark on her face through time. She lifted up her head and placed the spear tip with much effort at her throat. Her eyes never left Endrian as she begged him with her eyes to end her suffering. Endrian’s eyes filled with tears as he quickly thrust before he could stop himself. He looked into her eyes as the light faded and he thought he saw gratitude but with all the tears pouring out of his eyes he felt it was just something he made up to make himself feel better over doing something like that.

Coming out of the mound still wiping the tears from his eyes. He got everyone moving. Elva seeing this started getting everyone moving before they had a chance to question what happened. Unfortunately Etopha didn’t catch the hint and asked “What about the other lady? Shouldn’t we bring her as well?”

Smiling bitterly Endrian forced himself to say “She didn’t make it.” Some of the other teenagers heard this and started crying again. Etopha realizing her blunder finally said “Ah, sorry.” Fortunately the only one who seemed to see the blood on Endrian’s spear was Elva and she wasn’t going to say anything.

They were all able to make it back to the cave without any further incidents occurring. After feeding the teenagers and tying up the older lady everyone settled in for the night. Endrian and his sisters still kept watch through the night. With nothing happening that night everyone got an early start excited to end their ordeal and get back. The only incident that happened was the lady had woke up and gone completely crazy so they had to knock her out again. The rescue ship arrived just after sunrise. Endrian and everyone were so relieved to put this behind them. Once they were all on the ship it turned and headed off. Endrian had seen two other small and fast boats searching the area. Hopefully they would find more survivors like his parents. However, that was for later. For now it was time to rest.