“What do you do you want” Akilah asked firmly

Rae quickly turned around, looking at the people she had desperately called out for now seemingly having appeared out of thin air.

“H-how did you…W-where did you” Rae shocked by their abrupt arrival couldn’t form coherent sentences

“You called for us and we arrive, the ‘how’ and ‘where’ isn’t important” Akilah said, trying to quickly stop Rae’s rambling. “Now, what is it you want”

Rae stayed quiet for a bit then started talking “I…They…”

Akilah grew increasingly impatient

“Listen I don’t have-”

Adara stopped Akilah from finishing her sentence, she gestured for Akilah to calm down and look closely at Rae. Rae was looking with tears starting to swelling in her eyes and lips quivering. Akilah opened her mouth to say something but just then Rae burst out in tears. Adara places a hand on Akilah’s shoulder, looking over at her and slowly shaking her head.

“Let me handle this” Adara said softly.

Adara slowly walked towards Rae, what was visibly distressed. Akilah took at closer look at Rae while Adara was talking to her. She had cuts from presumably getting hit by tree branches and falling down, he dress was torn at the bottom and her shoes were dirty. It looked like she came here in a hurry and got lost in the woods and was desperately trying to find them. The distressed little girl standing in front of Akilah reminded her of herself from years ago, from the night where she had buried Adara. Akilah slightly shook her head as a means of getting rid of her intrusive thoughts ‘Now is not the time for that’ Akilah thought. However, even if she didn’t want it to admit to it, the fact that she saw her old self in Rae did make her take pity on her. Meanwhile Adara had managed to calm Rae down to the point where she couldn’t explain what had happened that lead her here to them.

Rae explained that while out shopping with her older sister unbeknownst to them they had been watch by one of the kings soldiers. Once they arrived home they heard a knock on their front door, the opened it and in came the kings solders. Among them on stood out, it was one of the solders from that fighting incident. He was apparently the only one of the group of soldiers that had any recollection of the fight, he had also been the one that had told everyone about the ‘beast man’ that had attacked them. Thus they started spreading out flyers and looking for her beast man. However after some time had passed and they still had no leads to go on, their leader then decided to look for the girls instead, assuming that they must have information about the beast man.

Rae had stayed hidden when the soldiers came to their come but from what she had heard, her father and Etila had denied knowing anything about the beast man. Even though Rae and Etila had told their father about the incident and even Akilah and Adara’s names they had decided not to tell the soldiers this information. This was their way of repaying Akilah and Adara for what they did that day. Etila had wanted to deny every being there in the first place however the solder from that day vehemently stood by his claim that it was indeed them. Since they had caught them in one lie, they figured that they were also lying about not knowing the beast man and therefore the soldiers decided to keep their father as a hostage. The soldiers stated that if the attackers behind the incident did now how up until tomorrow morning they would take their father in his places instead, and have him executed to treason, since he would be charged for attacking the kings solders. Going against Etila’s wished Rae had snuck out and ran away from home, in search for the Akilah and Adara, hoping that they could once again help them.

After listening to Rae’s story Adara offered to walk her home and talk to her and Etila about the situation, but Rae objected that idea, stating that there was guards outside of their front door. The only reason Rae had managed to escape was because guards didn’t know that she was even at home therefore she disguised herself as and managed to escape through the back door. Adara then offered to let Rae stay at their house until they figure something out, to which Rae begrudgingly agreed to.