Chapter 10- Currently loading

--Kida---

The moment I heard the shout, I ran in its direction. I couldn’t be sure but I had a bad feeling, especially because our village’s half-assed occult witch had been acting weirdly since the disaster started.

…

I mean, she’s the one who talks about dissecting brains, frog eye potions and ghost whispering, yet she got scared. Whenever I asked she would mutter something: “…burst…won’t survive…”

I didn’t know what to do. The last time this happened, she wasn’t like this. I asked the village elder for some advice and he told me that Lola has very high magic perception for a human. He too is quite good in that field but not an inch as good as Lola. In my case, I have high resistance but only so-so perception, so I can’t tell.

…

Anyway, I had been having bad feelings about this whole thing. So I hurried my steps towards the village center, where the village elder’s house was, and where most of the patients were… but I stopped dead in my tracks the moment I approached it.

…

…

Whatever had happened the people that were supposed to be there, weren’t there… at least not the whole of them.

…

What greeted me was a scene of a massacre. All I saw were dead bodies; no, none of them were even whole bodies anymore, just bits and pieces, small parts with no distinction of who was the owner.

Something got stuck in my throat. My eyes got blurry but I wasn’t sure of the reason they did. I felt my knees grow so weak I couldn’t keep straight anymore.

I fell.

I didn’t faint, I just fell, my eyes never once leaving the scene before me.

Someone…

Anyone… please…

Please breathe… move… speak.

…al…ive…are…

Someone, please…

I was shouting with my heart, because my voice never once left my throat. It was stuck together with that something that refused to let go since earlier.

“Ah…”

Just for a bit, my ears caught something, someone’s voice.

I turned to look.

“Wha-t…”

A terrified face, was looking at the same bloody scene.

“Ma-ya…”

I could barely let out that one word, but the freezing fear that was creeping in my heart just a moment ago calmed down the moment I saw her. She too, brightened up just a little when she saw me.

“Ugh…”

Yet another voice…

I looked around to find out where it came from.

I saw in the middle of a bloody mess, San and Herc, still moving, just barely alive.

Of the two San was missing an arm; Mr. Hercul was unconscious but still breathing.

Little by little, I started seeing some of the still living villagers. Each villager I saw alive, made a weight suddenly remove from my chest.

However, I realized they weren’t many. And amongst them, Lola and mother Veta weren’t present. Another cold started creeping up in my heart, when I suddenly heard another scream.

I recognized the voice as one of my crazy best friends and sister, and I abruptly stood up and headed there. My wobbly steps didn’t stop me from advancing and I saw Maya run just behind me.

“Lola!”

The both of us shouted the moment we saw her… but then our steps came to a stop.

…

She was crying.

…Crying while holding the only one we call mother…

…

The big woman had always taken care of us. She washed and fed us since we were babies. The orphaned we had no one in this world until she took us in.

Big, warm, strict, loving, and always there like a mother… that’s how she was to us. Yet, right in front of us, her limp body didn’t move, as a pair of white hands gripped her strongly, as if trying to stop her from going away.

Whatever it was that was stuck in my throat, was now suffocating me. Tears came down without holding back. My eyes swelled red, my heart beat wildly, though I tried to calm it down.

I couldn’t hold back anymore.

I cried.

I cried and cried.

Mother… mother

Mother…

Mother…

I shouted with all my heart.

…But the answer to my fears and pleas was naught but the sight of a dead body.

...

…

…

It wasn’t long after that. I felt like my world was shaking. I looked at Lola and Maya to notice the both of them looked a bit surprised and shaky too.

Whatever it was that came, separated us from the world for an instant, an just like that, we lost sight of ourselves, as something pulled us in and then pushed us back with big force.

***

When I came to, the world was… different.

My eyes burned, so I tried blinking a few times. I still couldn’t see too well because they were still swollen a blurry.

However, I’m pretty sure we were in an unknown place.

All around me there was a carpet of pure white snow. A bit further away, there was a small forest, though frozen, but beside that forest, everything else was pure white with nothing in sight.

I panicked. I looked around me to try finding someone else but to no avail. I was alone.

I panicked some more, and then stood up, which caused me to realize I was sitting on someone.

“San.”

I shouted happily at the person who was still unconscious.

“Ugh-”

I saw he was regaining consciousness and became so happy I could dance. My eyes suddenly landed on his missing arm.

I frowned. As I approached to take a better view, I saw that, even though, the arm wasn’t there, the wound had closed and it wasn’t bleeding.

“Ugh… Kida.”

I heard him call me as I saw him trying to stand up. He did stand up, though a bit wobbly.

“It’s freaking cold in here. Where are we?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry hearing him complain about the cold while missing an arm and after that situation, but I answered.

“I don’t know.”

----------------

In the middle of snow-covered hill stood two figures, feeling lost and confused. They were close in age, both teens.

This place where snow fell 10 months out of 12, was called Glacia Kingdom. It was in border with Degrife, its hateful enemy, with whom it got to war often because of lack of resources.

Of course, the youths didn’t know that.

“Let’s go, San.”

“Where to?” The boy asked confused as he looked at his friend. They had no idea where they were, meaning they also didn’t know where to go.

“Scouting the area. Surviving comes first, finding our family later.” Though she might have not noticed, the girl’s voice wavered a bit when she said that, and her eyes teared up.

“…Ok.”

The boy did notice, but he didn’t ask, because even though he had lost conscious, he had hopes for their friends, and seeing Kida like that he hadn’t the heart to.

…

…After walking for a few hours, they didn’t notice anything in particular. The cold and snow had made it hard for them to make much progress but they were able to deduct some things.

“So, this place isn’t even close to our earlier destination. The climate is as different as it can get. It’s hard for animals to live here, but there are snow rabbits around, that can serve as food for us. The predator is the mountain wolf, but seeing the footprints it’s a bit smaller. We should be careful of it anyway.

What we are missing now is a temporary shelter and more clothes or at this rate, we’ll freeze to death.”

Silence.

The boy didn’t answer immediately.

“What?” She asked irritated.

“Nothing, I was thinking as expected of Herc’s best student.”

While continuing their walk, they saw their salvation in the distance. A hundred or so meters away, the ground rose a little and made a sudden curve forming an arch and giving that small space a cave-like look.

…

Right in front of that wannabe cave a black thing lied on the ground.

…

Seeing this thing the both of them stopped their steps to observe.

“Doesn’t that look familiar?” San was the first to talk.

“…Y-yeah.”

Of course it looked familiar.

Before the two of them stood none other than the weirdo they had picked up out of their village a bit more than a week ago. (FYI, that weirdo is our MC)

They approached it while keeping their guard up, but the body on the ground’ didn’t react at all.

They went even closer, but then stopped as a sudden fear entered their bones. It was a feeling of total oppression with no way out, no mercy.

“Ugh-”

The body moved just so slightly, and the girl on the ground opened her eyes to look at them. The half opened eyes stayed like that only for a few seconds, after which they closed again. The heavy feeling stopped, and the sword in her hand let out a bright light before everything calmed down.

The both of them, who looked at her, were stunned. They didn’t know how to react at all, but a sudden wind brought them back to their senses and they entered the small cave together with the weirdo in hand.

--Reveka---