Ringing and numbness, those were the only two sensation James felt when he opened his eyes and noticed the only thing he could do. Sight was mostly gone with a blurring so badly a person would not be allowed to drive. The longer he kept his eyes open the longer things came into clarity.

Twice in one day knocked out, no way that’s good for my head. Can’t move and don’t even know why but what happened with Sloodar? Seems he underestimated the… Divine power, that it, I had. That raises questions about what I can do just now is not the time

Trying to move his head revealed to James that yes his body was in pretty bad shape there seemed to be a weight on top of him that he guess was rumble like what was in front of him. Although what was in front of his eyes was mostly rocks along with a single long scorch mark that instantly burned away the grass under it. After notice that James vision began to focus along with his sense of smell then it made sense how he was still alive.

There is a body on top of me, why did my smell have to come back

Flesh had a smell after being flashed cooked that James wished he could instantly forget and push it off of him but the numbness was complete and staying awake was already becoming harder. Everything was burning, there were even rats that seemed to still walking out of the cave but when one came into view it was walking while completely on fire, already dead with its body following the last commands of the mind.

“Well… hav… there”

Without even noticing James fell asleep and had been awaken by a voice meaning part of his hearing had come back. There was no way to tell how long he had been out but less things were burning and sadly James realized the smell of a dead body on top of him was becoming the norm. None of that mattered anymore because after so long help had finally arrived, help he had not expected to see again.

Mom it’s you!

In front of James eyes was his mother along with Mark along with other adults who seemed to be looking over the area.

“my god… ove… its…”

Another person who James remember as Tom’s mother was carrying a limp man from the entrance of the still burning cave. There were burns on portions of his body and the only thing he was wearing was simple cloth shorts, his body seemed thinner than it should have been.

No way it can’t be but is that Tom’s Father! He’s going to be so happy… that’s right, Tom is gone now. Well when he threw me over the other side and told me to find his father I guess I held up my end to that deal. Looks like it’s my turn to be saved finally.

James parents were talking with Tom’s Mother but James could not hear them, they are wore fancy looking armor and impressive looking weapons. His armor was made of metal and was the usual guard armor he wore for his job patrolling the walls and town while Mark had his usual sliver spear. His mother had a bow that was as tall as she was with some sort of symbols and two arrows ready to be fired at a moment’s notice.

There seemed to be some sort of disagreement, Tom’s mother was leaving with another men helping drag him to a spot where women in white held her hand over his body then they began glowing.

“Here’s not here and you know what Arlen said that with the huge magical explosion and whatever that magical energy is still here it was lucky enough we found the children we did”

“Mark at this point I don’t care about other babies, I want to find OUR child!”

She struggled as Mark held her in a lock as if it was going to kill her to stay in his arms then she stopped fighting as much and her legs began to shake. Soon enough her legs gave out from under her and the two of them where on their knees crying in each other’s arms.

No its okay you don’t have to cry I am right here, just look at me and everything will be okay. Just look at me!

From this distance his thoughts could not travel the distance over to the two of them so the only thing James was able to do at this point was watch as they cried after thinking there new born baby had died. Mark was the first one to compose himself as he started to stand up and practically lifted his mother.

Please don’t leave me here… take me with you. I promise I won’t leave the house ever again if you just take me with you right now…

“tge be mit uo”

For the first time in his life James tried speaking using his voice but what came out not even he could understand. Over and Over again James tried speaking with his voice and mind yet no one could hear him but himself. Even as the tears came running down his eyes watching his Mother and Father hold each other after giving up and left with the rest of the adventure party along with the others saved. Then among the fire and rubble and burning bodies was now just James stuck under it all.

Next time James opened his eyes it was night but that was hard to believe given the amount of fire that was still around somehow.

My own parents left me

That was the only thought that was in his mind now as the bodies of dead rats still weighed on him. There was a clear difference this time when James tried to move his body responded. Only his arms were free so it was still hard to move but there were still options that could be taken to free himself. Using his good arm James dug is fingers into the body of the rat laying on top of him then rolled it off ignoring the crunches of its burnt skin landing it next to him.

Immediately it was easier to move and breathe leaving only his legs pinned under another burnt rat body. James dragged himself forward in order to get himself free and when he did the full sight of what was left. The opening to the cave had large cuts let something tried to force the door larger and the other wall of the door cracked under the pressure. Inside there was a warm glove that somehow had not stopped yet, more importantly it raised the question of what was causing the glow.

Standing up James saw dozens of rat bodies in various states with his own bleeding from more than one spot. Trying to collect himself the noises around were still loud and made it hard, while trying to filter them out he noticed there was new sounds. The direction the sounds were coming from was the entrance to the ruins of the cave.

Something is alive down there and there’s more than one

Realizing finally about what the elf man Arlen had the right idea about leaving this place James picked himself up at looked at the tree line figuring out where he had originally come from. Finding the hole in the ground he used as a waypoint when he was digging the tunnel under to hide hen other voices came from behind. At first James was worried it was from whatever seemed to be coming out of the cave but it was buried under more rat bodies. James hesitatingly started to pull one rat body after another off the pile allowed the sound to become louder than noticing it was more than one sound. When the last rat came off there was amazingly three babies huddled around each other, one of them he remembered as the one taken before his eyes.

As for the others both of one of the babies’ arms up to its elbows was completely burnt. He had brown hair and seemed also to have not eaten enough lately but given that these were meant to be an offering it came as no surprise. The last one seemed to be the oldest, maybe close to two years old and had large amounts of ash covering himself.

Three babies? Jeez I don’t want to bring them but after going through all that I don’t want to be alone or leave them to whatever is still alive down there

Time was short now with whatever was down the cave clearly could be heard coming up there was just the issue of have to bring the three along. James did not have enough hands to even grab them so it would take something flat to put them on. James waddled at the best speed he could managed at this point and through smoke went over to one of the trees that had fallen over when a rock shot out of the cave and through it.

Luckily its bark was mostly in piece so he pushed his entire arm on an exposed piece and started to separate it from the main tree. Just a little bit at a time or else it could snap in half with one eye focused don that with the other on the glowing cave entrances that looked more like a maw now. Once it became too hard to pull anymore off James snapped it and while a bit small would do.

Dragging it quickly over James rolled the babies onto the bark sled and started to push. The effort was a great one but they four of them were moving while avoiding holes and not even daring to look behind. Into the tree line and past it they went into James body could take no more he rested. Two of the babies were asleep now but the baby with burnt arms never stopped crying which is why James was able to hear him and saved all three of their lives.

Okay those two sleeping I will call… John and Trey as for that poor guy what about Logan?

Of course none of them could answer so after a short rest and serval more after that by the time the sun came up the four of them where now back on the hilltop. James laid down next to the three babies as they all began crying at once with him to tried to do anything at that point so he just accepted the noise at laid there.

I refuse to take care of babies