"When I met you all, I had no expectations," I told everyone around the fire. "I fully believed that I would long outlive every single one of you, not out of choice, but necessity." I sighed at the thought. "I must confess I had no desire to build anything more than a working relationship with any of you. I see now that such a goal was folly." I laughed at the idea.

  "What changed your mind?" A soft voice asked from across the flames.

  "Honestly, it was how much every single one of you lied to me at the start," I replied. "You all hid something, and that scent of a secret eventually made me look at you each better." I did not stare at anyone around the fire. Looking at them would show all the changes they'd gone through over the years. YetI was already more than aware of them. Instead, I let my vision linger on the flames and the dancing colors within.

  "A relationship built on lies is supposed to be a bad thing, or did the world get all turned upside down already?" A voice cut in with a joking tone that was so much less strained than it once was.

  "I wouldn't say it's built on lies. But the lies and secrets indeed are what made me want to know you all better." I replied.

  "Don't get all mushy on us yet." A gravely voice cut out of the shadows. "You said that would wait until you were healed."

  "You're right. I'll have to wait till then to tell you how much you've all helped me." I agreed.

  "How is the healing going, by the way?" A high-pitched voice asked with genuine concern.

  "Well, my vision is still blurry, and my skin's started to itch where the muscles aren't attached yet. But, it's proceeding steadily." I told only a half-truth. My teeth ached from growing back so fast, my flesh burned around my neck and legs, and I was still missing an eye. But telling them any of that would only worry them. They couldn't help with any of it, so I'd keep the details to myself.

  "That's good. When do you think you'll be able to move again?" They questioned further.

  "You will find it too convenient, but likely sometime around the end of this story of mine." I didn't have to lie or hide anything this time.

  "Get to it then. A few of us weren't there for the next part, so I'd like to know what happened next." An impatient feminine voice said.

  "I don't think I'm the best one to tell the next section," I said.

  "Who would be then?" The voice asked.

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  The start of Luna's problems had been dinner. Honestly, while the food was terrible, she could overlook that for what happened next. It'd started with Mask's pet Scales jumping out of his cloak in apparent panic. Before Luna could even voice her concern for the critter, Mask yanked a stone spear out of nowhere, and Deven did something nausea-inducing to place two shields on his arms.

  While Luna months ago would have panicked at this, the sight of two people readying for battle was enough to jolt the recent training into place. Fast as she felt she could, Luna stood from her seat and drew her sword, not that she was confident in using it yet.

  That's when the reason for Scales's panic fell out into the little clearing. Two men, muddy and beaten, started speaking fast, and Luna barely kept track of the conversation. She still needed to ask what they meant by burn. That's when the first man tried to run past them toward the city. He was looking for her, but he didn't wait to find out he'd already succeeded.

  Mask acted faster than Luna could see. Not that she was surprised by that anymore. Everyone seemed to move quicker than she could see. In an instant, the man who tried to run was on his back beside Hern, the other man, and Mask had tumbled backward into the grass. Luna still had next to no idea what was going on when the man she didn't know the name of stood up and pushed past her. He was headed toward where Mask had fallen with an angry look in his eyes.

  Alone, none of this would be that bad, at least by Luna's standards. But, when the angry man reached Mask, Mask headbutted the man and knocked him down before continuing toward the now panicking Hern.

  "Start talking." He said, and Luna could see familiar aggression in the choppy motion of his writing.

  Obviously as confused as Luna was, Hern barely got out sounds to indicate he recognized he was the target of the words. But Mask didn't seem to care.

  "TALK, NOW," This time, Mask's writing looked dangerous. Gone was the golden hue and clear font. The letters burned with a ghastly looking flame, a heat washing backward from the letters with enough force even Luna felt it.

  >You need to stop him.< Luna felt the voice and knew it was advising her, but it was so far away that she only barely understood a few words.

  Acting on what she did catch, Luna stepped forward with an outstretched hand and placed it on Mask's shoulder in askance. "Are you alright? What's wrong?" She tried to ask with her eyes. Luna had only seen Mask so aggressive one time prior, the day she met him at the arena. So seeing him this upset now had her concerned, not only for him but for the one who upset him to this extent.

  Luna didn't know if Mask understood what she'd tried to convey with her eyes. But he did step back and let her deal with the panicked Hern without any complaints. So that's what Luna did, or was trying to do.

  "We have to go; everyone's going to die!" Hern spoke so fast that Luna had trouble keeping up with him at times.

  "Yes, you said that already. And I'm telling you you've already reached help. Just tell me what's wrong." She tried to remain calm while speaking to the man.

  "It's not enough; there were too many." He sounded panicked, and Luna could tell that his vision was rapidly darting to his friend, who still hadn't moved after Mask hit him.

  >God, I hope he's not hurt.< She thought to herself.

  "Too many what?" Luna pushed softly.

  Unfortunately, Hern didn't seem willing to continue. He'd been panicked from the moment his friend went down, and now he was all but hyperventilating.

  "Haah," Luna sighed and stood up from where she'd crouched to talk to Hern. "Well, it doesn't seem we'll be getting any information from him right now." She admitted while turning to the rest of her friends. "Unless someone else has a way to calm him down, he's not gonna tell us anything." She clarified.

  Looking around, she didn't see anyone stepping forward to help. Mask was sat a ways away, looking relatively small. Deven had let his shields return to wherever he'd pulled them from, but he didn't seem willing or able to coerce Hern into talking. Roxy had barely moved from where she'd been before. Not that Luna blamed her, considering how close she'd been to not reacting herself. Emilia was silent, but Luna noted a small expression of pity flash across her face. Shu-Na looked like he stepped forward for an instant. But when Luna blinked, he was standing where he was before. She assumed he was just adjusting his weight.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Luna was about to accept that no one could help with the situation, when Liza stepped forward.

  Luna hadn't expected anything from Deven's sister. That'd been an explicit part of what Deven was concerned about; Luna, nor anyone else could expect her to use any abilities whatsoever. Luna recognized the issue others would have with that. But when Deven explained why that was the case, Luna was more than willing to accept it. With that in mind, seeing the girl volunteer herself was shocking. Luna didn't say anything to her, but a quick look at Deven showed he was more than concerned but wouldn't interfere.

  "OgMeeekMend" "Of Meek Mind" Liza muttered the spell name, her words slurred to the point Luna wasn't sure she understood them at all. Still, the spell proved more than adequate.

  In an instant, Hern's mental state was flipped on its head. He went from a panicked mess, his eyes darting from Mask to his friend to Luna and everyone else. And then, he was all too calm. His eyes almost glazed over as his entire body seemed to sag downwards. He stopped looking around, his eyes practically sinking into a blank stare. Luna wasn't sure whatever Liza had done was healthy for the man, but at the very least, it wasn't physical force like Mask had seemed about to use.

  Before she continued trying to get information from Hern, Luna noted Liza almost collapsing into Devens's arms, a pained look overtaking her blank face. Deven looked concerned, but he didn't say anything as he took Liza toward the extra bag they'd brought with them.

  "Alright, Hern, was it?" Luna returned her attention to the now calm man. "Why don't you start by telling us why you wanted to get the hero from the city?" She goaded the man.

  "Oh? That." Hern said as if it wasn't his concern. "We needed to get the hero because of the monster flood." He said it so casually that Luna almost forgot it was supposed to be an emergency.

  "Monster flood?" Luna asked, confused.

  "Yeah. It's a big one, loads of monsters just popping up around our village, big problem." He said it like he was in a daze.

  "That should be impossible," Roxy exclaimed.

  "Why?" Luna asked curiously.

  "Monsters come from an abundance of miasma. By its inherent nature, miasma concentrations are lower around gatherings of people." Roxy explained.

  "Hey, the lady's got a brain, lot like my niece, cute girl. Hehe," Hern chuckled out.

  "Then is he lying?" Luna asked cautiously.

  "No lie here, missy." Hern spluttered but didn't volunteer a further explanation.

  "Then what happened?" Luna asked, her concern for Hern's town mixing with irritation at the man's current temperament.

  "I don't know," Hern said flatly.

  "What do you know?" Luna asked.

  "That Dahr and I ran past hundreds of monsters getting out of town." His tone was calm, but the words sent Luna into a panic of her own.

  "WHEN?!" She asked hurriedly.

  "We left late this morning. Few friends of ours opened a hole in the hoard to let us get help. I hope they're alright." He took all too long to utter the answer to Luna's question. By the time he'd started talking about his escape, Luna had already turned to her friends to discuss what they should do.

  "WE need to help them." She all but screamed while trying to pack up her stuff to get going.

  "We don't know where to go." Shu-Na voiced.

  "We'll have them show us." She said.

  "In the dark of night?" Roxy asked.

  "We have to. They're probably fighting right now," Luna replied.

  "Luna," Emilia called out with an exhausted voice.

  "WHAT?!" Luna barked as she turned to face away from what she was doing. "Why aren't you all packing?" She asked, confused.

  "Luna, we won't be in any state to help them if we spend the whole night running," Shu-Na said with what Luna took as a defeated tone.

  "That's assuming we'll be of any help at our best," Deven seconded.

  "So we do nothing?" Luna asked incredulously.

  "No one suggested that," Emilia replied. "We merely need you to think rationally about the problem." She continued calmly.

  Luna wanted to lash out at the comment, but a nudge from the voices stopped her.

  >Don't hold it against them. They're not strong enough to step in just yet.< The motherly voice said.

  >A hundred monsters, even weak ones, is a lot, especially for a group of tier 1 and 2s.< The typically nonchalant voice sounded grave and irritated. >A whole flood of them will be more than you can handle.< The voice sounded hurt to admit this.

  >The worst days are the ones where you want to help but have to leave it to someone else.< The Childish-sounding voice said.

  >Then what do I do?< Luna asked but received no answer.

  Looking around, Luna saw a similar sentiment mirrored on everyone's faces. A look that said they wanted to give up before trying because the odds were against them. It wasn't that they didn't want to help. It was that they didn't want to die in vain by attempting something that was beyond them. They didn't give up because they were lazy. That was obvious by the pained look in everyone's eyes. They gave up because they knew they couldn't help in the way those in trouble needed.

  >What do I do?< Luna almost begged the voices to help her, but they remained as silent as the void.

  "What do we do?" Luna voiced her question out loud.

  Like the voices, her friends remained silent. Shu-Na's teeth creaked as he clenched his jaw to the breaking point. Emilia had tears in her eyes, but a quick wipe of her sleeve later and her expression turned stony and cold. Deven didn't turn to face Luna, but she could see the rigid set of his back, even through his armour.

  Luna saw it written across all of them. The admission that despite facing yet another crisis, they could do even less than they had a month ago. They wouldn't make it in time to help; they couldn't cover the distance fast enough. It was heart-wrenching not only to see it in her friends but to feel that same helplessness in herself.

  >I thought things would be better than this,< Luna thought to herself. >I'm supposed to be able to help people.<

  She felt the voices stir this time, but they remained just as silent.

  Luna managed to retake her seat at the fire. It wasn't easy; the internal war to keep packing or collapse to the ground in defeat had been a mentally devastating one. But by some miracle, she'd managed to keep her composure long enough to reach where she'd been sitting joking about the lousy food, not thirty minutes prior.

  "What do I do?" She whispered to herself.

  "You will do what you can." The golden words floated into place between her eyes and the fire.

  Looking up, Luna saw Mask packing his stuff away at a shockingly rapid pace.

  "What do you mean?" She asked helplessly.

  "In the morning, you take that one to the city." He wrote with one hand while taking the stakes of his tent out with the other. The end of his message had a small arrow pointing toward the man Luna assumed was named Dahr. "You get the help that your position gives you the authority to request." He continued while deftly packing away the parts of his tent.

  "How's that any different than letting them go before we found out what the problem was?" She asked the question, but she had an inkling the answer wouldn't come from Mask.

  "How would you like it to be different?" He wrote out a question while purposely making it obvious he was packing only his bag of stuff.

  >Will he be able to help?< Luna asked the voices, who seemed always to advise her to trust Mask.

  """""Yes""""" Five of six voices said in unison.

  "GO," she said to Mask, knowing he already understood what she was saying. "We'll join you when we can." She continued, but Mask had already moved to grab Hern like a bag of potatoes, leaving his packed bag behind with the group.

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  "You two tell the same story so differently."  

  "I apologize for that. At that time, I saw you in a much different light than she did." I responded.

  "I'll say. She tells it like this big emotional send-off. You'd have told this section like it was a calculated decision to get away from the group." They called me on my section of the story being less than in-line with others' interpretation of the events.

  "It's the cost of telling a story from memory," I replied.