Agnes looked back at her house that now had flames surrounding it.

“Miss Agnes, let’s hurry” came Lamia’s desperate voice.

Agnes listened to the screams that came from her house and looked at the flames that were rising in the direction of her house. She was scared. Very scared.

“Mommy” she whimpered softly.

“Agnes…” Lamia’s voice sounded cracked, “Sorry, let’s hurry, okay?”

Agnes managed a nod and after glancing back a few times began to run to keep up with Lamia.

Suddenly Agnes heard a scream. And she stopped running. The scream was not familiar but the voice was. It was her mother’s.

A thunderous roar shook the ground and from the direction of their house came purple flames.

Agnes’ eyes widened and she wrenched her hand from Lamia’s, “Mommy…, Daddy” she whispered and began to run.

Lamia was shocked at the girl’s speed and ran as fast as her stout legs could carry her. But she was a dwarf and dwarves were not very agile especially if they didn't train to do so.

“Miss Agnes! Please come back” Lamia beckoned but it all seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Agnes ran towards the cottage and saw the purple flames. She reached out to them and nothing happened. She used her whole strength and opened the door.  Running inside she poked her head through the window to look for her parents.

She saw her mother with something shiny inside her. She cocked her head slowly trying to register what had happened. Then she saw that red liquid dripping from her barely standing mother. Then a memory of something that happened earlier floated into her mind:

“Ouch!” She had squeaked when playing with the shiny thing in the kitchen and the shiny thing’s edge scraped her palm.

“How many times have I said don’t play in here?” the maid, Lucy had said sternly while running in after her yell.

“Sorry” Agnes had mumbled while watching the red stuff leave her hand. It hurt for a while and as usual went back to normal.

%%%%%

Agnes blinked confused at the scene in front of her house ‘Why hasn’t the red liquid stop flowing?? It should have gone back to normal’ She thought.

“Why are you all still here?!” she heard a commanding voice and looked on, “Go find the child. IT is probably escaping right now!” The commanding man looked aged and had stern blue eyes with grey hair evading his previously black one.

Immediately men in shiny clothing went running in the direction, she and Lamia had been taking.

“Grandfather...” she heard her mother speak. But her mother sounded like she was in pain.

Agnes glanced at her father. He had people all around him. But these people were covered in red stuff. Her father seemed to be finding it difficult to breath.

“Who do you call grandfather?! You bewitched thing,are not my daughter!!!” the same man screamed, “End their torture” He continued angrily.

“My child will not get captured by the likes of you” Kingston said slowly, his voice filled with conviction.

“Y-You!” The man screamed and ran towards her father. She could hardly see him run but she could see the shiny thing go through her father, “Die already, you monster” he said venomously.

“Kingston!!!” she head a ferocious scream and suddenly flames enveloped her mother.  

‘Die’ the word repeated in Agnes’ mind. The word didn’t sound nice. She look at her mom and dad who were slowly falling to the floor.

‘Follow Lamia’ Her mother had ordered. She didn’t come out because she didn’t want her mom to know she disobeyed her but her mother didn’t look well.

She then heard the faint words that left her mother’s mouth, ‘Please live’

Agnes’ eyes widened and as though realization dawn on her opened her mouth to scream. But all that came out was muffled noise.

“Sssshh” she heard Lamia’s soft voice.

“Hmm?” the bearded and blue eyed man looked up and peered into the cottage, "I have almost exhausted my Ki reserve so I can’t check. Men, go in the house and kill any living thing inside. If you find nothing. Burn it up” He instructed.

Suddenly a loud sound came from the house and the man’s eye widened, “Hurry!”

Agnes felt Lamia’s hand leave her mouth and Lamia darted out the back door.

“Follow that shadow!!” He screamed loudly and all the people around charged after the shadow.

Soon not a sound was heard. Then the loud sound of weeping broke through and Agnes charged out the door. “Mommy!” she screamed. “Mommy, wake up!” she shook the lifeless body fiercely.

But no reaction whatsoever.

“Daddy….” She said softly, “Daddy… this, is this what you called blood? Mommy blood isn’t stopping, why?” she turned to face the demonic face of her father. A face that held no breath.

“Daddy?” she called confused. She tapped her dad. She could see no red stuff coming out of her dad. She moved closer and touched him, “Daddy..?” she called ever so softly.

“Daddy why aren’t you getting up?” her eyes move to the thing imbedded in her father. She touched it and felt dizzy and drew her hand back immediately, “Ouch…” she whimpered and began to cry, “Daddy wake up and stop mommy’s blood!”

Daddy had done it for her way too many times when it wouldn’t go back to normal. Why he wouldn’t do it now?, she couldn’t understand.

‘Die’’ the words echoed in her mind.

“Die…” she repeated softly……………………….

“Whenever your blood won’t stop flowing come see me ok?” her father had said while patting her head, “If you don’t, you could die, you know?”

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“Die?” she had asked confused.

Her dad had just smiled, “I’ll tell you when you need to know. But…” he poked her nose, “It is a very bad thing, okay?”

Agnes had just nodded aggressively then………..

“Die..” Agnes repeated again this time a bit loud and with scared eyes looked at her father

“Hey” she shook him, “Wake up” tears once again began to fill her eyes, “Wake up!” her voice went a bit louder and she moved over to her mom shaking her vigorously, “Wake up, Mommy!” she yelled desperately but no response. Agnes raised her hand to her face and glanced at the now red palms. But her hand didn’t hurt so it was not hers.

“No..” she shook her head.

And then she heard and clanging sound like a spoon hitting fork but louder.

She found herself staring at a red haired man with brown eyes. The man noticed her immediately and reached for his scabbard but no sword lay there. He narrowed his eyes.

“Are you Sierra’s child?”, the man spoke.

Agnes just stared at him with tear filled eyes. Suddenly the man seemed to disappear and reappear right beside her, holding her throat. Agnes’s eyes widened in surprise and began to cough while screaming, “Let me go!”

This persisted for a while and Agnes began to not feel her legs and began to see dark spots then the grip on her throat was gone. She found herself staring into the man’s brown eyes. She took a step back scared.

“Because Ms. Sierra saved me…. Run” he said softly.

“Eh?” she retorted reflexively.

“RUN!” he said angrily while clenching his teeth.

Agnes looked towards the cottage, “I… Lamia…”

“HURRY!” the man sounded very desperate.

Agnes was confused but she took two steps backwards and then with a swift turn took to her heels.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Lieutenant?” a voice called.

The red haired man turned around to see a soldier standing there, “Ah, Marcus”

“Why are you here?” Marcus asked.

Coyole just smiled faintly and drew out the sword embedded in Kingston :It’s a precious sword. Wouldn’t want to waste a few hundred thousand Mahs now, would we?”

Marcus chuclked, “Lodwood’s looking for you. I think he’s finally gone senile”

“Hmm? Why? He got the child, didn’t he?”

“Nah, was a stupid dwarf maid” Marcus said fiercely. One could tell, Marcus was not dwarf friendly.

“Then…?” Coyole began.

“Yes. We don’t know where the child is” Marcus said and waved him over, "Let's go"

After Marcus had gone a bit further, Coyole sighed lightly, “That was close, only this once…” he muttered and followed Marcus closely behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Agnes was panting heavily and she leaned on a nearby tree. The adrenaline rush had faded and all the corpses that she saw floated into her mind and she hurled.

She was panting feverishly and dropped to her knees. She swallowed. Then for the first time since she’d been running thought of Lamia and then she remembered the look in the red haired man’s eyes when she mentioned that name. Lamia was 'die'. (AN: not a typo). And it was her fault.

Agnes buried her face in her laps and wept in the midst of the trees. And from there, she drifted away.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself covered and moving slowly. She yawned loudly and the movement stopped.

“Awake now, lad?” She heard a sweet voice.

A young man was peering into her face. She looked around and found herself in a wooden container. Slowly nodding the man beamed and raised up the container making her fall out.

She scraped her arm on the floor and in turn glared at him.

“It’s been quite a pain to carry all the way here, you know?” he smiled and nudged the lady standing beside him.

Agnes’ eyes drifted over to where the lady stood and scanned her. The lady looked human just like the man. Well except from the animalistic ears and tails waving around from behind them.

The man stared at her, “never seen a Lurk before?” he asked.

Agnes looked at him and shook her head. He smiled an patted her head, “So innocent”

At that action, Agnes’ eyes watered and she burst into tears.

“Wha----Cameron, what did you do??” the lady shrieked frantically.

“Daddy!” Agnes cried out tearing profusely.

“I did nothing, Ruby,” he replied, shaking his head.

“C’mere” Ruby said softly and embraced Agnes while rubbing her back, “it’s alright, dear. Calm down” she soothed while Agnes continued to wail.

Agnes felt her tears refuse to come after a while and sniffed while reaching up to hold her head because of the slight pain she felt there.

“Are you okay now?” she heard Ruby ask.

Agnes made a swift nod and Ruby withdrew her embrace and stretched out her hand which Agnes held onto.

%%%%%%%

Agnes opened her eyes again and looked around. She was surprised that it was this dark. She remembered them stopping to eat and had eaten a lot because of hunger but she didn’t know where she was or more importantly were Cameron and Ruby were.

She felt around the place where she laid and realized it felt like wood. She hypothesized that she was in a wagon. But the wagon wasn’t moving and there was hardly any noise except from some crackling sound and she could smells flames signaling that the sound was from the flames.