I found the family instead.

They had managed to dodge the Zombies by running in between the houses, but their luck ran out about halfway through the city.

I saw the mother being dragged away while the father fought another Zombie off with the pickaxe. The sun was just starting to come up and I knew that we didn’t have long to get out before the Hunters showed up. I ran over to the miner and lit my hands on fire, then began punching the Zombie he was fighting in the back. The Zombie went up in flames and I pulled it back and threw it down the alley.

“Jire!” The man took off the other direction in the way his wife had been dragged.

“Hey!” I looked down at the kid, “What are you..?” I grabbed the kid and twisted him to face the other direction as his father was buried at the bottom of a Zombie dogpile.

I picked up the kid and started running towards the burning Zombie that was starting to get back up. I kicked it in the face to knock it back down as I came back to the main street.

While I had been running by myself, most of the Zombies had ignored me, but now that I had a screaming little boy in my arms, the Zombies were stopping to take notice. Instead of flocking towards the front, they began coming back from the gate. With the ones still coming out of the mine. I was getting surrounded quickly. Probably the only reason I hadn’t been jumped so far was because I was Touched, but that wasn’t going to protect me for long. Plus I had a feeling that as soon as I put the kid down, he was going to get snatched.

“Come on!” My left hand was on fire as I turned in a circle trying to ward the Zombies back. I shifted the kid so I could hold him better in my right. “VAL! EVETH! I COULD USE SOME HELP HERE! SOMEBODY HEY ME!”

A Zombie finally got brave enough to reach for the kid. I caught its hand, which set the whole thing on fire. I twisted it into the other Zombies as I tried to pivot around so I could defend against the next one.

The Zombies were close enough that the fire spread through them in seconds, igniting over twenty Zombies that had circled me. It was getting hot in the center, but there was nowhere for me to break free. I began sweating as I focused on deflecting and pushing back the burning hands.

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“VAL I COULD USE SOME WATER!” I was hoping that the kids screaming would bring them, but I had no idea where they were.

I saw a Zombie lunging from my right and left and knew that I couldn’t dodge both of them. I’d been helping that the Zombies were only going for kill shots on me, otherwise the ones I kept knocking on the ground would be biting my ankles.

I wrapped the boy up in both my arms as much as I could and pressed him against my chest. I hoped that I’d be able to shield him enough to prevent him from getting infected as a charged forward and tried to force my way through, but I never hit a Zombie.

I opened my eyes and was standing on the roof of the closest house staring at a man with black hair and golden skin in plain, dirty clothes. Except it wasn’t a man at all, because as I looked closer I saw that he had pointed ears and black eyes. He was also taller than me, which put him at over six feet tall. I could feel magic all around him.

I slowly put the boy down as the strange man turned to walk away without saying a word.

“Wait!” The kid must have gotten too wiped because he was out. There aren't any Zombies close, so I put him down as I ran over and grabbed the other man’s shoulder. “How did you do that?”

He half turned and looked at me, “I’m only supposed to observe, not meddle.”

“Then why did you?” I looked down at the Zombies who were having trouble figuring out where their prey went.

“I didn’t want to see the child get hurt and…” He turned all the way around. I saw a sword in his hand and jumped back. The only weapon I had was the knife, but I pulled it out and prepared to block as he reversed the grip on the sword and stabbed it in the ground in front of me.

“I found this, so leaving it here wouldn’t be meddling.” His black eyes bored into me, almost like a void that was going to swallow me whole. “Don’t tell anyone about me.” He put his finger up to his lips. “Maybe I can find more ways to not meddle in the future.”

“Thank…” I lost my words as he vanished.

I looked around, but didn’t see him and I couldn’t feel his magic anymore. I wasn’t sure who he was, but he’d left me a very precious gift.

“Where..?” The boy had woken up.

“It’s okay.” I picked up the Bokor sword and couldn’t believe what I was holding. This wasn’t like any other Bokor blade that I’d ever seen, because all of the ones that I knew of had heartstones in the hilt. This one had a purifying crystal there and the blade was almost translucent instead of purple. “It’s all going to be okay now.”

What he’d just left behind was a sword for Eveth.