"Dad?" I look down in my lap, Tesyn looks up at me. "Yeah?" "When will the demons stop hunting us?" Damn it. I wished I never had to answer, but that's what I get for letting other angels in. "I don't know. But we must keep running from them." "Why? What did we do to them?" I press my lips together. Should I tell her? She props herself up, "C'mon, daddy! Pleeeeease." "Alright, but it's a dark story. I'll tell it tomorrow at dinner. Oh, get Thadius for me." She hops off my lap and runs out the house as fast she could, I laugh.

I shut the door and run past all the adults moving meats, water. Thadius and Gladius skip rocks on a small lake. I point at them, "Hey!" They both turn, "Hey Tesyn!" "Dad wants you!"

I turn to Gladius, "Oh, it's our turn!" Gladius jumps up and runs towards Rhoxeus' house. Tesyn runs down to me and smiles, "Why aren't you going?" I open my hand to the lake. "We move too much. This place is beautiful." She sits by me, she really takes in the view, I'm glad she can wind down. She's always barking orders to us. "Yeah, you're right- Do you think, that we'll be done with running-one day?" I take a deep breath, "Yeah, one day." She stands up as shouting comes from behind us and put hands on her hips, "Ok, gotta see what the other boys are up to."

The heat of the furnace makes another droplet of sweat dribble down, "Slim!" I groan away from my arrows, "What now?" Markus points to the table, "Throw me the tongs!" I pick them up and throw them at his face. He jumps out the way. I laugh my ass off as he shouts, "What the hell?!" "Why didn't you catch it?" "With my face!?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Why do I even let him in here? As he giggles, I gasp and grab the tongs. It's melting too much! I rush over to the makeshift furnace and grab the almost molten metal. I slap it down and look back at the metal sheet. I sigh deep, Not a good material for our arsenal. Slim collapses behind me and I rush over, "Hey! What's wrong!?" He holds an empty vial in his hands, it reads- Diluted. Tesyn barges in, "Slim, Markus!" Her eyes go wide, "Slim!" Slim wakes up, his speech slurs, "Whoa."

They're all colorful. Bright and vibrant, they wave to me with distorted speech, "Are you ok?" This is craaazy. I feel so light. "Is he drunk?" I laugh. "You should try this. It's so craaazy, wild."

Uda barges in with a cart, he swipes a spec of dirt off his apron, then looks down at us with his dirt covered face. "Markus! What happened?!" I take the vial from Slim's hand- "Heeeey, that's miiine." I hand it to Uda and he sniffs it, then licks the inside of it. He stares off for a moment, then shakes his head. "Poison." Tesyn shouts, "What!?" Uda takes a knee before Slim, "Are you okay?" He laughs, "Why are you- purple?" Uda shakes his head, "Oh wow. This feels good." He slowly hunches over. "It's like a good tingle. Warm." He falls on his face as Tesyn and and I look at each other. "What should we do?!" I don't know if there's a cure- I scratch my head as she looks down at them. She looks up with wide eyes, "Markus!"

"I'll go get help!" I stand up and run outside. Damnit, Markus! I have to do everything! I run into the shanty village and shout, "Uda's in trouble!" The adults rush down there with any weapon they could find.