Terran was quick to get to the second floor behind Valentine, and behind him were Michael and Kaedric. Valentine had made his way to the broken open window and was desperately searching outside for a sign of the source of something that had taken the girl.

“What happened?” Michael was the first to ask as he made his way to Valentine. “Who screamed, is everyone alright?”

Valentine faced Michael and before his word could be formed Michael found the answer on Valentine’s face. “Who? Who screamed?” Michael was desperate for an answer now. His worry had taken over his expression.

“It… It was a girl named Lily. I was checking up on the first years and everyone said they hadn’t seen her since Professor Roxanne had left. Then I heard the scream and ran here.” Valentine’s voice was shaky, he couldn’t even imagine what that girl must be feeling right now if she was even alive.

“Oh god no, not Lily, please no. We have to go looking for her, everyone gets ready to head out.” Michael’s expression was even more desperate now, and his voice was filled with fear.

“We can’t Michael, we have to stay here for Professor Roxanne and the rest to get back, we have to protect the rest of the first-year students.” Terran was the only one to speak up, he was unmoved by Michael’s desperation.

“What the hell do you expect me to do then? Just let her be taken!” Michael was even more desperate now, his voice filled with anger at Terran.

“We have to stay here Michael, you know we have to. Do not get mad at me, you knew your mission when you took the role of leader of the team. Let it go.” Terran’s uncaring words cut deep.

“There is no mission you fucking lunatic! We got dropped in the middle of a fucking field and you are talking like we chose to be here! That's my sister that just got taken by God knows what, I am not letting her go!” Michael was red with anger and red-hot tears began streaming down his face.

“I am sending the flare-up, and once I do that I am going after my sister. Since you want to be such a prick you can stay here. Valentine, Kaedric, are you two coming with me?” Michael steeled himself and stopped crying almost as fast as he had begun, he shot a questioning glance towards Valentine and Kaedric who both returned a worried yet affirming nod towards Michael.

The three of them headed downstairs and towards the main entrance of the library. Intercepting them was the group of 5 first-year students whose worry and curiosity had led them to see what had happened upstairs.

“Where are you going? What happened? Is Lily okay?” Danial asked Michael at the head of the group.

“Lily got taken, we are going to go get here, Terran will be watching you guys. Stay here, I will be sending a flare so Professor Roxanne will be back soon, don’t worry.” Michael’s response was short, hurried by the impending danger to his sister.

“We want to help too, we will go too!” Danial was adamant that he and the rest of the first-year students were to be included in the rescue of their classmate.

“No, you can help by staying here and making sure not to get any danger before Professor Roxanne gets back.” Michael, however, was staid in his decision for the first-year students to stay out of any further harm.

Without giving Danial a chance to argue further Michael left through the front door of the library with Valentine and Kaedric right behind him. Michael, upon stepping outside, pulled a piece of chalk out of a small box he kept in a pocket inside his jacket. Kneeling, Michael sketched a circle onto the porch of the library, where there was no overhanging structure to block the line of sight to the sky. After sketching the circle Michael drew a few small symbols along the edge and the interior of the circle. Finishing the drawing, Michael stepped back from the circle and raised his hand.

“Rise up… Flare” Michael's words were simple but combined with the circle he had drawn and the magic power he pushed through his hand, the circle in front of him began to glow. The glowing rapidly brightened and eventually reached a peak brightness that was difficult to stand even with eyes closed. The bright ball that emerged from the circle shot into the sky, and when it reached its acme, it exploded into a bright flash that dwarfed any firework. The explosion made little noise but lit up the entire field surrounding the library and remained in the sky for 5 minutes.

When the flare shot up into the sky Michael collected himself and gestured for Valentine and Kaedric to follow him. They set out immediately and began heading around the library to find traces of the thing that had taken Lily.

“Wait!” Terran’s voice cut into the silent movement of the group. “I am coming too, I set up the strongest defensive spell around the library I could, and told the kids inside not to take it down unless they hear a code only we know.” Terran was looking at the group of 3 in front of him with fierce but compassionate eyes.

“Why the change of heart all of the sudden?” Michael’s voice was only questioning, his anger at Terran was lost after his sudden proposition of help.

“Lily, your sister, is the most important thing right now. Nothing should be able to get through the defensive spell I cast right now, or at least won't be able to until Professor Roxanne is back.” Terran spoke defensively.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Well then, thank you.” Michael smiled at Terran. “Let's hurry, we don’t know how much time we have left.”

The group went around the side of the house to the side where the broken window was. It was along the way around they found a path of trampled grass and footprints in the muddy ground. The footprints were similar to a barefoot human, however they were much smaller and shaped rather oddly. But now they had a path to follow and get Lily back, so the group began following the path into the field.

The quiet fast-paced jog of the group came to an abrupt halt when they reached a point along the path that led them to a forest. While they had already steeled themselves to go anywhere until they got Lily back, they were still hesitant to venture into the forest in front of them. It would not be an exaggeration to say this forest was pitch black. The night sky above them was clear of clouds and the crescent moon gave them plenty of light to see ahead of themselves, but this forest completely blocked out the little light they had.

“Shine… Following Light” Terran chanted a spell and appearing out of his held-out hand came a small orb of light. “This should let us see in the forest”

“I will send out another flare in case Professor Roxanne needs to know where we went,” Kaedric said while bending down to draw a magic circle for the flare on the large rock next to him. A moment later and after his chant a flare similar to the previous one was sent into the sky.

“Let's hurry into the woods.” Michael began jogging to the woods, allowing Terran to take the lead this time with the sphere of light he had in his hands.

The rest of the group followed closely behind Terran as he made his way through the twisting trees of the forest. The forest was dense, with every step taken causing a scratch from a branch or running into a spider’s web. The group wasn’t worried about the scratches and webs, but rather the trail they were following. They had to slow down so that they didn’t accidentally go in the wrong direction and the only way they had to know they were going the right way was the occasional item that Lily had dropped.

30 minutes after entering the forest the group had made their way to a small cave entrance. It was only wide enough for three people to stand shoulder to shoulder when entering. Before entering the cave Kaedric set off one final flare, unless the cave had an exit, this would be the last flare to communicate their location with Professor Roxanne, and their last chance to get help.

“I will stay back, you 3 go in the cave first. We need to make sure we can still communicate with Professor Roxanne.” Kaedric told the group after setting off the flare.

“Good plan, if you hear anything bad happening, you have to run and find Professor Roxanne.” Michael gave Kaedric a weak smile as he followed behind Terran to enter the cave.

The group of 3 made their way through the cave in near silence, unwilling to make noise in fear of alerting what they were following more than the light might. Terran led the group by 2 or 3 steps, the light in his hand was dimmed to allow light to see in the cave while not being brighter than necessary. Valentine pulled what looked to be a pocket knife from his pocket, while sharp, its size was not the greatest. Michael was desperately listening to every sound in the cave to try and make out his sister’s voice.

The cave wasn’t very long, soon after entering, and after a few twists and turns the group had made their way to a large section, wide enough for a group of 30 to comfortably stand in. In the roof of the cave was a collapsed section that let in light from the moon, above the hole there appeared to be no trees to block the light from coming in. This light was enough to allow Terran to get rid of his small sphere of light he had summoned before, he did so with a simple flick that dissipated the sphere.

The group entered the room ahead of them, now being able to see the entirety of the room. This new view gave them a direct line of sight of what had seemingly taken Lily from the library. In the left side of the cave, opposite of the hole in the ceiling, was a small humanoid creature. Its green skin was dark and covered in dirt and mud, around its waist was a simple cloth wrap that seemed to have seen years of use. Its large pointy ears were both notched on the ends, and its large nose was covered in bumps and warts. Its size itself however was far from human, its small body was around 4 feet tall, and its body had little to no muscle on it.

The only reason the group could make out such detail on the creature was because it was asleep, or at least that's what it sounded like. It's rough breathing was hoarse and loud, its eyes were closed as well. Close to its sleeping position was a large sack, large enough for Lily to fit in. None of the 3 members in the group knew what this creature was but seeing that it was sleeping next to the sack that they could guess Lily was in the group decided that the creature was an enemy.

Michael was the first to take a step towards the creature, and as he made his way close to it the creature suddenly opened its eyes to look directly at Michael. Its wide yellow eyes bulged out of its skull, further exemplifying its ugly characteristics. It immediately yelled in the same hoarse voice that had been snoring seconds prior, it was closer to a screech than a yell, however. Its unusually long skinny arms grabbed the large wooden club that was resting along the wall next to it.

It began rushing towards Michael who was still in shock after having awoken it so suddenly. The creature got within striking distance of Michael and began to swing the oversized club at Michael. Just before connection, Michael threw up both arms to block the blow from hitting his head, and the pain immediately surged through his body. The swing was much harder than Michael expected, much harder than the small creature's body should have been able to muster with its weak arms. Michael hit the ground in a heap, in pain from the previous swing, the creature took this opportunity to begin raising its club to hit Michael again. However, before it could connect another hit its back exploded in flames.

“Flame shot… Spark!” Valentine’s voice rang out loud, echoing throughout the cave. His arm was raised to aim his palm at the creature in front of him. Bursting from the palm of his hand a large ball of fire formed and shot towards the creature.

The damage of the impact was evident immediately, the flames engulfed the creature as its screams and screeches grew louder than ever. Its body flailed around as the creature ran for some way to extinguish the fire. Soon enough the creature had lost the ability to run any longer, its body went limp as it hit the floor, rolling around and hitting the ground with every limb. Its screams finally died out along with its movement when its chard black skin was cracking and smoldering, no longer on fire, leaving behind only the stench of burnt flesh.

Terran immediately went to check up on Michael who had begun to sit up, still recovering from the first hit. Valentine, however, made his way towards the sack on the floor that the creature had been resting next to a moment before. Terran and Michael began talking about the creature they had just encountered, and the recovery of Michael’s injury. Terran helped Michael to his feet, and both began walking towards Valentine who had just untied the sack in front of him, taking a look inside.

Valentine’s reaction was immediate and violent, he ripped his head away from the sack in front of him and threw up what little food was in his stomach. He stumbled away from the bag, vomiting again once he had gotten distance from it. “Don’t… don’t look in the bag … it's not Lily” Between the coughs Valentine told Michael and Terran to let them avoid the same reaction.

“What was it?” Michael’s curiosity was filled with concern not only for Valentine but also for his sister, he hoped that it wasn’t her.

“It's… It's a body… but not Lily’s, clothes are different.” Valentine had once again managed to choke out a response, this time though he had stopped coughing after speaking. “Let's just keep searching the cave, it looks like there is another path opposite the way we entered.” Valentine was quick to get up and walk as far as possible from the sack that had just recently traumatized him, Terran and Michael were quick behind him.

As Valentine led the group through the next passage, he chanted the same spell Terran had done previously for a source of light. The sphere appeared before them just in time to see the room they had made their way to. In front of them was a room much smaller than the previous, inside were many similar sacks to the one the creature had been sleeping next to. In the farthest back corner was a bag that was moving, its squirming motion caught the eye of Michael, and he began running to it.

Ripping the bag open with the pocket knife Valentine handed him, Michael revealed Lily. She was bruised and battered, and much of her body was discolored and marked from scratches. Lily immediately began to cry with relief as Michael opened the bag, Michael doing the same. After the reunion Michael untied the ropes that had been binding Lily and the group began to make their way out of the cave with Valentine in the lead.