[Year 344, The month of Embers, day 1]

Under the rays of the full moon, Aiyana and I scouted my former home from atop a tree quite a few yards away. Aiyana had traded her sky blue outfit for a dark blue blouse and black pants while I was wearing a dark green overshrit. While they were a little big on her they made it easier for her to blend into the background.

“There are more of them than I thought there were.”

Aiyana’s comment directed my gaze towards the bonfire set up outside of the house. While couldn’t make out their faces, I could see that there were four adults hanging around the fire, eating and talking to one another, their weapons easily within reach. Four more adults were standing guard around the area, each one holding a spear and wooden round shield. Then there were the children. A couple of them must have been sleeping in my old home, given that most of the furniture had been taken out of the house, but five of kids were sleeping outside in makeshift pallets.

There must have been eighteen people down there at least. We only expected half of that number at most, but we clearly underestimated other people’s survivability.

“Should we not do this then? If some of the older kids get involved we may not be able to get away.”

Aiyana considered what I said for a moment before shaking her head and pointed something out, “Look.”

She pointed toward the location where one of the guards was keeping watch. Several of mom’s food staches had been strung over the tree closest to the house. There were also a few slabs of cured meat wrapped in stitched together leather bags.

“Is that all of them?”

“No, but its most of them. I think only the ones mom placed furtherest away from our home are left.”

I’m surprised that they not only managed to find so many of them, but they also managed to go through them so quickly. Mom had hidden enough food to last us a through winter if we couldn’t find a new home, yet most of it was gone.

“Haah… I guess enough for two people doesn’t go far for a dozen people.”

“Well, they’re clearly capable of hunting and with a couple more trips back to the village they should have all they need to start baking or they could have the kids forage… Come on, let's get started.”

Aiyana began to climb down the tree after that, and while I did follow after her something bothered me. What she said made sense, but there was this strange hitch in her voice as she said it. Maybe there was something I was missing?

“Hey, if bakings an option, why don’t we do that too?”

When we were halfway down, I asked Aiyana about the only flaw that I could think of. Yet, her tone remained normal when she answered me so that probably wasn’t the thing that worried her.

“Baking is a skill that requires time and the right items to do properly. I’ve never even done it before and we’d only be wasting food if we tried it. There are a lot of adults in that groups so one of them must be capable.”

“Oh, okay.”

Once we reached the base of the tree, we collected the items each of us would be needing. I tied my bag full of stones to my waist and readied the leather sling Aiyana had made for me, while she put on the looped belt and examined her dagger before sheathing it on her waist.

“Remember the plan?”

“Yea.”

I would be the distraction, drawing away or incapacitating as many of them as I could. Ariane would use the opportunity to sneak up to the camp and cut down the staches as we needed. Since I was the fastest and strongest I stood the better chance of not getting caught, but that meant she had to tie the staches to herself and drag them to the main path. Once she was safe, she would give the signaland I would lose the guards in the deeper parts of the forest and meet back up with her.

It was a good plan, but their numbers still worried me a bit. There was a chance that some of the guards would stay behind when I revealed myself, while Aiyana was smart it didn’t seem like she could fight off multiple people at once.

“When you’re ready, count to twenty and then gather their attention, then keep an ear out for my signal… We can do this.”

After that final bit of instruction, Aiyana began circling around the house at a safe distance. I heard her stubble a few times but things eventually went silent on her end. Once I was certain that she was ready, I began my count.

“One, Two, Three…”

However, my worries only grow the longer we were apart from one another. My chest began to pound as everything that could go wrong began to occupy my mind.

“Seven, Eight, Nine…”

If it weren’t for me Aiyana wouldn’t be in this situation, I was the different one, the one the other survivors wanted dead, but she chose to side with me despite that. Things would have been easier for if she’d just left me wherever she’d found me.

“Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen…”

If anything happened to her it would be my fault, so no matter what it took I had to make sure our plan worked. We could do this. We had to do this. There was no other way.

“... Twenty.”

With the end of my count, my resolve was hardened. Aiyana was gonna make it out of here with the food no matter what. I loaded a stone into the sling’s pouch and made me to the side of their camp opposite to the food. The only thing between them and me was a couple of yards of sparsely populated forest.

After a quick spin, I released one end of the sling and sent the stone flying in the direction of the camp with all my strength. Unfortunately, my aim was a bit off and the stone tore into the bark of a tree before slamming into the ground just in front of their fire. Before I could even load another stone, the adults were already on their feet and scanning the forest for me.

I grabbed their attention, now I just had to keep it. I loaded my next stoneand managed to catch the guard closest to me in his leg.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!I”

I heard the sound of his bones snapping before the man’s screams drowned out all other noise in the area. While their attention was focused on the downed man, I pulled back from their camp and readied my next stone.

Once I gained a clear line of sight I sent another stone flying. This time the stone flew straight, but the adult I aimed at managed to raise their shield before the stone managed to hit them in the head. Given what happened to the tree I hit, I expected the stone to put a hole in the shield, but the stone became embedded in the shield with a metallic clang. It seems that their shields had a metal backplate.

I expected them to come running after me, but half of the still standing adults formed a half circle around their fallen ally while the others herded the startled awake kids behind the house. They were still too close to the food for Aiyana to make her move, I needed to move them away from the area.

“Seimene ym through evilc ot uoy hsitiseb I, emalf fo tirips!!”

That weird chat was the last thing I heard before a diagonal line of fire came flying towards me. I managed to mostly dodge the flames, but it catch my left wrist and the heat scorched some of my hair. It took everything I had to hold my scream in as I rolled into the bush. The next moment a torrent of water was shot towards the spot I'd been in.

As the pain in my wrist began to diminish, a myriad of stones, flames, and gusts of wind all descended on my location. As I weaved my way through the bush, their assault continued, but all the time I spent ducking and dodging there attacks helped me realize how they were tracking my so easily in the dead of night. I found the sturdiest tree I could find and hide behind it. As I closed my eyes and caught my breath I could feel the vibrations of their attacks sent through the tree, but when the attacks stopped coming I dashed behind another tree, then another one, and another one without so much as a stone sent flying at me. I only stopped once my breathing was too ragged to run anymore.

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The adults occasionally randomly launched their attacks, but they were nowhere near as accurate as they had been. It was a lot easier to hit a glowing golden target in the middle of the night than it was someone blending into the background.

“Darh’ki I know you’re out there! So long as there’s breath in my body I won't allow you to lay a finger on these children!!”

A familiar voice called out to me from their camp. It was that old lady we tied up the other day. I peeked my head from behind the tree to get a look at the other side. Five of the adults were slowly making their way into the forest, but they were still sticking close to their camp. The old lady was the one leading them.

I reached for my sling only to find that I lost it at some point. On top of that, most of the stones had fallen out while I been running away. One more push, I need just another push to given Aiyana the chance she needed.

“Nonia!! That’s my house. My mother and I lived there for as long as I could remember! Everything there belonged to my mother, and it now belongs to me. I don’t care what you do but you can’t do it here!!”

A fireball slammed into the tree next to the one I hid behind. In that moment, I bent the smallest finger on my left hand back and let out a scream.

“Ahhhhh!!”

First came the pain, but the glow from before followed behind it. I tried to calm my breathing as I listened to their footsteps. They were still cautious in their approach, not rushing in for the kill like I expected them to. Nonia definitely told them about my healing and strength, so they must have been trying slowly wear me do before attempting a killing blow. However, they didn’t attack me with an elemental assault like before. Maybe they were the ones being worn down?

Aiyana hadn’t given the signal yet so I still needed to keep them away from the food. I grabbed a handful of stones and dashed out in front of the adults. While I caught them off guard, most of the stones were deflected by their raised shields when I throw them. Before I could do anything else, a sharp pain in my leg took up my attention. It felt as if a pillar of fire had been shot directly into my leg, bring me crashing to the ground before I could escape behind another tree.

“Whaaaa! Huah huah”

When I looked down, I saw that the spearhead had embedded itself into my right leg. I couldn’t afford to stop here, I could already hear them approaching me. I grabbed hold of the spear shaft and pulled it out.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Taking it out hurt even more than it did going in. The glow had started up again and the pain was starting to disappear, but I couldn’t get away from them anymore. I rose to my feet and used the spear to hold myself up.

When they stopped a few feet in front of me, I was able to get a good look at the adults that I’d been fighting. They were looked tired and old, older than mom had been. While Nonia hate for me bleed through her expression, she and the four people she brought with her looked worse off than I did.

One of the men was sweating badly and blood was still visible on the bandages that covered their left eye, while he didn’t look as angry Nonia he was determined to see this through. The oldest looking of the group was missing an arm was heavily scarred across his face, he must have been one of the ones that had been sitting around the fire, instead of one of the guards I saw. The other woman had a poor complexion and looked like she hadn’t slept for a couple of days, her trembling keep her shield and spear moving even though she stood still. The last man looked the healthiest and youngest out of the lot, but even he had two boards splitting his bandaged leg. He was also missing his spear so I must have been leaning on his now.

These were the people I’d been fighting… them? From a distance, they seemed a lot more imposing.

We stood there in total silence, waiting for someone, anyone to make the next move. The glow eventually faded, but I didn’t want to put any weight on my legs just yet. I didn’t know how long we would have stayed like that had a sharp whistle not cut through the night.

That was the signal, Aiyana managed to do her part, somehow. There should have been two healthy adults, one injured adult, and a group of kids back there, yet she’d managed to get the food from them. I shouldn’t have doubted her.

“Whaaa!!!”

I’d forgotten for a moment that this old people were trying to kill me. The trembling women took the opening Aiyana’s signal had created to stabbing me in the stomach with her spear. While the others seemed taken back by her actions, once the glow returned all worry about me vanished from their eyes. The man with the bandaged leg, having taking Nonia’s spear, and the one with the missing eye joined the trembling woman and began stabbing me repeatedly. Legs, arms, chest, face the pain in one part of my body didn’t have time to diminish before new pain erupted in another part of my body.

“Ahhhhhh! Gaugh.”

“Keep it pinned down, don’t let it get away!! Suoirolg rour touba gnird, htreah eht dna snus eth sdnammoc how ey, regnirdemalf lanrete, siralf nopu llac I... “

Nonia urged the others to keep up their attacks before she began chanting something. The faint orange glow around her body screamed danger to me, but the three stopped me from doing anything about it. They weren’t doing any lasting damage, but they had me surrounded. If I didn’t hurry Aiyana might come looking for me and be dragged into this fight.

“Stoopppppp!!!”

I couldn’t allow this to continue. I kicked out and managed to catch the man's uninjured leg, causing him to collapse on the ground. Though the other two tried to cover him, I bought the shaft of my spear down his head with all of my might. While it did cause the spear to snap in two, the man went down and stayed down.

With the broken spear in hand, I blocked the other two’s attacks as best as I could and waited for another opening. I didn’t have to wait long because the trembling woman began to slow down almost immediately. She didn’t have the physical cability to keep up anymore, when she pulled back for another stab I tackled her to the ground. When I heard the breath escape from her lungs I knew that she wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. Now I just needed to get aw⎯

I lost the time in between me standing up after tackling the woman and my back colliding with a tree, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it as the previous one-armed man came swinging at me with a stone fist.

He kept me pinned to the tree with a series of heavy blows, at one point I lost sight in one of my eyes but the wet feeling of blood leaking from my mouth remained constent. With my remaining eye, I noticed some of the stones that made up his arm were starting to fall off and he was starting to struggle just like the trembling women had. I just have to hold out a bit longer and wait for my chance.

“Dlrow siht dekciw eth egrup.” However, I never got that chance because the man ducked away when he heard Nonia complete her chant.

A melon sized blue ball was heading towards me, but my legs were still too unstable to dodge it. If I couldn’t dodge it I just had to throw it off course. The moment the ball was it range I tried to swat it away with the back of my hand, and immediately came to regret that decision. The blue ball exploded on the back of my hand and I experienced the worst pain I ever hand in my life.

“IAIAIAIAIA” The screams couldn’t even leave my throat as a flailed around in agony. I began banging my head against the ground because that felt less painful than chilling sensation thar was running up my arm. Gold and red clouded my vision as tears streamed down my eyes. Every part of me wanted the torment to end, but it seemed like it never would. Dying would have been a preferable to this.

After what seemed like an eternity, my senses returned to me. There was a wet spot in my pants now, the taste of my blood filled my mouth, and the tip of my tongue was shorter than it had been before. My right side was so tender, that even a gentle breeze sent new waves of pain through my body. Most of my shirt had been burnt away and the right side of my head felt colder for some reason.

“How? How is he still alive?”

“Is that thing even a Darh’ki?”

I paid the voices no mind as my eye wandered over my right arm. With the shirt no longer there, I got a clear view. The edges the wound were pitch black, makign it seem like a canyon had form in the remains of my arm. The glow was almost invisible now, but small strands of muscles and skin were struggling to fill in the cavity the fire had left. I could still feel anything below my elbow, I image I would still be fling on the ground.

I just wanted to sleep now, this had gone on for far too long and I just wanted it to end. My eyes began to close as I waited for the darkness to take me, but then I heard it. From a distance I could make out another sharp whistle, Aiyana was still waiting for me. I couldn’t just leave her there waiting for me, we were so close, I just needed to reach her. Using my left hand as support, I got to my knees and eventually managed to stand up.

The heat had been so instance that the surrounding trees had been chard black and some of dirt aroud me had turned into red clumps along the ground. The only ones left standing were the one-eyed man and me. Nonia and the one-armed man were laying on the ground with disbelief on their faces. They really expected that blue fire ball to kill me, or maybe I looked as terrible as I felt.

I couldn’t find the broken spear from before, so I stubbed my way towards the trembling woman’s body. The one-eyed man gripped his spear with one hand and came running at me. I couldn't dodge even if I tried, so when I fell to one knee I punched forward with my left hand, the blow landing right between his legs. I didn't see it, but I heard him fall to the ground. He didn’t get back up.

I picked up his dropped spear and dragged myself over to the one-armed man. He struggled to get to his feet for a bit but stopped when I stood over him. He actually smiled at me before he shut his eyes and waited for what came next. I rose the spear and slapped him across the face with the flat side of the spearhead. He was done without much issue.

Almost done.

I almost blacked out on my over to Nonia, walking seeming more difficult than it should have been, but I stayed on my feet. Even with all of her allies down and her inability to run from a wounded boy she still looked like she would fight till the bitter end if she had to. I should have hated her for what she did, but I just didn’t have it in me. I raised the spear again and repeated what I had done with the previous man. But, I wasn’t done just yet. She’d overheard Aiyana and I talking about our plans. She might come after us once she recovered. I couldn’t go through this again. Not now anyway. Using the spear as a support I left my left leg and brought it down on her right knee. She jerked around for a bit before settling back down.

I heard Aiyana’s whistle for the third time. Just one more thing. Wait a bit longer Aiyana, I’ll join you in a little bit. I didn’t look back at the people behind me as I began making my way towards my former home.