Yurika stood steadfastly with her arm raised high, she has no time to be wary; to think about herself. She must save Wenona life. If that required her to be known as the chosen one, it was a fine price she's willing to pay. She had prepared herself to accept her role, but the thought of being in the same place with those people from her past, to maybe work together with them, and to link her life once more with them was not something she anticipated. She naively thought that she could stay detached, far away from her past life. She should have known if that's impossible; especially with Zeke as her mentor. She should have known better that sooner or later the past would catch up on her.

Her chaser started to gather around her. Their eyes cautiously and suspiciously glaring at the girl. Yurika caught a glimpse of Zeke in the back.

'No! What are you doing??!' Zeke protest echoed in her mind. His face paled by her announcement. But Yurika decided to tap him out, her determination gaze was her answer for him.

"How would we know that you are the true wielder?" Amiera said grimly, "and not some mere thief who got lucky on hearing the true price of that gem."

"No, is not some petty little thief we should worry about, Fetuu La Rossa would be just a simple red stone in the hand of nobody," Marc said, "a fake legendary stone is what I concern more."

"Oh wow, our wonder boy talks more than 5 words, " Scry jeered; which got a short annoyed glared from Marc; "won't that be interesting? For a little petty thief claiming as the chosen one with a fake Legendary stone?"

Scry chuckled eerily before continued, "So are you that daring my little thief?"

Yurika tensed when that amber eyes scrutinizing her with the same playful smile. She clenched her hand harder and gritted her teeth. There's no time, she couldn't stand and be investigated while Wenona's life ticking slower and slower.

"Sh-she was brought by Z. We s-should ask h-him," Lyall came wheezing and puffing heavily, "geez why you a-re guys ru-running so fast? I can't keep up."

"Nah, you are just old," teased Scry.

"Oh shut up!" Lyall threw a random punch at Scry which was easy to avoid. "I can still beat you in a duel you know."

"Z, explain yourself!" Jace's angry voice blared. It silenced the silly bickering between Lyall and Scry. The golden-haired man had been very quiet even though he was the first that arrived at the scene.

Zeke came skittishly from the back and quickly kneeled in front of Jace, "Forgive me my liege. It is true, she is the one Fetuu La Rossa chose. She is the one we have been searching for. I am guilty of trying to keep it from you.”

That was the breaking point of Jace’s short patience. He reached his hand out, grabbed Zeke in his collar and flew a punch in his face. As his punch made contact, Zeke fell to the ground releasing a deep grunt of pain, as if he has prepared for it. Blood seeped out from his nose and torn lips.

“You need to learn your place. Do you think you could just flat out lied to me and be unscathed? Lying to your king,” Jace growled, “how dare you!”

His face filled with bitter rage. His hand reached for Zeke once more, but suddenly a fireball lunged at him. It almost struck his face, but he managed to evade it in the nick of time.

“STOP!” Yurika shouted, her voice was a little bit shaky but her face was audacious, “It was me who asked him to not tell anyone! Stop harassing someone who doesn't even defend themselves! ”

She positioned herself for battle, her fuschia eyes glowed in strange colors and she felt a surge of energy starting from her fingers tip to her whole body. Her logic screamed on how crazy it was to challenge Jace and how that would eventually mean challenging the whole pack. But she has no time for this nonsense, she needed the antidote for Wenona and seeing how Zeke let Jace bully him just made her angrier, she had enough.

“This cretin woman! Chosen one or not, you need to learn your lesson on how to behave in front of a king!” Jace leapt at her with his Katar ready. No one seemed to even think to stop him. They just stood there and watched.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Strangely to Yurika, his movement was slow, slow enough for her to sidestep his attack smoothly. As she spun her body facing Jace’s back, the surge of energy got stronger. The red gem in her clutch started to glow brighter and dematerialize into a light. The light then gathered on both of her hand, shaping in the form of a Katar; glimmering and jaunting in an astral-like colour.

Jace wasn’t prepared to have his attack evaded. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that his prey wasn’t in front of him anymore. He spun his body and was going to deliver a strike but to his surprise, her glowing Katar was already on his throat. He froze as he knew that he has lost the fight.

“You are not my king!” she said vindictively, “look around you, you barely have a kingdom left and soon you would have nothing left but your selfish pride!”

Jace’s face went seething red, his body shook in rage and his eyes glared at her but he said nothing in return.

“Get your hand off him!” Amiera barked and shot an arrow at Yurika, but before it reached her, Zeke huge sword had deflected it. He then stood back to back against Yurika and shot a warning look at Amiera.

The air was so brittle it could snap in anytime, no one made any sound, no one moved. Yurika could felt the dreading feeling started to crawl on her skin.

Suddenly an explosive laugh combined with clapping sound breaking the tension. Everyone whipped their head toward the source of voice; surprised to see there was a shadow rested on one of the ruined barracks walls not far from their spot.

“… what an interesting group of people …,” the voice sarcastically said between her laugh. The shadow then took the form of a girl, she was fully eclipsed by the shade of the old wall. As she revealed herself, they could see that the girl didn’t look much older than 14 years old, probably even younger. Even though she was laughing there's no real joy came from her cold fox-like eyes. Her hair flowed down her back like black ink of a tilted piece of parchment. Her icy greyish eyes glanced at everyone on the scene and she sighed.

“… arrghh headaches,” she groaned and tossed her hair to the back with an annoyed expression. Then suddenly she already stood between Jace and Yurika. They both were too surprised to react when the girl pushed them to a different direction. It was a light touch but enough to drive them away from each other for a couple of feet. Yurika’s weapon dispersed out of its glow and returned to the former form; the red gem. Jace's Katar had been taken by the mysterious girl without the owner even realizing it.

Then the raven-haired girl moved in the speed of lightning disarming Zeke, Amiera, Marc, and Scry's weapons. In the blink of an eye, the weapons had gathered near the girl's feet. The raven-haired girl then put one foot on top of the weapons and smiled smugly.

“What! Who is this brat--!” Scry snarled when he realized his Bagh Nakh has gone, but before he finished his sentence the mysterious girl materialized in front of him and leapt at him. Unprepared of the sudden attack, Scry staggered back and fell on the ground. When he tried to get back up the girl forcefully pushed him down with her right foot and then sat on his chest. Her face leaned close and a malicious grin grew on her face.

“Don’t you dare to call me a brat,” she hissed. The glow of her greyish silver tinted eyes was dark and threatening, “unless you want to lose that disrespectful tongue of yours.”

She then leapt back, walked casually toward the piles of weapon. She then stretched and yawned with a bored face.

“Now let me introduce myself, my name is Lucia. Jace Ursa might have heard about me as Lughna, one of Aine loyal zanj, “ her voice rang in the air like a bell.

“Lughna?! Wait, Lughna Dannan the master of craftsman zanj?!” Jace shouted in disbelief, “but the Lughna the people know is a man. How...?”

Lucia pursed her pink lips, “Thanks to our beloved Goddess. She had changed me to this form as a punishment; a curse.”

She then took Scry's weapon, playfully threw it to the air and caught it back a few times.

“Anyway this is not why I am here, I have so much explaining to do to you guys. But before that,” She glared at Scry once more, “give me the antidote or I will make sure this sweet toy of yours will taste its own master blood.”

“What antidote?” Scry still tried to act tough. He was dusting the dust on his back nonchalantly.

Lucia's eyes went predatory, her body started to shake and her shadow changed shaped to a male figure.

“You know exactly what I mean Scry Threeoaks, the second son of Oryn Threeoaks, ” she growled with a deep rumbling man voice.

“Fine, fine, “Scry quickly scrambling out a yellow vial from his pocket, “I am doing this not because I am afraid of you or anything. You just sound desperate.”

An almost angelic smile decorated Lucia’s face. She skipped joyfully toward Scry and snatched the vial from him.

“No trickery please, thank you,” she said in the most cutest way, like any girl in her age would do. Then she skipped toward Wenona’s body and pulled her up as if she was as light as a feather. Lucia then opens the vial and pour the liquid into her own mouth. When she has done, she put her lips onto Wenona’s lips to transfer the antidote.

“There you go, my little princess. Get better soon, we have so many to talk about,” she whispered into Wenona’s ear.

She then put her body back to the mattress and glanced at everyone once more.

“Now let me redo my introduction, I am Lughna Dannan, the last of the Zanj. Hereby inviting all of you to my humble palace.”