Kelcie PoV

We slowly made our way back to where we had left everyone else, the group that we had found having already departed. Our party of two was quiet as I walked slowly, clutching the beads in my hands to my chest.

“She made this herself, did you know that?”

“Eh?” Azalea asked, apparently not paying any attention to what I’d just said while she once again rode on my shoulder.

“Ryel, she made this bracelet for her mother. She told me herself.” A tear trickled down my cheek as I recalled how proud she had been, telling me about it while she held up her wrist so I could see its twin.

“Aww, that’s cute. I’m… I’m sorry about Ryel’s mother. I wish we’d been here, maybe we could’ve saved her life,” the shoulder riding little fairy said, looking sad too.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I sighed, reaching over and patting her softly with a finger. “Even if you’d been here, there is no guarantee that you could’ve changed what happened.”

Azalea blushed crimson as I patted her - I hadn’t even thought about it, I had just done it. I blushed in embarrassment, I didn’t normally just touch people out of the blue like that. After all, I wasn’t a fan of being touched normally myself. Neither one of us mentioned my faux pas for a few minutes as I walked, not saying anything at all in fact.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, my cheeks warming up as I blushed.

I saw Azalea turn to look at me from my shoulder. “It’s ok, I don’t, didn’t! I didn’t mind,” she managed, a blush, pinking, on her cheeks too.

“Kelcie, Kelcie! Did you find mumma?” Ryel was running towards me, a look of hope and excitement on her face. I felt a brief flash of annoyance as I saw her. She had obviously either snuck out, or come out with the others. I couldn’t get mad though, not after what I had to tell her.

My little green friend became slightly blurry. I couldn’t hold back my tears as I held out my arm to her, the damaged bracelet dangling between my fingers.

Ryel slid to a stop several feet from me, “No, no, no, NO!”

I stumbled the last few steps towards the Ryel, only dimly aware of Azalea fluttering off my shoulder as I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around the young girl. Ryel let out big gasping sobs as she clung tightly to me. I held on just as tightly as I cried with her.

“Why?” She sobbed, “Why didn’t you save mumma? You promised!” Ryel pulled away from me, just enough so she could punch into me with her small fists. I deactivated my armour so she wouldn’t hurt herself. With her classless stats, there is no way that Ryel could hurt me. Especially not with her fists.

“Why, why, why, why?”

“I’m so sorry, Rye. I wish I could’ve saved her,” I cried with her as she slumped back into my arms, her sobbing quieter now, but no less heart wrenching.

After another thirty minutes or so later, Ryel had fallen asleep in my lap, her hair splayed out everywhere, her adorable little snores interrupted by the occasional whimper. Even in her sleep, she had a sad expression. It broke my heart. I hoped to one day see her smiling again. I’ll make sure of it. I was wondering what to do about Ryel and whether or not she still had any family somewhere, when my idle musing was interrupted.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Kelcie, but we need to discuss what to do next.”

Azalea had flown to me tentatively, speaking quietly, clearly concerned about bothering Ryel or myself. Her tenderness warmed my heart, especially after the tragedies of the past few days.

I sighed, before nodding my head towards the little fairy. “Thanks,” I whispered, “I’ll be over in a minute.”

Azalea nodded, before flying over to where several of the survivors had gathered, including Raya.I had no idea where Callie was though. I briefly considered waking Ryel up as I brushed out her hair with my fingers. Instead, I gently picked her up - grateful that my strength made this easy, and carried her over to where everyone was gathering. A few of the Hunters had come out and had started using their tracking skills to try and find anyone else that we may have missed.

As I walked up, I looked for a comfortable spot to place Ryel. The group were all standing near a small park that had benches in various spots, thankfully, the one closest to the group was still fairly intact.

“Hang on,” Raya whispered, standing next to me, “let me place a blanket down first.”

I gently placed Ryel down in the blanket that Raya had provided, and luckily there was enough to wrap her up in it and keep her warm.

Azalea giggled from where she hovered. “Like a cute little burrito.”

I smiled at the comment, before an odd thought struck me. The fairy claimed to have never left her home forest before, how could she know what a burrito is? Something that isn’t even part of this kingdom's main dishes. I only knew about them because my parents hosted several dwarves for business once, and they made sure our maids cooked some dwarven cuisine.

Azalea was a mystery for another day. I sighed as I gently moved some of Ryel’s hair out of her face, I hoped this little nap would help. It’ll be a long while until she’s okay, but she’s tough, I had no doubt that she eventually would be.

Raya placed her hand on my shoulder briefly. “Kelcie?”

I continued to stroke Ryel’s hair. “Mmm?”

“We’ve got to discuss what our plans are,” Raya said quietly, “We can’t stay here.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgment, and turned away from Ryel with a sigh. I had to make sure she was safe.

I walked over to where the group was waiting. Olivor and the group that Azalea and I had found were there, including some of the people that had been trapped with me.

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“Eidencrag is where we should go, it’s safe and it’s closer,” Olivor argued with one of the dwarves. I hadn’t actually gotten their names. I had been too concerned with finding Ryel’s family.

“Nay, lad. Bouldenhelm would be better, ‘tis a fortress. Dwarven made o’ course.”

Olivor shook his head and sighed. “Sure it’s a fortress, but it’s also further away! There’s a lot of undead, but they’d break on Eidencrag’s defences. It’s got a proper regiment of soldiers; the adventurer’s association has a well established presence there as well. Oh, hello, miss, tell him that Eidencrag would be better,” Olivor said, looking over at me imploringly.

I felt a funny feeling whenever someone called me miss, or lass, or something like it. It must be because I was fooling everyone. I just wished it was true sometimes. Sighing, I answered after a short pause to think, “I’d think that Eidencrag would be the better place to go, at least for now. We’ve got to warn them of what happened.”

Just as the dwarf opened his mouth to reply, Callie arrived, escorting a few of the hunters. The Hunter class was an interesting one, it could be used for combat, or for hunting wild game. If I remembered correctly, Hunter took awhile to become combat ready. The ones that had hidden with me had been primarily game hunters, young ones at that.

“As far as we can tell, there aren't any other survivors,” The leader of the hunters, Matthrem, said, shaking his head sadly.

Matthrem had been helpful in making sure everyone stayed inside the basement, everyone but Ryel apparently. I smiled slightly at that thought, Ryel was a rascal.

I saw the Hunter blush as I smiled, and I frowned slightly, looking away. Why would he blush all of a sudden? Shrugging slightly, I dismissed the thought.

Raya ran up to Callie and held her tightly. Callie leaned down and put her forehead against Raya’s briefly, hugging her tightly. They both had such happy smiles on their faces. Even if the thought made me a little uncomfortable, I couldn’t help but smile as well. It was adorable. If these two could be so happy together, then why would their being together be so wrong? Is my family wrong about that as I felt they were wrong about me? I shook my head, attempting to banish the thoughts for now. These were thoughts for another day.

I nodded my head and smiled at Matthrem. “Thanks, I appreciate it, we should probably start preparing to leave. Never know when, or if, the undead will return. We need to leave as soon as possible.”

Matthrem blushed some more but nodded his head in agreement. Suddenly, Azalea appeared and landed on my shoulder. I hadn’t even realised she hadn’t been with us. “We’ve gotta leave, I was pretty sure I saw movement in the forest edges not too long ago that looked like it could’ve been the undead. So I went and checked, and yup, it’s the undead.”

“What? How long ago? Which way?” Olivor asked, concern clearly colouring his voice.

Azalea shrugged. “Just then. I flew up to look around, as I’ve been doing occasionally and noticed them.”

The little fairy seemed to have gotten distracted. Glancing at her, I saw that she was looking at Callie and Raya as they stood there holding each other with a fond smile on her face, no guesses as to what she thought of their relationship.

I gently nudged her, and she looked at me, still smiling. She then raised an eyebrow at me. “Hmm?”

“Which direction?”

“Oh! Right, umm, back that way,” Azalea pointed back towards the mountains.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Ok, that’s good. It’s not between us and Eidencrag. Alright, let’s start getting everyone sorted to travel.”

“Wait!” One of the dwarves shouted suddenly, “Wha’ bout jus’ hidin’ ah gin?”

It took me a moment to understand what he had said as his accent was particularly thick. I shook my head as I answered him, “We’re nearly out of food. If they come back, there’s no guarantee they’ll leave again any time soon. I’m not even sure why they left in the first place.”

The dwarf shook his head and muttered to himself quietly, but didn’t say anything else.

“Sounds like a plan, miss. Thanks to our Shaman over there,” Olivor nodded towards Raya, “all of our injured are now healed, so no issues there. We’re packing what’s left of all of our food together as we speak. Should be ready to go shortly.”

“Thanks, Olivor. That’ll help us a lot. I suggest that we go over to make sure we aren’t forgetting anything, or anyone, then head out. The sooner, the better.”

Everyone in the group acknowledged my recommendations and we broke up to do our various tasks. Mine was the unpleasant task of waking Ryel up. If I had to fight, I couldn’t be carrying her. Azalea gave my head a gentle pat as she flew off to check on the undead again.

I smiled as I looked at Ryel. Her dark hair had fallen down to cover her face as she slept. She looked so peaceful. I hated to disturb her, especially to what she’d be waking up to. Unfortunately, I had no choice.

Softly, I brushed her hair away from her face, and gently shook her shoulder. "Ryel, wake up, sweetie.”

Ryel yawned and stretched, I couldn’t help but smile at how cute it was. “Mumma?”

My heart froze and my smile fell from my face as she looked around confused for a moment, before her gaze settled on me.

The young girl’s eyes glistened as tears threatened to spill down her face. "Kelcie, mumma’s gone!”

I leaned down and hugged her to me. "Oh, sweetie, I know. I’m so sorry,” I held her for a few minutes as she sobbed into my shoulder. “We need to go, sweet girl, we’re heading out shortly. Are you ready?”

Ryel pulled back, rubbing her red tear filled eyes. "Where are we going?”

Rubbing her back soothingly, I replied, “We’re heading to Eidencrag, we’ll be safe there.”

“Okay,” she sniffled, “I’m ready. I just need my bag”

I smiled at her. "I’m glad sweetie, is it in the basement?”

“Ah huh,” She nodded, wiping her nose on her sleeve, “I’ll go and get it now.”

My nose scrunched up after she wiped hers, but I ruffled her hair briefly and let her go. Noticing the time, I stepped into one of the still partially intact buildings and dropped my transformation, making sure no one saw me. I shuddered and couldn’t help but think about how wrong my real body felt now that I’d been transformed for so long. I hated it, it was so boring and plain. Even the world around me felt grayer as I glanced down then immediately away. I sighed with relief as I transformed back into ‘Kelcie’.

A flash of light in my peripheral vision made me turn my head back to the open doorway. I didn’t see anything there, it must’ve been the sunlight reflecting off of something, at least that is what I hoped. My concern didn’t abate much, especially considering I could’ve sworn it was the same colour light as what Azalea glowed.

Stepping out, I saw Azalea hovering near Ryel, who was apparently showing the fairy some of her toys she had in her little satchel. Ryel had a sad expression on her face, but a small smile was threatening to break out as she spoke.

I glanced nervously at Azalea, but she made no indication that she’d seen my true self when she glanced at me upon my approach.

I looked at Azalea. “Everything alright?”

She gave me a soft smile before answering. “Yep! They’re there, but haven’t moved any closer just yet. Did you want me to play lookout?”

“Yes please, it’ll be really helpful,” I nodded, smiling back.

Azalea tapped her left hand to her forehead before zooming off. “Yes ma’am!”

Ryel giggled momentarily, before her face went back to being sorrowful. “She’s so weird.”

I smiled and hugged her to my side. I was glad that she had managed to giggle, even if for just a moment. It proved to me how strong she really was.

Ten minutes later, a few minutes after Azalea had warned us all that the undead had started to amass nearby, everyone but Azalea had finally grouped up - ready to head out, when the little fairy zipped down into our midst.

“They’re coming now, we’ve gotta go!” She warned.

Nodding my head, I turned to the group. “Let’s go. Make sure we all stick together.”

I turned around and started walking out through the broken gates and out of the small town that had turned into a graveyard for so many.

“Good riddance, West End,” I muttered. Except for Ryel and her family, and now Azalea and her friends, this hadn’t been a very happy place for me to have gone to.

“So… are we nearly there yet?” I heard Azalea ask Callie.

~~~

Eight days after we left the town - except for a few random encounters with the undead - fairly uneventful, we finally crested the hill, allowing us to see Eidencrag in all its glory. In all of its burning glory. Smoke and flames billowed up as a red and black dragon flew over it, breathing fire down upon the city.

“Huh, I’ve seen that pretty dragon before,” Azalea said, sitting on my shoulder.

“Oh, no, not again!” Callie sighed.