''Run!''

As soon as the word left Clara's mouth, Oliver ran like a bolt of lightning. He did not survive this long by being slow on the uptake. Behind him he could hear the sound of several dozens glasses breaking into pieces. He did not waste time to look back to see what had caused the sound, he only ran with Clara in tow.

They soon found the exit of the hideout and slammed the door behind themselves. ''You idiot! Why did you press the button to release all of them?!'' Clara yelled angrily.

''I throught the red button would shut down the terminal!'' Oliver replied defensively.

''Well clearly, it didn't!'' She replied angrily. Their argument was interupted by the sound of explosion. A few meters away from them they saw the wall crumbling to gravel. A bipedal feline creature with a mane made out of pure fire, with muscles that would put many heavy weight lifters to shame stood there with a still burning fist. ''Crap! let's go we can't stay here!'' More than happy to follow her instruction Oliver began to sprint once again as fast as his legs could carry him.

''Crap, crap, crap! I knew I should have never have come here!'' Oliver yelled over the wind, in the distance they could hear the sound of other part of the wall breaking down as more and more creatures of all shape and size came pouring out of the abandoned building.

The sound eventually attracted the attention of the Knights of Humanity. They were in for a surprise when they arrived at the scene and saw the horde of Elestia filling the entire street. Many of them began to panic and were about to flee away. But just before they could descend into chaos an authoritative voice yelled loudly for everyone to hear.

''Men take battle formation! All of you have signed up to erradicate these demons off the face of the Earth! Now is the perfect chance to show the world what you are made of! We will protect this town and ensure the survival of humanity!''

''The Dragons shall fall so that humanity may rise!'' All the men and woman in armor yelled proudly before charging into the fray their armor ligthing up with etheral energy. The leader of the group took a stand in front of everyone and shot a large fireball toward the aproaching horde of Elestia. Many of the creature caught fire and died in a matter of seconds. The other Knight's moral rose at the display of power of their leader and began to attack the Elestia too. A barrage of lightning, water, ice, wind and other elements was sent toward the oncoming Elestia sending them to their doom.

But even with the effort of the Knights many creatures managed to rescape into town. One in particular was dead set on following a certain fleeing duo. ''Is he still following us?!'' Oliver asked in panic.

Clara took a small peak behind herself and saw the same feline creature running at them at high speed. ''Yes!'' She replied before gaining a boost of speed. Their chase eventually led them to the more busy district. Most passerby looked at them weirdly as they saw them sprinting like mad people. But all of them scattered in panic when they saw the flaming monster following them closely behind.

The Elestia tried to throw fireballs at the two of them. They managed to narrowly dodged them. Unfortunately the fast food restaurant was caught in the crossfire. one of the wall had collapse at the impact and the rooftop caught fire. ''Well I guess I can say goodbye to my free meals... Not that they were good.'' Oliver said under his breath.

Eventually they managed to leave the town behind. They tried to lose the Fire Elestia into the lush forest surrounding the settlement. Unfortunately in their haste they failed to notice a crevice in front of them and both of them screamed as they fell down the hole. They landed on the ground with a loud thud and groaned in pain.

Both of them became silent however when they began to hear the sound of footsteps. They tried to stay as silent as possible as the same creature that was running after them was looking everywhere around the forest. The Elestia growled menacingly as it sniffed around trying to find trace of Oliver and Clara. Eventually it grew bored and left the two teenagers alone.

After making sure it was gone for good Oliver sighed in relief. ''I hate Elestia the world would be such a better place without them.'' As soon as he finished saying those word he was bombarded by a series of squeak coming from Clara's pouch. The girl chuckled and turned toward him with a smirk.

''I think you offended her, you should say sorry.'' She said before presenting the feathered mouse to Oliver.

He grimaced as he looked down at the creature. ''Keep that thing away from me! It might look innocent now but it could kill us in a matter of seconds!'' He said while backing away from her. Clara rolled her eyes, but she nonetheless put Marie back in her pouch.

They managed to get out of the crevice with surprising ease and once they brushed away the dirt on their clothes they looked back at each other awkwardly not really knowing what to say. Oliver was the first to break the silence. ''Well then, I guess this is goodbye you got your... Friend.'' He stated with much distaste. ''And I got something really valuable in return.'' He said while pointing at his backpack containing the Draconid Gems. ''See ya, I doubt we'll see each other again but if we do I guess I wouldn't mind talking once again, that is if you keep that thing away from me.''

But before he could leave he heard the sound of a twig breaking followed by rapids footsteps coming their way. much to their horror they saw that the feline creature had come back and he looked even more angry than before.

''Crap, run!'' He yelled to Clara. But before he could even begin to move the creature threw a fireball in his direction. Oliver saw his entire life flashing before his eyes as he saw the huge orb of fire approaching him. But something he never thought would happened occured in front of him. A bush of rose sprung up from the ground as if by magic. The fireball hit the bush and instantly burned it to ashes but it was enough to stopped the fire in it's track.

Oliver then heard a cry coming up from further away and a small being ran in front of him. It looked like a small baby deer. But Oliver instantly knew it was not really a deer. Normal deers did not have manes, much less ones made out of grass and flower buds. It's tail also was made of plants. It's legs were much bigger than the ones of a normal baby deer would have and it had much less difficulty to walk than a normal fawn would at that age.

''A-are you protecting me?'' He asked in shocked voice, much to his surprise the Elestia responded with a nod of it's head. ''But why? Elestia and humans are enemies!''

''That's not true!'' The voice of Clara shouted behind him. ''You're the one that see them as nothing but monsters!!'' She said in a bitter tone.

Oliver looked at her with an angry look. ''How can you say they're not our enemies?! They destroyed everything we had!'' He shouted back.

Clara shook her head and crossed her arms. ''You're blaming all of the Elestia, but the only real enemies are the Dragons. You should turn your anger toward them, without them in the way I'm sure we could find a way to live with the Elestia in peace.''

Oliver clenched his fist and his eyes narrowed. ''The Dragons...'' He still could vividly remember the day he lost everything at the hands of Boreas, The Winter Dragon. Everyday he dreamed of killing that monster. But every time he would do a reality check and realise there's nothing he could do against such a being. But could Clara be right? Could things return to normal without the Dragons? He used to want all Elestia dead but it seemed more and more unrealistic with each passing days. While killing the Dragons was also pretty far-fetched, it was still a bit more realistic than killing the billions of creatures that had invaded their world and replaced the entire ecosystem of their planet.

But now was not the time to daydream about such an unrealistic goal. Right now he should focus on surviving against the Elestia that was attacking them right now. The flamming beast came rushing toward them snarling at Oliver. but before he could reach them the deer-like creature stepped in front of it and trapped the fire creature into a vine that came sprouting out of the ground.

Unfortunately the Fire Elestia quickly burned off the vine and turned angrily toward the young Elestia protecting the boy. The smaller Elestia wasn't quick enough to dodge the oncoming kick coming from the large feline. She was sent flying in the air before impacting the trunk of the tree splintering some of the wood in the process.

The poor Elestia cried out in pain and fell down on the ground. While watching the flaming monster approaching his defenseless protector Oliver did something he never thought he would ever do. He decided to help an Elestia, Oliver picked up a rock from the ground and proceeded to throw it with all his strenght toward the feline monster.

The rock impacted unto the massive Elestia. It didn't do much more than a scratch on his head but it was enough to make him change of target. Oliver instantly realised his mistake as a flaming bipedal lion twice his size came running straight at him. He knew there was no point to run the creature was too quick. Oliver closed his eyes hoping for a quick death, but the killing blow never came.

Opening his eyes Oliver noticed that the feline Elestia was enveloped into a dark blue aura. It began to trash into the air trying to dislodge itself from the ethereal force, but to no avail. Oliver was confused at what was happening but could only watch as the scene unfolded. The feline was then brutally slammed onto the ground repeatedly until it stopped struglling and went limp. Finally the aura dissapeared and returned to it's owner. It's owner which happened to be the same girl he had spent the entire day with.

Oliver was shocked to say the least. ''W-what the heck was that?! Are you some sort of witch or something?!''

But before she could respond Clara feel down on her knee with a dazed look in her eyes. He instantly ran up to her side concern evident in his eyes.

Clara shook her head and tried to smile reassuringly toward him. ''Don't worry about me, I'm still not used to using this. So that took a lot out of me.''

''What was that?'' He asked really wanting to know how a human could do that.

Clara shook her head and pointed in the direction of the deer-like Elestia. ''I'll tell you another time for now you have more pressing matter to attend to. The Elestia that saved you... I can feel that she's really in a bad shape. If you don't do anything she will most likely die here. I can feel her life force fading away.''

Oliver looked concerned at that. ''What do you want me to do? I'm not a doctor or anything like that.'' He said with a frown plastered on his face.

Clara shook her head and pointed toward the boy's backpack. ''Your Draconid Gems, it has the power to heal almost any injuries a Elestia substained. if you use one of them you will save her life.''

Oliver eyes widened and he back away with a panicked expression. ''What?! Use a Draconid Gem?! But... If I do that I would become a Chosen! There's no coming back from that!''

Clara glared at him and then she looked back toward the faintly breathing Elestia. ''Would you prefer letting the one that risked her life for you die here like this? Is that how you treat the people who are ready to risk their life for you?'' She asked in judgemental tone.

For a second Oliver thought back on that day ten years ago when his father sacrificed himself so he could live. Then he remembered the Elestia when she had jump in front of him to confront the feline monster. He realised that at that moment the Elestia had the exact same determined look in her eyes that he saw in his father.

Oliver sighed he never thought something like this would happen, but here he was about to throw everything away for a creature he didn't even know. Chosens were one of the most hated type of people in the New World, many people saw them as traitors of mankind. If words spreaded around that he had become one he would become an outcast in more than half of the settlements in the country. But as he approached the deer-like creature she faintly opened her eyes and for a moment Oliver could almost see her begging for mercy.

Gritting his teeth he retrieved the small wooden box and opened it. Taking a deep breath he took the brown gem and gently press it on the forehead of the Elestia. And then everything turned white around him.

- - - - -

When he regained his senses Oliver looked around and looked in awe and confusion at the scene before him. He was in another forest but this forest was vastly different than the one he had just left. The grass was a gorgeous but very strange blue shade, the night sky above him twinkled with many stars he had never seen before. The sky was illuminated by three moons of three different sizes and the sky itself held a purple color that made it seem much more bright than a night sky should be.

All around him he could hear the sound of nature but it was not a wildlife that he was used to. The sound the insects of the forest made were completely alien to him, but still somehow felt recomforting and peaceful. The trees if you could even call it that were made out of a strange sponge-like texture and the white leaves of the trees almost reminded him of snow.

But before he could observe more of this strange new place a familiar creature slowly walked toward him, it was the same Elestia that had saved him earlier. Oliver was relieved at seeing her. ''You're okay! I'm glad, I'm still not sure if I trust Elestia after everything that happened. But you risked your life for me and for that I'm extremely grateful.''

''Thank you... Oliver is it?'' He heard a small voice say in his head.

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''Who said that?!'' He shouted while looking all around him.

''Down there.'' The female voice said to him.

Oliver looked down at the Elestia in front of him in shock. ''Y-you can talk?!'' He shouted at her.

The flowered mane Elestia tilted her head curiously. ''We always talk, it's just that humans don't understand the same language as us. But this place is special, it allow us to talk despite our difference in species. But once you leave you will lose the ability to understand me.'' She said in response.

''So this is the power of a Draconid Gem... But what is this forest? I never saw something like this!'' Oliver said while looking around the strange forest once again.

''This place is a replica of my home before the Dragons dragged us all into your world.'' She said with an underlying sadness in her tone.

Hearing this Oliver looked at the forest in a new light. ''So this is what your home was like huh? So I'm basically standing in an alien world right now. No wonder so many people are ready to pay a small fortune for these gems!'' He said with child-like excitement.

The Elestia closed her eyes and let out a breath before speaking. ''I would show you around but I'm still tired after that fight. Now to seal the pact you have to name me, once it is done you will become my new master.'' She opened her eyes as she finished talking.

Oliver looked at her with a confused look. ''What do you mean by that?''

She titled her head again for a few second before explaining. ''Before today my master was Gaia the Dragon of the Earth. But once you name me my pact with Gaia will end and I will serve you instead.''

Oliver looked uncomfortable at the idea. ''I don't want to be your master.''

The Elestia looked crestfallen at that. ''You don't? So are you saying that you reject me?''

The poor creature sounded so sad Oliver felt obligated to recomfort it. ''No! Not at all! How about instead of master and servant we simply become friends?''

The deer-like creature seemed deep in thought. ''I guess if that's what you want I'm okay with it, but I really don't see why calling you master would be so bad. That's what we Elestia have been calling the ones that provide us with power for time immemorial. Yet for some reason you don't seem to understand that tradition at all, Humans really can be strange creatures sometime. So did you think of a name for me?''

He scratched his chin form a few seconds. ''Well... How about Sandy? My mother alway said that was the name she would have given me if I had been born a girl.''

The Earth Elestia tilted her head and hummed gently before nodding rapidly. ''I like it, Sandy! From now on I will protect you until my last breath master Oliver.''

''I told you to not call me a master!'' He shouted indignatly.

''Umm friend Oliver?'' Sandy asked in an unsure voice.

He sighed and shook his head in exasperation. ''I guess that's a start.'' But before they could continue their conversation the world lit up around Oliver until he could see nothing else but the color white surrounding him...

- - - - -

Once the light disappeared he was back in the forest back on Earth. He was still holding the Draconid Gem in his hand. He looked behind himself and saw that Clara was now back on her feet but she still looked tired. ''Have I been gone for a long time?''

The girl shook her head. ''You've been staring blankly at the gem for about five seconds before you returned to your senses.''

Oliver looked down at the Draconid Gem in confusion. ''I'm sure I was in there for much longer than that.'' In the corner of his eyes Oliver noticed that Clara was smugly smirking at him. ''What are you smilling about?'' He asked with narrowed eyes.

''You said you hated Elestia but as soon as one of them helped you, you completely changed of attitude.'' She said in a smug voice.

Oliver scoffed at her. ''Don't think I love these monsters just because of this. Most Elestia are still bloodthirsty demons. I only made an exception for this one so I wouldn't owe her anything.'' With that Oliver left with a huff.

Clara looked down as she heard the sound of soft chittering coming from her pouch. ''Don't worry Marie, one step at a time I'm sure he's gonna warm up to Elestia eventually. Now that he's a Chosen he's going to see them for what they really are and not what he think they are.'' She was responded by more chittering. Clara looked down on the still unconscious form of the Elestia who had attacked them earlier. ''I guess we should go too before he decide to wake up.'' She was met with a squeak by her suggestion. The blonde girl decided to follow the retreating form of the boy.

She could have decided to leave him right there. After all she got everything she needed from him. But there was something about him that intrigued her. There had been a certain kindness in his eyes when he had looked at the injured Elestia on the ground. Not many people in this world could still feel empathy for others, especially for non-humans.

But he was misguided, he believed every Elestia was the enemies when only a few of them were the problem. She wanted to make sure he knew who to fight against because otherwise she felt like this kindness she had briefly saw in him would completely vanish under his hardening heart.

- - - - -

When they arrived back in town Oliver winced as he saw the damage the Elestia that escaped the hideout had done. Many houses had crumbled or caught fire and now people were running around trying to limit the damages done to the town.

Oliver turned to glare toward Clara. ''You still think Elestia are not evil after seeing this? These people have done nothing to deserve this and these monsters destroyed their homes without a single thought.''

Clara glared back at him. ''This is all your fault you know, you're the one that released all of them from their sleep. You should never carelessly press a button if you don't know what it does, especially in a CGO hideout!''

''So you agree that the Elestia are evil.'' Oliver said with a smug expression.

Clara looked at him with a irritated expression. ''They're not evil! Look I won't say Elestia can't do bad things because that would be a lie.''

''Damn right.'' Oliver replied while crossing his arms.

The girl rolled her eyes at him before continuing. ''But that doesn't mean they're evil. Look at it this way wolves used to be one of the worst enemies of humanity a long time ago. But some early humans decided to use their help while hunting. That alliance ended up creating dogs which became humanity greatest allies. I believe the same thing could hapen with the Elestia if we just gave them a chance.''

''I would prefer to see all of them dead.'' Oliver said harshly making the girl recoiled slightly and a small squeak of fear emerged from Clara's pouch.

''You're impossible! Fine let's assume you kill all the Elestia by some miracle. Then what? By this point they have replaced the vast majority of Earth's ecosystem. The only remaining animals in the world still exist only because of humans efforts. This new ecosystem will crumble if you commit genocide on all the Elestia and then humanity will go with them.''

Oliver didn't know how to reply to that so instead he snorted and walked away. Clara sighed in frustration but decided to follow him before he did something reckless. As they walked throught down they saw a group of kids with torned up clothes taking advantage of the crisis to enter houses and loot them of all their food.

Clara was about to stop them but was quickly stopped by Oliver. ''Look at these houses this is the rich part of town.'' The blonde girl looked around and saw that he was right the houses here were in much better conditions than most building she had seen since the Invasion. The lawn was trimmed to perfection and the grass was a vibrant green and she could see that some houses even had a small garden with flowers and vegetables. The walls of the houses didn't have any dirt or grime on them. Some houses had fences to keep out the riff raff from their property and she even saw one house that had a door with a golden doorknob on it. All in all these houses reminded her of what houses used to look like before the Invasion.

''The people in these houses can afford to lose some food it will barely make a dent in their savings. These kids however won't survive for long if you stop them right now.'' Clara had a conflicted expression on her face at that revelation, reluctantly she decided to let them go.

''So where are you going exactly? I though you were about to leave this town before you decided to help me.'' She said with an raised eyebrow.

Just as Oliver was about to respond a loud shrill screamed tore throught the town. Without thinking both of them went running toward the commotion. When they arrived they saw that the old lady from the local restaurant was being pursued by a small creature unlike anything Oliver ever saw. It took the shape of a butterfly but it was not made of flesh and blood. Instead the insect looked like it was made of crystalized ice and it's eyes were glowing with an otherworldly pale blue color. Each flap of it's wings spreaded a thin layer of snow everywhere it went.

To someone else the creature might have seem harmless but Oliver knew that Elestia could be a lot stronger than they look. He hesitated on what to do. On one hand the old witch had gave him almost rotten food earlier, but she was also one of the only people that had bothered feeding him. With a resigned sighed he took the brown Draconid Gem in his hand and pointed it toward the Ice Elestia. He looked down at the gem in confusion when nothing happened. ''Umm how am I supposed to summon her?'' He asked Clara with a sheepish expression.

Clara facepalmed but then she looked back at him to explain. ''It's simple all you have to do is call out the name of your Elestia and she will come out. But are you sure you should summon her right now? She might not be completely healed yet.'' She said with concern clear in her voice.

''I'm sure it's going to be okay, that Elestia don't look too strong and it's not like I have any other option. Unless you want to use those freaky powers from earlier.'' He said with a raised eyebrow.

At that Clara looked down and nervously fiddle with her hands. Taking that as a no Oliver pointed the gem toward the Ice Elestia and called out his new friend's name.

''Come out Sandy!'' As soon as the words left his mouth a brown beam of energy emerged from the gem and took up the form of the familiar fawn. ''Alright Sandy stop that Elestia from attacking the old lady!'' Sandy responded with a cry before charging toward the frozen butterfly.

When she came close to the to the insect she stomped on the ground and three vines emerged from the dirt and grabbed the attacking Elestia. ''Alright now slam it to the ground!'' Sandy did as ordered and slammed the small butterfly on the ground with a loud thud. Even thought the Elestia looked like it was made of thin ice the impact barely made a dent on it's body but it was still dazed from the hit. ''Again!'' He yelled, once again the small insect was slammed on the ground and this time it fell unconscious. Oliver was about to order Sandy to finish it off but Clara stopped him.

''Stop! You don't need to kill it, once we leave it in the wild it will understand that humans settlements are off limits after this.'' Oliver sighed he was tempted to not listen to her and kill the damn monster anyway. But for some reasons he didn't want to disappoint Clara and he didn't really knew why.

''Fine but if it does come back I won't stop next time.'' Oliver ordered Sandy to release the Ice Elestia and she did without complaint. After she was done Oliver could see that the fawn was panting heavily and she had trouble on standing on one of her legs.

''Return Sandy! I'm sorry I had to call you out so soon after your last battle.'' The Earth Elestia was called back in her gem and he smiled at it for a well done job. But his smile turned into a frown once he saw Clara smugly smilling at him. ''What?'' He asked with narrowed eyes.

''You arleady fell in love with your Elestia admit it. Even you couldn't resist their charm for long.''

Oliver snorted at that. ''You're imagining things.''

Clara crossed her arms, her smirk still in place. ''I don't think I am.'' She said to him.

Before he could reply they heard two pairs of loud metallic footsteps coming toward them. Without them noticing the old lady had ran away as soon as he had sent Sandy to battle the Ice Elestia and now she was pointing at them with an angry scowl. ''It's him! He's a damn Chosen! I saw him use an Elestia!'' The two Knights behind her instantly lifted their arms toward the Oliver and the palm of their hands glowed with ethereal energy.

''Crap! I knew I shouldn't have trusted that old witch!'' Without hesitation Oliver started to run just in time to dodge a bolt of lightning and a fireball that was sent toward him. He quickly hid behind a wall and saw that Clara was beside him. ''Why are you here?! It's me they're after!''

''You won't get rid of me that easily. Beside I don't really have anywhere else to go.'' Before they could continue their argument another bolt of lightning came and destroyed the wall they were hiding behind.

''We shouldn't stay here come on!'' Oliver exclaimed. Both of them start running once again expertly dodging everything the Knights could dish at them. They managed to lose them by going in the Main Street. The road was filled with rubbles and the dead bodies of Elestia that were killed by the Knights earlier that day, they had to jump over many of them as they ran away from their attackers.

But fortunately for them the Knights could not follow them with their big clunky armors and they managed to run back into the forest. They stopped once they found a small cave they could hide into. ''Oh crap now the entire world will know I'm a Chosen. I should have never saved that Elestia.'' He muttered bitterly under his breath.

''You don't mean that and I know it.'' Clara said with a frown.

''You don't know anything about me stop pretending that you do! I hate Elestia they took away everything I cared about! And now they took away my only reliable source of food too! These damn things won't stop until I'm dead!'' He shouted back at her, he was breathing heavily once he was done with his tirade.

Clara sighed and then turned her gaze toward her pouch. She retrieved the small feathered mouse from it and smiled at her. ''Marie fly into the sky and warn us if you see any Knights approaching our hiding spot.'' The small Elestia made a squeak of affirmation before extending her wings and taking off into the air.

Oliver sighed as he watched the mouse disappeared above the cloud. Clara turned toward him with a worried expression. ''Hey are you okay? Do you know where to go after this?'' She asked him with a frown.

Oliver chuckled dryly at that. ''Where do you want me to go? I'm an outcast now. I have nowhere to go. ''

Clara rosed an eyebrow at that. ''Didn't you say you were going at Bajoon? If I remember correctly from what I read they even have Chosens there.''

Oliver chuckled bitterly at that. ''Bajoon? Forget it, they will kick us out as soon as they see we have Elestia. There's only one Chosen protecting the town and they make him live outside the wall because they don't want him inside the town. Most other places threat Chosens even worse than that. Most would call the Knights as soon as they saw us.'' He said in a bitter tone.

Clara seemed thoughtful at that, then her eyes lit up and she smiled toward Oliver. ''What about the Ding Dong community?'' She asked hopefully.

At that Oliver instantly groaned. ''I've never wanted to see these damn Elestia lovers and I still don't want to meet them now.'' He said stubbornly.

Clara rolled her eyes in exasperation. ''Oh come on, what other option do you have? Beside you're a Elestia lover yourself now.'' She said the last part with a smirk.

''No I'm not!'' He replied angrily but then he sighed and looked down on the ground. ''But you're right, I don't really have any other options left unless I become a really good Elestia hunter and make a good income by killing Elestia by myself. But even I know I'm nowhere near experienced enough to become a good hunter. Not only that but Sandy is way too young to kill most Elestia right now it will take a lot of training for her to take serious threats. Basically I really don't know enough about being a Chosen to realistically make it out there at the moment.''

''So?'' Clara asked in anticipation.

Oliver sighed and looked back at her with a resigned look. ''We're starting our journey to the Ding Dong Community tomorrow. For now we should rest, it should take between two to three days to make our way there.'' He said before taking out his sleeping bag from his backpack and laid on it for the night. Clara didn't have a sleeping bag on her but she made do with a pile of leaves that she collected from outside. Oliver felt kind of bad for sleeping more comfortably than her but at the same time he didn't feel like he should deprive himself just because he was more prepared than her.

He wondered once again what was her story. She didn't look like she struggled as much as most people since the Invasion, she looked way too clean to be homeless. And yet she was acting as if she had nowhere else to go. Maybe she had lost her home only recently? It wasn't that uncommon to see small settlements being wiped out by a horde of hungry Elestia, maybe that's what happened to her.

Fortunately the Knights did not come close to their hiding spot that night. Maybe they saw him as a low threat since he only had a young Elestia with him. But that didn't mean they should be careless, if they had the chance the Knights would kill them without any hesitation.

As they drifted to sleep Oliver felt hopeful which confused him. Why did he feel hopeful when he had just lost everything? But then he realised this was the first time he actually had a goal since the Invasion. For the first time he would do something more than just aimlessly wander the ruins of Orchestralia. Maybe he would end up dead before he could even reach his destination. But then again everyday he risked his life just for scraps of food. Now he could actually be part of something bigger. Maybe not something he agreed with completely but it was better than the life he had right now.

As the last shred of consciousness left him he thought back on his childhood when everything was perfect. When his mother and father were still alive. He wondered what they would think of him now, after all he had done to survive...