No Choice (Eruri)

Yesteryear

She could feel her own racing heartbeat as her feet carried her through the narrow streets as fast as they could. The mud that had formed due to the heavy rains on the surface was already soaking her legs. But she didn't care. She just wanted to get out of here.

Her bare feet skittered across the ground as she fled into one of the alleys, and she felt a sharp pain as something cut into the sole of her foot, but she ignored it and kept running. She hadn't even had the chance to take shoes with her when they had fled from the intruders.

Thinking about what had happened in the last few minutes just before they had escaped, she managed with difficulty to suppress the tears that were making their way up. She didn't have time to grieve.

She glanced back at her brother, who held her hand and silently followed her path like a puppet. His eyes stared into space, and his face still had her mother's blood on it, mixed with his own, flowing from a wound on his head.

She saw back and could no longer see the men but could still hear them. They seemed to have slowed their pace because they knew her legs would not carry her much longer, even if they lost sight of her.

The gazes of the surrounding people raced past her, but it would have been futile to ask them for help. Here in the underground, everyone only cared about themselves and avoided any trouble as best they could. But as a kid raised in this hole, he could understand their indifference.

Suddenly something tugged at her arm, and she stopped as her brother stumbled and fell. She dropped to her knees beside him and wiped the blood from his face. "Kjell, get up. We have to keep going."

But her brother did not answer.

She pulled him with the last of her strength into one of the alleys and hid behind one of the barrels that probably belonged to the tavern next to it.

"Kjell, we have to move on. We are not safe here," she spoke to him, again brushing the blood and mud from his face, but he barely reacted to her touch, let alone her words.

With a quick in-depth look, she could see that he was still bleeding profusely from the wound on his head. This must have happened when he had tried to get between Mother and the attackers, unfortunately in vain.

She could still see clearly with her inner eye how the sword hit their mother directly in the stomach. It literally tore her in half while she had pushed Kjell away, who had still been standing in front of her to defend her. He hadn't even understood what had happened before the first kicks of these monsters were already raining down on him while he was still lying on the ground.

Kyrie suppressed the image in her mind's eye and put her arm around his shoulders as she heard the voices of her pursuers again. She had at least hoped to slip further into the alley and not be seen there but in vain.

No sooner had she turned around than she saw the first of these guys run around the corner. The yellow bloodshot eyes in his scarred face fixed her immediately before he came running straight at her. Now she was the one who put herself in front of Kjell and raised her hand to protect him, although she knew that she had no chance at all without a weapon.

She already expected a sharp pain or at least to be knocked down, but nothing like that happened. Instead, she suddenly heard the clang of swords clashing and wrenched her eyes open to see what was happening.

She was staring directly at the back of a tall blond man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He held the blade of a sword between himself and the attacker, but the guy pushed him back, despite his height, by forcing himself further toward him. As he did so, Kyrie could see that the blond was also just a boy who appeared to be just a few years older.