RHG: Inheritance Reclaimed

Chapter 3

Storm POV

"So you said a short grey man with a gun, and a pale green-"

"It's Sward! I've told you I know it was him!" I insist.

Test looks doubtful from my claim, but maybe he just doesn't want it to be true.

Well, who wants to admit a traitor has returned?

The only reason I didn't break his ungrateful neck along with Mr sunshades with the pew pew toy was Leif's wellbeing.

For a moment I had feared she had been shot with the slight trickle of blood down her face. But upon closer inspection it was just a tough blow to the head.

The next time I see that shortie I swear I'll snap his skull over my knee for what he did to her.

Screw what Test said about 'only subduing your opponent'. I'll straight up murder him. If he has the cruel stupidity to have my best friend at point blank, he doesn't deserve 'respect'. He clearly didn't respect or care about her life so why should I?

"Do you have any clue why they attacked Leif?" Test moves on, briefly lingering over her.

She'd been messed up so badly by those jerks she passed out. I'm the only one who messes with her, and even then I don't scare her to the point of breaking her fragile self. What the heck did they do to her?

I mean.. I got us chased by a bear when were were younger. Can you really top that?

Oh.. and.. I guess I also almost turned on the oven while she was in it. (I swear I didn't know what those knobs did. And don't ask how I got her in there in the first place, but trust me when I say she is REALLY gullible.)

Well, she's probably the most passive, sweet, innocent little flower in this entire town. While most girls our age was (aughhh gross) having crushes and busy trying to make themselves look like dolls and get the attention of the guys, and without my awesome ideas for adventure, Leif was just like a kid.

Looking at the world around her in a childlike wonder, afraid to leave her sister's house unless I was there with her or when she was surrounded by flora. Everyone in town says she never really left the house, even when Linda was still here. Maybe that stopped her from growing up?

Really, if your childhood is all you have around you, do you ever leave it behind? If it's all you have to hold on to, can you really grow out of it?

Maybe it was the safety of her home that created her childish illusions that the world was safe, that people were kind and good natured. A delusion I've tried to lightly break, so she wouldn't get into this kind of situation. So it'd hurt less, so she could prepare herself and brace when she met bad people.

Some job I did.

Whatever little ways I could have possibly helped her grow into a more logical, less naive, mindset could not have possibly prepared her to be stuck at gunpoint.

To be fair, these things never happened here in Ferdun town.

Regardless that's no excuse for not to have been there. I should have been there for her. I'm her best friend for Pete's sake!

I'm.. her only friend.

"That.." Test stops, lifting her arm where a small leaf lays over it, like a big sticker.

I honestly take the time to ponder how a single leaf could have somehow stayed on her with me literally blazing it through the forest back to to town before Test stopped me.

I hear him draw a sharp breath, a hovering "can it be" left unspoken in the air..

"What? Did they hurt her somewhere else?" I demand. "Coz if they did I will tear the whole forest down by hand and find-"