GRAVICTA

CHAPTER 40.

Zed comes out after taking a shower and we head for his grandmother's grave as agreed. It takes us only about ten minutes to finally get to the graveyard, by flight of course. We take a while looking around for the tombstone before Zed spots a huge tombstone right in the centre of the place with her name on it.

"Found it," he says, pointing at the stone.

I see him swallow hard before making his way towards it. This isn't going to be easy for him and I can already feel it. My heart is already sinking, a deep sadness taking over. This must be his emotions.

We follow him until he stops in front of the gravestone. Puffer taps his shoulder and bends down, placing a kiss on the stone. It seems Puffer knew her well too since they have been best friends for so long.

I lift my right hand, saying, 'appear' and two flowers appear. Handing one to Buttertooth, we place them on top of the stone. I stare at it for a while, remembering the old lady's face when we first came to this city. She was so kind and she welcomed us warmly. I whisper a goodbye and move away, allowing Zed to see her.

He steps forward and says, "Mama you were so strong so I really can't believe you're gone. Are you trying to tell me that if I hadn't arrived in the city, you'd have left without seeing me one last time?"

There's a long pause before he continues. "Nah, I'm sure you were waiting for me. I miss you so much, it hurts but I'll stay strong for you. I promise I'll protect my family just like you've protected me these past years."

He wipes tears off his eyes. "Goodbye mama. Rest well. I'll be ba—"

"Are you guys feeling this?" Puffer cuts Zed off and everyone turns to him.

"Feeling what?" Butter asks and he touches the ground.

"It's shaking," Puffer says.

"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to feel it too and it's getting stronger," Zed says, touching the ground too.

"What do you think is causing it?" I ask and he looks up at the sky.

"We need to get to the house right now," Zed shouts and takes off.

We let our wings free and take off too, heading towards the house as fast as we could go. Getting there, Mrs Purplestorm stops us from entering.

"We need to leave here this moment," she says, panting and trying to push us away from the building.

"Why? What's going on?" Zed asks but she keeps trying to push us away.

"There's no time. We need to leave now!" She shouts, startling us for a moment.

Zed stares at her for a moment as though trying to figure out if she is to be trusted or not. He finally sighs and lets his wings out, nodding for us to follow her.

"Let's go then," Puffer says and everyone takes off.

She leads us straight out of the city, making us fly so fast that it's getting hard keeping our eyes open due to the wind. We keep flying for hours before she lets us take a break.

"Why are we running and where are we going to?" Zed asks her as everyone tries to catch their breath.

"There's trouble. Demons are around again but only in that city, at least for now," she says.

"Wait, what?" Zed exclaims, looking as surprised as everyone else.

"But we ended it completely on the night of the zero moon," I say and Zed nods.

"Yeah and I even said they shouldn't ever return to Gravicta," he adds.

"Yes, you did all that but we made a grave mistake." She sits down on the bare ground.

"What do you mean?" Puffer asks, both of his hands on his head

"We trusted Decklan, that was our mistake," she says and everyone stays quiet for a moment.

Her words take time to sink in, leaving us quiet. Zed's fists ball and Puffer's face turns scary as hell. Buttertooth looks worried but I feel nothing. I don't know how to process all of these so I am simply void of any emotion.

"Where are we headed to now?" I ask and she sighs.

"The City of the Frees," she replies and I nod, eyes on the ground.

"Where's Filn, Katlaine and Rigo?" Puffer asks, scratching his hair roughly.

"Well Katlaine and Rigo decided to stay back and help the people in that city. I didn't see any trace of Filn. I couldn't even sense her magic," she explains, standing up and dusting herself.

"I thought Katlaine hadn't returned from your city," I say, my eyes opened wide.

"She arrived shortly after the four of you left the house," she says.

"I don't still trust that Rigo guy though," Puffer says but Mrs Purplestorm shakes her head.

"You should. He was the one who came to warn me before it all started. He also pleaded with Katlaine to leave with us but she refused," she says and Puffer releases a deep breath.

"Well I guess he's a good guy. What do we do about Decklan now?" Puffer asks but Mrs Purplestorm shrugs.

"I don't know for now but we need to get somewhere safe first. I'll explain better when we get there," she says.

"I'm going to kill the bastard," Zed says furiously, gritting his teeth.

"You need to calm down. We will plan ourselves well after we settle down so let's go," she releases her wings and starts levitating slowly, waiting for us.

"Zed let's go. You know I never really liked that guy so I hate him as much as you do but right now, we need to get the hell out of here," Puffer says, holding Buttertooth and levitating slowly too.

"He's right. We should go," I say and he nods, holding me and taking off.

We all thought the war was over and we let our guards down, not realizing that the war is only just beginning. The fight between two supposed half-brothers will start soon and all I pray for is that it ends quickly.