ⒸⒽⒶⓅⓉⒺⓇ ⓍⓍⓋⒾⒾ
This sucks.
It hasn't even been that many days, but I'm already getting bored.
We're on Day 3 on the journey. And since there weren't as many wild demons to deter me from blinking properly, I haven't needed much sleep.
Ten minutes of rest every 5 hours is nice.
It helps keep me sane.
After my attack on Andrew, I finally put back on my lucky necklace.
I should rename it the convenient necklace because it either keeps slipping off, or I take it off for one reason or another right before something bad happens.
The younger kids were getting very tired, even after our adventure which happened almost two years ago, still didn't help.
Still, the lack of sleep is also due to stress, because not only do we have to worry about wild demons, we have to worry about the Ratri's as well.
Violet and Nigel weren't finding much food, so Emma and I went to volunteer to find food. Some younger kids trotted behind us.
"No, Don, that mushroom is poisonous," I told him, smacking the mushroom out of his hand.
There were screeches, people rose their guns but I told them to lower them as I walked to the sound source.
That wasn't a demon.
That was a-
"MONKEYS!" shout the little kids, the monkeys were dropping food down for us.
Why thank you good sir.
I thought as I picked up some of the nuts they gave us, we set down a basket and they put food in there for us.
"WOW!" said Don and Emma, looking at the full baskets.
"With this much, we can make soups!" I told them.
"We have been getting better at collecting food," comments Jemima.
"With these past two years, we've gotten much better at doing a lot of things, thanks to you guys!" she says happily. I kneel down to her height and smile.
"We're all students of Yuugo, Lucas, and Y/n after all!" she says, my smile turns a little sad.
Jemima's small hand reaches to my face. "That's why we'll work so hard!" she cheers.
I break out into a grin. "Yes, you have all been doing an amazing job."
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
Eight days.
I stretch my arms and stretch out my neck as Ray and I keep walking.
"It seems as if getting there in only ten days will be tough." he remarks.
"Mhm..." I hum. My mouth and nose were snugged in the scarf Ray gave me around a week ago when I went insane. The wind kept blowing on my face and irritating it, so Ray continued letting me wear his scarf.
It feels like I'm hugging him 24/7 because of the nice scent.
I glance up at him. "But at least we're all safe," I look back and sigh. "Though, we still have to worry about Chris and Dominic's injuries."
"Even if we don't get there in ten days, it'll only take one or two more..." Ray informs me, as a guess.
I look down slightly.
"I was pretty worried, actually."
I look at him as a side glance, "You were too, right?" I ask.
He says nothing, prompting me to continue. "We lost our shelter, Yuugo, Lucas, our supporters. I thought in the back of my mind, doubting if everything really was going to be alright." I look at the slightly clouded sky, seeing different constellations as we walked.
"I was worried about Phil when Andrew mentioned him. He went to go talk to him by the sound of it. Which made me wonder if it was already too late if we should turn back and forward Emma's plan to save them now instead of later."
I look in front of me to prevent me from running into anything. "But at the same time, we have to also just focus on what's right in front of us."
"Y/n..."
Ray is interrupted by a loud roar, Don comes running to us.
"You guys!-"
"Everyone stay here! We'll be right back!" says Ray, we run to the source of the sound and see at least three demons surrounding two people.
Humans?
I questioned, aiming my gun.
Ray and I easily killed the demons surrounding the defenseless people, they uncover their faces.
"Hold it," Ray says, pointing the gun at them. "Who are you? Why are you here?" he asks, shadows frame his eyes, making him look intimidating.
I do the same to the other guy, he looks at my head, sees the horns, and freaks out.
He puts his hands together with panicked eyes. "Ah! Another demon! Please please we won't hurt you! We don't have our guns and we won't even try our luck without them so-"
"Shut up. Answer the question." I demand.
The other turns and bows to Ray. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
How are they this freaked out? Wild demons are more than a common occurrence here.
I thought as my eyes widen to a confusing stare, as does Ray's.
They keep panicking, explaining why they were out here.
"Alright courage the cowardly dogs, can ya tell us your names?" I refer to them as an annoyingly scared character I read in a book once about a year or two ago.
"O-oh! Yeah! My name is Hayato, and this is Jin!" the blondie says. I nod.
"Well, uh, we can't say exactly where we're from, but we-"
Hayato looks at Ray's neck, then my horns again.
"HEYYYYY!!!"
"Keep your voice down!" I ordered angrily, my eyes flared up for a second in annoyance.
"It's a Gracefield escapee and the demon that helped them!"
My eyes flicker back to normal.
"OH. So NOW you recognize us?" I get elbowed by Ray as a way to tell me to shut up.
"We've been looking for you, under orders from William Minerva!" Jin claims.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
Did we really bring these two back to our hideout?
I ask myself.
Yes, in fact, we did.
I respond to myself in my head, disappointed.
They kept bowing and thanking us, I rolled my eyes.
"So, your boss... Is William Minerva?" Emma asks.
We were all convinced he was dead, but maybe he isn't.
"The boss is amazing!" Hayato goes on about him.
"He also saved us!" he pulled down his shirt collar to show his mark from a mass production farm. Some kids look at Adam and back at Hayato and Jin.
No, Adam is from Lambda. Hayato and Jin are not. The marks are different.
I thought to myself as they kept talking.
"Allow us to guide you all to our base!" offers Jin. "The base has food and a place to rest as well as medicine and a medical facility! It's perfect for the injured! We haven't been attacked yet, we have very powerful people with us!" Jin explains.
Everyone seems very adamant about it. Ray speaks now.
"Sorry for suspecting you, I'd love if you took us all there." the two look at me, Ray looks at me for a reaction as well.
My arms were crossed with a pressed face. I huff out a sigh and uncross my arms and put my hands on my hips. "Sure." I lean forward with an intimidating look on my face as they quiver.
"But if you try anything funny I won't hesitate to shoot you." I warn with a smile.
"Y/n." Ray tells me, putting a hand on my wrist, I look back up at him.
"What? Just making sure." I told him, I look back at Hayato and Jin. "We got a deal?"
They shakily nod as I shake their hand. I walk over to Chris to pick him up, as soon as I do my eyes widen.
He's limp.
"Chris!" I say, everyone's head jerks to me. Sandy comes up and feels for a pulse.
"His pulse weakened and his condition got worse!" Sandy takes Chris from me, my face horrified.
"What about Mujikas herbs??" I ask frantically.
"We already tried them!" I got a frightening response.
Zack examines him.
"This is bad," he comments.
"At this rate, he won't make it."
My eyes widen, and my heartbeat increases.
"It'll take three days to reach Minerva. And that isn't enough time. He probably won't even make it to tomorrow." he says worriedly.
We've come so far though.
How...
No.
No way.
He won't die.
There has to be some way to save him!
"There's still a way!" Hayato tells me. I look at him with anticipation.
"A farm."
Excuse me?
"We can sneak into a farm for the meds he needs."
"Sneak... Into a farm?" Emma clarifies, petrified.
"Yes, we've done it before. It's a mass production one not far from here! At this rate, we'll make it by sundown!" he told us.
Emma walked up to me, silently asking my opinion on this outrageous idea.
If it'll save Chris.
I thought as I pursed my lips.
"If it'll save Chris..." I repeat my thoughts.
"We'll go in a small group. Ray, Y/n. And someone familiar with medicine." says Hayato.
"Why am I going? I don't know the layout of the farm or its security." I tell them.
I actually just wanted to look after Chris for my own mental relief.
Ray pitches in, "True, however. You can tune in your hearing for nearby footsteps and you're very quick on your feet with acrobatic skills. Not to mention, your magic."
Oh yeah, I hadn't a need for a few days.
I thought to myself.
"Alright." I look around the room, Zack volunteers to go, but Emma tells him he needs to stay with Chris.
"Anna," I say, "You can come."
"Really??" she asks.
"Really??" Ray asks me concerned.
"Really." I start.
"Have you noticed that Anna has been studying up on medicine? In the shelter and even a little before with Mujika?" I ask. "She's been doing good with her knowledge."
"I agree, she does know quite a bit." Zack says.
I nod, "Then, It's settled. Anna. Let's go." she nods and puts on her bag.
"Alright, we'll get the meds and get back before sundown for sure." I tell everyone.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
We see the farm from the nearby brush, it's a little different than what I saw in books from Headquarters, but nevertheless still a bit taunting.
"It's a mass production farm, so it'll be lighter security," informs Hayato. "They rely heavily on technology and there are only a few demons. They won't find us if we avoid cameras and sensors, however, the cameras also pick up noise. So we have to be cautious about that as well." he opens a hatch.
"Follow me."
We climb down the ladder, and to not much shock it leads to sewage. It's a small path before we climb through a pipe and find a hatch to the main halls.
Hayato tells us about the camera placement, and we jump down quietly.
As soon as Anna turns the corner a large demon does the same.
Ray and I pump our guns and shoot the mindless beast, accompanied by loud and rapid THTTHTHTHTHTHTHT like noises.
We certainly caught the guard's attention now.
I sigh.
"GO!" yells Ray as Hayato separates from us so they distract the demons, Anna and I will get the meds.
We scan the shelves as Anna points to each one we need, I quietly hop and scale the shelves and grab each one.
(the way Y/n climbs and does parkour was inspired by Jacob climbing in Bella's window from Twilight)
We got all of the medicines that Chris needed fairly quickly, we ran to the nearby hatch but when I opened it up slobber drooped on my face.
"EW!" I say wiping it off, only to realize that it wasn't any sort of dew from a tree.
It was hungry demons.
Well hell, ain't that some plot twist?
I slam shut the hatch and start to yell in a panicked voice. "ANNA! GO BACK-" I'm cut off by the hatch above me breaking and being grabbed by my face by a demon.
I couldn't see anything but the scaly hand of the demon as I flailed around the rest of my body.
"Is this a human?" one asks.
"It looks like a human, it isn't deformed or anything." says another.
"Y/n!!!" Anna screams.
I growl, squirming and trying to wiggle myself out from the demon's tight death grip, however, it only gets tighter the more I fight.
"Hold up, this one..." they pause.
"THIS IS THE DEMON FROM GRACEFIELD!!!" it screams with excitement as it starts to pinch my head, causing a headache.
"THAT MEANS IT MIGHT HAVE HUMAN INSIDE OF IT! IT'S SKILL AND BRAIN MUST BE OFF THE CHARTS!"
"GIVE IT TO ME!"
"NO, IT'S MINE!!!"
I felt under my skirt/on my pant leg and whip out one of my hidden knives from their holsters. I scream and in one tough slash cut off the wrist that was holding me I had completely cut off. Breaking the knife in the process as well.
I drop to the ground and land hard on my back. I quickly jump to my feet.
"AW SON OF A-" the demon is cut off as another hard slash swipes across them all and kills all of them.
I breathe out then look up as I am met with a very large person with a bag over their head and large machetes. And a tiger plushie hanging from their overalls.
Aw.
They lean down to my level, a small hole for their eye while the other has a large Z drawn on it peers through my soul.
They briefly glance at my head and raises their sword to my neck.
"Ah... urgh." they gargle.
"Wait wait wait wait!!!" screams Hayato as I gulp nervously. "She's one of us! She also saved our lives!" he says.
"Arghh....aaaa?" they point to my horns.
They kinda speak like the skeletons I conjure.
"Don't worry about those! She's nice and friendly! I promise you!" he says.
"Y/n!!!" I hear Ray yell. Anna comes up and hugs me and so does Ray.
I stifle a laugh and smile proudly. "You both missed it! I cut off the demon's wrist that had the audacity to palm my forehead with his crusty hand-"
I'm interrupted by Ray slapping my head.
"Ow! The hell?!" I say while scowling at him.
"Don't be so overweening, that was lucky," he tells me with an equally as angry of a scowl.
tHaT wAs lUcKy-
I handled it perfectly fine.
...
...
...
Yeah, I handled it perfectly fine.
I sigh.
"Uh, Hayato... Is this person part of Minerva's..." Ray looks up with a petrified face.
Why are you all afraid? They look awesome.
I thought amusingly looking at Anna's face too then back at the taller person.
That tiger plushie is so adorable I can't-
The person very aggressively and seemingly almost painfully ruffles Hayato's hair, "Uh, yeah this is Zazie! He's a confidant of the boss! Probably came to look for us because we took too long- Owowowow that hurts!" he says.
He stops and starts looking at a butterfly.
"Zazie only obeys the boss, and nobody really knows what he's thinking. He's kind of a rabid dog, so beware." Hayato tells us.
"Awaaaaa," Zazie says while trying to touch the butterfly.
That is so adorable oh my god-
"He's so adorable!" I say with a bright smile. Everyone looks at me with questions floating above their heads while I walk up to him.
"And I really like your tiger plushie. It's also very cute." I tell him honestly.
He looks down at me.
And I look at him.
And there's silence.
"Aaaagh, Awww," Zazie says while aggressively ruffling my hair, avoiding my horns. I laugh with a smile.
Ray pulls me away, looking more or so terrified and probably thinking I'm stupid for approaching Zazie so opening.
"Awa." Zazie says as he reaches for my hair even though Ray attempts to pull me away and he still pats my hair. I smile big.
"Come on! Now that we got the medicine, we should hurry back." I tell them. I smile and look up at Zazie.
"Come on! You can come too, big guy!" I say happily.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
The others were giving Chris his medicine and I took it upon myself to go find some food whilst the others were preparing to leave the cave.
The smell of smoke fills the air as I cover my mouth, I wasn't that far from the cave when this happened.
Hayato comes running down near me and looks around, eventually pointing to a distant farm. the one we'd been at.
"It's on fire."
"What? Why?" I asked, it caught everyone else's attention as well.
"It's probably another thing Minerva set up. He's been freeing a lot of mass production farms lately. Slowly but surely." Hayato tells me.
"We should move fast, get out of here." I hear Ray say to everyone. I turn back to try and make my berry hunt a little more swift.
A little bit into finding berries and nuts when I hear what sounds like a child crying.
I look around in the direction of the sound. "Hello?" I set down the basket and go through the brush to eventually find a small child, crying.
It was a young girl, possibly four years of age, from looking at the face and hair.
She has on long dark brown rags and has thickly bandaged feet that act as long socks.
Her hair is black and long that is overgrown over the left side of her face. But what is most concerning is she has very small, almost unnoticeable f/c horns.
A demon?
But she has normal hands and feet.
No robes or a mask...
I kneel down, "Hey there little one..." I say.
The little girl looks up from her balled up hands and I see the tear marks running down her face.
"Can you help me??" she cries while talking.
"Help you with what??"
She continues crying. "I got away from a bad place, it caught on fire and now bad monsters are chasing me!" she points in the direction of the mass production farm on fire.
I help her up, her bang moves slightly away from her eye. I look at her in both of the eyes.
"Where did you come from?"
She cries while explaining and wiping her tears. "The- The factory over there! I have something on my hand to prove it!" my eyes widen as she shows me the back of her right hand.
A mass production label alright.
I run my hand across the label and lightly scratch it.
It's real too.
"Can you describe to me who's chasing you?" I ask.
She keeps crying. "Tall, with robes, long faces, three eyes, claws, weird feet-"
She's definitely describing a demon.
"Okay, okay it'll be okay hun. Shhh... Shhh...." I let her hug me and I lightly pat her back.
Why does she have a mark for mass production but also has horns?
I lightly brush my hand over the horns and lightly tug them.
They're definitely real.
"Hey, are you hungry?" I ask her. I wipe off her tears and she nods.
I lead her over to my basket. "You can take a couple of branches of berries," I say sweetly.
When I look at her more carefully, I look at her eyes.
She has my eyes.
Well, my eye colour is pretty common, so it isn't much of a shocker.
She calms down after eating, I collect a basketful of food for the rest of everyone and turn to the path I came from.
"Please take me with you!" the girl tells me, taking hold of one of my hands. "I'm scared of those monsters!"
I think for a little bit.
"Since you know that you were in a factory, do you know if you have a tracker?"
She nods furiously. "It's in my left ear!"
"Oh my... Okay, well. If you want me to take me with you, I have to cut it out. You're going to have to be strong and not scream, alright?" I ask.
I felt a little panicked, I won't lie.
She nods furiously and pulls her hair back for me to do it.
I take one of the knives from my knife holster under my skirt/on my upper leg and count to three for her.
"One, two, three!" I quickly tore off the part of her ear where it is supposed to be, she purses her lips tightly.
"Okay, what you need to do is cover that with a part of your dress, follow me we'll get you some help." I had to puff up her hair to hide her horns before she takes my hand and covers her bleeding ear with her other and we run to the others.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
"Everyone!" I yell, "I found an injured kid! She's bleeding!" Zack gets his medkit and the others crowd around her.
The girl grits her teeth in pain on her ear, and soon enough come the questions.
"Where did you find her??"
Asks Emma as Zack comes back with his medkit and opens it.
"She was in the forest while I was getting food, she told me she was scared of the monsters that were chasing her and that she's from a factory." I hold up the hand she was holding mine with, which also has the mark.
"She's from the mass production plant that caught on fire. Number 11."
"What's mass production??" the little girl asks.
"Nothing, sweetheart." I say, clearly panicked.
"How do we know she isn't a spy for the Ratri's??" asks Oliver.
I hold up the piece of her ear I cut off. I peel back some of the bloodied skin to pull out a tiny pill like object and hold it for everyone to see besides the little girl.
"It's a tracker. Usually, if the Ratri's want to put a tracker in a spy, it'll be in their heart. So she's legit."
Nigel comes and takes a look at it, confirming it is so.
I had to take the piece and throw it as hard as possible away from us to get rid of it.
By this point, people around me are panicking as well, which gets the little girl to panic.
"What's going to happen to me??" she cries. Zack had just finished wrapping her ear and putting medicine on it.
"Nothing bad, okay? Alright, we'll make sure you get to safety away from the bad monsters!" Ray assured her.
Gillian gives him a questioning look, "We're taking her with us to see Minerva??"
Jin steps in. "Yes, we shall! We will take her to our hideout and she will be safe!"
Hayato chimes in. "Yes! the boss would like to save as many kids as possible! If she's from a mass production site that's even better for him!" This leads everybody else to have to agree to take her along.
Ray and I walk behind the rest of the group because he tugged me by the hand back behind everyone. The little girl walks between us.
She tugs the edge of my skirt/pant leg. "Miss?"
"Oh, you don't have to call me miss, you can call me Y/-"
"I don't know who my parents are, so can you be my mom?"
She interrupts suddenly.
Ray and I both look down at her, she has a smiling face. "You found me and you all saved me from the monsters! I owe my life to you so it's only fair! If that's okay!"
My heart melts as I cover my mouth.
She gives me puppy eyes, "Pretty please?"
I can't say no to her!
"Of course then, I'll be your mom!" I say, beaming.
I couldn't help myself.
She's too adorable.
"Yay! Thank you!!!" she tells me happily, then looks at Ray and I's intertwined hands, and then up at Ray.
"Can you be my dad?" she asks happily.
I'm kinda shocked how passive he was acting, based on his sudden and brief tighter grip on my hand he was a little taken aback.
He smiles at her.
"Sure."
Well, that's a surprise.
"Yay!" she cheers, she pries our hands apart so she can hold one of each.
"Thank you for saving me!" she thanks us.
Ray and I both look at each other, both wearing the same joyous expression.
She then looks up at me, at my neck. "That's a very pretty necklace!"
I look down at her, "Aw, thank you!" I tell the little girl.
"It shines very brightly! Can I touch it?" she asks.
I think and sigh to take it off and let her touch it.
If a wild demon suddenly appears I'm gonna be 100 percent convinced it's a lucky necklace sent to me by the gods.
I pray silently nothing will happen, and when the little girl touches it, the Zirconia gem reflects with a low zing sound.
The hell?
She looks at the necklace and then returns it to me.
Nothing bad happened.
I breathe out a small sigh of relief as I put it back on.
⇠⫷❖◈❖⫸⇢
"How's Chris?" I ask Emma as we get to a resting place.
"He's doing better, his pulse is stable and breathing has stabilized. The meds you guys got worked." she tells me.
"Good job, Anna." says Gilda, she then looks at me and throws a blanket on me.
"Your head almost got crushed by another demon, you need rest!" she tells me.
"Alright, we'll all rest here for the night. Everyone, get a lot of sleep." I inform everyone.
I walk over to Ray, who's talking with the girl we saved.
I sit with Ray. "What are you two talking about?" I ask.
"Papa was telling me about the different kinds of berries and which ones were poisonous so I could find food on my own!" she says.
Ray pulls me to him, my head lays on his shoulder while my back faces him.
The little girl sees this and decides to sit in my lap as well.
I smile and drape an arm around her. She leans back on me as I put the blanket Gilda gave me on all three of us.
"Nay. Mama. Papa." says the little girl.
"Hmm?" we both answer, getting a bit drowsy.
"Can you give me a name?" she asks.
I glance up at Ray, he thinks for a few seconds.
"You can choose." Ray whispers to me. I look back at the girl and think of possible names.
"How about... Maeve?" I ask. "It was the name of a powerful and legendary warrior queen, during the first century."
The little girl gasps, "I love it!" she tells me. "Thank you, mama!" she then closes her eyes and leans against us.
I smile and rest my head back on Ray's shoulder.
"What a nice name." he whispers to me, kissing my temple.
"Mmm, thanks." I whisper back.
I sleep easy that night.
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fun fact: every year, we each average to consume about 23 pounds of cheese (of course unless you don't eat it)