Dawn of Warriors

Chapter 5 B

The sound of running water was a welcomed distraction for Eva. She was biting through the apple while she balanced right by the edge of the water, hoping she wouldn't be unlucky as to fall in. She had the ring on her left pointer finger, the piece of metal giving off a purple colouring against the morning sun. It had a giant emerald in the middle, surrounded by braided silver. Beautiful, it would get a great price when she would sell it in the marketplace. Her day had gone through smoothly, she was given a snack while distracting herself in the waterfall and a new plaything until it became lunch money. Her thoughts were getting louder each time she stared at the ring, she was curious as to why an old lady would want the boys to have an apple and a ring and she was worried about them. The Three Mice were never really apart other than sleeping so Eva felt empty without them. The girl wanted to be reunited with her two swords, badly so. Badly enough to not notice the pool of mud interrupting her stoned balancing beam near the water. Her clumsy self made a beautiful appearance then, her luck running dry instantly. The girl fell, butt first, in the cold waters of the waterfall filling every bit of the currents pushing around. And yet, it felt stranger than usual. She had closed her eyes through the fall, feeling the coldness of the water and then nothing but a chilling breeze. She opened her eyes slowly, like a child learning instinctively how to use her eyelids. She wasn't in the water. In fact, she was not even close to the waterfall anymore.

She was standing in the middle of a stone room, old bookshelves and a desk placed in odd places, clearly not used for a very long time. In the same room stood a person, no. A thing. It was staring at her through bleeding eyes and a creepy smile, its lips stuck to that horrid upward motion for ever. "Hello there mister...." She said waving her right arm at the creature and it replied. The thing gave her a welcoming nod right before its head turned towards the closed door of the chilling room. A loud bang was heard coming from the other side of the door and then murmuring. The thing grabbed the handle and pulled it open to reveal two sets of hair that were familiar to Eva's eyes. Before she could even speak, she heard the two voices that she grew up with yell 'run' and bolted off, the thing following right behind them.

The two boys run as fast as they could outside of the building, their feet never really touching the ground for more than two seconds. Alexander was running ahead and right behind him was Chris, the creature following them but not running maybe jogging a little bit. Its bloody eyes left a drop of blood with each shatter of its feet against the stone floor. The trainees had reached the small yard of the old building with their breaths caught in the middle of their throats. The open space was nothing but an open garden, a forgotten one with mostly dried out plants trying to survive based on the low humidity remaining around them. The black - haired male that had taken the lead though suddenly stopped in his tracks causing his brother to, not so gently, fall on his back. "Why are we running away? We have been trained to fight against these idiots!" Alexander exclaimed looking at Chris over his shoulder. The other male produced a scoff right before his reply "It's called a survival instinct. We don't want to die so move your ass!".

A push and a shove later, Alexander turned Chris to face the building were the creature had finally found its way to the door, approaching the two. "Go show me your survival instinct" he announced the minute he tried to push Chris towards their enemy. His attempt at a very satisfying sacrifice failed quickly, the twin bond sending the thoughts right before either of them would make a move. "I am not doing that alone! You either join or we do the sensible thing and run like the handsome cowards we are" Chris announced holding his ground while his brother pushed him on. "Fine. Take the left. I'll go right. Don't screw this up" Alexander said using his instructive tone, that never really worked on someone who had seen him wearing a dipper and nothing more. The twins quickly got into a more composed mindset, they had decided to fight and they would fine with anything they had. Chris was the first to begin their march towards the beast, Alexander following suit. The two operated like eachother's shadow, their movements being in absolute unition, it was the reason they progressed so quickly compared to the rest of their class. They had both pulled out their swords, the blades being a permanent decoration of the back of their uniforms. Alexander had gone to the right side of the creature attempting the first blow, a slash heading for the thing's shoulder. It was a distraction though, meant to miss. When the creature moved out of the way leaning left to avoid the sharp blade, there came Chris perfectly drawing blood from the middle of the creature's left ribcage. A roar came from the enemy, a growl of pain. The twins were circling their prey slower, plotting their next move like sharks waiting for their food to drown.

And while the two of them were busy with the corrupted creature, the woman who was previously hiding in that room had managed to sneak out of the building and went after the two familiar faces she had seen. Eva ran a hand through her messy hair, making sure to keep them out of her eyes as if that would clear the picture of what she was seeing right in front of her: Alex and Chris, fighting the guardian that as given to her by the old woman. "Guys!" she screamed and, after her little pause, she ran as fast as she could -which wasn't that fast, in all honesty- towards the fight. The young woman placed herself between Chris and Alex and the creature, which was bleeding badly, panting, hiding behind her as if she could protect it. "Stop!" She breathed out, her eyes altering between the twins, who looked at her in utter shock. "What are you doing here?!" he questioned, his voice becoming a little high-pitched at the end of the question. "Eva?" Was all Alex muttered in the background, still surprised to see her in a place like that.

Eva was so out of place with the dimension: not only her clothes were different, more modern, her hair and the way she carried herself around were showing that she had no confidence on where she was or what she was doing. "I don't know!" the girl cried out, her voice now dripping with worry and desperation. "There was this old woman, she gave me this ring and an apple and then she told me to go through the waterfall- and guys, I've seen you do it so many times, I thought that I.. that I could" she paused, her words trailing off, not wanting to admit that she wanted to feel included in their world. "Why are you hurting him?" the girl whimpered and it was clear that she was holding back her tears. Chris was the first to notice that and he walked over to her, frowned in worry for his friend as he placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl looked at him and instead of seeing him staring at her, she noticed that his eyes were focused on the creature behind her. "Step back" he hummed, the corrupted whining and taking several steps away. It seemed to understand what waws going to happen and it didn't want to die.

"No, no, Chris wait!" Eva stood up quickly, tears already dangerously close to flowing down her cheeks. Chris didn't understand why she was acting like that, why was she protecting that corrupted? She was almost crying for that monster, her hands strongly gripping his arms, trying to hold him in place. It was clear from the look he shot at her that he was very confused with her reaction to the situation. But before either of them could say anything, a shadow flew past them and the blood from the corrupted human sprayed the two of them, Alex now standing above the dead body of the creature which was sliced across its chest. While Chris seemed to show relief, Eva, on the other hand, had pure despair and disbelief painting her features. "What did you do" she whispered, her nails digging a little to her friend's skin as her eyes were locked to Alex in the distance. "Why did you do that?! HE WAS PROTECTING ME!"

"What"