Ame Perdue

Chapter Fifteen

Unsurprisingly, Milo was the first person to shake himself out of his stupor.

The elf shook himself, bits of flesh and blood falling from his previously white robes as he took a step forward. He glanced around the clearing, and I followed his gaze. Out of the thirty people that had been around earlier, there were only ten left standing. The rest were laying in mountains of flesh. How many of the fallen were actually dead, I couldn't guess. These creatures were harder to kill than humans.

I subconsciously rubbed the cut on my throat.

Milo glanced at Acilia, the girl having changed back into her humanoid form only seconds prior. Even she was staring at me with a look of barely concealed shook. I didn't understand it. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. They should be trying to figure out what caused the darkness to take over the meadow. I looked around, trying to locate whoever it might have been, but everyone looked just confused, their gazes locked on me. A bad feeling washed over me.

"I will take care of the injured," He told the dragon simply. There was a slight hesitation in voice when he spoke, as of there was something else that he would rather do. I found it hard to believe that the healer would be against healing people. From what had seen of him so far, that seemed to be his priority.

Acilia nodded in easy acceptance of his words, their past disagreements seemed to have been forgotten, at least for the moment. Her eyes never left mine, something that I was quickly growing uncomfortable with. She walked forward, grabbing Kam's arm as she passed him. I prepared myself to duck out of her way if she tried to grab me, but to my surprise, she didn't even attempt it, "Let's go, Tay."

I blinked. For a fire creature, her voice was rather cold when she spoke to me. I didn't hesitate to follow her as I tried to ignore the stares burning into the back of my head. She lead us out of the damaged camp, pausing right at the edge of the forest, something that I was grateful for. She spun around, her eyes flashing as she leveled her gaze with mine, "What just happened?"

"Bad demons came to kill the living," I told her slowly as if she was stupid for not realizing it. I took a step away from her, I didn't like the look that she was giving me, "And they all disappeared after darkness wrapped around them like a shawl. Which is probably what we need to be trying to figure out."

"That's what I'm trying to do." She crossed her arms as she regarded me, "How exactly did you do that?"

"It's simple really, you take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, you push the air out past your vocal cords, which in turn creates sound. Most people can do it from birth, but if you're having trouble figuring out the exact science of talking, might I suggest figuring it out after we banish the demons from your world?" Acilia gave me a droll stare making me throw my hands up in exasperation, "If you don't want sarcasm, try elaborating."

"Actually, knowing you, you likely would have given her sarcasm regardless of what she said," Kam chimed in helpfully. The wind spirit stood next to Acilia, his features paler than normal. His near impalement had shaken him up. That didn't stop me from flicking him off for his comment.

I looked between them in confusion. I didn't understand the looks that they were giving me. I hadn't done anything abnormal, nothing that I could recall. Perhaps they had noticed that I wasn't as comfortable fighting as usual? Was that what this was about? But I didn't think that that would warrant such a reaction from either of them. Kam was staring at me as if I was a ghost or something. Acilia's expression was worse. She was staring at me as if I was the enemy.

"Seriously, what's this about?" I asked, dread pooling in my stomach.

Acilia didn't bother beating around the bush, "How did you send the demons away?" She angrily yanked her hair out of the band, trying it back behind her with way more force than necessary. I blinked at her owlishly, her words not quite comprehending, "Better question, what are you?"