Runic Storm (ONC 2022)

Chapter 22 || My Sister Is A Glutton

Kids were bustling around in a big kitchen, eating and laughing, while sharing food between each other. Kai was lazing on a chair a bit in the back, a big cloak draped over her shoulders. Her brown hair was tousled and her silver eyes tired but otherwise she seemed more than fine. She even grinned at us, as she bit into a piece of bread.

I spent the last weeks, weeks, looking for her. I barely slept, I barely even ate, because I spent most of my time chasing her shadow over the city, and here she was.

Maybe I was dreaming? After the images of the transmission crystal, I expected blood, gore, and chains. I rubbed my tired eyes and took another look. Nope, she was still there, blissfully gobbling up food.

What a glutton.

Tyler was the first to recover from his shock. Eyes fixated on her, he ignored everyone else he strode up and crushed her into a hug. That jolted me back into action.

I followed behind and swiftly grabbed his neck to pull him backwards, but to my dismay he didn't let her go. Instead, his dark eyes were glaring at me over the top of her head. The nerve.

I grabbed his arm instead to forcefully remove his claws from her when somebody next to us cleared his throat.

Ignoring the sound, I was locked into a staring contest with Tyler as I tried to pull Kai out of his arms while he tried to block me.

Again, someone cleared his throat next to us. Then he spoke "I cannot believe you made me wait a month, a month, in this hole and when you finally do show up you aren't even going to acknowledge your master!" The person harrumphed next to us and then a hand reached out and forcibly pulled Tyler's ear to the side.

"Ouch." Tyler shouted, his arms loosening as an old man stepped up to our group, brown eyes flashing dangerously.

What did he say? His master?

I quickly took the opportunity and pulled Kai out of his arms. Her face was a bit red as I held her in front of me, my eyes scanning for any injuries.

Did she catch a fever?

I checked her temperature, but it seemed normal, so I crushed her against my chest positing myself so that she was out of Tyler's line of sight.

"Er...Kier?" Her voice held a tinge of embarrassment as she addressed me from inside my arms.

"Mhm?"

"Can you release me? You are kind of crushing me here." She sounded a bit weak, so I loosened my arms a little but made sure to keep her close.

"Hello?" the strange old man asked and turned to face us. Standing next to each other, he and Tyler looked surprisingly alike. "Can you believe this boy?" he addressed Kai next to me. "No respect for his elders." He kicked Tyler in the side who then finally turned his head and to him.

"Nice to see you too, uncle." Tyler shot his uncle a cheeky smile.

"As if I would believe that." His uncle scoffed indignantly. "Took you long enough to get here."

"I got held up a bit." Tyler looked around pointedly. "And it doesn't seem like you suffered that bad."

"Not that bad?" His uncle huffed. "You better take me out of this place right now, I don't want to spent another second in here. "

I glanced at the surrounding kids, who were watching our interaction with fascination. They all looked weary and tired. I noticed that Kai had started to lean on me, her eyes lidded with exhaustion. Tyler shot me a worried look and I nodded at him. Before she could protest, I bend down and hoisted her onto my back. "Let's go home."

***

Kaia and I spent the next week back at our place so that she could recuperate in peace. Paul and the guild had coordinated with the police, and together they ransacked the fortress. There was so much illegal stuff down there, after one week they were merely able to scrape the tip of the iceberg.

Shortly after we were back, I had my talk with Tyler. It went very well, at least for me, and I finally managed to free up some time to check on my sister.

With Cane behind bars, the wanted posters got taken down. Finally, everything went back to normal again.