Lost

Chapter 13 : The Drawing Book

It's probably been around 5 minutes since the attacker's disappearance and Lycia is still struggling to remove the axe from her arm. After huffing and puffing, she stayed in that position for a while, racking her thoughts on how to wisely use her last energy to release herself from the weapon's stubborn grip. Finally, an idea popped into her head. She jammed both of her heels onto the tree bark and uses all her reserve energy to her right arm as it tugged and tugged at the stubborn axe. Fueled by anger and hope, Lycia managed to move the axe a bit. Straining on her legs a bit more, she began to stoke her emotions. She closes her eyes and filled her thoughts with dark images of Louise getting captured, Cyane in trouble, her losing everything.... Though for some people these kind of thoughts might discourage them, it serves as a natural fuel for the sorceress. As her eyes gone bloodshot and filled with rage and motivation, she tugged on the axe without mercy. Finally, after several tugs, she managed to remove the weapon and fell face first onto the soft clump of grass below which leaves her nothing but a faint bruise on her chin.

"Well that did the trick." Lycia brushed the dusts off her clothes and unhinged her heels from the tree trunk. Just as she dusted off her shoulders, she heard some voices from the brook.

"Louise! Louise! Wake up will ya!"

Lycia's heart strucked horribly as if it's been impaled by some poisonous arrow. That voice came from none other than Cyane, her siren friend. And from the hint of panic in her voice it doesn't give off really good vibes. And with the thought that Louise needed to be waken up from either a snooze a coma or something worse isn't helping with Lycia's train of thoughts. As cold sweat began to slid down her face uncontrollably, she managed to get a hold of herself and dashed towards the brook. Her heart shattered some more seeing her human friend sprawled on the ground on his back. As she came closer, she can see a deep gash on his calf but that's the only wound that can be seen.

"Cyane, wh-what happened?" Lycia asks as she crouched low over the body.

Cyane looked up, her face painted with worry and cold sweat as her hair's hanging over her face, tangled horribly. "I-I don't know. I was just playing by the brook when I heard someone wailed my name. I knew immediately that it's Louise so I hurried here to check things out and I found him like this...."

"A-anyone else's with him?"

"There's a strong burly man next to him. No one I knew of course. He's laughing maniacally over him and by that bloody arrow on his hand, I bet he did it all. I spooked him with my angry siren mode and he flees. Leaving his victim unattended. I tried my best to shake him bake to life but...I can't say it's going well...."

Lycia gazed at her human friend whom she just met a few days ago. Is she going to lose such a good friend this fast? Is she that bad at protecting other people? She's supposed to be the daughter of a famous saviour. Yet she can't even protect a visitor, a friend from abroad. Her hopes of gaining peace between the opposing realms are now crushed. Flattened out as if it's some wad of bubblegum on the ground, unimportant and to be taken no heed of. She's so stupid to be dreaming of such things when she knew it won't work. It won't come true. It's too good to be true. The realms will forever be at war, mortal enemies as the hatred passed down generations to generations. As she watched her hope of peace slowly dies out in front of her eyes she slowly parted Louise's hair and let out a shocked gasp at what she just witnessed.

"Lycia! Wh-what is it?" Cyane asks out of concern.

Lycia can't say anything. Her mouth's locked and her pupils has shrunken to such a minuscule size it's barely visible. Her finger trembled as it pointed towards the gash on Louise's forehead, dripping with blood as her gaze fell towards a nearby rock. Cyane let out a gasp too before following Lycia's gaze.