Fantasy Kind Of Story

Chapter 19: Smoke And Ash

The five of them stood there, staring at the army of infront of them, the smoke from the burning houses making it difficult to see, the screams of terror blocking out any other thoughts, they stood there, frozen in awe and disbelief at the carnage infront of them.

"What happened?", Silvio asked, still overwhelmed by his surroundings.

"I dont know, but we should do something", Lara replied, taking a deep breath and straightening her posture.

"No we need to get the hell out of here!", Kiburi shouted.

"There are people who need help, and I'm helping with or without you", Lara remonstrated before bolting towards the smoke and ash.

"We have to stop her before she get's herself killed!", Silvio exclaimed.

"Not our problem, this is above our pay grade", Marya stated apathetically as she walked the opposite direction, Kiburi began to follow after but he felt something grab his jacket.

"She needs our help!", Silvio pleaded, looking into Kiburi's eyes.

"We're not heroes", Kiburi said plainly before pulling his jacket free and walking away. Silvio stood there, eyes towards the ground, after a few moments he clenched his fists and walked towards the smoke, Jiro followed him.

Kiburi and Marya were about to cross the town border before Kiburi stopped in place.

Lara burst through the door of a burning house, covering her face with the inside of her elbow, lowering it occasionally to glance at her surroundings, and staying low to the ground to avoid the smoke. Lara held her ear out to listen for anybody, feeling any doors with the back of her hand to tell if it was safe to put her ear against it to hear inside for anybody. Eventually she heard someone screaming from the other end of a door, Lara quickly kicked the door to open it  so she wouldnt have to remove her arm from her face. She entered the room and looked around to find a woman desperately banging onto a door trying to get it open.

Lara ran to pull her up and tried to get her out of the house but she refused.

"Maam, you need to get out of this house now!", Lara shouted.

"My husband and daughter are in there, the door wont open", the lady said, struggling to breathe.

"I'll get them out, but you need to go!", Lara said as she picked her up and moved her towards the door, she ran out and was met by Jiro who grabbed her and helped her outside, she fell down onto the ground where Silvio began to treat her.

Lara went to the door and bashed it open with her shield, the door hinges to snapped off and the door falling over. She crawled into the room and found a man desperately trying to pull his daughter out from beneath some rubble, Lara pushed him aside and began to lift the rubble up, she struggled before letting out a massive scream, her eyes began to glow bright yellow and she lifted the rubble out of the way, the father grabbed his daughter and ran towards the door, Lara followed after.

They were about to make it to the door when the floor beneath the father caved, his foot fell in and was stuck. Lara ran to him and tried to pull him out but he stopped her and handed Lara his daughter.

"Get her out of here!", The man shouted.

"Not until I get you out!", Lara yelled.

"Please, save her!", The man begged, Lara saw this and nodded. She picked up the girl and charged towards the exit, Lara saw the roof infront of the door about to collapse and hastily held her shield above her to guard them from the debris. They both made it through the door, the mother was about to get up to grab her child but she yelped in pain and fell back down, Lara placed the child in her arms, the mother held her tightly, she then looked up and said,"Where's my husband?!".

Lara turned back and was about to run into the house but Jiro grabbed her before she could, the house was collapsing, the father looked at her and mouthed "thank you", before he was consumed by the rubble.

"NO!", Lara screamed but was powerless to save him, the mother held her daughter tighter than before and began sobbing.

Lara fell to her knee's as tears filled her eyes, she sat there, eyes wide and still as a rock.

"Im sorry", Jiro apologized, Lara clenched her fists and turned to look at him

"Why!? I could've saved him!", Lara seethed, tears spilling from her eyes.

"No, you would have died" Jiro answered plainly.

"You dont know that!", Lara said, shoving him back in anger.

"I do know, I saw it collapsing, you both would have died if I had not stopped you", Jiro replied, allowing Lara to take out her frustrations on him.

"I dont care!", Lara said as she wiped away the tears and looked away.

"That's enough! We should not be fighting right now!", Silvio exclaimed sternly, he was currently checking out the mother and daughter, he applied some sort of a cyan colored ointment from a vial in his bag onto any burns and then some sort of yellow ointment onto the mothers ankle which was sprained. He felt around the daughters throat and neck with his pointer and middle finger before pouring a violet liquid into her mouth, he rubbed her throat in a circular motion until she began to cough rapidly, Silvio waited for the girl to open her eyes before standing back up. 

"You two should be fine for now, but you need to find somewhere safe to stay, I suggest getting out of this town and heading over to the knight checkpoint to the east down the road, they will give you shelter and proper medical attention", Silvio explained.

"Thank you", the lady said through tears and headed the opposite direction of the flames with her daughter in arms.

"Now then, since that situation has been dealt with, we need to figure out what caused all this", Silvio said.

"That would be our doing", a voice came from the smoke, a figure wearing a cloak emerged wielding two daggers in hand, he looked up at them with a villainous smile.

"Our?", Silvio asked, when he did multiple silhouettes came through the smoke and began approaching them.