The forsaken (Rainimator book4)

village standoff

POV Charlie

the small village was really was that, about 10 houses, and yet somehow they had an inn and a fairly nice one at that, the others were sleeping or resting, but I couldn't when I tried to close my eyes I saw those soldiers with us, the ones whipped away from us by the vines, the screams...it was hunting. 

So I went outside, I found the only remaining soldier, the one with the frying pan. "evening," he said

"evening," I answered back. "Are you alright?" 

"Oh yeah, fine, just getting some fresh air," He stretched. "I don't actually think I've properly introduced myself,"

"no, really I should have asked," I said. 

"Well you can call me Arctic," He said. 

I nodded. "Well, I remember that," 

"Do we actually have a plan?" Arctic asked

I sighed. "No," but I cheered up. "never stopped me before," 

William came bounding down the street towards us suddenly looking better than when we arrived. "I'VE GOT IT!" he yelled failing to come to a stop and hitting the wall, although that didn't stop him as he just bounced back up. 

"How...are you okay?" Arctic asked 

"Hmmm, yeah I'm fine, well accepted for seeing the man I love dying in my arms every time I close my eyes," William said. 

Arctic blinked.  "And that's my queue to go inside," he said walking away.

"What have you got?" I asked. 

"Rylie! Well, where she is, a house just the overside of the nearby mountain range," William said, retrieving a map from his pocket. "it should only take us a few hours," 

I nodded. "We should split up," I suggested. "Some of us should head back to the boat wreckage and the others to Rylie," 

William thought for a moment. "Yeah, makes sense we'll make plans in the morning," we both headed back inside, to try and get some sleep. 

The next morning, we started by sitting at the table, Hilda was eating cereal, same for Dexter and Lyria, William was eating pop-tarts and I don't even know where he got it from, Shizuku had a salmon, and I had a piece of plain toast. 

"So what do we do now?" Hilda asked. 

"Heading back has my vote," Dexter said. 

"we're gonna split up, a team of three and a team of four," William explained. "Me, Hilda and Artic we'll move forward to Rylie," 

"And me, Lyria, Dexter and Shizuku will head back to the boat to help the others," I explained. 

Lyria raised her good arm. "how do we travel back to the ship?" 

"Walk or maybe some local...." I was cut short when Artic burst in out of breath. we all turned to look at him. "What is it?" 

"a group...the same group, they're here, and they are threatening the village," the solider was catching his breath between every word. "they say they'll burn it down and kill everyone here if we don't surrender,"

William was already on his feet, marching towards the door. "And what's your plan?" Dexter asked. 

"Making it up as we go," He said, I quickly joined him as the others fell in behind us. 

we exited out of the building, I and William advanced to the main street as the others stayed on the porch of the building we were staying in, the enemy group had about a dozen people in it, and most of them were netherkin in bits of leather armour, looking like they were from fallout or mad max, but with them where 2 zombies, covered in head to toe with planets, and in between them was a room where a green dress. 

a planet grew up her as well, she had dark green hair that faded lighter as it went down with black and red eyes, she carried a scythe, that seemed to have been made out of an oak tree of some kind, and the plants under her feet seem to grow as she walked towards us. 

"And who might you be?" William asked. 

"My name is Azalea," she said and with a wave of her hand's plants shot up and wrapped around me and William as the netherkin. Zombies moved forward. "and thanks for making my job easy, the amount we're getting paid..." she flinched back as ice surrounded the planets shattering them. 

things kicked off quickly, William jumped forward summoning his arcane axes, While Hilda, Dexter and Lyria took on the nether, Artic took on the zombies, things seemed to be going well, and we were winning. 

then it happened, plants shot out of the ground, wiping out, slicing, almost everyone else's arm, of leg or chest, although I wasn't hit, nothing happened for a moment, then lyria collapsed, then Hilda, Dexter, and Artic, leaving just me, William and Shizuku. 

William got ready to charge at the remaining emeny, but then it happened, Azalea's face dropped as a massive wave of water sent her and her friends washing away, we both stopped and turned to Shizuku, William put his thumb up then fainted to the floor himself. 

once we got them all inside, I was looking at the cuts on their arms. "What is it?" Shizuku asked. 

"looking at this cut, the plants that cut them were poisoned," I explained. 

Shizuku looked up at me. "Can you fix them?" 

I sighed. "No...no not with what I have here," I rubbed my face. "This village just doesn't have the tech to heal this," 

"There is a heal that lives just past those mountains," one of the villagers said. "We can gather transport for you, horses and carts, it'll take you about a day to get there," 

I looked at my friends and nodded. "if we start out soon, then we might just make it in time," the Villager nodded leaving the room.

POV 3rd person 

Moon awoke with a start nearly falling out of the bed she was in, she found parts of her body had been wrapped up in white cloth, and she hurt, she looked around the room, seeing Sheila in a similar state in another bad and Damian was in the far side of the room. 

despite how much pain she was in Moon walked over to the door, finding it was unlocked, she walked out into the hallway, there were no windows so she continued on, then about halfway down the hull when she heard someone singing. 

Moon kept forward towards the door and leaned closer to it, the singing stopped and the door suddenly opened and Moon fell forward into a woman. 

"Wow there!" she said, catching Moon before she fell. "You shouldn't be moving around with your injuries," 

"Who are you?" Moon asked getting back on her feet. 

"My name is Rylie, and this is my house, I found you and your two friends were hurt badly, I brought you, to try and heal you," 

Moon thought for a second. "did you find anyone else there?" 

Rylie shook her head. "no one else alive," 

Moon gulped. "Did you see many bodies?" Rylie nodded, and Moon seemed to lose her footing, Rylie guided her over to a chair for her to sit. 

"Can I get you anything?" Rylie asked. 

Moon nodded. "Do you have tea?" she asked. 

Rylie nodded going over to the door, Moon took in the room, the sky blue paint with different animals on it and then the white crib with a child sleeping in it, and Moon realised this was the person they were looking for.