Unanimous

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The sound of the two swords slashing through flesh and loud cries coming from the creatures, were the only things that could be heard after those words left the boy's mouth. While the younglings had had a hard time defending themselves, the two strangers didn't seem to have any problem when it came to killing the enemy. One by one the creatures fell, all of them merely ending as a bloody heap of body parts.

Amandine ran towards Amber and picked her up by her arms. She carefully dragged her to safety, away from the fight, while watching how the others were doing. A shriek left her mouth when one of the creatures suddenly appeared in front of her and made a gurgled noise.

"Get away from me!" Amandine yelled out in terror.

It didn't matter that the creature wasn't planning on doing so, because a second later an arrow pierced through its head. Amandine's shocked face was now covered with someone else's blood as she stared at the relieved-looking Jaron.

"You okay, Amine?" he shouted.

She managed to nod, before wiping a bit of the blood of her face.

Jaron had already found himself another victim.

The fighting continued and Amandine watched how Matthieu ripped creatures to shreds, how Nina burned them alive, how Jaron skilfully shot his arrows, how Vic ended them with one brutal kick and how Liesa knocked them down with her water powers.

But none of them fought as impressive as the strangers. Those two were terrifying and captivating at the same time. The ease with which they slaughtered the creatures was unbelievable.

Amandine had never seen so many corpses. Who was she kidding? Before today she had never even seen a corpse. This sight was truly traumatizing.

There was only one creature left. The boy charged at him with his sword firmly in his hands. He swung. The creature managed to dodge him, causing the sword to miss him by perhaps a centimetre. This only seemed to add to the boy's anger and with another aggressive swing the sword ate through his opponent. The creature fell to the ground, his dead eyes still full of terror.

The boy pulled back his sword and turned around, fully aware of the fact that all eyes were on him. The girl went to stand beside him.

"Come on, let's get out of here. Then we can talk," she said, before heading back in the direction they first came from.

Once they reached the clearing the girl halted and casually sat down. The others, including her companion, followed her example.

"You must be wondering," the boy started, "who your amazing saviors are." He wiggled his eyebrows in an arrogant way.

The girl hit his shoulder, causing the boy to let out a surprised yelp.

"Stop being so goddamn cocky!" she said, rolling her eyes. She then smiled at the younglings. "Don't mind him, he's just being a dork."

"Hey!"

"Anyway," the girl said, dragging out the last a ,"my name is Emmie and that there is Kevin."

"Hi," Amandine said sweetly, "I'm Amandine." The others started awkwardly introducing themselves too.

"Thank you so much for saving us back there," Vic said sincerely.

Emmie shrugged.

"That's okay, it's my job to protect you."

She then pointed her thumb at Kevin.

"But he, he just follows me around everywhere, claiming he loves me," she mockingly adds, then grins widely at Kevin.

"Who's being cocky now," Kevin muttered, but didn't deny what she said.

Matthieu scraped his throat rather loudly.

"Not to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you and what are you doing here?"

Emmie let out a laugh.

"Impatient, are we? But okay, I'll tell you who I really am. You just have to be quiet while I tell you my story."

FLASHBACK

"Emmie! Emmie!"

The long-haired girl quickly rushed upstairs, throwing open the door to her sister's bedroom.

The first thing she noticed was how her brother was sitting on the chair next to her little sister's bed, looking all worked up.

"She's getting worse, Ems, we have to do something," Kobe said desperately.

Emmie frowned worriedly and put her hand on Kora's forehead.

"She definitely has a fever, but I don't recognize her other symptoms. It's probably a human sickness she got when we were on that trip through Fortania."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here, guys," the small 11 year old complained. With her long brown hair and petite face she looked just like a younger version of Emmie.

"I'm sorry, honey, we're just worried about you," Kobe soothed her, before kissing her forehead.

He then looked at his other sibling again.

"If it's true what you say, and the disease is really a Fortanian one then that's also where we'll find the remedy."

Emmie thought for a second.

"When are we leaving?"

"There's no we. I'm going alone. You have to stay with Kora and take care of her." Kobe said sternly.

"Okay then, but you better be careful," Emmie reluctantly agreed.

"I will be."

END OF FLASHBACK

"Kobe has two sisters? How come we didn't know that?" Jaron asked shocked.

He ran a hand through his hair, not able to grasp how he hadn't known such a big part of his best friend's life.

Emmie let out a sarcastic laugh.

"One sister. He has one sister."

"But, I thought Kor-"

"Kora died," Emmie snapped before bursting out in tears.

"Kobe did everything he could. He even took her with him to Fortania, because he thought he had found the cure. But he was too late. Our little sister died before I even got the chance to say goodbye."

Emmie's sobbing was all there could be heard now.

Amandine felt an ache go through her heart.

"We're so sorry," she said, "You've been through so much and now we only give you more troubles. And that all while your poor brother's gone missing."

Emmie abruptly stopped crying.

"My poor brother?! Poor?" She cried out hoarsely. "Darling, my poor brother is the reason you are here today!"

"Wait, what do you mean?" Matthieu asked confused.

"You're looking for your friend, right?" Emmie asked.

The younglings nodded and Liesa added: "Three actually. Kenneth, Kobe and Gail."

Emmie let out an angry sob.

"Well, I'll solve one mystery for you. Kobe hasn't gone missing. He just returned home. But it seems that he took some friends with him. Sadly, I know my brother well enough to say that that most likely happened without their consent."

The younglings' jaws dropped simultaneously as they realized what Emmie was saying.

"Yeah, that's right. My brother isn't the victim here. He's the villain."