A Curse so Twisted And Cruel.

Jass's Disappearance.

Lira.

Ugh. Double ugh. Lira flicks the disgusting bugs off her dress for the hundredth time. They keep coming back. At this point, she was considering just handing herself over to the guards and going to the dungeon. Anything but this.

This happens to be Magen, the farmland Jass was supposed to take them to. Until she went and disappeared. Lira bites her lip, hard.

Anyway, they made it here eight days after that, and they would've made it sooner if they didn't have to search for her, only to find out that she... No. She refused to believe that Jass is dead.
She can't be.

Lira's eyes start watering. Great. Just perfect. The insects come back tenfold, and, swatting them away, she swallows the boulder sized lump in her throat, harshly wiping away the inconvenient drops falling from her eyes.

"Hey Lee, you okay?" Gnarl's gruff voice interrupts her tear fest, and thankfully, they stop. She hastily rubs the last one from her eyes, before calling, " Yeah, I'm good. What about you?"

"Fine. But I swear this ground is getting rockier. I've slipped twice already."
She nods absent mindedly. Gnarl's grumbles have become a constant background noise. He is usually a grump, but it's gotten worse since Jass's disappearance. Lira knew he had a different relationship with her. More like a sister where she was their mother.

She sees him trying to be strong, trying to fill the gap she left. Their protector. Their mother. Their friend. Now they're orphans, left to struggle alone. And as much as they tried, they couldn't be strong. They need her.

Jass, where are you? She mentally calls out. We need you. Another tear rolls down her face, but this time, she doesn't stop it. She can't. Please come back.

•{§∆§}•

Gnarl.
(Two weeks earlier.)

"Snap! That's mine, thank you." Lira snatches the pile of cards from the log of wood before Gnarl can. "You cheated!" He accuses, pointing a finger at her.

She bats her eyelashes innocently at him, her eyes narrowed. "Really? Then can you prove it?" Gnarl scans the cards in his hand, before slapping one down.

"Here." He says in triumph. "Your proof." Her eyebrow raises when she sees the Spades he placed on the log. "That's not-" She begins, but is cut off by another voice.

"Guys! Come, quick!" Vin's call echoes faintly in the small clearing, and they both spring up, alarm bells clanging in Gnarl's head.

Lira looks around, confused, and he grabs her hand, pulling her with him. She yanks it from his grasp, shooting him a poisonous look and rubbing her wrist.
They stumble and trip through the trees, Vin's path a frenzy of snapping twigs, crunching leaves, and more than a few curses from both, him and Lira.

"What happened, V?" Gnarl asks, his voice almost lost in the sounds of them tramping through the forest. "I-I don' know. Once we separa'ed in the market, I never saw Jass. She said we should meet ou'side the side entrance, but when I wen' ta look fer her, she wasn' there. So I wen' deeper in the trees, an-and.." Vin's voice breaks, and Lira puts a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

"Hey it's okay. I'm sure she's fine. She probably just went for a walk." But Vin shakes his head at her words. "You don' unders'and. There was two guys there, one was knocked out, and the other was on the ground. Then, I heard someone scream, and i' sounded like Jass, bu' by the time I go' there, there was nobody." His voice shakes on the edge of tears. "There was only a broken branch an' a whole lot of blood under a tree."

An ominous silence settles over us at his words, and it feels like someone dropped ice down Gnarl's spine. His entire body goes cold.
Oh god no. No. It's not her blood. It's someone else's blood. Something else's blood. Anything else. Just not hers.

And while they stumble their way through the inky darkness, Gnarl managed to partially convince himself that she's fine. That she'll come barrelling out of the woods at any second, saying that she fought off three guys, and proving her point that the grueling training she put them through paid off.

But when they finally get to the tiny clearing, it's exactly as Vin said. The branch of a young Maple is snapped in half, drooping down at an odd angle, the puddle of dark substance at the bottom of it coating it's leaves.

A sharp gasp escapes Lira's lips, and her hands jump to her mouth. "No." Gnarl intended for the single word to be strong, defiant. But it's the opposite. "No." He croaks again, rushing to the tree and dipping his finger in the foul liquid. He raises it to his nose, sniffing it.

Since he's part goblin, scents are very potent to him, and the blood carries the distinct smell of Jasmine. Bile rises in his throat. Gnarl scrambles away from the blood and throws up under a shrub.

A sob crashes through the tiny clearing, and Lira slides down a tree, her head in her hands, sobs racking her slim figure. Vin reaches over and places a big hand on her shoulder, fat tears rolling down his cheeks.
They smell it too.

"It's not.. hers." He foolishly insists, walking around the entire clearing, checking behind every tree. "Jass!" He calls out, his voice hoarse. He sees the others wince in his peripheral, but ignores it. "Jaslynn!"
"Gnarl! Don't." Lira chokes out. He turns to look at her.

Her eyes are puffy, her hair tangled in the bark of the tree, and she's trembling like a leaf in the wind. "She's not dead." Gnarl whisper, his voice shaky. "I don't believe it. I won't." He can't.

Because if he does, everything rests on him. And he can't protect them. He can't be responsible for them.
So she can't be dead.