Point and Time

Chapter 21: Chase: Common Good

After the battle, we set a camp up in the woods far away. We didn't want to stay at the mansion especially after what we had just gone through. It wasn't worth the stress or fear of waiting for something to pop up and for us to find out that through the thick of it, Gornid didn't actually die. Seth didn't kill him, it was just a double of him and the war had not ended yet.

When I woke up in my tent I saw that Ever was already gone. I wasn't used to sleeping near her but over the past few days, I didn't realize how much we had been with each other because now I felt like I was missing something or someone for this instance. I rolled out of bed and began putting my gear on. I slid my chest plate over my head, then my arms. I put my sword into its sheath, then slid it over my shoulders so it sat comfortably on my back, and stepped outside.

You could see the mansion through the treeline but you couldn't get there quickly without running as fast as you could. Mark and Emily's tent was still zipped so I'm guessing they were asleep still. Poy and  Lucia had already packed their tent and went somewhere. Ari was in a tent alone now, which felt odd. This wasn't some sort of dream I could shake, Ethan was gone. Fig and Lezlie were talking inside of their tent so I knew where they had been. Macie was just getting out of her tent and zipping it up.  

"Seth awake?" I asked her not knowing if he was in there or had been up and about.

"He was already gone. I didn't hear him leave though so I just ott extra sleep." She replied groggily. Her hair was tied in a messy bun, you could tell she just woke up.

We both began to walk around trying to figure out where they might have gone. We walked around where we set up camp to see if we could find them but we hadn't seen anything yet. We walked further out into the woods and still didn't see anything. We looked back at the mansion and I thought I saw someone walking around in the burnt-down version of the mansion.

"Mace, look." I pointed and she squinted her eyes to see what I had been looking at. 

"There's no way someone is there, right?" 

"Only one way to find out, let's go take a look."

We started walking outside the woods before we heard someone coming behind us. I lit my hand on fire and turned. Right as I was about to blast some sort of fire at them I realized it was Emily.

"Okay pal, I'm not going to try and hurt you I promise. I just saw you guys going somewhere and got curious." Emily responded.

"Okay, let's go because I don't want them to see us." We began to run towards the mansion. 

We got to the side of the mansion and I saw the man in the window. We hopped in through a window and began to sneak around the building. We heard footsteps and as we turned the corner it was Seth. He was standing there with one eyebrow raised confused as to what we were doing and why we had our weapons readied at him. He was holding a bowl of cereal that he just poured and he didn't even have his axe on him.

"Brother, what are you?" I asked

"Relaxing, for the first time in about three weeks." He smiled at me. He wasn't wrong. We had been on the run for so long that it felt odd not having to run anymore. We didn't need to carry our weapons if we didn't want to anymore. It wasn't some necessity that we carry our weapons and have our heads on a swivel. Seth did kill Gornid I watched the beasts that worked with Gornid disappear. 

"You didn't tell us you were coming here though?" I asked him.

"I thought I'd be able to get back before anyone woke up I'm sorry." He replied.

"You're good buddy I'm just glad you're safe." I smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"If you ever do something like that again I might smack you." Macie hugged him.