Mother of Monsters (Camp NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter XI-Milea

Elios has a death grip on my arm as he's dragging me away from Raella, who stares t us with disgust and anger. I want to shout at the two of them, call them both crazy, stop the madness going on right now, so we can all work together to save Areus's scry ball and Raella's fate.

I want to but I can't. My mind becomes too flooded with things to say the words all jumble up. I don't make sense anymore. Nothing makes sense anymore.

Eventually we lost sight of Raella. Elios is still pissed at her. "How can she do that, huh? Assume we're just going to die for her? There's safer ways of getting that scry ball. There has to be millions of ways to sneak into the castle. And they're probably thousands of ways to get in there without getting out heads chopped clean off by Maros." Elios was totally helping with my anxious thoughts. It's not like I have other worries other than our death right now.

We find the gates where we left that one night, excited and completely oblivious to the human world. The door is still open since we forgot to close it. No doubt some animals must have made their way in by now.

That's when I fully come to terms that I've been outside of Strago for three days. Three days. It's been three days since I saw my father, my mother and step-mothers, my brothers, and my sisters. They must have been worried sick. They must think that I'm dead or something. Once we get in, if I work up the courage to, I'll ask Elios if we could stop at my house, just so I could tell them that I'm alive and there's no need to make funerary candles and drape the windows and mirrors.

But maybe we could do that after we get the ball. If we do that before they'll ground me and never let me leave the house ever again.

I make a light so we could see as we enter the tunnel. "So are we going to go after her?" I ask Elios after who knows how long of a silence.

He whips his head back like he's about to attack me. "No we're not going after her. From here on out we are out of her business. If she gets into trouble it isn't our fault." He turns his head forward. "She. Is. On. Her. Own."

Normally, I would have looked down and shut my mouth. I find it hard to believe I'm friends with Elios. It's always been more of "Raella is my best friend, but Elios always hangs around her therefore I have to hang out with him by default." So I was never really comfortable with him around me. He always looked like he was going to rip people's heads of.

But Raella always calmed him down. Just by her being there Elios's anger levels toned down by at least ten levels. I could only achieve such victory twice.

And even if we aren't very close, he's very protective, of both Raella and me. So I can't wrap my head around why he would suddenly drop Raella like she is dead weight.

"I'm so sorry Elios." I stop walking.

He didn't notice I stopped at first, but he heard my voice and slowly turned his head. "Millie, there's nothing you got to be sorry for. It's not your fault Raella's a selfish bitch. And it's not your fault that fate decided to throw us in for a spin. Literally nothing that happened to us is your fault. Now c'mon. You want to get back home right? Your second step-mom is probably the best cook in all of Strago. We can eat some of her food and forget about Raella."

I shook my head. "How can we forget about Raella? She's one of the most amazing people we know. She rose from the dead when everyone said it was impossible. She stayed up all night and day with you when you had Dream Curse. She knew your parents weren't going to help you, so she dragged you to her hut and took care of you until you came back to reality. When my little brother died, she helped my family go through the phases of mourning for all seven days. She helped make candles and helped build the pyre. When she heard she was going to be responsible for the world falling into chaos, she didn't sit back and let it happen. She literally climbed mountains and broke laws to make sure that it wouldn't happen. And now she's probably looking Ezenta in the eye, knowing that she's going to die again."