Dragon Nest: Small Towns Volume One

Chapter XX: The Girl of Destiny (Xian)

     It was good to say that the villagers are finally safe. We fought well but some of the villagers, especially me, got injured during the battle. Triana, on the other hand, didn't even get any scratch. As I lay down on the ground, I slowly looked at the villagers who are freeing other villagers from the cages. The monsters killed are not to worry about now that it's over and Triana gave me a hand to get up. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be able to save this much. We were about to escort everyone back to the village when suddenly a man was running towards us shouting...

     "ROSE! ROSE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

Chapter XX: The Girl of Destiny (Xian)

     Timothy seemingly looked worried and asks every person who he pass. I remembered him abandoning his soldiers and with my temper I approached him.

     He approached us "Guys, have you seen..." by the time he's near me, I charged forward and punched his face. The impact of the punch forced him to tumble backwards.

     When he tried to get back, I helped him by grabbing his shirt and pushed him near a tree. "You left your soldiers to die!"

     His nose started bleeding. "Wh-what?"

     Triana tried to stop me but I still slammed his body to the tree. "Instead of fighting with your soldiers you fought along to find your girlfriend!"

     "Those soldiers mean nothing to me!" As he said that to me, he looked to the other villagers and their looks seem disgust. Triana's face saddened as she don't feel any anger much. He looked back to me "I will find Rose and you won't stop me."

     "I think she'll be happy to see you after what you've done with your soldiers." I let go of my grip.

     "Speaking of whom, has anyone actually seen Rose?" Triana asks and all of us looked at each other.

     "ROSE!?" We all looked around and ask other people. It was unthinkable that she has been separated from the other freed villagers.

     While we kept looking around, the situation in Mana Ridge is different as the Orb held by Sorceress Cynthia and the Staff held by Cleric Leonard are about to be combined. As Cynthia inserted the orb at the head of the staff, it started to glow and got out from Cleric Leonard's grip. Floating in midair, the orb started to pull out a visible blue aura from the staff and springing out fog. The wand shattered into fragments and images projected through midair.

     A while later, both said "Oh."

     Triana, Timothy and Xian were bit far from the villagers they rescued, searching and looking at every inch of the forest to find Rose. Desperation grew as me and Triana were about to give up but Timothy still recklessly exhausting his energy.

     "She can't be this far from the other villagers, we should probably go back." Xian said to Timothy "She should be with the other villagers."

     "Didn't you hear what they said?!" He faced Xian angrily "They didn't see her!"

     "Would it be probable that she's the only one gone?"

     "They said it themselves. She's not there!"

     I looked at him like a man desperate of losing someone again, a man that has nothing left to lose but someone he cared as his eyes widened and twitching. That was the same reaction he was back then when Xian lost his mother. "She is your responsibility... and my hunch says that she is with the villagers, safely. I'm done." He went back to the villagers.

     "Xian?" Triana said as she follows him while Timothy still in search.

     I seemed to be calmer probably because the tiredness and the remorse I felt from him. My walk is lumping but stable.

     "Hey Triana." I said when she caught up. "Sorry about my action earlier. I'm just really tired and I don't want to struggle more."

     "But you have done enough." She replied.

     "Haha thanks." I brightened up a bit "But you mostly took them down."

     "I did not even break a sweat." Triana too brightened up.

     "Really? I saw your kicks and your flying arrows piercing through their armor."

     "It was basic training from Anu Arendel."

     "Anu Arendel?"

     "Yes, it is the place where I was born. The nation of elves."

     "They teach you how to fight?"

     "Yes. They also teach us about hunting. Earlier, I kept track of the old man in the cage before you got captured but now, I seem cannot find him with the villagers." I came to realization and stopped walking as Triana kept talking "Maybe my skills has gotten weaker?"

     "Triana, the old man, you kept track of him?"

     "Oh yes, I also kept track of the little girl, the little boy, and another little boy, but they were not with the villagers or maybe I did not see them."

     Elves are good at hunting and that would include tracking. If she didn't see those villagers, then the others including rose could still be with the monsters? In an instant, a blue aura ascended from the west of the forest. That's when we both knew where we should go.

     By the time we arrived, we saw the villagers about to be executed. We charged in and fought the group of Harpies. A monster with giant wings, sharp claws for both hands and legs of a bird and body of a human covered with feather. They are fast and adapt in air. We saw Timothy fighting them with a cracked shield. Steadfast, the arrows Triana shoots from far away is dodged by them. The battle is hopeless, what we can do is hold them while the villagers escape.

     "Useless, human. We don't have time for you, now that the time of the Black Dragon will be resurrected once more and this time, we will conquer everything." The harpy said. They started flying away but Timothy charged in.

     "You won't get away!" he said with the cracked shield and the sword he just picked up from the ground.

     "Hey, wait!" I tried to stop him but a large shadow on the ground appeared and turns out the one that was blocking the ground was a harpy and targeted Triana, who continued shooting. As the harpy threw her Chakram, a circle-shaped weapon with sharp-pointed ends, I succeed pushing her away and just having a scratch to my leg by that weapon. Timothy saw the shadow and with the reaction time he had, he turned around and sliced its chest bleeding. What I didn't expect is that one of the harpy he was chasing threw a Chackram behind him and pierced to his chest.

     "No." I whispered to myself as Triana's reaction blank.

     The group of harpies went away and we went to Timothy bleeding to death.

     "P-please, s-save... Rose." Timothy said.

     "She's safe with the other villagers. I promise you."

     With the last breath he has, he said "I'm sorry." He died while his eyes were open. I stood back, seeing another person died because I couldn't save them. What Triana can do now is close his eyes.

     "We have to go back, you're injured." Triana said. "The Goddess will take care of him now."

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