Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 68. Max

"Put your swords, daggers, everything down and slide it to us, now!" The ninja shouted. I kept Sheria behind me as we slid down to the floor in the shop. The shopkeep's daughter hid behind the counter. Sheria clutched onto her rod in fear while I made sure she still stayed behind me. Heather would be lividly pissed if anything were to happen to Sheria, even if she got a paper cut under my watch.

Speaking of a watch, I kept mine on me. They didn't know it was my sword, and they couldn't have possibly known. It's not like they knew I was a Merrywell. I was not dressed like one now. Heather sure made fun of my outfit so I did change. I kept the bag though because it was a bit more sturdy.

"Max..."

"Stay behind me. I'll protect you." I wisphered back to her. She only held onto her rod tighter, unwilling to give it up. She was scared. I was no Heather, and Heather was her protector and savior, "Heather will come, I know she will." I told her, trying to comfort her. Heather did protect her like the child she was, that was true. Heather...she really outdone herself now.

Sheria cried lightly, "you can contact her with your mind and stuffs! Get Heather!"

"Give us the rod!" The ninja demanded of Sheria as five others entered the shop.

I moved back a bit to stay in front of Sheria, throwing my arms out to prevent them from passing me, "It's just a staff, she's a healer. She doesn't hurt people she only heals people."

"And who just might you be?"

Scared for my life, Heather, where are you when I need you? "My name is Max. I'm just a friend of this girl's sister. I told you, she's just a healer."

The ninja's didn't care, "give it."

"No, no!" Sheria continued to cry.

Max is that you? What's going on right now? Is Sheria okay?

I somehow contacted Heather again, thankfully. We need help. Six ninjas.

You better protect Sheria with your life. Don't even let them look at her the wrong way and you better not make her cry.

It's a little too late for that. Just hurry up and get here. Is Rheannah with you?

Oh yeah. We're coming. Just keep me updated and don't you even think about letting them near Sheria.

She was maybe a little overprotective of Sheria. Maybe. But she had every right to be.

"Give us the rod."

"She's not giving you anything!" I told the ninjas. One of the found the shopkeep's young daughter and was trying to tug her out from behind the desk. I couldn't just sit here, so I acted. It was rash, it wasn't timed, it was not the way a Merrywell should react.

But it's the way a Heather would react.

I changed my watch into a sword and ran for the shopkeep's daughter, slicing one of the ninja's in the stomach. They backed up away from me while I held the girl next to me. They even backed away from Sheria as she stood up holding her rod out in front of her. She ran to me, staying behind me as much as possible.

"Don't you dare even think about hurting these people." I told the ninjas.

"That sword...he's a Merrywell!" The ninjas spat, "what's a Merrywell doing here? And this young too...there could only be one who is this young."

"Maxamus Merrywell." Another ninja laughed, "And he's defending two lowlife girls. How pitiful. Where's your honor Merrywell?"

Sheria cried, "he's honoring his family by standing here and protecting us. I'm a survivor of Isola and it's his duty to protect me until Heather gets here!"

"Who's this 'Heather' now?"

The room grows quiet as we hear some laughing from the shop. Everyone stops and look around until we realized the laughter came from above. The skylight of the shop was open and there Heather sat, laughing until I saw her pull up her bow to the skylight with a flaming arrow already charged. She didn't even watch as she released the arrow, she just continued laughing as it hit a ninja square in the chest as he fell over. She stopped laughing, "I'm Heather Mellissa."

Rheannah threw open the door an engaged in a sword fight with two of the ninjas right away. I engaged in a fight with another while heather jumped down from the skylight and landed on yet another, hitting the fifth in the face with her bow. She continued to throw a fireball at the one she hit in the face.

It didn't take me long to fend off the leader one, Heather helped by finishing with a nice fireball, once again. Rheannah meanwhile got the other two off her as all six of them ran out of the shop, but not before Rheannah had time to search the one that was down for anything useful. That was her thing, always look for useful items. She held a piece of old looking paper.

"Sheria, are you alright?" Heather didn't hesitate checking up on Sheria first.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Max protected me." Sheria smiled.

Heather nodded, "alright, status report!"

"I'm alright, just was scared a little." Sheria responded once again to Heather.

Rheannah nodded, "no injuries here."

"I'm good." I told her.

"Then we're all good here. Geeze what were they doing here in the middle of nowhere? I mean it's not like there's much here anyway."

The shopkeeps daughter shook her head and cried, "They were looking for a necklace. Said it belonged to Thalia. They said they tracked it to here."

"Yeah yeah, of course they are. Everyone's after my amulet but do they really want it now that it's cursed?" Heather rolled her eyes, "what else did this guy tell you?"

The girl shook her head, "not much. He just asked me if I had it, I told him no. He insisted that it was here recently. So he was trying to pressure me into telling him."

Rheannah smiled, "I see how well that worked for him. Just be careful and tell your father to be extra careful nowadays."

"The real question is how did they know I had the amulet and where to find me?"

"Who do they work for, anyway?" Rheannah asked, "I for one thing don't work for anyone but myself. But they for sure acted like lapdogs."

I nodded slowly, "they recognized my sword was a Merrywell's sword. They knew who I was."

Although that wasn't very hard to know if you had some relation to a top family or were in anyway related to Merrywells. But ninjas shouldn't be a part of my family.

"They probably recognized the powers from your sword. It was that man's after all. It seems like he did lots of shady work with that thing. Anyways let's not get too concerned about that. We're all alive so we're going to be okay, at least for today anyway." Heather smiled. For some reason she was optimistic about this. I guess that's what happens when we let her play with fire. She gets to feel in control and happy.

Either way something was telling me that this wouldn't be the last time we'd be seeing those ninjas or people like them.