The World of The Winged

Nothing But Death

Chapter 20:

We're riding on our horses towards the Undercave mountain. I'm not looking forward to arriving. I let Silver walk a bit faster until I catch up with Gure.

I walk next to him and he looks up just a second to see who it was and quickly averts his eyes again when he sees it's me. "Gure, I'm sorry for how I acted last night. I shouldn't have done that, I was being selfish and inconsiderate of your feelings." I say and look down.

Yes, I am afraid to look him in the eyes. I'm curious for his reaction but I'm still ashamed for my actions. Hence why I'm looking down. "Amelia, please look up." He says and I glance up at him. "It's okay, I know me, and I probably would've done the same. And we're quite now, aren't we?"

I smile at him and he chuckles, "You're a good kisser, by the way." He says and my face flushes. He laughs out loud at my reaction and I quickly pull a little on the leads, making Silver  walk slower for a little bit, until we walk next to Ryan again.

He eyes me curiously, "What was that about?" He asks and wiggles his eyebrows. "I- uhmm..." I start but quickly reconsider, wanting to avoid another scolding. "It's nothing." I simply say and Ryan frowns.

"It's never nothing because everything is always something or someone." He says quickly, making my brain break. "What?" I ask and he repeats, but slower this time. "Okay, I may or may not have kissed Gure last night for my own selfish reasons and didn't comsider his feelings at all."

His eyes widen and he breaths in to say something but I cut him off before he can, "I've already had a scolding from Lucien, I really don't need another. I can see my mistake and I already made up with Gure, so it's okay, right?"

Before he can answer me, our peace and quiet is disturbed when a loud voice yells: "Turn around, and don't come back!" I look around us and see a small, old man walking out of the bushes with ragged clothes. I frown a little at his appearance but remind myself that looks aren't the person.

"They've invaded our village and I managed to escape, they killed everyone. I've been hiding in the woods ever since." He says.

The shadows.

I get off Silver and walk over to him. "Who's invaded your village?" I ask and he flinches when he hears my question. He immediately looks away from me and doesn't answer. "Sir? Who were they?" I ask again but he still refuses to tell me.

I frown again and come a little bit closer to him, he starts trembling and I almost feel sorry for the guy. "It's the shadows right?" He looks up at me in surprise and nods, pointing in the direction of his village. I thank him and quickly get on Silver again.

I take the lead and start riding towards the village, adjusting and checking every sheath and weapon I have on me. The rest follows soon after me.

Gure comes up next to me, "This isn't avenging everyone who died in this village and the last village?" He asks and I shake my head. "I think this might be the evil Bokaan was talking about. I have to defeat it somehow." I say and he frowns, "From what you guys told me, don't you have to go to Undercave Mountain first? To hear what you have to do and all that?" I don't look at him, knowing he's right, but I can't just leave those people there to die. "That can wait."

---

The village finally comes into view and I start riding faster. The dark feeling I had when we went to Choisir is slowly coming back. It still feels as horrible as it did back then. The same darkness can also be seen in this village.

We're getting closer and closer and the darkness is slowly taking over all of my senses. I check all my weapons once again, just to be sure.

I tell everyone to start galloping and we all go faster until we're pushing our horses to their limits. We finally arrive and we leave our horses, not tied up, so they can run if things turn bad. We can always call them back with Ryan's whistle.