Fire's Mage (Book One) Kyoko of Fire Country

Chapter Thirty-One

Winston sighed in relief once he spotted Kyoko walking behind Sheikh. In her arms a bundle of fire wood, while Sheikh carried another bunch in his. From what he could see, she looked fine, but he didn't know if she had broken down the moment they were out of sight.

He doubted she was going to tell him either.

She had her first kill and then had almost been murdered in cold blood; in the same day. It would push even the hardest of soldiers over the edge of sanity, so maybe the fresh air and quite would have done her some good.

There was nothing he could do to help Adrianne, other then force her to train but seeing as she refused to learn, it most likely wouldn't do anything.

That and she refused to think for herself, it was always 'Mama' this and 'Papa' that, like she wasn't willing to make up her own mind about the known world and it was grating on his last nerve.

"Kyoko, did you find anything?" Winston asked her, his training kicking in before he could ask her if she was okay. He wasn't her father, so he shouldn't act like one.

Plus, he couldn't see any injuries from his quick scan. No blood or bruising. No burns or anything that would suggest a fractured or broken bone.

"Nothing that'll threaten Mr White or his family," she told him, grinning as she looked behind him.

She could have been lying to him, but nothing in her tone or body language gave anything away. Nor did Sheikh's, he knew his students saw each other as siblings, so if she did run into something, he couldn't quiet as calm.

"I did find a rabbit barrow," she told him, while placing her collection of sticks onto the ring of rocks, Sheikh placing his next to a tree.

Unsealing a two dead rabbits, she held them by their ears with a grin on her face. Adrianne screaming as she walked into the clearing.

"I'll skin it," Sheikh told her, taking the rabbits from her and Winston spotted a small knife strapped to his leg.

"You killed a poor bunny," Adrianne hissed at Kyoko. Kyoko, who just looked at her, before following Sheikh and taking a rabbit from him and unsealing a knife of her own.

Winston grabbed Adrianne's arm before she could sit near them, pulling her behind him. If Kyoko and Sheikh wanted to make their own food, then Adrianne would just have to live with his.

Which he had been told was blend at best.

"She killed an innocent creature," Adrianne hissed.

"And you tried to kill her," Winston told her, rolling his eyes while starting the fire. Kyoko looking at him and snapping her fingers, a fire starting in seconds. "Now be quiet, unless you want burnt food."

Adrianne huffed, before sitting next to him. A strange look passing her face, before started giggling to herself. Okay, Winston thought to himself.

He was going to have to get her to see a medic to make sure she was still mentally stable.

"Adrianne, Sheikh, are we eat. You'll come with me and we'll set up some hunting traps," Winston told them, Sheikh nodding as Kyoko unsealed her cooking things.

They had to learn not to rely on a client for food or shelter, they were lucky that the White family was allowing them to use their spare bedrooms.

Ice wasn't like Fire, there was a heavy mist on the shoreline, the trees were darker and the forest looked like a murder scene away from being haunted.

The White House was built from bricks made from the red mud from the shoreline. Burnt red dust marked the bottom of their clothing.

There wasn't any grass, barely any flowers. It was something that put him on edge, since he knew the rest of Ice and Frost wasn't like this. It was almost as if the land was slowly dying, something just put him on edge about the whole thing.