Never

Chapter One

I never thought we would ever see these two once more, but the world had other ideas, for our paths had crossed once more, but in a horrendous way...

"It... It's them!" Petra stammered. "What the hell are they even doing here?!" I had no answer for Petra's question. I didn't know. I didn't want to know. Petra and I only stared at the two Old Builders, almost forgetting that they were casualties in this event, until I looked closer at their injuries; Mevia's dress had been burnt all the way up to her knees, her legs covered in gashes and soot. Her left arm was bent in an un-natural position and showed a large burn, and her usual cyan blue hair was stained with blood from the large gash on her forehead, the liquid itself flowing into the riverbank. However, she had gotten out lucky... Hadrian on the other hand, no doubt got the short end of the stick; His clothes were all burnt and torn up, presumably by mobs, bleeding cuts and bruises all over his body, large burns located on both his arms, his right leg looking dis-jointed, but the injury no doubt the worse was the large and deep bleeding gash down his back that had torn through his skin all the way to scraping his spine. I gulped, using almost all my willpower to not throw up then and there. From Petra's green face, she was also feeling sick and light-headed from all the blood. I shook my head and kneeled down, checking for a pulse from both Old Builders. To my surprise and relief, I received one from both of them, but both were faint, especially Mevia's... I stood back up and turned to Petra, only to see her throwing up behind a nearby charred tree. I don't blame her for giving in. It was sickening...

"Petra, go grab the horses" I told her once she returned, looking a little better. She nodded and took off North where are horses were still waiting patiently. I quickly got to work on tending to any injuries I could; I cleared the riverbank of the rocks and broken glass from Hadrian's glasses to avoid hurting the two even further. I rolled both of them onto their sides, making sure both were breathing evenly. To my relief, they were. I decided to tend to Hadrian first. I carefully removed his glasses and tended to the burns on his arms by dipping two bandages I had on me into uncontaminated water and lightly wrapping them around the burns. Next, I cleaned the small wounds on him and covered any that needed to be to avoid further injury, however I had to stop there. I didn't know what to do with his right leg or the gash on his back... As I started to wash off the soot on Mevia's legs, Petra arrived with both of our horses in tow. In seeing the injuries once more, the colour almost immediately drained from Petra's face, however she shook it off, and with my assistance, moved both Hadrian and Mevia onto our horses.

"Let's get these two back to Lukas' House!" Petra spoke, however I shook my head. "What?!" Petra shouted. "His place is the closest!"

"These guys need professional medical attention Petra!" I pointed out. "Lukas is no doubt smart, but he wouldn't have the proper skills or medical knowledge onto treating these guys, especially that gash on Hadrian... We need to get them back to Beacon Town and fast!" No more words were spoken. Petra only nodded and gave me an understanding and determined look. Quickly yet carefully as we could do, we started to guide our horses through the charred and dead forest, with the two Old Builders in tow. As we made our way through the wreck left in the fire's wake, so many questions with no answers there to complete them swirled in my head; how was the fire caused? Were there any lives lost? Were Hadrian and Mevia the only casualties found in this condition? And Hadrian and Mevia only brought more questions; why were they here? What were they here for? How did they survive? Will they survive? And most importantly;

Will the others be willing to help them?

Petra and I burst through the doors of the temple with our horses and casualties in tow, almost immediately grabbing everyone's attention. I didn't hesitate on orders.

"Radar, go grab the doctors!"

"Olivia, set up some rooms and beds for these two!"

"Axel, help us move these two, and carefully!"