Unknown L (Book 1) [Editing]

~~~ I Don't Like Surprises ~~~

At first, L thought it was a boulder someone had thrown until she noticed the light hair growing out of it and felt relief flood through her. Folen was clamouring to his feet while Hallie flew in to hover beside him, and both looked up into the face of the lizard Demon.

"Ha! You sneaking little scale face! I thought I could smell something rotten up here. Mother Earth, you are ugly!" Folen was laughing as loud as ever, and it sounded like a landslide.

L was glad to hear it and watched the creature hiss in anger.

"A DWARF?! Frallica didn't tell me one of you would be here! I don't like sssurprisssesss!"

L frowned at their interaction, but she didn't get to hear why that was such a problem because a second later, two enormous figures came charging through the doorway, breaking it in the process. Gart and Lort scanned the room and spotted L. They didn't seem bothered by the lizard creature or the fight about to commence. They ran to L, and each grabbed an arm.

"You left us. Couldn't look after you."

"Brycathlen is angry, very angry. Time to go."

L shook her head, "I don't care how angry he is. We have to get them out of here. That's what he said to do first!"

She pointed to the Worcesters behind her, who hadn't moved an inch since she'd arrived. She peered into each of their eyes, but they were unresponsive. She tried not to think about what it could mean and looked back to the Ogre brothers, who appeared to be debating their next move.

Suddenly, Gart let go of L and moved to the corner where L had pointed. He carefully reached down to pick up Mr Worcester and Robbie. L winced when she heard him cry out and saw to her horror that his leg was bloodied and dangling at an odd angle. She wanted to run to him, but she knew no matter how she struggled, Lort wouldn't let go of her. She had to watch Gart tuck Robbie into the crook of his arm and walk back to them.

L shook her head and gestured back. "What about Mrs Worcester? We can't just leave her here while they fight!"

She pointed at Folen, Hallie, and the creature. None had moved, but they were exchanging unpleasant insults and threats. L wasn't sure why the creature hadn't just sprung at them, but its eyes hadn't left Folen since the moment he'd crashed through the window.

"I'll take care of her. Get out of here now!"

L spun around to see Emilia and Bryce striding through the door. Both were covered in strange substances but appeared to be uninjured.

Emilia was headed for Mrs Worcester just as she'd stated while Bryce walked over to join Hallie and Folen in front of the Demon. He didn't glance their way, but he did look furious. L didn't have the chance to say or do anything else. She was abruptly dragged from the room by Lort.

The last thing she saw in there was Bryce, Folen, and Hallie advancing on the creature before being pulled into a fast run by Lort. It was hard to run beside him while he held her arm, not that he was going to let go no matter what she said. L could tell they didn't like Bryce being angry with them, and she was aware that it was her fault. She would fix it eventually, but right now, she only cared about getting away from there with Robbie and his parents.

They ran downstairs and straight out of the door. L noticed the barn had been levelled and was smoking in places. She didn't have time to linger on what they might have done. They were running flat out across the field again, back into the trees. L caught a glimpse of Emilia carrying Mrs Worcester in her arms.

L knew her to be a proud woman, and if she'd been fit enough, she would have insisted on walking. It would have made for an interesting conversation between the two women. Once they were a good distance from the farmhouse, Emilia took the lead, and they carried on running. It started to get dark, but they kept on going and eventually stopped at the clearing hours later.