A TENSED silence settled over the village as they waited for the raiders to appear. Up on the ledge, Marjien hoped that Vivien would be safe. She knew that Vivien was hell-bent in protecting this village. It was always like this when Vivien felt compelled to protect something or someone.Not all in this village could fight, but they - the villagers - were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their home. Including the two young women beside Marjien.Gisel, who was positioned on Marjien's right, was shivering and nervous, but she also looked confident. Clara, however, was calmer in the outisde. Among the two of them, Clara was hard to read. Sometimes, she teased around but there were times that Clara was silent and focused on her work. Marjien had seen battle numerous times before, and seeing Clara holding a bow that seemed like a natural extension of her arm made her deduced that Clara was adept in the long-range combat."Maji," Gisel said, scooting closer to

AFTER the raiders' attack, the village took a few days to put everything back in order. The body of the dead raiders were buried at the back of the village. Zephrain tore a part of their garments and secured their belongings to bring back to the Krystalline Palace as proof.The sun was out and the sky was actually a nice grey-blue as the village gathered at the edge of their winter quarters to say goodbye to Zephrain and his group. Since the weather had temporarily cleared up, it was the perfect opportunity for them to leave the village.Vivien stayed near Marjien as she and her friend stood by the villagers. "Are you sure we are not going with them?" Marjien asked.Vivien didn't say anything, watching the interaction between the team and the villagers."We'll miss you all," Clara said as she hugged Celine. She held the the Fire Kryst at arm's length and turned to Zephrain and the others who were being hugged by the other villagers. She then smiled at Celine.

CHLOE spent her whole couple of days getting drowned. Literally. Nobody told her that the lake got a sucking energy from beneath it, for Demetrius' sake!"AAAHHH!!" she screamed for the nth time for the day before being pulled by the strong pressure that goes to the bottom of the lake. A bubble of water enveloped her before she shot up into the surface."Focus, Chloe!" Neptos shouted from the side, comfortably sitting at the big rock and holding his jug of beer. "I can't look after you all the time!"He set her down on the flat stone, breaking off the bubble of water. Chloe fell onto her knees and hands as she coughed the water that invaded her system. "You...you're not helping," she panted.Neptos rolled his eyes and stood. "Rest first. Don't jump in. I'm not going to save you." He walked away and into the house.Chloe groaned as she rolled to her back and closed her eyes. She lets her breath become normal before she opened it and stared at the sky.

"I WONDER when they'll come back," Marjien said.Vivien looked up at her, watching her friend poke at their small campfire while she gazed out at the horizon. Zephrain, Angelica and the men had gone to spy on the village, leaving the others behind at their makeshift camp. Yesterday, they had found a small, out of the way place that they could use as a base while they figured out how to deal with the town's "bandit" problem."They'll be back before sunset," Celine said. She perched on one of the nearby rocks, her left leg drawn up to her chest while her right leg dangled. "Or maybe not. They have fire abilities, after all.""They'll come back by then. They know Vivien will worry about His Highness, if they don't," Marjien said in a teasing manner. She was sitting on the other side of the fire, roasting one of the birds that Celine and Marjien had shot for them earlier. Marjien was assigned to cook, with Celine remembering that Marjien helped out in cooking back in t

FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, the group continued to sleep outside of the village and walk in to help the villagers during the day. Some would want to travel by carriage or Chimeraes. There were some who only stopped in cities and towns that were prosperous enough to accommodate them. They had gone past villages like this one before, but the transportations didn't stop. Vivien understood. There was no point as the places like this didn't have anything to offer, anyway. In the places where they did stop, children and even women were forbidden from going into the slums of the city.But both Marjien and Vivien were not using any kind of transportation. As a traveler on foot, Vivien had seen poverty like this before. Each day in the village was a struggle to survive. People were still starving or stricken with illness, and there was nothing to give them hope since the fields were barren and water was scarce and far away. Their group had started going hungry, sharing all of the food they