Life And Death Decision 2 2

A tangle of plant life enveloped the surrounding area as the three of us approached the scene. A crashed cart was set ablaze, three corpses were laying nearby and the scent of their blood was fresh. The bandits that did this were entangled in the vines, leaving them wide open for Tyme to shoot at. The one that screamed was a young girl with olive-green hair, human by the looks of it and probably only seven or eight years old. She kept her hand pointed in the direction of the bandits, tightening the bandits' bindings.

"Alright, I'll shoot them down. You two take care of the girl." Knocking an arrow into her bow, Tyme steadied her aim as a rustling sound came from the other side of the road. Another set of bandits were lying in wait, jumping out at the girl from her blind spot.

"Get her!" They yelled before they found their bodies burnt by Baz's breath.

"Nice going Baz! Get her out of there!" I raised my hand to the heavens, a small ring of light forming around my wrists before I waved my arm over everyone to target them with my spell. Similar looking rings formed around Baz, Tyme, and the kid's wrists. "Kid! Over here! We're here to help!" I yelled, causing her to turn her head our way. Tyme and Baz's outfits weren't exactly all that welcoming, the former's being similar to the bandits and the latter's riddled with dents and covered in dried blood. But the moment she saw me, and the symbol of my G.o.ddess embossed on my chest piece, she began running at full speed toward us.

"Don't just stand there you idiots! Get them!" One of the bandits wrapped in the vines, the leader presumably since he dressed slightly differently, yelled at his men before one of Tyme's arrows lodged itself in his eye socket. More and more bandits came out of the woodwork, some emerging from the cart with multiple bags in their arms.

"Mom and dad's things! No!" She pointed her arm towards the group of bandits that held her family's belongings, the crackling sound of lightning coming from every movement of her fingers before a bolt of electricity shot through the air, frying them where they stood. Even with that group eradicated, there were still around ten bandits.

"We'll get them back!" Tyme fired another arrow, hitting a bandit in the foot before she let loose another at one that was holding a piece of the burning cart in his hand. "Baz, Sage, I can't take them on all at once." She reached for her quiver, glaring at the eight remaining thugs to pick her next target.

"On it!" Baz ran out towards the largest cl.u.s.ter of them, his large sword swinging through the air and rending the flesh of three in one decisive blow. Only five remained. I looked around at the survivors, scattered all over the field and all holding their crossbows in our direction. I thought about their position, finding the perfect spell to end this as soon as possible.

"In the name of her radiance, burn in the light of justice!" I clasped my hands together, my eyes were aglow with her holy light. The sun shone brighter as the temperature of the air rose with her divine influence. Then, as if to purge their vile lives, waves of heat ignited the field like a serpent devouring their prey. I burnt them all to a crisp just as the light returned to normal. I looked down at the girl, her injuries were severe, but her bleeding had stopped...that was quick...almost too quick. Her clothes were soaked, and she lost enough blood that made it seem like her body was completely empty. But she was still alive, so I was grateful for that.

"Mom! Dad! Sis!" She didn't give me any time to heal her wounds, running back to the wreckage and kneeling down by the corpses. The rest of us ran after her, finding her clutching a corpse that was similar to her own body, except that her hair had been singed off, her sister...her twin. "Mom! Dad! Sis! No! No!" She pulled her sister closer to her chest, wailing as Baz walked off to extinguish the fire.

"I...I can't bear to watch this. I'll...get our horses." Tyme also opted to leave her to her mourning, running off to fetch our cart. I stood there, speechless, watching her mourn.

"Take as long as you need..." I said, placing a hand on her shoulder as a gentle glow covered her body with healing magic. Her wounds didn't close up, but perhaps she was just too injured for that particular spell. It took another hour before she calmed down and wiped her face clean of the dirt and blood that found its way onto her skin. In the meantime, the three of us cleaned up the field and buried the corpses of those bandits. "h.e.l.lo, what happened here?"

"I...we just finished up business in Rennot and were heading for Crot to sell our wares there...and then...Dad...got shot in the chest and our cart toppled over. Then they killed mom and my sister...and then I cast that spell and you all appeared. Uhm...thank you." She bowed her head in our direction as the sun began to set.

"What's your name kid?" Baz asked, brus.h.i.+ng the horses' manes with his claws.

"Rose...my name is Rose."

"I don't mean to be rude, but what should we do with the...bodies... We can't just leave them on the side of the road." Tyme was cleaning her arrows, having recovered them from whatever bodies she could. "Do you want us to bury them here or what?"

"If it's not too much trouble, then can you bring them to our home town? It's Aitog, two towns away from Rennot." She pleaded, clasping her hands together as she knelt down. Prostrating herself before the lot of us, she begged, her voice meek and afraid. "Please...I don't have anything left...please let me have this!"

"Aitog? That's not too far from where we were heading anyway." I said, looking at our map. "I take it that you want them buried in the town cemetery?" I saw her nod. "Alright. We'll take you there. Tyme, get those bolts out while Baz and I load up the bodies." Baz and I walked over to the family, picking them up carefully as I cast a spell to slow their decomposition. From behind us, Rose was whimpering and screaming as Tyme extracted the crossbow bolts from her body. We let her sleep in the back of our cart, with the corpses placed in a separate compartment to avoid contamination of our rations.

The moonlight guided the rest of our journey into town, though there was a faint glow coming from the cart. That glow was a soft, cyan-colored light that enveloped her body. I didn't know what it was, and neither did anyone else, but her cuts were slowly closing because of it so we figured that it was just her own magic that she was using to recover. "Sage, about our mission, can the purge wait for a while?" Baz asked as we hitched our horses in the town stables. "Aitog is just a few days away from the crypt if we walk, but it's still a multi-day trip. Do we explore the crypt before or after dropping her off?"

"We drop her off first. Even though she can cast spells, it's still too dangerous for her to go there with us. That crypt was swarming with undead." It was the obvious choice, at least to me it was. "By the way, where are the girls anyway?"

"Tyme took her to the inn ahead of us. We should probably meet up with them soon." Baz walked out of the stabled with his hands behind his head. We arrived at the inn, asking for Tyme's room so we could have a chat as a group. "Hey, we're coming in." Baz opened the door and was instantly a.s.saulted by two pillows that smothered his scaly face.

"Direct hit!" A young and cheery voice cheered, coming from the reinvigorated Rose. Aside from her laughter, Tyme's jovial smile showed that she was the one that threw the second pillow. She quickly ran behind our archer, using her as cover as Tyme readied her hands to catch any pillows Baz decided to throw back at them.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, but you should rest up. We're not staying in town for very long." I said, stepping inside and sitting on the floor. I pulled out my materials and set up a small ritual. "Do you want me to heal you?"

"No thank you. I think I'm okay now." The kid smiled at me again. Now that things have calmed down, I noticed that glow around her body again even though it was harder to see because of the light. Just then, her eyes widened and she cupped her hands together to create some flowers. Those flowers were the same as the ones from that trading caravan from earlier, she gave them out to them before they were attacked. She weaved them together into three crowns, placing them on our heads as some sort of gift.

"Hey, while we make our way to Aitog, why don't you ask Sage to help you with some magic?" Baz piped up, looking at the magically created flora. "You can already do a lot, but learning from someone more experienced can't hurt, right?" Smiling in the strange way his reptilian features let him, he puffed some smoke into Rose's face to get her to quiet down. Rose quickly turned her head in my direction, eyes looking at me with a mix of excitement and humbled restraint.

"Can I really?"

"I don't see why not. Your aim could use some practice, among other things." I said, looking away before I felt her attempt to hug me, my body and armor were too wide for her arms to wrap around. She looked up at me, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. In a sense, it was calming to see that she was chipper, however, the speed of her emotional recovery did strike me as odd. "Now if you'd excuse me, I have somewhere to be."
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"I'm coming with you." Tyme stood up, walking to my side while leaving her bow by her bed. "You're going back to the cart, right?"

"Yeah. I haven't done this in a while, so I appreciate the company." I bowed, walking out before I felt a tug on the hem of my unders.h.i.+rt. Finding Rose's hand snaking its way under his armor, he sighed. "You can come if you want. But I don't recommend it." She ignored my warning, regretting her decision the moment I uncovered the corpses and set my flower crown down.

The three of us prayed beside the bodies. I couldn't save these people in time, but I could do this at least. A soft and calming light shone from another symbol of her radiance, an amulet that hung around my neck. I heard some shuffling to my side, was Rose uncomfortable seeing the corpses?

"You don't have to stay if it's too hard to watch," I said calmly, waving my hands over the bodies' heads to return some life to their appearance. I wish I could do more than just appearance, but I can't afford to do it to them, not now at least.

"I'm alright. I have to be here..." Her voice was weakening. I knew she wasn't completely over it. She does put up a good front, though the fact that she needs to put up a front in the first place was disheartening. I finished my prayer, placing my hand in my pockets as I walked back to the inn with them in tow. Rose yawned audibly, it was fairly late after all. I turned to look at her, that light was slightly dimmer than before but it was slowly regaining its luminescence with every pa.s.sing breath.

"Be wary, Sage. Be wary." The voice spoke to me again. I think I started to understand it now.

"Do you mind staying with me tonight. If you don't want to, then we can get another room for you." Tyme bent down, forcing a smile to perhaps brighten the mood.

"I think I'll just stay with you." Muttering under her breath, Rose adjusted her gait to lean against Tyme's hip. Just how close did they get while Baz and I took care of the horses? The three of us returned to our rooms to bed down for the night and prepare for the next day; I found Baz already knocked out in our room. "It's going to be a long ride..." I mutter to myself before blowing out my candle.