The young woman continued backing up from the attacks from both the rogue and the archer. She found herself cresting up the crater. Found herself backed up to the wall of a plain wooden house in the village.
The rogue swung at her horizontally, cutting the wall in half and forcing her to duck, before closing the distance and thrusting his obsidian dagger— tip glowing red— at her. She took a big step to the right, causing the rogue to stab the wall instead. The wooden wall immediately started rotting away, starting from the point of contact before spreading out.
Aria was still stepping back when a large maul came swinging at her. She barely managed to put up a quick barrier of air to block the attack, when a lightning arrow, flying parallel to the ground, came straight at her and shattered it. The maul then continued in its downward trajectory and struck Aria across the chest, sending her through the walls of another house.
Aria crashed through multiple walls before finding herself in a bedroom, coughing out blood and lying prone on the side of the broken wall. The Inquisitor with the maul was already walking in after her when she pulled herself off the wall and on the ground. She was still prone when she heard a quiet sniffle to her left.
A little girl was hiding underneath her bed clutching a pillow, and crying. She had short blonde hair and blue eyes, and looked to be around six years old. In short, she was nothing like Aria’s daughter. Yet, when Aria looked at her, she only saw her daughter.
Aria saw a pair of silver eyes staring up at her. Silver eyes that showed no fear of the unknown, but instead curiosity of what could be. Aria saw a little girl filled with an eagerness to learn, and with a determination to love.
But when Aria looked at the ground and saw the blood on the floor, she imagined her daughter, terrified like the little girl hiding underneath her bed. She saw her daughter, crying over her dead body. And when Aria saw that, she remembered why she came here. So Aria stood.
She had no choice. It was a mother’s love that made her go into hiding. It was a mother’s love that made her keep the truth from her daughter. And it was a mother’s love that made her stand.
No matter what happened— even if this were her home— she would fight. She could not run. She tried to run. But it was never an option. She had to fight.
So Aria stood, dodging the maul coming at her. She stepped into the Inquisitor's guard, facing his challenge. And then, she walked over his dead body, towards the rest of the fight.
***
I am dead.
Or at least, I might as well be.
I have died before, but I honestly didn’t remember much about it; I did remember what it was like to get hit by a 25,000 lb truck traveling at over 60 miles per hour, but not the act of being dead itself. That was the only thing I could not remember— everything else, I could never forget. But, if I was pretty sure this was what being dead felt like.
I could not move, I could not speak, and I could not sleep. Well, I actually could do all of those, but moving hurts, I had nobody to speak to, and I was not sleepy. I was so bored, and it had not even been half an hour. I knew I sounded like a kid right now, but that’s because I was a kid!
I could be fussy, grumpy, and jumpy, and I could just blame it on me being a literal 10 year old. But I did not do that. I let my mom go do her job, even though I really wanted her to stay by my side, because I was such a good kid. But being a good kid didn’t mean that I did no’t feel a little bit lonely being by myself, especially after I almost died. Slowly, I sighed.
I really almost died, didn’t I?
I carefully sit myself up on my bed, and look down. The pain is much more bearable now that I spent some time awake getting used to it. Gazing at my half naked body, I assessed the extent of my remaining injuries. My ribs were still bruised and purple, my legs were still wrapped in bandages, and my ruined clothes were still ruined. Healing paste had to be applied every six hours to these injuries, though by the looks of it, I’m sure it was applied quite recently.
At least I’m still alive. I smiled to myself.
As the thought crossed my mind, I heard what sounds like small explosions nearby. To me, it sounded like a muffled version of those small firecrackers, though that did not put me at ease at all. I quickly threw my blanket away, and hopped out of bed.
I groaned as my legs crumpled on the wooden floor, still heavily injured from the burns; I did not spend too long on the ground, as I immediately forced myself up, limping to grab new clothes to wear.
As I was about to get dressed, I heard what sounded like a huge explosion, even from however far away it was. I grabbed a shirt and quickly put it on, since only my upper body was exposed by the Chimera, and immediately ran out of the front door. Whatever those explosions were, I knew it was not a good sign.
I limped my way towards the village, only taking a quick glance at the smoke rising above the treeline. The first thing that came to my mind was Inquisitors. The second, was the man I met in the forest, but I quickly dismissed both thoughts. Whoever
