Smoke envelopes the skyline and the smell of charred woods invades Feravis's small nose. He isn't certain but he'd swear hearing a million wooden barks gnashing erupt from the woods beyond the hills.

Figures of spindly trees swaying in frantic rhythm, flames engulfing their bodies. He wondered if what he's feeling at the sight of it is satisfaction but that couldn't be further from the truth.

An amalgamation of sorrow and guilt settles inside him. Silent tears as he finally lets go of the torch in his hand.

"Feravis!" Jaira screams, pulling him away from the woods he had set ablaze.

Leopold, Andeera, and Kire had escaped just before the fire got bigger. Blood, sweat and soot sticking on their skins.

The children all rushed back to their town, cleaning silently inside the communal bath.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. And with the size it got, the smoke spread through the air, noticeable to all neighboring towns and cities.

Every adults in Rapsa, against the orders of the Marquis Evergray, rushed towards their town to see 8 children all safe and sound.

Leopold clutching his arm with Andeera, Kire, and Feravis having the worse of the wounds.

Little as he may, Feravis couldn't take his eyes off the older kid, wanting to touch the arm he's holding but daring not to in case he'd made it worse. Ignore the fact that there is a gash on his head and his arms are riddled with scratches, his fingers littered with splinters, and a burn mark on his hand when he hesitated to let go of the torch he lit.

"Hurts?" Feravis finally asks, ignoring the adults talking to him.

Leopold, though subtle, jumps at the sudden gentle touch. He looks down on the younger kid and did his best to smile. "It ain't as bad as you'd think."

That night, a meeting was called for all the adults in their town. Mothers, Fathers and Grandparents alike that had to leave for work the morning after gathered.

"Well, ain't you just tryin' to put a bad mark on our town? The Marquis is already darn mad a forest was set on fire, and you want one of us to slack off and babysit them kids?" Larissa hissed near the window where she's sat, her broad buttocks spilling over the well-worn bench.

Wesley glares at her, his tanned skin darker than it used to be. "Ain't one of your child caught by them Treants? If you'd just discipline 'em well, we wouldn't be safeguarding the rest of the kids."

"Safeguarding?" Laughs Corinth, the oldest woman in town. "Boy, you young'un's didn't raise them correct is what I'd say. Should've taught them how to fight and work but no. You'd all rather them play."

"Well, you should thank that Marquis Evergray for banning children at work." Onus grumbles, slamming his beer mug on the counter. "Not a good image? When he's got a Hilagran bastard roaming his mansion? Bah!"

Feravis sat outside his house, where the meeting is being held, eyes locked on the ground. The light from his house casting his shadow on the ground, he touches the top of his head, wincing for a moment before getting used to the pain.

"Hey," Jaira says.

He turns his head and sees the teenager in front of her house, waving. He turns away.

Jaira drops her hand, walking over to Feravis and sitting beside him on the ground. "They ain't mad at any of you."

"They're always mad at someone."

"Well, they're tired."

"Is that why you're always mad at someone too?"

Jaira glares at him, it was his sign to shut up and he did.

"Listen, kid. I'm just sayin' you shouldn't be eavesdropping on adults. Their problems aren't ours."

Feravis furrows his brows, she wasn't making any sense. She said the adults ain't mad at them but didn't correct him when he said they're always mad. Now, the adults are talking, and Jaira can say it's not their problems too but that doesn't sound right to him.

The problem was because they went hiding in the woods. Can a kid even sleep with both eyes closed after fucking up this bad? Jaira had no prowess in consoling people.

"So, that settles it then? We send our children to train every time we go?"

Both children's eyes widened upon hearing those words. Scrambling up to peer over the window, they see nothing but Larissa's dusty blonde hair covering the view. Still, they weren't mistaking what they heard.

"Those Silverion knights will surely take all of 'em."

Feravis looks to Jaira, "is that a good thing?"

He can't tell and Jaira's expression is one he'd never seen before. The teenager swallowed, turning her back against him.

"Go to sleep," Jaira says.

She left shortly after, closing the door to her house shut. Feravis went back to the window, hoping Aunt Larissa would move at some point. Once she did, he caught it. The face of his mother, at the corner of the alcove, with her blood drained and lips pursed.

They're throwing us away. It dawned on him why Jaira reacted that way.

>><<>><<

The coming noon around the eastern side of the Amphitide Peninsula could feel the mysterious emergence of the storm inside the Mammoth Gulf grow stronger. The winds howl harsher with every passing hour. A thunderous rumble can be heard from the distance, yet everything is still and silent in Monica's world.

Desperately trying to unwind the mistakes that she believes she caused, and wake Roussie up.

If she could, everyone would wake up.

"My lady, it will be all right now." Kefrin says. He walks towards her.

"How?" Monica whispers, tear-stained face. She turns to them, a sudden overwhelming pit of fire blazing in her chest. The back of her head ringing at the chaos and the fact that they did this. "You! You sick son of a bitch!"

If words are daggers, they would all have bled at that moment.

Monica stares at them standing there like statues, except for that one soldier that took the opportunity to apprehend Feravis, the anger in her growing even more, wanting to escape. It wants to lash out yet her hands tightened, gripping Roussie's soaked clothes.

She doesn't notice her frame slowly grow. Dainty hands now cover Truscott's torso. Her hair growing longer that it now touches the dirty cave floor.

Everyone took a step back.

Confusion is one thing. For Kefrin, seeing her frame grow larger than even the Duke himself, a sense reverence befall him. He dares not presume why the Lady Glasse would spare the sinners but this anger, it isn't one that lies.

"Heal her." Monica commands.

The air inside the cave died.

Patience isn't her strong suit. Urgency have always been how she operated and with every second that there is not a sound of feet shuffling on the ground around her, the voice in her head grow noisier and more in unison.

Kill them. They hurt her! Punch them!

"I said, heal her!"

Kefrin spoke for the soldiers, "I, I can't, my lady. I didn't–––"

"Oh, so you can stab someone, but you can't heal them. What're you even good for then, you walking soda can? Is murderer a medal you're proud to wear, you dick––– What is he?" She points to Gray. "Is he a ragdoll that you can stab and slice and disregard because you want to? Heal them! I don't give a shit if you have to bleed from your eyes but if any of them stops breathing, you're ALL next!"

Peculiar as it may, the lady of the Glasse Duchy isn't known to be that altruistic. She'd sooner allow a fallen peasant to be rolled over by her carriage than stop the carriage altogether. Not to be needlessly cruel, but simply because she couldn't be bothered to look down and see someone was in her way.

Monica had her head bowed, hands pressed on Roussie's gash. The scalding blood numbed her skin but she kept the pressure so she wouldn't bleed out.

"Men!" Kefrin turns around, signaling everyone to pound the wall down to exit the cave. "We'll see if anyone brought a medicine kit, my lady."

One soldier dived back out through the underwater entrance to have the other soldiers outside to coordinate efforts.

Feravis, unshackled, scrambled for his bag once the soldiers began digging the cave wall. There is an uncanny calmness to his expression, contrasted by his frantic movements, taking out roots and bandages though they're soaked.

"Here." He kneels down next to Roussie, resting the bandages on her bare skin and having it smoke water vapor. "She's exceedingly hot so you have to stop pressing down on her."

"Why's that smoking?" Kefrin stops digging to ask.

"Who fucking cares? Do your job!" Monica barks.

In the grand scheme of dreams, smoking bandages are the least bizarre things that could happen. So, the mere fact that this person is being distracted from digging a hole inside a cave wall because of this very normal circumstance after 'causing it to happen peeves Monica.

Kefrin takes a deep breath, "permission to speak."

He stands there while Feravis grounds roots against his palm and wrapping the juices over the, now dried, bandages over Roussie's entire body.

"He's talking to you," Feravis says.

Monica kept her jaw clenched shut, nodding for the soldier to speak as she assists Feravis.

"I––– we don't understand why you're defending these criminals. Miss Odette informed us of your kidnapping, and those people fit the bill."

"Oh, my fucking god, bitch!" Monica groans. "Is this really the time? I asked you one thing! Heal them. You couldn't do that so shut up and dig that wall."

"As you wish, my lady." Kefrin thumps his fist on his chest, bowing his head before leaving.

Once he was out of earshot, Feravis turns to Monica. "You should've played along."

"What?"

"Sunniva ain't crass like you. The only reason they're even listening is because of you are her."

She tears her gaze, picking Roussie up to lay her down near Gray and Leopold. Her hand reaches for the roots Feravis was grinding and mimicked how he moved while the smaller man prepares the bandages.

Pursing her lips, her hands rubbed the roots on Gray's back.

Her body moves faster than she could anticipate it. It's not that she's unaware of her actions, she knows each one intimately as if it had passed through hundreds of due processes before being green lit. It's just that, despite understanding why she had to do it, she'd only consider its impact after the fact.

Feravis pointing it out does nothing but add fuel to the never-ending debate of her braincells.

"Well, I didn't think about it like that."

Liar––– technically speaking anyway.

"Still," Feravis lets out a heavy sigh, "thanks."

"Why'd you guys even get tangled with me?"

Feravis chuckles, "If we hadn't, you'd be dead jumping the cliff."

"No," Monica corrects. "I'd be awake; not dreaming."

"Dreaming?" He furrows his brows.

With a weak smile, Monica places an index finger on her lips. "Shhh. I don't wanna wake up. Not without seeing them all fine yet."

Once Feravis and Monica finished wrapping the three in bandages, Kefrin and his men have dug a hole in a wall big enough to crawl into.

Seeing how small it is, Monica couldn't help but be insulted by them. Over and over again, their incompetence knows no bounds. These military force has no societal benefits whatsoever and has only caused her so much misery despite only meeting them for barely an hour.

Her frame hasn't reverted back at all, and it isn't until now, when she stood up to confront Kefrin again did she realize how massive she's gotten due to the fact that her head is reaching the cave ceiling.

"Woah!" She says, gazing at her giant hands.

Now, that explains to her why carrying everyone became easy. She realized Sunniva is tall and she's never seen the horizon she's seen, but in this massive form, the horizon expanded!

She lumbers towards the hole, shooing Kefrin and the other soldier before it dawned on her, a Lady as bitchy as Sunniva would probably keel over before touching dirt.

"Uhm," she turns to Kefrin, "hand over your shirt."

Fearing the scolding he might get if he acted slow, Kefrin didn't question it. His toned muscles is a sight with those six pack abs and massive pecs, but Monica refused to acknowledge anything redeemable about this guy.

Once the shirt is placed under the hole, the soldiers on the other side sees a massive hand push out from inside the cave and pull a massive piece of rocks, enlarging the gaping hole.

A small hole that took six soldiers fifteen minutes became big enough for everyone to walk through in under five with Monica's sheer strength.

"Carry them." Monica tosses Kefrin's muddied shirt back. "Or will you let me get my hands dirty again?"

She did not miss the harsh wind assaulting her. It felt like the sea hated her existence. The breeze picked up, and the waves started crashing harsher around them.

At one point, her ankles got stuck inside in the rocks, as if it wants to keep her in place. Still, she continued her walk, head held up high behind Kefrin who she appointed to carry Roussie.

Feravis walks behind the soldier carrying Leo behind Monica with Gray in his arms. He looks up, an unsettling sensation bubbles inside his stomach at the unnatural way the cloud pools overhead.

They reached Intrepid Port once again with a fancy carriage pulled by large breed of horses.

He taps the soldier carrying Leo, "how fast does that ride? Half an hour?"

"For my lady's comfort, it'll go at a steady pace, an hour at minimum." The soldier answers.

That wasn't good enough. Feravis is a man of observation and those clouds above them right now, he could see it. Oppressive pool of cumulus hung over Gonage Village for days before the onslaught of beast came.

It ain't good to be near the harbor.

"Too slow." He shakes his head, pulling ahead to grab Monica. "We have to leave."

Monica bends down, couldn't hear Feravis whisper at first. "Hmm?"

"Something bad's gonna happen. We have to go."

Needing no explanation at all, Monica nods.

"You!" She taps Kefrin by the shoulders. "I want my friends in the carriage ride with me. I don't want to see any of your faces during the ride."

"The Lady also demands healing potions while you're at it." Feravis adds.

Against his better judgement, Kefrin nods. Sending a soldier to buy the potion from a nearby merchandise shop.

Monica sat alone on one side of the carriage, fiddling with her phone. She rereads Sunniva's demands from start to finish and now be amazed at the way her brain could imagine such fantastical things.

She believed her whims have gone with time, but this small thing was enough to make her smile.

Feravis waits outside, glancing at the cloudsoverhead every five seconds. He'd then look at his friends sprawled on thecarriage floor, stabilized but still unconscious.