Cal is there

As Mia, Amelia and I are searching for anyone we know, we suddenly hear someone call our names. We look up and I see someone waving at us.

“Cal?”

We head over to Cal and quickly notice Oliver is there too. Together with Alice’s daughter. As soon as the little girl sees Amelia, she cries out Amelia’s name and comes running to hug Amelia’s leg.

“Cal, Oliver.” I say. “How bad is it. Is my mother here?”

"She's not here. In fact, none of our relatives are here. We are waiting for Alice to wake up and tell us what she knows." He replied while motioning at a closed door in front of us.

So, Alice is here at least. That makes sense. There is no way her daughter could have traveled all the way here by herself.

“Is she alright?” I asked.

"The healers say that she arrived quite injured, but she was treated here at dawn. She is stable but needs to rest for now."

I nod, letting Oliver know that I understood. Out of all of us, Alice has the most information on what happened. To the village, to my mother, … All I have to do is wait until she wakes up. Then I can figure out where to go from here.

I rest with my back against a wall and rest a bit. Meanwhile, Cal walks up to me and says, “So, Darx. I remember you telling me Oliver and Emma had eloped to Tristanis.”

Oh crap. I have completely forgotten about all that.

I sigh and say, “I’m sorry, Cal. You have to understand …”

But Cal stops me and says, “I already talked about it with Oliver. It was quite a surprise running into him here, and to learn he already knew about my falling out with Fabe.”

“Yeah, that inn where you met us, and you told us all about what happened. That’s the inn Oliver was working at.” I explain. “We didn’t yet know whether you really had fallen out with Fabe, so we felt it best to play it safe.”

“I know.” Cal replies calmly. “Like I said. Oliver already told me all about it. And frankly,

back then, I was still friends with Fabe. I am sure if you had told me he left for Riledo instead, I would have told Fabe. So, I will say that it was for the best that you lied to me and pretended Oliver had left for Tristanis instead.”

I nod and say, “Thanks for understanding.”

Cal then turned to Oliver and said, “I haven’t seen or spoken to Fabe in quite a while. But last time I did, he was still obsessed with Emma and saying that one day he would travel to Tristanis and find you both. Let’s hope that one day he will fuck off to there, or already has, and then keep searching for you two forever.”

“Thanks, Cal.” Oliver replies. “Next time you drop by the Pleasant Owl, let me know you there. Then you, Emma and I can have a drink and catch up.”

Just then, a nurse with some food came to us and opened the door to Alice’s room. We let him know that all of us are friends of her, so he let us in. When I first saw Alice, she didn’t so appear like she was wounded, but rather she looked pale and emaciated. Like she hasn’t had something to eat for days. The nurse woke her up and before he could tell her about the food, she already noticed all of us as we walked into the room.

“Oh, guy’s. You’re all already here.”. Alice smiles.

“Not all. Fabe didn’t show up and I’m happy he didn’t.” Mia says as the nurse gives Alice some food and then leaves. “And Emma is taking care of her daughter.”

“Wait, Emma’s a mother now?” Cal asked surprised.

“We’ll tell you all about it later.” Oliver told Cal. “But for now. Can you tell us what happened, Alice? How many people survived?”

Alice sighs and closes her eyes with a defeated expression. Then she starts telling us. There was a large amount of monsters that suddenly attacked without warning. There was no way Jax, Alice or even my mother were able to keep them off. At best they could buy time for the villagers to run. Jax got the idea of putting people and sending them out to the different surrounding villages and letting them know about the attack so they could evacuate. Alice’s husband was to be one of these riders and take their daughter and escape. But then Jax was killed and the monsters got to the ranch. Several horses were killed, as well as some of the riders, including James. That is when my mom told Alice to take her daughter and go. Alice did as she was told and rode off. Some monsters tried to chase after her and kill her too, but she had her fire magic to fight them off. On her way out of Merton, she saw a lot of dead villagers. Emma and Mia’s parents and grandmother. Cal’s grandfather. Even Amelia and Oliver’s parents.

After Alice finished her story, all of us were crying. Amelia was hugging me and crying onto my shoulder. She is an orphan now. As is Oliver, who had to find a chair and sit down. Cal had already lost his parents to disease. He had only his grandfather left, and now he is gone too. Retelling the story caused Alice to cry as well, for she had to recall the **** of her husband. The only one not crying was me, but that was purely because my mother was not confirmed dead. It could be she died after Alice left, or maybe she somehow got out. She is a B rank, but could someone of that rank really survive an onslaught of that many monsters all at once? I had to find out. I had to know for certain.

“Amelia,” I say. “You stay here. I am going to the guild hall to form a party.”

Amelia looks up from my shoulder and through teary eyes she asks, “What?”

“I am going to get my friends, form a party and I will go look for my mother.” I tell her.

“You can’t be serious!” Cal replies. “All of us have lost family and you are just going to leave?”

“My mother is still out there.” I tell him. “She could still be alive as far as we know. Imagine she is trapped somewhere and she can’t get food or water and needs someone to help her, but nobody is coming …” The more I say what is on my mind, the more emotional I become until I too start crying. When I realize I am becoming too emotional I stop myself and take a breath to calm myself down. “I just have to do something, Cal.”

“Darx is right.” Mia speaks up. “Our parents are already dead. The only thing we can do is avenge them. But Ilene might still be alive. She can still be saved. I will go to my guild as well and gather up my party. I will do my best to travel to Merton and kill as many monsters as I can. And if I find Ilene, I’ll bring her back.”

“Thanks Mia.” I say. “I too will let none of those monsters escape.”

“I will join too.” Amelia tells us. “Ilene was like an aunt to me. If there is a chance to save her, then I want to help out.”

Before we leave, Alice tells us that Ilene would not have decided to stay in Merton and take on all those monsters. She would have lured them into the forest to then lose them amid the trees. Only killing or wounding those she needed to get away. The ride from Merton to Riledo also took several days, so by now Ilene would have already reached another village, so it would be best our parties spread out to different villages and ask for her over there. I thank Alice and then we leave.

Once back at the Dark Dragon guild, Amelia and I notice there is a lot of commotion. Several members are running back and forth. Much more than usual. When we find Kiara, she informs us about what is going on.

“We’ve had a messenger from the royal court.” She explains. “A large amount of monsters has shown up and started attacking villages in the south. All guilds are presented with a quest to send parties out to the affected villages and take out the monsters.”

I remember now. Kiara told us something about this back in the abandoned mansion. Only the royal court can send out the same quest to multiple guilds. And it looks like multiple parties in one guild can accept this one quest. I can see Helena and Jason gathering people to form a party, and some others are getting ready as well.

“We have to go too, Kiara. The monsters attacked my home town. My mother might still be out there.”

Kiara pauses for a moment and thinks over my request. “This is going to be too big for the three of us. We will be needing more people in our party.”

“I’ll ask Leona. She is pretty good. And maybe Ari can come as well. Oh shit!” I curse as I suddenly realize. “I passed through Ryul’s village on my way here. He will be worried about his family too.”

“Right then. You go find all of them and ask them to join your party. I will prepare a wagon and horse for us.” Kiara agrees.

I rush through the guild, asking around if people have seen my friends. Leona and Merlara are quick to find. They come to us asking if we want to team up with them. It turns out the two of them just want to take this quest to fight some powerful monsters, but they quickly realize it is much more personal as soon as they learn Amelia and I are from there. We have to wait a bit for Ari and Sophie since they are out in the city. The people we have to wait for the longest are Ryul and Shalia. It turns out they went to the Knights Hospitaler guild after we had left. They searched the whole place for Ryul’s family, but couldn’t find anyone. I calm Ryul down by telling him we were already planning to go there and try to find them. Now that he has shown up, we can get going.

With the party gathered, we head to the Dark Dragon’s courtyard and find Kiara and four horse-drawn wagons. We pick one of them and load the wagon with supplies. When the others are ready as well, we leave towards Merton. Towards home. Or what’s left of it.