In the darkness of the night, the shadows started creeping. Amatesa and her group were still in their club. The magical forest created by Ryuu had been infiltrated. None of the motion triggers were activated. Ryuu was holding Lea as she went to sleep. Ryuu was unaware of the impending danger. There were several shadows of varying sizes wandering through different parts of the forest trying to find the entrance. One of the shadows stopped and signaled to the others. "Found it."
Amatesa and the others were making their way back home. The sun was starting to rise. Vlad was escorting Amatesa, and Bo was traveling along as well.
"You guys are just as nice as always." Amatesa said.
"They certainly admire you, sister." Tetsuya said, walking behind the three of them. "Don't worry, everyone else is fine back here.
Turquoise's pendent was glowing, but she was so elated from eating that she hadn't noticed. In the distance, there were giant spouts of water coming from the ground where the forest would be. "Oh no. I didn't see my pendent. Dad must be in trouble!" Turquoise said in a panic. Amatesa kicked off her shoes and started running straight the water pillars. Vlad started running behind her along with Tetsuya and Crescent.
"Do you want to follow them? I'll make sure to protect you two, regardless of where you want to go." Darius said to Turquoise and Emerald.
Turquoise was stuck in place. Her mind racing and thoughts rushing. She couldn't hear Darius speaking at all and didn't notice everyone else already on the move. Her blue shifted to green without her realizing. Emerald started shaking her, but nothing worked. She could only hear a buzzing sound and muffles.
Amatesa running at full speed managed to get to the edge of the old forest entrance, which was gone now. There was a fight between several people. She went looking for Ryuu but didn't see him. Instead, she saw a centaur dual wielding two sapphire lances. There were several humans surrounding her with various weapons and armors. Amatesa recognizing those weapons decided to side with Galamene.
"Amatesa is here. We took too long." One of them could be heard screaming. Amatesa drew her dragon scales and rushed two of the men. They had swords, but the blades bounced off her scales as she slashed one of the men's arms clean off. She went to attack the other man, but a rope caught her arm, and another man was trying to limit her movement. She went to untie the rope when another rope got her other arm. The two men pulled from opposite directions to stop her. The man she was about to attack started trying to cut her as she couldn't defend herself immediately, but she wasn't phased. Galamene spun one of her lances to cut one of the ropes holding down Amatesa. Galamene had a bracelet that would pull the Lance back to her whenever thrown from her hand. Amatesa, with her hand free, pulled the other rope, dragging one of the men onto the ground. The man who was attempting to cut her backed off. Amatesa started dragging the man who was holding on with everything he had when a sharp pain came across Amatesa's leg. An assassin managed to sneak behind her and stabbed her with an enhanced dagger. Galamene tried to rush to Amatesa but was cut off by others.
Amatesa was unable to hold herself up as the man who roped her was approaching her. When he stood over her, Amatesa jumped on her uninjured leg and kicked with her other leg. The man collapsed from the intensity of the kick, surprising him. The assassin reappeared to try and stab Amatesa once again, but Vlad got to him first and bit into his neck. Paralyzing him. Tetsuya made quick work of the remaining men. Slicing up the men and forcing the remaining to retreat.
Amatesa got up but was stumbling due to the injury. "Centaur, have you seen our brother? A blue dragon with dark skin?" Amatesa asked.
"Ryuu is your brother? I was looking for him. He said if we ever fell under attack to come to him, but I couldn't find his cave." Galamene responded.
"I don't sense him nearby. I know what his energy feels like still, he's very powerful. He would be easy to find as there's no barrier cloaking him. He's not here." Vlad said to Amatesa.
Crescent finally caught up, out of breath. "You guys are.... gasp... fast." She struggled to get out.
"You can stay behind if this is too challenging for you, human." Vlad said sternly. Galamene started to take a fighting stance.
"Were you related to the attackers? You look like you come from the same tribe." Galamene said.
"No, I don't know what's going on. Who were these people?" Crescent said in defense of herself.
"We don't have time to point fingers, I really need to find Lea. I need to make sure the little one is safe." Amatesa said, cutting the argument short.
"We need to find a healer for you. Do you know of anyone in town that can patch you up real quick?" Vlad asked while Amatesa leaned on him. He helped her balance better.
"I'll recover quickly. This is nothing. It doesn't feel like any poison... Where's Turquoise?" Amatesa asked.
"She stayed behind with Darius and Emerald. She froze up." Tetsuya said. "We need to figure out what's going on and what happened."
"Turquoise and Emerald can track him. Tetsuya run back and get one of them." Amatesa commanded.
"I was protecting a village of other refugees in the forest. They help with sapphire mining, but there is a medical specialist in there. He should be waking up soon." Galamene said.
"Alright, let's run there and then find my brother." Amatesa said
"We'll walk there." Vlad followed up with. "Your brother is one of the strongest people I've ever met, and I've met gods. He will be fine. You won't be at this rate."
Crescent was looking at one of the men who was cut down. She knew him. "You are coming too Crescent, you're still my family. You come with me. Sorry, this isn't the most pleasant experience for you." Amatesa said.
"Right." Crescent said softly.
Silence.
"She won't say anything. She must think she's tough. Say something, little girl, or you'll be in a world of trouble." The man yelled at Lea, who was teary-eyed. She tried pointing to her mouth and shaking her head. "No, we aren't feeding you. She is making demands out of when we kidnapped her?" The man went to raise his hand, but another man grabbed him.
"Let's not go that route. I think she can't speak at all. She hasn't even cried out loud, yet her face is completely wet." He approached Lea and kneeled down. "Can you read and write?" Lea nodded yes. "Good, just write down where we can find your aunt. Amatesa." He hands Lea and a paper and pencil.
She writes, "I don't know, I want my daddy."
The man sighed. "Of course you don't, you're just a child. No matter, she will come looking for you or your 'daddy' will, and either way, she'll come here. She won't escape us again. Put her in a cage, make sure it's resistant to any communication magic. But allow it so she can be found with magic." He walked away as the other man threw Lea in a cage and put a charm on it. The second man then walked away from the room.
Shortly, Lea's pendent started glowing. She was able to make a psychic connection through the pendent to Turquoise despite the charm. The pendent worked through a different magical reaction compared to most communication techniques. Turquoise was able to see everything that just took place with Lea, leaving her shocked.
Turquoise then snapped back into her body. She had been moved to a nearby shop that allowed her to sit down. She regained her consciousness in her body and was immediately active when she came too. "Lea is in danger. I kinda know the room she's in, but I can track her. She was kidnapped by some humans. Dark hair, pale skin. They were crazy strong. One of them was a S tier spellcaster. That's all I could get from Lea. They put her in a cage." Turquoise blurted out.
"Woah, I'm trying to follow all this. What happened?" Darius asked. Turquoise repeated what she saw. "We need to hurry and get Amatesa then."
"No, we can't. For some reason, they want her, and we can't let them take her too. I couldn't see my dad at all. I don't know where he is, but I know where Lea is, and we need to get moving." Turquoise said as she stood up and started walking towards the door.
"Wait, we need to wait for Emerald. She went ahead." Darius said, grabbing Turquoise.
"No time, I can do a rescue by myself. I can be in and out. They aren't prepared for someone like me." Turquoise said arrogantly.
"Take a second and think. If they were prepared to take on your dad, a master water user, how could they not be prepared for you? We need to move quickly, but with strategically." Darius said, trying to calm her down.
Emerald came back with Tetsuya as Turquoise tried to run off. Emerald dragged Turquoise back inside and brought Tetsuya inside the shop where the owner was generous and got them all caffeine drinks. Turquoise gave a quick recap of the situation.
"This is crazy. Who are these guys? They aren't people from this area. We know everyone who wants to fight us. They wouldn't dare to that with Ryuu around. Wait, dark hair and pale skin... like Amatesa and Crescent?" Tetsuya asked.
"Yea... wait, you think they are related? The people who attacked us?" Turquoise asked.
"Has to be, the guys we fight matched that description as well. Amatesa might be in danger. She's injured right now, and her cousin is with her." Tetsuya said.
"No, she wouldn't hurt Amatesa, I don't believe it." Emerald said in defense of Crescent.
"The timing is weird. Everything comes back with her involved. I don't believe she would either, but it's possible she brainwashed or charmed. Those would bypass any reads of deception." Turquoise stated.
"Let's get William. He can piece this all together. I'll call him and run to meet him. You guys stay here." Tetsuya said as he ran out of the shop.
"I will also help out. I don't know anything going on, but for an old friend, I'll protect his loved ones." Bo said who was still around and just observing in silence. "However, the sun might be an issue for me. I need a cloak if you have one. I need to be able to travel freely.
"That's easy, we can get you one of those. I will go to a nearby secret traders market and grab one. It'll even be enchanted to reflect sunlight from the face area as well." Emerald said as she ran off.
"Are you feeling better Turquoise?" Darius asked.
"No, I'm anxious. I'm connected to Lea through our pendents. She's anxious and I'm holding some of that from her to keep her, but she's scared out of her mind right now." Turquoise said while looking at her pendent.
"Hey, what does it mean if both your eyes go green but you aren't using powers?" Darius asked.
Amatesa's group made it to the village outside of the sapphire mining cave. These people were here helping Ryuu mine. They had no place to go and Ryuu has given them protection, shelter, food and purpose.
"Medicine man. I need your assistance." Galamene shouted out
"You can call me doctor, you know. Oh bring her in right now and I'll take a look at her leg." The doctor rushed Amatesa in with Vlad's help. "Amatesa right? Ryuu's sister? I'm surprised someone can injure you. This must have been from the group who attacked earlier."
"Yes, I was able to take them away from this area. It seems like no one was hurt." Galamene said.
"Well, nobody needed anything over night. Thank you again for protecting us. Though, I figured the fight would have been over by now." He responded looking at the entrance.
"It is." Vlad said.
"Then why is she here?" As the doctor looked at Crescent who was wide eyed.