Eirin and Coleen exchanged looks. It was a pixie, and it was Eirin's first time seeing one. Despite getting into the Senerra Academy, Eirin hadn't had much interaction with ligmas around the school.
"You bear the element of wind, just like me," the pixie said with twinkling eyes and the brightest smile. "A person with a brave heart is what I seek for my master."
Eirin's forehead creased as she moved closer to Coleen. What are the odds that these things are a part of the hallucination the forest is making the two of them go through?
"Ei, can you hear them?"
Eirin turned to Coleen after she said that. "You don't hear them?"
Coleen shook her head. "It seems like they don't want me to hear them. It's a faerie and a pixie," she said.
"Are they real? Or am I hallucinating?"
The pixie laughed after hearing that. "You are also funny! As expected of my master."
"Ugh! Stop spouting nonsense and get out of here already," the faerie named Naoi said.
Feya turned to Naoi, her eyes widening. A squeal came out of her little mouth as she flew around, encircling Naoi. "You evolved into a faerie!" She said as if she had just noticed. "Is that why you didn't come back to the Æniathra and started bullying humans instead?"
The pixie giggled. "This is Naoi, she was my pixie friend, but it turns out she's a faerie now!" With the pixie's soft giggles, the atmosphere changed. Eirin and Coleen began relaxing, but then the vines on the floor accumulated, pushing the two girls towards the exit of the forest.
Confused, Eirin searched for the pixie, but she was no longer anywhere she could see. The vines threw the two of them to the ground and immediately left.
"What was that?" Coleen said, confused.
Eirin helped Coleen stand as she cleaned Coleen's bruised face.
"Just call my name if you need my help, master," the pixie's voice echoed through Eirin's head, causing her to look around. After seeing no one, she stared at her hand, wondering if everything she saw was just a daydream to escape the reality she was in.
"There they are!"
The daydream thoughts halted after hearing those awful yet familiar voices. Eirin grabbed Coleen's hand and rushed towards the village. There was nowhere else to go, and it wasn't like they could go back to the Lively Grove either. It was just a matter of time before they got caught by those men.
"Ei!"
"Eirin! Wait!"
It was too late for Eirin to realize that there were more people waiting in the village. Both male and female, as if they had been waiting for the two girls' arrival.
"What are we going to do?" Coleen moved closer to Eirin while the teenage girl gulped.
'That's right, Feya!'
Eirin opened her mouth, but before she could speak the pixie's name, one of the female villagers covered her head with an empty sack and pulled her away from Coleen.
"Let me go! Coleen!"
The teenage girl kicked the person behind her, but the more she struggled, the more she couldn't breathe. Hearing Coleen's scream only made Eirin struggle even further until something hit her on the back of her neck.
'Shoot, I can't lose consciousness.'
Eirin fell to her knees with her eyes slowly closing.
"Find the other boy. He's a demon; he will be a hindrance to our plan. Execute immediately if seen."
Those were the last words Eirin heard from the woman behind her. Figuring that Shade was still out there, a glint of hope appeared in the back of her mind, wishing that the young man could help them.
Coleen screamed upon seeing Eirin's body collapse to the ground. The male villagers carried the unconscious Eirin while Coleen sobbed as she was being pulled towards the underground dungeon beneath the village chief's house.
The young lad's sobs permeated the walls, and Coleen sobbed louder as she called Link's name. He lay unconscious inside one of the cells Coleen passed by. Soon, the screams from other humans trapped in the underground, begging for help, filled Coleen's ears.
Coleen fell to her knees after being pushed into one of the prison cells, but her eyes widened as she watched Eirin being pulled further away.
"W-Where are you taking her?"
The men threw Eirin into the cell right in front of where Coleen was. Seeing how those men treated Eirin's unconscious body, less than human, caused her to sob as she grabbed onto the bars.
"Pity. I wanted to have a taste of these two," one of the men with dog-like ears said as he licked his pale lips, giving goosebumps to the young girl who heard it loud and clear.
After the men left, Coleen could not do anything but scream in anger. The sense of helplessness made her cower in fear. Tears rushed down her face as she muttered Link and Eirin's names.
"Ei," Coleen sobbed. Her mana was depleted, and even if she still had some, she couldn't control her flair either. It would only do more harm, and that's what was killing her. "Eirin, please wake up."
With Coleen's plea, Eirin gasped and opened her eyes. She coughed as if she had drowned in the deepest abyss and was out of breath.
"Ei!"
Eirin grunted with the unbearable ache on the back of her neck. Her head woozy and her eyes blurry as she turned in Coleen's direction.
"Coleen?" She said with a scowl due to the splitting headache. Eirin struggled as she grazed her palm on the cold, hard ground and blinked thousands of times, adjusting to the darkness of the prison cell.
"Where are we?"
Coleen wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "T-They brought us underground. I-It's like a prison or something," she sniffed. "I'm sorry, Ei. Shade was right, I am nothing but a burden."
Eirin leaned on the prison bars while holding onto her temple. "Don't say that." She winced. "It was my fault for losing consciousness. Don't ever think you're a burden," the teenage girl added while trying to stand on her wobbly legs with her left eyes still closed.
The teenage girl looked at the lock with an eyebrow raised. "Let me borrow your hairpin, Coco."
As confused as she was, Coleen pulled the hairpins from her hair and slid them towards Eirin's cell.
"What are you going to use it for?"
Eirin reached for the hairpin on the floor, wincing, and as she took hold of it, she grabbed the lock and started picking it. Coleen stared at her, utterly confused as to what she was doing, until the padlock dropped on the floor, leaving Coleen baffled.
"W-What? How did you do that?"
Eirin smiled, but winced in pain after feeling something inside her cheek. "I watched it on Utube before. I thought it'd be handy someday," she said, dragging her feet towards Coleen's cell.
"Utube? What is that?"
"Something like a television," Eirin said. Coleen's curiosity only reminded Eirin that this world did not have any knowledge of the internet or anything of the sort.
"Wow, it helps you learn such things? I want that too."
Eirin opened the padlock on Coleen's door and slowly dropped it to the ground. "I guess it does. It's a skill I needed since I was—" she halted.
'What was I trying to say? That I was bullied a lot?' The teenage girl shook her head.
The two girls held hands and tiptoed their way towards Link's cell. Coleen didn't ask Eirin what she was trying to say after seeing the bothered look on her face.
"Please! Help us!"
Coleen's grip on Eirin's hand tightened as they ignored the people inside the other cells screaming for help.
"Please… I don't want to die," one of the female prisoners said with blood dripping from her hands. "I need to meet my children."
Her face was bruised, and she could not stop the tears from falling from her swollen eyes. Even though Coleen wanted to release all of them, it would be too difficult. The noise they were all creating notified the men, causing Eirin and Coleen to have no choice but to run back to their cells.
Eirin lay back on the floor, pretending to be unconscious. While Coleen stayed inside her cell, staring at the seemingly unconscious Eirin. Seeing nothing after all the commotion confused the men. Instead of doing nothing, they brought out a whip and used it on the prisoners to shut them up.
The moment the men left, Eirin opened her eyes and moved stealthily.
"I'll just stay here."
Eirin was baffled; she reached out for Coleen's hand. "What do you mean? Aren't we going to escape together?"
Coleen gulped. "Link's here too."
"Then we can bring him with us and escape this place all at once."
Coleen balled her fists as she stared at the ground. "There are other people too," she said with a low tone. "I don't want to be a burden anymore."