Chapter One
"Goodbye Lilyut Hills"
The faint whispers awoke Jane, together with her curiosity. She reticently pulled herself out of the sheets and, still being as quiet as she could, approached the small window. It was still dark outside, around 3AM, the moon was throwing its white light onto the small group, standing in front of the unpretentious house. Jane tried heightening her hearing, though she knew she had reached her limit.
"This is how it looks like," she managed to overhear. However, this did not lull her inquisitiveness. On the contrary, it urged her to open the window so that she could eavesdrop as well as she had a few days ago when her sister was discussing something about her recent adventures with her friends.
Jane slowly reached the window's wooden frame and, while constantly checking if any of the people outside had seen her, hesitantly opened it, letting the fresh rural air flow in her stuffy room. The squeak didn't seem to attract the group's attention, as they continued their secretive whispers.
"No, we don't." Jane got slightly frustrated due to the omitted question the answer belonged to.
"Then how are we going to find it?"
"We'll follow the plan." Jane recognized that voice. She squinted her eyes, peering at the woman who was unfolding a scroll. "First stop – Gweonid Forest."
"Jess?"
The people's heads turned to the small window. Immediately after that, Jane jumped back on her bed and hid herself under the sheets, acting as if she were sleeping. What is my sister up to, wondered Jane, and soon after that she really did fall asleep.
On the next day, Jane couldn't find her sister anywhere. She was used to this, because this had already happened to her almost way too many times. Jess would always go on adventures, some even dangerous, with her friends, or even by herself, and come back in a week or so, and then leave again. Jane didn't mind any of that, since she often received souvenirs and books from the various cities her bold sister visited as gifts. She was currently reading a book from Marianople which contained a lot of useful information about different beasts and such. Jane's dream was to become the best sorceress there ever was, though all she could do was move random objects from one place to another, and most of the time the attempts to be actually successful at telekinesis turned into failures.
Jane went to a room which just had one wooden table, having the size of a toddler, and three small chairs, situated around it. There was a sheet of paper with something scribbled on it on the table. Jane picked it up and deciphered her sister's illegible handwriting. "Off to an adventure, don't expect presents". Next to the note was placed a bag of strawberries. As she was about to grab one of them and nibble on it for a while, a knock on the door disturbed the silence.
"Ay J, where you at?"
Jane opened the door. There was standing a pale-skinned girl, around the age of sixteen. Her ebony black hair carelessly swung behind her waist as she entered the house.
"Good morning to you too, Jen." Jane closed the door and headed to the chairs, where Jen had already perched.
"Where's your sister?" asked the uninvited guest and started eating the strawberries.
"She left. Again. They left after midnight or something, I'm not sure."
"Wait, Jess let you stay up until that late? Lucky you."
"No, they woke me up— please stop eating my strawberries! They were whispering about something, but I couldn't hear what it was exactly."
"Your hearing's becoming worse and worse by the second. Face it, honey, you're old as fu—"
"Erm, shut up? At least I'm not blind like you."
"I'm not blind, what the hell?"
Jane demonstratively put her index fingers on her eyes' outer corners and dragged them upwards. Jen threw a strawberry at her. Jane swung her hand and the fruit flew right at the door, which now had a bright pink spot in the middle.
"By the way, I saw some weird guys on my way here."
"What weird guys?" inquired Jane whilst eating.
"I dunno, man. They had these weird-ass swords and such, and some scroll or something."
"Swords? Why would they carry swords here, we're a peaceful village."
"It might be because of that recent bear attack, remember?"
"Oh yeah, but that happened – what – two weeks ago? Three? Why would they still worry about being attacked?"
"Man, why are you asking me this? They're wimps. Especially that one with the scar," Jen added as she choked on her strawberry from laughter.
"What's up with him?"
"Dude, he was wearing armor. Actual armor." She finished eating and stood up. "Leggo."
"Where to?"
"I dunno, the ocean maybe. You have to practice your sorcery powers, right?"
"Or do you want to go there because your crush lives there?"
"Get that ugly smirk off your face, woman! And no, he's not my crush."
"If you say so. Grab the strawberries."
"I'm serious, Jane!"
They exited the modest house. Jane locked the door and headed towards the ocean. Some villagers were casually walking along the paths, others were working peacefully in their shops. Overall it was just another normal day in Lilyut Hills.
"Give me a strawberry, Jenna."
"First of all, never call me that ever again or I swear there'll be a new stone in the graveyard. Second, where the hell should I get you a strawberry from?"
"I told you to get the bag from the table, you idiot."
"I ain't carrying your crap, man."
Jane turned around and headed back to her house, as Jen sat on a bench and began to judge the passerbys. She reached the door and pulled out her key, but, to her surprise, the door was already unlocked. She confusedly pushed it open and hesitantly entered the house and scanned the area. No one was there. I'm sure I locked the door, she assured herself as she entered the "living room". She leaned down to grab the bag of strawberries when her nose recognized the scent of sweat. Her whole body froze still, her eyes widened. She could feel the presence of someone behind her. Deep breaths, she kept repeating to herself, and do what Jess taught you. She calmly reached the closest table's leg and grabbed it. Wait, what was the spell?
Still standing in that awkward position, she put the hand which was holding the bag in her jacket's pocket and placed the strawberries there. She then abruptly pulled a tiny book and opened a random page.
"Traho," she read out loud. The table suddenly blasted towards her stomach, making her tumble to the ground, and then hit the intruder. Wrong spell, genius. Jane hastily crawled to the door, while making weird squealing sounds of shock and horror. A shadow grew in front of her, and she turned her head around. A man had raised his machete above his head and was about to slash Jane's skull open. With a high-pitched scream, the girl rolled away, evading the attack, got to her feet and rushed out of the house. The man started chasing her down as she sprinted towards her friend.
"Hey, catch 'er!"
Another man, wielding two swords, tried to make a lunge at Jane, but missed as she sprung away, and of course squealed yet again, and dashed forward.
"Traho!" she repeated the spell as she erratically waved her hands, and the bench Jen was sitting on jumped right at her. She quickly bent her body, and the bench flew towards the attackers, and knocked them down.
"What was that for?!"
"Jen, you won't believe what just ha—"
The scream of a villager interrupted their conversation. They turned around and saw another armored man piercing a woman's chest with his machete. The horses from the stables nearby wildly began to neigh and jump.
"Jane, look out!"
The man she had attacked with her table was running towards her, with his weapon prepared for battle. Jane pushed her friend away and waited for the attacker to come closer. As he pointed his machete to her head, she ducked and leaped out of the way. He wheeled around and rushed to her. A pebble to his head prevented him from hurting the innocent girl. As he turned his head, he saw Jen collecting more small rocks from the ground. She then raised her eyes and noticed he was watching her. She froze and dropped the rocks.
"Crap."
The man yelled and hurled his weapon in Jen's direction. She dodged it and ran to it to pick it up. When she crouched to grab it, the man approached her and dragged her by the hair. Jane, having found the perfect spell in her book, pointed her arm at the assaulter.
"Transnigro!"
The pebbles around them flew up in the air and struck the opponent, bringing him to his knees. Jen ran to him and kicked him in the face.
"Take that!"
"I'm so cool!" proclaimed the young sorceress, excitedly jumping up and down the floor.
Jane then looked around and noticed that two men had now surrounded them. Jen grabbed the machete and, clueless of how to use it, prepared to fight. They could hear the utter sorrow of the villagers, the horses were still rioting in their stables. One of the man launched himself at the two girls, but they successfully avoided the attack. Jane then put her hand up towards his back and opened her spell book.
"Ingero!"
He was blasted towards the stables, which doors had now been broken. The horses rushed out of the stalls and headed to random directions. Jane grabbed Jen by the hand and quickly trotted to one of the steeds. She jumped on it, and patted its black back, signaling her friend to hop on as well.
"Wait, I want my own horse."
"What the— Jen, there's no time!"
"Yes there—" The men had gotten back on their feet and were frowning at the two brave ladies. "…isn't."
Just as Jen was about to get slashed by one of the blades, another horse, a white one, ran between them, and Jen managed to grab it by the saddle and pull herself up. They hid among the densely situated trees, and kept on riding their mounts deeper into the forest.
"What the hell happened?" asked Jen, still panting from all the shock.
"I have no idea. Did you see how many people they killed?"
"Many. Many many! What are we going to do now?"
"We must find my sister and tell her what happened. Fast!"
"How the hell are we going to find her, though? She never tells you where she goes!"
Jane remembered her sister's words from the previous night.
"I know where she is, follow me!"
The two Js made an acute turn and rode along the barely visible path, hidden under the tall grass and trees. They passed by a sign, which proved that they're going the right way – they were headed to Gweonid Forest.
"Okay, are we lost or what?"
"Eeeerm…"
"I told you we had to take the right turn, Jane, not the left one! Smartass."
"You never said such thing! And I'm not a smartass. How do you even come up with such words?"
"There should be more bad words, don't you think? It is my duty to think of them and use them."
"How is it your duty? And why would you add "smart" to an indignity?"
"Just wait and see – soon everyone will be using my insults. Everyone!"
"You're saying it as if it's a good thing. Anyway, it's getting dark, and my horse is tired."
"Mine's better than yours then."
"Jen, yours is sleeping."
"No it's not—" It was indeed sleeping while standing up. "Oh."
"Okay, time for a break."
They both slid off of their mounts and collected the nearby twigs and leaves in a pile, and surrounded it with rocks and pebbles.
"It's thy timeth to shineth, mighty s'rc'ress."
"Stop that, Jen." She took a deep breath. "Let's hope this pile also shineths after the spell. Wish me luck." She chafed her palms in a quick manner and stretched her fingers towards the heap. She stood like that for a few seconds, silently.
"What are you waiting for?"
"Wait, I forgot the spell." She took her spell book out of her jacket's pocket and started to flick through the pages. She tapped with her finger. "There we go. Get back, this spell is quite powerful." Jen moved back as Jane rose her arm to the pile. "Peruro Inardesco."
Nothing happened.
"Yeah, powerful."
"Give me a break, Jen! You can't even pronounce the spell."
A dim stream of smoke slowly started heaving from the heap, a small flame was quietly playing beneath the twigs and leaves.
"How about that, huh?" pretentiously boasted Jane.
"Powerful though."
The sun's last rays hid behind the horizon, dark clouds began to gather on the indigo sky.
"We should shelter ourselves," suggested Jane, looking up at the source of the potential storm.
"What about food? We've been on the move for quite a lot, and we have eaten barely anything."
"Oh, that reminds me." The sorceress put her hand in her jacket's pocket and grabbed the bag of strawberries she had managed to take with her before the intruder's attack. "Here, that might quiet your rumbling stomach."
"Thanks!" Jen immediately pulled the bag from Jane's hands and began to swallow the strawberries one by one. "Aren't you going to eat as well?"
"It's fine, don't worry. Come on, let's make ourselves a shelter."
Yet another thunder decided to shake the forest. Jane slowly opened her eyes and lazily rose from the squalid dirt. She pulled a streak of grass out of her mouth. Apparently her hunger had grown stronger during her repose. She looked at the space between the wet thick branches which formed the shelter and noticed that it was still dark outside. She could hear the rain drip from the leaves atop the unskillfully built construction. The sorceress ravenously searched for the bag of strawberries, wishing that Jen had slaked her desire for food before consuming all of the fruit. Alas, her prayers were not heard, as she found the bag lying next to her friend, as empty as it could have been. Several vile words came to Jane's mind.
Crunch.
Jane turned her head to where the fireplace was situated, but the shelter's branches were blocking the view. She heightened her hearing, but couldn't hear anything significant from the rain's patter. She slowly got up from the ground, and took a crouching position. She scanned the area through the tight gaps of the shelter's walls. No signs of movement were detected. That didn't quiet down the sorceress's curiosity. She carefully exited the structure and looked around. She felt something was wrong, and took a few steps ahead. She got to the fireplace which was now a mixture of mud and wet leaves, and stooped to investigate. She noticed a few twigs were kicked out of the circle of rocks and pebbles.
Jen's unexpected yell for help provoked Jane's attention. She turned around and discerned a dark figure bending over her friend, who was impotently trying to get out of his unyielding grip. Jane thrust her arm towards them as she yelled out Jen's name. Immediately after that, the branches forming the shelter were blown away, and scattered around. The man, whose appearance was now observable – grey hair, shrivelled face, was startled by the mage's force and got off of Jen.
"A witch, ay?" His croaky voice agitated Jane.
"S-Stay away from us," she stuttered as she pointed her trembling arms at the old pervert.
The rain was pouring down his innumerable wrinkles, his wet greasy hair stood stuck above his ferocious expression. He stepped forward. Jane stepped away. He stretched smirk across his foul face. The man sprung right at the girl and swung out a knife from his pants. She evaded the slash by jumping back. He repeated the attack. She repeated the dodge. Unfortunately for her, her leg was caught between the rocks surrounding the fireplace, and she fell on the mud. The man bent over her as a toothless smile took over his lascivious face.
"Time to play," he gratingly expressed his malice.
"Go away, you senile pervert!" she yelled at him.
That caused his expression to switch to one of anger and irritation, and he rose his knife above his head. His arms whipped at Jane's chest. A stream of blood irrepressibly began to spew out of the wound, as she hopelessly coughed for air. A giant rock to the head knocked the pervert out. Its wielder then dropped it on the man's face, smashing his nose.
"No, Jane! Holy crap, are you—"
"What the hell is going on here?"
Jen turned around, her hands on Jane's chest. A young woman had appeared from behind the trees, her wet maroon ponytail sitting on her shoulder.
"Jess?!"
"Jane?" she worriedly gasped.
"No, I'm Jen," explained the pale girl.
"Holy shit, Jane! She's bleeding!"
The blood kept on erupting from her chest. Jess ran to her sister and dropped to the ground. She pushed Jen away and put her hands on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
"What the hell happened to my sister?!"
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