Hello, it's me again ;w; sorry for taking so long with writing; I've been really busy lately ^^;

Also I guess I have to apologise for this being a relatively short chapter OTL

(ahh my readers must be annoyed x'D)

Chapter Ten

She hated it.

All around her stood people waiting for her to make a decision. Rhaella didn't like making decisions. She preferred to be told what to do and how to act by others. Free will was something she often felt was a burden.

"Ah, lady elf, please make your own choice. Or, if you'd prefer –"

"– we can choose for you, lady archer."

Hunter took a step forward and adopted an aggressive stance, growling, "Her decision isn't yours to make. She's not a puppet for you to play around with."

The assassin mirror images turned to each other, smiled and burst out laughing. The one called Rhaegar turned his attention to the priest and said, smirking, "You really don't understand her, do you? Not surprising, though."

With a shrug, Azar sarcastically added, "Hmm, it's not his fault, brother. Humans aren't the sharpest minds on this earth."

Standing a bit further back, Lennart gritted his teeth, unable to think of a suitable course of action. He could only watch as the elf trembled slightly like a willow branch in a breeze, unconsciously fidgeting with her bow.

Silence settled all around, thick and heavy like the snow on the ground. After what seemed to be a while of deliberation, Rhaella opened her mouth, still staring downwards. But before she could utter a single word, the trees around them burst into flames. All the five gathered there were startled, and turned their attention upwards simultaneously in surprise, seeing crimson flames against a black sky. Just as suddenly as it has started, the wildfire ceased, leaving charred winter bark behind, wisps of smoke tracing up into the night.

Hunter glared at Azar, but before he could shout his offences, the ripper held his hands up with an expression of confusion and incredulity, "It wasn't me this time!"

Even Rhaegar turned his head to shoot a questioning glance towards his twin, but again, the white-haired one spoke up in defence, "I swear! Not me!"

Lennart sighed. In that case, the only other person left who would (or could ) do such a thing was –

"Holy fudge! D'you think the trees will forgive me?"

From beyond the shadows strolled out an elementalist, her vivid ponytail trailing behind her. Her face was slightly worried as she glanced at the charred trees, almost as if afraid that nature would strike back at her. She was followed a bobbing flame and another girl, much shorter and seemingly much younger, who wore round glasses and carried a cannon-like weapon on her back which, relative to her, was rather enormous.

"Zarbara! How did you –" began the swordsman, but his voice was drowned out by the angry shouting of one of the two assassins.

"It's you again!" Azar yelled, frowning and pointing accusingly at the sorceress who had just arrived. "I can't believe your bumbling fool of a fire demon ran into me! The great me!"

Zarbara pulled a face close to disgust, mumbling, "You what?"

"Don't act all innocent and –"

"Cut it out, Azar," Rhaegar chipped in, silencing his brother with a sharp glare. The black-haired raven cleared his throat and folded his arms across his chest.

"Yeah yeah," grumbled the ripper. "Getting back to the matter on hand, right?"

But his twin was busy watching the body language that the archer was subconsciously expressing upon seeing a new face. Azar noticed a small smirk creep across the other's face. That was usually a bad sign, so he decided it was in his best interests to stay silent for now. He busied himself with rearranging stands of white hair and tapping against the metal of his arm blades.

Unaware of the setting tension, Zarbara hopped over to her teammates, beckoning the little girl to follow her, the bobbing flame also zipping along. The elementalist presented her follower with a grin, "Look what I found on my way here."

Lennart strode up to Hunter's side and joined in with scrutinising the young girl with doubtful eyes. He scratched his head, being the first to say, "Who is she?"

This induced a carefree shrug from Zarbara, causing the priest to shake his head and sigh as well, closing his amber eyes in exasperation. The little girl nervously took a tiny step forwards in the snow, and introduced herself with a shaking voice, "M-my name is Camellia. I'm an alchemist from the futu – wait, no! F-from Mana Ridge! And, uhm… I have s-something to tell… you all…"

She kept glancing up and back down again, intimidated by the tall people around her.

"Sorry, kid, can we do this some other time?" snapped the priest, "We're busy right now with… with this," he waved his hand in the direction of the two assassins, who put on expressions of mock innocence and grinned.

Camellia stared in said direction and her pink-ish eyes widened in realisation as she muttered quietly to herself, "Oh, we're at this time already? Oh dear, oh dear…"

"She's a cute little thing, isn't she?" laughed Zarbara, hugging the alchemist in the same way as one would do to a baby animal. The warrior laughed too, but mainly because he had no idea what else to do at the current time. Seeing the two laughing and the little girl fighting for freedom from an overly-tight hug induced some sort of smile from the priest despite his earlier outburst.

All this time, Rhaella had been quietly watching from a distance placed somewhere between the twin assassins and her group of teammates plus a new person. She rubbed her nose, sniffing as the cold air stung her cheeks and eyes. The air in front of her fogged up with every heavy breath she exhaled. Her pale hands were probably still fidgeting with the precious longbow in her hands and perhaps her knees were shaking too, but she didn't know anymore.

A familiar feeling called loneliness bore a painful hole in her chest as she stood and watched the scenes unfold before her. Those four looked good together. The optimal number for a party is four, isn't it? They looked like a cute team, huh? In desperation, she squeezed her eyes shut and gripped that bow as tightly as possible, hugging it against her shivering frame.

Naturally, nobody noticed.

Behind her, Rhaegar's smirk grew and he chuckled to himself. He turned to his brother and commented, "It's working out even better than expected."

Azar could pretty much guess what the other was talking about. After all, they were twins raised by demons. They shared some sort of special connection that normal humans didn't have. The dark-skinned assassin answered, "You're such a sadist."

"But aren't humans so entertaining?" laughed the raven, placing a hand on his waist and shifting his standing posture. After a few heartbeats, he sauntered up to the elf and whispered in a singsong lull beside her ear, "They obviously don't need you anymore."

The archer jumped like a scared cat. She slowly turned around, all menace in her expression gone, left with a face full of sadness and fear. Her lilac eyes glistened with tears, but were otherwise devoid of any previous light of life or mischief.

"You can cry if you want," said the raven quietly, doing his best to keep his sarcastic and scathing tones under control. The resulting voice was one of feigned warmth and gentleness, but in her state, the elf didn't pick up on the falseness. He reached out with a pale hand and stroked her silver hair, "Don't worry, I'm here for you. I promised; I'll always be with you."

With a deep sigh, Azar cringed inwardly. How could his brother use borrowed words and actions in such a sickly kind tone so easily? But at least the words had their effect. He saw some sort of nostalgia overcome the archer as she broke down and cried like a child, clinging on to both her bow and the black-haired Rhaegar in front of her.

Hearing those cries finally caught the attention of the group of four a short way off. Not a single one of them could find a proper reaction to the situation that had evolved since they had become distracted by the appearance of the alchemist Camellia. It was too late; things had already spun out of control and fallen out of their grasp.

Before anything else happened to jeopardise his victory, Rhaegar smirked at the four. To Azar, he nodded, his twin returning the gesture. The two of them turned their backs towards the four. The raven held back his impatience and gently tugged Rhaella by the hand, smiling gently, "C'mon, let's go."

She nodded too, and followed the twins without much thought, like a lost lamb. Even as Azar clicked his fingers to separate the three of them from the other four with a wall of flame, she didn't look back. Even as they shouted in frustration and disorder, she didn't even deign to turn her head.

Rhaella was back to the time she was a child. Back to the time when there was a warm hand she could hold and be led around by someone. She hated making decisions. Everything she did was always wrong and then the other elves would hate her for it. She didn't want to be hated. All she wanted was to be liked. All she wanted was to be back in that time again. To be in that cosy home with Rhaegar where they could live simply, away from the judging looks from others. Away from people. People were bound to break trusts.

The present was too suffocating.

She'd rather drown in the past.