The Only One in My Heart
Chapter 3
The walk back to the village was a solemn one and silent, like the march of a funeral procession. The sight of the black village brought tears to their eyes. Nothing was moving, there was not a sound of life. There was only death in the village.
"Mama! Papa!" Lana screamed and ran into the burnt village. Lana found her hut and ran into the rubble, blood was on the walls but there was not a sign of her parents. The trio also had searched for their parents as well and ended up being disappointed.
"Anything?" Kadaj asked Lana. She shook her head and buried her face in his chest. "Don't cry," Kadaj comforted with his hand stroking her hair, "I'm here. I will protect you." Lana held onto him and nodded with tears flowing down her cheeks.
"We'll see if there's anything we could find that still can be used," Yazoo said, pulling Loz together with him.
"There's absolutely nothing we could get out of these rubbles!" Loz whined.
"Shut up and keep looking!" Yazoo shouted back at him.
"Kadaj!" Lana called, "I found some weapons!"
"I'm coming!" Kadaj called back and ran to her. Lana stooped over a steel container which was filled water and tried to reach for the weapons but found that her arms were too short to reach it. Loz and Yazoo also appeared behind them.
"Allow me," Loz said and he dived his hands into the container retrieving a rod, a gun, a samurai sword and a pair of fighting gloves.
"We should take these weapons with us. We never know what kind of monster that lurks in the forest," Yazoo said. Everyone nodded and took a weapon each. Loz took the gloves while Yazoo took the gun, Kadaj took the sword and Lana took the rod.
"I found some herbs in backyard of someone's hut. Apparently, the raiders have yet to burn it. It could be of some use to heal wounds," Loz said.
"I found some dried food near the forest. I think someone threw it there after they were caught. The food is still good," Kadaj said.
"Good! We'll bring it all to our campsite in the forest and wait for some help if there're any that will come," Yazoo suggested, which everyone agreed.
"Kadaj," Lana whispered.
"Hm?" Kadaj whispered back, his eyes looking at the starless sky above.
"Can I hold your hand?" Lana asked, "I don't want to wake up alone."
"Sure," Kadaj said and he reached for Lana's hand and squeezed it gently, "Go to sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up."
"Good night," Lana whispered to him and began to drift into slumber. Kadaj turned to her and closed his eyes, feeling the sleep that came over him.
"It seems that Kadaj is being more protective of Lana now," Loz said to Yazoo after they are out of their hearing distance. Yazoo nodded.
"I think we will have to learn how to use our weapons now, in case something or someone came to us," Yazoo said quietly. Loz agreed with Yazoo and they talked to each other to keep themselves from falling asleep during their watch.
"Wakey! Wakey!" Loz said when he shook the two sleeping kids.
"Where are we?" Lana yawned.
"In the forest, fleeing from the raiders," Yazoo reminded her.
Having heard that, Lana's face fell and tears threatened to fall again. "I'll be here," she heard Kadaj's voice beside her. She looked at him and forced a smile for him.
"There's something I need to take from the village. I will be back soon," Loz said.
"I'm coming with you," Yazoo said. "Kadaj, Lana, stay here. Kadaj, look after Lana for us," Yazoo commanded. Kadaj nodded and took up his sword. "We'll be back as soon as we can," Yazoo assured them.
"They're gone for almost an hour already," Lana said to Kadaj.
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to them," Kadaj said. Lana nodded and took up her rod. When Kadaj turned around, Lana brought her rod downwards. Kadaj turned and blocked her attack with his sword.
"Hey! You could have got me killed!" Kadaj said, grunting as he struggled with one hand on the sword against Lana's rod which she used with both her hands.
"But I didn't!" Lana said. "If you did not block my attack, I could have—" she did not finish. A gunshot was heard in the air. "Yazoo…" was the only word that escaped her lips.
"Come on!" Lana called.
"But Yazoo said…" Kadaj protested.
"They might have met the raiders! They will be killed!" Lana shouted at Kadaj. Kadaj was lost and the thought of losing his brothers made him dashed for the village as fast as his feet could carry him.
Both Lana and Kadaj reached the village in time to see the defeat of Loz and Yazoo. They saw a raider fighting with Yazoo with a sword and another raider having a hand to hand combat with Loz. The raider with a sword easily threw Yazoo's gun away and drove his sword into Yazoo's abdomen. Yazoo fell face first onto the sand with blood oozing from his wound.
On the other hand, Loz was winning the combat but the raider who defeated Yazoo came to aid his friend and Loz began to get tired. Soon, Loz was kicked and punched by the two raiders. Kadaj and Lana could not utter a single word and they stood as still as statues. In the end, Loz was on the ground, motionless. It was then that the two raiders took notice of Kadaj and Lana.
Kadaj jumped in front of Lana with his sword in his hand when the two raiders approached them.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" the raider with the sword sneered.
"Two kids with weapons as high as them," the other one answered with a laugh.
"You! What have you done to my brothers?!" Kadaj shouted at them.
"We annihilated them," the first raider said. Lana gasped at his words and gripped her rod tightly. Kadaj raised his sword to his face.
"Haven't your mother told you not to play with sharp things?" the first raider said to him. With a swift move, he used his sword and threw away Kadaj's sword. Kadaj stepped back along with Lana.
"Run," Kadaj whispered to Lana.
"But," Lana protested.
"I'll be okay. Don't worry," he assured her, "Run!"
Lana slipped her rod into Kadaj's hand and turned to run back into the forest. She heard the sword clashed on the rod and a scream, Kadaj's scream. Lana turned back and froze. Kadaj was lying on his back; the two raiders were still kicking his small body. Kadaj had no strength left in him to scream but he looked at her with his deep blue eyes and told her to run. Lana shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"RUN!" Kadaj screamed at her with all his might. Lana stood still.
'Unleash your powers,' a voice said in Lana's head. 'Help your friends,' the feminine voice said, 'I will aid you.'
"But mama, I don't know how!" Lana screamed, "Kadaj! Loz! Yazoo!"
'Don't let them die,' she said. Lana shut her eyes, images of her parents, her friends and everyone filled her mind. Lana let out a loud scream.
"Wha—" the first raider exclaimed when he saw Lana's body glowing with a pinkish hue. Lana's eyes were still shut tight. The images still disturbed her. At last, the three brothers' image came to her mind. They were dead. Lana held her head with her hands.
Kadaj watched his childhood friend in agony but also in wonder. He did not see what was to happen next but he suddenly felt safe and warm. His pain had vanished and he rested his body.
Meanwhile, both the raiders were taken aback by Lana's incredible power. A barrier was around the three boys whom they have killed and it seemed to them that their wounds were healing by itself at an incredible rate. They blew their whistles and were answered by more whistles. Soon, more raiders made their way out of the village to the beach where Lana stood alone with pink aura around her. Lana slowly opened her eyes and saw many raiders around her. Fear took over her emotions.
'Don't fear them,' the voice said to her. Lana still could felt her head throbbing in pain.
"Sir, a new species of human," the first raider told the leader.
"Is she a Cetra?" the leader asked.
"Perhaps," the first raider replied.
"Take her!" the leader commanded. The two raiders moved to capture Lana but Lana's aura intensified until lines of pink flew out of her body towards every single raider in the village.
"Stop!" Lana shouted. Everyone froze. Every raider stared with horror at the pink ray of light that stopped an inch in front of their eyes. Lana drew in a deep breath and calmed her breathing. Her attack slowly vanished into the thin air. All the raiders looked at Lana for a moment before they ran back into the wild where they had stayed all their lives.
"A great power has awakened," a deep commanding voice said to himself. "Where is it?" Sephiroth asked himself. "Such great power will only be summoned if the need was dire," he said to himself and closed his green eyes. "There, by the beach," he said before he teleported himself to the beach where Lana looked after the three brothers.