Village in Embers

It didn't take Stella and Arron long to leave the forest behind though her chest becoming heavy do to her lack of breath. However, Stella could tell that Aaron had also lost his breath from the run.

"Not use to running for your life, Aaron?" Stella mockingly commented.

"No … not … really," Aaron slowly wheezed out.

"Well, we have to get back to the village one way or another," Stella stated as she started to look around.

"How can ….. you …. even tell ….. where we are?" Aaron asked, "Oh I have to sit down."

"Well I can't say where we are but I can tell you where the village is," Stella said as she pointed into the distance were a plume of smoke was rising into the air. "Come on we have to get over there soon."

"Can't we just sit here for the bit?" Aaron asked seemingly catching his breath finally.

"What? Can't keep up?" Stella mocked Aaron

"Well, maybe you huntresses can keep going but not us regular folk," Aaron stated finally sounding like he caught his breath.

"Wait, you're not a Huntsmen?" Stella asked in shock.

"I was up in a Tree?! You thought I was a Huntsmen?" With that Aaron just started to laugh.

"I was told that you led the Ursa way," Stella stated as she tried to defend herself.

"I was cashed by that Ursa" Aaron quickly retorted.

With that new information, Stella couldn't help but raise her hand to her face as she just shacked it back and forth. "Why do I always end up in these situations," Stella asked herself, "Well I need to get back to the village, so it's still there in a week."

With that Stella started to walk back to the village with both Autem and Iuris in hand. "Ah wait up," Aaron called out to Stella as he got up and proceeded to follow her.

It didn't take long for Stella to reach the village but once she arrived she saw the damage that had been left over. Many houses had either crumpled down to ruble or had walls ripped clean out of them leaving their roof the only standing item left. The street lights that had lined the pathways where now snapped like twigs with many of them acting as candles now.

In the village square where market stalls use to line the edges of it, Tents had been erected to offer shelter from the night. There were people everywhere some trying to put their lives back together. While others seemed to lay awake to the waking nightmare they had become part off.

"This isn't good." Stella cursed under her breath as the situation started to sink in for her "The Grimm are surely going to return at this rate."

"What ….. do you … mean?" Aaron wheezily asked as he managed to catch up to Stella.

With this Stella couldn't help but turn around to Aaron. "What do I mean?!" She yelled back to him, "Do you not understand how the Grimm hunt?" Stella yelled once again towards Aaron.

"No, I do … know" Aaron wheezed slowly as he started to catch his breath again. "But surely … they can't be too close ….. or else they would've turned up by now?"

Stella couldn't help but understand his point even if he was infuriating if they were close they would've been here by now. With that, she started to head towards the tents in the square hoping there was something she could do. But about half way there she was stopped by the sight of a house's frame standing up with many pictures or items lining the base of it.

"Come to add to the memorial?" A villager asked as he started to approach her.

"These people…" Stella tried to ask but only to have her word slowly abended her.

"Yeah," The villager slow said as he turned his head to the memorial "Everything here is a trinket or picture of a loved one who died today." At this point, he started to kneel down before one of the pictures.

"Is there anything I can do?" Stella asked, "I am a Huntress," This seemed to catch the villager's attention "I can help in any way I can."

"Yay….. you … could help in the rescue efforts," The villager quick suggested, "there's a lot of people looking through the rubble trying to find some survivors, However with in the past hour we seemed to pull out more victims." This caused him to look back at the picture in the memorial.

Before Stella could ask she decide to leave to see if she could help in their efforts so she ran to one of the more destroyed parts of the village. As she ran through there, her mind started to wander back to that night how useless she felt there, but that only encouraged her to not have a repeat of that night.

"HEY!" a distant voice cried out catching Stella's attention as she turns to the direction of the voice to see a having man next to a crumpling house. With that, she quickly ran over to him, "there is someone in there." The man quickly told her.

"Hello?" Stella yelled towards the crumbling house as she started to look for a way to make an entrance into the house without having the rest of it fall down.

"Is there someone there?" A young voice cried out form the rubble.

"Yes, we are here to get you out of here," Stella quickly answered. "Help me lift this up beam," She asked the villager next to her. With the two of them, they managed to lift the beam up high enough for Stella to use Autem to brace the beam up allowing a small passage into the house. "You stay here I'll go in." She told the man with only a slight nod to signal that he understood.

With that, she started to crawl through the hole only to find that the house was somehow clear of rubble for now. Stella quickly looked around the room she had arrived in unfortunately she could not see the child that had called out to them. "Where are you?" Stella called out hoping she would receive an answer.

"Over here" the voice called out from behind one of the doors at the end of the room. Stella hurried over to the door only find that it was blocked by a portion of the roof that had fallen down. Stella attempted to move the obstruction but when she tried she could hear the roof shift as she moved it. Along with this Stella could hear the kid crying out form the shifting roof as she waited for the roof to settle once again.

Once she was sure the roof had stopped moving she started to look around to see if she could find something to help support the roof. Though as she looked around she couldn't find anything suitable to help her out. This left a tight knot in her stomach as she decided the best course of action for her.

"Ok I need you to get away from the door I will cut a hole for you" Stella yelled through the door.

There was a long pause between the two of them before Stella heard anything from the other side of the door. "Okay I'm Ready," the young child said from the behind the door.

"Ok," Stella said as she readied Iuris to cut through the door. "Just stay where you are." She said as she slowly began to cut a hole through the door making sure not to disturb the building further. It was slow and tedious work but it was the only way to get her out of there.

After a while, Stella was finely able to cut a small hole through the door to allow herself to enter the room. With that she stowed Iuris back to her side and slowly entered the room, there wasn't much damage in this room thankfully but it still wasn't in the best of shape. Though in the far corner of the room Stella could see the silhouette of a scared child in a corner.

"Don't worry, I am here now," Stella said as she tried to calm down the frightened child. "Come on let's get out of here." With that Stella reached her hand out towards the scared child trying to get her to follow her out of there. "Don't worry I am here to help."

Reluctantly the young child reached her hand out towards Stella as if she was unsure to trust the stranger that had come to save her. After a while, the young child grasped Stella's hand as Stella Pulled her even closer as they left the ruined house.

There the villager who had helped to enter the house watched as the two emerged from the entrance to the falling house. Once Stella left the rubble she quickly grabbed Autem freeing it from the supporting the house. Though once she did the entire front of the house fell down into a pile of rubble.

"Here." Stella said as she held Autem one hand and the child in the other, "Can you take her back to the others and make sure she is looked after?" She asked towards the lone villager.

"Sure thing." The villager said as he took the child and started his journey back to the make shift camp of the survivors.

After she gave the stranger the child, Stella walked off into the ruined streets to try and see if there was any one else left behind. As she walked down the streets yelling out to the rubble to see if she could hear others cry for help. Though as she did Stella saw others helping other people, some walked along the injured to help them to the camp. Others were carrying some children back to the camp while the rest carried the severely injured in makeshift stretchers.

Stella was out there for some time though the longer she was out there the fewer people she saw amongst the destruction. After some time Stella headed back to the camp hoping to find another way she could help the survivors.

As she arrived at the camp she got a better look around at the camp that had formed from the remains of the village. Everyone was lending their assistance to anyone they could help, somewhere sharing blankets or clothing amongst people while others helped to set up more tents and cots for people to rest on. Though as she looked around she caught a glimpse of the Aaron that she helped in the frozen forest.

"There we go, that should heal a lot fast now but please avoid putting too much weight on to your leg there," Aaron said as he tied a spilt to a man's leg. Though Aaron quickly caught Stella's gaze "Well, Well, look who finally showed up"

"Looks like you are actually making yourself useful here," Stella stated as she slowly walked over to the tent where he was.

"Well I might not be a Huntsman like you thought I was but I do know a thing or two about medicine." Aaron said in a very teasing tone of voice, "And these people really need that help right now" he said as he looked around at the many people who were displaced.

Though as they were talking the villager that had greeted them when they first entered the village was walking over to them. "I thought I better thank you Aaron, for all your help but I guess I should also thank you as well Ms.….."

"Stella, you can just call me Stella." She told the villager.

"Well then, thank you, Stella, for your work," the villager said as he thanked both of them.

"Thanks, but there must be more I can do to help out around here?" Stella Asked towards the villager.

"No, unfortunately, there is not much more that you can do," The villager said in a very heart broken tune. "Everyone who had gone out looking for survivors has returned with the same story."

"Yeah, I have been hearing the same thing from everyone I have been helping too," Aaron said with that same voice that the villager had used.

"How about this," The villager suggested, "Why don't you get some rest in one of the free cots and you can help us in the morning?" he asked

"I couldn't, What if you need my help?" Stella forcefully inquired. But she had to admit getting some sleep seemed like a good Idea.

"Then we simply wake you up," Aaron quickly chimed in, "anyways you do look like you could use the sleep after all you saved me and helped with rescuing other people you earned it"

"Fine," Stella grudgingly acknowledge "But wake me at the first sign of a problem."

"Don't worry, we will." The villager told her.

So with that Stella wandered through the camp trying to find a place she could lie down and sleep. Luckily there was a free cot lying free under one of the tents closest to the gate, She figured if there was a problem they would have to look far for her. Stella the lay both Iuris and Autem under her cot as she lay down in the cot and drifted off.