Part 8

Thundabolt knew what to do, he wasn't stupid, and he knew his job was to protect Eirika. Which is why he bought everyone at the table a mug of beer and he bought two mugs of juice for myself, but he couldn't resist buying himself one mug of beer.

When he returned to the table he found Tearie asking the three strangers a wide array of questions, it seemed like she was interrogating them by the look on the strangers faces. But that was to be expected, you never know who you can trust in this region.

After he passed out the mugs to everyone, their spirits were lifted. After that though, the questions became less and less interesting. "One thing about Tearie, she sure is thorough". Thundabolt thought to himself, as he started gazing around the room to find something to occupy himself so he wouldn't go insane with boredom. It seemed Eirika had the same idea; she was staring rather transfixedly at the fire. Then Tundabolt noticed something unusual, everyone was starting at them. At first he thought it was rude. Than right before he said something, he heard gasping coming from his right, right where Eirika was sitting.

He turned as quickly as he could to see that Eirika was gasping, as if she couldn't get any air into her lungs. Then she started thrashing her arms and legs, all the while she was still staring, wide eyed, at the fire. Finally she rocked her chair over, and went tumbling to the floor where she promptly began having what looked like a seizure.

So soon as she started having her "seizure" Tearie started yelling at him to do something. Even though she was not even three feet from him, she sounded as if she was fifty feet away. He stumbled forward as Tearie pushed him to go help Eirika. Even though he didn't know what to do, he kneeled down to take her pulse after her flailing had subsided. But before he had even touched her Eirika jumped up, knocking him down, and went running from the Inn, before he could even stand, the three strangers and Tearie had run off after her.

As Eirika went running from the Inn, tears were running down her face. As the tears were tingling down her pale, blood-drained face, Eirika closed her eyes, and started wishing to wake-up in her bed in. Suddenly her foot snagged in a rut in the road, she fell and slammed into the ground, when she hit the ground she felt the clasp of her locket break from the chain on the back of her neck, and the locket went flying about ten inches from where she hit the ground.

The tears continued to pour down her face she didn't realize that her friends had come out of the Inn after her to make sure she was all right. As she laid her head on the rut filled road and started heaving in silent tears, she realized the locket had opened.

As she ran from the Inn after Eirika, Tearie realized that Gwynneth, Kechara, and Ashalind were not far behind her. As she looked around all she saw was a cat beside a pile of clothes on the ground. Then she realized, the pile of clothes was Eirika! She ran forward, and upon reaching her she heard the most beautiful music she had ever heard. Then she was suddenly taken back, to her worst memory. On that day, that horrible day Gnomeregan was invaded by the Troggs.

As quickly as thunder strikes, Kechara saw everyone else stop and don a blank facial expression; she continued to run forward to where Eirika lay. Kechara didn't know the reason everyone else was daydreaming, but she knew she needed the reason, the locket. She knew she had to stop it. She ran over to it and forced it shut, she didn't even realize she damaged the hinges of the locket in the process.

After she regained her senses, gwynneth ran to where Eirika lay on the ground, she wasn't sure what happened, but she knew Eirika was laying face down on the ground. Gwynneth ran to where she was and checked her pulse, it seemed faster than it should be.

As soon as he realized she was ok, he ran to make sure she wasn't bleeding. First he checked her legs, no blood, but she skinned her knee. Then her moved to check her lower torso, no blood, that was very good, then he moved to her head skipping her upper torso, he moved around so he could see her full face when she lifted her head. He nudged at her head to try to get her to lift her head. Suddenly Thundabolt came and tried to shoo him away, but he wouldn't go. So Thundabolt ended up just ignoring him.

It took a minute after Eirika had knocked him down for Thundabolt to realize what had happened; as soon as he did he jumped up and ran after them. Once he saw Eirika with everyone else around her, he ran forward to make sure she was okay. He went to check her eyes first. He had to end up trying to shoo the cat away, but it wouldn't go. Thus he just ignored the cat, and got Eirika to lift her head.

When Eirika lifted her head, everyone was surprised at the expression they saw in her face, not anguish, but pure loathing.

To be continued…