Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this story. Life has gotten pretty darn busy the last few months with transfer stuff and other school stuff. Threw this together over the last few weeks whenever I could work on it. Most when I couldn't sleep. Thanks to Tsubasa for reading over it whenever I got some actual work done.
Anyways, it's far from perfect but here is the next chapter of Trail of Blazing Violets. Enjoy!
It wasn't until later that Milla wondered why they ran into the brown haired girl who now trotted alongside them. It happened out of the blue; the second she and her younger companion stepped foot outside the sanctuary, the little hurricane hit.
"There you are, Jude!" She called, practically pouncing on the young boy at Milla's side. "You sleepy head! Where were you?"
"I only just finished eating," Jude replied defensively, his voice quiet. The tone of his voice changed to one of worry as he noticed something on the new girl. "Did you get into another fight, Leia?"
Milla watched curiously as the brunette, Leia as Jude had called her, quickly hid her arms behind her back. But not before she noticed the red scratches and bruised knuckles the girl sported. She had of course seen the girl before, usually always hanging around Jude, but she hadn't noticed any injuries on her until now.
"I'm alright! Nothing to worry about," Leia replied with a sheepish grin. "Plus, you can just patch me up again, right?"
Jude sighed in resignation. "I will. But after we get the items Rowen wants us to from the stores."
Leia's smile widened, her eyes sparkling with it as she nodded her agreement. The easy smile the younger girl sported only caused Milla's curiosity to grow. How could she be so... Happy? No, that wasn't the word she wanted. Optimistic; that was it. It was this that she puzzled over as the three of them moved on to the Flovilla marketplace.
The shopping went off without a hitch. The extra gald Rowen had given them for snacks went to getting apple gels for them all, especially Leia. It was close enough to a sweet that Milla had no complaints as she savored it on their way back.
"What's this? The old man making you do his shopping again?" An older boy's voice sneered from the shadows of a nearby building. The speaker's face matched his voice: a lopsided, lazy grin that barely reached his eyes. This was what Milla had come to expect of the Sanctuary children, not the optimism Leia shone with or the kindness she'd observed in Jude but something colder, more world-weary.
"Alvin." Milla spoke his name flatly. He was harmless, despite what he wanted the kids in town to believe. Jude took a seemingly unconscious step away from the dark brown haired teen while Leia fixed him with a challenging glare. Something must have happened between the three of them before that Milla was unaware of.
"Milla," Alvin replied, his own tone mirroring hers.
"What do you want, snot face?" Leia bristled, clenching her already battered fists. "Have some issue with us?!"
"Woah, down girl," Alvin said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Just asking some purely innocent questions here."
"Then don't make it sound like you're making fun of us! There's this thing called being nice; you should try it sometime." Leia spat back.
Milla caught the wounded look in Alvin's face before he covered it up with an uncaring shrug. "Fine, fine. None of my business anyways. Just take care not to get into too much trouble, miss spitfire." He was gone before Leia could respond, though she was obviously still seething.
"You seem to have a... 'bone to pick' with Alvin," Milla commented. The girl's anger seemed to ebb at it.
"He always picks on Jude for being 'too nice'. There's no reason he should!"
"Leia, it's alright, honestly." Jude cut in, putting a hand on his friend's arm.
"Just like those people yesterday..." Milla muttered to herself.
"We should get these back to Rowen," Jude continued, holding up the bag of items they had bought earlier. Leia nodded distractedly and Milla lead the way without a word, mulling over the information she had learned through the day.
When they returned to the Sanctuary, Rowen was waiting for them in his small room that doubled as the main office. The simple bed in the corner of the room he slept in was the same as those the children had though it never looked slept. As they reached the doorway, he waved them in.
"Ah, thank you for retrieving these items," the older man said with a kindly smile. He was sitting down in his chair with a young girl on his lap, who looked about 2 or 3 years old. "You can set them down over there. This, everyone, is Elize. She'll be staying with us from now on."
"Nice to meet you, Elize," Jude said after putting down the groceries. Leia and Milla echoed him, each greeting the newest resident of their home in turn. In response, she simply watched them while clinging onto Rowen's shirt.
"She is a little bashful," Rowen said, letting out a small chuckle before patting Elize's head. "You'll get used to it around here, young lady."
As the days passed, Rowen's words did come true. Milla would often see Elize trailing after one person or another. Surprisingly, the small girl took a liking to Alvin; much to the older boy's annoyance. Despite all the protesting Milla heard from him, he never left Elize behind when she wanted to tag along with him.
As for Jude and Leia, they typically ended up following Milla around. Or rather, Jude would follow her and Leia would follow him. Over the next months, Milla forgot to be guarded against being close to the others despite the multiple warnings her 'friend' had given her. Nothing bad had happened so far and she couldn't see how they could happen now.
It wasn't long until she discovered how wrong she was.
The day it happened wasn't much of a day at all to anyone in Flovilla. The sun had barely risen before the first tremor made its way through the town. Milla bolted awake a few minutes before it hit the Sanctuary, groping for her bag in the grey morning light. A shiver ran through her as her hand come into contact with the surface of the round object that was gnome. It's normally cool surface was warm and humming slightly. She had time to pull it out and see it was glowing before the quake flung her back down onto the bed.
Deciding to figure out the glowing later, Milla put Gnome back into her bag and took it with her as she moved to check on the others. They appeared to be awake, especially Elize; Milla could hear her crying.
"It's alright," Leia was saying, already at Elize's side. "Just a little shaking. Gnome was just playing around in the mountains."
Milla's hand tightened around her bag. Gnome couldn't have been playing in the mountains. Not this time at least. Even the glowing couldn't be from that, could it? Most likely someone used an earth-based arcane arte somewhere nearby. No one else could use Gnome, especially with him in her possession.
"Is everyone alright?" Rowen's voice came through the door to the girls' room at the same time the light of a lantern came through the grayness of dawn. Milla could make out the slightly scared face of Jude and Alvin's annoyed look.
"Yes, everyone is fine," Milla replied, strapping her bag around her waist where she usually kept it.
"Since we're all up, how about doing an early breakfast? I'll whip something up in a jiffy," Rowen said, waving the girls out to the hall. "Just wait at the table while I do that, would you?"
That was when the second tremor struck, harder than the first. Leia and Elize were out in the hall while Milla had just started forward to join them. As the shaking started, Milla could feel something else bubbling up within her: A warning of some sort. It made her reach inside her bag even as the quake made her stumble against the wall.
There was a thunderous sound that overtook the Sanctuary in just a few seconds. The ceiling above Milla shuttered and collapsed under some unknown weight. Her eyes snapped shut as she sank against the wall, hand clutching her charms. She had been going to put a barrier around everyone... Had she made it in time? Maybe. She was still alive, wasn't she?
That's it for now. It'd be great if you could let me know what you think so far in a review. Or message. I promise I don't bite.
Next time we check in with the party will be ten years after the events at the end of this chapter. I promise I have some quite interesting things in store for each character over those years. Won't be pulling a page out of Graces' playbook for nothing ;)