Born From A Divine Gamble

The first Emp panicked and urgently sent the other him back. He spent hours afterward, pacing in the room anxiously, unable to sleep because he kept wondering if everyone was fine.

He was gone from the forest for a mere instant but when he came back, everything was in chaos.

The moment he had left, the wolves had jumped forward, targeting the weak girls at the front. Calla and Willow screamed of terror seeing the Wolves close in on them.

None of them had the time to wonder where had Emp disappeared to.

"Calla!" Vesa yelled, jumping in between them and the wolves.

He swung Flame in front of him, the first wolf backed off but the second pressed forward just after the swing and bit down on his sword holding arm. The next came from the other side and planted its fangs into his s.h.i.+n.

Vesa let out a scream of pain as the two wolves jerked their head in opposite direction, bringing him down to the ground under the terrified gaze of the others.

Meanwhile, since there was only Gilbert left on one side, the wolves pushed their luck there too and the girls witnessing what was happening to Vesa tried to back further away from the wolves, pus.h.i.+ng up against the three knife boys on the other side.

Sylvia tangled her feet in some root sticking out of the ground and fell onto Cuthbert who stumbled forward out of the circle.

The wolves immediately took the opportunity and rushed forward. Biting down on him and dragging him further away from the defensive circle. While he screamed of pain and terror.

The other two knife boys of the trio tried to help him and moved up to him as they tried to drive back the wolves with their short swords. The wolves covered Cuthbert, exposing their quills toward the circle and making it extremely difficult for the other two boy to take a swing at them, a small mistake could result in their arms getting full of holes.

With the three knife boys busy in that way trying to save Cuthbert, the circle completely collapsed, with only Manley and Gilbert still trying to protect the girls.

No one had the luxury to try to come to Vesa"s rescue. He still managed to drive the sword into the belly of one of his aggressor and the light of the flaming sword was drowned under fur and quills, throwing everyone in the dark and killing the wolf. He did not manage to get it back out of it because of the reversed spikes getting stuck inside the animal. All he could do was try to protect his face with his arms as the wolves tried to finish him off.

The smell of burnt flesh attacked their senses as the darkness blinded them.

Emp reappeared, there were yells and madness everywhere. He had been gone for just a few seconds but the scene in front of him was worlds apart from what he had left it to.

Emp was shocked, he was shocked and scared. He felt like his heart would jump out of his chest and run away by itself.

He had fought before, he had almost died before and he had seen people die in battle before but those he saw die weren"t people he knew. What he currently saw in front of him was the terror of his friends, his friends getting hurt and mangled, his friends dying.

This was a thousand time more frightening to him than the woodland horror, a million times more scary than a glutonek half eating him.

Emp rushed to their help as s.h.i.+vers raised hairs all over him and his blood boiled.

He didn"t know where to start, everything was a mess and everyone was in danger. There was no right choices, he needed to be everywhere at once but of course, this was impossible. He did not have the time to think about it either. Since Vesa was closest to him, he started by helping him.

At that point, he was barely resisting the wolves anymore, his voice was weak and his skin full of claw marks and bite.

Emp jumped at his side and slashed at the wolves. They refused to give up their prey, growled and bit down harder on Vesa. The wolves firmly believed their quills would protect them. But, since Emp sword was longer than the short swords of the knife boys trio, he could slash through rows of spikes, chopping them all off. The blade bit down into the back of one of the wolves which jumped backwards to escape the sudden pain.

Emp immediately turned the other way and swiped the blade strongly across the back of the next wolf"s neck, almost decapitating it.

The other wolves now understood he was a threat and left Vesa to gang up on Emp.

This was a perfect situation for him, it was easier to attack them if he didn"t have to run around after them. They jumped towards him from left and right. The right wolf impaled itself into the sword he pointed its way as it jumped forward and he punched the left one with his s.h.i.+eld as strongly as he could, knocking out the wolf in one hit.

The next one went right for his throat while he had an arm extended on each side of him. But, the wolves were slow compared to the mouse and they were few compared to the blood-spitters. Emp moved the sword and the wolf stuck on it in the way of the other one and kicked them both away from him once the momentum of its charge was halted by the sudden wall of spike.

The wolf with its back cut saw how its companions had been so easily dispatched and decided to retreat leaving only the kicked wolf close to Vesa. That one wasn"t crazy enough to move on its own so it backed off as well and moved towards the rest of the wolves a.s.saulting the other friends of Emp.

Since Vesa was mostly safe now, Emp made a step up to Cuthbert and freed him from the wolves pinning him down. He couldn"t make swings with as much strength as he wanted behind them because he was afraid he would hit one of the others. He had to use quick slashes and trusts to get rid of the wolves.

The boys tried to tell him things over the screams, the growls and the barks but even if they yelled loud enough, Emp didn"t really hear them. He was too focused on his task now, he had a hard time following what was happening around the whole group already he didn"t have any energy left to listen to them or anyone else. Everything was just a blur of noise in the back of his head. He only registered them if they were menacing or urgently distressed.

For example, just after he managed to clear enough s.p.a.ce for Cuthbert to get back up on his feet, he heard Gilbert calling for help from the other side of the group.

He left the boys to fend for themselves again and rushed to the other side to see a wolf biting down hard on his forearm. He had managed to protect that side alone for a long time already, it was impressive. If he had not been there, things would have been far worse for everyone. With his sword arm stuck in the jaws of a beast though, he couldn"t do much anymore and was about to fall, leaving all the girls exposed.

Emp stepped closer and chopped off the wolf"s hind legs since it was the safest place to hit considering how tangled it currently was with Gilbert. The wolf released his arm because of the pain and fell on its side while Emp continued to step further forward to drive back the many other wolves.

He made a few laps around the group, cutting at the wolves too close to his liking and killing two or three more. At that point, the pack decided the cost wasn"t worth the meal and ran.

They still tried to drag Vesa with them though. They held one of his legs and one of his arms in their mouths and tried to bring him along. Emp stepped in the way and forced most to give up. The wolf with a cut on his back didn"t seem to want to let him go so Emp pierced through its side with Ray and forcefully moved its now dead body away from his friend.

The wolves were forced to give up on Vesa as well and left having gained nothing but a bunch of losses. Only when the sound of their steps became far did Emp resumed using the rest of his head.

The others were gasping for air, shaking and thanking the ancestors simply for still being alive. Gilbert"s arm was bleeding profusely and the wound gave the impression that some of the flesh would fall off.

Cuthbert was much worse, he had scratches all over and his clothes had been ripped to shreds. He also had a bunch of nasty looking holes everywhere on him where he was bitten.

The girls were unarmed, miraculously, because Vesa had stepped in the way. No one told him but it was easy to see looking at where he was laid and how he had disappeared.

Vesa himself was looking really bad, he made no sound and no movements, Emp wasn"t sure he was still alive.

"Puah, I"m so glad Emp was here. We"d all be dead if he wasn"t." Said Jurgen letting himself collapse against a three.

No one spoke about how he disappeared in the middle of the fight. It wasn"t the first time something like this happened, they had all seen him vanish at least once before, sometimes in the middle of a conversation or about to bite down into a meal. They all knew the reason too, they had seen it the night he arrived in the village, they knew this Emp had no control of when he would disappear and reappear.

Yes they were mad that he left them in such a critical moment but really, it wasn"t his fault and without him, they wouldn"t be able to complain at all. Plus, Emp looked pained enough already. He had no wounds himself but felt deeply for their own wounds. His arm was shacking while he looked at his friends.

Emp crouched beside Vesa He didn"t know what to do with him.

Calla was already crying, she was crying since it all started. Izzy and Galina were trying to stop her sobbing. He didn"t look her way because he felt that if he saw her crying face now, he would start crying too. He couldn"t though, they were not finished yet, he needed to see clearly at least until they got out of the woods.

"Is he..." Asked Sylvia, anxious.

"I don"t know. I"m not... I don"t know."

"Let me look." Manfrey said. He moved Sylvia to the side and placed a hand on Vesa"s neck.

"I think he"s still alive." He said, prompting hopeful gasps from the others. "I think I can feel the blood moving, isn"t that a pulse?"

"We have to bring him back now then." Said Gilbert.

He was holding the wound on his arm with his hand, the Blood still kept seeping through though.

"Wait, we can"t! We haven"t found Chase yet!"

Everyone frowned when they heard Willow.

"No, we"re going back now, we"re done. I"ll carry Vesa." Emp told her flatly.

"Emp, don"t do this to me! I"m sure we can still find Chase!"

"Look at the others!" Snapped Emp. "They"re all hurt now because of us! It"s over."

"But what about Chase." She complained again, her face full of tears.

"But what about Vesa!" Emp screamed, pointing at him. "Look at him! He saved you! Help him now."

Willow bit down on her lower lip and shook her head in reluctance.

"I can"t. He doesn"t need me, it"s Calla he wanted to save. I need to help Chase. I told you earlier, if you don"t help me I will go alone."

Emp did not understand. This was plainly crazy. The wolves had just left, they hadn"t stopped existing, they could get her easily if she left alone. They didn"t know what else waited in the dark or even if Chase was still alive. Opposite to that, Vesa was right there and he needed help.

Maybe he could knock her out and bring her back too? He wasn"t sure how to knock her out without hurting her badly though, and, he couldn"t carry both her and Vesa at the same time.

"Willow, think about it, it"s crazy. Come back with us and wait for the hunters instead." Galina said.

"We shouldn"t have come at all." Said Cuthbert.

The other two boys of the trio were holding him up because he was too hurt to stand properly. He was obviously regretting his choices.

"Why are none of you understanding?"

There wasn"t much he could do for her anymore.

"They can"t go further and I need to make sure they get back safely. I really wish you wouldn"t go but since you won"t listen, at least, take that ring."

Emp made a copy of the ring of allegiance and extended it towards Willow.

"An iron ring?"

She picked it up but didn"t understand what it meant.

"It"s magic, as long as you wear it, I"ll know if you"re alive or dead so I"ll know if it is worth it to go back to look for you once everyone else is safe."

"Really?"

"Yes. It may tell me a few more things on you but I won"t know until you put it on. Just do it and do not remove it, as long as you are alive, me and the others will know and we will search for you."

She gulped an slid it on her finger. The ring turned from iron to bronze and turned on itself to take a shape close to a ram horn.

"Wooooo." Izzy and Wilbert exclaimed in admiration.

"I still think you should come back with us but we don"t have the time to argue."

Emp picked up the dying Vesa and hoisted him on his shoulder. He also picked up Flame that was still buried into a dead wolf and the sword he had lent to Gilbert since the injury on his arm now prevented him from using the blade efficiently. He also placed the closest corpses of the wolves into his bag to waste as few as possible but he didn"t have the time to go around collecting all of them.

The group left with the slow pace of the injured and left Willow in the dark.

"Please." Calla sobbed.

Willow ignored her, turned her back on them and left in the opposite direction.

"Chaaase!" They heard her call shortly after.

"Do you think she will be fine?"

Emp really hoped she would be fine but his head was saying she wouldn"t. Alone in the wood at night with no weapon was far from safe. He would have given her a weapon to help her but she couldn"t hold any of his blades and he had no knifes. Emp usually didn"t care about weight at all when buying a sword since he could lift them all easily. It had never crossed his mind before that he would need to give a small one to someone else at some point.

"I hope."

That was the only honest thing he could answer without scarring the others.

The whole trip back was a true torture for everyone. Some were really hurt and kept hissing between their teeth, some were really scared.

Emp was terrified that Vesa wouldn"t hold on until they reached the village and his back was soaked in blood in no time at all.

Gilbert was bad at directions and was hoping they were walking the right way.

Calla was worrying for Willow, Chase and Vesa, was afraid of the others wounds and could hardly look at them, she felt she could collapse at any moment if some blood dripped onto her clothes and could hardly see where she was going because of how much water was in her eyes.

She wanted to help but couldn"t, she wanted to tell Vesa to get better but the words wouldn"t come out, she wanted to comfort him by holding his hand but there was too much blood and made her tremble instead, she wanted to thank him but he would not hear.

Once he was better, she would make a huge meal for him, she would place all of her feelings in it and he would be quickly back to full health.

She"d make one for Willow and Chase too once they were back to tell them how glad she was they were safe. Speaking with a plate of food was much easier than using words after all.

The best she managed to do in the meantime was to move some hair away from his closed eyes and be careful to not trip again.

Along the way, It was Manley that held Ray high above the group to light up the way. With everyone else in such a bad shape, he was the only one fit to fight anyway.

After a while they saw many torchlight further ahead on the wood path. They were hunters and guardsmen, they saw their own light too.

"I can see something over there! It"s glowing."

"It"s us!" Called Emp and the others.

"It"s the kids, we found them!"

"Thank the ancestors."

Shortly after, the two groups met on the path and relief was shown on most faces. Bor and Marcy were there too and they were quite angry even if they too felt relieved.

"What were ya all thinking going in the woods so late!? Everyone back there is about to die in worry."

"I"m sorry..."

Emp didn"t know what else to tell her. She was right.

"What happened to you all?" Asked Bor looking at the pitiful state of everyone.

"We got attacked by spiked wolves." Gilbert said.

"There were so many of them!" Jurgen added.

"At first we were fine but then..." Wilbert started, unsure if he should finish or not.

"I got called by the other me."

"Emp vanished and the wolves pounced on us! Calla screamed and Vesa threw himself in the way." Explained Galina.

"He"s not looking good, we should bring him back swiftly." One of the soldiers said.

He was one of the new recruits sent from the city since the attack.

"Right." Nodded Bor. "We"re going back. Gimmy that Emp."

The leader of the village bent himself forward and picked up Vesa from Emps shoulder, signalling everyone else to turn back. For a brief instant when he grabbed the teen, he made a strange face but still placed the limp boy in his arms.

"Wait, Bor, there"s one missing. My boy, where"s Willow?"

"I"m sorry."

He didn"t know how to answer to that either.

"We couldn"t find Chase so she didn"t want to come back." Explained Sylvia.

"Ya left her alone in the woods at night?"

"It"s her fault, she"s too stubborn." Cuthbert answered.

"She"s still fine though." Emp told her before she got even more angry.

"How do ya know? Anything could have happened to her since ya left."

"Because the ring says so."He had just checked it after Bor took over Vesa.

"Yeah, Emp gave her a magic ring!" Said Izzy excitedly.

"I can use it to tell if she"s fine and find out where she went."

When looking at Willow"s name in the clouds of the ring, he could see that she was fine, scarred and sad but also some approximation of where she was in correlation to him.

It had been a long time since he had no checked about Celtine or Harriett either, he should do so when all of this was over. Just to see what new things the ring could tell him about them.

"Hmn, I still don"t approve but at least we"ll be able to find her."

He understood this wasn"t the smartest solution but he didn"t know what else he could have done.

"Should we split up and go look for the missing girl then?" Asked the soldier.

"No... it"s too risky, we"ll bring everyone. Lets escort everyone back to the village and follow Emp"s magic ring afterwards. Where did you even get that thing?" Bor asked him after giving out his orders.

"It was given to me when I was born." He answered simply.

It didn"t take that long afterward to get back to the village. The soldiers had not progressed that far into the forest yet because it took them a while to organize a group to rescue everyone and since it was the middle of the night, they had to advance carefully in order to not miss the tracks Emp"s group had left.

Once they got there, the parents all flew over to their kids. They were all so anxious about them, they felt so relieved to see them back. Many cried and pulled their family into a hug and many more thanked the ancestors for their safe return. A few kept their worried face though.

"By the forest Cuthbert! What happened! Come here and let me look, we have to go see the healer." His mom said.

Ogden and Fiona Champom had a similar reaction towards their son.

"Your arm! We have to disinfect this properly and bandage that asap!"

"That"s a huge bite mark Gilbert. Did you at least get it back for it?" His father asked while his mother dragged him away.

"No, only Vesa managed to get one, sorry..."

"At least you and your sister are alive. That"s the only thing that matter."

"Vesa! Vesa!" His mother cried while the village healer examined his wounds.

Emp hopped he"d be fine. Meanwhile, Willow"s mother had rushed up to Bor.

"Willow!? Where is she?"

"Still in the woods Winnie, we"re going back to get her." Bor told Willow"s mother.

"Why isn"t she with them!"

Emp checked the ring again, alive.

Then, his attention was immediately brought back to Vesa.

"NOO! That can"t be! Vesa!" The mother wailed in pain as she buried her face onto his chest. She collapsed in frantic sobs.

He wasn"t fine.

Emp dropped to the ground, wrapped his arms around his knee and closed his eyes by hiding his head between his limbs. Vesa wasn"t fine.

That was painful, his eyes were burning. He wanted his bed, he wanted to disappear from here.

"My boy." The serious voice of Marcy sounded close to his ear. "Ya can"t stop yet, there still one we have to get. There is still one missing so ya have to get back up. I know ya understand, it"s the same as with the cats. If ya stop in the middle of it it"ll get worse. Even if you hurt or your muscle burn, you have to move. Ya need to show us the way to Willow."

Emp understood what she meant, he understood but it was hard.

He took a deep breath that felt like his lungs were shaking he got back up with Marcellia pulling him on his feet. He saw Vesa"s mother again, crying.

Marcy stepped in the way.

"This way, show us how to go get her." She pointed towards the woods and Bor.

He walked towards the trees and all the hunters and soldiers going back out there followed. Willow"s mother stuck with them.

"I"m going to! It"s my daughter out there!"

"Winnie, there"s no point in you coming, you"ll only slow everyone down."

"I don"t care! She"s my only daughter, I can"t stay here doing nothing any longer or I"ll go crazy!"

She was a lot like her daughter.

Bor made an annoyed sigh and let her follow without a word. Instead, he turned towards Emp.

"So, how does that thing work? How will it let us find her?"

"It"s hard to explain. As long as she wears the ring I gave her, Mine should tell me as much as Willow is willing to give. The ring says she"s that way, far." He pointed towards the woods.

"Are you really sure we can trust that ring?" Asked Willow"s mother.

"I am."

The ring was given to him by Love, it couldn"t malfunction.

"Then let"s go, lead the way."

Emp started walking in the direction the ring was pointing and everyone else followed closely behind. He had a hard time focusing his thoughts on something else than the death of Vesa but he didn"t need to work that hard in order to follow the ring"s instructions.

The information the ring gave were far from precise. He could only know the general direction and the distance was told to him with words such as "far". They had to cut through patches of dense trees and walk outside of the paths and through moss and foliage to follow the ring.

No one complained, all that mattered was that they found Willow as swiftly as possible.

With his s.h.i.+rt soaked in blood, the weak wind was cold and Emp could smell nothing else than iron. He wasn"t that bothered by the smell, he pa.s.sed his days in a forge after all.

Not many spoke along the way, they were too absorbed by the task and what could lie in wait in the forest to talk. Bor still told him a few words as they went around yet again a huge tree.

"I"m sorry for Vesa Emp, he was already dead when I took him from you. It just wasn"t the place to tell you all."

He was still alive when Manley checked about an hour before. He died while Emp was carrying him, without a word or sound. Emp didn"t answer, he didn"t know what to answer. He checked the ring again instead, saw that she was still fine and pointed the new direction to the group.

They walked and walked, the way lit by the s.h.i.+vering light of the dozens of torches the group brought with them. Winnie called the name of her daughter once but Bor told her to not do it again, the call was bound to gather unwanted attention as well.

The word the ring used to describe the distance between them and willow changed over time from far down to near. The tension and expectations of the group rose until they reached a patch of blueberry bushes where the ring told Emp she was. He looked around but didn"t see her.

"What is it my boy, why did ya stop?"

"The ring says she is here."

"Willow?" Called Winnie again, not as loudly as before.

No voice or sound answered her call. Emp didn"t understand what was happening.

While Winnie was desperately moving around the blueberries, Bor whispered into his ear.

"Is it possible that she is dead and that we"re looking for her corpse?"

"No, the ring would tell me if she was dead. I do not know what is happening." He answered.

She was obviously not there though. After a quick search around the place, Winnie came back to angrily complain at him.

"You said you were sure the ring could be trusted! What are we doing here then? Where is she!"

If Emp had not be much smaller and younger than her, she would have probably hit him in the face out of anger and frenzying stress.

"I do not know, I do not understand."

Maybe none of this was really happening. Maybe it was all some sort of bad dream.

Winnie s.h.i.+vered of anger while Marcy grabbed Emp by the shoulders and turned him towards her.

"Emp, I know this is hard but ya have to think about it. Ya are smarter than this and yar the only one who knows about the ring here. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and think hard. What went wrong, why is the ring leading us to an empty place?"

Emp did as he was told. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It still felt as if it was trembling. Why would the ring lead them in the middle of nowhere? He searched for all he knew about the ring and found the answer right away. The ring only tells the truth if the wearers tells the truth too. He was just too out of it before to think about it. Emp felt betrayed.

"The ring cannot lie but the wearer can. All the information I gain from the ring depends on how the wearer of the other feels towards me. She does not want to be found, that is the only explanation I can find."

"What do you mean she does not want to be found?" Bor asked.

"She was out there looking for Chase, she know that if we get to her before she finds him, we"ll bring her back to the village without him. She doesn"t want that, her desire to remain out there looking for him went through my ring and it led us away from her instead."

"So we went the wrong way this whole time?"

"I don"t know at all were she is, I"m sorry, if she doesn"t want to be found, there is no way the ring or me can help. I don"t know if we are far or close, if we went the opposite way from where she is or just took a wrong path, all I know for sure is that she is still alive."

The others looked grim and turned towards Bor.

"What do we do then?"

Bor took a deep breath too, trying to think of how to turn this mess around.

"Are you sure this time, are you sure she is alive?"

"I don"t see why she would lie to me about this as well. She as no reason to lie about her being alive or dead does she?"

"I guess not. Then we go back on our steps and find the place where the wolves attacked you. From there, we should be able to find out where she went. We"re not going back until we either find her, her corpse or the ring tells us she"s dead."

Like that, they walked back the way they came.

They had lost so much time following Emp"s ring, he felt even worse now.

They spent hours afterwards, combing through the woods, looking for her. Emp thought she should have been easy to find because she kept calling out to Chase but she had such a long head start on them that it didn"t really help.

Emp managed to find back the place they had been attacked by the wolves easily, the remaining corpses were still there too. From there though, they had no idea where she went and taking a wrong turn could make them fall even further behind her.

The group progressed at a crawling pace. Still, the hunters did a great job at following the tracks of a single girl in the middle of the dark night.

Emp checked the ring often, just to make sure she was still there. One time, while he was looking at the ring, he saw her condition change from "fine" to "in danger".

He stopped walking, fixated on the ring.

"What is it my boy?"

The danger level changed once more to "extreme danger" while the words "scarred and sad" turned to "horror and grief". A wail of terror sounded through the forest, dampened by the thick wall of trees. The directions from the ring changed too, now showing "near, on the right". Should he trust the ring now?

"Willow!" Her mother cried in panic.

Everyone in the group dashed towards were they thought the scream came in a wide array of directions. The true position of Willow was blurred by the dense forest, the darkness and the echoes. Emp too moved, following the direction the ring told him, he dashed through the trees, followed by Marcy, Bor and Winnie.

He moved as fast as he could but there were so many things in the way that the s.p.a.ce steps weren"t any faster than a regular run. Getting closer, he heard screeches, the sound of claws sc.r.a.ping against wood and rock. He also heard Willow more clearly than before.

"No! Why? I hate you!" She was yelling at something. Her voice was broken and rough.

"Willow! Hang on!" Called Bor "We"re almost there!"

"Willow! I"m here!" Her mother called as well.

Pus.h.i.+ng through the foliage, they found the girl exactly where the ring told Emp. She had backed herself into a hole under the roots of a huge tree. She was doing her best to stay away from her a.s.sailant while still openly crying and wailing at what she was seeing.

The thing that was attacking her was something Emp had seen many times before. A large pale-green bug with sharp mandibles and small pearly black eyes on top of viscous looking tentacles sprouting from its two heads.

It was a twin-headed impaling beetle, trying to shove its two heads inside the hole to catch the girl. The only reason it had not managed to do so yet was because the two heads couldn"t agree on which should go get her.

On the single sharp horn between the two head, a corpse was hanging. It was lacking both of its arms and his sides had been opened as the beetle had started eating it, the guts were spilling outside of the dead. The corpse had the face of Chase, his empty gaze looking directly forward at the cowering Willow.

Bor and Marcy both reached the monster at the same time and each cut off one of its heads. The beetle didn"t even notice them before it died, collapsing in front of the hole were Willow was hiding.

Emp just stood there, unable to understand what he was seeing.

Chase had been killed by that weak beetle. It was hard to think otherwise as he looked at the scene. That monster could die in a single hit because its sh.e.l.l wasn"t resistant at all, it served as prey to mostly anything else living in the woods.

Had he perhaps did like himself in the past and wondered for too long which head he should strike? Emp did not understand.

Meanwhile, the beetle was moved aside and Winnie had pulled Willow in an embrace. They were both weeping on the shoulder of each other. Willow out of grief and Winnie out of relief.

Bor called the others over, telling them Willow was safe and after a few minutes, everyone was there, looking at the two girls and the corpse of Chase.

"He"s dead." Willow kept saying.

"I told you it would be painful. I"m so angry right now, I can"t..."

They removed the corpse of Chase from the horn and brought him back with them to the village. On the way, Willow kept crying and her mother kept using a mix of soothing words and scolding remarks, unable to decide on whether she was more sad for her or angry at what she did.

Emp didn"t need to think of anything anymore, he just wanted to go to bed now. He walked back in silence with the others and once in the village, he had to watch as Bor gave the corpse of Chase to his parents and then listen to the healer"s report on everyone else.

He told Bor about the injuries of each of his friends, Cuthbert wouldn"t be able to move from his bed for a week and Gilbert was forbidden to use his right arm for a full month. The worse was hearing about Vesa.

Apparently, an artery had been punctured by a fang and none of them thought of bandaging any of his wounds at the time. They had been too shocked to think about that kind of thing, they just thought of bringing him back quickly. He bled out on Emp"s back.

Emp could not be more disappointed and angry at himself than right now.

The two Champom parents, Ogden and Fiona came to talk to him before Marcy and him went back home.

"We wanted to thank you for protecting Gilbert and Calla."

"It wasn"t me who protected Calla, it was Vesa."

Emp wasn"t even there.

"Without you they"d all be dead." Denied Ogden with a few pat on his shoulder.

Emp didn"t feel that convinced.

He went back home with Marcy and moved towards his room. She grabbed him by the arm and forced him to turn towards her.

"Emp, my boy, listen. Ogden is right, Vesa didn"t die because of ya and the others would all have been lost if ya had not been there. Don"t resent ya.r.s.elf for this."

Emp disagreed.

"No, they would all have been fine. They came just because I followed Willow. I didn"t stop her and decided to follow her to keep her safe instead. If I had not been there, the others wouldn"t have come either."

"Do ya really think they would have let her go alone if ya had not been there? We should all have known Willow would react like that and Eda told us ya were against anyone else following too. Ya have no reason to blame yourself for this. If ya had not been there, she would have asked Gilbert, Vesa or even Manley for help and the other three would have followed anyway. In the end, they would all have ended up at the same place, maybe without as many weapons. Even if ya disappeared in the middle, ya saved more than anyone could have hoped for."

"Vesa died while I was carrying him and I did not even notice." He squeaked.

Marcy hugged him and he started crying against her.

"It"s okay to cry now. Let it all out. Remember the pain and learn from it. Look at the mistakes the others did and yar own, make sure they do not happen again. What could ya have done better, where did it go wrong? You cannot change what already happened but ya can make sure that the next time will end differently."

After that, she let him cry for a long time and he fell asleep there.

From then on, he never recalled the second him without receiving a written safety confirmation through the bottomless bag first. He also bought many more weapons, small and large, just in case he needed them. He was angry at how Vesa died too, he should have been saved. He would make sure no one he knew would die in such a way again.

He kept the story of Willow in mind, rus.h.i.+ng in without any preparation was clearly not the right thing to do. Maybe having no emotions was better after all.