THE THIRD MAGE

Denaire looked down at the sea, worry apparent on her face. Squeaky came near to her face and said, "We will do our best to locate them master. Do not worry."

Denaire smiled from this innocent gesture of her Squeaky. "I know. I"m just scared of what we might witness when we arrive there."

She sighed. She felt so lost and alone. And she couldn"t remove the scared feeling she"s having at that moment.

When she was about to land, she noticed the silence in the whole Kingdom. She circled it and found no movement on land. Her heart thudded in fear. G.o.ds what happened here? Where are the people?

She then called out her spies: Kiki the Falcon, Ruru the First Crow, Deedee the Second Crow and Mumu the Raven.

"I want you to search the whole area. Kiki, you take the north. Ruru you go west and Deedee, south. Mumu you"d take the east. Fly as silently as possible, just like you"re floating in the wind. But keep your eyes peeled on people from Oniro. Hide yourselves if you found an Exoshan soldier or what. We have been practicing this before. Okay?"

The four replied, "Yes Master."

Squeaky then asked, "Where am I going master?"

"You"ll come with me. We"re going to the capital, and I want you to search the ground there. Notice any signs of what happened. I know you could do it."

Squeaky nodded.

Denaire looked at her spies, a grim determination etched on their tiny faces. "Let"s do this."

***

Denaire reached the capital, or what"s supposed to be the capital. What she found left a hollow in her heart. The Royal Palace, with all its grandeur and majesty, now lay in ruins; a huge hole gaping at the center of where the royal throne should have been.

Everywhere is a mess. She couldn"t even locate where the other buildings were standing before.

She was left speechless, devoid of any emotion. She landed in the most secluded place she could find: behind the ruins of the Palace.

"Squeaky, search the grounds, detect any signs of life."

He nodded. "But where are you going master?"

"I"ll look around here. Search for clues. I"ll be fine. I have Divina here with me in case anything happens."

"Okay. I"ll be going then."

Denaire nodded and watched as the rat scurried under rubbles and soil. She sighed, tears streaking down her face incessantly.

"Where are they? I don"t know what to do. I couldn"t bear to see their bodies, or fragments of it. I hope they"re okay. G.o.ds, I hope they are. Please."

Divina, sensing her master"s agitation, walked near her and nudged her face with hers. "Master, please don"t cry. We"ll find them. I"ll keep you safe and them."

Yes, she got to be strong. She was the first one to be here, and she has to find them whatever it takes.

She wiped her tears and looked at her Pegasus.

"Divina, help me search for clues and other signs that someone has been here recently. Or if we find….bodies." her voice trailed off. She couldn"t bear to see that, their bodies.

The Pegasus nodded and together they searched for anything in the Capital ruins.

An hour has pa.s.sed and Denaire sat on one of the broken pillars; frustration and despair evident on her face.

She shouted, "This is hopeless! How am I supposed to find them?"

Divina, who was searching at the other end of the Palace, looked at her master and snorted, "Well, if you lose hope that easily, we will never find them. Master, I know this is hard. But if we continue moving, we might find something worth our efforts."

Denaire sighed. "I know, but my heart won"t stop screaming. I just wanted to cry in a corner and wallow away my sadness."

As soon as she finished that, they heard a noise somewhere on Denaire"s left.

She raised her finger to her mouth and signed Divina to follow her silently.

They both trudged towards to source of the noise. When they neared the place, they heard a soft and m.u.f.fled help. The master and created Pegasus duo looked at each other and then dove through the rubble.

"Help," the voice called out once again.

Denaire furrowed her brows. "Where could you possibly be?" she whispered desperately. The person might be stuck under a huge stone or whatever and well under the pile of destroyed bricks because the voice was m.u.f.fled.

She thought for a second and then, "Divina, come help me over here." She pointed at a tall mound of debris. "We have to move the rocks and fragments of the palace. I think the person"s inside."

Divina nodded and helped her master uncover the pile.

Denaire wiped the sweat trickling down her forehead as they saw a hand jutting out of the rubble. Her heart thudded in relief seeing it wiggle. They removed more stones from the pile, careful enough not to disturb the stones at the top lest they be buried under it too.

When the face was almost visible, they doubled the pace of their digging until they could pull the person out.

They then helped the person, or him as they found out it was a young man, sit. Denaire also let him drink water from her canteen.

"Here drink this. You"re parched."

The man greedily drank the water. His clothes were almost torn and he was filthy from head to toe. His whole body was colored with dirt and blood.

When he finished drinking, Denaire launched to her questions. "Who are you?"

But the man didn"t answer her immediately. He asked her first, "Are you Exoshan?"

Denaire shook her head. "No, I am from Oniro, a no-mage."

Relief flushed down his face. "Oh thank the G.o.ds. I am Emong, from the Attack Squad of the Elite Force."

Denaire knelt in front of him and shook him. "Really? What happened here?"

Emong hung his head. "I really don"t know. The Attack Squad was training underground when we heard booming voices above. When we emerged, we found all these. There was fire everywhere. Wherever we look, buildings were consumed by fire. A lot of people were running away, some of the Elite Force were leading the people to safety.

We helped ward off Exoshan armies so that the people can run and hide. I was buried under this rubble when the Palace collapsed near me. I pa.s.sed out and woke up when I heard you."

Denaire sighed. "Now we found you. We"ll take you to the island. In return, you have to help us find the others or Oniro couldn"t rise up again."

Emong nodded. "Yes I will. We won"t stop until we could find them, dead or alive."

Denaire whistled to call in her spies. When they arrived she asked them, "What did you see?"

"From the north, there weren"t any signs of life master. Everything was in ruins."

"From the east, there weren"t any signs of life too, master although, the buildings there were not damaged."

Denaire nodded. The east part of Oniro was the no-mage district. Maybe because there was no one there that the Exoshans didn"t dare touch it. It would be the first place they would check once she gathers a team to salvage any survivors.

"From the south," Deedee interrupted her thoughts. "The surroundings were still burning. An army of Exoshan fire archers were marching towards the west, master."

Denaire looked at Emong. "When did the attack happen?"

Emong thought for a bit and answered, "The day after the Sun Festival."

"The Sun Festival was three days ago, so Exosha attacked us just two days ago. They"re still here. We have to prevent them from attacking Perifaenia or we"ll lose a great ally in taking back our lands. What"s in the west Ruru?"

"There was no activity in the west master."

"They may reach the west the day after tomorrow. We have to intercept them at sea."

She contemplated for a bit then asked the rat who just recently arrived. "What did you find Squeaky?"

"Master, I felt people alive in the area."