Chronicles of Eden - Act 2 (65 page)

“No, she wouldn’t have gone that way, it would have taken her back closer to the lycans, and she was trying to get away from that area,” Specca reasoned.

“Do you think she went this way still? Maybe she left the child at the human village ahead of us,” Daniel speculated.

“Luna may not be a straight thinker, but I would assume not even she would be foolish enough to go into a human village, let alone with a human child,” Specca replied shaking her head.

“Why not? She was trying to protect that kid, right? Wouldn’t she want to take her into a village where she would be with other humans?” Daniel asked.

“It’s one thing to approach a human village, Daniel; if Luna were to get too close she would have been chased off for being a monster. She’s rather harmless and doesn’t look threatening; the humans would likely scare her off with threats and swords but wouldn’t bother to hunt her down. But if she had a human child with her, the people would have gone after her in a riot and killed her,” Specca gravely explained, with Daniel looking to her with concern. Alyssa shook her head and eyed the map carefully.

“Monsters may prey on men and chase away women, but only truly evil and despicable monsters mess with children. I’m not proud to admit that witches can fall into that category, although I’ve never harmed a kid in my life, but there are some monsters that don’t care if a human is young and innocent,” she informed remorsefully.

“If a monster is seen near a human child, especially out here in the outerlands, humans will try to kill it on sight, they’re protective of their young after all,” Specca added.

“But Luna is trying to help save that child; doesn’t that make her a good monster?” Daniel questioned.

“Daniel, not everyone in this world thinks monsters can even
be
good, that’s what you’re out here to prove, remember?” Alyssa reminded with a glance at the boy.

“The bottom line is even if Luna is trying to help Emily, she can’t be seen with her near other humans otherwise she’ll be placing a death warrant on her own head,” Specca explained.

“Which means if she wants the child to be returned to other humans, she’ll need us to deliver Emily into a village, she can’t do it herself,” Daniel concluded.

“Exactly, there may be a human village up ahead, but Luna, as crazy as she can be, wouldn’t dare go near it with a human child in her custody, she would be asking to be killed,” Specca replied with a nod.

“Then where would she have gone? If she wouldn’t go for the village she could have gone off in any direction, if she even came this way to begin with,” Daniel wondered while looking at the map carefully.

“This is bad, she could be anywhere, and I hate to point this out, but there’s no telling if they’re even still alive, it’s not safe out here for a lost, blind child and a wandering idiot,” Alyssa said shaking her head. The group then looked ahead to where they saw Falla and Triska sitting on the front seat, the two looking around at the sight of fields of grass and trees while the caravan was stopped at the top of a hill. The sky above was starting to turn dark with stars beginning to be seen as the day was coming to an end, with Falla’s anxieties growing by the minute as the butterfly girl held her arms around herself while whimpering with distress.

“Oh god, I need to find her, I need to find her!” she cried out.

“Calm down, Falla, we’ll-” Triska started before Falla grabbed and shook the teen by the shoulders with frustration.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, you don’t know my sister like I do, she can’t live without me! She could be hurt or dead right now, how can I calm down?” she yelled out before looking around again while grabbing hold of her hair, her breathing picking up as Triska regained herself and watched the girl with surprise.

“Luna can’t survive without me for this long! Oh god, she might eat her own hand if I’m not there to feed her!” Falla wailed before choking back her sobs. Triska watched her worriedly for a moment before slowly setting the reins for Lucky down and moving back into the cabin. The group watched as Falla muttered something to herself while looking around in a panic as Triska came over and sat by them.

“Ok, she’s freaking out now, what are we going to do?” Triska asked.

“She’s really troubled by her sister’s disappearance,” Specca commented curiously.

“I guess she does have a small heart after all, but don’t tell her I said that,” Alyssa mentioned while looking down to the map.

“We want to help her, but we don’t know where to begin looking at this point. Luna could be anywhere out there, we have no way of finding her,” Daniel said worriedly.

“Well what are we going to do then? We can’t search all day and night like this, we have places we need to be too,” Triska asked with a shrug.

“We need help finding them, we can’t do this alone,” Specca reasoned. Alyssa glanced around at the map then shook her head slowly.

“We could go ask the village of Eston for help, but they’re not going to want to save Luna. In fact, if they find out Luna is even with Emily they’ll kill her. Actually, when they see that most of us are monsters they may try to kill us,” she pointed out.

“We can’t send the village out there after Emily. They may find her, but if they do they’ll find Luna with her and kill her, we can’t ask humans to help with this,” Daniel countered.

“Well that leaves just us, and again, we can’t keep doing this, we have to meet up with Kroanette near Eston and then go see her mother, not to mention we have a lot of other monsters to meet,” Triska mentioned while looking back to seeing Falla now standing on the seat as she desperately scanned the surroundings for any sign of her sister.

“We can’t just tell Falla we’re quitting though, and we can’t leave Luna and Emily out there like this, what are we going to do?” Specca asked worriedly. Alyssa drummed her fingers on the map then looked to Daniel.

“Daniel, do you have any idea how you’re going to ask humans to consider coexisting with us yet? I mean, do you know how you’re going to bring up such an idea with them?” she asked. Daniel looked at her curiously then up in thought while crossing his arms.

“Hmm, I’m not quite sure yet, at the very least we need more examples of monsters wanting the same thing before our leaders would even consider it,” he speculated.

“Well, if we’re going to find Luna and Emily, I don’t think we have a choice but to ask Eston for help,” Alyssa concluded with a shrug.

“What? But we just went over how that would be a terrible idea, they’ll kill Luna and perhaps even us when they see that we’re monsters,” Specca argued.

“I know that, but we don’t have any other choice. We need help, and they’re the only ones around here we can ask. Look, we have a monster out there trying to help save a human child, maybe that will be enough to convince the village to at least spare her life if they find her, maybe,” Alyssa said looking down at the map with concern.

“I don’t know, if we ask Eston for help we could be killing Luna in the process,” Daniel pointed out worriedly. Alyssa nodded and looked to him with a hopeful smile.

“True, but we need their help, and a monster
is
trying to save a human child as we speak. Daniel, this is as good as any time to try talking to your own kind about trusting monsters, we need their help searching the outerlands for them,” she reasoned. Daniel looked at the map with unease, wondering if he enlisted the help of a human village to search for Emily that he would be sentencing Luna to death in the process. Specca looked at the map carefully then sighed and glanced to Falla.

“She may be right, that village is the only chance we have at getting help with finding those two, and perhaps this would be a good example of monsters trying to help humans to get them to see reason,” she reluctantly agreed with. Triska and Squeak looked to Daniel and waited for his reaction, the boy thinking carefully about his options. After a while he slowly nodded while looking at the village on the map.

“I guess we don’t have a choice. We can’t keep circling around the outerlands like this in search for them, we need help, and they’re the only ones we can ask,” he concluded.

“Do you think they’ll spare Luna’s life though? What if they kill her on the spot when they find her?” Triska asked worriedly.

“We’ll have to hope Daniel can convince them to give Luna a chance, if anyone can do it though it would be him,” Alyssa replied with a confident smile at Daniel. The boy smiled slightly from that compliment and hoped he could indeed convince the village to at least spare Luna’s life for all that she’s done.

“Alright, then that’s what we’ll do,” Daniel agreed.

“So should we keep going towards Eston, we could be there in about an hour or so if we go now,” Triska asked. Alyssa shook her head and looked to Daniel with a sweet smile.

“No, it’s getting late, we should make camp here and head to the village in the morning,” she suggested.

“What? But the sooner we tell the village about Emily the sooner they can start searching for her,” Triska said shaking her head, then blinked before looking at Alyssa with a dull stare.

“Right, you just want your date with Daniel,” she remembered with a flat tone.

“Hey, I’ve waited patiently for my turn with him, I’ve earned it,” Alyssa snapped back.

“Ok, you tell Falla we’re putting off saving her sister and the child just so you can spend a night with Daniel,” Triska said while crossing her arms. Specca and Squeak looked over to seeing Falla pacing back and forth on the seat of the caravan while crying and mumbling something to herself in her panic.

“I’m not sure she’ll like that idea too much,” Specca commented, with Squeak shaking her head to that. Alyssa huffed then quickly grabbed onto Daniel’s arm with a stern look on her face.

“You’ve all had your nights with him, I’ve waited and waited for my turn with him, and I’ve tolerated bringing Falla along with us during this as well. Tonight is my time with Daniel, and like hell I’m giving that up for anything,” she declared firmly. Daniel smiled a bit at her then looked to Triska.

“We’ll head out for the village right away,” he agreed, with Alyssa looking to him with a gasp.

“What? But, Daniel,” she whined with heartbroken eyes. Daniel chuckled and shook his head as he gently held her chin to keep her gaze up at him.

“Now now, we’re going to have our date tonight still, that’s not canceled,” he assured.

“But it’s already getting late, why can’t we start our night now?” Alyssa pouted. Daniel smirked then glanced to the map with a raised eyebrow.

“Alyssa, I know you’ve been saving up your magic for our night together-” he started before Alyssa quickly grabbed his hand and held it against her cheek.

“I have, this night is going to be special, just for the two of us, please don’t tell me to wait any longer,” she begged. Daniel smiled gently and shook his head at her as the witch had an innocent expression on her face while she batted her eyelashes at him.

“I’ll make a deal with you, Alyssa, a special deal just for you,” he said gently, with the witch watching him with eyes of wonder while the other girls paid close attention as well.

“You can use any magic you want tonight, as long as you don’t break the rules you girls have set forth, and I’ll promise to stay up late with you to make up for the time traveling to Eston,” Daniel started, with Alyssa tilting her head curiously before Daniel gently rubbed her cheek and made her smile at him.

“And, for agreeing to wait a little longer for our date tonight, I’ll rent us a room at the village’s inn that we can share together,” he finished, with Alyssa jumping with a bright smile while the other girls jumped with surprise.

“Really? We’ll have our own room together?” Alyssa asked eagerly.

“Wait, hold on, what?” Triska stuttered while shaking her head. Daniel chuckled and looked to the other girls with a knowing smile.

“Is there something wrong with that? It’s not often we get to stay in a town or village, not to mention that we do need to get the search for Emily and Luna going as soon as we can, for both finding them and also hopefully gaining support from Eston for our cause. This works out well for everyone,” he reasoned.

“Wait, so you two are going to be sharing a room together in the village?” Specca asked nervously.

“Is that really so different than having our own private ‘room’ here in the caravan?” Daniel asked.

“Yes, it is. For starters you two will be sharing a bed together, and also where are we going to sleep? I’m not leaving her alone with you in the village,” Triska snapped while pointing to Alyssa who still had her eyes locked onto Daniel with excitement.

“Then you can stay at the inn too, I never said you couldn’t, however Alyssa and I will have our own room as part of this agreement you all made,” Daniel reasoned.

“Our agreement was that she could sleep next to you in here while we would be close by in case she tried anything,” Triska argued.

“Are you saying you don’t trust her?” Daniel asked. Triska opened her mouth to speak then looked to Alyssa, the witch smiling innocently at her with a playful giggle. Specca and Squeak looked to each other with concern then to Daniel as the boy shook his head slowly with an amused smile.

“Well, I for one do trust her, and I’m also allowed to think of something to do for our nights together as well, aren’t I? Then, if that’s the case, I’m choosing to take her to an inn for our night together so we can have privacy in the comfort of a nice, cozy room,” he stated finally. The other girls looked at him with worried eyes then to Alyssa as the witch smiled eagerly at Daniel.

“Really? You mean it, Daniel?” she asked quickly. Daniel nodded with a gentle smile at her.

“Yes, after we get the village rallied to look for Luna and Emily we’ll check into the closest-” he started before Alyssa bolted to the front of the caravan in a flash and grabbed hold of the reins, snapping them hard to get Lucky going right away. The horse neighed and then took off along the trail as Falla tumbled back down onto the seat with a yelp while the others in the cabin braced from the sudden takeoff.

“Let’s go, Lucky!” Alyssa cheered as the horse ran along the trail quickly, with Falla struggling to sit up and hold onto the seat while looking to her with bewilderment.