Red Sunrise

The ladies returned to the Inn that evening. They shared their spoils with a groggy Hayden, who was somewhat intrigued but mostly still tired. Ariana wondered how anyone could sleep through the entire day like that. They gave him an extra roast pheasant, one he was quite grateful for once he realized he hadn't eaten all day. 

After a brief exchange, Ariana and the others all went to bed. 

Ariana had purchased a handful of personal creature comforts today. She brushed her hair with a new brush, she changed into a lovely nightgown, and she opened a new book to read in bed. It didn't take long to fall asleep. 

In the night, she felt restless. 

She had woken up, but kept her eyes closed. 

Despite the desire to return to sleep, something felt wrong. 

A red sharpness plunged into her vision. 

She swung her right arm up hard with a loud grunt, and her fist hammered into something. There was a pained shout and a cracking sound as she felt contact, then something smashed into the wall to her left. She shot up to see someone in dark clothes. They twitched for a second, then she heard a triumphant sound in her head as they stopped moving. 

She screamed. 

There was the sound of hurried footsteps.

Hayden's foot slammed firmly against the knob and lock of her door, breaking it open. He came in brandishing his club in one hand and a swirl of light in the other. "NOBODY MOVE!!" He glanced around. "ARIANA!" 

She ran to the door and pointed at the wall. "I-I killed him! I felt something wrong and I swung and he's dead!" 

Hayden pulled her in, dropping the club, and held his glowing hand towards the smashed wall. He spoke calmly. "Easy, easy... You're alright. Everything's gonna be fine." He gave her a pat on the back. Once he was sure everything was quiet, his attention turned to Ariana. "What happened to your head?" She reached up as Hayden's hold on her eased, and she felt a sting as her hand touched her forehead. She looked at her fingertips and saw blood. There was a grazing cut trailing off to the left. Hayden rested his hand over her forehead and released some healing magic. "Go get Sophie and Ellie. Stick together, you hear? Make sure they're safe. I'm gonna do some looking around." Ariana nodded. 

Still a bit shaken up, but calmed a bit, Hayden released her and stepped into her room. Sophie and Ellie were rushing down the hall. Sophie reached her first. "Are you alright?" 

Ariana hugged them both. Ellie tried to pull her face up out of the smothering embrace, slightly flustered. "W-what happened?"

Ariana held them both close. "I-I don't know, I just felt something wrong, and I swung my arm up, and I hit someone, and... and now they're... I think... I gained a level... Oh god, what have I done?"

Sophie hugged her back, squeezing a now mildly panicked Ellie between them. "It's okay, you're good, you didn't do anything bad... if someone was that close to you while you were sleeping, there's no way they weren't up to something. They probably got what they deserved."

Ariana grumbled. "I know you're trying to make me feel better..." 

Sophie smiled. "Come on, let's go to my room." 

Sophie held their hands and led Ellie and Ariana back to her room. 

They all settled on Sophie's bed. She brought out a bag of the candied cones. Ariana hesitantly took a bite, surprised to find them not only edible, but pleasant. They had a crunchy exterior like rock candy, but inside, it was a softer crunch more like toffee, and the core had a slightly gummy chewiness to it. The flavor was fairly close to toffee as well. 

About a half-hour passed, footsteps out in the hall, when there was a knock. Hayden entered. "Alrighty then... Good news, bad news... Good news is you're fine to go. Not guilty; self-defence." 

The ladies breathed a sigh of relief. 

Hayden continues. "Bad news... it was self-defense. Feller had a few nasty knives on him; one of them was the right tool for that cut you had. And there was blood on it. Probably yours."

Ariana looked at the bed. "Someone is... after me?"

Hayden let out a tired sigh. He moseyed over to a chair in the corner, flipped it around, and plopped himself into it. "What exactly did you ladies get up to today?"

Sophie started counting on her fingers. "Well, we went shopping... we got some clothes... we got some food... Oh, and Ariana stopped a robbery." 

Hayden held the bridge of his nose between a finger and thumb. "Well, there's one motive." He stood again quickly. "Glad I spent the day resting up now." He went for the door. "There could be more of them. You stay with these two, keep 'em safe. I got some questions, and I'm getting answers." 

Ariana nodded. "I will..." 

Hayden left and closed the door behind him. 

The three continued to snack. 

Quite a bit later, there was another knock at the door. This one was softer. 

Ellie got up to answer the door.

The door opened. 

Ariana saw a red sharpness.

Ellie gasped.

And fell over. 

Ariana and Sophie looked over. Her face was turning blue, and her eyes had rolled back. She was foaming at the mouth. Over her writhing form stepped a person dressed all in dark green and black. Their face was obscured, and they held a sharp implement like an angular ice pick. 

Ariana was stunned for all of a second before her focus shifted from Ellie to the aggressor. He rushed at them. 

Sophie shouted.

And Ariana saw red. 

She hadn't known these girls for long, but they were her girls now.

Her girls were scared. 

Her girls were hurting.

She did as any mother would.

She did as nature intended.

Her vision tunneled on the assailant, and she grabbed his arm. 

There was a terrible cracking sound.

The weapon struck her stomach, and she felt a tingle as it stayed there. 

Her grip on the arm tightened, and a sickening crunch rang out as the arm bent unnaturally in her grip. The assailant cried out. Pain? Horror? Most likely. Her free hand reeled back slowly as it curled into a fist. 

With a cry of feral rage, her fist rocketed down into the assailant's head. His head turned to the side unnaturally, and his body was forced along with it on contact. She released what limp mass remained, and the triumphant sound of level gain rang in her head. 

Her attention quickly turned back to Ellie, who was twitching and gurgling on the ground. She rushed to Ellie. "No, no, no! Ellie!" She looked to Sophie. "Sophie, please tell me you have some medicine or magic or something!" 

Sophie was shaking and sobbing. She nodded frantically and hopped off the bed. Her hands glowed with a golden sparkle, and she pulled Ellie into a hug. 

There were more footsteps out in the hall, and Ariana's vision was flooded by red sharpness. 

The rage returned to her quickly as she leered at the doorway. 

The sharpness indicated that something was right around the corner and ready to attack. 

She stood and lunged, and another dark green-clad person ran to meet her fist. A pick was lodged into her shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice it. All she saw were threats to her children. 

She glowed with an ominous blue, spending a great deal of magic to summon a mass of water that filled the area in front of her. The water trapped two more masked attackers and threatened to suffocate them. 

Another came from behind and lodged a spike in her back. 

She glared over her shoulder at the attacker, dropping her focus on the two in front of her, and the water splashed down the hall. She turned and quickly gut-checked the one behind her into the wall. The entire inn shook as the wall was splintered, and the attacker vomited blood. There were screams throughout the building.

Her monstrous gaze returned to the two she tried to drown. They turned to flee. 

She reached back to grab the arm of the attacker lodged in the wall and hurled it at the fleeing assailants. They screamed as bodies collided and collapsed. 

She again heard the triumphant sound of level gains. 

She could feel the tingling sensations in her gut, her arm, and her back, but they were not enough to stop her from protecting Sophie and Ellie. 

Over the bodies of the other attackers came one dressed in the same colors, but there were glints of armor, and this one had a proper dagger. This one stood with greater confidence than the others. 

She didn't care. 

So long as this person threatened them, she would destroy as many as it took. 

No one touched her babies.