[3] Journey to shelter (pt.1)

Turning away from the traveling girl's direction, the boy jogs over a nearby tree for cover. He lifts his shirt to put the herb wrap around the cut on his hip. After wrapping the injury, he feels the heat from the small light crystals embedded in the cloth react to the blood oozing out.

While herb wraps are made of plants they still have traces of matter that have absorbed false light to a small degree, this produces a variety of colors when used.
To him, he only sees a faint black shadow.

He thinks about how to proceed with the next ten miles of walking he has left. Due to the rain, he gave up on the possibility of finding shelter. After all, he could end up sick or even sicker, if he isn’t already.

Maybe I should just sit here and let the storm pass? he thinks. No, I would be too vulnerable then... with all the crazy animals that roam at night. It would be even worse if I need to fight them and end up even more tired than I am now...

While pondering about what the next steps to take, he hears the loud yet intentional sounding scream of a man rings out from the distance. Snapping his head toward the scream, Zeais only sees the short blades of gray grass in front of him and the near-sighted wall of blurriness. Quickly looking left and right into the distant fields for signs of eyes, he tries to gauge where the man might be. The sound of rapid footsteps grabs his attention. Swiveling his head to the new sudden sound, the steps continue to rush toward him. He sees quick pulses of orange flashing, she’s running back toward the scream, but where is he? he thinks. Breathing raggedly and rushing toward the source of the scream, the girl quickly passes outside his vision range, her silhouette speeding by.

How does she know where to go? That scream had to at least be 1000 or more meters out. Being able to see farther would really help at times like this, but whatever. I'll just go off the sound of her footsteps. Do I really want to help though? Zeais thinks.

Another scream from the man echoes distantly from the open plains.

[Zeais: Ahh! Fine!]

Tugging down his shirt he quickly starts running from his shelter and into the rain after the sound of the girl. Zeais, a fast runner and a bit more athletic than his impairments would lead on, quickly gains onto her. Closing in he sees her outline and just like before she fades into his vision. As clear as day he sees her running from behind with her hood flown off, blowing in the wind. He gains speed to catch up and runs by her right side. She doesn't seem to be too surprised that I joined her, he thinks. She looks him in the eyes, her hair soaked and water dripping down her face.

[*Girl*: “I’m sure you heard the scream too, there’s also a marker in the distance. Did you not see it”]

Kicking himself for not thinking to look in the sky for even the slightest sign of an emergency marker, he furrows his brows.

[Zeais: No, I didn’t see it. How far is it?]

[*Girl*: Not far, just a little over 1000 meters]

The boy smirks at his correct guess. At least I got that right. But why doesn't she talk with her mouth? It would be awful to run with my head twisted for so long, he questions her behavior.

Yet another scream is let out, but not containing a man's voice. It is instead, the voice of a younger boy. The children pick up their pace, running toward to what they think might be a very bad situation that might be life-threatening.

Zeais unable to run at full speed due to the nature of his vision trots at what is her full speed pace. Just as he thinks how slow she is compared to him, he tosses his useless thought as she stops abruptly. Seeing her do this so suddenly, he quickly comes to a stop too. She hastily gets into a low crouch and signals him to follow suit. The sound of metal hitting thick wood rings out.

Swinging an axe with the intent to kill, a pale skinny man with a ripped shirt and large burn on his leg, tries to eliminate what caused him his large burn wound.

A silver sheep, notorious for being aggressive when around other animals than their kind. Being migratory animals, they often use their wool to set fire to the territory they claim, when it is violated by other creatures. Very intelligent, able to smell from very far distances and predict quick wind changes. Silver sheep prove to be dangerous for any village and town if they decide to settle there.

The young boy screams again, surrounded by the light of a single rough crystal, it emits a large purple and green circle. He has a slight burn on his neck and his clothes are tattered and dirty. The boy notices the two older children hidden from the sheep. His eyes widen at the thought of rescue and he breathes in to yell for help. The orange-eyed youth raises her pinky finger to the boy and he buries his yell inside and nods. The girl slowly takes out a knife that was hidden under her coat.

The man unaware of the two hiding to assist continues swinging at the sheep wildly. Aggravated, it shakes its hide and lots of light wool depart from its coat to blow in the wind. The infuriated animal grunts loudly and sets its body ablaze.

The flame spreads to some of the wool floating around in the wind and rain. The man only sees a flash of white, before a fire erupts in front of his eyes, setting him on fire.