Act One: Issue #2-Chapter 3

Dilara couldn't believe what she was seeing. Castoria was burning which meant Mother and her sisters were in danger. This was when she knew she needed go save them now.

When Dilara wanted to leave the mansion, she stood still, shivered and flexed her fingers for a while. A little sweat poured down from her forehead as she frowned. She tried to walk forward yet her nervousness prevented her from doing so.

Dilara pressured herself to move, yet she was too nervous to move, to face Mother for disobedience. So she tried again but she still struggled to move.

Dilara shutted the door as well as untied and took off her apron, turning around. She needed to go get her bag of art in case she and her family decided to stay at one place outside of this mansion before she left.

Returning to her room, she searched for her bag and found it at the corner, hidden in the shadows with the moonlight shining on the floor near it. Found ya!

She put it on her shoulder, heading towards and opening the front door. Once Dilara tried again for the last time though, she closed her eyes, put her head down and gritted her teeth.

Frustrated with herself, Dilara pushed herself to slowly walk forward, pushing herself to leave and shut the door. She ran through the woods on the path without a torch, seeing nothing but a lot of trees and bushes from the moonlight.

Panting, Dilara's heart beated whenever she ran. Cricket sounds and the owls' hoot echoed all around her.

A few thin clouds failed to veil the full moon while they floated forward, and numerous stars gazed at the world below them. The moonlight lit the path below and the trees and bushes stood in between.

Dilara wanted to rescue her family anyway so she wouldn't risk finding a new home, since the citizens of Castoria viewed her as a trouble maker, thanks to her family. Nor leaving Castoria due to not being able to defend herself from beasts and bandits in the woods. She had to come and get them whether they want her there or not!

Then a beast's roar vibrated behind Dilara; it sounded like no other beast within the woods. Dilara stopped running, panted and turned around. She wondered what it was.

Dilara saw nothing there, nothing but trees and bushes as usual. She tried moving her eyes sideways but still couldn't find anything. She turned back around; she had to keep moving.

As Dilara continued to run toward Castoria, her ears didn't hear another beast's roar until a few moments later. She performed the same actions as before but still couldn't find it, still wondering what it was.

Dilara turned around and ran towards Castoria one last time until she heard the beast's roar. She reperformed her previous actions and she gasped with her mouth open and her eyes widened.

There Dilara saw a four legged black beast with many red eyes, raising one of its legs up, getting ready to strike her.

"Holy shit!" Dilara cried as she jumped forward just in time to avoid that beast's attack.

She quickly turned around and ran forward. Her movements however were moving a bit slower this time. Her heart was beating much faster than she could ever bear while she panted hard.

Oh, shit! Oh, shit! OH, SHIT!

Dilara looked backwards and saw the beast chasing after her at its infinite speed, swinging its claws against her. She jumped forward again and the beast missed her. That was a close one.

Dilara turned her head around, realizing that she was halfway there. So she had to keep going.

Dilara continued to run until the big rock tripped her over.

"Ah!" Dilara landed on the ground and looked at Castoria with her gritted teeth and her mouth opened.

The beast roared behind Dilara and raised its claws up above her. She quickly made a U-turn, then moved her head sideways. Her heart beat made her pant harder than ever before, grinding her teeth, whenever she looked up at it.

The beast's saliva poured down onto Dilara's face, which made her wipe them off. Her nostrils sensed its bad breath whenever her nose tried to push them out, yet it kept coming in. Once it tried to slam its claw against her, she rolled herself left, right into the grass.

Dilara then stood up from the ground and continued running, after the beast instead slammed its claws against the ground. Her ears heard some hacking from it, probably trying to get rid of the dust out of its mouth for a few seconds.

Dilara's movement was still slow as the beast could come to attack her in any minute, at any speed. She pressured herself to continue, leaving her less time to get killed out here in the woods.

Dilara tried everything she could to speed up her running, yet her heart prevented her from doing so. She was almost out of breath, but she kept going. She had to anyway.

As the beast was trying to catch up with Dilara, it roared at her. She scanned her surroundings, trying to find a way to stun her enemy. She excitedly gasped and broadened her eyes when she saw something afar.

There she saw a moonlight shining its light upon the tree branch that stood in her way. It watched the beast chased after her, hoping she would survive. She wanted that tree branch to slap the beast into being stunned.

As the beast jumped up towards Dilara, she ran towards the tree branch and pushed it out of the way. It swung against the beast's face and the beast roared all of the sudden. Dilara turned her head around and grinned, thanking the gods for getting the monster stunned.

Dilara turned her head back to her destination. She realized that she was very close to Castoria, seeing people exiting the castle and a couple soldiers stood by. People's screams echoed right in front of her. Moving as fast as she could, she hoped Mother and her sisters to hang on as soon as possible.

After the beast roared behind Dilara, she turned her head back behind her and frowned for a moment, before she returned her attention to her destination. People wondered what kind of beast would make that sound, with the guards pointing their guns in that sound's direction.

Alright, Dilara! Here we go!

The beast ran closer to Dilara and swung its claw towards her, yet she jumped forward out of the woods. As soon as the beast also exited the woods, it roared with its claw still raised up above the ground.

People screamed when they saw it and the guards pointed their guns at it. It stared at and ran towards Dilara as she leaned back against the wall.

"Fire!" One of the guards shouted as they fired their guns at the beast.

The beast then turned to the guards and ran towards them, hopping sideways to dodge their bullets. People screamed and entered into the woods. Mother and her daughters weren't even among that crowd. Dilara studied her surroundings and her eyes spotted a couple torches on one either side of the gate.

She gazed at it for a while and her body twitched a bit. She turned to the beast and the torch back and forth as her nervousness made her struggle to move, pressuring herself to get a move on. The beast successfully killed off the guards and saw people running, licking its lips.

Dilara dashed her way towards the torch and grabbed it, turning her attention back to the beast. As the beast roared at and dashed towards a woman with a couple kids, Dilara chased after it and threw the torch at it, setting it on fire.

The beast screamed in pain when it felt fire on its back. Struggling to put out the fire, the beast roared continuously as fire spread all over its body. Dilara and others watched the beast burn itself to death. Dilara took a couple steps back and immediately entered the kingdom.

Once inside she scanned her surroundings, she broadened her twitchy eyes when she saw fires on buildings, explosions turned into balls of fire and the guards shooting at those shadowy winged monsters destroying the kingdom, terrorizing the airships, and attacking civilians; they also escorted civilians to safety, leading them out of the kingdom. The sounds of explosions, the monsters' roars, airships and gunfires vibrated all over Castoria.

Some of the airships collapsed upon some buildings and exploded upon them. A lot of space pods were shot from the destroyed airships, yet those flying monsters were following them. There were the army planes shooting at those flying enemies, but some of them exploded and the space pods were shot from them.

The fiery smoke ascended up into the sky with dark purple portals summoning numerous black monsters everywhere, either in the air or on land. It was a living nightmare.

Dilara stared at the guards escorting civilians and glared at them. Mother and her daughters were nowhere to be found either. People ran past her in a hurry.

Dilara wanted to sneak past those guards since she didn't want them to catch her, while she still searched for her family. Wondering how she would do that, she looked around and frowned when she saw nothing to sneak past the guards, sighing.

Sighing out of frustration, Dilara's mind pressured her to keep searching as she couldn't afford to keep her family in danger forever. Dilara kept searching, no matter how hard it was, until she spotted a familiar alleyway that she sometimes used to get around the kingdom. She grinned when she spotted it, looking at it and the escorting guards back and forth. She finally got it at long last.

She quickly turned to and headed for the alleyway, fighting through the crowd. She was happy to enter the alleyway without the guards noticing her. She sighed with her mouth closed.

She took a look around and neither saw Mother and her daughters present there as well. Anxiety made her heart pound faster and harder as Dilara struggled to find them, giving the crowd her serious face after she swallowed her saliva.

Dilara wanted to ask the fleeing citizens of Castoria about her family's whereabouts. Looking around, she headed towards a fat woman in a brown dress escaping from the burning kingdom. "Excuse me," she said with her arm raised up; she touched the woman's arms and the woman quickly turned to her. "Excuse me, have you seen Mother and her daughters 'round 'ere? They went to the ball here earlier, are they still there?"

"Oh, I haven't seen them as of late." The woman shook her head sideways and Dilara watched her run away from her towards the exit.

"Thank you!" Dilara shouted, hearing no response from the woman. She then rescanned her surroundings. She still failed to find Mother and her daughters present. Although she assumed her family was still at the ball, she continued to ask someone else just to be sure of herself.

She dashed towards a man in a dull green colored outfit and asked the same question. He provided her the same answer and left her be. She turned to and studied the crowd.

Wanting to ask one more time before she headed for the ball, she ran towards the old couple in light brown, torn outfits and questioned them the same and the couple also replied the same and left. She turned to the crowd and watched them leave, moving her eyes sideways a bit. She believed she needed to head for the ball, yet she needed to ask for the ball's location since she didn't know where the ball was located at.

While Dilara examined her surroundings, the little girl's scream echoed to the left of her.

"Momma!" The little girl's voice shouted when Dilara quickly turned to that voice's direction.

Dilara widened her eyes when she saw the blond haired little girl trapped in a fire inside the building.

"My baby!" Her mother cried, panickedly took a look around. "Somebody please rescue me baby! Please! Please!"

Dilara studied her surroundings and saw no one around to help the little girl, even the guards weren't around to help her. People were rightfully too busy trying to escape this hell hole. Dilara frowned, stood there for a while, shivered and swallowed her saliva.

Right, here goes nothing, Dilara.

Dilara's nervous heart made her slowly walk towards the burning building. She needed to rescue that girl before the fire killed her.

After a while, Dilara quickly ran faster and entered the fiery building. The fire's heat started to warm her body and slowly made her forehead pour sweat down onto her cheek as well as her entire body.

Her nostrils received the fire's smoke which made her cough. Her eyes were horrified to see fire destroying everything in sight, as they searched for a way to reach her. She needed to find that little girl and returned her to her mother, so she could ask for the ball's whereabouts, with little to no time to waste.