Legend: Season Two by Nick Venom (children's books read aloud txt) 📖

Episode Thirteen "Less Than An Hour"

Clarisse, the receptionist of the only guild in Striktin, stood up from her desk. On her desk were handfuls of papers that needed to be filled out. The fireball was going to destroy the town in less than an hour, yet here she was filing papers out. The papers were messages to be sent ahead to the king of Edurdale and Great Wolfstein about the collapse of Striktin; a testimony of the current event unfolding in front of them.

However, she was growing tired, writing since before the day awoke. She stretched out her tired limbs, glancing at the remainder of the Angel’s Eye party. Glance, Lucy, Dante, and Azo sat at the tables across from her desk, tied up by Ruben using normal rope and his mana. His mana bound the ropes to them, leaving them tied up until Ruben released them.

Glance---his behavior becoming erratic---demanded to be released. He bit the rope, trying to chew through the thick rope. “Let us go!” He screamed.

“Can’t. You’re considered criminals.” Clarisse told them.

“You have to be kidding me,” remarked Azo. Azo was a woman of good structure and could be considered a model of sorts. 

“T-That man,” Glance whispered. “That man isn’t right in the head. Something is off with him,” He declared.

“S-Shut up,” Clarisse shouted. She pounded her fisks on her desk. Stress was closing in on her, nearly overwhelming her. With barely enough sleep the entire week and the destruction looming over her, she was breaking down. “Stay still and close your mouths.” Her eyes glared at them, freezing them in place. 

She left her desk and walked to the front door. She opened it and walked outside, catching fresh air. She closed the door behind her as she noticed a caravan of carriages preparing to leave. Ice and Thorn helped evacuate everybody and established order amidst the chaos and ruin. Everybody was leaving quickly but in an organized manner. 

She raised her hand in the air and waved it around. Ice noticed her gesture and ran over to her.

“What do you need?” She asked.

“I have a criminal party inside. I need help to take them away.” Clarisse informed her 

“Okay, I’ll help you,” Ice said. She opened the door and walked inside. Clarisse lingered outside, watching as loved ones embraced each other, some even kissing with destruction hovering over them. She touched her lips, disappointed to find that they were empty. Her last boyfriend left her years before, never returning.

 “Where are they?” She heard Ice’s voice ask from inside the building. Clarisse wrinkled her eyebrows, turning around and heading into the building.

What do you mean? They should be in the room at a table.”

“Not here,” Ice told her. Clarisse walked inside and scanned the room. Nobody was inside, vanishing without a trace. The four adventurers disappeared within a few moments of being alone. They disappeared as soon as Clarisse took her eyes off them. 

“Are you playing with me? We don’t have time for that.” Ice said.

Clarisse shook her head, desperately looking for the criminals. They couldn’t have escaped without leaving a trace, right, she thought.

She ran to Ruben’s room and barged in. Nobody was in his room either. Even so, she went to the files and scanned them for a certain file. She found it soon and looked it over. The file she grabbed was labeled ‘Angel’s Eye’ and informed her about their skills. One of Angel’s Eyes members, Dante, has the ability to teleport but it costs him a large amount of his mana. 

“They teleported… they’re still tied up, though.”  She thought aloud. “They shouldn’t be far.” She sprinted out of Ruben’s room, confronting Ice, who had remained in the main room.

“They’ve teleported away!” She shouted. 

“You sure?” Ice questioned, raising an eyebrow. She didn’t hear of a teleport skill-user in town.

Clarisse showed Ice the file about the Angel’s Eye party. “He-” She pointed at a picture of Dante. “-has a teleportation skill. They’ve escaped.”

“Then, they’re gone… What do we do? We don’t have time to look for them.” Ice concluded, glancing out a window. “Forget it, let them go. We’ll set up their capture later. For now, help me evacuate everybody.”

Clarisse nodded, half-paying attention to Ice. She was worried about her failure to contain the criminals. She, also, didn’t stop the Demon Hunter party from escaping; allowing two parties to escape without consequences. The Demon Hunter party went too far with Ace’s brutal attack, forcing Clarisse and Ruben to put up a reward for their arrest, while the Angel’s Eyes attacked Rik and the others first unprovoked.

“I’ll be outside in a minute, give me a second.”

“Okay, make it quick. We got less than an hour before it smacks into town. Less time before we all are consumed by the heat.”

Clarisse nodded, watching Ice leave the guild building. With her outside, Clarisse got back to work. She sat down at her desk, staring at a paper in front of her. In bold words, read, “Demon Hunter”. She grabbed a pen, hesitating to write anything down. However, her guilt got the better of her.

“The Demon Hunter party has been officially excommunicated by the Guild of Striktin for brutally attacking an innocent. The reward for their arrest will be a gold coin. Please proceed with caution as the party is extremely dangerous.” She read out loud. She did all she could do to help them. They’re on their own now.

For the next paper, she wrote, “The Angel’s Eye party has been officially excommunicated by the Guild of Striktin for provoking a fight in a public space and causing damage to public property. Their reward for their arrest will be a gold coin. Please proceed with caution as the party is extremely dangerous.”

She put down the pen, grabbing the pieces of paper. “Goodbye,” She remarked, directing her words to the building that housed her memories. “Thank you for everything you’ve done.” She left the building with the papers in hand. Once they were officially signed by Ruben, their arrests were official. They were now criminals.

***

Orion, Dawn, and Keagan helped with the evacuation, even though they were exhausted, Orion searched for survivors unable to get into their carriages by themselves while Dawn and Keagan helped load survivors into the carriages. The three worked effortlessly to help every person in Striktin, working alongside Ice, Thorn, Ruben, and the others.

Unfortunately, the fireball was nearing them. Ten minutes had passed and the fireball’s warmth was already reaching them. It was slowly boiling the town well and nearby bodies of water. The heat was getting intense the longer they took to evacuate.

“We’re going to be dead soon with this heat,” Keagan complained, following Orion to look for new survivors. They had counted up the survivors and noticed that Ace and some others were missing. They moved to continue looking for them but had to stop as they strayed too far away from the town. “We need to leave.”

“What about Ace and the others?” Orion asked.

“The fireball’s getting close. We have to go soon before we’re scorched by it.” Keagan told him. “These are the future queen, king, bodyguard, and royal guards we’re talking about. We won’t be able to find-” He held his tongue as they strolled up to the unconscious bodies of the royal guards and a man dressed in a cloak. 

Orion checked the pulses of Silver while Keagan did the same for Mace. They concluded the two were still kicking. However, there was one confirmed dead, the man dressed in a cloak. Orion carefully tiptoed up to the deceased body, kicking it with the elegance that an adventurer had - which wasn’t much.

He kicked the body like a soccer ball, bracing for a counterattack. However, it never arrived. The man was dead, not able to fight back. “Help me take their bodies to the carriages; I’ll come back to bury him.”

Keagan looked at him strangely. “Bury him? It looks like the guards and the man fought and the man wasn’t in the right. Also, why would the guards attack an innocent, especially seeing their state now? It had to be someone on their level to knock both of them out.” Kegan glanced down at Mace and noticed a grey substance staining the grass next to his face. He crouched down to observe the substance in all of its glory. “This is poison, right?”

Orion carefully laid Silver back on the ground. He crouched down to observe the grey substance. “Poison is purple, this isn’t poison. At least, not the poison I’m familiar with.”

“Isn’t your sister an alchemist?” Keagan asked, reaching into his bag and pulling out an empty potion. “Couldn’t she test this and figure out what it is?”

“I’ll ask her when I meet with her. Let’s focus on evacuating.” Orion said, watching as Keagan got what he could into the bottle. “I’m sure Julie will know what to do.”

“You’re right,” Keagan grabbed Mace and threw him over his shoulder. “I do question why you want to bury him.” He pointed at Alka’s corpse.

“Pity, remorse, mercy? Maybe I want somebody to do this for me? We’re adventurers, we can die anytime. I only hope that I’ll be buried after my death.”

“If I outlive you, then I’ll make sure you are,” Keagan said, smacking Orion’s chest as an alternative to a fistbump.

“I don’t know about that, stop drinking and maybe you will.” Orion joked.

“Get a girlfriend and we’ll talk.” Keagan joked back. “Anyways, let’s go before we’re too late.” Orion nodded, grabbing Silver’s body and throwing it over his shoulder. He watched as Keagan scurried off, hoping to escape a remark. Keagan was dumped by his long-time girlfriend recently, hoping to dish a blow about Orion’s love life without being hit by jokes about his recent love trouble.

“Let’s go,”

***

Nazifa peered over the tops of the trees, amazed by the giant fireball. He was surprised to see a fireball of that size hovering near his home. Through his amazement, his children shared fright at the sudden magic threatening their home. The fireball would smack into Striktin and wipe the city off the map but will disrupt Astrial Forest’s ecosystem. The radius of the fireball’s attack could threaten the area Nazifa made his home. 

“A favor,” he repeated to himself. Kira had asked him a favor before the connection cut-off. He wanted Nazifa to search for the kidnapees. Hesitating, Nazifa lingered at his home alongside his younglings. They were growing older and would soon reach their teenage years. The Black Dragon race was known for short infancy periods and strong dragons. Nazifa’s younglings weren’t going to be any different. As the only survivor of the race---most being slaughtered by humans and demons---he wanted to see his family flourish and his species revived.

“Younglings, I’ll be back.” He told his children, his large body turning around and smacking into the trees. “Go as far west as you can. I’ll meet you there. Don’t interact with anybody except for Kira or myself.” He turned towards the warehouse that was built twenty years ago. He noticed the building’s construction but was too busy with his children that they weren’t a priority. However, now they threaten their safety, and defeating them is his priority.

 

TBC…