* Linkin Park – In The End (Mellen Gi & Tommee Profitt Remix) *

***

Running through the bushy foreign forest, Camilla’s eyes were scanning for any source of water, but to no avail.

‘Damn it, this isn’t good! I’ve been away for a while and I can’t seem to find any lake or river. How does anything live here?’ she thought to herself.

“Yo drone, do your thing and find me some water! Your master is in danger, damn it!” she yelled at the drone.

At that, the drone soared up the sky and started scanning the surrounding area for a minute or so, before coming down.

– Closest body of water is estimated to be 120 kilometres north of the current location.- the drone projected the words into the air for Camilla to read.

– Estimated time of arrival, including the trip both ways: 5 hours.

– By then, based in the current situation of master’s health, estimated survival chance would be less than 28% –

The drone had no emotions, nor did it particularly care for its master. It wasn’t programmed that way.

However, the same couldn’t be said for Camilla.

Even though it hadn’t been much since they’ve met, she saw the kid as her equal, if not more.

‘Heck, she’s already saved my a*s one too many times! I’m not one to hold a debt I can repay!’ she thought as her eyes shone with anger.

Not only did she care for the little girl, but she’s started to take a liking into both Maria and Maya.

Maya was like a Barbie doll that was stuffed with explosives enough to turn a city into burning ruins. Her childish voice can be quite… hurtful, to say the least. Yet she liked her.

From what she could tell so far by the little time they spent together, she wasn’t one to sugar coat anything, especially her feelings, she’s as open and easy to read as a transparent window could be.

As for Maria, she was mature and smart, plus she had the good looks and friendly aura around her that would make people fall in love instantly.

“There’s no way I’d give up on the kid and risk losing all of that!” she said as her aura flared red.

Although she still doesn’t know them much, she knows they won’t betray her. They’re just a simple loving family, and she’s seen how much trust they have in eachother.

‘The way Maria trusts Raven is just heart warming, I don’t want them to lose it, as much as I don’t want to lose the warmth I feel when I’m with them.’

Unlike most of her friends, they didn’t treat her well because she was strong, nor because she was beautiful. Not even because of the money she has, heck they didn’t even know about it.

‘If anything, they trust me because the little girl put her trust in me.’ she thought to herself.

A single tear appeared in her right eye as her vision blurred for a second, before she wiped it away.

‘A second tear that I thought I’d never shed, huh?’ she thought as a sad smile crept into her face.

BOOMM!!

Grabbing the drone under her right arm, she jumped up high and kept leaping from one tree to the other.

“Let me show you how fast can an S ranker be! You useless piece of metal, just let me know when we get there!” She yelled at the drone in her grasp.

——————-

In the cave, Maria was already out of dry cloth. The best she could do was squeeze the sweat out of the wet clothes, and try to get some of the water Camilla had left between Raven’s dry lips.

Usually she’d use the water to wet Raven’s face and allow it to absorb heat, the problem was that they don’t have a stove, or any other way, to warm up the water a little bit.

Using cold water would be as bad as the sweat she’s trying so hard to remove.

‘Please, please, don’t give up on me! I can’t lose you now!’ Maria was about a hair away from panicking.

Dizziness is a side effect of extreme exhaustion, so Maria didn’t think much when her vision started to blur, and her mind to loose focus.

But what she didn’t realize is that the dragon’s eye tattoo on the back of her hand was now glowing dark red.

“Mom, your hand!” Maya pointed out.

Seeing that Maria didn’t cooperate made Maya even more worried.

“MOM!” she yelled in worry.

Looking at Maya with bloodshot eyes, Maria shook her head left and right to prevent herself from falling asleep.

Noticing what Maya was pointing at she understood why she was feeling so tired.

‘If she dies, I die… Huh, I forgot about that. But at least I’d never feel the pain of losing her.’ She thought as her mind started to drift away.

“MOM! Focus… please.”

‘Ah, poor Maya, loosing the only two people I care about would personally kill me, I really hope you’re stronger than me.’ *Huff* *Huff*

Watching her mom’s exhausted face and connecting the dots, Maya realized what was happening.

She stood up quickly and kissed her mom’s forehead. Feeling the familiar heat she emitted, Maya started to panick.

Not having many options at her disposal, she started taking her mom’s clothes off.

“Maya, wha-”

“Shh, please… I promise, I’d die before I let any of you go.” Maya said as two hot streams ran down her small face.

Leaving her mom in her underwear only, she layed her down on top of the pile of clothes, near Raven. Although most were wet, it would still absorb the sweat better than the cold floor.

‘I need to figure out something! Mom couldn’t use the water we have since we can’t heat it, but if we can, then it might help a little bit,’ Maya’s brain was spinning at top speed, ‘I have two sources of heat now, Raven and mom. Yet, warming the water using their own heat is out of question since it defeats the whole purpose. What can I do?’

Although Maya didn’t have fever herself, she was drenched in sweat. Her light brown hair was sticking to her shoulders as a second skin, her hazel eyes had a tinge of silver as they were filled with tears.

‘How? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE OF ANY HELP? I’M USELESS! I’M JUST A USELESS WH*RE!’ she screamed in her mind.

She unconsciously started to imagine a future where both Raven and Maria die. In that future, she’d just kill herself before the pain of loss hits her, or so she thought.

But the pain in her heart was already unbearable. Raven has always sacrificed a lot for her sake, and now, she has nothing to offer back.

Her feelings couldn’t be put to words. But if anything, it wasn’t something a 13 year old should experience.

Her life, ever since she was born, was hell on Earth. Only after meeting Raven had she considered herself to be living a human life.

And now, she was about to lose everything.

Feeling helpless was a huge understatement.

Whatever she did to the girls in front of her, their temperature would only keep going up.

After some time, Maya was so exhausted that she had to lay down on her back so she doesn’t fall over.

“Please…” she whispered into the cold floor of the cave.

TUCK! TUCK! TUCK!

Hearing footsteps near the entrance of the cave, she instinctively threw the last piece of clothing she had, which was Maria’s jacket, on top of the two unconscious girls.

Having nothing left to cover herself, she just hugged herself to cover her chest area, as she still had her underwear on.

“CAMILLA!” Maya knew that the guardian drone would prevent any strangers from getting in to the cave. But that didn’t explain why she could hear three separate footstep sounds.

“COMING!” Camilla yelled back, she almost sounded happy. “I brought help!”

The usual Maya would be shouting at her to stop and explain the situation, but the current Maya was so desperate that she’d trust the devil.

Not a moment after, Camilla appeared with two other people; a boy and a girl.

Maya recognised the boy as Joey, the captain of the Vikings, the team that played against Draven’s Black Knights.

The girl, on the other hand, was a stranger to her.

With her pale olive skin, light brown hair and matching eyes, Maya was sure she’d remember her if they’ve ever met before.

“Hi Maria, I brought you lots of-” looking at the unconscious feverish Maria, Camilla stopped mid sentence.

“What happened?” her voice composed, but her mind wasn’t.

“If Raven dies, mom dies too,” Maya said as she bit her lower lip. Even though she knew of the fact, just saying it out loud made the knot in her stomach ache even more. “Please tell me they can help.” Maya was looking at the new duo, almost pleading at this point.

“Yes we can!” said the girl hurriedly as she took control of the situation, “I’m a C ranked healer.”

Crouching down besides the girls, she put her hand on top of Maria and Raven’s foreheads.

Realising the seriousness of the situation, she bit her lower lip.

“Joey! Warm whatever water we have for me please, but make sure to leave some bottles for drinking. Camilla, I want you to create a small crater in the stone floor so we can use it as a bathtub, I want it to fit both girls if possible.”

“Roger!” Camilla said with determination. She wasn’t about to complain that a mere C ranker, and a healer at that, is giving her orders. As long as it was for the sake of saving those who she cared about, that is.

“On it!” replied Joey too. For his credit, seeing the almost naked beauties helplessly laying on the floor in front of him, he only turned red for the first minute before a serious expression took hold of his face.

With a similar expression, the girl approached Raven first as Maya had pointed out that she’s the key to heal both.

After muttering some words in a hushed voice, a couple of magic circles started to form around her.