Ero Skill Tree

Chapter One Hundred and Three: Disbelief

The crowd around shrine that had come to view the ritual, had mostly dispersed by the time we had walked back. The guards had left once the nobles left the building. The area was still busy enough that we would have a hard time trying to find someone in amongst all the people. If she had left the immediate area, it would be almost impossible to come across her. We walked right up to the entrance and stopped outside.

"Well how do you want to go about this then?" Siofra asked as we came to a halt.

"I'm not sure, I guess if we start with searching the immediate area and take it from there." I answered.

"Okay, are you sure that's she is around here?"

"No... She did look like she was thrown out of the shrine. Lillia what's the chance that the princess took her with her?"

"From what I saw and know of that girl, I'd say it was unlikely." Lillia explained.

"Then let's split up and make our way around the shrine. We'll all meet up at the far end. If we haven't run into her then we'll decide what to do next."

"Okay, who's going in which group?" Lillia asked.

"Umm, Serin and Siofra with me, you and Altria take the other side?" I suggested.

"Fine."

After that we went our separate ways around the building and the immediate area. Because the shrine was built in a cross formation, it meant we would need to walk the entire perimeter to see if the woman was still in the vicinity. We made our way almost to the far end of the building with no sign of her whatsoever. I was hoping that she wouldn't have wondered far, but there was no sign of her.

Our group reached the far end before Lillia and Altria appeared, so we stopped to wait for them to catch up.

"What do you want to do if the others haven't found her?" Asked Serin.

"Walk the nearby streets, maybe check in with the guild. Would they know if someone took her in?"

"I'm not sure...."

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of shouting coming from one of the adjacent streets. All three of us quickly turned to the source of the sound. At the corner of the street closest to us a woman appeared to be trying to get away from a pair of ruffians.

"Get the fuck of me!" She shouted as she struggled to break free from their grip.

It was too far away to tell if she was the woman that had been summoned, but I wasn't going to stand there and watch someone be attacked whatever the case. I made a split decision and ran over to the disturbance. I came up behind one of the men who was trying to drag her down the street. Without warning I slammed a fist into the side of his face, immediately dropping him to the floor. The man's accomplice pulled out a knife and would have lunged at me, if Serin hadn't been right behind me. She had already drawn her blade and had it directed at their throat before they even noticed her presence.

"Both of you get out of here before we call the guards." Serin yelled at the pair.

They quickly did as she told them and ran off into the city streets. The woman they had been harassing was half curled up into a ball and crying. I knelt down beside her to check on her.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"No." She said looking up.

I recognised her immediately from earlier, there was no doubting it. She was the woman, that wolfkin girl had summoned here.

"Listen... We've come here to help you. That was you in the shrine earlier, wasn't it?"

"The shrine? You mean that building over there?"