oxygen | druig

Chapter XVI

"...𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Sprite!"
The redhead pushed her tired eyes out of the door of a tavern, leaning against the wood.

Her eyes were flushed, too worn out to keep her back straight.
"What is it?"

Persia was out of breath, pushed the door open and stepped into the tavern.
Kingo was there too.
But Maya wasn't.
"Have either of you seen Maya?"

Sprite blinked a couple times, brows knitting together as a worried expression started showing.
"She- I haven't seen her since the attack. Maya was with us before, but I-"

"She was out of my sight when I started fighting the Deviants." Kingo added, getting up from his chair.

A knot formed in her chest where her heart was supposed to sit, dully pounding against her rips.
Her breathing suddenly felt choked off, fighting the urge to scratch at her throat.

"Alright," she started, then shook her head, "no, not alright. I don't know where she is."

Sprite closed her mouth, pulled back a little. She was about to say something, when Persia ran out of the hut quickly.
"Maya!" she yelled, almost tripping over the broken panels. The whole village smelled like smoke, fire.

She could still hear how the wood creaked and broke apart.

Sprite caught up to her, Kingo close behind.
"We will search the east side."

Persias teeth were chattering from the fear which built inside her. "I will check the river."

"We will also get the others to help." Kingo let his hand quickly run across Persias back, before she headed across the path down the river.

"Maya!"
She kept calling her name, over and over again.
Checked under the collapsed buildings for any clue to where she was.

It hurt her shoulder so much until she felt the warm blood leak down her arm again.

"Maya please, where are you?" her voice got more and more desperate, fluctuating in tone until it left her mouth without even thinking.

At some point, she sprinted across a destroyed fountain, didn't watch her step.
She stumbled and fell to the ground, a small groan escaping her lips.
By then, tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Please Maya," her voice airy, unable to keep her content within her.

She was supposed to keep her safe.
And couldn't even do that.

"Pear?"

The voice was so quiet, it could have flown by her notice.
But she was sure that it wasn't just her imagination.

"Maya?" Persia whined, pushing herself from the ground.
The voice was swallowed by the wind, leaving her standing helplessly.

A long breath was picked up by her ears, barely audible.
But Persia finally got a direction from where it came from.

She dragged her feet across the soil, a ruin of a collapsed small building coming in sight.

Her teeth gritted shut, pushing her body against the broken wall and shoving it to the side.

Dust whirled up, dragging down her lungs and made her cough.
It smelled like the stuffing smoke which carried itself throughout the entire village.

Blood spilled down her fingers.

Then she spotted her, eyes darting right through the little opening back at her body.