The Path of Four Magi

The Calm Before the Storm

This is a super long chapter cause lots of things needed to be shoved in here. I hope you enjoy it, cause I wrote about half the chapter before my laptop decided to freak out and delete it all so I had to write it again. So I didn't have as much fun writing this as normal, not to mention that I broke my feels at the end.

Enjoy the story, Reader-chan!!!

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"Were finally here!" You hollered while throwing your arms up in the air.

You and Judal had just arrived at a new town. You had gone through a few small towns after leaving Balbadd, but this one was bigger than the rest. It seemed like a good place to stop, so you and Judal decided to split up. He was going to the hotel to get you two rooms, and you were going to head to the local market to restock your supplies. You had made a mental list of everything you needed, plus a few other things.

You walked back towards the hotel after you finished getting every thing on your list. You had been lucky enough to find every single item on your list. You were so busy focusing on carrying all the items, that you didn't see the three men following you. Before you knew it, all of your supplies were being thrown to the ground as one of the men pushed you into a deserted alleyway.

Your first thought was, Judal is probably going to kill me now because his precious peaches fell onto the ground. Well, it was going to happen sooner or later. You started picking up the fallen supplies, but a foot kicked your hand away from the peach you were about to grab. You looked up at the three men smirking down at you.

"Hey pretty lady, we thought you might want to have some fun with us," Creep 1 said.

"Yeah, carrying all that stuff didn't look very fun," Creep 2 said.

"So we thought we should show you some real fun," Creep 3 finished.

You knew exactly what they meant by "fun" and it didn't actually sound like much fun to you. So, you finished picking up your supplies, stood up, dusted the dirt off of your clothes, and looked the three men straight in the eyes.

"Sorry guys," you started, "but that doesn't sound very fun to me. Besides, I need to get back to my traveling companion."

You started to walk towards the exit before you and your supplies were pushed to the ground, again. Great, now Judal is definitely going to kill me.

"We'll show just how fun we really are, since you doubt us," Creep 1 said.

With that, they all started walking towards you, arms out, ready to catch you if you tried to escape. How creepy can these guys get? you asked yourself as you started to scoot away from them. You didn't try to stand up, afraid that if you took the time to do so, they might catch you. You grunted as your back hit something hard. Stupid wall, you thought. The three creeeper's smirks only grew wider once they saw this.

You recognized this feeling but didn't know how. You looked around for a way to escape, but found none. That's when it hit you. You were trapped. Surrounded by enemies with no escape. Just like you had been in the past. But both times, you had been saved. The first time, your mother had been your savior, she had saved you from the terrible life you were forced to live. The second time, Judal had saved you by flying you away from your pursuers. But neither of them were here to save you this time. Then you saw it, a small gap, big enough to escape through. You ran to it and squeazed through without a moments hesitation. You were going to be the one to save yourself this time. You knew you could do it. You knew you would succeed, but you were wrong. Creep 3 had seen your escape route and managed to grab your ankle just before you were out of reach. As you faceplanted into the ground, you saw the light at the end of the ally. It had been so close yet so far. You knew it was the end for your innocence. Just when you thought it was all over, you heard something, or rather someone, familiar.