The Way It's Done - YCM Sequel (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 10 - Returning Home...

"We should be getting close," Yutaka had said once they were a fair distance away from where they were resting. "About ten more minutes and we will reach the forest's edge."

"Y-yeah, okay," Ruki says and nervously looks at his hands gripping the reins. He was nervous, anyone could tell. Even Akira who was a little absent minded could tell that a million different things were going through his mind. He couldn't hear when he had started calling him only minutes later and almost jumped when a hand shook his shoulder.

Wow he really had a hard time paying attention didn't he?

"Ruki."

"O-oh, uh what?"

He smiled and motioned his head forward.

"We've arrived at the border of the desert."

Yutaka angled his head at the barrier of darkened, almost burned trees. In the middle of the underground spring cycle where everything was supposed to be green and lively, the branches of these trees bore no leaves or any apparent form of life. Everything seemed... Dead. An unusual wall of buzzing energy seemed to blanket the trees in bleak unnatural darkness, like it tried to keep out unwary visitors or trespassers.

That detail was unusual to Ruki, who frowned in response.

"Strange... These trees, they look like they were in a fire," He says to his companions. "Is this just showing how long I have been gone?"

The spirit shook his head, worried.

"No.... Recently I was here, and this forest wasn't like this."

A little bit of silence and Ruki felt despair pooling at the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong, really really wrong. Panicked he stared at Yutaka with wide eyes.

"Something is wrong here. We have to get in there. It's bad and we have to figure it out."

The youngest of the three spirits nodded and gripped his reins tighter.

"Yes, there is. Hurry, let's get in there, quickly."

All three quickly galloped their horses past the barrier of trees, past a stone tower that seemed deserted and crumbling apart. There weren't any guards around to bar our way in; In fact, there didn't seem to be anyone around at all. Past the clearing of trees was a familiar wide valley that was once luscious and covered in magical plants and animals and imps, now lay barren, dry, and worst of all deserted. They went forward farther and reached the edge of the village where his subjects lived.

The houses were now only burned out husks of wood and stonework. Nearby, the once glorious and ornate castle of his family now cast a dark looming shadow over the empty town.

Ruki stopped their movement short and looked upon his former homeland in dismay and shock. What on earth happened here? Where were the people? The animals?

"Gods," Yutaka gasped. "This place looks like an inferno tore it apart. Could this really have happened in a few days?"

Akira and Ruki shared a brief look of worry and Ruki moved his horse towards the castle.

"Everyone, spread out and look for survivors. Thee has to be something to be found here. It's not possible for an entire people to disappear in mere days. We'll tie the horses down somewhere nearby."

They all found a random fence to one of the houses on the outside of the village and started to look around for anything useful. Ten minutes went by with nothing being found except empty houses, so it didn't seem like anyone actually did here. More like they just picked up and left everything behind. But what was perhaps the saddest thing Akira experienced was the multitude of baby carriages just left in front of the doors.