Starview

Chapter Five

As Kaine predicted, the village had been destroyed. There were vines and thorns covering the collapsed houses, and the pair could see parts of some houses anywhere between ten feet and a hundred feet out of the town. Wow, Kaine thought. I knew he was powerful, but I didn't know he was this powerful. He attacked the town with a frigging tsunami!

Celestia looked on, seemingly emotionless, until she looked at one house that was barely standing. She ran over to the ruined house, Kaine following close behind. She got down on her knees and slid until she was feet from the house. As Kaine looked around, he noticed a splintered sign that read "Hawkbow Blacksmithing".

"Hey Celestia, who's 'Hawkbow'?"

"Me," she said quietly, getting choked up.

"What do you mean? Your name is Celestia," Kaine responded, confused. He was always slow to come to conclusions.

"Celestia Hawkbow. That's my name."

"Wait, so..." Kaine trailed off, finally realizing why the elf girl was upset. He looked at her sympathetically. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry."

Celestia sat back, bringing her knees to her chest and hugging them. "My family..." she sobbed. Tears started slowly falling down her cheeks, one after another until it became almost a constant stream.

Kaine sat down next to her cautiously, afraid she would lash out and perhaps hurt him, but instead she just scooted over and leaned her head on his shoulder. Kaine turned his head to look at her, smiling and putting his arm around her. "Don't worry. I've got you."

For about 10 minutes, they sat there like that, not moving. Celestia spoke first. "Why me? Why did he go after my family?"

Kaine hesitated before responding. "I... I don't know." He sighed. "It should've been me."

Celestia wrapped her arms around him tightly. "No! Absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Kaine said, agitated. "I've lost everything else."

"What about your girlfriend?"

"Jet took her."

"He killed her?"

"No. He tricked her into joining him."

"Oh... I'm sorry. Wait, if you have a girlfriend, why are you hugging me?"

"She betrayed me. I'll kill her if she tries to make things up with me."

Kaine got up to investigate, searching for clues on where Jet might've gone. After looking for about ten seconds, he saw marks in the dirt. He walked over to examine it. It looks like... a footprint? He looked around more, and saw that they were leading away from the house. He immediately ran back to Celestia.

"Celestia!" he cried. "There's footprints over here, leading away from the village!"

She perked up almost immediately. "Footprints? You mean.... My family might have escaped?" She jumped up, all traces of sadness erased from her elated features. She hurried over to where Kaine stood, studying the ground. She got on her knees, inspecting the footprints. She compared the size of her foot to them, then realized there were two sets of prints. One was much smaller than her feet, and the other a bit larger. A few feet away was another set. She searched the dirt for more footprints, but found only those three close by.

Celestia nearly skipped back over to Kaine. "Kaine!" she laughed. "Three sets of footprints. One much larger than my feet; my dad. One just a bit larger; my mom. One very much smaller; my little brother, Caynon."

She grabbed Kaine's sleeve and pulled him along. "Come on, let's see where these lead!" The two followed the footprints through the ruined town, never losing sight of them. Celestia teared up again at the sight of her ruined village, but did her best to wipe the tears away. When they reached the forest, however, the footprints could no longer be followed. Leaves, sticks, and rocks littered the forest floor, meaning that only the occasional footprint could be seen. Celestia did her best to follow them for a bit, but soon gave up when not a single more print could be seen in a quarter mile radius. She sighed, sitting down on a fallen log. Kaine sat next to her.

"I need to find them," Celestia whispered. "I've already lost my best friend, and probably most of my village too. I can't lose what I have left."

Kaine stayed silent for a minute, then replied, "You have us. Me, Electra, Ryker, Deacon, and Lux. And you never know, we could find more like us. More to fight against Jet."

"Yeah," said Celestia, looking over at Kaine. "I suppose so." She glanced up at the sky. "We should stop for the night and pick up the trail in the morning. It's getting dark."

Kaine got to work setting out their sleeping rolls while Celestia started a fire. By the time the sleeping bags were unrolled and the small pillows set out, Celestia hadn't gotten a spark at all. She growled in frustration. "This is what you get for putting the girl with wind powers in charge of making a fire. The breeze from my hands keeps putting out any feeble spark I manage to make."

Kaine laughed, taking the flint from her. A fire soon blazed, keeping them warm. When it got dark, they lay awake, gazing at the stars. Celestia could name every constellation and every star in them. When they finally fell asleep, it was almost midnight.